Not the time to feel sorry

In the Angelus address last Sunday, Pope Francis commented on Jesus’s third meeting with the apostles after his resurrection:

“When our nets are empty in life, it is not the time to feel sorry for ourselves, to have fun, to return to old pastimes. It is time to begin again with Jesus, to find the courage to begin again, it is time to put out to sea again with him. Always, faced with a disappointment, or a life that has lost its meaning somewhat – ‘today I feel as if I have gone backwards’ – set out again with Jesus, start again, put out into the deep! He is waiting for you. And he is thinking only of you, me, each one of us.”

Spanish bishops say ‘no’

Spain’s bishops said they will not take part in a commission investigating clerical sexual abuse created by the Spanish parliament. Bishop Luis Arguello said: “We want to state that to carry out an investigation of abuses only in the Church, when it is clear that out of 15,000 open cases in Spain, only 69 refer to the Church, is a surprising decision.”

The bishops said although they will not form part of the commission they will “collaborate with civil authorities” within the framework demanded by Spanish law.

St Paul’s evangelisation of Malta

Scripture scholar Chantal Reynier, told La Croix’s Mélinée Le Priol why St Paul’s time in Malta was so crucial: “This episode seems to me to be a model of evangelisation on the periphery. The author of the Acts of the Apostles thus insists on the fact that before reaching the centre of the empire, Paul went everywhere. This is also an invitation for Christians not to be afraid of remote places: even there they will find humanity, since the ‘barbarians’ of Malta were able to welcome Paul with generosity.”

(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)