Pope establishes Worldwide Prayer Network as Vatican entity
The Vatican announced December 3 that Pope Francis has established the Worldwide Prayer Network Foundation as an entity with canonical and Vatican juridical identity.
Formerly known as the “Apostleship of Prayer,” the Worldwide Prayer Network works “to coordinate and animate the vast spiritual movement, always very dear to the Pope, that receives and communicates the Pope’s monthly prayer intentions for the Church.”
On its international website, the Network describes its objective: “to encourage prayer and action for the challenges facing humanity and the mission of the Church, expressed in the Pope’s prayer intentions.”
The Worldwide Prayer Network’s new status was established in the chirograph – a papal decree with legal force circulated among the Roman Curia – dated 17 November 2020.
In the document, Pope Francis determined that the Network would continue to be entrusted to the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), and would have its headquarters in Vatican City.
At the same time, the Holy Father named Jesuit Father Frederic Fornos as International Director of the Foundation. Father Fornos has served as International Director of the organisation since 2016.
Holy See appeals for protection of religious freedom and places of worship
In a statement delivered during the 27th meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, called for the protection of the right of religious freedom or belief and places of worship.
Archbishop Gallagher expressed the Holy See’s grave concern about the rising number of terrorist attacks, hate crimes and other manifestations of intolerance targeting persons, places of worship, cemeteries and religious sites in the OSCE area and beyond.
He noted that “the fact that many of these acts of violence have been perpetrated against believers when they gather to pray in places of worship make them particularly heinous: havens of peace and serenity quickly become execution chambers, as defenceless children, women and men lose their lives simply for gathering to practice their religion.”
“It is even more regrettable that some of these acts are committed ‘in the name of religion,’” Archbishop Gallagher added. He stressed that “violence does not stem from religion but from its false interpretation or its transformation into ideology” as violence, persecution and killing in the name of God is not religion but radicalism which “needs to be fought by all using all legitimate means.”
Pope Francis’ ambulance brings free flu shots and coronavirus tests to the homeless
Pope Francis’ charity brought free flu vaccines and coronavirus tests to homeless people living in a town outside Rome December 2.
The Vatican ambulance carried the medical supplies to the small seaside town of Torvaianica, located outside the wider metropolitan area of Rome, about 45 miles south of the city centre.
Despite heavy rain, health staff from the papal charity office administered the flu shots and Covid-19 tests to 35 people in the courtyard in front of the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculate Parish, according to Vatican News.
Those who received the help were mostly immigrants from Argentina, Colombia, and Peru, who do not have access to regular medical services.
Torvaianica is marked by poverty and homelessness, and some of the people who received help engage in prostitution on the town’s beachfront, Vatican News reported.
The local priest, Fr Andrea Conocchia, said that this may have been the first time they had “received such concrete and effective attention on the part of the Church”.