Tag: Christianity

Drama, Macedonia, Greece, March 15, 2024

Photo: orthodoxianewsagency.com     

Remarkable facts about the history of Panagia Eikosiphoinissa Monastery in Pangaio, Greece, have been discovered in manuscripts that were recently returned to the convent 100 years after they were stolen.

In 1917, hundreds of items were plundered from the monastery in northern Greece by Bulgarian combatants in WWI, including three 16th and 17th-century manuscripts that eventually made their way to America.

They were sold at auction in 2008, but the buyer later returned them, believing the manuscripts to have been stolen. At that point, the documents were misplaced, and only Lost Manuscripts Stolen from Greek Monastery Found in New YorkThree Greek 16th and 17th-Century manuscripts taken from a monastery by Bulgarian combatants in 1917 during World War I that wound up at a Manhattan gallery – then lost – were found there and will be returned to Greece.

“>found years later when offices at Swann Auction Galleries were being renovated.

The manuscripts were ceremonially returned to their rightful home Manuscripts stolen from Greek monastery 100 years ago returned to rightful homeYesterday, October 17, at the Patriarchate’s representation office in Athens, Metropolitan Theodoritos of Laodicea presented the stolen and recovered manuscripts to Metropolitan Dorotheos of Drama and the Abbess of Panagia Eikosiphoinissa Monastery, Mother Antonini.

“>in October of last year.

And according to a new announcement from the Diocese of Drama, a note and text related to the massacre of the monks of Eikosiphoinissa by the Ottomans in 1507 were found in the manuscripts, reports the Orthodoxia News Agency.

Researchers were aware of the existence of the manuscript and the that 172 monks were slaughtered, but now the names of all the victims—202 in all—are known.

The note states: “In the year 1507, a great and unforeseen calamity came upon the holy monastery, and they cut down the monks and plundered the monastery, on the 25th of August, indiction 10.”

The victims included 24 hieromonks, 3 hierodeacons, 145 lay monks, and 30 pilgrims.

A study of the manuscript determined that the writing is contemporaneous with the massacre.

The Metropolis of Drama considers the discovery a great blessing and will continue the struggle to return other manuscripts and relics to the monastery.

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Hîrtop, Florești District, Moldova, March 15, 2024

Photo: mitropolia.md     

A parish in rural Moldova has begun delivering hot meals to lonely and bedridden elderly people.

The new initiative, Social Canteen on Wheels, was launched on Sunday, March 10, offering “the opportunity to benefit from a warm meal and warm human contact,” reports the Moldovan Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate).

The church in the village of Hîrtop has already been providing hot meals for those who come to the church since 2016, but now, together with the St. Stephen the Great Spiritual-Cultural Center, the parish community is going to those who can’t come.

“Through this project, we try to provide not only food and groceries, but also the warmth and human support needed to help them cope with the challenges of everyday life. It’s a great joy for an elderly person to have someone knock on their door,” said Fr. Sergiu Boldirescu.

“The greatest joy can be experienced primarily by the organizers and the team of volunteers, those who take on the Christian commitment to bring a drop of joy to those who are living books from whom much can be learned,” the report states.

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Balamand, Lebanon, March 15, 2024

Joseph Zehlaoui, defrocked former Metropolitan and head of Antiochian Archdiocese of North America. Photo: nationalherald.com     

The former head of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, Joseph Zehlaoui, was defrocked by the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Antioch during its session in Balamand, Lebanon, this week.

Antioch investigating “ecclesiastical transgressions” of Met. Joseph, former head of American ArchdioceseThe committee will report to the Holy Synod, which will make the appropriate decision.

“>Late last month, it was announced that a Synodal committee was investigating his “ecclesiastical transgressions.”

The committee having found that the former Metropolitan committed actions improper to a clergyman, including initiating legal proceedings against the Church, the Holy Synod ruled to defrock him and return him to the rank of layman, the Antiochian Patriarchate reports.

The relevant section of the Synodal report reads:

The Holy Synod was informed of the results of the Synodal Committee formed by the Patriarch regarding the events surrounding the resignation of Metropolitan Joseph Zehlaoui, formerly Metropolitan of the Archdiocese of North America.

To the dismay of the Synod Fathers, following his retirement, retired Metropolitan Joseph Zehlaoui wrongfully claimed rights over Archdiocesan property; through his attorneys, he demanded from the Archdiocese a large sum of money and threatened legal action and public conflict with the Church, reflecting through his demands an improper attitude as a bishop with regard to monetary matters; and he ultimately filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese in U.S. civil court. These actions contravene Holy Scripture and the Holy Canons. Therefore, the Holy Synod found retired Metropolitan Joseph Zehlaoui guilty of canonical violations related to:

– Improper actions as clergyman (retired Metropolitan) with respect to church property and monetary matters, and

– Initiating a legal proceeding against the Church in a civil court.

Consequently, the Holy Synod defrocked the retired Metropolitan Joseph Zehlaoui from the holy episcopacy and returned him to the rank of layman. He is no longer entitled to the privileges and benefits associated with a bishop of the Orthodox Church. The Synod prays that he will spend the remainder of his life in peace and repentance.

The Synod also directs the Archdiocese of North America to take the necessary measures to preserve all the rights, interests, and property of the Archdiocese.

***

Former Metropolitan Joseph was enthroned as head of the Archdiocese in New Head of Antiochian Church in America Enthroned; Antiochian Patriarch to Meet with Officials on Issues in SyriaThe second largest Orthodox Christian Church in North America has a new leader, enthroned by the head of one of the oldest churches on earth.

“>December 2014, having already served as a bishop for more than two decades in Syria and the U.S.

In 2022, Helena Ditko revealed to Archdiocesan officials that she had been romantically involved with him from 2001 to 2017 (she was divorced in 2004), and that she could no longer remain silent. The accusations and investigation were leaked and published online, and the resulting scandal led to the former hierarch’s retirement Metropolitan of Antiochian Archdiocese retires amidst moral claimsPatriarch John calls upon the Archdiocese to remain united in prayer.

“>last September.

Then, Former head of Antiochian Archdiocese sues over severance package—alleges promises were brokenAccording to Metropolitan Joseph (Al-Zehlaoui), he has not been given the generous severance package he was promised.

“>in October of last year, Zehlaoui brought a lawsuit against the Archdiocese and several board members, arguing that he has not been given the severance package he was promised.

In addition to a number of other benefits he says he was promised, Zehlaoui hoped to continue living at the Los Angeles chancery, though he also owns a home in Post Falls, Idaho, that is valued at nearly $1.7 million.

The former Metropolitan is seeking at least $5 million in compensatory damages, as well punitive damages and declaratory and injunctive relief.

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As the Supreme Court prepares to take up two cases on access to pills commonly used for early abortions, U.S. Catholic bishops have issued a nationwide call to prayer to end abortion and protect women and unborn children.

The invitation was issued March 14 by Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for Military Services, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Pro-Life Activities.

The prayer campaign, which seeks the intercession of St. Joseph as the “Defender of Life,” begins March 25, the day before the Supreme Court hears oral arguments for Food and Drug Administration v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and Danco Laboratories v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. Both cases center on the drug mifepristone and its widespread availability.

The start date also marks the anniversary of the release of Pope St. John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of Life”). The encyclical itself was published on that year’s observance of the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord, which in 2024 will be celebrated Monday, April 8.

The daily prayer for the campaign is available in English and Spanish at respectlife.org/prayer-to-st-joseph.

“We ask Catholics to offer this prayer daily, from March 25 through June, when a decision is expected,” wrote Archbishop Broglio and Bishop Burbidge.

First approved by the FDA in 2000, mifepristone blocks the hormone progesterone, which maintains proper conditions in the uterus during pregnancy. The drug is paired with misoprostol (initially created to treat gastric ulcers) as part of a chemical regimen used in more than half of all U.S. abortions in 2020.

More recently, the same pill combination has also been prescribed to women who experience early pregnancy miscarriage in order to expel any fetal remains and residual pregnancy tissue from the womb. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists updated its protocols to recommend a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol as more effective than misoprostol alone for early miscarriage care based on research published since 2018.

Last year, the doctors and medical professionals represented by the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine challenged the FDA’s greenlighting of mifepristone as unsafe.

While it struck down the alliance’s request in August 2023, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did revoke the FDA’s efforts to increase access to the drug. Nonetheless, an earlier stay issued by the nation’s top court has maintained broad access to the drug.

The bishops acknowledged that the upcoming Supreme Court case “is not about ending chemical abortion,” but still has the potential to “restore limitations that the FDA has overridden.”

“When a Supreme Court decision is released, probably in June, we can expect a public and political reaction similar to the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade,” they wrote.

On March 11, Bishop Burbidge issued a statement expressing “great sorrow” after the body of a preterm baby was discovered in a pond in Leesburg, Virginia.

The bishop asked the faithful to pray “for the child’s mother and for anyone involved in this incident” and offered burial services while highlighting diocesan resources for women in challenging pregnancies.

Kiev, March 15, 2024

Photo: news.church.ua     

As every year, the primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has blessed the faithful to take up a special Lenten prayer rule for spiritual growth and for peace.

In his Lenten address, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine, blesses the faithful to “make seven prostrations with the Jesus Prayer every day—for the forgiveness of our sins, and to read one chapter of the Holy Gospel—for peace in our land and throughout the world.”

Read his entire address:

Dear brothers and sisters! Beloved children of the Church of Christ!

By the grace of God, the days of Great Lent are beginning—a special time that, following the image of the Gospel parable, returns us from the distant land of sin to the house of our Heavenly Father (Lk. 15:11-32).

Every year, the coming of the salvific days of Lent gives us the opportunity to cast aside the works of darkness (Rom. 13:12) and return to the path of life (Ps. 16:11). This is facilitated both by the calendrical period of the Holy Forty Days, coinciding with the season of spring’s awakening of nature, and by the special penitential atmosphere of the Lenten services.

Observing Great Lent is not only important but also an essential condition for the right path to salvation. Great Lent opens our spiritual eyes and gives us the opportunity to see our true selves before God, to analyze and correct ourselves in the light of the coming eternity. In instructing its children on the grace-filled time of fasting, the Holy Church reminds us that we are called to be enlightened by the spiritual power of the Lord, Who is light, and in Whom there is no darkness at all (1 Jn. 1:5). True spiritual life is not only the renunciation of evil and moral perfection, but also the acquisition of the grace of the Holy Spirit, the transformation of the human soul by the Divine power of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is risen from the dead.

In the sacred days of the Holy Forty Days, let us intensify our fervent prayers for peace to the God of peace (1 Thess. 5:23). May the fruits of our fasting be the increase of love, the cessation of hostility and bloodshed, the eradication of hatred and all malice, so that, having worthily passed through the ordeal of spiritual struggle, we may become dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:11).

Every year during the Holy Forty Days, we have taken special prayer rules upon ourselves. This year, the faithful of our Holy Church are blessed to make seven prostrations with the Jesus Prayer every day—for the forgiveness of our sins, and to read one chapter of the Holy Gospel—for peace in our land and throughout the world.

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Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, provided both diagnoses of and prescriptions for the most pervasive spiritual maladies of our times in an interview with EWTN News Rome correspondent Colm Flynn.

One of the most popular bishops in the United States and founder of the Word on Fire evangelization ministry, Barron told Flynn the spiritual crisis of our age is stoked by “the immanentism, the materialism, the secularism that has taken hold of much of our culture.”

“Nothing in this world can satisfy the hungry heart. You can deceive yourself for a while,” he explained. “But the heart knows otherwise and will rebel against that sort of immanentism.”

Barron told Flynn he also sees hopeful signs and opportunities for the Church.

He has observed that even “some of the most popular podcasts in the world” that were secularized 10 years ago are now using “spiritual language.”

“I’m aware of that, kind of in the zeitgeist, there’s this moment of new spiritual interest,” he said. “Let’s take advantage of it … the Church should move into that space to say boldly, but lovingly, we have the answers. You’ve now experienced the hunger. We got the bread of life, that will satisfy you.”

Barron said that within the Church itself, another hopeful sign is the renewed focus on the Eucharist, which in the United States will culminate this year in the National Eucharistic Congress that will take place July 17–21 in Indianapolis.

Asked what he hopes will be the fruit of the country’s Eucharistic Revival, the bishop answered: “A keener sense of the importance of Jesus Christ … so that I hope it awakens people’s faith.”

Forgiveness Sunday. Artist: Kopnyak Valery. Photo: triptonkosti.ru     

Today the Holy Church reminds us in its hymns of the Sermon on the Remembrance of Adam’s Exile from ParadiseThe Lord God bestowed free will upon Adam, as He also has upon you and me. This is a very great but also very responsible gift. As a test of free will, as a confirmation of faithfulness to the Father, in Paradise grew the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Of course it was also intended for man, but the Lord foretold that the time had not yet come for young Adam to know about good and evil.

“>casting out of Adam from paradise, of man’s loss of blessedness and joy. The Holy Church warns us of the terrible power of sin, and calls us who stand before the doors opening to the Holy Forty Days, to force ourselves and tear ourselves away from the maelstrom of everyday vanity.

We often lull ourselves with the thought that the Lord is greatly merciful, that just as He forgave the The Sunday of the Prodigal SonThe Sunday of the Prodigal Son

“>Prodigal Son, accepted the Publican, and forgave the good thief on the cross, He will also have mercy on us. However, my dear ones, we forget that all of those men had not only strong faith, but also profound repentance and total conversion to Christ. Tell me, do we each have this?

The weeks of Great Lent in Questions and AnswersGreat Lent is a very special time, including in the Church calendar, but not all days of Great Lent are the same.

“>Great Lent are a time of abstinence from everything that binds a person to earth, and lowers his dignity; these are days of increased spiritual life. And each of us, in the days of Great Lent, should look more deeply into ourselves, think about how we live, what seeds we sow with our thoughts and the example of our lives in our family circles and in those around us. We should prepare ourselves for a meeting with the Lord. We are given the days of Great Lent to help us in this work on ourselves.

Entering the gates of the Holy Forty Days, we hear from the lips of Apostle Paul, What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? (1 Cor. 16:9-20). There is a brief parable about a man who loved precious aromatic myrrh. Well, one day he decided to throw a vessel of fragrant myrrh into the stinking trash. This ruined the expensive myrrh. What will you say, dear brothers and sisters, about this man? Each of us will say of him, “He is pitiful, stupid, abnormal… But this brief parable applies to us, because we do the same thing as this pitiful man. After all, along with our good deeds and virtues we mix in unfriendliness, resentfulness, anger, irritation, and ambition—and by this we spoil our good deeds, our best instincts. We kill them this way.

“We brightly begin the time of the fast”, Christ’s Church calls out to our awareness. And in the Gospels we heard today, the Lord shows us what is needed for us to brightly pass through the time of Great Lent. Forgiveness is a mandatory condition for new life in Christ. It is the first step of spiritual work on ourselves. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, says the Lord. Forgive thy neighbour if he hath hurt thee: and then shall thy sins be forgiven to thee when thou prayest (Sir. 28:25).

Are you ready, dear ones, to enter into the time of Great Lent, to forgive your neighbors, for any offense they’ve caused you? But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face. What does this mean? According to the explanation of the holy fathers, the head of the body is the mind, and the face is the thoughts and feelings. If you want your fast to be pleasing to God and successful, make your mind merciful, and wash your thoughts and feelings of all that is impure and base, the Lord tells us. Everything here is simple and understandable.

Thus, dear brothers and sisters, let us make an effort for the good and bright in our own selves. Do not forget that each of our efforts towards goodness is our participation in the common struggle with evil, in the common struggle for Christ in this world. Amen.

In an exclusive interview with EWTN News, Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, spoke of the continued need for humanitarian aid in his country and discussed Pope Francis’ peace efforts and the recent controversy over same-sex blessings.

The Ukrainian patriarch was in the U.S. for a week of meetings with public officials and Church leaders to foster renewed support for Ukraine. He spoke with EWTN at the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington, D.C.

Shevchuk emphasized his gratitude to the American people for their support but voiced concern that the U.S. could be tiring of helping Ukraine. He pleaded: “Please don’t give up Ukraine.”

War in Ukraine

Though conveying a “message of gratitude” to the American people, Shevchuk voiced his worry that ordinary Ukrainian people are being forgotten as prolonged political debate over support for Ukraine has delayed action.

As the Ukraine-Russia war hits its two-year mark, there are currently 14.6 million Ukrainians in urgent humanitarian need, according to Shevchuk.

“We cannot say, okay, I’ll eat on the next week,” he said, adding that the Ukrainian Catholic Church “is a main actor in this humanitarian action of assistance to the Ukrainian people, and I can testify that aid cannot be delayed.”

Instead of thinking of the war in political terms, Shevchuk urged the American people to think of Ukraine in terms of its “simple, suffering people.”

“Each day, probably 200 Ukrainians are killed and any delay of the capability to receive the help to protect those people is paid with their blood.”

Reflecting on his personal experience of the war, Shevchuk said that though “nobody is safe in Ukraine,” intelligence reports have indicated that he is one of Russia’s top 10 targets for elimination.

“So, it is dangerous. But that is the mission of each bishop in that time to journey with his own flock,” he said. “From the very beginning, I completely entrusted myself, my life, into God’s hand. Lord, let your will be done. If you want me alive, it means that I have to serve your people. I am still alive, which means that I have a mission.”

“Jesus Christ today is crucified in the crucified body of Ukraine. And we venerate him in the wounds of the simple people,” he said.

Pope Francis

Shevchuk said there is a great desire among the people of Ukraine for Pope Francis to visit the country and that they “are praying” for him to come soon.

Despite this, Shevchuk admitted that the Vatican’s neutrality in the wake of the war “was not very well received in Ukraine in the beginning, because how can somebody be neutral when there is an aggressor who is killing us constantly each day?”

He mentioned Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s 2023 visit to the Vatican, saying that because of the president’s belief that his country “doesn’t need a mediator but allies,” it was “not an easy moment in the relationships between the official Kiev and the Vatican.”

Yet, Shevchuk praised the pope for using his neutrality to help gather humanitarian aid and to work toward peace between Russia and Ukraine. He said that when speaking to Ukrainians about the Vatican’s decision to remain neutral he makes the distinction between diplomatic and moral neutrality.

“The Holy Father is not neutral in the moral level. He is with us and he confirmed that many times,” he said.

“This neutrality was given as an instrument of searching to alleviate the suffering of the people, and probably in the future some sort of channels of communication for a possible peace agreement,” he added. “So, in a certain sense, we do have a good ally.”

Same-sex blessings

Shevchuk said the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has no plans to implement or further discuss the Vatican document Fiducia Supplicans, which allows “nonliturgical blessings” for homosexual couples.

The Ukrainian Church was the first Eastern church under Rome to declare that the document would not be implemented in its jurisdiction.

Shortly after the document’s release, Shevchuk issued a statement in which he said that because the document “does not address questions of Catholic faith or morality, does not refer to any prescriptions of the Code of Canons for the Eastern Churches, and does not mention Eastern Christians,” it “applies exclusively to the Latin Church and has no legal force for the faithful of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.”

“Each Vatican document has a special process of reception in our Church,” Shevchuk explained to EWTN.

“We have our own way to be open to everybody but also how to deliver church blessings,” he said. “In our tradition, we never can distinguish liturgical and nonliturgical blessings.”

“When I grew up, always the sacred space was not limited with the church building,” he went on. “We were taught that Christians are supposed to bring that liturgy of light outside of the church. So, for us, it is very difficult to distinguish nonliturgical blessings.”

He noted that if approached by someone asking for a blessing, he would give it without asking if the person was in a state of sin or if he had been to confession.

“Of course, if somebody will approach me and ask for the blessing, I’ll give the blessing,” he said. “It’s not a moment to inquire in his personal condition as a Christian. But to distinguish so sharply between liturgical and nonliturgical blessing, for us, it’s quite difficult.”

Sofia, March 18, 2024

Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg     

His Holiness Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria was laid to rest in Sofia on Saturday, March 16.

The Bulgarian primate Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria reposes in the LordThe Patriarch was in poor health in recent years.

“>reposed in the Lord on March 13 at the age of 78 following a long illness. Condolences were received from around the Orthodox world, expressing a great sense of loss at the repose of Pat. Neofit.

Starting on Friday, March 15, the Bulgarian faithful paid their respects to their departed Patriarch at St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the capital as priests from the Sofia Diocese read the Gospel over his body. President Rumen Radev and other state officials also arrived to bid farewell to His Holiness.

On Saturday, March 16, the hierarchs, clergy, monastics, and laity were joined by delegations from the Local Churches for the funeral Liturgy and funeral of Pat. Neofit. The Liturgy was celebrated by His Eminence Metropolitan John of Varna and Veliky Preslav, the hierarchs of the Bulgarian Church, and Bulgarian and Romanian clergy.

Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg   

Delegations from the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Russia, Georgia, Serbia, and Romania and the Churches of Cyprus, Greece, Albania, and Macedonia were present.

Also present were “Metropolitan” Epiphany Dumenko and “Archbishop” Evstraty Zorya of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” who arrived together with Pat. Bartholomew, though the Bulgarian hierarch Met. John of Varna specified that they were not invited, inasmuch as the Bulgarian Church has never recognized the OCU.

The OCU representatives did not serve, and in the Bulgarian Church’s report, Dumenko is listed with other non-Orthodox attendees.

The funeral was also attended by Tsar Simeon II, President Radev, and other public officials.

Before Holy Communion, Met. John of Varna offered a word about the departed Patriarch, saying: “With broken hearts, with great pain and deep sorrow and sadness, but also with unfailing faith and hope in our Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation He has given us, we send our Most Holy Father and Patriarch Neofit on his last earthly journey today.”

Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg   

He continued:

We bow before the spiritual greatness and purity of his bright personality and from the depths of our hearts, we thank the Almighty God for bestowing upon us the honor and joy of having him among us as our spiritual guide on our path as humans and Christians. We experience our earthly separation from him heavily and painfully, but we also believe that from now on, our Orthodox people have—in His Holiness—one more fervent intercessor and warm advocate before the throne of God, who in eternal life will continue to intercede for his flock, to desire and beg God’s mercy and love, gracious help and protection for our Orthodox Church, for our earthly homeland, and personally for each one of us.

Following the Divine Liturgy, the funeral was led by Patriarch Bartholomew, with the Bulgarian hierarchs and clergy and visiting delegations.

Pat. Bartholomew also offered a word, saying: “We are sending a man of God who, with perseverance in faith, devoted his whole life to the Conqueror of death, to our Lord Jesus Christ and to the service of His Church!”

Watch the funeral service below:

​

Upon conclusion of the funeral, the body of Pat. Neofit was carried in procession to the Cathedral of St. Nedelya in Sofia, where he was buried next to the grave of the Exarch Joseph (†1915), according to Pat. Neofit’s own wish.

Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg     

The square in front of the cathedral was filled with clergy and laity singing “Christ is Risen” and “Memory eternal.”

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Pope Francis said Sunday that God’s glory and our true happiness are not found in success, fame, or popularity but in loving and forgiving others.

In his Angelus address on March 17, the pope asked: How it is possible that God’s glory is manifest in the humiliation of the cross?

“One would think it happened in the Resurrection, not on the cross, which is a defeat, a failure,” he said. “Instead, today, talking about his passion, Jesus says: ‘The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified’ (Jn 12:23). What does he mean?”

The pope explained that “for God, glory is to love to the point of giving one’s life.”

“Glorification, for him, means giving himself, making himself accessible, offering his love,” he said.

“And this reached its culmination on the cross, where Jesus outspread God’s love to the maximum, fully revealing the face of mercy, giving us life and forgiving his executioners.”

Pope Francis underlined that giving and forgiveness “are very different criteria to what we see around us, and also within us, when we think of glory.”

Yet while worldly glory fades, this Christian way of life brings lasting happiness, he explained.

“And so, we can ask ourselves: What is the glory I desire for myself, for my life, that I dream of for my future?” Francis asked.

“That of impressing others with my prowess, my abilities, or the things I possess? Or the path of giving and forgiveness, that of the crucified Jesus, the way of those who never tire of loving, confident that this bears witness to God in the world and makes the beauty of life shine? What glory do I want for myself?”

“Indeed, let us remember that when we give and forgive, God’s glory shines in us,” Pope Francis said.

After praying the Angelus prayer in Latin from the window of the Apostolic Palace with the crowd gathered below in St. Peter’s Square, the pope asked people to pray for war-torn populations in Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, and Syria.

Pope Francis expressed his relief at the release of some of the religious brothers kidnapped three weeks ago in Haiti as he made an appeal for the “beloved country tried by so much violence.”

Four of the six religious from the Brothers of the Sacred Heart Institute who were kidnapped in Port-au-Prince on Feb. 23 have been freed, along with a teacher. The pope called for the release of the two remaining kidnapped religious and all other people who have suffered at the hands of kidnappers in Haiti.

The pope called on all political leaders and social actors in Haiti to “abandon all special interests and to engage in a spirit of solidarity in the pursuit of the common good” while supporting “a peaceful transition to a country … that is equipped with solid institutions capable of restoring order and tranquility among its citizens.”

Before waving goodbye to the crowd, the pope gave a shoutout to the athletes who ran in the Rome marathon on Sunday morning, especially the volunteers and runners from the Vatican’s own sports club, Athletica Vaticana.

VIDEO | At the Angelus, Pope Francis said that God’s glory and our true happiness are not found in success, fame, or popularity but in loving and forgiving others. Read more pic.twitter.com/oF0BLRLtNA

— EWTN Vatican (@EWTNVatican) March 18, 2024