In his homily during the canonisation of Mother Teresa of Calcutta last Sunday, Pope Francis said: “Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded. She was committed to defending life, ceaselessly proclaiming that ‘the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the most vulnerable’.
“She bowed down before those who were spent, left to die on the side of the road, seeing in them their God-given dignity; she made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognise their guilt for the crime – the crimes! – of poverty they created.
“I think, perhaps, we may have some difficult in calling her ‘Saint Teresa’: her holiness is so near to us, so tender and so fruitful that we continue to spontaneously call her ‘Mother Teresa.’”
‘God calls us to be good stewards of creation’
In a statement on the World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation, Archbishop Thomas Wenski and Bishop Oscar Cantú said:
“In his encyclical Laudato si’, Pope Francis called us to live out an ‘integral ecology’, which in simple terms means having right relationships with God, other human beings and the good things of the Earth. When one relationship suffers, all the others will suffer as well.
“The foundational relationship in our lives is the one with God, who invites us to turn to Him in daily prayer. It also reminds us that amid the great challenges of global climate change, pollution in our local communities, and the deepening ecological and social crises all around us, we can relate to a Creator who is greater than any challenge and for whom ‘all things are possible’ (Mt 19: 26). We can turn, then, in confidence to our Lord in prayer and ask for His grace and assistance.”
‘The Church should work for the common good’
The new general secretary of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the EU (Comece), Brother Olivier Poquillon, said: “Europe is, above all, a territorial area, a continent and a grouping of its native populations. It is now a question for the men and women who live there to reflect on and decide what they want to do together.
“The Church can definitely make a valuable contribution to the building of the common good in Europe, through recreating social links, through sharing her knowledge of the terrain, through suggesting new directions and through building bridges with people of good will.”
The Pope’s prayer intentions
The Vatican has announced the prayer intentions of Pope Francis for this month.
The Pope’s universal intention is “that each may contribute to the common good and to the building of a society that places the human person at the centre”.
His evangelisation intention is “that by participating in the Sacraments and meditating on Scripture, Christians may become more aware of their mission to evangelise”.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)