In his homily at a Mass at Domus Sanctae Marthae on May 19, Pope Francis said: “When riches are created by exploiting the people, by those rich people who exploit [others], they take advantage of the work of the people, and those poor people become slaves. The same thing happens all over the world.
“‘I want to work.’ ‘Good, they’ll give you a contract, from September to June.’
“Without a pension, without healthcare… Then they suspend it, and in July and August they have to eat air. And in September, they laugh at you about it. Those who do that are true bloodsuckers; they live by spilling the blood of people who they make slaves of labour.”
Praise for TV series in Vatican newspaper
The Night Manager, a six-part TV mini-serial that began broadcasting on BBC One last February and is currently being shown in the US, was praised in a front-page comment on L’Osservatore Romano.
Historian Lucetta Scaraffia praised The Night Manager for its plot, characters and “courage” in addressing the arms trade.
She described the series as “most beautiful”. Scaraffia added that the series echoes Pope Francis’s condemnation of the arms merchants, who are “very powerful” and “very rich”, and who have a vested interest in seeing conflicts continue.
The Night Manager is based on a novel by John le Carré.
Sarah warns against ‘demonic ideology’
In a May 17 address to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC, Cardinal Robert Sarah said: “All manner of immorality is not only accepted and tolerated today in advanced societies, it is even promoted as a social good. The result is hostility to Christians and increasingly, religious persecution.
“The rupture of the foundational relationship of someone’s life through separation, divorce or distorted imposters of the family, such as co-habitation or same-sex unions, is a deep wound that closes the heart to self-giving love into death, and even leads to cynicism and despair. These situations cause damage to little children [by] inflicting upon them deep existential doubt about love.
“This is why the devil is so intent on destroying the family. If the family is destroyed, we lose our God-given anthropological foundations, and so find it more difficult to welcome the saving good news of Jesus Christ: self-giving, fruitful love.”
Kasper on Luther
Cardinal Walter Kasper, the retired president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, has written a 75-page book on Martin Luther entitled Martin Lutero: Una prospettiva ecumenica, published by Editrice Queriniana.
Kasper notes that “Luther himself was not an ecumenical person” and used harsh words for Jews and Muslims. He said that Luther’s anti-papal polemic led to an “antithesis”, an increasing Catholic emphasis on the papacy as a hallmark of Catholic identity.
He also discussed the importance of Luther’s “original orientation to the Gospel of the grace and mercy of God and the call to conversion”.
Publication of Fatima is complete
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI denied a report that he once told Fr Ingo Dollinger, a German priest in Brazil, that the third secret of Fatima has not been published in its entirety. The denial was published by the Holy See. After the Vatican statement was issued, Fr Dollinger stood by his statement, according to the OnePeterFive blog, which had earlier recounted the priest’s remarks.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)