In the over-informed society in which we live, the problem “is not finding a meaningful message, it is understanding it, in other words acknowledging it as important for me, as significant because of the multiple responses I get”. This was acknowledged by father Antonio Spadaro, director of the Jesuit fathers’ fortnightly magazine “La Civiltà Cattolica”, as he spoke earlier today at the meeting of the bishops in charge of social communication for the European Bishops Conferences, which is taking place in Athens (Greece) about “Communication as encounter, between authenticity and concreteness”, on the initiative of the Commission for Social Communication of Ccee (Council of European Bishops Conferences)…

Pope Francis marked the Feast of All Saints with Mass at Rome’s monumental Verano cemetery during which he hailed the world’s refugees and homeless as unknown saints and slammed the pervading ‘industry of destruction’ that excludes God and destroys the earth.

Below please find the Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s unscripted homily:  

When in the First Reading we heard this voice of the Angel who cried out loud o the Four Angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, “Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees” (Rev 7:3), this brought to mind a phrase that is not here but in everyone’s heart: men are capable of doing this better than you…

Meeting of bishops with responsibility for social communications in Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences
Athens, Greece, 3-5 November 2014
 
What is the impact of digital communication on thinking and living the faith? Can the virtual encounter be communication and an opportunity for an authentic encounter? And how can Christian witness be expressed in the digital universe? These are some of the questions which the bishops with responsibility for social communications in Europe’s Bishops’ Conferences, accompanied by their experts, will tackle in Athens in the light of Pope Francis’ Message for the 2014 World Communications Day…

Pope Francis described Christian life as a continuous battle being waged against Satan, the world and the passions of the flesh. His comments came during his homily at Mass celebrated on Thursday morning at the Santa Marta residence. He stressed that the devil exists and we must fight against him with the armour of truth.

Pope Francis’s reflections during his homily were taken from the words of St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians where the apostle urged Christians to put on the full armour of God in order to resist Satan’s temptations.  A Christian life, he said, has to be defended and it requires both strength and courage…

“Often, we hear people say: the Church doesn’t do this …the Church doesn’t do that!’ ‘Tell me who is the Church? – ‘Well the Church is the priests, the bishops, the Pope …’ We are all the Church! All of us all of us Baptized! We are the Church, the Church of Jesus’”.

This was the message at the heart of Pope Francis’ general audience Wednesday, which he dedicated to the relationship between the visible and spiritual reality of the Church…