Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

The World Mourns the Loss of Pope Francis, a Trailblazing Jesuit with a Heart for the Poor

April 23, 2025

~ by Gerard O’Connell, AMERICA

Pope Francis greets the crowd as he leads his Christmas message and blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world) from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 25, 2019. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) See POPE-URBI–ORBI Dec. 25, 2019.

When the cardinals voted to elect Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the 265th successor of St. Peter on the evening of March 13, 2013, few of them imagined what kind of pope he would be. They surprised the world by electing the first Latin American and first-ever Jesuit pope. But the 76-year-old archbishop of Buenos Aires surprised them in even bigger ways from the moment of his election by choosing a name no previous pope had dared to take—Francis. He continued to surprise them right up to the very end of his 13-year pontificate.

His death on April 21, 2025, concluded a momentous and at times turbulent papacy that both supporters and detractors of the pontiff would agree has changed the church in significant ways.

“At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the home of the Father. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and of his Church,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo, said in an announcement Monday.

“He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with faithfulness, courage, and universal love, especially for the poorest and most marginalized.”

On the night of his election, the world quickly discovered that Francis was not only a spiritual, humble man, but he was also an inspiring leader with a fearlessness that had been forged during the years of military dictatorship in his homeland of Argentina.

His first public appearance on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica soon after his election revealed that he possessed a sense of humor and a gift for communicating by word and deed in ways that reached people’s hearts. No pope in recorded history had bowed down before the crowd in St. Peter’s Square and asked them to pray to God to bless him before he imparted his first blessing to them.

From the beginning to the end of his pontificate, Francis was ever a Jesuit, the first Jesuit pope. During his early life, he delved deep into the springs of Ignatian spirituality, and this greatly enriched and influenced his thinking and writing and his governance of the Roman Curia and the Catholic church worldwide. He had met Pedro Arrupe, S.J., in Santa Fe, Argentina, in late 1965, soon after Father Arrupe’s election as father general of the Society, and was greatly inspired by him. As pope, he prayed at Arrupe’s tomb in the church of the Gesú in Rome, and visited the rooms where St. Ignatius spent the last period of his life.

Pope Francis asked to be buried in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome, close to the revered ancient icon of Our Lady, Protectress of the Roman People, an image to which the Jesuit order has been particularly devoted from its beginning. As a cardinal Pope Francis used to pray there on his visits to Rome before becoming pope, and where he went to pray more than 100 times during his pontificate, including before and after his foreign trips. It is perhaps fitting, therefore, that the first Jesuit pope will be laid to rest in this basilica, where St. Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, celebrated his first Mass as a priest on Christmas night, 1538, and where Francis so often prayed.

To read the entire remembrance, please click here
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Papal logo: USCCB

Pope Francis and the Magisterium of Fragility

March 17, 2025

~ by Andrea Tornielli

Vatican News – This year, the twelfth anniversary of his pontificate falls at a particular moment for Pope Francis, who has been living in his hospital room for almost a month. The news coming from the latest medical bulletins is encouraging, his prognosis is no longer guarded, and hopefully, he will be able to return to the Vatican soon. Still, what the Pope is going through at this time undoubtedly makes this anniversary of the beginning of his pontificate very unusual. The same year that has seen Pope Francis’ longest intercontinental journey (to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor Leste, and Singapore); the conclusion of the Synod on Synodality; and the opening of the Holy Door that inaugurated the Jubilee, now witnesses this delicate passage. The Successor of St Peter, sick among the sick, suffers and prays for peace, accompanied by the chorus of prayers of so many people around the world. He, who in these twelve years has never concluded a meeting, a catechesis or an Angelus without the words, “Please do not forget to pray for me”, today feels the embrace of so many believers and non-believers who care deeply for him.

We look with affection and hope at the windows of the tenth floor of Gemelli Hospital. We thank Pope Francis for this magisterium of fragility, for that still feeble voice of his that has joined the Rosary in St Peter’s Square in recent days—a fragile voice that continues to implore peace and not war, dialogue and not oppression, compassion and not indifference.

Happy anniversary, Pope Francis! We still need your voice so much.
To read the entire account, please click here

Pope Francis Shows Slight Improvement

February 27, 2025

Vatican News – The Holy See Press Office updated Pope Francis’ condition on Thursday morning.

“The Pope slept well during the night and is now resting,” read a brief statement.

After breakfast, the Holy Father continued his treatment while sitting in his armchair. He has been informed of the many initiatives to pray for him, and he remains in good spirits.

The Jubilee Audience scheduled for Saturday, March 1st, has been cancelled.

On Wednesday evening, the Press Office said the Pope’s health condition had slightly improved over the previous 24 hours.

“The mild kidney insufficiency observed in recent days has subsided,” read a statement. “A chest CT scan carried out [on Tuesday] night showed a normal progression of the lung inflammation. Blood tests conducted [on Wednesday] confirmed the improvement seen [Tuesday].”

Pope Francis remains on high-flow oxygen therapy, but as of Wednesday evening he had not experienced any asthma-like respiratory crises.

According to the Holy See Press Office, his prognosis remains “guarded.”

Prayers for Pope Francis from people around the world continue.

The Synod Comes to a Close: Pope Francis will not write an Exhortation

October 30, 2024

~ by Cindy Wooden for USCCB website

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — After members of the Synod of Bishops approved their final document, Pope Francis announced that he would not write the customary post-synodal apostolic exhortation but would offer the final document to the entire church to implement.

“There are already highly concrete indications in the document that can be a guide for the mission of the churches in the different continents and contexts,” he told synod members late Oct. 26.

“For that reason, I do not intend to publish an apostolic exhortation. What we have approved is enough,” he said.

Pope Francis and members of the Synod of Bishops on synodality pose for a photo after the synod’s final working session Oct. 26, 2024, in the Paul VI Audience Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Instead, he ordered the publication of the synod’s final document.

Members of the synod on synodality, after meeting for a month in 2023 and again from Oct. 2-26, approved their final document by voting on each of the 155 paragraphs. All paragraphs passed with the approval of more than two-thirds of the members present and voting.

The document presented synodality as a style of Christian life and ministry base on the “equal dignity of all the baptized” and a recognition that they all have something to offer to the mission of proclaiming salvation in Christ.

The Synod Reopens in Rome

October 10, 2024

~ by Christopher White, National Catholic Reporter

Throughout the October 2-27 synod, some 400 delegates from all over the world will meet in Rome to bring to a close a years long consultation process Pope Francis launched in 2021. It invited Catholics from around the world to have their say in how the church might become more inclusive and better at listening to all its members.

Millions of Catholics responded, and at last year’s first session of the synod, the delegates — representing a wide array of views and backgrounds — engaged in intense and sometimes heated discussions on several contentious issues facing the church. They addressed issues including clergy abuse, the role of women in ministry, inclusion of LGBTQ Catholics and other questions surrounding church authority.

As the delegates reconvene, Francis has insisted that he doesn’t want hot-button issues to dominate the event. Rather, he wants the assembly to focus on how the church’s structures can encourage greater participation and to determine where there is room for “legitimate diversity” among local churches on different issues and practices.

“With the help of the Holy Spirit, we must listen to and understand these voices — that is, the ideas, the expectations, the proposals — so as to discern together the voice of God speaking to the church,” Francis said at the opening Mass in St. Peter’s

Pope Francis, who has made synodality the centerpiece of his papacy and the primary vehicle for implementing church reforms, told those gathered that the issues facing the synod are “great and delicate” and must be guided by humility and careful

The Synod Reopens in Rome

October 9, 2024

The Synod Reopens in Rome
~ by Christopher White, National Catholic Reporter

Throughout the October 2-27 synod, some 400 delegates from all over the world will meet here in Rome to bring to a close a yearslong consultation
process Francis launched in 2021. It invited Catholics from around the world to have their say in how the church might become more inclusive and better at listening to all its members.

Pope Francis Sets Dates for October Synod

February 22, 2024

~ by Gerard O’Connell for AMERICA

Pope Francis has decided that the second session of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality will open on October 2 and end on October 27, the General Secretariat of the synod announced on February 17. It will be preceded by a two-date retreat on September 30 – October 1.

Contrary to expectations, the synod will in fact be more or less the same length as the first session. As already known, almost all the synod’s 365 members (including women and men who are not bishops) participated in last October’s synod. They will continue to focus on the theme: “For a synodal church: communion, participation and mission.”

Accompanying this news, Pope Francis also issued a chirograph – that is a document directly written and signed by the pope – in which he announced the establishment of study groups to delve into some of the themes that had emerged last October in the first session of the synod. Francis did not specify which of the many themes that emerged from the first session will be subjected to the study.

A rapid glance at the 81 proposals made in the synthesis report issued at the end of last October’s synod suggests that the following themes are likely to be among those discussed and researched in the study groups: the role and place of women in the church, including the question of the diaconate in general and the diaconate for women; structures of synodality at the diocesan and parish level; the updating of the Code of Canon Law. These and other issues mentioned in the document released by the synod secretariat on December 11 entitled “Towards October 2024,” may require theological, canonical or pastoral input.

The latter document emphasized that next October’s synod will focus on how to live synodality at all levels in the church. To read the entire account, please click here

How Pope Francis has changed the Mission for Catholic Colleges and Universities

January 18, 2024

~ by Massimo Faggioli, PhD – An opinion piece, appearing in the National Catholic Reporter

The following are excerpts from an address given last week by Massimo Faggioli, PhD, Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University, during a conference at the University of San Diego. The text appeared in the National Catholic Report where it was reprinted with permission.

The Catholic Church created and still runs a worldwide network of colleges and universities. In good measure, Catholicism has been identified, from the Middle Ages to today, also with the value of education and of higher education – and in modern times even more for the role the church has played and plays in the history of migration and the need to help members of a religious, social, and ethnic minority become accepted and integrated in their new countries.

From this point of view, the relationship between the Pope and Catholic colleges and universities gives us important indications on the trajectories of Catholicism, as long as we keep in mind that there is one pope in one Vatican and, on the other side, a great diversity between different kinds of Catholic colleges and universities – different in size and endowments, bylaws and statutes, theological orientations, positions within different kinds of relationship between church and state and between Catholic university system and public or state university system.

Francis invites Catholic colleges and universities to be part of a cultural and social process of transformation, “as a sign of a greater responsibility in relation to today’s problems, the needs of the poorest, and care for the environment” and “to generate space for real research, debates that generate alternatives for today’s problems,” as he said to the Catholic University of Portugal in 2017.

Within the overarching theme of an outward-looking university at the service of a fractured world, there are more specific issues that Pope Francis has addressed.

Pope Francis speaks to university students at the Catholic University of Portugal in Lisbon Aug. 3, 2023. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

One of them is the role of Catholic colleges and universities in refugee and migrant education, as he mentioned in a September 2022 address.

Francis sees the mission of Catholic colleges and universities as part of the mission of the Church, in a particular way. As he said in his Feb. 25, 2023, speech to the Pontifical Universities in Rome.

Francis invites Catholic colleges and universities to be part of a cultural and social process of transformation, “as a sign of a greater responsibility in relation to today’s problems, the needs of the poorest and care for the environment” and “to generate space for real research, debates that generate alternatives for today’s problems.”

Francis has made clear that the papacy – at least his papacy, except in some isolated cases – has moved away from a confrontational approach with Catholic university leadership and has given more freedom, which is also a consequence of the rise of lay leadership.

What is not clear today is how Catholic colleges and universities still see themselves with an ecclesial role, cooperating in building the Catholic tradition.

Higher education plays a role in Francis’ message to transform the world, but, universities are not the immediate and natural interlocutors of the pope. In this sense, Francis’ papacy has captured with great depth the value of the crossroads in front of which we find ourselves.

Certainly, a deeper reception of Francis’ message is needed in our institutions, at all levels – faculty, administrators, alumni, and donors. This reception would help correct some misperceptions on the ecclesial and cultural challenges facing Catholic higher education in the world of today. But this would also transform in profound and unexpected ways the future of Catholic colleges and universities.
To read the entire account please click here

Synod Publishes Final Report

November 2, 2023

Pope Francis smiles as members of the assembly of the Synod of Bishops approach the end of their work Oct. 28, 2023, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

~ by Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A report summarizing discussions at the assembly of the Synod of Bishops said the church may need more welcoming pastoral approaches, especially to people who feel excluded, but also acknowledged fears of betraying traditional church teachings and practices.

Among the topics addressed in the report were clerical sexual abuse, women’s roles in the church, outreach to poor and the concept of “synodality” itself.

After the voting on the synthesis concluded, the pope said he wanted to remind everyone that “the protagonist of the synod is the Holy Spirit.” He briefly thanked the synod officers and joined members of the assembly in giving thanks to God.
The assembly’s discussions set the stage for a year-long period of reflection that will culminate in the second and final synod assembly in late 2024 on the same topic
The 41-page synthesis report voted on paragraph-by-paragraph Oct. 28, described its purpose as presenting “convergences, matters for consideration and proposals that emerged from the dialogue” on issues discussed under the headings of synodality, communion, mission and participation.
Within the synod topics, members looked at the role of women in the church, including in decision making, and at the possibility of ordaining women deacons. The report asked for more “theological and pastoral research on the access of women to the diaconate,” including a review of the conclusions of commissions Pope Francis set up in 2016 and 2020.
The paragraph was approved 279-67, which was more than the needed two-thirds support but still garnered among the highest negative votes.
Among members of the assembly, the report said, some thought the idea of women deacons would be a break with tradition, while others insisted it would “restore the practice of the Early Church,” including at the time of the New Testament, which mentions women deacons.
Assembly members also discussed pastoral approaches to welcoming and including in the life of parishes people who have felt excluded, including the poor, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ Catholics and Catholics whose marriages are not recognized by the church.
The report emphasized the “listening” that took place on the local, national and continental levels before the assembly and the “conversations in the Spirit” that took place during it, which involved each person speaking in his or her small group, other participants at first commenting only on what struck them, silent reflection and then discussion.
“It is clear that some people are afraid that they will be forced to change; others fear that nothing at all will change or that there will be too little courage to move at the pace of the living Tradition,” the report said.
“Also,” it added, “perplexity and opposition can sometimes conceal a fear of losing power and the privileges that derive from it.”

Synod Enters Final Week Recalling Vatican II

October 25, 2023

~ by Christopher White, Vatican News for National Catholic Reporter

As Pope Francis’ major summit on the future of the Catholic Church enters its final week, bishops and laity were reminded of the Second Vatican Council’s emphasis on the church’s “living tradition,” including the participation and inclusion of all of the “people of God.”

delegates commenced work on their hotly anticipated final document from the monthlong meeting, Australian Fr. Ormond Rush — one of the world’s leading scholars on Vatican II — encouraged the synod’s more than 450 members to be attentive to the “traps” of “being drawn into ways of thinking that are not ‘of God.’ ”

“These traps could lie in being anchored exclusively in the past, or exclusively in the present, or not being open to the future fullness of divine truth to which the Spirit of truth is leading the church,” said Rush on Oct. 23. “Discerning the difference between opportunities and traps is the task of all the faithful — laity, bishops, and theologians — everyone.”

Rush’s remarks, made during one of the synod’s occasional open sessions, drew heavily on the writings of the late Pope Benedict XVI. As Fr. Joseph Ratzinger, the future longtime Vatican official and pontiff participated in the council and served as a drafter of some of its key texts. At the time, Ratzinger articulated a distinction between so-called “static” and “dynamic” understandings of the church’s tradition.

Rush said the “living tradition” of the church, as taught by the council, is guided by the Holy Spirit through the interrelated means of the work of theologians, the lived experience of the church’s faithful and the oversight of church authorities.

“Sounds like a synodal church, doesn’t it?” Rush asked.

In recent weeks, some synod delegates have expressed skepticism over the inclusion of lay persons in the Synod of Bishops. Some delegates have also expressed frustration about the assembly’s discussion of issues — such as better inclusion of LGBTQ persons and women’s leadership in the church — that they argue have previously been settled by the church’s tradition.

Rush, who has been a theological adviser to the Vatican’s synod office, seemed to offer an indirect reply to those critics in his remarks, noting that the council taught that divine revelation is not something in the past, but rather an “ongoing encounter in the present.”

“The same God, in the same Jesus Christ, through the enlightenment and empowerment of the same Holy Spirit, is forever engaging with, and dialoguing with, human beings in the ever-new here and now of history that relentlessly moves humanity into new perceptions, new questions and new insights, in diverse cultures and places, as the world-church courses through time into an unknown future until the eschaton,” he said.

“This synod is a dialogue with God,” he told the delegates, who are now preparing to begin making recommendations for the assembly’s final report. “God is waiting for your reply.”
To read the entire article, please click here