Friday, July 19, 2013

Francis to spend summer working

Pope FrancisLast Sunday he paid a brief visit to Castel Gandolfo where he will also be going in August, but a part from his visit to Brazil for the World Youth Day celebrations at the end of July, Francis won’t be straying far from home this summer.

His choice echoes the general mood of austerity: many faithful will not be going on holiday this summer and neither will the Pope who plans to stay in St. Martha’s House, attend meetings and plan his radical reform of the Roman Curia which will be discussed by Francis’ 8-cardinal commission at their first meeting in October.

But the parish of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castel Gandolfo is still hoping for a last minute change of plan. 

“We will be waiting for him. We feel as though he is part of the family; we see him as a friend we hope to see soon,” said Castel Gandolfo’s parish priest, Pietro Diletti. 

After his meeting with Benedict XVI on 23 March, Castel Gandolfo was again swarming with people who came for Francis’ second but first public visit.

He recited the Angelus prayer before an audience of twenty thousand people and lunched with the Jesuit scientists who work at the Vatican Observatory. He then returned straight to St. Martha’s House. 

The Pope will not be spending his holiday in “Castello” as Castel Gandolfo is called in local Roman dialect, but will return there on 15 August for the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to celebrate mass. 

Curia members pointed out that he never went on holiday even when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Pope Francis’ first World Youth day will say a lot about his relationship with the younger generations, who represent a challenge and a hope for Catholicism in today’s globalised and dechristianised society. 


World Youth Days, which are the brainchild of the Blessed John Paul II, are more similar to the big inclusive events promoted by Protestants and Pentecostals in Latin America than to the daily mission which the the Argentinean prelate-turned Pope has successfully sought. 

So WYD 2013 in Rio (22-28 July) promises to be very interesting in terms of helping us interpret the direction of Francis’ pontificate.

Francis spoke about Word Youth Day during Sunday’s Angelus, recited in the small town of Castel Gandolfo on Lake Albano, just a short distance from the Italian capital. This will be the first time Latin America welcomes a Latin American Pope for the big international youth gathering, Francis’ first papal visit abroad.

The mission is a topic that is very close to Francis’ heart and one he is keen to discuss with the world’s youth (there are 2 million young people expected in Rio). 

Our Lady of Aparecida, to whom the second most visited shrine in Latin America – after Guadalupe – is dedicated, was also mentioned by the Pope yesterday. 

Aparecida was the location chosen for the Latin American Episcopal Conference’s last general assembly held in 2007. 

Aparecida’s concluding document echoes Francis’ message to the clergy, to “go out to find people, not [sit] in the Curia or the presbytery waiting for people to come to us.”