Tag: Christianity

Addressing students during the school’s morning Mass on April 12, Father Michael Wakefield, pastor at St. Francis de Sales Church in Sherman Oaks, relayed a story about a woman who inquired about the healing garden along the parish’s outside wall.

“Is this only for those who were abused as children?” she asked.

“No, not at all,” Wakefield said.

“Good,” she said.

“She sat on one of the benches outside and sobbed the entire time,” recalled the priest. 

For Wakefield, stories like these help illustrate the deeper meaning of the events and activities organized around the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as part of National Child Abuse Prevention Month, marked every April. 

In coordination with the archdiocese’s Office of Safeguard the Children — celebrating its 20th anniversary this year — parishes hosted events like St. Francis of Sales’ throughout April to promote awareness and demonstrate closeness to victim-survivors of abuse. Among them was a special April 15 Mass dedicated to survivors of sexual abuse at the St. Camillus Center for Spiritual Care in East Los Angeles, the site of the first healing garden.

Their ultimate goal, organizers said, is a change of culture when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable among us. 

“This sexual abuse prevention programming that we do with kids is every bit as important as looking both ways before you cross the street or putting your seatbelt on when you get in the car,” said Heather Banis, Ph.D., victims assistance coordinator with the archdiocese’s Office of Victims Assistance Ministry. “Because these are safety measures.

“We’ve been at it for 20-plus years. The focus on prevention is huge and by our data, our audit report, I think it’s clear that a huge impact is happening.”

Part of the change, Banis said, also comes from repairing the damage done from the past and working to change the institution that allowed the wounds in the first place.

“First and foremost, we have a responsibility,” she said. “I think if we are calling ourselves Christians and Catholics, we have to acknowledge that and step up, take responsibility for what we did and didn’t do and then take active meaningful steps to fix that, to change that.”

For the past 20 years, more than 440,000 priests, educators, volunteers, and laypeople in the archdiocese have been trained in VIRTUS, a national program designed to help prevent child sexual abuse. More than 355,000 children and young people have participated in the “Empowering God’s Children and Young People Safety Program” to equip them with the tools to stay safe from potential harm.

Coupled with mandatory fingerprinting, the “Working Together to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse” brochure and consistent messaging both online and in parishes and schools, the archdiocese sees that the effort is paying off.

“It’s clear kids are feeling empowered to say, ‘I don’t want this touch’ or, ‘I didn’t like that touch,’ ” Banis said. “Or ‘I know if I get pressed and I’m uncomfortable, I can ask people about it because they’re prepared to talk to me about it.’

“It’s all about changing the culture for the kids to have that expectation of being believed, being heard, and being supported.”

Just as Wakefield took pride in his parish’s healing garden, one of the next accomplishments will be installing the final landscape in fulfilling the goal of having a garden in each of the archdiocese’s five regions. The fifth healing garden will be located in the San Pedro Pastoral Region and is expected to be completed by Nov. 18, the United Nations’ World Day for the Prevention of and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Violence.

“The gardens are the next layer in this, where there is that sense of permanence and acknowledgement, which is not something we’re trying to get over and move on from,” Banis said. “This is a sad, tragic part of our history but it is part of our history. From what survivors say to me, to see that kind of permanence is really impactful for them because they feel so invisible.”

Back at St. Francis de Sales’ Mass, students — clad in their blue, white, and gray uniforms — asked for special intentions: “May all who work with children and young people be vigilant in protecting them from harm.”

After the Mass, Wakefield took waves of students outside to the garden to explain its purpose and allow the children to place flowers or intentions and pray for those affected.

“Does this make up for it? No, it doesn’t,” Wakefield said. “That innocence has been taken away. But what we can do is provide some means of reaching out to people and trying to be a conduit of God’s goodness and God’s healing.”

Later, Wakefield was asked what prompted him to bring the healing garden to his parish.

“This is now what we do because we think our children are so important and our children are so precious to us,” he said. “It’s the least we can do to try to make up for the damage that was done.”

You can learn more about the Archdiocese of LA’s abuse prevention efforts at lacatholics.org/protect.

Chișinău, April 25, 2024

Photo: ortodox.md     

The Holy Synod of the Moldovan Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate gathered in Chișinău yesterday under the chairmanship of His Eminence Metropolitan Vladimir.

Among the Synod’s notable decisions was to establish the feast of the wonderworking icon of the Theotokos from the Nativity of the Theotokos Monastery in the village of Vărzărești, Nisporeni District, reports the Moldovan Church.

Thus, the icon will be locally venerated with a feast on May 4/17.

Founded in 1420, Vărzărești is the oldest monastery in Moldova. The icon dates to at least the 19th century. It was first revealed as wonderworking when it survived a fire. There are countless miracles attributed to the miraculous icon, which is celebrated with a procession every year on May 17.

Additionally, the dossier with the materials for the future canonization of the New Martyrs Hieromonk Vikenty (Kimityuk) and his mother Glyceria, who were killed on January 17, 1957 in the village of Tașlîc, was approved.

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Today is the feast of St. Mark the Evangelist, sometimes called John Mark in the New Testament. He is the author of the second Gospel, which he wrote in Greek for the Gentiles who converted to Christianity. Tradition says that the Romans also asked Mark to record the teachings of St. Peter about Jesus.

Mark is also said to have traveled to Cyprus with St. Paul and St. Barnabas, his cousin. He is traditionally considered the founder of the Church in Alexandria. Mark and his mother, Mary, were highly regarded in the early Church, and Mary’s home in Jerusalem served as a meeting place.

St. Mark is the patron saint of notaries.

Kuremäe, Estonia, April 24, 2024

pitbus.ru     

Yesterday morning, a delegation from the Estonian Ministry of Internal Affairs, led by Minister Lauri Läänemets, arrived at the Holy Dormition-Pukhtitsa Monastery in Kuremäe, Estonia, to discuss the future of the monastery in terms of its ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

Pukhtitsa Monastery was founded in 1891, with much assistance from St. John of Kronstadt. Besides the Pskov Caves Monastery, it is the only holy habitation to have never closed during the long decades of atheist Bolshevik rule.

However, now the monastery faces the possibility of closure because of its canonical status. Though on the territory of Estonia, Pukhtitsa is a stavropegial monastery, meaning it falls directly under the episcopal oversight of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

Following the publication of the document, “The Present and Future of the Russian World,” from the World Russian People’s Council public forum, chaired by Pat. Kirill, which speaks of a “holy war” in Ukraine, the Estonian government has Estonian Minister calls to recognize Moscow Patriarchate as terrorist organization, Church respondsThe Estonian Minister of the Interior wants the state to recognize the Moscow Patriarchate as a terrorist organization and therefore ban the Estonian Orthodox Church—an autonomous body within the Patriarchate.

“>ramped up efforts to expel the Moscow Patriarchate.

There have been two Orthodox jurisdictions in Estonia since the Patriarchate of Constantinople established a structure parallel to the already existing Church under the Moscow Patriarchate in 1996. And now, although the government has repeatedly stated that Estonian gov’t sees no tangible threat from Estonian Church but pressuring its parishes to join Constantinople“We’ve already held the first [parish] meetings and plan to further expand this activity next week,” said Raivo Kuyt, Vice Chancellor for Population and Civil Society of the Ministry of the Interior.

“>it sees no real security threat from the Estonian Orthodox Church, it is nevertheless meeting with parish and monastery communities to try to convince them to change jurisdictions and join Constantinople.

Interior Minister Läänemets initially spoke of designating the Moscow Patriarchate a “terrorist organization,” and a bill Estonian Minister softens language about call to recognize Russian Church as “terrorist organization”Meanwhile, Ahti Kallikorm, a member of the Isamaa (Fatherland) Party, called on the state to break its church leases with the Estonian Orthodox Church (an autonomous body within the Moscow Patriarchate).

“>is currently before the Parliament calling it an accomplice to Russian aggression. There have been conflicting voices from within the government at various levels, with some claiming the churches will remain open even if they don’t join Constantinople, while others voice threats of closure. The mayor of Tallinn has already terminated the lease for the Metropolitan’s office.

For Läänemets, Pukhtitsa and the Estonian Orthodox Church are subordinate not only to Pat. Kirill, but “in fact to the Kremlin regime.”

According to him, the state does not want to increase tensions with the Church, and wants to give communities the chance to “stop this subordination” themselves, he told Estonian outlet err.ee.

“It is impossible to obey a religious leader who declared that the Estonian state should not exist,” the Minister said, though he did not clarify when Pat. Kirill made such a statement.

And although representatives of the Ministry of the Interior have previously promised that no churches will be closed either way, Läänemets told err.ee that if they don’t willingly leave the Moscow Patriarchate, the state “will have to apply through the court for a forced termination of activities.”

At the same time, the Minister acknowledges that a church or monastery cannot simply change its jurisdiction. The hierarchs of the Estonian Church Estonian Minister calls to recognize Moscow Patriarchate as terrorist organization, Church respondsThe Estonian Minister of the Interior wants the state to recognize the Moscow Patriarchate as a terrorist organization and therefore ban the Estonian Orthodox Church—an autonomous body within the Patriarchate.

“>issued a statement earlier this month emphasizing this point—that while it is administered independently in Tallinn, the Church is part of the Moscow Patriarchate and its statutes do not allow it to simply change its own canonical status.

Following the visit from Läänemets, the monastery issued a press release, also making the same point. According to the monastery, led by Abbess Philareta, if the government wants the monastery to cease being stavropegial (a status granted by Estonian-born Patriarch Alexei II), then it is welcome to make its own appeal to Pat. Kirill.

“Such a course is canonically legitimate for the convent’s residents,” the monastery states. At the same time, the monastery stipulates that it can accept no longer being stavropegial, directly under the Patriarch, only if the state guarantees that there will be no pressure about which jurisdiction the monastery then chooses to join.

The press release reads:

On April 23, 2024, at 8 AM, the monastery was visited by the Minister of Internal Affairs of Estonia, Lauri Läänemets, with advisors. The meeting was initiated by the Ministry. Representing the monastery were Abbess Philareta (Kalacheva), the senior priest of the monastery, Igumen Samuel (Karask), the monastery’s lawyer, and a translator.

The Minister expressed concerns about the influence on the Orthodox flock of Patriarch Kirill’s statements regarding the “military operation in Ukraine,” as well as the Patriarch’s opinion expressed at the World Russian People’s Council in March of this year. According to the Minister, the purpose of the visit was to discuss possible ways out of the current situation.

Mr. Läänemets stated that the state does not want to escalate the conflict with Orthodox believers, therefore, it proposes to consider renouncing the stavropegial status of the monastery to eliminate the possibility of spiritual influence by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

Abbess Philareta thanked the Minister and his advisors for the opportunity for dialogue and the government’s desire to find solutions to the problems that have arisen. The Minister’s proposal was responded to as follows:

1.     Pukhtitsa Monastery received its stavropegial status from the ever-memorable Patriarch Alexei II in 1990. For the monastery, the memory of this Patriarch is sacred, as during the Khruschev era, being a bishop, he saved the convent from closure. Both sides agreed that during its existence, the Pukhtitsa Monastery has not compromised itself by participating in political actions nor allowed any political forces to manipulate it.

2.     The stavropegial status is stipulated in the monastery’s statutes, which state that changing jurisdiction is not possible. Therefore, the monastery itself cannot initiate the renunciation of its stavropegial status.

If the government of the Republic of Estonia, represented by the Minister of Internal Affairs, insists on changing the jurisdiction of the monastery, then as the initiator of the process, the government itself may approach Patriarch Kirill with a proposal to cancel the stavropegial status of Pukhtitsa Monastery. Abbess Philareta noted that such a course is canonically legitimate for the convent’s residents.

It should be noted that for the monastery, the only acceptable outcome of the process of canceling the stavropegial status is a guarantee from the government of the Republic of Estonia of freedom for the monastery to choose its jurisdiction without any pressure in this matter.

Read more about Pukhtitsa Monastery in the articles, “The Amazing and Beautiful Holy Dormition-Pukhtitsa MonasteryPukhtitsa Monastery in Estonia is a special place of pilgrimage not only for Orthodox Christians from Russia and the Baltic States, but from many other countries as well.

“>The Amazing and Beautiful Holy Dormition-Pukhtitsa Monastery” and “Pukhtitsa Dormition Convent: An Uninterrupted Tradition of Female MonasticismHow does a monastery that was never closed in the Soviet years and that has raised up abbesses for many convents in various dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church live today? Does it preserve the inheritance left by former abbess Mother Barbara? We spoke with the current Pukhtitsa mother superior, Abbess Philareta (Kalacheva) on these questions and on monastic life in general.”>Pukhtitsa Dormition Convent: An Uninterrupted Tradition of Female Monasticism.”

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St. Fidelis lived between the 16th and 17th centuries in Western Europe, which was a time of great conflict for the Church. Born Mark Rey in 1577 in what is now Germany, Fidelis studied at the University of Freiburg, and earned his law degree in 1611.

Although he had studied canon and civil law, Mark opted to become a secular attorney, focusing on the poor and needy. After he became disgusted with the corrupt ways of the law, he left his legal practice and was ordained a priest. Mark then joined the Capuchin Franciscans in Freiburg, taking the name “Fidelis,” meaning “faithful.”

Fidelis embraced radical poverty and simplicity, and left his inheritance and his books to a scholarship fund for poor seminarians. He spent much of his time preaching, writing, and celebrating the sacraments, caring for the poor and sick, and soldiers suffering from the plague.

In 1614, a Swiss bishop sought help from the Capuchins to restore the faith and halt the spread of Calvinist Protestantism. Fidelis was sent, bringing with him only four items: a Bible, prayer book, crucifix, and copy of the Capuchin rule.

He spent many months preaching from the pulpit and in public places, bringing many Swiss Protestants back to the Church. But tensions between the Protestants and Catholics continued to rise, eventually boiling over on April 24, 1622. Fidelis’ preaching provoked a riot at a church in Seewis. Several Austrian soldiers were killed in the chaos, and a would-be assassin tried to shoot Fidelis. He declined a Protestant’s offer of help, but was confronted outside of the church by a mob. They told him to choose between his life or his faith. Fidelis defied, saying, “The Catholic religion is the faith of all ages. I fear not death.”

The mob beat and stabbed St. Fidelis to death, but the sight of his martyrdom is said to have converted one of the Protestant preachers who had led the mob.

Bancheny, Chernivtsi Province, Ukraine, April 24, 2024

Photo: pravlife.org The sickly and much persecuted Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny, one of the staunchest hierarchs of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, was subject to harassment by Ukrainian officials again this week.

His Eminence was physically attacked in his home Persecuted Metropolitan Longin attacked at home, has to undergo surgery”This happened on the night of January 22, 2024. Someone knocked on the door three times, and when I opened it, I was struck and knocked unconscious.”

“>in late January and had to undergo emergency eye surgery. On Monday, he was on his way home from another procedure on his eyes when his car was detained at the border for more than half an hour without cause, the monastery reported on YouTube.

Such harassment is known to aggravate the hierarch’s condition. His car was unjustifiably detained and searched on a return trip from a hospital in Kiev Persecuted Metropolitan Longin suffers heart arrhythmia during search of his carUkrainian authorities continue to harass His Eminence Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny, a hierarch of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, aggravating his poor health condition.

“>in late December, and he suffered a heart arrhythmia during the ordeal.

The border officials refused to let the Metropolitan go on Monday, even though he said he wasn’t feeling well after his surgery. The guards also illegally refused to show their identification.

Though officially recognized as a Hero of Ukraine for having adopted hundreds of orphans, Ukraine going after Metropolitan Longin, Hero of Ukraine, father of 100s of orphans (+VIDEO)Ukraine’s latest hierarchical target is one of the most beloved and authoritative bishops of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

“>the state now considers him an enemy because he staunchly remains within the Orthodox Church. He is “It’s a great joy when you taste these bitter trials”—UOC hierarch announces state is taking him to courtHis Eminence Metropolitan Longin of Bancheny of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a beloved hierarch and father to 100s of orphans, announced on Tuesday that the state’s investigation against him has finished, and the matter will now go to court.”>accused of “inciting religious enmity”—the same phony charge being brought against a number of Orthodox hierarchs.

His Eminence has suffered several severe health incidents since the state launched its campaign against him. He suffered a stroke back Ukrainian Metropolitan, father of 100s of orphans, victim of state oppression, suffers severe strokeOne of the most beloved hierarchs of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church suffered a severe stroke and was hospitalized on Friday, July 21.

“>in July, and he was admitted to the hospital Persecuted Metropolitan Longin again hospitalized with heart problemsArmed security forces surrounded and searched his monastery last month, scaring the orphans who live there.”>in December with atrial fibrillation, after which he Persecuted Metropolitan Longin undergoes heart surgeryThe Metropolitan has been in poor health in recent years, which is only exacerbated by the pressure of the Ukrainian state’s persecution against the Church and against him personally.”>underwent heart surgery. Later that month, he suffered the aforementioned heart arrhythmia, and Persecuted Metropolitan Longin undergoes another heart surgeryThough officially recognized as a Hero of Ukraine for having adopted hundreds of orphans, the state now considers him an enemy because he staunchly remains within the Orthodox Church.”>in February, he underwent another heart procedure.

Armed security forces surrounded and searched his monastery Armed security forces surround Ukrainian monastery that is home to hundreds of orphans (+VIDEO)The monastery is run by His Eminence Metropolitan Longin, one of the most authoritative hierarchs of the UOC, who is also the adopted father to hundreds of orphans who are cared for at the monastery.

“>in November, scaring the orphans who live there. Furthermore, His Eminence’s previous lawyer, Valentin Sukhari, died from poisoning in November. House of persecuted Metropolitan Longin goes up in flames in western UkraineThankfully, the Metropolitan was not harmed, but the roof of the house was destroyed and the structure is no longer suitable for living in. Locals are certain it was a case of arson.”>In early January, his house in in Bukovina went up in flames.

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Amid pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University that have led to more than 100 arrests, forced classes online, and left Jewish students and faculty feeling unsafe and unwelcome, the university’s Catholic chaplain says the path forward “must first ensure that such malevolent protests, brimming with anti-Semitism, be stopped.”

“The solution is going to require prioritizing among values and being more clear and decisive,” Father Roger Landry told Crux via email late on April 22. “I think that the educational mission of the university and the safety and protection of its students have to be vigorously defended, rather than, de facto, allowing protests to control the university’s agenda and milieu.”

Landry said he has witnessed many pro-Palestine protests that have taken place in and around the New York university since mid-October – when Israel began its retaliation against Hamas in Gaza after the terrorist organization on Oct. 7 killed more than 1,400 people, and took more than 200 hostages.

Thousands of Gazans have died since, and more than 1.5 million are now displaced.

Landry, who is Columbia’s Catholic chaplain, said that while many protests have remained peaceful, many have also turned “ugly, as some in the crowds chant and behave in ways inimical to peace on campus, in the Middle East, or anywhere.”

“If the protests happening on and around Columbia’s campus were peaceful, I don’t think Jewish students would feel endangered,” Landry said. “Protests that feature pro-Hamas slogans or justifications for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, that chant ‘From the River to the Sea’ that Jewish students interpret as a call for the elimination of the State of Israel, and that praise the Al-Qassam brigades are not peaceful, but downright hostile.”

Landry said he has “concern and sadness over what’s happening.” He said he laments that at a time in which students should be preparing for exams, writing final papers and enjoying spring, the campus is essentially under lockdown, Jewish students feel unsafe and unwelcome, student protestors are getting arrested, and classes are being canceled or moved online. On April 23, the university announced that students will have the option to attend class remotely for the rest of the semester.

Landry also lamented that “division, hostility and class warfare are being fomented, and various outside elements are trying to use Columbia as a backdrop to push their political agendas.”

“The students who have come here for an education are being forgotten, it seems, by those in positions of leadership on all sides, as the toxic animosities of Middle Eastern conflicts have overflowed onto campus,” Landry, a priest of the Diocese of Fall River, Massachusetts, said. “The principles, prudence and courage necessary to help resolve the conflict have been wanting.”

Current protests at Columbia University boiled over last week, when students set up an encampment on the university’s South Lawn to oppose Israel’s military action in Gaza, and demand that the university divest from companies with ties to Israel. Ultimately, more than 100 demonstrators were arrested after the university called in police to help dispel the crowd.

Protests have continued this week, with protestors also now there to stand in solidarity with those arrested last week. On April 23, about 150 demonstrators were arrested for defying a university order to leave.

Landry said that when he’s passed the current encampment at Columbia University it has been “tranquil, and a more silent form of protest.” The challenge, he said, is that it shows no signs of shutting down on its own and that “every day that nothing happens in consequence, some among the protestors get bolder.”

“Under the present dynamics, it seems bound to grow,” Landry said.

In his role as a Catholic leader on Columbia’s campus, Landry said he is working with the university’s Catholic students to help them recognize the importance of prayer and love, and that they’re called to be peacemakers. He also said he is helping students focus on what they can do to improve the situation, and informing them of how Pope Francis and the Holy See have addressed the war.

“We’re praying each day for the situation and trying to reach out to those immediately affected – Jewish students, Palestinian students and those from Gaza and others – to make sure they know we have their back,” Landry said.

Kiev, April 24, 2024

Photo: lavra.ua     

A number of men have received monastic tonsures at the Holy Dormition-Kiev Caves Lavra over the past week.

Despite the ongoing war and the state persecution, the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church continues to thrive, including the Kiev Caves Lavra, which has been especially targeted by authorities who have been trying to drive the monks out of their home for over a year now.

Nine monastic tonsures in the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church this weekA number of men and women of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church received monastic tonsures this week, as the Church continues its journey through Great Lent.

“>Last week, OrthoChristian reported on tonsures at several UOC monasteries.

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Pavel of Vyshgorod, the abbot of the Lavra who has been under house arrest or held in pre-trial detention for the past year, two riassaphore monks were tonsured as stavrophore monks on the Thursday of the Great Canon, when the Church reads the life of St. Mary of Egypt, the Lavra reports.

The rite was served by the monastery confessor Archimandrite Anthony. After the service, the newly tonsured monks went to the Elevation of the Cross Church, where they spent three days in prayer.

Photo: lavra.ua     

And yesterday, Archimandrite Anthony tonsured three novices as riassaphore monks with the names Aristobul, Aristarkh, and Cleopa.

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Pope Francis met briefly with Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco Systems — the U.S. digital communications conglomerate — after Robbins signed on to the “Rome Call for AI Ethics,” a project coordinated by the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Artificial Intelligence “is no longer a topic just for experts, and reflecting on the ethics of its development is more urgent than ever,” said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the pontifical academy and its RenAIssance Foundation, which promotes projects looking at the ethics of AI and its impact.

Franciscan Father Paolo Benanti, a professor at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University and member of the U.N. Artificial Intelligence Advisory Board, also attended the signing ceremony at the Vatican April 24. Father Benanti has become a leading voice on AI issues and a global ambassador for the Catholic Church’s advocacy of ethical AI development.

Launched in 2020, the Rome Call originally brought together the pontifical academy, the leaders of Microsoft and IBM — two of the world’s leading developers of artificial intelligence software — the Italian government and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization to promote ethical choices in developing the technology, legal standards in regulating it and education efforts to help people understand artificial intelligence and its role in a vast array of applications.

Other companies, governments, universities and religious leaders have signed the call, pledging to ensure “human beings and nature are at the heart of how digital innovation is developed” and that they are “supported rather than gradually replaced by technologies that behave like rational actors but are in no way human.”

The signatories also are pushing for the development of “algorethics,” an ethical framework to ensure the algorithms used to build artificially intelligent systems promote what is true, fair and ethical.

A press release from the pontifical academy quoted Robbins as saying, “AI is fundamentally changing our world — presenting vast opportunities, but also new challenges. For nearly 40 years Cisco has built the networks that connect people and organizations across the globe, and today we are building the critical infrastructure and security solutions that will power the AI revolution.”

“The Rome Call principles,” he said, “align with Cisco’s core belief that technology must be built on a foundation of trust at the highest levels in order to power an inclusive future for all.”

In February, Cisco launched a partnership with tech giant NVIDIA to provide advanced AI infrastructure solutions on a large scale with the aim of giving businesses the computing power to integrate AI into their workflow.

While the virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance are the marks of a righteous individual, the virtues of faith, hope and love emphasize a connection to other people fueled by belief in God and reliance on prayer, Pope Francis said.

“The Christian is never alone. He or she does good not because of a titanic effort of personal commitment, but because, as a humble disciple, he or she walks behind the master Jesus,” the pope said April 24 at his weekly general audience.

Bundled up in a coat on a chilly spring morning, Pope Francis continued his audience talks about virtue, distinguishing between the “cardinal” — meaning “hinge” — virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance, which are essential for living a righteous life, and the “theological” or New Testament virtues of faith, hope and charity.

The cardinal virtues were espoused and promoted by ancient philosophers well before the development of Christianity, the pope said. “Honesty was preached as a civic duty, wisdom as the rule for actions, courage as the fundamental ingredient for a life that tends toward the good and moderation as the necessary measure not to be overwhelmed by excesses.”

Christianity, he said, did not replace that ethical heritage, but “enhanced, purified, and integrated” it with the teachings of Jesus about faith, hope and love.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the pope noted, says the three theological virtues “are the foundation of Christian moral activity; they animate it and give it its special character. They inform and give life to all the moral virtues.”

Those virtues, he said, also are “the great antidote to self-sufficiency” and prevent a good person from falling into pride.

“Pride is a poison; it is a powerful poison: one drop of it is enough to spoil an entire life marked by goodness,” the pope said.

If people perform good works only “to exalt themselves, can they still call themselves virtuous? No,” he said.

“Goodness is not only an end, but also a way. Goodness needs a lot of discretion, a lot of kindness,” the pope said. “Above all, goodness needs to be stripped of that sometimes too unwieldy presence that is our self.”

Greeting Polish pilgrims, Pope Francis noted that April 27 is the 10th anniversary of the canonization of St. John Paul II. “Looking at his life, we can see what man can achieve by accepting and developing within himself the gifts of God: faith, hope and charity.”

Amid an ongoing debate about liberalizing the nation’s abortion laws, Pope Francis asked Polish Catholics to “remain faithful to his legacy. Promote life and do not be deceived by the culture of death.”

Expressing his ongoing concern about wars in Ukraine, the Middle East and Myanmar, Pope Francis encouraged people to ask, through the intercession of St. John Paul, “for the gift of peace to which he, as pope, was so committed.”