The hope that comes to us at Christmas is a different kind of hope — it is reliable and visible because it is founded on God.
The Pope said this today as he took up a third general audience catechesis on the theme of hope.
“Today, a few days from Christmas, I would like to reflect more specifically on the moment in which, so to speak, hope entered the world, with the Incarnation of the Son of God,” he said.
Although the Jubilee of Mercy has ended, Pope Francis has decided that some of the novelties he applied to the Church during the Holy Year will continue.
He is allowing all priests to absolve the sin of abortion from here on out, while SSPX priests will be able to continue hearing confessions validly.
In addition, he has indefinitely extended the mandate of the Missionaries of Mercy and has decided to institute the World Day for the Poor, which will take place each year on the Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time.
“Ours is an age of grave global problems and issues. We live at a time in which polarization and exclusion are burgeoning and considered the only way to resolve conflicts,” the Pope said.
On Saturday Pope Francis handed a red hat to 17 new cardinals, warning them against the danger of falling into polemics and animosity and encouraging them to be close to their people, imitating God’s mercy.
Pope Francis on Friday had a question for priests: “Are you attached to money?”
“The house of our Lord God is a house of prayer. Our encounter with the Lord (is) with the God of love,” he said in his Nov. 18 homily. “The Lord of Money is constantly seeking to enter inside.”
Pope Francis spoke at his Friday morning Mass at Casa Santa Martha’s chapel, largely attended by priests.
His reflection focused on the day’s gospel reading about Christ driving money lenders from the Jewish temple.
Bringing all people the lasting joy of the Church should be the focus of their service, Pope Francis told representatives of the Jesuits on Monday, as he urged them to shun pursuit of worldly leadership and position.
“The service of good courage and discernment makes us men of the Church – not clerical men, but churchmen, men ‘for others,’ without our own thing that isolates but placing everything we have in communion and service,” he said Oct. 24 to the 36th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus at the order's general curia in Rome.
Have courage! Embrace your mission.
Pope Francis stressed this during his Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square, as he reflected on today’s readings, especially St. Paul’s Letter to Timothy, in which he encourages his disciple to remember that as Christians we are called to set out and evangelize.
Francis observed how St. Paul’s autobiographical account today is timely, given that today is World Mission Sunday, with the theme “Missionary Church, a witness of mercy.”