Pope Francis at the Easter vigil mass last year Clergy urged: spread Good News to ‘new culture’ of youth
If Jesus and his truth are to become truly present in today’s world, priests must do what Jesus did and be “street preachers”, going out to encounter and accompany sinners with tenderness and compassion, Pope Francis told the world’s priests.
Jesus “could have been a scribe or a doctor of the law, but he wanted to be an ‘evangeliser’ a street preacher”, the bearer of good news for his people, the Pope said during the chrism Mass in St Peter’s Basilica. “This is God’s great choice: the Lord chose someone who is close to his people,” Pope Francis said. Jesus’ incarnation implies inculturation, so that people find his presence not only in far-off lands, but in their own parish, “in the new culture of young people,” he added.
Presiding over the first of two Holy Thursday liturgies, Pope Francis blessed the oils that will be used in the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination and the anointing of the sick.
Pope Francis led the many priests, bishops and cardinals present in a renewal of their priestly vows.
Young people write Pope’s Good Friday reflections
During this year dedicated to the younger generations, Pope Francis asked that the meditations for his Good Friday service be written by young people.
Twelve young women and three young men between the ages of 16 and 28 wrote the reflections and prayers read on Good Friday during the Stations of the Cross at Rome’s Colosseum – an event attended by the Pope and thousands of pilgrims, and one seen by potentially millions of television and online viewers.
The man coordinating the Papal assignment was Andrea Monda, a high school religion teacher in Rome, who tries to bring the existential periphery of religion class to the fore with his docu-style reality series, ‘Good Morning, Professor!’ which is broadcast on the Italian bishops’ television channel.
Monda looked for volunteers among his current and former students, and it unintentionally happened that more women than men wanted to take the challenge.
“Perhaps it’s because we are more apt to get involved; new things don’t scare us. Boys overthink it too much,” said Cecilia Nardini, one of the students.
Vatican denies Pope’s alleged comments on hell
The Vatican said comments attributed to Pope Francis denying the existence of hell are a product of an Italian journalist’s ‘reconstruction’ of the Pope’s remarks and not a faithful transcript of his real words.
Eugenio Scalfari, a co-founder and former editor of La Repubblica, an Italian daily, said Pope Francis – with whom he has had several telephone conversations and face-to-face meetings – invited him to his residence on March 27.
During their conversation, Scalfari (93) an avowed atheist, claims the Pope said that while the souls of repentant sinners “receive the forgiveness of God and go among the line of souls who contemplate him, the souls of those who are unrepentant, and thus cannot be forgiven, disappear”.
“Hell does not exist, the disappearance of sinful souls exists,” Scalfari claims the Pope said.
The Italian journalist has explained on more than one occasion that he does not take notes or record his conversations with the Pope; he re-creates them afterward from memory, including the material he puts in quotation marks.