God’s mercy

During his visit to L’Aquila last Sunday, the pope said: “The strength of the humble is the Lord, not strategies, human means, the logic of this world, calculations. This is the very heart of the Gospel, for mercy is knowing we are loved in our misery. Mercy cannot be understood without understanding one’s own misery. Being believers does not mean drawing near to a dark and frightening God. No. We have drawn near to Jesus, who is the mercy of the Father and the love that saves. He is mercy, and it is only with his mercy that he can speak to our misery.”

God’s tenderness

The following are extracts from the pope’s address at the Secular Institutes World Conference:

“Ours is an outgoing Church, not distant, not separated, but immersed in the world and in history to be its salt and light, the seed of unity, hope and salvation.”

“You are called to experience all the precariousness of the provisional and all the beauty of the absolute in ordinary life, on the streets where people walk, where fatigue and pain are greatest, where rights are disregarded, where war divides peoples, where dignity is denied.”

“You are called to be there, to bear witness to God’s goodness and tenderness with daily gestures of love.”

Swiss views for the Synod

The following extracts are from the Swiss Bishops’ Conference’s report for the Synod on Synodality:

“Several official Church positions on the role of women in Church and society, on sexuality and lifestyles, are perceived as pejorative and exclusionary.”

On clericalism, the 11-page report said: “Criticism of the exercise of power by ministers is ignited by observations of clerical mentality, abuse of power, ignorance of the realities of life and culture in Switzerland, devaluation of women and rejection of people from the LGBTQ spectrum, retreat into individual identity notions of being a priest, lack of attention to people, disinterest in the poor, etc.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)