Jubilee of Migrants

Coinciding with the Jubilee of Missions, the Jubilee of Migrants is being marked 4th-5th October 2025. The World Day of Migrants would normally be marked by the Church on the last Sunday of September, but this year it is being celebrated at the beginning of October to coincide with the Jubilee.

The care of the universal Church for migrants sits within a section of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development. The website is informative and, for example, carries the texts of the Pope's messages for past World Days of Migrants.

The theme for the 2025 World Day is "Migrants: missionaries of hope", and Pope Leo XIV writes in his message to mark the day:

This link between migration and hope is clearly evident in many contemporary experiences of migration. Many migrants, refugees and displaced persons are privileged witnesses of hope. Indeed, they demonstrate this daily through their resilience and trust in God, as they face adversity while seeking a future in which they glimpse that integral human development and happiness are possible. Moreover, we can see the itinerant experience of the people of Israel repeated in their own lives: “O God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness, the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain at the presence of God, the God of Sinai, at the presence of God, the God of Israel. Rain in abundance, O God, you showered abroad; you restored your heritage when it languished; your flock found a dwelling in it; in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy” (Ps 68:7-10).

In a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope. Their courage and tenacity bear heroic testimony to a faith that sees beyond what our eyes can see and gives them the strength to defy death on the various contemporary migration routes. Here too we can find a clear analogy with the experience of the people of Israel wandering in the desert, who faced every danger while trusting in the Lord’s protection: “he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday” (Ps 91:3-6)

It is striking that an experience that would more readily be seen as one of despair and anguish is indicated as being an experience characterised by hope. I suspect that many migrants, though they hope for a better future, nevertheless have an everyday life that they may immediately experience as hardship.

In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti (n.129 ff), Pope Francis wrote of the situation where our neighbour is someone who has migrated into our own country. He started by suggesting an idea the he expressed on another occasion as a right to remain in one's country of origin as well as there being a right to migrate. It is also worth noting that he believes that a right to migrate arises from the need for personal fulfilment, and not just from the need to avoid persecution:

Complex challenges arise when our neighbour happens to be an immigrant. Ideally, unnecessary migration ought to be avoided; this entails creating in countries of origin the conditions needed for a dignified life and integral development. Yet until substantial progress is made in achieving this goal, we are obliged to respect the right of all individuals to find a place that meets their basic needs and those of their families, and where they can find personal fulfilment. Our response to the arrival of migrating persons can be summarized by four words: welcome, protect, promote and integrate. For “it is not a case of implementing welfare programmes from the top down, but rather of undertaking a journey together, through these four actions, in order to build cities and countries that, while preserving their respective cultural and religious identity, are open to differences and know how to promote them in the spirit of human fraternity”. 

This implies taking certain indispensable steps, especially in response to those who are fleeing grave humanitarian crises. As examples, we may cite: increasing and simplifying the granting of visas; adopting programmes of individual and community sponsorship; opening humanitarian corridors for the most vulnerable refugees; providing suitable and dignified housing; guaranteeing personal security and access to basic services; ensuring adequate consular assistance and the right to retain personal identity documents; equitable access to the justice system; the possibility of opening bank accounts and the guarantee of the minimum needed to survive; freedom of movement and the possibility of employment; protecting minors and ensuring their regular access to education; providing for programmes of temporary guardianship or shelter; guaranteeing religious freedom; promoting integration into society; supporting the reuniting of families; and preparing local communities for the process of integration. 

For those who are not recent arrivals and already participate in the fabric of society, it is important to apply the concept of “citizenship”, which “is based on the equality of rights and duties, under which all enjoy justice. It is therefore crucial to establish in our societies the concept of full citizenship and to reject the discriminatory use of the term minorities, which engenders feelings of isolation and inferiority. Its misuse paves the way for hostility and discord; it undoes any successes and takes away the religious and civil rights of some citizens who are thus discriminated against”.

Towards the end of his message, Pope Leo XIV suggests that migrants and refugees remind us of the pilgrim nature of the Church: 

Migrants and refugees remind the Church of her pilgrim dimension, perpetually journeying towards her final homeland, sustained by a hope that is a theological virtue. Each time the Church gives in to the temptation of “sedentarization” and ceases to be a civitas peregrine, God’s people journeying towards the heavenly homeland (cf. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, Books XIV-XVI), she ceases to be “in the world” and becomes “of the world” (cf. Jn 15:19). This temptation was already present in the early Christian communities, so much so that the Apostle Paul had to remind the Church of Philippi that “our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself” (Phil 3:20-21).

Jubilee of the Missions

The days 4th-5th October 2025 are being marked as the Jubilee of the Missions, with a particular invitation to religious and lay participants in the Church's missionary activity to join in the events in Rome. It coincides with the Jubilee of Migrants, being marked on the same days.

The Decree Ad Gentes of the Second Vatican Council (n.6) defined the term "missions" as follows:

"Missions" is the term usually given to those particular undertakings by which the heralds of the Gospel, sent out by the Church and going forth into the whole world, carry out the task of preaching the Gospel and planting the Church among peoples or groups who do not yet believe in Christ. These undertakings are brought to completion by missionary activity and are mostly exercised in certain territories recognized by the Holy See. The proper purpose of this missionary activity is evangelization, and the planting of the Church among those peoples and groups where it has not yet taken root.

In a chapter addressing the nature of missionary work, the Decree (nn.10-18) goes on to identify three stages to that work: the presence of a Christian witness,  the preaching of the Gospel and building of a Christian community through catechesis and the Sacraments of initiation, and then the forming of self-sustaining Christian life.

The missionary work of the Church is overseen by the secretariats of the four Pontifical Mission Societies, which sit within the Dicastery for Evangelisation (see organisational structure here). In collaboration with the Dicastery for Evangelisation, they are sponsoring a conference The Missio ad Gentes today: Toward new Horizons to mark the Jubilee of Missions. The website of the Pontifical Mission Societies is very informative about the founding and work of the four different societies.

In May 2023, Pope Francis dedicated a General Audience address to the person of St Francis Xavier, one of two patron saints of the missions. It was part of a series addressing the theme of a passion for evangelisation and presenting examples of apostolic zeal. At the start of his address, Pope Francis drew attention to an aspect of the missionary impulse, the leaving of one place to preach the Gospel in another, as he gave an account of Francis Xavier's missionary life:

And a missionary is great when he or she goes. ...

[Francis Xavier] was the first of a numerous band of passionate missionaries in modern times, to depart, ready to endure immense hardships and dangers, to reach lands and meet peoples from completely unknown cultures and languages, driven only by the powerful desire to make Jesus Christ and his Gospel known.

 In October that same year, Pope Francis dedicated an Apostolic Exhortation C'est la confiance to the second patron saint of the missions, St Therese of Lisieux.

The name of Jesus was constantly on her lips, as an act of love, even to her last breath. She had also written these words in her cell: “Jesus is my one love”. It was her interpretation of the supreme statement of the New Testament: “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8.16).

A missionary soul

As with every authentic encounter with Christ, this experience of faith summoned her to mission. Therese could define her mission in these words: “I shall desire in heaven the same thing as I do now on earth: to love Jesus and to make him loved”. She wrote that she entered Carmel “to save souls”. In a word, she did not view her consecration to God apart from the pursuit of the good of her brothers and sisters. She shared the merciful love of the Father for his sinful son and the love of the Good Shepherd for the sheep who were lost, astray and wounded. For this reason, Therese is the Patroness of the missions and a model of evangelization.

The final pages of her Story of a Soul are a missionary testament. They express her appreciation of the fact that evangelization takes place by attraction, not by pressure or proselytism. It is worthwhile reading her own words in this regard: “ Draw me, we shall run after you in the odour of your ointments. O Jesus! It is not even necessary to say: When drawing me, draw the souls whom I love! This simple statement, ‘Draw me’ suffices. I understand, Lord, that when a soul allows herself to be captivated by the odour of your ointments, she cannot run alone; all the souls whom she loves follow in her train; this is done without constraint, without effort, it is a natural consequence of her attraction for you. Just as a torrent, throwing itself with impetuosity into the ocean, drags after it everything it encounters in its passage, in the same way, O Jesus, the soul who plunges into the shoreless ocean of your Love, draws with her all the treasures she possesses. Lord, you know it, I have no other treasures than the souls it has pleased you to unite to mine”.

Jubilee of Catechists

The Jubilee of Catechists is to be marked during the days 26th-28th September 2025. The Institution of new catechists is due to take place during Mass celebrated by the Holy Father on Sunday 28th September 2025. 

In the Motu Proprio Antiquum Ministerium , Pope Francis established the lay ministry of catechist for the universal Church. 

The role played by catechists is one specific form of service among others within the Christian community. Catechists are called first to be expert in the pastoral service of transmitting the faith as it develops through its different stages from the initial proclamation of the kerygma to the instruction that presents our new life in Christ and prepares for the sacraments of Christian initiation, and then to the ongoing formation that can allow each person to give an accounting of the hope within them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15). At the same time, every catechist must be a witness to the faith, a teacher and mystagogue, a companion and pedagogue, who teaches for the Church. Only through prayer, study, and direct participation in the life of the community can they grow in this identity and the integrity and responsibility that it entails (cf. Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, Directory for Catechesis, 113). ...

Referring more specifically to the stable ministry envisioned by the Motu Proprio, Pope Francis continued: 

This ministry has a definite vocational aspect, as evidenced by the Rite of Institution, and consequently calls for due discernment on the part of the Bishop. It is in fact a stable form of service rendered to the local Church in accordance with pastoral needs identified by the local Ordinary, yet one carried out as a work of the laity, as demanded by the very nature of the ministry. It is fitting that those called to the instituted ministry of Catechist be men and women of deep faith and human maturity, active participants in the life of the Christian community, capable of welcoming others, being generous and living a life of fraternal communion. They should also receive suitable biblical, theological, pastoral and pedagogical formation to be competent communicators of the truth of the faith and they should have some prior experience of catechesis (cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Decree on the Pastoral Office of Bishops in the Church Christus Dominus, 14; CIC can. 231 §1; CCEO can. 409 §1). It is essential that they be faithful co-workers with priests and deacons, prepared to exercise their ministry wherever it may prove necessary, and motivated by true apostolic enthusiasm. 

 In most parishes in Britain, catechists are likely to be involved in particular programmes - preparing children for First Communion or Confirmation, or preparing adults to be received into the Church at Easter - so they may not experience the full range of the catechetical role outlined in the first paragraph above. It is unlikely that they will be familiar with the Directory for Catechesis, to which Pope Francis referred, and they may not have a good knowledge of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The focus of catechetical activity only on these specific moments also has, in my view, a weakness of its own making. If the parish is a locus in which to experience the universal call to holiness, it is also a locus in which there is a need to experience a specificity in how that universal call is lived out by the individual Catholic. In other words, it needs to be a locus to experience a specific charism, and it is this need that is missed out by a catechetical strategy that focuses only on three specific moments. A formation within a specific charism is also needed, which is why I sometimes think that the formational structures of a new movement such as the age based groups of the Focolare can form a model for parish catechesis, into which the specific moments of First Communion and Confirmation can fit. 

The situation of catechists in less developed nations can be very different. At the Third International Congress on Catechesis, held at the Vatican in September 2022, the Bishop of Lolo in the Democratic Republic of Congo presented the work of the Mobokoli Catechetical Formation Centre. In a one year programme, the centre trains married couples to then return to their parishes as catechists. A combination of religious and practical training enables couples to proclaim the Gospel and promote an integral human development:

The spouses are formed in basic theology, spirituality, sacred scripture, catechetics, and pedagogy.  They are also schooled in matters of agriculture, animal husbandry in both theoretically and practically, cultivating model rice and manioc corn fields, practicing various methods of raising poultry, sheep and goats, etc.   Spouses are formed in basic language skills (reading/writing), sewing, life education, catechesis of children, young girls and women.

Catechists might make their own the words of the Jubilee Prayer:

May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven. May that same grace spread the joy and peace of our Redeemer throughout the earth. 

Jubilee of Justice

 It is interesting to see that those invited to take part in the event of the  Jubilee of Justice in St Peter's Square on 20th September 2025 are those persons who are involved in the world of law. This suggests that the protagonists of justice are primarily lawyers, judges and other legal practitioners. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (n.1807), however, identifies justice as a moral virtue, and so indicates that we are all called to the practice of justice:

 Justice is the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor. Justice toward God is called the "virtue of religion." Justice toward men disposes one to respect the rights of each and to establish in human relationships the harmony that promotes equity with regard to persons and to the common good. The just man, often mentioned in the Sacred Scriptures, is distinguished by habitual right thinking and the uprightness of his conduct toward his neighbor. "You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor." (Lev. 19:15) "Masters, treat your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you also have a Master in heaven." (Col. 4:1)

The definition of law that St Thomas Aquinas offers (S. Th. I-II Q. 90 a. 4) allows us to make a connection, by way of their common orientation towards the common good, between justice seen as a virtue and justice as a practice of law (my italics added). Justice in the latter sense is at the service of justice in the former sense.

As stated above (Article 1), a law is imposed on others by way of a rule and measure. ... Thus from the four preceding articles, the definition of law may be gathered; and it is nothing else than an ordinance of reason for the common good, made by him who has care of the community, and promulgated.

Each October, at the beginning of the new legal year in England, a votive Mass of the Holy Spirit is celebrated in Westminster Cathedral with the participation of members of the legal profession. A service in Westminster Abbey follows. Bishop James Curry, auxiliary of the diocese of Westminster, celebrated the votive Mass in October 2024:

Every person lives and dies with a certain sense of an insatiable hunger for justice. This hunger reflects a deeper yearning for divine justice, which ultimately finds fulfilment in God. The legal community is called to be a mirror of justice, reflecting God's own justice in their dealings and decisions. 

The beginning of the legal year, marked by this Red Mass, and the service in the Abbey with their invitation to prayer and plea for the guidance of the Holy Spirit, serves as a profound moment for reflection on the interplay of law, justice, and faith. This occasion invites you here present to renew your commitment to the principles of truth and justice, which are foundational to your vocation. ...

Justice is not merely a human convention but is innately connected to the dignity and rights of each person, which are inherent and God-given.

Justice is a multifaceted virtue that governs interpersonal relations, ensuring that individuals receive what is rightfully theirs while promoting the common good and the dignity of all persons. 

You, as advocates and judges, give a voice to those who seek justice, truth and right. Sometimes you are the only voice a person has.  

In the Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee (n.16), Pope Francis draws attention to a particular cause of injustice:

Another heartfelt appeal that I would make in light of the coming Jubilee is directed to the more affluent nations. I ask that they acknowledge the gravity of so many of their past decisions and determine to forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them. More than a question of generosity, this is a matter of justice. It is made all the more serious today by a new form of injustice which we increasingly recognize, namely, that “a true ‘ecological debt’ exists, particularly between the global North and South, connected to commercial imbalances with effects on the environment and the disproportionate use of natural resources by certain countries over long periods of time”.  As sacred Scripture teaches, the earth is the Lord’s and all of us dwell in it as “aliens and tenants” ( Lev 25:23). If we really wish to prepare a path to peace in our world, let us commit ourselves to remedying the remote causes of injustice, settling unjust and unpayable debts, and feeding the hungry.

Jubilee of Consolation

The Jubilee of Consolation is being marked on 15th September 2025.

All those who are experiencing a time of pain and affliction, due to illness, bereavement, violence or abuse, are especially invited to this jubilee event, together with their families and friends. 

The recent canonisations of Pier Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis bring to mind the life of another young person who lived her Catholic faith to an heroic extent, Blessed Chiara "Luce" Badano. In the story of her life and of her illness there are countless moments that might be characterised as being acts of consolation. In some instances these moments are offered by Chiara to people she encounters; in others they are offered to her by her friends, particularly those in the Focolare. The following stories are told in Michele Zanzucchi's account of Chiara's life (I have an early French language edition - I think there is an updated English edition available). The first occurs during a hospital stay early in the course of Chiara's illness; the second occurs during a hospital stay during what was Chiara's last Christmas before she died. 

Her father, Ruggero, says: "At the hospital Pietra Ligura, despite the suffering and the fever, she did not stop. She concerned herself with a young girl suffering from depression in the next room. She accompanied her everywhere, for very long walks in the corridors, even if she needed to rest. Before our suggestions to take more care, she replied: 'I will have plenty of time to sleep later'."

[That day], a hospital volunteer fell into a deep existential crisis: how can a God exist if in this hospital children are dying of cancer? While Maria Teresa [Chiara's mother] went down to the bar, this woman sat with Chiara. I do not know what they said to each other, but this woman confirmed, having recovered all her courage, that this Christmas was the most beautiful of her life. "For us too, it was the same thing", insists Ruggero. 

The Bull of  Indiction for the Jubilee 2025 includes the following paragraphs:

Signs of hope should also be shown to the sick, at home or in hospital. Their sufferings can be allayed by the closeness and affection of those who visit them. Works of mercy are also works of hope that give rise to immense gratitude. Gratitude should likewise be shown to all those healthcare workers who, often in precarious conditions, carry out their mission with constant care and concern for the sick and for those who are most vulnerable.

Inclusive attention should also be given to all those in particularly difficult situations, who experience their own weaknesses and limitations, especially those affected by illnesses or disabilities that severely restrict their personal independence and freedom. Care given to them is a hymn to human dignity, a song of hope that calls for the choral participation of society as a whole.

Film: Young Mothers (Jeunes Meres)

 Young Mothers has just gone on release in the United Kingdom, though, as might be expected for a foreign language film, it will probably only be shown in selected cinemas. The film premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival where it gained the award for best screenplay. It was also awarded the prize of the Ecumenical Jury at that festival. The press pack from the Cannes Festival, and the video of the press conference on the Cannes Festival website are both informative about the background to the making of the film. It is interesting to reflect that two brothers, now in their seventies, should turn their attention to a film about young, single mothers.

The film is well worth seeing. It holds the attention in the way in which it interleaves the stories of the five young mothers, including as each situation moves towards their respective outcomes. There is a certain frankness in the way in which, at different points in the film, you realise that a particular experience is being portrayed -and with five stories the questions raised in the experience of each of the young mothers are very different and very challenging. The supportive manner of the life of the home, both in terms of how the young people are shown helping each other out, and in the way in which the staff work alongside the young women to develop their skills, is something that is well portrayed and which attracted the Dardenne brothers as they made the film.

Jubilee 2025: Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

 In the decree that promulgated the texts for the votive Mass for the Care of Creation, we find the following paragraph:

The mystery of creation is the beginning of salvation history, which culminates in Christ and from the mystery of Christ it receives definitive light; in fact, by manifesting His goodness, “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1,1) God already from these origins had in mind the glory of the new creation in Christ.

This Christological orientation is reflected in the texts themselves, which can be downloaded from the website of the Catholic Bishops Conference: Mass for Care of Creation. The Prayer after Communion reflects the theme of hope of the Jubilee Year:

May the sacrament of unity which we have received, O Father, increase communion with you and with our brothers and sisters, so that, as we await the new heaven and the new earth, we may learn to live in harmony with all creatures. 

 It is reflected in the choice of the New Testament reading from Colossians 1:15-20:

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him.

The Jubilee Prayer prompts a reading of St Paul's words in the Letter to the Romans:

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

The "new creation in Christ" embraces both the new creation of men and women and the glory of the created world in which they live. As such, it needs to be distinguished from an environmentalism that does not take account of this full reality of our world and therefore becomes, to a greater or lesser extent, an ideology.

A Man for All Seasons

 I had a "birthday treat" opportunity to see the production of Robert Bolt's play A Man for All Seasons at the Harold Pinter Theatre last week. The stage set and costumes were very much true to the Tudor setting of the play, and the dialogue was very faithful to the published text of the play. 

Since seeing the play I have read again the Preface written by Robert Bolt for a 1961 publication of the play. In that Preface, Robert Bolt offers an "explanation and apology for treating Thomas More, a Christian saint, as a hero of selfhood."

... Thomas More, as I wrote about him, became for me a man with an adamantine sense of his own self. He knew where he began and left off, what area of himself he could yield to the encroachment of his enemies, and what to the encroachments of those he loved. It was a substantial area in both cases for he had a proper sense of fear and was a busy lover. Since he was a clever man and a great lawyer he was able to retire from those areas in a wonderfully good order, but at length he was asked to retreat from that final area where he located his self. And there this supple, humorous, unassuming and sophisticated person set like metal, was overtaken by an absolutely primitive rigour, and could no more be budged than a cliff.

The other aspect of Thomas More that was attractive to Robert Bolt was what he termed "his splendid social adjustment". After briefly surveying the range of Thomas More's social and political life, Bolt observes:

He parted with more than most men when he parted with his life, for he accepted and enjoyed his social context.... But why did a man so utterly absorbed in his society, at one particular point disastrously part company from it?

For a Catholic, the explanation can readily be seen in Thomas More's faithfulness to the universal Christian Church. But for Bolt, writing his play, that Christian faith can only be a metaphor representing a larger context into which a man can be excluded when he no longer enjoys the regard of society. 

More's trust in the law was his trust in his society; his desperate sheltering beneath the forms of the law was his determination to remain within the shelter of society. Cromwell's contemptuous shattering of the forms of law  by an unconcealed act of perjury showed how fragile for any individual is that shelter. Legal or illegal had no further meaning, the social references had been removed.

 I was interested to see that the revived production currently running in London (until early September) did leave the play in the original historical setting of its narrative. But it is interesting to ask how it might have been translated into a contemporary narrative. Where today would Robert Bolt be able to find a leading character who combines the selfhood amidst the ebbs and flows of a society that he discovered in Thomas More?

Witnesses to that hope which urges us toward the good things yet to come

Pope Leo XIV met on 23 August 2025 with members of four female religious institutes with dedications to the Holy Family and to the home of the Holy Family in Nazareth. The four congregations were marking their General Chapters, and this was the occasion for their meeting with Pope Leo. 

You are holding your assemblies during this year, the Jubilee of Hope. This hope, as Saint Paul says, does not disappoint; it is the fruit of proven virtue and is animated by the love of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5). These words aptly describe the richness you bring here today, in this hall. You bring the charismatic gift that the Paraclete once bestowed upon your Foundresses and Founders, a gift that continues to be renewed. You bring the faithful and providential presence of the Lord in the histories of your Institutes. You bring the virtue with which those who came before you — often enduring severe trials — responded to God’s gifts. All this makes you, in a special way, witnesses of hope, especially of that hope which constantly urges us toward the good things yet to come, and of which, as religious, you are called to be a sign and a prophecy (cf. Phil 3:13–14; Lumen Gentium, 44).

 Pope Leo went on to refer to the work that many in these four institutes have carried out in favour of the family:

... there is an aspect that unites many of you: the desire to live and to transmit to others the values of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the hearth of prayer, forge of love and model of holiness. I would like to reflect for a moment on this point.

Saint Paul VI, during his journey to the Holy Land, speaking to the faithful in the Basilica of the Annunciation, expressed the hope that, by looking to Jesus, Mary and Joseph, we might come to understand ever more deeply the importance of the family: its communion of love, its simple and austere beauty, its sacred and inviolable character, its gentle pedagogy and its natural and irreplaceable role in society (cf. Address at the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, 5 January 1964).

 

Mary: " ... sign of certain hope and comfort to the pilgrim people of God"

 Pope Leo XIV, in his Angelus address for the Solemnity of the Assumption, suggests that this truth of our faith is perfectly in line with the theme of the Jubilee 2025.

Mary, who the risen Christ carried body and soul into the glory, shines as an icon of hope for her pilgrim children throughout history.

How can we not think of Dante’s verses in the last canto of the Paradiso? Through the prayer put on Saint Bernard’s lips, which begins “Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son” (XXXIII, 1), the poet lauds Mary because here among us mortals she is “the living fountain-head of hope” (ibid., 12), that is the living spring, gushing with hope.

Sisters and brothers, this truth of our faith is perfectly in line with the theme of the present Jubilee: “Pilgrims of hope.” Pilgrims need a goal that orients their journey: a beautiful and attractive goal that guides their steps and revives them when they are tired, that always rekindles in their heart a desire and hope. On the path of life, our goal is God, infinite and eternal Love, fullness of life, peace, joy and every good thing. The human heart is drawn to such beauty and it is not happy until it finds it; and indeed it risks not finding it if it gets lost in the middle of the “dark forest” of evil and sin.

Let us consider this grace: God came to meet us, he assumed our flesh fashioned from the earth, and has carried it with him into the presence of God, or as we commonly say “into heaven.” It is the mystery of Jesus Christ, who became flesh, died and rose for our salvation. Inseparable from him, is also the mystery of Mary, the woman from whom the Son of God has taken flesh, and of the Church, the mystical body of Christ. It concerns a unique mystery of love, and thus of freedom. Just as Jesus said “yes,” so also Mary said “yes;” she believed in the word of the Lord. All of her life has been a pilgrimage of hope together with her son, the Son of God, a pilgrimage which, through the Cross and Resurrection, has reached the heavenly homeland, in the embrace of God.

After praying the Angelus, Pope Leo recalled how the proclamation of the dogma by Pope Pius XII in 1950 occurred at a time when memories of the Second World War were still recent. In entrusting a prayer for peace in the world to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Pope Leo likened these earlier times to those of today.

Jubilee 2025: The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 The Liturgical texts for the celebration of the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary echo rather nicely the words of the Jubilee Prayer, and so perhaps encourage us to pray that prayer with a particular intensity on this feast day.

The Collect at Mass during the day:

Almighty ever living God, who assumed the Immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of your Son, body and soul into heavenly glory, grant we pray, that, always attentive to the things that are above, we may merit to be sharers of her glory.

Compared to:

May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven. 

From the Preface at Mass:

For today the Virgin Mother of God was assumed into heaven as the beginning and image of your Church's coming to perfection and a sign of sure hope and comfort to your pilgrim people. ..

Compared to:

Father in heaven, may the faith that you have given us in your son, Jesus Christ, our brother, and the flame of charity enkindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit reawaken in us the blessed hope for the coming of your Kingdom. 

From the Prayer after Communion at the Vigil Mass:

Having partaken of this heavenly table, we beseech your mercy, Lord our God, that we, who honour the Assumption of the Mother of God, may be freed from every threat of harm.

Compared to:

 May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth, when, with the powers of Evil vanquished, your glory will shine eternally.

 

Jubilee 2025: The Hope of the Bride

In Dom Anscar Vonier's book The Spirit and the Bride there is a short chapter entitled "The Bride's Hope". The chapter suggests that, through the living presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church, there is a perfection of hope that is intrinsic to the Church and is more than the sum total of the individual hopes of believers or local communities.

What we may truly call the official hope of the Church is an overwhelming reality; there is simply no vestige of hesitation in any acts and movements of the Church concerning her power to obtain eternal life. This is manifested before all men through the Church's way of praying. Ecclesiastical prayer is the visible sign of the Church's hope; she hopes as she prays, and she prays as she hopes.  Now of the Church's prayer there is no end; it is an unceasing stream, unfathomable in its depth, though all eyes can behold its surface. If the Church ceased to pray, her life of hope also would come to an end.... More truly than Moses on the mountain, the Bride is stretching forth her arms in supplication, and she is not in need of any supporters, as she know of no lassitude, for the power of the Spirit is in her.

If you are familiar with Edith Stein's essay "The Prayer of the Church", Anscar Vonier's chapter is a natural jumping off point to a re-reading of that essay. In English translation it is published in the Institute of Carmelite Studies collected works of Edith Stein vol. 4 The Hidden Life. The essay makes some striking comparisons between the Jewish liturgy and the Christian liturgy, reflecting Edith Stein's own lived experience, and is worth reading for those insights alone. 

... it is not a question of placing the inner prayer free of all traditional forms as "subjective" piety in contrast to the liturgy as the "objective" prayer of the Church. All authentic prayer is prayer of the Church. Through every sincere prayer something happens in the Church, and it is the Church itself that is praying therein, for it is the Holy Spirit living in the Church that intercedes for every individual soul "with sighs too deep for words". This is exactly what authentic prayer is, for "no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit". What could the prayer of the Church be, if not great lovers giving themselves to God who is love!

Anscar Vonier places the expression of hope within the Church's prayer since that prayer shows an absolute confidence in the ability of the Church to gain eternal life for the persons who are the object of that prayer. A connection can be made to the words of the Jubilee prayer:

May the grace of the Jubilee reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope, a yearning for the treasures of heaven.

Jubilee 2025: Therese of Lisieux - today it is important to revive hope.

In 1973, Pope St Paul VI wrote to the Bishop of  Bayeux and Lisieux to mark the centenary of the birth of St Therese of the Child Jesus. In one paragraph of that letter, Paul VI refers to the "little way" in terms of "dependence on the mysterious Love of Christ" in a way that Pope Francis has more recently expressed in terms of "confidence in the merciful love of God". He also casts that confidence in terms of hope, thereby offering an appropriate meditation for the Jubilee 2025.

So today it is important to revive hope.  Many people have experienced harshly the limits of their physical and moral strength.  They feel powerless before the immense problems of the world, with which they rightly feel solidarity.  Their daily work seems to them overwhelming, obscure, and useless.  Also, illness sometimes condemns them to inaction; persecution spreads a suffocating fog over them.  Those who are more lucid are even more aware of their own weakness, their cowardice, their smallness.  The meaning of life can no longer be made clear; the silence of God, as some say, can be oppressive.  Some resign themselves passively; others focus on their selfishness or on their immediate gratification; others become hardened or rebel; still others finally despair.  To each and every one, Thérèse “of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face” proclaims: learn to rely not on yourself, whether on your virtue or on your limitations, but instead to depend upon the mysterious Love of Christ, which is greater than our hearts and which unites us with the offering of his passion and with the power of his Life.  She can teach us all to follow the “royal little way” of the spirit of childhood, which is the opposite of childishness, of passivity, of sadness!  Cruel trials within her family, scruples, fears, and other difficulties seemed very likely to thwart Thérèse’s development; she was not spared severe sickness in her youth; moreover, she experienced profoundly the night of faith.  And yet God made her find, in the midst of this very night, confident abandonment and courage, patience, and joy--in a word, true freedom.  We invite all people of good will, especially the little and the humbled, to meditate on this paradox of hope.

The original text of Pope Paul VI's letter, in French. is available on the website of the Holy See: Lettre du Pape Paul VI. An English translation can be found here: Letter of Pope Paul VI. Pope Francis' Apostolic Exhortation, written to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of St Therese, is here: C'est La Confiance.

An aside on the Church of England

 Danny Kruger MP recently spoke in a House of Commons adjournment debate on the future of the Church of England. The record of his speech, two interventions from Andrew Rosindell MP and the response of Jim McMahon MP (Minister for Local Government and English Devolution) can be found in the Hansard Record: Future of the Church of England.

It is of interest to read the content of this debate alongside Pope Benedict XVI's speech in Westminster Hall during his visit to the United Kingdom in 2010, and to read Danny Kruger's own account of the position of the Church of England in the light of the more nuanced presentation of Jim McMahon in his reply to the debate.

In considering the place of the Church of England parish in the life of a local community, Danny Kruger suggests that everyone living within the territory of their local parish is a member of that parish even if they do not enter the church or believe its doctrine:

Even if you never set foot in your church from one year to the next, and even if you do not believe in its teachings, it is your church and you are its member.

The observations of Andrew Rosindell and Jim McMahon in considering the place of the parish in community life are more nuanced. 

It is not just about the church community, the members of the church; it has a wider responsibility to all people of all religions and no religion, not just Church of England members. The Church of England should cherish the importance of the parish as a part of all our communities in the constituencies we represent. 

Where Danny Kruger argues that:

Without the Christian God, in whose teaching these things [freedom, tolerance, individual dignity and human rights] have their source, these are inventions—mere non-existent aspirations.

Pope Benedict suggests that: 

The Catholic tradition maintains that the objective norms governing right action are accessible to reason, prescinding from the content of revelation. According to this understanding, the role of religion in political debate is not so much to supply these norms, as if they could not be known by non-believers – still less to propose concrete political solutions, which would lie altogether outside the competence of religion – but rather to help purify and shed light upon the application of reason to the discovery of objective moral principles.

The Church of England undoubtedly has a particular place in both the national and local life of the nation, rooted not only in its being the established Church of the nation, but also because its make up gives it a particular genius for a presence in civic life. This can be seen in play at commemorations such as Remembrance Sunday, and the way in which they are marked both nationally and locally. Though it was not always so - think of the persecution of Roman Catholics at the time of the Reformation - it has also developed that paradoxical protecting of other religious beliefs under the framework of the established religion.

 I cannot help but feel, however, that Danny Kruger's account of the place of the Church of England in the life of the nation combines what at one time would have been described as Erastianism with a presumption for ethical stances that really need a more reasoned defence. It has a tinge of ideology (in a technical sense) about it that will detract from its ability to influence.

Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers

 The Jubilee for Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers takes place over two days, 28th-29th July 2025. The days coincide with the beginning of the Jubilee of Youth which takes place over several days, and reflects the pattern of World Youth Days.

The warnings of Chapter 1 of Vatican II's Decree Inter Mirifica , on the means of social communication, appear exceptionally prescient of the world of digital communications, a world which was inconceivable at the time of its promulgation (translation from Flannery ed. Vatican Council II).

There exists therefore in human society a right to information on the subjects that are of concern to men either as individuals or as members of society, according to each man's circumstances. The proper exercise of this right demands that the content of the communication be true and - within the limits set by justice and charity - complete. Further, it should be communicated honestly and properly. 

In his message for the 2013 World Day of Communications, Pope Benedict XVI wrote of the part that can be played by social media networks: "Social Networks: portals of truth and faith; new spaces for evangelization".

The culture of social networks and the changes in the means and styles of communication pose demanding challenges to those who want to speak about truth and values. Often, as is also the case with other means of social communication, the significance and effectiveness of the various forms of expression appear to be determined more by their popularity than by their intrinsic importance and value. Popularity, for its part, is often linked to celebrity or to strategies of persuasion rather than to the logic of argumentation. At times the gentle voice of reason can be overwhelmed by the din of excessive information and it fails to attract attention which is given instead to those who express themselves in a more persuasive manner. The social media thus need the commitment of all who are conscious of the value of dialogue, reasoned debate and logical argumentation; of people who strive to cultivate forms of discourse and expression which appeal to the noblest aspirations of those engaged in the communication process. Dialogue and debate can also flourish and grow when we converse with and take seriously people whose ideas are different from our own. “Given the reality of cultural diversity, people need not only to accept the existence of the culture of others, but also to aspire to be enriched by it and to offer to it whatever they possess that is good, true and beautiful” (Address at the Meeting with the World of Culture, Bélem, Lisbon, 12 May 2010).

In his message for the 2011 World Day of Communications, Benedict XVI also addressed the question of communicating the Gospel in the digital age:

The task of witnessing to the Gospel in the digital era calls for everyone to be particularly attentive to the aspects of that message which can challenge some of the ways of thinking typical of the web. First of all, we must be aware that the truth which we long to share does not derive its worth from its “popularity” or from the amount of attention it receives. We must make it known in its integrity, instead of seeking to make it acceptable or diluting it. It must become daily nourishment and not a fleeting attraction. The truth of the Gospel is not something to be consumed or used superficially; rather it is a gift that calls for a free response. Even when it is proclaimed in the virtual space of the web, the Gospel demands to be incarnated in the real world and linked to the real faces of our brothers and sisters, those with whom we share our daily lives. Direct human relations always remain fundamental for the transmission of the faith.

Digital missionaries might take to themselves one sentence from the prayer for the Jubilee, bearing in mind that they may not see the response to their posting from people in a very different part of the world:

May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of he seeds of the Gospel.

Jubilee 2025: World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly

 In 2021, as the world began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly was marked by Pope Francis. It is a celebration that reflects something of Pope Francis' charism of appreciation for the more everyday aspects of the living of the Christian life. He had a particular sense of the role that grandparents can play in the life of their families, in relation to their children and in relation to their grandchildren. He spoke optimistically of the wisdom that the older generation could share with the younger generation, especially with regard to the handing on of the Catholic faith. Perhaps Pope Francis had an awareness of a generational gap in terms of catechesis and practice of the faith that affected parents, and saw in grandparents a resource to bridge this gap; perhaps he was speaking from a cultural background that still retained a lived experience of family life less affected by the disruption of family break up of some more developed countries. 

In his message for the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, Pope Francis referenced the words of Pope Benedict XVI during a visit to a home for the elderly. Pope Benedict was visiting a "casa-famiglia", or "family home" of the St Egidio Community, where he described himself as "an old man visiting his peers" and insisted that "it is beautiful to be old!".

From the outset the Community of Sant’Egidio has supported so many elderly people on their way, helping them to stay in their own living milieus and opening various “casa-famiglia” in Rome and throughout the world. Through solidarity between the young and the old it has helped people to understand that the Church is effectively a family made up of all the generations, where each person must feel “at home” and where it is not the logic of profit and of possession that prevails but that of giving freely and of love. When life becomes frail, in the years of old age, it never loses its value and its dignity: each one of us, at any stage of life, is wanted and loved by God, each one is important and necessary.

 As people grow older and become more infirm, I think it is good that they maintain independence in living and in sustaining a social life as long as that is possible. But I think it is also valuable to recognise the point at which the help of others becomes necessary, and to then accept that help with graciousness rather than with resentment. That graciousness represents a gift of the person who is infirm towards the person who cares for them, and is a sign of regard for the person who, by caring, expresses a key dimension of their own dignity as a person. Pope Benedict XVI touched on this idea during his visit with the elderly:

Dear friends, at our age we often experience the need of the help of others; and this also happens to the Pope. In the Gospel we read that Jesus told the Apostle Peter: “when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go” (Jn 21:18). The Lord was referring to the way in which the Apostle was to witness to his faith to the point of martyrdom, but this sentence makes us think about that fact that the need for help is a condition of the elderly. I would like to ask you to seek in this too a gift of the Lord, because being sustained and accompanied, feeling the affection of others is a grace!

 In the Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis indicated that the elderly and grandparents might be shown particular signs of hope (n.14):

The elderly, who frequently feel lonely and abandoned, also deserve signs of hope. Esteem for the treasure that they are, their life experiences, their accumulated wisdom and the contribution that they can still make, is incumbent on the Christian community and civil society, which are called to cooperate in strengthening the covenant between generations.

Here I would also mention grandparents, who represent the passing on of faith and wisdom to the younger generation. May they find support in the gratitude of their children and the love of their grandchildren, who discover in them their roots and a source of understanding and encouragement.

And Pope Leo XIV reminds us, in his message for the fifth World Day of the Elderly and Grandparents, to be marked on 27th July 2025, that the Jubilee indulgence can be obtained under the usual conditions for a visit to the elderly who are alone:

[Pope Francis] wanted the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly to be celebrated primarily through an effort to seek out elderly persons who are living alone. For this reason, those who are unable to come to Rome on pilgrimage during this Holy Year may “obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if they visit, for an appropriate amount of time, the elderly who are alone... making, in a sense, a pilgrimage to Christ present in them (cf. Mt 25:34-36)” (APOSTOLIC PENITENTIARY, Norms for the Granting of the Jubilee Indulgence, III). Visiting an elderly person is a way of encountering Jesus, who frees us from indifference and loneliness. 

Integral Ecology and the Mass for the Care of Creation

Pope Francis' encyclical letter Laudato si' is entitled "On care for our common home". There is also another term, used within the text of the encyclical, that might also have provided a subtitle for the encyclical.  This is the term "integral ecology", and it indicates that the encyclical does not advocate for a kind of ideological environmentalism.

When we speak of the “environment”, what we really mean is a relationship existing between nature and the society which lives in it. Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves or as a mere setting in which we live. We are part of nature, included in it and thus in constant interaction with it. ... We are faced not with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental. Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.

After exploring ideas of environmental, economic and social ecology, of cultural ecology, and of an ecology of daily life Pope Francis addressed the principle of the common good. Towards the end of his account of an ecology of daily life, Pope Francis wrote:

Human ecology also implies another profound reality: the relationship between human life and the moral law, which is inscribed in our nature and is necessary for the creation of a more dignified environment. Pope Benedict XVI spoke of an “ecology of man”, based on the fact that “man too has a nature that he must respect and that he cannot manipulate at will”. It is enough to recognize that our body itself establishes us in a direct relationship with the environment and with other living beings. The acceptance of our bodies as God’s gift is vital for welcoming and accepting the entire world as a gift from the Father and our common home, whereas thinking that we enjoy absolute power over our own bodies turns, often subtly, into thinking that we enjoy absolute power over creation. Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology. ...

The texts for the Mass for the Care of Creation are reflective of this sense of an integral ecology. (The translation from the Latin is mine.)

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament proclaims the work of his hands (Entry antiphon)

Father, who in Christ, the first born of all creatures, called the universe into existence, grant, we pray, that docile to your Spirit the breath of life, we may in charity care for the work of your hands. (Collect)

May the sacrament of unity that we have received, Father, increase our communion with you and our brothers, so that, looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, we may duly learn to live at one with all creatures. (Prayer after Communion)

Placing this new Mass formulary in the context of the Jubilee 2025, the Prayer for the Jubilee contains the following:

May your grace transform us into tireless cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel. May those seeds transform from within both humanity and the whole cosmos in the sure expectation of a new heaven and a new earth ...

 

 

Dare we hope ....

Dare we hope that all men be saved? This is the title of a short book by Hans Urs von Balthasar, and it perhaps asks of us an interesting question during the Jubilee 2025. The book was written in the heat of a polemic, a polemic triggered at least in part by the re-phrasing of the question as one about whether or not anyone will go the Hell. Fr von Balthasar's treatment of the subject is wide ranging, and it should be noted that it is far from suggesting a superficial notion of universal salvation.

To open the discussion in the way that Fr von Balthasar does, we can start by observing that, in living our Christian lives, we stand under the judgement of God, in an existential choosing between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death, the way that leads to heaven and the way that leads to hell. Scripture offers both a picture of a severe judgement, with the separation of the saints from those condemned to hell, and a picture of hope in the mercy of God. The risk that we face if we insist on a populated hell is that, at least on the part of others, we lose our faith in the work of redemption. The risk that we face if we insist on the mercy of God to the exclusion of the idea of a judgement, at least on our own part, is that we become complacent and fail in our actions to make the choice for the way that leads to heaven.  The Christian life involves keeping both of these pictures in view and in balance, one with the other. 

In some words of Pope St Gregory I:

Before sinning, let man fear God's justice, but after sinning let him presume on His mercy. And let him not so fear His justice as not to be strengthened by the consolation of hope; not so confident of His mercy as to neglect to apply to his wounds the medicine of adequate penance.

At one point in his book, Fr von Balthasar quote Adrienne von Speyr to a similar effect:

The truth is not simply an either-or: either somebody is in hell or nobody is. Both are partial expressions of the whole truth. Thus, too, Ignatius has a right to make his meditations on hell and to instruct that they be made ... The truth consists in a sum total of partial truths, and each of these partial truths must be wholly expressed, wholly thought out and lived through. We do not arrive at the truth if we only bring out one part and cover up the other. In every perspective, the whole must come to expression.

In a Jubilee Year dedicated to a them of hope, it is a most audacious expression of that hope to ask ourselves the question posed by the title of von Balthasar's book: Dare we hope that all men be saved?

To adapt the words of the Jubilee prayer:

May the grace of the Jubilee

reawaken in us, Pilgrims of hope,

a yearning for the treasures of heaven,

not only for ourselves but also for others.

First Greetings of Recent Popes

As the sequence of major events of the Jubilee 2025 take a summer break, it might be of interest to reflect on the first words offered by the recent Successors of Peter on their election.

Pope Leo XIV's first greeting from the balcony of the Vatican Basilica, delivered from a prepared text, was as follows (my translation from the original Italian rather than the English):

Peace be with you all!

Dearest brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting spoken by the risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for God’s flock. I, too, would like this greeting of peace to enter into your hearts, to reach your families, every person, wherever they may be, all peoples and all the earth. Peace be with you!

This is the peace of the risen Christ. A peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering. It comes from God, the God who loves all, unconditionally.

 There is an echo in Pope Leo's choice of words of that testimony to the Resurrection that occurs at the start of the Papal Mass on Easter Sunday, when the Successor of Peter venerates an image of he Risen Christ, enacting in a way the testimony of the first Peter.

Pope Francis' style from the start of his time as Pope was informal, though not without something that prompts more reflection.

Brothers and sisters, good evening!

You know that it was the duty of the Conclave to give Rome a Bishop. It seems that my brother Cardinals have gone almost to the ends of the earth to get one... but here we are... I thank you for your welcome. The diocesan community of Rome now has its Bishop. ...

And now, we take up this journey: Bishop and People. This journey of the Church of Rome which presides in charity over all the Churches. A journey of fraternity, of love, of trust among us. Let us always pray for one another. Let us pray for the whole world, that there may be a great spirit of fraternity. It is my hope for you that this journey of the Church, which we start today, and in which my Cardinal Vicar, here present, will assist me, will be fruitful for the evangelization of this most beautiful city.

And now I would like to give the blessing, but first - first I ask a favour of you: before the Bishop blesses his people, I ask you to pray to the Lord that he will bless me: the prayer of the people asking the blessing for their Bishop. Let us make, in silence, this prayer: your prayer over me.

The theme of fraternity was to be a feature of Pope Francis' subsequent pontificate; and for those familiar with the life of the Charismatic Renewal, that request for the people to pray a blessing over their bishop was not as unusual as it appeared to many at the time.

Pope Benedict XVI was brief and to the point:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

After the great Pope John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble labourer in the vineyard of the Lord.

The fact that the Lord knows how to work and to act even with inadequate instruments comforts me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers.

Let us move forward in the joy of the Risen Lord, confident of his unfailing help. The Lord will help us and Mary, his Most Holy Mother, will be on our side. Thank you.

Pope John Paul II's first greeting shows similar brevity, and a certain foreshadowing of the words of Pope Benedict XVI (my translation from the Italian):

 Praised be Jesus Christ.

Dearest brothers and sisters

We are still all sorrowful after the death of our most loved Pope John Paul I. And now the Eminent Cardinals have called a new bishop of Rome. They have called him from a distant land ... distant, but always so close by the communion in the Christian faith and tradition. I was fearful in receiving this nomination, but I have accepted it in a spirit of obedience towards Our Lord Jesus Christ and in total trust towards his Mother, the Most Holy Madonna.

I do not know if it is possible to explain myself in your ... in our Italian language. If I make a mistake you correct me. And so I present myself to you, by confessing our common faith, our hope, our trust in the Mother of Christ and of the Church, and also to set out anew on the way of the history of the Church, with the help of God and with the help of men.

The initial greeting - Praised be Jesus Christ - is traditional in some European countries, though not unknown here in Britain, and it has something of the testimony to faith in Christ that can be seen in Pope Leo XIV's first greeting. There is also an echo of Louis de Montfort's spirit in the words of "total trust" towards the Mother of God, which was to be shown in Pope John Paul II's motto "Totus Tuus". 

On the day of his election, Pope John Paul I gave only the blessing "Urbi et Orbi" from the balcony of the Vatican Basilica. It was at the Angelus the following day that he gave some account of his election (I have added italics to one paragraph):

Yesterday morning I went to the Sistine Chapel to vote tranquilly. Never could I have imagined what was about to happen. As soon as the danger for me had begun, the two colleagues who were beside me whispered words of encouragement. One said: "Courage! If the Lord gives a burden, he also gives the strength to carry it." The other colleague said: "Don't be afraid; there are so many people in the whole world who are praying for the new Pope." When the moment of decision came, I accepted.

Then there was the question of the name, for they also ask what name you wish to take, and I had thought little about it. My thoughts ran along these lines: Pope John had decided to consecrate me himself in St Peter's Basilica, then, however unworthy, I succeeded him in Venice on the Chair of St Mark, in that Venice which is still full of Pope John. He is remembered by the gondoliers, the Sisters, everyone.

Then Pope Paul not only made me a Cardinal, but some months earlier, on the wide footbridge in St Mark's Square, he made me blush to the roots of my hair in the presence of 20,000 people, because he removed his stole and placed it on my shoulders. Never have I blushed so much!

Furthermore, during his fifteen years of pontificate this Pope has shown, not only to me but to the whole world, how to love, how to serve, how to labour and to suffer for the Church of Christ.

For that reason I said: "I shall be called John Paul." I have neither the "wisdom of the heart" of Pope John, nor the preparation and culture of Pope Paul, but I am in their place. I must seek to serve the Church. I hope that you will help me with your prayers.

Each of the recent Popes have acknowledged their immediate predecessor, but Pope John Paul I shows a particular appreciation of the pontificate of Pope Paul VI in recognising his suffering on behalf of the Church. I also recall, upon reading the texts of Pope John Paul I's addresses during his short time as Pope, thinking that they were very comparable to the addresses of Pope Benedict XVI during the early part of his pontificate.

Pope Paul VI's first greeting after his election took the form of a Message to the Entire Human Family, dated the day after his election.

Venerable Brothers and beloved children of all the world!

On this day dedicated to the most sweet Heart of Jesus, in the act of taking up the duty of shepherding the flock of the Lord - which according to the expression of St Augustine is before all amoris officium (In Io. 123, 5) in exercise of paternal and thoughtful charity towards all the sheep, redeemed by the most precious blood of Jesus Christ - the first feeling which, before others, which arises from our heart is that of a firm confidence in the all powerful aid of the Lord. He, who had shown his adorable will by way of the consent of our venerable Brothers, the Fathers of the Sacred College, entrusting to Us the care and responsibility for the Holy Church, knows to instill in our soul, fearful because of the huge task imposed, the watchful and serene strength, the untiring zeal for his glory, the missionary anxiety for the clear, persuasive diffusion everywhere of the Gospel.

Pope St Paul then went on to mention each of his immediate predecessors as Pope, Pius XI, Pius XII and particularly John XXIII:

[John XXIII], who has given to the entire world the example of his singular goodness. But I wish to recall in an altogether particular way with pious memory and emotion the figure of the late John XXIII, who, in the short but most intense period of his ministry, know how to draw close to himself the hearts of men, also of those who were distant, by his unsleeping solicitude, by his sincere and concrete goodness for the humble, by the outstanding pastoral character of his action, qualities to which is added the altogether particular charm of the human gifts of his large heart.