On "Life Sunday," The Barque Meets the Bikes

...and, there, the "When Worlds Collide" shot everyone's been waiting for – the Pope blessing a couple thousand Harley riders, who came with their bikes for a Vatican pilgrimage as part of a weekend-long meeting in Rome.

The group's presence even got a papal plug at the Angelus:


By the looks of it, the only thing missing was Lou Vallone, so whenever Pittsburgh's legendary biker-priest rides into town next, they'll just have to do it all over again.

Meanwhile, as two Harleys were given to the Pope after Wednesday's General Audience, given Francis' oft-stated priority, perhaps the gifts could end up being part of an initiative recently highlighted for the struggling church in Haiti, where motorcycles were donated to help a diocese's field teachers reach their schools more safely and effectively than their usual means of riding mules.

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Sure, the Hogs took center stage for the press, but as previously noted, yesterday's actual Main Event was the closing liturgy of a two-day Vatican conference commemorating Evangelium Vitae, Blessed John Paul II's 1995 encyclical on "The Gospel of Life."

Unusual as an outdoor papal Mass to close a relatively low-profile symposium might seem – and is – it's worth recalling that such is the new Pope's nature that he doesn't need much prodding to take to the Basilica steps. As archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio's policy was to celebrate the major diocesan liturgies not in the capital's metropolitan cathedral, but in the plaza outside it – both for the church to give witness in the open, and to avert the building's restrictions on space and seating. (By contrast, though Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI eventually came to accept outdoor rites as part and parcel of the modern papacy, Francis' predecessor reportedly sought to have his inaugural liturgy moved inside St Peter's Basilica, succeeding with time at bringing in several other events previously held outdoors.)

In any event, the weekend's focus on life was underpinned by the presence of a delegation of the sick flanking the altar, who Francis greeted individually following the Mass (above and below). And here, in its Vatican translation, the pontiff's homily:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This celebration has a very beautiful name: the Gospel of Life. In this Eucharist, in the Year of Faith, let us thank the Lord for the gift of life in all its forms, and at the same time let us proclaim the Gospel of Life.

On the basis of the word of God which we have heard, I would like to offer you three simple points of meditation for our faith: first, the Bible reveals to us the Living God, the God who is life and the source of life; second, Jesus Christ bestows life and the Holy Spirit maintains us in life; and third, following God’s way leads to life, whereas following idols leads to death.

1. The first reading, taken from the Second Book of Samuel, speaks to us of life and death. King David wants to hide the act of adultery which he committed with the wife of Uriah the Hittite, a soldier in his army. To do so, he gives the order that Uriah be placed on the front lines and so be killed in battle. The Bible shows us the human drama in all its reality: good and evil, passion, sin and its consequences. Whenever we want to assert ourselves, when we become wrapped up in our own selfishness and put ourselves in the place of God, we end up spawning death. King David’s adultery is one example of this. Selfishness leads to lies, as we attempt to deceive ourselves and those around us. But God cannot be deceived. We heard how the prophet says to David: "Why have you done evil in the Lord’s sight? (cf. 2 Sam 12:9). The King is forced to face his deeds of death; what he has done is truly a deed of death, not life! He recognizes what he has done and he begs forgiveness: "I have sinned against the Lord!" (v. 13). The God of mercy, who desires life and always forgives us, now forgives David and restores him to life. The prophet tells him: "The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die".

What is the image we have of God? Perhaps he appears to us as a severe judge, as someone who curtails our freedom and the way we live our lives. But the Scriptures everywhere tell us that God is the Living One, the one who bestows life and points the way to fullness of life. I think of the beginning of the Book of Genesis: God fashions man out of the dust of the earth; he breathes in his nostrils the breath of life, and man becomes a living being (cf. 2:7). God is the source of life; thanks to his breath, man has life. God’s breath sustains the entire journey of our life on earth. I also think of the calling of Moses, where the Lord says that he is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of the living. When he sends Moses to Pharaoh to set his people free, he reveals his name: "I am who I am", the God who enters into our history, sets us free from slavery and death, and brings life to his people because he is the Living One. I also think of the gift of the Ten Commandments: a path God points out to us towards a life which is truly free and fulfilling. The commandments are not a litany of prohibitions – you must not do this, you must not do that, you must not do the other; on the contrary, they are a great "Yes!": a yes to God, to Love, to life. Dear friends, our lives are fulfilled in God alone, because only he is the Living One!

2. Today’s Gospel brings us another step forward. Jesus allows a woman who was a sinner to approach him during a meal in the house of a Pharisee, scandalizing those present. Not only does he let the woman approach but he even forgives her sins, saying: "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little" (Lk 7:47). Jesus is the incarnation of the Living God, the one who brings life amid so many deeds of death, amid sin, selfishness and self-absorption. Jesus accepts, loves, uplifts, encourages, forgives, restores the ability to walk, gives back life. Throughout the Gospels we see how Jesus by his words and actions brings the transforming life of God. This was the experience of the woman who anointed the feet of the Lord with ointment: she felt understood, loved, and she responded by a gesture of love: she let herself be touched by God’s mercy, she obtained forgiveness and she started a new life. God, the Living One, is merciful. Do you agree? Let’s say it together: God, the Living One, is merciful! All together now: God, the Living One, is merciful. Once again: God, the Living One is merciful!

This was also the experience of the Apostle Paul, as we heard in the second reading: "The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me" (Gal 2:20). What is this life? It is God’s own life. And who brings us this life? It is the Holy Spirit, the gift of the risen Christ. The Spirit leads us into the divine life as true children of God, as sons and daughters in the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Are we open to the Holy Spirit? Do we let ourselves be guided by him? Christians are "spiritual". This does not mean that we are people who live "in the clouds", far removed from real life, as if it were some kind of mirage. No! The Christian is someone who thinks and acts in everyday life according to God’s will, someone who allows his or her life to be guided and nourished by the Holy Spirit, to be a full life, a life worthy of true sons and daughters. And this entails realism and fruitfulness. Those who let themselves be led by the Holy Spirit are realists, they know how to survey and assess reality. They are also fruitful; their lives bring new life to birth all around them.

3. God is the Living One, the Merciful One; Jesus brings us the life of God; the Holy Spirit gives and keeps us in our new life as true sons and daughters of God. But all too often, as we know from experience, people do not choose life, they do not accept the "Gospel of Life" but let themselves be led by ideologies and ways of thinking that block life, that do not respect life, because they are dictated by selfishness, self-interest, profit, power and pleasure, and not by love, by concern for the good of others. It is the eternal dream of wanting to build the city of man without God, without God’s life and love – a new Tower of Babel. It is the idea that rejecting God, the message of Christ, the Gospel of Life, will somehow lead to freedom, to complete human fulfilment. As a result, the Living God is replaced by fleeting human idols which offer the intoxication of a flash of freedom, but in the end bring new forms of slavery and death. The wisdom of the Psalmist says: "The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes" (Ps 19:8). Let us always remember: the Lord is the Living One, he is merciful. The Lord is the Living One, he is merciful.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us look to God as the God of Life, let us look to his law, to the Gospel message, as the way to freedom and life. The Living God sets us free! Let us say "Yes" to love and not selfishness. Let us say "Yes" to life and not death. Let us say "Yes" to freedom and not enslavement to the many idols of our time. In a word, let us say "Yes" to the God who is love, life and freedom, and who never disappoints (cf. 1 Jn 4:8; Jn 11:2; Jn 8:32); let us say "Yes" to the God who is the Living One and the Merciful One. Only faith in the Living God saves us: in the God who in Jesus Christ has given us his own life by the gift of the Holy Spirit and has made it possible to live as true sons and daughters of God through his mercy. This faith brings us freedom and happiness. Let us ask Mary, Mother of Life, to help us receive and bear constant witness to the "Gospel of Life". Amen.

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Here, we come to an intriguing twist in the plot-line.

Perhaps it's needless to say, but in the context of the Magisterium, much of the Western discourse has seen the term "life" become either ideologized at worst, or taken piecemeal at best. That's arguably nowhere truer than in the States, and both sides in the American Catholic conversation bear responsibility for it.

In that light, it was rather striking that the Vatican chose to release the Pope's letter to this week's G8 Summit in Northern Ireland yesterday, in tandem with the Francis' "Gospel of Life" homily, instead of waiting for the gathering's start (and the Press Office's normal workweek) today.

The papal response was prompted by a message sent by the convener of this year's round of talks between the world's industrialized superpowers, the British Prime Minister David Cameron.

As it's apparently intended to be seen as part of the weekend's "life" package, the text of the Pope's letter, dated Saturday, is given below:

To The Right Honourable David Cameron, MP

Prime Minister [of the United Kingdom]

I am pleased to reply to your kind letter of 5 June 2013, with which you were good enough to inform me of your Government's agenda for the British G8 Presidency during the year 2013 and of the forthcoming Summit, due to take place at Lough Erne on 17 and 18 June 2013, entitled A G8 meeting that goes back to first principles.

If this topic is to attain its broadest and deepest resonance, it is necessary to ensure that all political and economic activity, whether national or international, makes reference to man. Indeed, such activity must, on the one hand, enable the maximum expression of freedom and creativity, both individual and collective, while on the other hand it must promote and guarantee their responsible exercise in solidarity, with particular attention to the poorest.

The priorities that the British Presidency has set out for the Lough Erne Summit are concerned above all with the free international market, taxation, and transparency on the part of governments and economic actors. Yet the fundamental reference to man is by no means lacking, specifically in the proposal for concerted action by the Group to eliminate definitively the scourge of hunger and to ensure food security. Similarly, a further sign of attention to the human person is the inclusion as one of the central themes on the agenda of the protection of women and children from sexual violence in conflict situations, even though it must be remembered that the indispensable context for the development of all the afore-mentioned political actions is that of international peace. Sadly, concern over serious international crises is a recurring theme in the deliberations of the G8, and this year it cannot fail to address the situation in the Middle East, especially in Syria.. In this regard, I earnestly hope that the Summit will help to obtain an immediate and lasting cease-fire and to bring all parties in the conflict to the negotiating table. Peace demands a far-sighted renunciation of certain claims, in order to build together a more equitable and just peace. Moreover, peace is an essential pre-requisite for the protection of women, children and other innocent victims, and for making a start towards conquering hunger, especially among the victims of war.

The actions included on the agenda of the British G8 Presidency, which point towards law as the golden thread of development – as well as the consequent commitments to deal with tax avoidance and to ensure transparency and responsibility on the part of governments – are measures that indicate the deep ethical roots of these problems, since, as my predecessor Benedict XVI made clear, the present global crisis shows that ethics is not something external to the economy, but is an integral and unavoidable element of economic thought and action.

The long-term measures that are designed to ensure an adequate legal framework for all economic actions, as well as the associated urgent measures to resolve the global economic crisis, must be guided by the ethics of truth. This includes, first and foremost, respect for the truth of man, who is not simply an additional economic factor, or a disposable good, but is equipped with a nature and a dignity that cannot be reduced to simple economic calculus. Therefore concern for the fundamental material and spiritual welfare of every human person is the starting-point for every political and economic solution and the ultimate measure of its effectiveness and its ethical validity.

Moreover, the goal of economics and politics is to serve humanity, beginning with the poorest and most vulnerable wherever they may be, even in their mothers' wombs. Every economic and political theory or action must set about providing each inhabitant of the planet with the minimum wherewithal to live in dignity and freedom, with the possibility of supporting a family, educating children, praising God and developing one's own human potential. This is the main thing; in the absence of such a vision, all economic activity is meaningless.

In this sense, the various grave economic and political challenges facing today's world require a courageous change of attitude that will restore to the end (the human person) and to the means (economics and politics) their proper place. Money and other political and economic means must serve, not rule, bearing in mind that, in a seemingly paradoxical way, free and disinterested solidarity is the key to the smooth functioning of the global economy.

I wished to share these thoughts with you, Prime Minister, with a view to highlighting what is implicit in all political choices, but can sometimes be forgotten: the primary importance of putting humanity, every single man and woman, at the centre of all political and economic activity, both nationally and internationally, because man is the truest and deepest resource for politics and economics, as well as their ultimate end.

Dear Prime Minister, trusting that these thoughts have made a helpful spiritual contribution to your deliberations, I express my sincere hope for a fruitful outcome to your work and I invoke abundant blessings upon the Lough Erne Summit and upon all the participants, as well as upon the activities of the British G8 Presidency during the year 2013, and I take this opportunity to reiterate my good wishes and to express my sentiments of esteem.

From the Vatican, 15 June 2013

FRANCISCUS

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For the Vatican, Obama Sends "Relief" – Retired CRS Chief Tapped as US Holy See Ambassador

In this administration's second turn at filling Villa Richardson, shortly after 4pm today, the White House announced that President Obama has nominated Ken Hackett – the recently retired president of Catholic Relief Services – as US ambassador to the Holy See.

A rare figure of wide acclaim in today's Stateside church, the Boston native left the helm of CRS in 2011 with both laurels from the nation's bishops and American Catholicism's most prestigious prize – Notre Dame's Laetare Medal. Accordingly, even in a polarized capital, all indications are that the choice of the Peace Corps veteran is a lock to fly through the requisite Senate confirmation, which will likely begin in short order with hearings before the Foreign Relations Committee.

Having moved its headquarters to Baltimore from its longtime home in Washington under Hackett's 18-year watch, CRS – the official humanitarian arm of the US bishops – coordinates a staff of some 5,000 workers in over 90 countries, its annual budget approaching $1 billion drawn from a combination of government and private sources. Having remained almost uniquely immune from the bruising conflicts over Catholic identity which have besieged other church-sponsored social efforts over recent years, the agency's board of directors is constituted to include several members of the USCCB, led per statute by a bishop-chair – the post the now-Cardinal Timothy Dolan held on his 2010 election as the conference's president.

A surprising result – yet one reportedly lobbied for by some senior domestic hierarchs – the nomination caps a months-long cycle of speculation and campaigning for the prized Vatican posting, which had earlier been rumored to be heading toward a key "bundler" (fundraiser) for the Democratic president's re-election campaign. In the end, though, the nod has gone to one of the US church's most trusted lay hands, signaling an olive branch to the bishops amid the ongoing fight over the Obama administration's controversial contraceptive mandate in health care plans. 

The focus of scores of lawsuits on religious freedom grounds, under the current state of the regulations, a sizable number of Catholic entities would be forced to accommodate the policy into their benefits packages on August 1st. The bishops' response to the mandate was discussed in a rare mid-retreat executive session during the bench's plenary this week in San Diego.

As the Vatican slot has almost invariably gone to a choice from outside the professional diplomatic service, the ambassadorship is classified as a "political appointment." 

Pending the upper chamber's advice and consent, Hackett would succeed the Cuban-born theologian Miguel Diaz – the first Hispanic named to the post – who returned to these shores earlier this year to take up a professorship at the University of Dayton.

The new ambassador-designate will be the tenth representative of Washington to the Vatican since full bilateral relations were established in 1984. For the half-century prior, presidents beginning with Franklin Delano Roosevelt named personal legates to the Popes. 

After roughly a century of relying on the archbishops of Baltimore as its point-men on these shores, the Holy See has kept a listening post in the capital since 1893, its emissaries accredited as apostolic delegates – the non-diplomatic rank intended to represent the Vatican solely to the national church – until relations were normalized.

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In light of this afternoon's news – and, indeed, to reflect Hackett's standing among what's often been one of the Obama White House's toughest crowds – below is fullvideo of the ambassador pick's farewell as CRS president (and his anointing by Dolan as the agency's "icon") at the USCCB's 2011 June plenary in Seattle....


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As "A Fellow Citizen of the Saints" – Yet With an Ordinariate Plug – Francis Welcomes Canterbury

A top-level ecumenical encounter scripted to extend across a conversation, a joint prayer service and lunch, at the start of today's first meeting between the Pope and the new archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the following is Papa Francesco's greeting to the new Anglican primate on the latter's first Vatican visit, per the Holy See's English translation....

Your Grace, Dear Friends,

On the happy occasion of our first meeting, I make my own the words of Pope Paul VI, when he addressed Archbishop Michael Ramsey during his historic visit in 1966: "Your steps have not brought you to a foreign dwelling ... we are pleased to open the doors to you, and with the doors, our heart, pleased and honoured as we are ... to welcome you ‘not as a guest or a stranger, but as a fellow citizen of the Saints and the Family of God’" (cf. Eph 2:19-20).

I know that during Your Grace’s installation in Canterbury Cathedral you remembered in prayer the new Bishop of Rome. I am deeply grateful to you – and since we began our respective ministries within days of each other, I think we will always have a particular reason to support one another in prayer.

The history of relations between the Church of England and the Catholic Church is long and complex, and not without pain. Recent decades, however, have been marked by a journey of rapprochement and fraternity, and for this we give heartfelt thanks to God. This journey has been brought about both via theological dialogue, through the work of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, and via the growth of cordial relations at every level through shared daily lives in a spirit of profound mutual respect and sincere cooperation. In this regard, I am very pleased to welcome alongside you Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster. These firm bonds of friendship have enabled us to remain on course even when difficulties have arisen in our theological dialogue that were greater than we could have foreseen at the start of our journey.

I am grateful, too, for the sincere efforts the Church of England has made to understand the reasons that led my Predecessor, Benedict XVI, to provide a canonical structure able to respond to the wishes of those groups of Anglicans who have asked to be received collectively into the Catholic Church: I am sure this will enable the spiritual, liturgical and pastoral traditions that form the Anglican patrimony to be better known and appreciated in the Catholic world.

Today’s meeting, my dear brother, is an opportunity to remind ourselves that the search for unity among Christians is prompted not by practical considerations, but by the will of the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who made us his brothers and sisters, children of the One Father. Hence the prayer that we make today is of fundamental importance.

This prayer gives a fresh impulse to our daily efforts to grow towards unity, which are concretely expressed in our cooperation in various areas of daily life. Particularly important among these is our witness to the reference to God and the promotion of Christian values in a world that seems at times to call into question some of the foundations of society, such as respect for the sacredness of human life or the importance of the institution of the family built on marriage, a value that you yourself have had occasion to recall recently.

Then there is the effort to achieve greater social justice, to build an economic system that is at the service of man and promotes the common good. Among our tasks as witnesses to the love of Christ is that of giving a voice to the cry of the poor, so that they are not abandoned to the laws of an economy that seems at times to treat people as mere consumers.

I know that Your Grace is especially sensitive to all these questions, in which we share many ideas, and I am also aware of your commitment to foster reconciliation and resolution of conflicts between nations. In this regard, together with Archbishop Nichols, you have urged the authorities to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian conflict such as would guarantee the security of the entire population, including the minorities, not least among whom are the ancient local Christian communities. As you yourself have observed, we Christians bring peace and grace as a treasure to be offered to the world, but these gifts can bear fruit only when Christians live and work together in harmony. This makes it easier to contribute to building relations of respect and peaceful coexistence with those who belong to other religious traditions, and with non-believers.

The unity we so earnestly long for is a gift that comes from above and it is rooted in our communion of love with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. As Christ himself promised, "where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Mt 18:20). My dear brother, let us travel the path towards unity, fraternally united in charity, and with Jesus Christ, our elder Brother, as our constant point of reference. In our worship of Jesus Christ we will find the foundation and raison d’être of our journey. May the merciful Father hear and grant the prayers that we make to him together. Let us place all our hope in him who "is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think" (Eph 3:20).

On a context note, while the contents of the customary exchange of gifts remain to be disclosed, it's striking that, at the very outset, Francis started from a reference-point of Michael Ramsey's visit to Paul VI – the first meeting of England's principal clergyman with the Roman pontiff since the Reformation.

As the unexpected highlight of that memorable encounter, Paul memorably gave Ramsey the ring off his finger.

Elsewhere as context goes, in a conspicuous shift from the usual Vatican protocol, the Catholic primate of England and Wales – Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster – took part in the day's events not in his own right, but as a member of Welby's entourage, alongside Canterbury's wife and aides, and the Anglican Communion's recently-arrived delegate in Rome, Archbishop David Moxon, lately the ranking hierarch in New Zealand.

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And here, per Lambeth Palace, the first greeting of the 104th successor of St Augustine to the 266th bishop of Rome:

Your Holiness,

Dear Friends:

I am full of love and gratitude to be here. In the last few days we have been remembering the death of Blessed Pope John XXIII in the midst of the Second Vatican Council. At the Requiem said at Lambeth Palace fifty years ago this weekend by Archbishop Michael Ramsey, my much-loved predecessor said of him: ‘Pope John has shown us again the power of being, by being a man who touches human hearts with charity. So there has come to many a new longing for the unity of all Christians, and a new knowledge that however long the road may be, charity already makes all the difference to it.’

Having for many years found inspiration in the great corpus of Catholic social teaching, and worked on its implications with Catholic groups; having spent retreats in new orders of the Church in France, and being accompanied by the Prior of another new order; I do indeed feel that I am (in the words of Pope Paul VI to Archbishop Michael) coming to a place where I can feel myself at home.

Your Holiness, we are called by the Holy Spirit of God, through our fraternal love, to continue the work that has been the precious gift to popes and archbishops of Canterbury for these past fifty years, and of which this famous ring is the enduring token. I pray that the nearness of our two inaugurations may serve the reconciliation of the world and the Church.

As you have stressed, we must promote the fruits of our dialogue; and, with our fellow bishops, we must give expression to our unity in faith through prayer and evangelisation. It is only as the world sees Christians growing visibly in unity that it will accept through us the divine message of peace and reconciliation.

However, the journey is testing and we cannot be unaware that differences exist about how we bring the Christian faith to bear on the challenges thrown up by modern society. But our ‘goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey’ (Benedict XVI, Spe salvi 1), and we can trust in the prayer of Christ, ‘ut omnes unum sint’ (Jn 17.21). A firm foundation of friendship will enable us to be hopeful in speaking to one another about those differences, to bear one another’s burdens, and to be open to sharing the discernment of a way forward that is faithful to the mind of Christ pressed upon us as disciples.

That way forward must reflect the self-giving love of Christ, our bearing of his Cross, and our dying to ourselves so as to live with Christ, which will show itself in hospitality and love for the poor. We must love those who seek to oppose us, and love above all those tossed aside—even whole nations—by the present crises around the world. Also, even as we speak, our brothers and sisters in Christ suffer terribly from violence, oppression and war, from bad government and unjust economic systems. If we are not their advocates in the name of Christ, who will be?

Your Holiness, dear brother, I assure you of the love, respect and prayer of the bishops, clergy and people of the Anglican Communion.

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Pope's Call to Church: "The Memory of Sin"

As Page Three's temporarily offshore– yet brimming as ever – here's the Vatican summary of Pope Francis' Friday preach....

Aware of being a weak vessel of clay, yet the guardian of a great treasure that was given to him in a totally free way: this is the follower of Christ before the Lord. Pope Francis took the point of reflection from the day’s readings, specifically from the 2nd Letter of St Paul to the Corinthians, which explains that the "extraordinary power" of faith is God's work, that it has been poured out into sinful men, into "earthen vessels", in fact. Nevertheless, explained Pope Francis, it is precisely from the relationship "between the grace and power of Jesus Christ" and ourselves, poor sinners as we are, that "the dialogue of salvation" springs. This dialogue, moreover, must avoid any "self-justification", and be between God and “ourselves as we are.”:

“Paul has spoken many times - it's like a refrain, no? - of his sins. 'But I tell you this: I've been a persecutor of the Church, I pursued ...' it always comes back to his memory of sin. He feels sinful. – but even then he does not say: 'I was [a sinner], but now I am holy', no. Even now, a thorn of Satan in my flesh. He shows us his own weakness, his own sin. He is a sinner who accepts Jesus Christ, who dialogues with Jesus Christ.”

The key, says Pope Francis, is therefore humility. Paul himself proves it. He publicly acknowledges "his track record of service," i.e. all he had done as an Apostle of Jesus, but he does not hide or gloss over what the Pope calls "his handbook", i.e. his sins:

"This is the model of humility for us priests – for us priests, too. If we only pride ourselves on our [service record] and nothing more, we end up [going] wrong. We cannot proclaim Jesus Christ the Saviour because we do not feel Him [present and at work] deep down. We have to be humble, but with real humility, [from head to toe]: 'I am a sinner for this, for this, for this', as Paul did: 'I persecuted the Church, " - as he did, [recognizing ourselves] concrete sinners: not sinners with that [kind of ] humility, which seems more a put-on face, no? Oh no, strong humility. "

"The humility of the priest, the humility of a Christian is concrete," said Pope Francis, for which, therefore, if a Christian fails, "to make this confession to himself and to the Church, then something is wrong," and the first thing to fail will be our ability "understand the beauty of salvation that Jesus brings us."

"Brothers, we have a treasure: that of Jesus Christ the Saviour. The Cross of Jesus Christ, this treasure of which we pride ourselves - but we have it in a clay vessel. Let us vaunt also our ‘handbook’ of our sins. Thus is the dialogue Christian and Catholic: concrete, because the salvation of Jesus Christ is concrete. Jesus Christ has not saved us with an idea, an intellectual program, no. He saved with His flesh, with the concreteness of flesh. He is lowered, made man, made flesh until the end. This is a gift that we can only understand, only receive, in earthen vessels. "

The Samaritan woman, as well, who met Jesus and after speaking to him told her countrymen first of her sin and then about having met the Lord, behaved in a similar way to Paul. "I believe,” said Pope Francis, “that this woman is in heaven, sure," because, as [the Italian author Alessandro] Manzoni once said, 'I have never found that the Lord began a miracle without finishing it well' and this miracle that He began definitely ended well in heaven." The Pope concluded saying, let us ask her, "to help us to be vessels of clay in order to carry and understand the glorious mystery of Jesus Christ."

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Three Months Later, Francis Talks On... Talking

Three months ago today, Jorge Bergoglio was elected to Peter's chair... and while the first American Pope took the name Francis, as they tend to do, the natives have come to add their own moniker: Papa Chicacchierone – that is, "Pope Chatterbox."

Indeed, that was the case even before this last week. And now....

It's no bad thing, of course – among the crowds outside, Francis' easy way of sharing goes a long way toward explaining the rapt and rapid devotion he's been showered with. Meanwhile, even those Italians who apply the aforementioned term to others are often no slouches in earning the adjective for themselves.

Still, the danger is where malice enters the talk, and maybe it's no surprise to some that the balance is a common temptation for church-folk. In any event, on this St Anthony's Day – and, yet again, returning to a theme he's voiced before – it made for the core of the chatty pontiff's Thursday morning preach:

Pope Francis warned that anyone who "enters Christian life" will have “greater demands made of them than others" and not “greater advantages". He said Jesus mentions some of these demands, in particular the problem of “bad relations among brethren". If our heart harbors “bad feelings” towards our brothers, the Pope said, "something is not working and we must convert, we must change." Pope Francis noted that "anger towards a brother is an insult, it’s something almost deathly ", "it kills him." He then observed that, especially in the Latin tradition, there is a "wonderful creativity" in inventing epithets. But, he cautioned, "when this epithet is friendly this is fine, the problem is when there is another kind of epithet”, when the "mechanism of insult" comes into play, which is "a form of denigration of others."

Pope Francis continued: “There is no need to go to a psychologist to know that when we denigrates another person it is because we are unable to grow up and need to belittle others, to feel more important." This, he said, is "an ugly mechanism". Jesus, "with all the simplicity says: "Do not speak ill of one another. Do not denigrate one another. Do not belittle one another”. The Pope noted, "in the end we are all travelling on the same road", "we are all travelling on that road that will take us to the very end." Therefore "if we do not choose a fraternal path, it will end badly, for the person who insults and the insulted". The Pope noted that "if we are not able to keep our tongues in check, we lose”. “Natural aggression, that of Cain toward Abel, repeats itself throughout history." Pope Francis observed that it is not that we are bad, rather "we are weak and sinners." That's why it is "much easier", to "resolve a situation with an insult, with slander, defamation instead of resolving it with good means".

“I would ask the Lord to give us all the grace to watch our tongues, to watch what we say about others." “It is a small penance - he added - but it bears a lot of fruit." "Sometimes, we go hungry and think, ‘What a pity I didn’t taste the fruit of a tasty comment against another person." But, he said, "that hunger bears fruit in the long run is good for us." That's why we ask the Lord for this grace: to adapt our lives "to this new law, which is the law of meekness, the law of love, the law of peace, and at least 'prune' our tongues a little, ‘prune’ the comments that we make of others and outbursts that lead us to an easy anger or insult. May the Lord grant us all this grace".

*   *   *

Two context-notes on the "monthiversary" liturgy at the Domus: for the first time, the group in attendance weren't employees of a Curial office or the Vatican City-State, but workers from the Roman embassies of the Pope's native Argentina, and staff from the UN Food and Agriculture Office, likewise based in Rome, whose World Food Day was the springboard of Francis' General Audience talk last week. 

Per the summary, the crowd on hand gave Papa Bergoglio his first opportunity to say Mass in his mother-tongue since his election – "It feels good!" he's reported to have said.

Speaking of Argentina, Francis' lead concelebrant this morning was an old friend from home who's likewise been shot into the stratosphere: Major-Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kiev (left), now the de facto patriarch of the 6 million-member Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church (UGCC), global Catholicism's largest Eastern fold.

On his shock election to the post in 2011, Shevchuk – at 43 today, still the youngest bishop in the worldwide Ukrainian Synod – was serving in Argentina as head of the eparchy for the growing diaspora there. As the archbishop of Buenos Aires doubles as ordinary to all the country's Eastern faithful whose churches lack their own leadership on the ground, the now-Pope quickly took the young hierarch under his wing, forming what by all accounts became a close bond.

By virtue of his place as the UGCC's head, even before his mentor's election, Shevchuk – a Gregorian summa cum laude proficient in six languages – already stood in line to become the youngest cardinal to enter the College since a certain Karol Wojtyla of Krakow was given the red hat at age 47 in 1967. (After years of failing health, the major-archbishop's predecessor, Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, took the rare step of retiring in early 2011.)

As the Pope prepares for a major ecumenical meeting tomorrow – the first Vatican visit of the new archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby – it bears noting that an awareness of the Francis-Sviatoslav axis has already encited panic on another key inter-Christian front: namely, Moscow, where the Russian Orthodox patriarchate has tended to view the Ukrainian Greek-Catholics as interlopers on what the ROC claims as its canonical turf. Over time, the tension has seen Rome yield to pressure from the Russians to sublimate the Ukrainians' concerns for the sake of a closer rapport with Moscow – above all, in the hope of achieving an unprecedented summit meeting between the Pope and the Russian patriarch, which had been an especially prized ecumenical goal of Francis' predecessor.

In a nutshell, even if the degree to which the Vatican's Moscow policy will change under the new Pope has yet to be reflected in substance, it's nonetheless fairly bankable that, yet again, the way things have been is in for some tweaking.

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Amid Sudden Departure, It's Open Pueblo

SVILUPPO: In a letter released to the Pueblo church after 10am Mountain today, Isern wrote the following....

Because of [your] warm embrace of welcome, I quickly felt at home here. Therefore with a heavy heart I share with you this morning that my resignation as Bishop of Pueblo has been accepted by the Holy Father, effective today, June 13, 2013. For some time I have had health concerns that have made it increasingly difficult for me to remain in office as shepherd of this diocese. Out of love for the church and for the people I have served here, I have discerned it is best for me to step down.

I have sought to be a good shepherd in these past years as I bore the great apostolic responsibility to teach, lead and sanctify the People of God in this local Church. In that work, I have been aided by the tireless efforts of our priests, deacons and religious; by the generous sacrifices of time, talent and treasure by catechists, lay ministers and faithful in every parish; and I have certainly been aided by your prayers and thank each and every one of you for those efforts in building up the Kingdom of God. It is work we have done together, and with God's grace, it will bear great fruit in the lives of those we have served.

According to the diocese, what's being billed as a "farewell celebration" for the bishop is scheduled for 25 June with a cathedral Mass and reception. 

The event's description ostensibly points to the new retiree's return to Miami, where the 1.3 million-member fold could currently use an added episcopal presence given South Florida's ongoing lack of auxiliary bishops, both active and retired.

As for the rationale behind the unusually sudden resignation, an op appraised of the situation indicates that the cause is not "at all" related to scandal, but to a significant, albeit quietly kept, health issue, which Isern is expected to address more fully in short order.

*   *   *

11.35am – In an unexpected move, at Roman Noon today the Pope accepted the early resignation of Bishop Fernando Isern as head of southern Colorado's 130,000-member Pueblo church.

All of 54 now, the Cuban exile was a surprise pick on being sent to the sprawling Western seat in late 2009, a long way from his adopted home in South Florida, where he was serving as both a pastor and high school president.

In the sole public comment on the move to date, a story from Catholic News Agency earlier this morning quotes an unnamed source in the Pueblo diocese as saying that, "in a spirit of prayerful reflection, the bishop recognized that his health may be an obstacle for the growth of the diocese" and that "he chose to resign in order to entrust his flock to a man with the strength and energy necessary to be an effective shepherd." 

That said, the announcement's timing in the middle of this week's USCCB plenary retreat in San Diego is exceedingly unusual, not to mention its departure from Rome's rarely exempted behest that – to the greatest degree possible – a diocesan bishop who seeks to resign citing illness remain in office until his successor has been duly provided.

Just in the last six months, that standard early-out scenario has happened twice: amid years of well-known health trouble and the onset of dialysis treatment, Bishop Joseph Galante remained at the helm of South Jersey's Camden diocese over the year between submitting his resignation and the appointment of the New York vicar-general Dennis Sullivan to replace him in January. (Now happily settled at his longtime Shore house, Galante turns 75 on July 2nd.) Elsewhere, as he approached his 73rd birthday, Archbishop Jerome Hanus OSB of Dubuque stayed in post through the process that produced his successor, Michael Jackels, who was installed late last month. On his retirement, Hanus cited the lingering effects of a February 2012 accident on an icy Iowa road that saw his car roll over twice and prompted a lengthy recovery.

The last two occasions when a US diocesan bishop resigned purely due to illness without a successor in the wings came in March 2011, when Bishop John Ricard SSJ gave up the reins of Florida's Panhandle church of Pensacola-Tallahassee following a late 2009 stroke, and in early 2009, when Bishop John McRaith of Owensboro left office a year before reaching the retirement age of 75. On announcing his move, the latter prelate – a beloved figure who made his episcopal residence in a double-wide trailer – said that, while he wasn't gravely sick, he chose to heed his doctors' urging to "slow down" after 27 years of leading the close-knit Western Kentucky church.

Before those, arguably the most memorable recent case of a successor-less resignation on these shores was in April 2008, as Bishop Donald Pelotte of Gallup stepped down six months after calling 911 from his home to report "gentle little people, about 3 to 4 feet tall, and wearing Halloween masks in the hall while Pelotte hid in a closet." Authorities located no unusual entry in the prelate's residence.

That call came two months after Pelotte was found injured at the foot of a staircase in his house, with the official explanation citing a "fall" down them. In a rare gesture, Rome first placed Pelotte on a year's health leave months prior to his ultimate departure, naming an apostolic administrator to the New Mexico post, ostensibly in the hope of the incumbent's possible return.

The first Native American to become a bishop following his 1985 appointment, Pelotte died in early 2010 at 64.

Until this morning, no prior indication of health concerns – nor, indeed, anything untoward – involving Isern had emerged. The bishop had been scheduled to celebrate a Mass for the members of the Catholic press of North America at their annual convention next week in Denver.

With the sudden resignation, the number of vacant Stateside Latin dioceses rises to eight as the Vatican's working year draws to its close. Back to the situation at hand, meanwhile, updates to come as the picture fills out.

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Tech Notes

Greetings from another overtime intermission of Game 1, folks... will it ever end?

As some have asked – and thanks for checking in on it – the Page Three sidebar is apparently down, so no need to worry whether it's your machines. For what it's worth, the disruption looks like it's a server issue on the provider side. Hopefully we'll have it sorted out soon... in the meantime, thanks for your patience and, as always, the feed remains available at its direct link with all the usual good, bad and otherwise that zips around the news-cycle at an ever more rapid pace.

Speaking of the 140-character world, this beat's top tweeter passed a notable milestone late tonight. Exactly six months since B16 tapped an iPad to launch @Pontifex into the Twitterverse, for the first time, the English-language feed intended as the medium's papal flagship was eclipsed by its Spanish counterpart, @Pontifex_es, in its number of followers.

Reflecting both the ascent of the first Latin American Pope and Twitter's rapidly increasing ubiquity in the larger Spanish-speaking world, the handover took place somewhere just shy of the 2,588,000 mark for both accounts. The messages increased to a daily schedule since Pope Francis' election, the handle's nine language-specific feeds – rounded out by Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Polish, Latin and Arabic – now reach a combined immediate audience soon to hit 6.9 million people. (Francis is shown above tapping a tablet last month to launch Missio, an app for iOS and Android created by the US' Pontifical Mission Societies.)

The rapid growth of the accounts has made the pontiff among the 100 most sought-out people on Twitter – the only figure among the mega-group to be in the mix for less than several years – and second among spiritual leaders only to the @DalaiLama's following of 7.1 million.

Then again, one especially enlightened cleric hasn't termed Papa Bergoglio the "Catholic Dalai Lama" for nothing.

Back to the game... and the troubleshooting.

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"A Place of Mercy and Hope" – At Audience, Francis on "Being Church"

Returning to his first series of Wednesday catecheses – on Vatican II's models of the church – here's Vatican Radio's English translation of the Pope's General Audience talk earlier today....

Dear brothers and sisters, buongiorno!

Today I would like to touch briefly on another of the terms with which the Second Vatican Council defined the Church, that of “People of God" (cf. Dogmatic Constitution. Lumen Gentium, 9; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 782). I shall do so with a few questions upon which we can all reflect.

1. What does it mean to be "People of God"? First of all, it means that God does not really belong to any people; for it is He who calls us, who summons us, who invites us to be part of his people, and this invitation is open to all, without distinction, because God’s mercy “desires all people to be saved "(1 Tim 2:4). Jesus does not tell the Apostles and us to form an exclusive group, an elite group. Jesus says: Go and make disciples of all nations (cf. Mt 28:19). St Paul says that within the people of God, in the Church, "there is neither Jew nor Gentile ... for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28). I would like to say to those who feel far from God and the Church, to those who are fearful or indifferent, to those who think they can no longer change: the Lord is calling you too to be part of his people and he does it with great respect and love! He invites us to be a part of this people, the people of God

2. How do you become a member of this people? It is not through physical birth, but through a new birth. In the Gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus that one must be born from above, of water and of spirit to enter the Kingdom of God (cf. John 3:3-5). It is through Baptism that we are introduced to this people, through faith in Christ, the gift of God which must be nurtured and tended to throughout our whole life. Let us ask ourselves: how can I grow in the faith that I received in my Baptism? How do tend to this faith that I have received and that the people of God has? How do I make it grow? And another question.

3. What is the law of the People of God? It is the law of love, love for God and love for our neighbor according to the new commandment that the Lord left us (cf. Jn 13:34). It is a love, however, that is not sterile sentimentality or something vague, it is recognizing God as the only Lord of life and, at the same time, accepting the other as a true brother, overcoming divisions, rivalry, misunderstandings, selfishness; the two things go together. We have still so far to go to be able to live concretely according to this new law, the law of the Holy Spirit working within us, the law of charity, of love! When we see in the many wars between Christians in the newspapers or on TV, how can the people of God understand this? Within the people of God there are so many wars! And in neighborhoods, in workplaces, so many wars due to envy, jealousy. Even within the same family, there are so many internal wars. We must ask the Lord to help us understand this law of love. How good, how nice it is to love each other as true brothers. How nice that is! Let's do something today: perhaps we all have our likes and dislikes, and perhaps many of us are angry with others. But at least let’s say to the Lord: "Lord, I am angry with him or with her. I pray for him and for her. I pray to you". To pray for those with whom we are angry. It's a big step in this law of love. Let's do it today!

4. What mission does this people have? To bring to the world the hope and the salvation of God: to be a sign of the love of God who calls all to be friends of His; to be the yeast that ferments the dough, the salt that gives flavour and preserves from decay, the light that brightens. Just as I said, it is enough to open a newspaper, and we see that around us there is the presence of evil, the Devil is at work. But I would like to say in a loud voice: God is stronger! Do you believe this? That God is stronger? Let’s say it in a loud voice: God is stronger! Do you believe this? That God is stronger? Let’s say it all together. God is stronger! All of us! And you know why He is stronger? Because He is the Lord, the only Lord. God is stronger! Good! And I would like to add that reality which is sometimes dark and marked by evil can change, if we are the first to bring the light of the Gospel especially with our lives. If in a stadium, let’s think of the Olympic Stadium in Rome, or that of San Lorenzo in Buenos Aires, if on a dark night one person lights up a lamp, you can barely see it, but if each of over seventy thousand spectators switches on his own light, the whole Stadium lights up. Let's make our lives a light of Christ; and together we will bring the light of the Gospel to the whole world.

5. What is the goal of this people? Its end is the kingdom of God, which has been begun by God Himself on earth, and which is to be further extended until it is brought to perfection by Him at the end of time, when Christ, our life, shall appear (cf. Lumen Gentium, 9). The goal then is full communion with the Lord; it’s to enter into his divine life where we will live the joy of his love without measure. That full joy.

Dear brothers and sisters, to be Church, is to be God's people, according to the Father’s great plan of love, it means to be the yeast of God in this humanity of ours, it means to proclaim and to bring God's salvation into this world, which is often lost, in need of encouraging answers, answers that give hope, that give new vigour in the journey. May the Church be a place of mercy and of hope in God, where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live the good life of the Gospel. And to feel welcomed, loved, forgiven, encouraged, the Church’s doors must be open, so that all may come and that we can go out of those doors and proclaim the Gospel. Thank you so much.

As seen at top and above, following weekly the gathering Francis was presented with two Harley-Davidson motorcycles and a jacket – gifts intended to highlight a major gathering of Harley devotees in Rome this weekend, many of whom are expected to attend the pontiff's Sunday Angelus. 

According to an Italian wire report, plans for the event will see the Via della Conciliazione leading up to the Vatican being turned into "a giant bike-park."

Meanwhile, as the leaking of the Pope's private audience conversation with Latin American religious dominated this Wednesday's wider news cycle, some of Francis' points in the meeting last week popped up in his homily at the morning Mass....

Pope Francis [said that] the law of the Spirit, "takes us on a path of continuous discernment to do the will of God” and this can frighten us. The Pope warned that this fear "brings two temptations with it." The first, is to "go backwards" to say that "it’s possible up to this point, but impossible beyond this point" which ends up becoming "let’s stay here". This, he warned, "is the temptation of fear of freedom, fear of the Holy Spirit." A fear that "it is better to play it safe." Pope Francis then told a story about a superior general who, in the 1930’s, went around compiling a list of regulations for his religious, "a work that took years." Then he travelled to Rome to meet a Benedictine abbot, who, upon hearing all he had done, replied that in doing so he "had killed his Congregation’s charism", "he had killed its freedom" since "this charism bears fruit in freedom and he had stopped the charism”.

"This is the temptation to go backwards, because we are 'safer' going back: but total security is in the Holy Spirit that brings you forward, which gives us this trust - as Paul says - which is more demanding because Jesus tells us: “Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law”. It is more demanding! But it does not give us that human security. We cannot control the Holy Spirit: that is the problem! This is a temptation."

Pope Francis noted that there is another temptation: that of “adolescent progressivism”, that de-rails us. This temptation lies in seeing a culture and “not detaching ourselves from it”.

"We take the values of this culture a little bit from here, a little bit from there , ... They want to make this law? Alright let’s go ahead and make this law. Let’s broaden the boundaries here a little. In the end, let me tell you, this is not true progress. It is adolescent progressivism: just like teenagers who in their enthusiasm want to have everything and in the end? You slip up ... It’s like when the road is covered in ice and the car slips and go off track... This is the other temptation at the moment! We, at this moment in the history of the Church, we cannot go backwards or go off the track!"

PHOTOS: L'Osservatore Romano

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Francis Unplugged – Report Claims PopeTalk on "Cosmos Bath" Nuns, "Ancien Regime" Trads, "The Handling of Money"... and The Curia's "Gay Lobby"

SVILUPPO – 11.45am ET: Amid requests for comment on the substance of the following, an unnamed Vatican spokesman told CNN that "The Holy See Press Office has no official comment on the private meeting."

In a statement released late Tuesday afternoon, however, CLAR said it "profoundly lamented the publication of a text referring to a conversation with Pope Francis." The group said that the summary notes as published were "intended for the personal memory of the participants," seeking to portray the text not as direct quotes of the pontiff's, but merely representing "the general feeling" of his comments.

*   *   *

Almost three months since his election, while unscripted reflections have become a foundational part of Pope Francis' daily stock-in-trade, the new pontiff's penchant for veering off-text in open company just reached a whole new planet... or so a Latin American report would have us believe.

During an audience last Thursday with the leadership of the religious conference of his home-continent and the Caribbean, the Pope is said to have aired (without apparent prompting) the realities of "a current of corruption" and a "gay lobby" in the Roman Curia, talked his 44th-place standing in the pre-Conclave betting market, chided traditionalists who "account" rosaries and modern-day "gnostics" who'd rather take "a spiritual bath in the cosmos," placed the reform of the church's governing apparatus squarely on the shoulders of the eight cardinal-assistants he's tapped to advise him... and, indeed, encouraged the religious to keep "moving forward" and not get too "bother[ed]" should they face scrutiny from the CDF, the august "Holy Office" which – together with the Institute for the Works of Religion (the IOR, more commonly known as the "Vatican Bank") – was already often reduced to being among Francis' favorite punchlines.

Good Tuesday morning, folks... there's more.

The comments were purportedly made during an hourlong audience the Pope held last Thursday with the Religious Confederation of Latin America and the Caribbean (CLAR). An unsigned "exclusive, brief synthesis" of the encounter – featuring a series of pull-quotes, but not a full transcript – was apparently provided to and subsequently published on Sunday afternoon by Reflexión y Liberación, a church-focused Chilean website with sympathies toward liberation theology. Perhaps ironically, the piece was first reported in English yesterday by the traditionalist website Rorate Caeli.

While the Holy See has yet to issue a response either confirming or denying the reported text, much of the posted content in Spanish bears a striking echo to numerous statements made by Francis since his March election, as well as reflecting the pontiff's well-honed habit of reiterating points he's already made, with some slight tweaks in each succeeding instance. 

Since the meeting ostensibly took place in Papa Bergoglio's native language, meanwhile, the Vatican's recent justification for not publishing the transcript of Francis' daily homilies – namely, because the liturgies' Italian isn't his mother-tongue – serves to diminish a potential claim that the routinely blunt Pope was somehow misunderstood on either side of the conversation. What's more, adding to the credibility of the report, while the photos of the meeting shown here are the publicly available shots from Vatican photographers – which, in their openly accessible form, always include the watermark of L'Osservatore Romano – the Chilean website ran its piece with an unmarked image of the group, none of which have been posted on the CLAR website, nor any other public source.

Likely to draw the most high-watt interest as the news-cycle goes, though Francis gave no context nor explanation to his words on the existence of a "gay lobby" in the Vatican, it's not hard to draw a line back to the pre-Conclave reports in the Italian press which indicated the presence of actively gay officials in the Curia who were allegedly being "blackmailed" by outside sources. According to some accounts, the incendiary charge was part of the dossier on last year's "Vatileaks" fiasco prepared for the now-retired Pope Benedict by an investigatory commission of three retired cardinals, whose findings the ex-pontiff delivered to his successor following Francis' election. 

However heated they were, requests for a disclosure of the report's contents in the general congregations of the cardinals leading up to the papal election were roundly denied.

Sitting in an informal circle of chairs with the CLAR leadership in his daytime "office" – the  study of the Papal Apartment in the Apostolic Palace – an introduction to the report says that Francis spent an hour in dialogue with the six religious (three men, three women – all, it should be noted, sin veil), engaging "among equals, as in the first communities founded by Jesus... in an atmosphere of trust and simplicity."

As relayed, the first of the Pope's points involved how to deal with CDF – which remains a very live concern in North American church circles in the wake of the congregation's April 2012 order for the reform of the US' Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an effort which (at least, officially) the new Pope is said to have "reaffirmed" following his election.

According to CLAR's readout, Francis said the following....

"Say you err, [or] make a blunder – it happens! Maybe you'll receive a letter from the Congregation for Doctrine [sic], saying that they were told this or that thing.... But don't let it bother you. Explain what you have to explain, but keep going forward.... Open doors, do something where life is calling out [to you].

(Note: all directly-cited quotes are translated as originally rendered, ellipses included; bracketed text is added for purposes of context.)

Per the text, Francis then added a variation of his oft-used phrase that "I prefer a church that messes up for doing something than one that's sick for remaining closed inside itself."

Returning to the Curia thread later on, Francis is quoted as saying that "yes," the planned reform project "is difficult."

"In the Curia there are holy people, truly, there are holy people. But there's also a current of corruption – there's that, too, it's true.... The 'gay lobby' is spoken of, and it's true, that's there... we need to see what we can do.

The reform of the Roman Curia is something that almost all the cardinals sought in the congregations before the Conclave. I sought it myself. [But] I can't do the reform myself, these matters of management.... I'm very disorganized, I've never been good in this. But the cardinals of the commission are going to carry it forward. There's [Oscar] Rodríguez Maradiaga, who carries the baton [as the group's coordinator], there's [the Chilean Francisco Javier] Errázuriz, they're very organized. The one from Munich [Reinhard Marx] is also very organized. They will take it forward.... Pray for me that I make the fewest mistakes possible."

(On a related note, the Pope received Errázuriz – a former secretary of the "Congregation for Religious," one of just two cardinals on Francis' "Star Chamber" with Curial experience – in a private audience the day following the CLAR session. Now the retired archbishop of Santiago – the only retiree among the eight-member council – Errázuriz lives full-time in the Chilean capital, apparently returning to Rome just to meet with the pontiff. Of course, the full body will have its first session in October, ostensibly joining the Pope on his 4 October pilgrimage to Assisi to pray at the tomb of the Poverello whose name Bergoglio adopted as his own.)

As for the Pope's take on the polarized extremes of the modern church, meanwhile – capped by Francis' return to his papacy's central thread to date....

"I'll share two worries of mine. One is a pelagian current that's in the church at this time. There are certain restorationist groups. I know them as I took to receiving them in Buenos Aires. And you feel like you've gone back 60 years! Before the Council... you feel like it's 1940 again... One anecdote, only to illustrate this – not to make you laugh – I took it with respect, but it bothered me; when they [the cardinals] elected me, I received a letter from one of these groups, and they told me; 'Holiness, we offer you this spiritual treasure: 3,525 rosaries.' Why they didn't say 'we're praying for you,' let's wonder... but this [thing] of taking account [of prayers]... and these groups return to practices and disciplines I lived – not you, none of you are old – to things that were lived in that moment, but not now, they aren't today....  

The second [worry] is over a gnostic current. These pantheisms... they're both currents of elites, but this one is of a more formed elite. I knew of one superior general who encouraged the sisters of her congregation to not prayer in the morning, but to give themselves a spiritual bath in the cosmos, such things.... These bother me because they lack the Incarnation! And the Son of God who became our flesh, the Word made flesh, and in Latin America we have this flesh being shot from the rooftops! What happens to the poor, in their sorrows, that is our flesh. 

The Gospel is not the ancien regime, nor is it this pantheism. If you look to the outskirts; the indigent... the drug addicts! The trade [trafficking] of persons... That's the Gospel. The poor are the Gospel.... 

There's something else that bothers me, but I don't know how to read it. There are religious congregations, very, very small groups; a few people, [who tend to be] very old.... They don't have vocations, that I know, [whether] the Holy Spirit doesn't want them to continue, maybe they've finished their mission in the church, I don't know.... But there they are, clinging to their buildings, clinging to money.... I don't know why this happens, I don't know how to read it. But I ask you to be worried about these groups... The handling of money... is something that needs to be reflected on.

And when it comes to his new circumstances, Francis spoke of his election....

I didn't lose peace at any moment, you know? And this isn't mine – there was more than enough to preoccupy me, to make me nervous... But I didn't lose peace once. That confirms for me that this is of God.... 

These gestures ... haven't come from me. They never really occurred to me. It's not like I'm working a plan or something, nor that they chose me to do this. I did it because I felt it's what the Lord would want. But these acts aren't mine, there's Something else here... this gives me confidence. 

I came with just clothes, I washed them at night, and suddenly this [happened].... It's not like I had any shot! In the London betting I was in 44th place, you know, [so] whoever bet on me won a lot, of course! This doesn't come from me....

For his closing word, the Pope encouraged the group to "put all your effort into dialogue with the bishops... with the CELAM [the Latin American regional conference] and the national conferences."

Apparently alluding to the prelates, Francis reputedly said that "I know that there are others who have a different idea of communion... but speak, converse with them, you tell them."

PHOTOS: L'Osservatore Romano

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