A Church that is not united around its bishop is a sick Church.  Jesus wanted unity between the bishop and all the faithful, starting with priests and deacons. However the role of bishop is not a position of honor, it is a service.  Therefore, there is no room in the Church for a worldly mentality, for people who seek ‘ecclesiastical careers’, for bishops who instead of lowering themselves in service, are vain, proud and power-hungry. 

The Ordained Ministries and in particular the role of Bishops and episcopal collegiality were the focus of Pope Francis’ General Audience catechesis this week…

Rivalry and vainglory are two worms that weaken the Church; instead we must act in a spirit of humility and harmony, without seeking our own interests said Pope Francis Monday morning at Mass in Casa Santa Marta. 

Taking a cue from the Letter of St. Paul to the Philippians, the Pope noted that a bishop’s joy lies in seeing love, unity and harmony in his Church…

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…