The following comes from an Aug. 31 story on the website of the Catholic News Agency.
Pope Francis on Monday took part in a virtual audience with a group of Americans, less than a month before his historic trip to the United States.
The event was hosted by ABC News, which made the announcement of the audience Aug. 31. It will air on ABC News’ “20/20” at 10:00 p.m. ET Sept. 4 and will be posted online in English and Spanish.
[This is the same time Fox News will run an hour special, Planned Parenthood: The Hidden Harvest, about the fetal parts videos.{
Next month, the Pope will travel to Washington, D.C., New York, and Philadelphia. He will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama, address the United States Congress and the United Nations, and attend the World Meeting of Families, among other events.
The virtual audience allowed the Pope to talk via satellite with people from parts of the country that he will not physically visit on his trip – students at a Chicago inner city school, parishioners from a border town in Texas, and homeless men and women in Los Angeles, according to ABC.
The network released a preview clip of the Pope addressing Americans.
“For me, it is very important to meet with all of you, the citizens of the United States, who have your history, your culture, your virtues, your joys, your sadness, your problems, like everyone else,” the Holy Father said, adding that “this trip is important for me to draw close to you in your path, your history.”
I am pleased He is not going to be physically here in Los Angeles which is inundated with homeless. He might take back one under each arm back to Italy where all are welcome.
Well, this sounds really nice— but I still wish the Pope would be more CATHOLIC, and more RELIGIOUS, overall! It is interesting that during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Holy Father wants to help in the process to reinstate excommunicated Catholic women who have had abortions– and also, he wants to allow fully “legal” Confessions, for Catholics who go to SSPX priests! Too bad the Holy Father can’t start a big, worldwide Catechism program, to get all Catholics to be good, practicing Catholics, and lead holy lives, for love of God!
AMEN !
The NEGLECTED in the Church are Catholics who try to go to Mass every Sunday.
– No catechesis for Laity in the pews;
– lousy sermons that are always the same and neglect speaking of Mortal Sin; Need for Repentance, Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell;
– and almost NEVER telling the Laity to read a Catholic Bible or the CCC – the two most important books in the Catholic Faith.
Why do you need him to tell you what you already know?
Most baptized Catholics do not attend Mass on a regular basis.
Of those who attend Mass on a regular basis – most have not read a Catholic Bible and the CCC.
The mess our Church is in today is primarily due to a lack of catechesis.
If you care about helping to Save Souls, you will encourage everyone to read these books.
I am a firm believer that catechesis should be added to the Sunday Sermons. I see many more attempts to educate adult Catholics. Of the 16 adult Catholics in my family, I am the only one who has read the Bible. I am the only one who has read part of the Catechism ( I have not finished it yet.) For most of them, it would not matter what those books said. They do what they want and make up justifications for it. They do not really accept the Bible and the CCC as being from God. My parish and diocese is constantly encouraging people to read the Bible and CCC. . Most people just aren’t that interested. But most people know enough to practice the Catholic Faith.
CCC: ” 133 The Church forcefully and specifically exhorts all the Christian faithful. . . to learn the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ, by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures.
Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.”
“..…. the CATECHISM has raised throughout the world, even among non-Christians, and confirms its purpose of being presented as a full, complete exposition of Catholic doctrine,
enabling everyone to know what the Church professes, celebrates, lives, and prays in her daily life.” – Pope John Paul II (CCC pg xiv)
“this trip is important for me to draw close to you in your path, your history.” – – –
What happened to Saving Souls for Jesus Christ ?
YES!! “Your path, your history…” Fine– but where is the Holy Father’s vocation—- of RELIGIOUS TEACHING, to help people draw closer to God, in their sufferings?? And the hope of salvation, Heaven— despite the pain and sorrow, of life on earth??
Linda Maria, you want some RELIGIOUS TEACHING? Here’s a sample from the Catechism, which Pope Francis is TRYING to get you to understand: “2443 God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away from them: ‘Give to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who would borrow from you’; ‘you received without pay, give without pay.’ It is by what they have done for the poor that Jesus Christ will recognize his chosen ones. When ‘the poor have the good news preached to them,’ it is the sign of Christ’s presence.”
So don’t attack the Pope for focusing on the poor!
Pope Francis – Catholics are the poor in spirit, and poor in knowledge.
They need you to force Bishops and Priests to educate them in the Faith – accurately and completely.
This is fine and dandy, sweet as candy, but it does nothing to solve the problem. Christ said, you will always have the poor among you. Many, not all, of the homeless people are mentally ill; they belong in an institution. Many others are drug or alcohol abuses. I believe a minority are homeless because they cannot find a job. But then with welfare, why are they on the streets? Some do not want to live at the midnight missions because they won’t obey the laws.
Herman, you bring up some good points. I once had a young woman ask me for five dollars so she and her boyfriend could get a place to sleep. She mentioned that the homeless shelter would not let them stay there. When I questioned her, she said they would let them stay there but not in the same room together. I told her “No”. As far as I was concerned, the shelter had a very good policy.
On the other hand, I know some devout Catholic married couples who are struggling financially, and who try to obey the teachings of the Church. They are working but have more children to feed and clothe. We need to help those people, too, and not just those who are on the streets because of they own bad behavior. Some people cannot be helped until…
Contiued: until they hit their bottom, if they ever do. Giving money to those who are going to use it unwisely is just enabling and is not the kind of charity of which the Lord Jesus spoke. One does not pay for a round of drinks for an alcoholic, nor buy drugs for someone who gets spaced out, nor gives the keys to ones house or apartment to someone so he/she can sleep with their girlfriend or boyfriend outside of marriage. To do so is just to enable them to continue in their destructive ways so they can injure themselves and use others.
Gratias and Linda Marie:
The Holy Father is not God! He is leading us to the best of his ability with the guidance of the Holy Spirit! Pray for him.
Yes, Bob– We all must pray for the Holy Father! He is doing as best he can! In past centuries, it was wonderful, when the Saints preached to the poor, guiding them to God, despite their sad condition of poverty! Jesus also preached the parable of poor, blind Lazarus, the beggar at the temple gates. Someday, many of the poor beggars we see, may go to Heaven, rich in holiness and virtue, clothed in God’s beautiful, heavenly light and love– while some of the sinning rich may end up poor and ragged, begging at the gates of Hell, for alms of God’s holiness and virtue, so they may escape Purgatory, and enter Heaven! Religious training and practice is very important, no matter what your life circumstances may be!
At St. Elizabeth Seton in Carlsbad, the substitute priest announced this ABC special on 20/20. My thoughts during the announcement were: Why is he watching ABC? Was a similar preview of the Papal visit being shown on EWTN? Did he know about the PP videos (ABC is not mentioning these…). Is it any wonder that Catholics hold the same views on abortion as the secularists??
Good heavens: some of you people are so crabby about whatever the Pope does, you sound like a bunch of peeved Protestants!!!!!
Yep, it’s those OTHER crabby people that are the problem.
Some of you people are scandalous, and I wonder what your mothers and grandmothers would say about your hateful comments about the Holy Father. It’s hard to believe this is a Catholic site.
Pope Francis reaches out to the homeless and the poor, as did in the slums of Buenos Aires, and your criticize him, apparently forgetting that he is the Vicar of Christ, NOT the Vicar of Trump.
That he is the Bishop of Rome, NOT the spokesman for fussbudgets who focus on only first world concerns (is Mass in Latin? do priests wear cassocks?). Shameful.
The fuss pots,, as you call them, Bernadette, are concerned with loving and honoring God above all things. Who but the most heartless people are not concerned about the poor and the suffering? But to be about the Father’s business one first establishes firm foundations which means a proper and reverent Mass…something St Francis certainly understood, for no one was more punctilious about ensuring every extravagance and tradition being accorded our Lord in the Mass. That’s why he was so effective! He had his priorities straight. The we althy pols like FDRoosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, et al were all about ending poverty and spent billions trying to do it. All they succeeded doing was causing a total destruction of morals and family…
When we honor God first He enables miracles to happen. It’s not a pope who gives hope to the poor…it is God! You’d think no other pope cared about the poor. God help us! It probably won’t concern you a bit when they have Mass in PHilladelphia for a million people that our Lord’ s Body and Blood will be desecrated many times through carelessness and a total lack of belief that what they’re partaking of is sacred because there simply aren’t enough “fuss pots ” anymore to ensure faithfully keeping the Mass .
Apparently this means nothing to you?:
” ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply,…
I love those verses yfc and nothing I’ve written would contradict that. That wasn’t my point but alas, we’re often point non plus here when there isn’t any disagreement. I would just say that there are many mysteries in Catholicism; one being that things are often not either/ or but are often both/and. Also, as I wrote earlier and I expected the gentle readers here to see more deeply, was St.Francis shows us the perfect model to emulate Christ…maintaining a beautiful, vibrant Church to honor the Trinity and going out into all the world sharing the good news and feeding the hungry of both body and spirit.
Dana, first, thank you for the civil tone you are using to engage with me. It is refreshing. Second, I too love St. Francis and you put it precisely right: He is about as perfect an example of the Christian life as we can come to in post-Bibilical history.
On this site, I see the opposite mentality most of the time. Whenever the Holy Father urges us to reach out to the poor, the homeless, the migrant, I see an aweful lot of hatred and rejection. It’s pretty ugly on this site whenever Franciscan ideals are raised up.
Dana, I assume that you would recommend that the Pope not say Mass while he is in Philadelphia for the world wide meeting on the family. How is this mass different than when other Popes said mass for a million or more people and distributed communion? Why have a mass if you don’t distribute communion to the faithful? God help[ us when we have so many on this site who are anti everything.
We are not anti-everything we are just anti-liberal and anti-destroying the Traditional Faith…and anti-New Church novelties..
What? What? There’s too much static!! Hello? Hello? Is anybody there?
Bob One, it would be the height of true evanglization to not offer mass if in so doing there is a preponderance of abuse of the Blessed Sacrament. For what is mass if we do not recognize or treat Our Lord as truly present?
As to what is the point of mass if the faithful don’t receive Communion – how about the offering of Christ to His Father in reparation for the purposes of adoration, reparation, thanksgiving and supplication.
God help us but there are so many anti-understanding what the Faith is all about outside whether or not ‘they’ have their perceived rights/needs met.
You don’t think it is an abuse of the Blessed Sacrament to assist at an illicit Mass?
I agree with Bernadette.
Dana, they will be careful. There are risks at every Mass.
You are doing to the Lord the same thing by the way you talk about His Vicar.
Bernadette, there was a time in the Catholic Church where you would not dare to criticize the Pope or you would be looking around for the lightning.
Another wrong number! Tsk tsk.
Bernadette, you should rather wonder what our mothers and grandmothers would say about Catholics who do not uphold the Catholic Faith and/or speak out when we see with our own eyes and ears that which defiles the Faith.
God is no respecter of persons. So while it is required that we give honor and deference to the Holy Father, it is only so in as much as he represents Christ, that is upholds the Deposit of the Faith.
When the Faith and God are downplayed, it is precisely our forefathers that would call us out as COWARDS for saying nothing.
Also, for your delectation, a video of what a Mass for a million people looks like.
https://www.onepeterfive.com/was-the-eucharist-desecrated-at-a-papal-mass-in-the-philippines/
Enjoy!
Anon, thanks for the link. What I saw were hundreds of people, part of the million, that were clamoring to receive the Body of Christ in Communion. That is the result of true evangelizing. Oh that all of us were so intent on receiving the Sacrament!.
Oops! Sorry…the cleaning lady wiped the cookies in my cache out. That was my post with the video about the Mass for the millions. (does a quick soft shoe., eyes twinkle …hotcha hotcha!)
Today is First Friday. Time for the Pope to encourage all Catholics to go to Mass, and Adoration, and to sacrifice and pray for the suffering world!
Linda Maria, whether it’s First Friday or Second Tuesday, what the Holy Father is talking about is mandatory.
You want DOGMA, you want DOCTRINE? Here you go, straight from the Catechism: “1397 The Eucharist commits us to the poor. To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest, his brethren: You have tasted the Blood of the Lord, yet you do not recognize your brother…You dishonor this table when you do not judge worthy of sharing your food someone judged worthy to take part in this meal…God freed you from all your sins and invited you here, but you have not become more merciful.”
Wonderful quote from the catechism Stefan, thank you for lifting it up.
No good deed goes unpunished on this site. Think about this event. The Pope talked to people all over the country on an interactive basis. The young girl’s story about being bullied in school, but finding piece and growing faith in the choir was wonderful. Then the Pope asked her to sing a song and encouraged her to be brave. She then sang a Marian hymn. Now, some people are going to say “fine and dandy” but he didn’t preach to the students about hell and damnation, why isn’t he more Catholic? Gee, could you see in the faces of all the students how mad they were at him for not raising the issue of abortion when they gave him a standing “O”. To be truly Catholic, one must be happy to be with the Lord. People who don’t like…
I thought it was interesting that he spoke to her in English.
So much for not knowing or understanding English.
While doing some research, I came across lovelikefrancis.com. People are actually trying to do what the Pope said to do-not just talking (or bellyaching) about it.
You will love this.
Bob One—- of course, your points are valid. But don’t you get it yet? There are some who post here (incessantly!!!!!!!!!!!) who will never be happy until everybody is sad.
FOR THOSE WHO ARE POUNCING ON THE POPE EACH TIME THEY NEAR A KEYBOARD:
ccc: 882 The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Peter’s successor, “is the perpetual and visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful.” “For the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.”
WHEN YOU ATTACK THE POPE, YOU ARE DOING THE DEVIL’S WORK, WHO WANTS ANYTHING BUT UNITY IN GOD’S CHURCH!
Linda Maria, who wrote, “Well, this sounds really nice— but I still wish the Pope would be more CATHOLIC, and more RELIGIOUS!”:
Do you truly believe caring for the poor is divorced from our religion??? The read these words from Pope Leo XIII back in 1891, which our pastor just put on Facebook: “28. Neither must it be supposed that the solicitude of the Church is so preoccupied with the spiritual concerns of her children as to neglect their temporal and earthly interests. Her desire is that the poor, for example, should rise above poverty and wretchedness, and better their condition in life; and for this she makes a strong endeavor….Christian morality, when adequately and completely practiced, leads of itself to temporal prosperity,…
Pope F’s effort is laudatory. The issue in the US over “the homeless” calls for a bit more skepticism.
Here in SF, on any given night, and in nearly all the Bay Area cities I have checked, there are many more vacant unused shelter beds available than the actual number of homeless—as large as the numbers are. “The homeless” usually comprise a mixture of mentally-ill, drug- or alcohol-addicted, career street criminals, by far these being the largest and most chronic street people members.
Each government level spends vast amounts on “the homeless”, a large amount of which is diverted to maintaining the problem for the many oxymoronically named “non-profits”, which are really equivalent to Fortune 500 companies in…
…their dollar intake and administrative staff size. All one must do is file an IRS form 990-PF every year, do some basic accounting, and it is a good cash flow. The problem will never get fixed, and most organizations don’t want to fix it, but maintain it, or they will be out of business. It’s not the way they think.
Well said, Steve. I’m surrounded by really poor people. I live in one of the poorest counties in the state. They grow their own food and can it, make their own clothes or shop at thrift stores. Our churches have hunger kitchens and free household goods donated by local stores, neighbors etc.. But I can tell you this, that the last thing any of them would want is to be singled out as ” the poor and needy”. It’s soooo condescending how the good folks here talk about helping the poor like they were diseased and they were going to save them. You’re depriving people not only of their dignity but their pride in being able to make do with so little. There are also some real pluses to being poor…like trusting God will provide,…
PS. I’m not at all disagreeing with anyone about feeding the poor, and especially not what yfc and I shared.. But I’ve been poor ( though it was from choice) and I know many people who are considered poor but they don’t feel poor and are content with little. I don’t think poverty is the curse everyone seems to think it is. And sometimes you actually do people a terrible disservice belittling poverty and making it as though you’re lacking something just because you don’t have all the latest gizmos. But then I forget…you’re all Californios living in the richest and what I’m saying must sound so strange!
I have given street beggars money and a few hours later I ran into them buying cigarettes and liquor. I have also made sandwiches for them, only to find the food uneaten, and tossed in the bushes. Many years ago 60 Minutes had a show where a homeless lady was given an apartment and all expenses paid. She only lasted there a short time, and returned to the streets. Ave Maria Purrissima !
In Italy the Gypsies, especially children, are constantly begging for coins. Most people do not know that these thieves live outside of Rome in modern and clean housing. It is an easy way to make money without having to pay taxes.