Loving the poor
The pope’s address during the Sunday Angelus on the feast of Christ the King was read by an official of the Secretariat of State. He reflected on Matthew 25:31-46.
“The gospel today tells us that the ‘blessed’ are those who respond to these forms of poverty with love, with service: not by turning away, but by giving food and drink, clothing, sheltering, visiting; in a word, by being close to those in need.
“So, brothers and sisters, let us ask ourselves: do we believe that true kingship consists in mercy? Do we believe in the power of love? Do we believe that charity is the most kingly manifestation of man, and is an indispensable requirement for the Christian?”
‘Unbrotherly love’
Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, president of the German bishops’ conference, lambasted comments by Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, Poland, who recently told Catholic World Report that “the Church in Germany is in the greatest crisis since the Reformation”. The latter also wrote to the pope to criticise the German bishops.
Bishop Bätzing accused Gadecki of “unbrotherly behaviour” when he wrote to Pope Francis to say that the German initiative endangered the unity of the Church. The German bishops’ leader said that Archbishop Gadecki was “enormously overstepping his authority” by making “false claims” about the Synodal Path.
Bishops praise law
The bishops of Peru praised a new “Law that Recognises Rights of the Conceived”. This law, which was approved by a strong majority, establishes that “human life begins with conception. The human person is a subject of law from his conception. The Peruvian state recognises and guarantees respect for the dignity of the conceived child, as well as its right to life, individual identity, mental and physical integrity, as well as to freely develop in the womb [i.e., without external interference].”
The bishops said that this new law “constitutes an important step towards the construction of a society that respects and defends human life and overcomes a culture of death”.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)