tvc.dsj.org | March 5, 2019
IN THE CHURCH
15
Lent Is Time to Let Go Of ‘Destructive’ Selfishness, Pope Says
By Junno Arocho Esteves
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY -- The Lenten sea-
son is a reminder for Catholics that
overindulgence ruptures communion
with God, with others and with cre-
ation, Pope Francis said.
A failure to live as children of God
can give way to sin, which “takes the
shape of greed and unbridled pursuit
of comfort, lack of concern for the good
of others and even of oneself,” the pope
said in his message for Lent, which
begins March 6 for Latin-rite Catholics.
“Unless we tend constantly toward
Easter, toward the horizon of the Res-
urrection, the mentality expressed in
the slogans ‘I want it all and I want it
now!’ and ‘Too much is never enough,’
gains the upper hand,” he said.
The pope’s Lenten message, which
was released at the Vatican February
26, centered on a verse from St. Paul’s
Letter to the Romans in which the
apostle proclaims creation’s “eager
longing for the revealing of the chil-
dren of God.”
This longing, the pope said, is “a
journey from Easter to Easter toward
the fulfillment of the salvation” that
all Christians have received through
Jesus’ death and resurrection.
Reflecting on the Lenten “journey
of conversion,” the pope explained
that when Christians live as children
of God, all creation benefits from the
grace of redemption.
However, he warned, “the harmony
generated by redemption is constantly
threatened by the negative power of
sin and death.”
Sin, which is the root of all evil,
disrupts “our communion with God”
and “undermines our harmonious re-
lationship with the environment” and
leads “man to consider himself the god
of creation,” the pope said.
“It leads to the exploitation of
creation, both persons and the envi-
ronment, due to the insatiable covet-
ousness which sees every desire as a
right and sooner or later destroys all
those in its grip,” he added.
The journey to Easter, he continued,
is a time where Christians can renew
themselves through “repentance, con-
version and forgiveness.”
“Lent is a sacramental sign of this
conversion,” the pope said. “It invites
Christians to embody the paschal
mystery more deeply and concretely
in their personal, family and social
lives, above all by fasting, prayer and
almsgiving.”
Fasting, he explained, leads Chris-
tians away from the temptation “to
‘devour’ everything to satisfy our
voracity,” while prayer “teaches us to
abandon idolatry and the self-sufficien-
cy of our ego.”
Additionally, almsgiving helps
Christians “escape from the insanity
of hoarding everything for ourselves
in the illusory belief that we can secure
a future that does not belong to us.”
Pope Francis said that through their
Lenten journey, Christians can bring
“the hope of Christ also to creation, so
that it may be free from its bondage to
decay and obtain the glorious liberty
of the children of God.”
“Let us not allow this season of
grace to pass in vain!” the pope said.
“Let us ask God to help us set out on a
path of true conversion.”
Vatican Releases Pope’s Lent, Holy Week, Easter Schedule
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Fran-
cis and top officials of the Roman Curia
will leave the Vatican March 10-15 for
their annual Lenten retreat, which will
be led by Benedictine Abbot Bernardo
Gianni of the Abbey of San Miniato
al Monte in Florence, the Vatican an-
nounced February 27.
And, as is customary when first
publishing the pope’s calendar for Holy
Week, the Vatican did not provide the
time or place for his celebration of the
Mass of the Lord’s Supper on Holy
Thursday. Pope Francis has made it a
tradition to celebrate the Mass and foot
washing ritual at a prison or detention
center, refugee center or rehabilitation
facility.
Here is the schedule of papal litur-
gical ceremonies for March and April
released by the Vatican February 26:
• March 6, Ash Wednesday, 4:30
p.m. penitential procession from
Rome’s Church of Saint Anselm
to the Basilica of Santa Sabina
for Mass with the imposition
of ashes.
• March 10-15, Lenten retreat with
the Roman Curia at the Pauline
Fathers’ retreat center in Ariccia,
southeast of Rome.
• March 29, 5 p.m., penitential
liturgy in Saint Peter’s Basilica.
• March 30-31, papal trip to Mo-
rocco.
• April 14, Palm Sunday, 10 a.m.
Mass in Saint Peter’s Square.
• April 18, chrism Mass, 9:30 a.m.
in Saint Peter’s Basilica.
• April 19, Good Friday, 5 p.m.
liturgy of the Lord’s passion in
Saint Peter’s Basilica.
• April 19, Way of the Cross, 9:15
p.m., Rome’s Colosseum.
• April 20, Easter vigil Mass, 8:30
p.m., Saint Peter’s Basilica.
• April 21, Easter morning Mass,
10 a.m., Saint Peter’s Square,
followed at noon by the pope’s
blessing “urbi et orbi” (the city
and the world) from the central
balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica.
Death Penalty a ‘Grave’ Violation of Human Right to Life, Pope Says
By Junno Arocho Esteves
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY -- The death pen-
alty is a cruel violation of the basic
right to life and robs people of the
chance to repent and make amends for
the crimes they have committed, Pope
Francis said.
The right to life is “the source of all
gifts and of all other rights” that must
be protected, the pope said in a video
message to participants at the World
Congress Against the Death Penalty
February 27.
“The death penalty is therefore a
serious violation of the right to life of
every person,” he said.
According to the conference’s web-
site, the goal of the World Congress
Against the Death Penalty is to encour-
age “countries to make concrete com-
mitments, mobilize public opinion and
help to develop common strategies” to
abolish the death penalty.
In his message, the pope recognized
the need for governments to protect
their citizens from “serious crimes that
threaten the common good and the
safety of people.”
On the other hand, he said, “we
can never abandon the conviction of
offering even those guilty of crime the
possibility of repentance.”
“For this very reason, it is a positive
sign that more and more countries are
taking a chance on life and no longer
use the death penalty or have removed
it completely from their criminal legis-
lation,” he said.
Pope Francis said that although
A nun and student display a placard as they
participate in a procession against plans to
reimpose death penalty and intensify the
drug war during Walk for Life in Manila,
Philippines, Feb. 24, 2018. (CNS photo/
Romeo Ranoco, Reuters)
the death penalty was once seen as an
appropriate response to some crimes,
“the dignity of the person is not lost
even when he or she has committed
the worst of crimes.”
The abolition of the death penalty,
he added, represents “a courageous af-
firmation of the principle of the dignity
of the human person” and the convic-
tion that humanity can confront crime
while “also rejecting evil.”
“No one’s life can be taken and de-
prive them of the opportunity to once
again embrace the community he or
she wounded and made suffer,” the
pope said.
Last August, the pope ordered a re-
vision of the Catechism of the Catholic
Church, which says that “the church
teaches, in the light of the Gospel,
that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible
because it is an attack on the inviola-
bility and dignity of the person,’ and
she works with determination for its
abolition worldwide.”