First video prayer message calls for broad peace efforts
Pope Francis has urged people of faith from around the world to work together for justice and peace.
Sharing for the first time as a video message the traditional papal prayer intentions for the month, the Pope called for dialogue among religions and asked that people “not stop praying for it and collaborating with those who think differently”.
“Most of the planet’s inhabitants declare themselves believers,” the Pontiff said, continuing, “This should lead to dialogue among religions. We should not stop praying for it and collaborating with those who think differently.
“Many think differently, feel differently, seeking God or meeting God in different ways” he continued, acknowledging that “In this crowd, in this range of religions, there is only one certainty we have for all: we are all children of God.”
In the video, in which Buddhist, Jewish, and Muslim religious leaders also feature, each declaring their personal beliefs before saying, “I believe in love”, the Pope asks that his prayer request be shared, so “sincere dialogue between men and women of different faiths may produce the fruits of peace and justice”.
The message, delivered in Spanish with subtitles in 10 languages, is part of a prayer initiative coordinated by the Jesuit-run international Apostleship of Prayer, which has shared the Pope’s monthly prayer intentions since 1890.
Read Francis through the Creed, CDF chief advises
Christians are not “God’s negotiating partners”, the Church’s chief doctrinal watchdog has said, denying that the German language group in last year’s Synod on the Family had compromised between the ideal of marriage and lived reality.
In an interview with the German magazine Die Zeit, Cardinal Gerhard Müller noted how Pope Francis has repeatedly said that everything he says must be “interpreted within the framework of the Catholic creed”, reiterating that “Jesus said God’s salvific will is the way, even if it seems difficult. For us Catholics, but also for Protestant Christians, the Word of God is the truth and, as far as issues concerning the truth are concerned, there are no compromises.”
The agreed position of the synod’s German group was not a compromise, he said, observing that “The essence of marriage remains the same, namely, when a man and a woman can say yes to one another, exclusively and forever.
“You cannot separate love and corporeality, faithfulness and sexuality,” he continued, adding, “That is something worldly concepts of Christianity cannot change.”
Rejecting the idea that he had clashed with Cardinal Walter Kasper on this, he said, “Cardinal Kasper and I are Catholic theologians who proceed from the fact of Divine Revelation. We are not politicians trying to reconcile conflicting interests.”
Defendant claims she was helping the Pope
Vatileaks 2 defendant Francesca Chaouqui has conceded that she introduced two journalists accused of disseminating confidential information to a fellow defendant, but denied that she was involved in sharing private papers.
Speaking at a press conference in her home town of San Sosti in Calabria, Mrs Chaouqui said she introduced Msgr Lucio Vallejo Balda, then a fellow member of a now-defunct commission set up to advise Pope Francis of the Vatican’s economic and administrative structure, to the investigative journalists Gianluigi Nuzzi and Emiliano Fittipaldi.
However, she insisted, “there was never any agreement to pass them private papers”, continuing, “It was Msgr Balda who handed over those documents to show that reform had not been put into practice”.