Saints John XXIII and John
Paul II: men of courage
http://www.news.va/en/news/saints-john-xxiii-and-john-paul-ii-men-of-courage
Pope Francis: 'popes of 20th
century' witness, teach of God's mercy
http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-popes-of-20th-century-witness-teach-o
Read the full text of Pope
Francis' homily below:
Homily of His Holiness Pope
Francis
Mass of Canonization, 27
April 2014
At the heart of this Sunday,
which concludes the Octave of Easter and which John Paul II wished to dedicate
to Divine Mercy, are the glorious wounds of the risen Jesus.
He had already shown those
wounds when he first appeared to the Apostles on the very evening of that day
following the Sabbath, the day of the resurrection. But, as we heard, Thomas
was not there that evening, and when the others told him that they had seen the
Lord, he replied that unless he himself saw and touched those wounds, he would
not believe. A week later, Jesus appeared once more to the disciples gathered
in the Upper Room, and Thomas was present; Jesus turned to him and told him to
touch his wounds. Whereupon that man, so straightforward and accustomed to
testing everything personally, knelt before Jesus with the words: “My Lord and
my God!” (Jn 20:28).
The wounds of Jesus are a
scandal, a stumbling block for faith, yet they are also the test of faith. That
is why on the body of the risen Christ the wounds never pass away: they remain,
for those wounds are the enduring sign of God’s love for us. They are essential
for believing in God. Not for believing that God exists, but for believing that
God is love, mercy and faithfulness. Saint Peter, quoting Isaiah, writes to
Christians: “by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet 2:24, cf. Is 53:5).
Saint John XXIII and Saint
John Paul II were not afraid to look upon the wounds of Jesus, to touch his
torn hands and his pierced side. They were not ashamed of the flesh of Christ,
they were not scandalized by him, by his cross; they did not despise the flesh
of their brother (cf. Is 58:7), because they saw Jesus in every person who
suffers and struggles. These were two men of courage, filled with the parrhesia
of the Holy Spirit, and they bore witness before the Church and the world to
God’s goodness and mercy.
They were priests, bishops
and popes of the twentieth century. They lived through the tragic events of
that century, but they were not overwhelmed by them. For them, God was more
powerful; faith was more powerful – faith in Jesus Christ the Redeemer of man
and the Lord of history; the mercy of God, shown by those five wounds, was more
powerful; and more powerful too was the closeness of Mary our Mother.
In these two men, who looked
upon the wounds of Christ and bore witness to his mercy, there dwelt a living
hope and an indescribable and glorious joy (1 Pet 1:3,8). The hope and the joy
which the risen Christ bestows on his disciples, the hope and the joy which
nothing and no one can take from them. The hope and joy of Easter, forged in
the crucible of self-denial, self-emptying, utter identification with sinners,
even to the point of disgust at the bitterness of that chalice. Such were the
hope and the joy which these two holy popes had received as a gift from the
risen Lord and which they in turn bestowed in abundance upon the People of God,
meriting our eternal gratitude.
This hope and this joy were
palpable in the earliest community of believers, in Jerusalem, as we read in the Acts of the
Apostles (cf. 2:42-47), as we heard in the second reading. It was a community
which lived the heart of the Gospel, love and mercy, in simplicity and
fraternity.
This is also the image of the
Church which the Second Vatican Council set before us. John XXIII and John Paul
II cooperated with the Holy Spirit in renewing and updating the Church in
keeping with her pristine features, those features which the saints have given
her throughout the centuries. Let us not forget that it is the saints who give
direction and growth to the Church. In convening the Council, John XXIII showed
an exquisite openness to the Holy Spirit. He let himself be led and he was for
the Church a pastor, a servant-leader, led by the Spirit. This was his great
service to the Church; he was the pope of openness to the Spirit.
In his own service to the
People of God, John Paul II was the pope of the family. He himself once said
that he wanted to be remembered as the pope of the family. I am particularly
happy to point this out as we are in the process of journeying with families
towards the Synod on the family. It is surely a journey which, from his place
in heaven, he guides and sustains.
May these two new saints and
shepherds of God’s people intercede for the Church, so that during this
two-year journey toward the Synod she may be open to the Holy Spirit in
pastoral service to the family. May both of them teach us not to be scandalized
by the wounds of Christ and to enter ever more deeply into the mystery of
divine mercy, which always hopes and always forgives, because it always loves.
El ritual de la
canonización
http://noticieros.televisa.com/canonizacion-juan-xxiii-juan-pablo-ii1/1404/ritual-canonizacion/
Juan Pablo II y Juan
XXIII, dos hombres valientes: Papa Francisco
http://noticieros.televisa.com/canonizacion-juan-xxiii-juan-pablo-ii1/1404/papa-francisco-juan-pablo-ii-juan-xxiii-dos-hombres-valientes/
Papa Francisco
declara santos a Juan XXIII y Juan Pablo II
http://noticieros.televisa.com/canonizacion-juan-xxiii-juan-pablo-ii1/1404/papa-francisco-declara-santos-juan-xxiii-juan-pablo-ii/
El día de los 4 papas
http://noticieros.televisa.com/mundo/1404/dia-4-papas/
Participará Benedicto
XVI en ceremonia de canonización
http://noticieros.televisa.com/canonizacion-juan-xxiii-juan-pablo-ii1/1404/concelebrara-benedicto-xvi-ceremonia-canonizacion/
Benedicto XVI
asistirá a la canonización de Juan Pablo II y Juan XXIII
http://noticieros.televisa.com/mundo/1404/benedicto-xvi-asistira-canonizacion-juan-pablo-ii-juan-xxiii/
Líderes del mundo asisten a la
canonización de los dos papas
http://noticieros.televisa.com/canonizacion-juan-xxiii-juan-pablo-ii1/1404/delegaciones-92-paises-24-jefes-estado-gobierno-23-ministros-r/
From great popes to saints
April 26, 2014 11:31 pm
http://www.manilatimes.net/from-great-popes-to-saints/92153/
John XXIII and John Paul II
changed the papacy, the church, and the world. But that’s not the most
important thing about them.
An ocean of words has been
written on the two men in advance of their being declared saints on Sunday. A
common narrative treats them as leaders with very different visions for the
church. John XXIII was the brave progressive freeing the church from outdated
ideas and rules; John Paul II was the Polish conservative trying to reimpose an
older vision of Catholic life.
It’s a congenial story line,
but only for people who find facts burdensome. The reality of the two men was
more complex.
Born of an Italian peasant
family and a veteran of the Vatican’s
diplomatic service, John XXIII was 77 when elected—firmly anticommunist and a
traditional churchman in many ways. Within a few months, though, he surprised
the world by calling the Second Vatican Council.
The need for a council was
not a new idea. It had been discussed internally by leading bishops and
theologians for some time. But John XXIII had the courage to pursue it. He
hoped a new ecumenical council would reinvigorate the methods, forms and
structures of the church to address the needs of the modern world.
In effect, John wanted to
make the church better at what she was called to do, not to reinvent who she
is. When he opened the first session of the council, he told the world’s
bishops that his overriding concern was that “the sacred deposit of Christian
doctrine should be guarded and taught more efficaciously.”
As John made clear in his
great encyclical Mater et Magistra (Mother and Teacher), the church pursues her
mission of mercy and salvation for the sake of the world. The church must “hold
the world in an embrace of love, that men, in every age, should find in her
their own completeness in a higher order of living, and their ultimate
salvation.”
John Paul II was elected in
1978, 15 years after John XXIII’s death. He was the youngest pope since Pius IX
in 1846 and the first non-Italian in 450 years; a former quarry worker, actor
and scholar; a man who had survived the devastation of his homeland and two
bloody totalitarian regimes in a row.
Pope John XXIII, who will be
canonized on Sunday, was “the best pope in history for the Jewish people,” says
one of the founders of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.
John XXIII is also credited
with saving thousands of Jews during the Holocaust and opening the door to
Judeo-Christian dialogue, Baruch Tenembaum told AFP in an interview at the
Foundation’s New York
headquarters.
The Italian-born John XXIII,
whose given name was Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, “did such extraordinary things.
I’m delighted that he is becoming a saint, even if —as a Jew—beatification
doesn’t affect me.”
“He couldn’t have done more
than he did,” explained Tenembaum, an 80-year-old Argentine known for his
efforts to improve inter-faith dialogue. In 2009, his name was placed in the
running for the Nobel peace prize.
As the Vatican’s envoy to Turkey from 1935, John XXIII helped
save the lives of thousands of Eastern European Jews facing persecution from
the Nazis, including by giving Hungarian Jews baptismal certificates.
“At the time, having identity
papers labeling you a Catholic was enough to save your life,” Tenembaum said.
Astonishing papacy
John Paul was also a bishop
who’d been active at the Second Vatican Council, where he had helped draft some
of its key documents. One of these, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in
the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, was the text that most vigorously threw open
the windows of the church. In his first address after being elected pope, he
declared that he believed it his “primary duty” to promote “the most exact
fulfillment of the norms and directives of the council.”
And that is what John Paul
did for the 26 years of his astonishing papacy, traveling to every corner of
the globe and producing a vast body of teaching—on the family, on mercy, on
workers’ rights, on faith and reason, on art and culture, on the dignity of
women, the elderly and the unborn child, and on too many other issues to
name—that dwarfs the work of any previous pope.
But the church doesn’t
acknowledge these two great popes as saints because they were innovative CEOs,
or because they were somehow free from human flaws or weakness. She declares
them saints because in her judgment, these men were genuinely holy. People
become saints, not because they’re perfect and not because they do things well,
but because they follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ in a heroic way.
Those who focus on the
politics of the church in the last 50 years and dwell on the perceived
differences between John XXIII and John Paul II are missing a much larger
point. The two great popes were united in everything that matters. They were
different in personality, and different in the urgent problems of their time;
but they were one in heart and mind, and in their love for God and his people.
The canonization of the two
influential figures will be presided over by Pope Francis and attended by his
elderly predecessor Benedict XVI, bringing two living pontiffs together to
celebrate two deceased predecessors.
The Pope Emeritus will
celebrate mass with Pope Francis, the Vatican said on Saturday.
New halos
In front of the Vatican
Saturday, families and groups of scouts armed with folding chairs and sleeping
mats braved skies threatening rain to stake out their places in a swelling
queue to get onto St. Peter’s Square, which will only open in the early hours
of Sunday.
“We’ve come early to get the
best places on the square. I don’t think we will be getting much sleep tonight,
but we’ll be singing and praying,” French priest Etienne, who had come over
from France
with 50 pilgrims, said.
Schoolchildren wearing yellow
John Paul II backpacks mingled with nuns lugging suitcases off coaches at Rome’s main Termini train station, where Italy’s civil
protection agency had set up a huge medical tent.
Priests strumming guitars and
singing Hallelujah had taken to the streets of the city’s historic center late
Friday, while others holding high crosses led prayers amid curious crowds of
ice-cream eating tourists.
Also in Rome for the ceremony were 98 official
foreign delegations, including Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and Polish Solidarity
leader Lech Walesa.
Tapestry portraits of the new
saints were on show high above the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, while posters
in the surrounding streets showed John Paul II and John XXIII already boasting
shiny halos, presided over by a benevolently smiling Pope Francis.
MCT and AFP
27/04/2014 12:42
IL GIORNO DEI DUE PAPI
Giovanni XIII e Giovanni Paolo
II sono santi
http://www.iltempo.it/cronache/2014/04/27/papa-francesco-quot-giovanni-xiii-e-giovanni-paolo-ii-due-uomini-coraggiosi-quot-1.1244417
Quattro Papi. Due Santi e
oltre 800 mila fedeli. Seicento sacerdoti, 300 diaconi. I numeri della storica
giornata in Vaticano parlano da sé. Giovanni XXIII e Giovanni Paolo II sono
santi. Un lungo applauso e grida di giubilo da parte di tutta piazza San Pietro
hanno accolto la proclamazione. Sono nate spontaneamente, tra sorrisi e sguardi
di partecipazione, le strette di mano che sanciscono lo scambio della pace
durante la cerimonia per la canonizzazione. Tutti i fedeli, stremati da ore di
attesa, si sono girati e cercati tra loro, parenti e amici ma anche
sconosciuti. In molti si sono abbracciati stretti per alcuni secondi,
commuovendosi. Subito dopo i pellegrini si sono allontanati dalle loro
postazioni per cercare i sacerdoti incaricati di distribuire in piazza le ostie
consacrate: in numerose file ciascuno ha atteso il proprio turno per ricevere
l'eucaristia, mentre dal sagrato della basilica di San Pietro si diffondevano
inni e canti sacri.
Omelia. Papa Fencesco durante
l'omelia ha definito Giovanni XXIII e Giovanni Paolo II due uomini coraggiosi,
pieni di parresia dello Spirito Santo, che hanno dato testimonianza alla Chiesa
e al mondo della bontà di Dio, della sua misericordia. "In questi due
uomini contemplativi delle piaghe di Cristo e testimoni della sua misericordia
dimorava una speranza viva, insieme con una gioia indicibile e gloriosa. La
speranza e la gioia che Cristo risorto dà ai suoi discepoli, e delle quali nulla
e nessuno può privarli. La speranza e la gioia pasquali, passate attraverso il
crogiolo della spogliazione, dello svuotamento, della vicinanza ai peccatori
fino all'estremo, fino alla nausea per l'amarezza di quel calice. Queste sono
la speranza e la gioia che i due santi Papi hanno ricevuto in dono dal Signore
risorto e a loro volta hanno donato in
abbondanza al popolo di Dio, ricevendone eterna riconoscenza". Giovanni
XXIII e Giovanni Paolo II hanno collaborato con lo Spirito Santo per
ripristinare e aggiornare la Chiesa secondo la sua fisionomia originaria, la
fisionomia che le hanno dato i santi nel corso dei secoli. Il Pontefice ivita i
fedeli a non dimenticare che sono proprio i santi che mandano avanti e fanno
crescere la Chiesa. Nella convocazione del Concilio, San Giovanni XXIII ha
dimostrato una delicata docilità allo Spirito Santo, si è lasciato condurre ed
è stato per la Chiesa un pastore, una guida-guidata. Questo è stato il suo
grande servizio alla Chiesa: è stato il Papa della docilità allo Spirito. San
Giovanni Paolo II è stato il Papa della famiglia. "Sono stati sacerdoti,
vescovi e papi del XX secolo. Ne hanno conosciuto le tragedie, ma non ne sono
stati sopraffatti. Più forte, in loro, era Dio. Più forte era la fede in Gesù
Cristo Redentore dell'uomo e Signore della storia, più forte in loro era la
misericordia di Dio che si manifesta nelle cinque piaghe, più forte era la
vicinanza materna di Maria". Alla fine della celebrazione Francesco si è
rivolto con affetto a Benedetto XVI. Poi, tra abbracci e selfie, il Papa ha
ricevuto le Delegazioni ufficiali di tanti Paesi, venute per rendere omaggio ai
due Pontefici.
Il Papa emerito. Ad assistere
alla cerimonia ben 122 delegazioni internazionali, 10 capi di governo e 24 capi
di stato. Padre Georg Gaenswein ha accolto e accompagnato il presidente della
Repubblica, Giorgio Napolitano e sua moglie Clio, a salutare Joseph Ratzinger:
un onore specialissimo. Benedetto si è alzato in piedi: lungo e caloroso il
saluto tra i due, sottolineato dall’applauso dei fedeli. Anche il premier
Matteo Renzi, accompagnato dalla moglie Agnese, è arrivato in piazza San
Pietro. Tre le regnanti che hanno il privilegio di vestire di bianco: Sofia, regina
di Spagna, Paola del Belgio e e Marie Thèrese di Lussemburgo. Presente in
piazza San Pietro, anche il presidente dello Zimbabwe, il controverso Robert
Mugabe.
Pellegrini da tutto il mondo. Le stime sui presenti diffuse oggi dalla
Santa Sede parlano di 800 mila persone tra la zona del Vaticano, dove ci
sarebbero 500 mila persone, e le altre aree dove sono stati installati i
maxischermi, dove sarebbero altre 300 mila persone. Si tratta di stime molto
prudenziali, perché le immagini dall'alto mostrano invece ancora gremiti anche
i lungotevere e i ponti della zona Prati, di cui la Sala Stampa non ha parlato
e dunque è probabile la previsione di un milione di fedeli. Sale il numero
delle persone trattate nelle tende del 118 dislocate in zona Vaticano per
offrire assistenza ai pellegrini. Alle 11 sono 896 i pazienti che si sono
rivolti alle strutture sanitarie, di questi 101 sono stati portati in ospedale.
Nessuna situazione clinica di particolare
gravità, tranne qualche codice rosso. Nessuno però è in situazioni
preoccupanti. Tranquilla anche la situazione dei Pronto soccorso ospedalieri,
grazie alla sala operativa all'interno della centrale operativa Ares 118 dove
sono presenti rappresentanti di tutte le direzioni sanitarie degli ospedali
romani.
Redazione online
http://www.iltempo.it/cronache/2014/04/27/papa-francesco-quot-giovanni-xiii-e-giovanni-paolo-ii-due-uomini-coraggiosi-quot-1.1244417
Los Reyes asisten a la
canonización de Juan XXIII y Juan Pablo II
http://www.hola.com/realeza/casa_espanola/2014042770985/reyes-beatificacion-papa/
El papa Francisco proclamó
este domingo la santidad de los papas Juan XXIII y Juan Pablo II y pidió, en
una multitudinaria ceremonia en la Plaza de San Pedro, que ambos pontífices
sean inscritos en los libros de los santos
de la Iglesia