Pope Francis meets with retired Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican Photo: CNS Pope’s meeting with Sanders wasn’t endorsement
Pope Francis has dismissed suggestions that he has somehow endorsed US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders by meeting with him in the Vatican. The Vermont senator was in the Vatican to participate in the ‘Centesimus Annus’ Conference on Catholic Social Teaching and had stayed the night at Casa Santa Marta, where the Pope lives.
Speaking on his flight back from Lesbos, the Pontiff said: “This morning when I was leaving, Senator Sanders was there. He had come to participate in the ‘Centesimus Annus’ Conference and greeted me politely together with his wife. It is called ‘manners’ and has nothing to do with politics. If someone thinks that greeting someone is getting involved in politics,” he added, “I recommend that they find a psychiatrist.”
Mr Saunders said that it was an “honour” to meet the Pope, and said that in greeting him he was “incredibly appreciative of the incredible role that he is playing in this planet in discussing issues about the need for an economy based on morality, not greed”.
Church should no longer teach that ‘wars can be just’
The Church should no longer teach that wars can be just, according to a statement issued followed a Vatican-hosted conference bringing together some 80 theologians and peace activists from conflict zones around the world.
The statement, declaring “we believe that there is no ‘just war’”, asked Pope Francis “to share with the world an encyclical on non-violence and Just Peace” and urged the Church to “no longer use or teach ‘just war’ theory which recognises war as morally justifiable – if a series of criteria can be met”.
Arguing – as Pope Benedict XVI had speculated in light of modern weapons of mass destruction – that modern methods of warfare make it impossible to meet the traditional just war criteria, the participants said that “too often the ‘just war theory’ has been used to endorse rather than prevent or limit” military action.
The conference was organised by Pax Christi International and the Vatican’s Justice and Peace Council.
11 priests ordained at Vatican on Vocations Sunday
Pope Francis celebrated the World Day of Prayer for Vocations by ordaining 11 priests in St Peter’s Basilica on Sunday, April 17.
In his homily, Francis called on the new priests to “remember your history, the gift of the Word of the Lord given to you by your mothers, your grandmothers – as St Paul says – by the catechists and by the whole Church”. He urged them to bear within themselves “the death of Christ, to walk with Christ in newness of life” and reminded them that “without the Cross you will never find the true Jesus; and a Cross without Jesus makes no sense”.
He appealed to them especially “to be merciful, so very merciful”, and stressed how Jesus had personally called them to their roles: “Chosen, don’t forget this. Chosen! And the Lord has called you, one by one.”
Francis thanks God for Benedict on his birthday
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI celebrated his 89th birthday on Saturday, April 16, by attending a small Mozart concert in the Assumption Hall of Palazzina Leo XIII, home to Vatican Radio. Tweeting from his @pontifex account, Pope Francis said: “Today is Benedict XVI’s birthday. Let us remember him in our prayers and thank God for giving him to the Church and the world.”
photo: CNS