Ten million people follow Pope Francis’s multi-lingual Twitter account. In fact, the Pope’s words are being tweeted in nine languages, including Spanish, English, and Latin. The popularity of the account is rising at the rate of one million new followers per month.
Mgr Paul Tighe, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, thanked all users of social media – believing users and non-believing users – who have subscribed to the papal Twitter account and are therefore bringing “to the attention of an extremely wide public the words of the Pope, and, above all, the message of the Gospel of which he is spokesman”.
Need for universal, not a ‘European’ Church
Hondurian Cardinal Óscar Andrés Rodríguez Maradi said the Church must serve only Jesus Christ, not its own organisational needs. His words have great importance as he is chairman of the Commission of Cardinals advising Pope Francis. He said reforms are needed at the Vatican to make the Church truly universal, rather than European. “The ‘Italianisation’ of the Church has always been tied to power,” he said.
He said the laity’s role is being more appreciated by the Church. He rejected the image of a “society of unequals” in which the clergy take precedence. “We are here to serve, and that requires lowering ourselves to become servants,” he said.
Christians, Hindus against materialism
On the occasion of the Hindu feast of Deepavali (or Diwali), the festival of light, the Vatican proposed the nourishing of a ‘culture of relationship’ between the two religions as a answer to the materialist culture.
The Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue said the rise of materialism and disregard for religious faith has created “a dangerous trend to accord the same value to material things as to human relationships”. Referring to the Pope’s comment on a “throwaway culture”, it urged recognition that relationships are the key to peace and social progress. It said “the ability to foster respectful relationships is the measure of authentic human progress”.
Fr Bergoglio hailed as Jesuit Provincial
Fr Cristian Martini Grimaldi, an Argentine Jesuit who has served in Japan for decades, told L’Osservatore Romano that when Fr Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the current Pope, was Jesuit Provincial, he emphasised that the Jesuits under his care take responsibility for their actions.
Fr Grimaldi, who was sent to Japan by Fr Bergoglio, now directs the martyrs’ museum in Nagasaki.
He said Fr Bergoglio had initiated a “Copernican revolution” in the Argentine Catholic culture at the time. He instructed Jesuit novices to go out and teach the catechism in poor neighbourhoods and invite the poor to church instead of waiting for them to come to church.
‘Marriage path is not easy but so beautiful’
Addressing the Pontifical Council for the Family, Pope Francis said: “There are problems in marriage: different points of view, jealousies, arguments, but tell young couples to never let the day end without making peace. The sacrament of matrimony is renewed in this act of peace. …This path is not easy, but it is so beautiful. It’s beautiful. Tell them that.”
“[The family as a special community must] be recognised as such, especially today when so much emphasis is placed on the safeguarding of individual rights. We must defend the rights of this community that is the family.”
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)