On Wednesday, Pope Francis urged Catholics to open the doors of the church and collaborate with one another to care for the world’s most vulnerable people rather than withdrawing into their own groups.
What can the Church do collectively to foster a more compassionate, just, and united society that is more receptive to God and human fraternity?
At Mass on June 29 for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, he stated, “Surely we must not withdraw into our ecclesial circles and remain fixed to some of our pointless discussions.
Together, we can and must continue to safeguard human life, the environment, the dignity of labour, family issues, the treatment of the aged, and all individuals who are rejected, abandoned, or treated with disdain, he said.
We are supposed to be a church that fosters a culture of sensitivity, care, and compassion for the weak, in other words.
Pope Francis blessed the pallias for the metropolitan archbishops appointed in the previous year during the Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.
The metropolitan archbishops are awarded pallia, which are white woollen garments decorated with six black silk crosses.
They represent the metropolitan’s power and his ties to the Holy See.
The term “metropolitan archbishop” designates the head of an ecclesiastical province or area whose capital city is a metropolis.
On June 29, Pope Francis blessed the palliums of 32 metropolitan archbishops from 24 nations who were in attendance in Rome.
Francis added that in accordance with Peter, “the metropolitan archbishops are required to ‘rise up immediately,’ not to slumber, and to serve as vigilant sentinels over the flock.
” To rise up and “fight the good battle,” never alone but with all of God’s pure and obedient people.
At the June 29 Mass where they were blessed, the pope would previously invest the new metropolitans with the pallia.
However, Francis revised this practise in 2015 and now bishops are invested with the pallia in their diocese by the local apostolic nuncio.
Following Mass on Wednesday, Pope Francis presented the pallium to each archbishop in a little box with a brown ribbon.
The blessing of the pallia and the Liturgy of the Word were performed under the direction of Pope Francis during the opening ceremonies of the Mass.
He also accepted the offertory gifts and spoke the homily. The Liturgy of the Eucharist, which makes up the second portion of Mass, was presided over by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals.
Pope Francis discussed the synodal route the Catholic Church is currently on in his homily.
This path is leading up to the Synod on Synodality, which will take place in October 2023.
He stated, “The Synod that we are currently celebrating calls us to become a Church that gets up, one that is not turned in on itself, but one that is capable of going forward, leaving behind its own prisons and setting out to face the world, with the bravery to open doors. Open the door, please. God makes a call.
The pope claimed that the Church occasionally opens its doors, but only to condemn and exclude people.
“A Church that is enthusiastic about the proclamation of the Gospel and driven by the desire to interact with and accept everyone, rather than lingering in its hallowed boundaries.
Please keep in mind the phrase “everyone,” he said.
He said, “Go to the crossroads and bring everyone: the blind, the deaf, the lame, the ill, the virtuous and the sinner.
“This word of the Lord should resound in our hearts and minds: there is a place for everyone in the Church.”
Pope Francis denounced a complacent mindset inside the Church.
We are frequently like Peter in chains, enslaved by our routines, terrified of change, and enslaved by our habits.
We incur the risk of “taking it easy” and “getting by,” also in our pastoral ministry, and this slowly leads to spiritual mediocrity, he warned.
Francis said, “Our zeal for mission wanes and ends up appearing lukewarm and listless, rather than being a sign of life and inventiveness.”
Henri de Lubac, a theologian from the 20th century, was mentioned by the pope in The Drama of Atheist Humanism.
According to Father de Lubac, “then, the great current of newness and life that is the Gospel becomes in our hands a faith that ‘falls into formalism and habit…, a religion of ceremonies and devotions, of ornaments and vulgar consolations… a Christianity that is clerical, formalistic, anaemic and callous.’”
The Patriarchal Holy Trinity Cathedral Choir of Tbilisi, an Orthodox choir from Georgia, chanted “Ave Maria” by Ilia II at the conclusion of Mass.
On June 26, the Tbilisi choir also performed a two-hour concert at the Sistine Chapel.
The Mass for Saints Peter and Paul had a delegation from the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in attendance.
The group and Pope Francis prayed together in front of St.Peter after Mass.