Thursday, March 13, 2014

One year later

Today marks the first anniversary of the election of His Holiness, Pope Francis.  To mark the occasion, the Vatican spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ granted an interview to Vatican Radio in which he reflects on this year and the Pope's great impulse to a journeying Church.

The most important aspect of this first year, he said, is without doubt the great attention, the great attraction of the people – I say the people, meaning not only practising Catholics, but everyone in this world – the great attention for this Pope, for his message.  It is something that I think and hope is very deeply rooted in the heart of the people, who have felt touched by a word of love, attention, mercy, closeness, proximity, in which through the man, the Pope, the love of God arrives, he said.


  • A special photo album has been assembled by the Vatican Internet Service to commemorate Pope Fancis' first anniversary


The Church truly seems to be a journeying people, Fr. Lombardi added. This is her most characteristic aspect: a sense of great dynamism. The Pope has given a great impulse and journeys with a Church that seeks God's will, that seeks her mission in today's world for the good of all, truly going out to the peripheries, to the ends of the world.  The Vatican spokesman added that there are manifestations of attention, therefore, that come from places, from atypical organs of the press, that mean that his message is reaching its target.

These 365 days of Francis' papacy have been characterised as a time of mercy, as described by the Pope himself. His personal secretary Monsignor Alfred Xuereb, has said the Pope has not wasted a minute! He works tirelessly and, when he feels the need to take a moment's pause, he closes his eyes and does nothing: he simply sits and prays the Rosary.

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