NEWSWATCH | KAIROS GLOBAL | OCTOBER 2022

Author: Ajith Jacob

Arise to serve others - Pope Francis’ third message for WYD Lisbon

Pope Francis released his third message for the 37th World Youth Day (WYD). In this final message of a trilogy, he implored young people across the globe to join him in Lisbon, Portugal, and ‘arise,’ as Mary did, to the call of service to others. The theme of Lisbon’s World Youth Day, which will take place August 1-6, 2023, is ‘Mary arose and went with haste.’

The Pope noted that in these troubling times of pandemic and war, ‘Mary shows all of us, and especially you, young people like herself, the path of proximity and encounter.’ The Holy Father then expressed his hope that the experience many young people will have at the Lisbon WYD in August 2023 will ‘represent a new beginning for you’ and for humanity as a whole.

Pope Francis reflected on the words of St Ambrose of Milan, who noted that Mary went in ‘haste’ toward the hill country to serve Elizabeth ‘because she rejoiced in the promise and sought to serve others with the enthusiasm born of her joy.’

‘Mary’s haste is thus a sign of her desire to serve, to proclaim her joy, to respond without hesitation to the grace of the Holy Spirit,’ Pope Francis noted.

He then implored young people to consider: ‘How do I react to the needs that I see all around me? Do I think immediately of some reason not to get involved? Or do I show interest and willingness to help?’ Pope Francis noted that when others are in need, ‘we need to act quickly.’

‘After a long period of social distancing and isolation, we will all rediscover in Lisbon – with God’s help – the joy of a fraternal embrace between peoples and generations, an embrace of reconciliation and peace, an embrace of new missionary fraternity!’

Like Mary, concluded the Pope, ‘let us “arise and go in haste.”’

Pope creates 20 new cardinals

Existing and new members of the College of Cardinals from every corner of the globe gathered in Rome on Saturday, 27 August, for Pope Francis' eighth consistory, where he created 20 new cardinals, 16 of whom are under the age of 80, thus electors in a future conclave

The list of names confirmed the two-fold criterion seen in the previous seven consistories of Pope Francis. They are internationality, with a special focus on the global south, and attention to the peripheries, that is, the border territories that historically have never had a Cardinal, rather than places traditionally considered ‘cardinal-sees.’ 

The list of new cardinals includes those from Europe, six new cardinals from Asia, two from Africa, one from North America and four from Central and Latin America. Four new countries are now represented: Mongolia, Paraguay, Singapore and East Timor. 

As of 27 August, the College of Cardinals now consists of 226 cardinals, including 132 electors and 94 non-electors. 52 cardinals were created by John Paul II of whom 11 are electors; 64 created by Benedict XVI of whom 38 are electors; and 112 created by Francis of whom 83 are electors.

Geographically, they are distributed as follows: 106 in Europe, of whom 54 are electors; 60 in the Americas, of whom 38 are electors; 30 in Asia, of whom 20 are electors; 27 in Africa, of whom 17 are electors; and 5 cardinals in Oceania, of whom 3 are electors.

We as Jesus Youth also rejoice that Cardinal William Goh from Singapore was previously the pastor of Jesus Youth in Singapore until he was made Archbishop and a strong supporter of the movement.

Baby Bishop’s School

After a long Covid-caused break, the Vatican’s ‘New bishop school’ was back in action in the first week of September.

Approximately 150 Catholic bishops attended the first week-long session of the formation course in Rome, which ended Thursday. A second session, with about 170 bishops, will be held September 12-19. This is usually held for young bishops who came into the position within the last 12 months.

The seminar, usually held annually, culminated in an audience with Pope Francis in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall on September 8.

The theme of the 2022 edition was ‘to announce the Gospel in the changing epoch and after the pandemic: the service of bishop.’

The week began with Mass, said by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state.

The course, sometimes known by the lighthearted nickname ‘baby bishop school,’ included talks on the topics of crisis management, especially in the context of abuse, social media, and canon law in diocesan administration.

Other themes covered were the meaning of a synodal Church, education for synodal leadership, and the Church after the pandemic.

The formation also addressed the holiness of bishops, family, and universal fraternity.

The course is held at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum, a Catholic educational institute directed by the Legionaries of Christ, located about 4.5 miles from the Vatican.