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The Independent
24-06-2025
- General
- The Independent
Pope Leo XIV shares hopeful message for Holy Year
Pope Leo XIV, history 's first American pontiff, delivered a message of joy and honesty to thousands of seminarians in Rome on Tuesday, kicking off a weeklong celebration of Catholic clergy. The uplifting address marked a notable shift in tone following Pope Francis 's frequent criticisms of priests and his condemnation of "clericalism." St. Peter's Basilica was transformed into a vibrant, concert-like atmosphere as young men, gathered for a special Jubilee week dedicated to seminarians, priests, and bishops, greeted the Pope with fervent enthusiasm. Waving national flags, they frequently interrupted Leo with applause and shouts of "Papa Leone," straining against barricades in an effort to kiss his ring as he passed. In his remarks, Pope Leo expressed gratitude to the seminarians for their commitment to the Church, telling them that with their energy "you fuel the flame of hope in the life of the church." He urged them to be brave, joyful, and truthful, imploring them not to hide behind masks or live hypocritical lives. "You also have to learn to give a name and voice to sadness, fear, anxiety and indignation, bringing everything before God,' the Augustinian pope told them. 'Crises, limitations, fragilities aren't to be hidden, but are rather occasions for grace.' Francis also frequently met with seminarians, priests and bishops. But he often had a message of tough love, railing against what he called clericalism, or the tendency to put priests and clergy on a pedestal. For Francis, clericalism was the root of many of the church's problems, especially the clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal, given how he said it can contribute to abuses of power and authority. While offering a more positive message, Leo cited many of Francis' concerns in urging seminarians to accompany the poor and lamenting today's 'throwaway culture.' The seminarians interrupted him with applause when he cited Francis by name. The message of encouragement may also have been aimed at addressing the Catholic Church's chronic hemorrhaging of the number of clergy. According to the latest Vatican statistics, the number of seminarians worldwide continued to drop even as the Catholic population grew. There were 108,481 seminarians at the end of 2022, compared to 109,895 the previous year. Only Africa and Oceania registered increases and the church registered steep declines in the traditionally Catholic Americas and Europe, and a more modest decline in Asia. Over the coming days, Leo is expected to hold similar encounters with priests and bishops before presiding over a Jubilee Mass this weekend.
The Independent
24-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Pope Leo XIV offers an uplifting message urging seminarians to be joyful and honest
Pope Leo XIV kicked off a weeklong celebration of Catholic clergy Tuesday by encouraging seminarians to be joyful and honest, offering an uplifting message after Pope Francis frequently castigated priests and decried what he called the sin of "clericalism.' History 's first American pope presided over a rollicking encounter with thousands of young men who were in Rome for a special Jubilee week celebrating seminarians, priests and bishops. Tuesday's encounter turned St. Peter's Basilica into something resembling a concert venue, with seminarians waving their national flags, interrupting Leo frequently with applause and shouts of 'Papa Leone' and straining against barricades to kiss his ring as he passed. In his remarks, Leo thanked the seminarians for agreeing to devote their lives to the church and said that with their energy 'you fuel the flame of hope in the life of the church.' He urged them to be brave, joyful, truthful and not hide behind masks or live hypocritical lives. "You also have to learn to give a name and voice to sadness, fear, anxiety and indignation, bringing everything before God,' the Augustinian pope told them. 'Crises, limitations, fragilities aren't to be hidden, but are rather occasions for grace.' Francis also frequently met with seminarians, priests and bishops. But he often had a message of tough love, railing against what he called clericalism, or the tendency to put priests and clergy on a pedestal. For Francis, clericalism was the root of many of the church's problems, especially the clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal, given how he said it can contribute to abuses of power and authority. While offering a more positive message, Leo cited many of Francis' concerns in urging seminarians to accompany the poor and lamenting today's 'throwaway culture.' The seminarians interrupted him with applause when he cited Francis by name. The message of encouragement may also have been aimed at addressing the Catholic Church's chronic hemorrhaging of the number of clergy. According to the latest Vatican statistics, the number of seminarians worldwide continued to drop even as the Catholic population grew. There were 108,481 seminarians at the end of 2022, compared to 109,895 the previous year. Only Africa and Oceania registered increases and the church registered steep declines in the traditionally Catholic Americas and Europe, and a more modest decline in Asia. Over the coming days, Leo is expected to hold similar encounters with priests and bishops before presiding over a Jubilee Mass this weekend. This week marks something of the halfway mark of the Vatican's 2025 Holy Year, a celebration of Catholicism held once every quarter-century that has brought millions of pilgrims to Rome. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Associated Press
24-06-2025
- General
- Associated Press
Pope Leo XIV offers an uplifting message urging seminarians to be joyful and honest
ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV kicked off a weeklong celebration of Catholic clergy Tuesday by encouraging seminarians to be joyful and honest, offering an uplifting message after Pope Francis frequently castigated priests and decried what he called the sin of 'clericalism.' History's first American pope presided over a rollicking encounter with thousands of young men who were in Rome for a special Jubilee week celebrating seminarians, priests and bishops. Tuesday's encounter turned St. Peter's Basilica into something resembling a concert venue, with seminarians waving their national flags, interrupting Leo frequently with applause and shouts of 'Papa Leone' and straining against barricades to kiss his ring as he passed. In his remarks, Leo thanked the seminarians for agreeing to devote their lives to the church and said that with their energy 'you fuel the flame of hope in the life of the church.' He urged them to be brave, joyful, truthful and not hide behind masks or live hypocritical lives. 'You also have to learn to give a name and voice to sadness, fear, anxiety and indignation, bringing everything before God,' the Augustinian pope told them. 'Crises, limitations, fragilities aren't to be hidden, but are rather occasions for grace.' Francis also frequently met with seminarians, priests and bishops. But he often had a message of tough love, railing against what he called clericalism, or the tendency to put priests and clergy on a pedestal. For Francis, clericalism was the root of many of the church's problems, especially the clergy sex abuse and cover-up scandal, given how he said it can contribute to abuses of power and authority. While offering a more positive message, Leo cited many of Francis' concerns in urging seminarians to accompany the poor and lamenting today's 'throwaway culture.' The seminarians interrupted him with applause when he cited Francis by name. The message of encouragement may also have been aimed at addressing the Catholic Church's chronic hemorrhaging of the number of clergy. According to the latest Vatican statistics, the number of seminarians worldwide continued to drop even as the Catholic population grew. There were 108,481 seminarians at the end of 2022, compared to 109,895 the previous year. Only Africa and Oceania registered increases and the church registered steep declines in the traditionally Catholic Americas and Europe, and a more modest decline in Asia. Over the coming days, Leo is expected to hold similar encounters with priests and bishops before presiding over a Jubilee Mass this weekend. This week marks something of the halfway mark of the Vatican's 2025 Holy Year, a celebration of Catholicism held once every quarter-century that has brought millions of pilgrims to Rome. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Associated Press
07-06-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
Can an American pope apply US-style fundraising and standards to fix troubled Vatican finances?
VATICAN CITY (AP) — As a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost was often on the lookout for used cars that he could buy cheap and fix up himself for use in parishes around his diocese. With cars that were really broken down, he'd watch YouTube videos to learn how to fix them. That kind of make-do-with-less, fix-it-yourself mentality could serve Pope Leo XIV well as he addresses one of the greatest challenges facing him as pope: The Holy See's chronic, 50 million to 60 million euro ($57-68 million) structural deficit, 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall and declining donations that together pose something of an existential threat to the central government of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church. As a Chicago-born math major, canon lawyer and two-time superior of his global Augustinian religious order, the 69-year-old pope presumably can read a balance sheet and make sense of the Vatican's complicated finances, which have long been mired in scandal. Whether he can change the financial culture of the Holy See, consolidate reforms Pope Francis started and convince donors that their money is going to good use is another matter. Leo already has one thing going for him: his American-ness. U.S. donors have long been the economic life support system of the Holy See, financing everything from papal charity projects abroad to restorations of St. Peter's Basilica at home. Leo's election as the first American pope has sent a jolt of excitement through U.S. Catholics, some of whom had soured on donating to the Vatican after years of unrelenting stories of mismanagement, corruption and scandal, according to interviews with top Catholic fundraisers, philanthropists and church management experts. 'I think the election of an American is going to give greater confidence that any money given is going to be cared for by American principles, especially of stewardship and transparency,' said the Rev. Roger Landry, director of the Vatican's main missionary fundraising operation in the U.S., the Pontifical Mission Societies. 'So there will be great hope that American generosity is first going to be appreciated and then secondly is going to be well handled,' he said. 'That hasn't always been the circumstance, especially lately.' Reforms and unfinished business Pope Francis was elected in 2013 on a mandate to reform the Vatican's opaque finances and made progress during his 12-year pontificate, mostly on the regulatory front. With help from the late Australian Cardinal George Pell, Francis created an economy ministry and council made up of clergy and lay experts to supervise Vatican finances, and he wrestled the Italian-dominated bureaucracy into conforming to international accounting and budgetary standards. He authorized a landmark, if deeply problematic, corruption trial over a botched London property investment that convicted a once-powerful Italian cardinal. And he punished the Vatican's Secretariat of State that had allowed the London deal to go through by stripping it of its ability to manage its own assets. But Francis left unfinished business and his overall record, at least according to some in the donor community, is less than positive. Critics cite Pell's frustrated reform efforts and the firing of the Holy See's first-ever auditor general, who says he was ousted because he had uncovered too much financial wrongdoing. Despite imposing years of belt-tightening and hiring freezes, Francis left the Vatican in somewhat dire financial straits: The main stopgap bucket of money that funds budgetary shortfalls, known as the Peter's Pence, is nearly exhausted, officials say. The 1 billion euro ($1.14 billion) pension fund shortfall that Pell warned about a decade ago remains unaddressed, though Francis had planned reforms. And the structural deficit continues, with the Holy See logging an 83.5 million euro ($95 million) deficit in 2023, according to its latest financial report. As Francis' health worsened, there were signs that his efforts to reform the Vatican's medieval financial culture hadn't really stuck, either. The very same Secretariat of State that Francis had punished for losing tens of millions of euros in the scandalous London property deal somehow ended up heading up a new papal fundraising commission that was announced while Francis was in the hospital. According to its founding charter and statutes, the commission is led by the Secretariat of State's assessor, is composed entirely of Italian Vatican officials with no professional fundraising expertise and has no required external financial oversight. To some Vatican watchers, the commission smacks of the Italian-led Secretariat of State taking advantage of a sick pope to announce a new flow of unchecked donations into its coffers after its 600 million euro ($684 million) sovereign wealth fund was taken away and given to another office to manage as punishment for the London fiasco. 'There are no Americans on the commission. I think it would be good if there were representatives of Europe and Asia and Africa and the United States on the commission,' said Ward Fitzgerald, president of the U.S.-based Papal Foundation. It is made up of wealthy American Catholics that since 1990 has provided over $250 million (219 million euros) in grants and scholarships to the pope's global charitable initiatives. Fitzgerald, who spent his career in real estate private equity, said American donors — especially the younger generation — expect transparency and accountability from recipients of their money, and know they can find non-Vatican Catholic charities that meet those expectations. 'We would expect transparency before we would start to solve the problem,' he said. That said, Fitzgerald said he hadn't seen any significant let-up in donor willingness to fund the Papal Foundation's project-specific donations during the Francis pontificate. Indeed, U.S. donations to the Vatican overall have remained more or less consistent even as other countries' offerings declined, with U.S. bishops and individual Catholics contributing more than any other country in the two main channels to donate to papal causes. A head for numbers and background fundraising Francis moved Prevost to take over the diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014. Residents and fellow priests say he consistently rallied funds, food and other life-saving goods for the neediest — experience that suggests he knows well how to raise money when times are tight and how to spend wisely. He bolstered the local Caritas charity in Chiclayo, with parishes creating food banks that worked with local businesses to distribute donated food, said the Rev. Fidel Purisaca Vigil, a diocesan spokesperson. In 2019, Prevost inaugurated a shelter on the outskirts of Chiclayo, Villa San Vicente de Paul, to house desperate Venezuelan migrants who had fled their country's economic crisis. The migrants remember him still, not only for helping give them and their children shelter, but for bringing live chickens obtained from a donor. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Prevost launched a campaign to raise funds to build two oxygen plants to provide hard-hit residents with life-saving oxygen. In 2023, when massive rains flooded the region, he personally brought food to the flood-struck zone. Within hours of his May 8 election, videos went viral on social media of Prevost, wearing rubber boots and standing in a flooded street, pitching a solidarity campaign, 'Peru Give a Hand,' to raise money for flood victims. The Rev. Jorge Millán, who lived with Prevost and eight other priests for nearly a decade in Chiclayo, said he had a 'mathematical' mentality and knew how to get the job done. Prevost would always be on the lookout for used cars to buy for use around the diocese, Millán said, noting that the bishop often had to drive long distances to reach all of his flock or get to Lima, the capital. Prevost liked to fix them up himself, and if he didn't know what to do, 'he'd look up solutions on YouTube and very often he'd find them,' Millán told The Associated Press. Before going to Peru, Prevost served two terms as prior general, or superior, of the global Augustinian order. While the order's local provinces are financially independent, Prevost was responsible for reviewing their balance sheets and oversaw the budgeting and investment strategy of the order's headquarters in Rome, said the Rev. Franz Klein, the order's Rome-based economist who worked with Prevost. The Augustinian campus sits on prime real estate just outside St. Peter's Square and supplements revenue by renting out its picturesque terrace to media organizations (including the AP) for major Vatican events, including the conclave that elected Leo pope. But even Prevost saw the need for better fundraising, especially to help out poorer provinces. Toward the end of his 12-year term and with his support, a committee proposed creation of a foundation, Augustinians in the World. At the end of 2023, it had 994,000 euros ($1.13 million) in assets and was helping fund self-sustaining projects across Africa, including a center to rehabilitate former child soldiers in Congo. 'He has a very good interest and also a very good feeling for numbers,' Klein said. 'I have no worry about the finances of the Vatican in these years because he is very, very clever.' ___ Franklin Briceño contributed from Lima, Peru. ___ Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
The Star
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Italian master Caravaggio's faith shines in new Rome exhibition
The Roman basilica of the Augustinians - Pope Leo XIV's religious order - preserves an iconic painting of the Virgin Mary by Caravaggio, the blockbuster artist who revolutionised the use of light and darkness in Western art. A new exhibit of works by the Baroque painter is now on view in Rome until July 6, allowing for an updated look at his connection with spirituality. From the Pilgrims' Madonna at the Basilica of St Augustine to the Martyrdom of St Ursula that closes the Caravaggio 2025 exhibit, art historians and clergy are highlighting the connections between religious belief and Caravaggio's "chiaroscuro." "It's the light that directs us toward what for him are the key points of the story,' exhibit curator Francesca Cappelletti said about the artist's spotlight on the main characters that emerge from encroaching darkness. "Our life experience makes sense only if invested by a spiritual light.' In the Augustinian Madonna, dating from the early 1600s, what hits the viewer at eye level are the dirty soles of a ragged pilgrim couple's feet as they kneel by the apparition of the Virgin Mary. She leans casually against a door frame as she holds a toddler-size Jesus. It's a far cry from the usual otherworldly, genteel depictions of most Madonnas. That makes it even more poignant within Augustinian spirituality, because it illustrates the encounter between man's nature and God's mercy, said the Rev Pasquale Cormio, the basilica's rector. "We see God's wish to show himself to humankind as someone who walks alongside the poor,' Cormio said. "It's certain that this Virgin Mary is close to a perhaps tired, perhaps wounded, certainly dirty humanity that is burdened by daily life.' A general view of the Basilica of St Augustine in Rome where Caravaggio's 'Pilgrims' Madonna' is located. Photo: AP The name of the Pilgrims' Madonna references not only the two figures before Mary, but also the fact that on this spot, the Augustinians have welcomed pilgrims en route to the nearby Vatican since the end of the 13th century. It was to commemorate a pilgrimage to Loreto - a shrine in central Italy where tradition says Mary's house was miraculously airlifted - that the painting's well-connected patrons commissioned it, said Alessandro Zuccari. A member of Italy's prestigious Accademia dei Lincei, he wrote the chapter on spirituality in the Caravaggio exhibit catalogue. In fact, despite his adventurous life and bluntly realistic art, Caravaggio worked for prestigious, pious patrons, including a cardinal, and is documented to have participated in Catholic rites including Eucharistic adoration, Zuccari added. That hardly fits the reputation for a transgressive "accursed artist' that Caravaggio - whose full name was Michelangelo Merisi - accrued over the centuries. "We don't know what Caravaggio thought, because he left no writings,' Zuccari said. "I'm convinced, as are other experts, that Caravaggio has his own spirituality.' Out of about 70 paintings by Caravaggio, more than 50 represent saints or Biblical scenes - even those destined for private collections, not churches, he added. Some of the best-known are among the two dozen paintings on view at Palazzo Barberini, covering the time from Caravaggio's arrival in Rome around 1595 to his death in 1610. They include works on loan from Dublin to Kansas City. A view of Caravaggio's 'Portrait of Francesco Barberini' at the Vatican's 'Codex' exhibit of art and manuscripts. Photo: AP There's Caravaggio's first religious painting, St Francis of Assisi, who's depicted in an angel's arms while one of his early companions, Brother Leo, is barely visible in the surrounding darkness. It's an early example of those "oscuri gagliardi' - a bold darkness, as a 17th century art critic quoted in an exhibit panel put it. "Gagliardo' is a slang word Romans still use today to mean everything from panini to people with a special flair and power. Two other religious paintings with the same innovative use of light and darkness take a gruesome turn. In J udith Beheading Holofernes, the Jewish hero frowns in seeming disgust at the blood spurting from his neck. In David with the Head of Goliath , the dripping severed head is a self-portrait. In what's probably the artist's last painting before dying at age 39, and the last exhibited in the new show, Caravaggio also portrayed himself. He's the man peeking, stunned and openmouthed, from the darkness at the soldier who's just shot an arrow into St Ursula's chest. More of Caravaggio's religious paintings are in chapels downtown Rome. The Conversion of Saul, an early version of which is in the exhibit, and the Crucifixion of Peter are in Santa Maria del Popolo, also an Augustinian community. Three paintings about St Matthew are in San Luigi dei Francesi church. Two blocks away, back at St Augustine's, pilgrims and tourists continue to flock to see Caravaggio and other artwork. For Cormio, welcoming them is a chance to encourage Augustinian spirituality. "Augustine also left us this teaching - that through the beauty of creation and the beauty of human works, too, we can capture something of the beauty of God,' he said. - AP
