Believers are ‘living stones’ that can build up the Church
Although the Church is built upon a strong foundation, it is always in need of being reformed and repaired, Pope Francis has said. Before reciting the Angelus prayer last Sunday, Pope Francis said that Christians are the “living stones” that Christ uses to fill in the gaps and crevices that continually appear.
“Even with us today, Jesus wants to continue building his Church, this house with solid foundations, yet where cracks aren’t lacking and which still needs to be repaired. Always,” the Pope told pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square.
The Pope spoke about the day’s Gospel reading from St Matthew in which Peter proclaims that Jesus is “the Christ, the son of the living God”.
With Peter’s affirmation, the Pope said, Jesus understands that “thanks to the Faith given to him by the father, there is a solid foundation upon which he can build his community, his Church.”
Christ proclaimed Peter the rock upon which he would build his Church, the Pope said. And Christ sees every believer, no matter how small, as a precious stone that he can use “in the right place” and continue building up the Church.
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Reforms of Vatican II ‘irreversible’ – Pope
The Catholic Church must continue to work to understand the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council and why they were made, rather than rethinking them, Pope Francis has said.
“After this magisterium, after this long journey, we can affirm with certainty and magisterial authority that the liturgical reform is irreversible,” Pope Francis told participants in Italy’s National Liturgical Week.
The Pope’s speech to the 800 participants last week was the longest and most systematic talk he has given as Pope on the theme of the liturgy since Vatican II.
Instead of reconsidering the council’s reforms, he said, priests and liturgists should work on “rediscovering the decisions made” in reforming the liturgy, “internalising its inspirational principles and observing the discipline that governs it”.
After congratulating the organisation on its 70th anniversary, Pope Francis said the Church has lived through “substantial and not superficial” events throughout its history, including the Second Vatican Council and the subsequent liturgical reform.
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Reform programmes welcomed in prisons
Although prisoners must pay a price for their crimes, incarceration must not be used as a method of torture but rather an opportunity to become contributing members of society, Pope Francis has said.
Punishment can be fruitful only when inmates are helped to look toward the future rather than only back at a past lived out in shame, the Pope said in a video message to inmates at the Ezeiza federal penitentiary in Argentina.
“Let us not forget that for punishment to be fruitful,” the Pope said, “it must have a horizon of hope, otherwise it remains closed in itself and is just an instrument of torture; it isn’t fruitful.”
The Pope’s video message was addressed to inmates taking part in the prison’s university studies programme, which he said was one of many programmes that provide “a space for work, culture, progress” and are “a sign of humanity”.
He thanked prison administration officials for allowing the programme to continue, as well as the inmates in charge of the student centre. “What is happening among you in prison is a breath of life.”