With crises in Syria and Iraq deepening, Catholic bishops on a solidarity visit with the “forgotten” Christians of the Middle East are urging stepped-up peace efforts to resolve conflicts tearing apart the troubled region.
Highlighting the ongoing plight of Iraqi Christian refugees who face another winter of displacement, 18 months after fleeing persecution by Islamic State militants, is also their top concern.
In conversation with Tornielli, in this exclusive extract from The Name of God is Mercy, Pope Francis explains why what he refers to as “God’s identity card” has the power to transform lives and heal the planet.
“I felt as though I had been abandoned”
Pope Francis recalls how, as a teenager growing up in Buenos Aires in the early 1950s, already considering his own vocation, a visiting priest to the Bergoglio family’s parish of San Jose in the Flores district taught him, when he went to confession, all about the mercy of God.
A public university is organising seminars that put Muslim students on guard against alleged proselytism. Educators point out that “encouraging hatred opens the door to ISIS”.
With the advent of the New Year 2016, the Catholic Center for Studies and Media (CCSM) disseminated on Wednesday December 30, 2015 the message of His Holiness Pope Francis for the celebration of the World Day of Peace which commemorates on January 1 every year. The message is titled “Overcome Indifference and Win Peace”.
In an analysis first published by Italian religious news blog Il Sismografo and reprinted here, Luis Badilla, the blog’s lead editor, looks back at Francis’ (almost) three year pontificate, coining the term “overview effect” - a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts and cosmonauts during spaceflight – to describe his analysis.
John Paul II referred to him as “my travelling manager”. Benedict XVI, with a hint of irony, called him “Reisemarschal”, travel marshal in German. He has officially been in charge of organising international papal visits but he for the past ten years but has worked in the Vatican since 1982, as the Jesuit Roberto Tucci’s deputy Alberto Gasbarri, who turns 70 this February, a gentleman’s temperament but a true Roman by birth, is about to retire.
Far from spreading cheer this holiday season, Pope Francis has been in a Grinch-like mood. "There will be lights, parties, Christmas trees and Nativity scenes," he said in late November. "It's all a charade." As the Vatican unveiled its own giant spruce, he sounded downright depressed: "We should ask for the grace to weep for this world, which does not recognise the path to peace."
At the Mass on New Year’s Day, the Pope denounced injustice and the multitudes of migrants risking their lives to have their rights respected. At the Angelus he thanked the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella and said war is not the only enemy to peace, indifference is too.
Habiba Daud remembers Christmas in Qaraqosh as beautiful. The festivities would start days before with the preparation of traditional food and desserts. Families celebrated around a large Christmas tree.
On Christmas her family and friends gathered to enjoy the food and spend time together, chatting and playing with the children.
This year will be the second Christmas Daud will spend away from her home, against her wishes. In August 2014, Islamic State fighters seized Qaraqosh, a city less than 20 miles southeast of Mosul.
From St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pope denounces the “grave uncertainties that have dominated the world scene over the past year and are symptoms of a lack of commitment to the common good”.
