God ‘searches for disciples amongst sinners’
God went looking for and chose so many Christians and saints from the dregs of society, inviting some of the worst sinners to be his disciples, Pope Francis said in a morning homily.
It would be easy to think, he said, that Jesus “doesn’t have good judgment in choosing people” given that he chose so many people from “the most despised place” a person could be from at the time.
That is because Jesus does not come to call the righteous, but the sinners, because “those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do”, the Pope said, quoting from the day’s Gospel reading during Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, on the feast of St Matthew.
The feast day has great significance for the Pope, who as a 17-year-old boy, strongly felt God’s presence and mercy that day, inspiring him to religious life. His episcopal and papal motto – “because he saw him through the eyes of mercy and chose him” – is based on the account of Jesus seeing Matthew, a sinner and tax collector, and calling him to “follow me”.
Those exploiting foreigners will answer to God says Pope
No one can remain indifferent to the way minority groups are increasingly the object of so much fear, scorn and hatred, Pope Francis has said. And he warned those who profit from exploiting foreigners or people in precarious situations and those who contribute to today’s new forms of slavery will one day have to answer to God for the choices they have made, he said.
The Pope’s remarks came in a written speech he handed participants attending a September 18-20 conference on ‘Xenophobia, Racism and Populist Nationalism in the Context of Global Migration’.
In his speech, the Pope noted how “feelings of suspicion, fear, contempt and even hatred” were on the rise against individuals or groups who have been judged to be “different” based on their ethnicity, national origin or religious affiliation, and as such were being considered “not sufficiently worthy of being fully part” of a community’s life.
These feelings, he added, “all too often inspire real acts of intolerance, discrimination or exclusion” and can gravely harm people’s dignity and rights.
Two more Chilean bishops’ resignations accepted by Pope
Pope Francis has accepted the resignations of two more Chilean bishops, bringing to seven the number of bishops who have stepped down since June in response to the clerical sexual abuse scandal in their country.
The Vatican announced last week the resignations of 60-year-old Bishop Carlos Pellegrin Barrera of San Bartolome de Chillan and 71-year-old Bishop Cristian Contreras Molina of San Felipe.
Almost every one of the 34 bishops in Chile offered their resignation to Pope Francis in mid-May after a three-day meeting at the Vatican to discuss the clerical sexual abuse scandal detailed in a 2,300-page report compiled by Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta and his aide, Fr Jordi Bertomeu.
Pope Francis accepted the resignations on June 11 of three Chilean bishops, including Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno, who had been accused of witnessing and covering up abuse by his mentor, Fr Fernando Karadima. The Pope accepted the resignations of two other bishops on June 28.
The Pope has named apostolic administrators for all seven dioceses; he has yet to appoint new bishops to the Sees.