In an interview published last Sunday with journalist Noel Díaz of ESNE TV, Pope Francis was asked to clarify his comment to “tell the laity to come out of the caves”. The Pope replied: “Sometimes I think the best business we can do with many Christians is to sell them mothballs so that they put them in their clothes and in their lives and aren’t eaten by moths.”
He said many times Christians “are locked up and they are going to get eaten by moths”.
“They have to go out, they have to go and bring the message of Jesus to others,” he said, explaining that the Good News is meant to be shared, not stored away.
“The message of Jesus is to give it; so just as I receive it from him through a brother or sister, the grace comes to me and I give it,” he said, stressing that Christians shouldn’t “can” the message, trying to conserve it in a jar, because “it’s not to save, it’s to give”.
By taking the Good News and then delivering it to others, “in this way I leave the cave,” he said, and stressed the importance of practising the works of mercy, which are “the backbone of the Gospel”, and what we will eventually be judged on.
Bishops’ opposition to Trump
In a strong statement, Bishop Joe Vásquez of Austin, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Migration, said: “We strongly disagree with the executive orders [of President Trump] halting refugee admissions.”
Vásquez said Trump’s order “virtually shuts down the refugee admissions programme for 120 days, reduces the number of refugees to be admitted to the US this year from 110,000 to 50,000 individuals, and indefinitely suspends the resettlement of Syrian refugees.”
Bishop Vásquez said that “we believe that now more than ever, welcoming newcomers and refugees is an act of love and hope”. He said that “the US has long provided leadership in resettling refugees. We believe in assisting all those who are vulnerable and fleeing persecution, regardless of their religion.
“This includes Christians, as well as Yazidis and Shia Muslims from Syria, Rohingyas from Burma, and other religious minorities. However, we need to protect all our brothers and sisters of all faiths, including Muslims, who have lost family, home, and country.
“They are children of God and are entitled to be treated with human dignity.”
World Leprosy Day message
In a message for World Leprosy Day, Cardinal Peter Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, said:
“A person who has been cured of this disease [leprosy] must be reintegrated to the full into his or her original social fabric: his or her family, community, school, or work environment,” he wrote. “Jesus not only healed the person in his entirety but also called on the man whom he healed to go to [the one] who could declare his full reintegration into society.”
‘Torture is always immoral’
Answering questions put by journalists in Rome at the end of the Italian bishops’ permanent council meeting, Bishop Nunzio Galantino, secretary of the bishops’ conference, reacted to US President Donald Trump’s statement that he would not object to the use of torture. Galantino said: “I don’t think terrorism is overcome with another form of terrorism – because in the end, that’s what torture becomes. It doesn’t seem that problems can be solved by torture.”
He added that torture is always immoral.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)