Pope Francis: revitalising the Catholic church
After years of crisis, the Catholic church may have found itself a new saviour. But can Pope Francis really make a difference? Julian Coman reports from Rome
In the name of love: Pope Francis blessing more than 10,000 engaged couples in St Peter’s Square on St Valentine’s Day. Photograph: Gianluca Panella for the Observer
Julian Coman
The Observer, Saturday 8 March 2014
On St Valentine's Day last month, after days of rain, Rome suddenly found itself bathed in warm sunshine. The canopy of cloudless blue materialised just in time, because in St Peter's Square around 10,000 engaged couples, from 40 countries, were gathering to receive papal blessings.
As with any event that involves Pope Francis, the level of interest outstripped all expectations. This, after all, is a pope enjoying his own extended honeymoon period. Intended for the cavernous Pope Paul VI auditorium, the first-ever festa dei fidanzati, or lovers' party, had to be transferred to the biggest Catholic stage of all.
There might have been a downpour, but of course there wasn't. As usual, in the first 12 months of what is turning out to be a game-changing papacy, things worked out brilliantly. "It was so great for us to be here," said Lucia Huang, who will marry her fiancé, Antony Lai, this December. The couple had travelled 6,000 miles from Taipei to be there. "In Taiwan this pope is a hero," added Lucia. "We know all about his small car and the way he lives."
The Pope, Jorge Bergoglio, did not disappoint. Before extolling the virtues of a love "per sempre" (for ever), he even gave the crowd a mildly risqué joke. "We all know there isn't a perfect family, neither a perfect husband nor a perfect wife. And let's not talk about the perfect mother-in-law," he said. The young crowd loved it.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/09/pope-francis-revitalising-catholic-church
On a sidenote, it looks like the bulletptoof glass was removed from the sides of the popemobile. He's also used one fhat is completely open.
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"Those of us who seek to make the church 'relevant' in the 21st Century will find the answers we seek if we will but look to the early church, the church of the Apostles and the Disciples. To be sure, the early church baptized and preached the Gospel, but just as importantly, it also ministered to unchanging and fundamental human needs-- it fed the poor, it clothed the naked, it housed the homeless, it healed the sick, it comforted the widowed and the orphaned and it uplifted and sought justice for the downcast and the oppressed. The answer to the social, economic and political complexities of the 21st Century is not further complexity, but a return to the simplicity of the early church. We must become relevant not merely by saying that we love our brethren, but by truly demonstrating that we do."
-- Rev. Dr. Veronica Lanier, Director Emeritus, American Baptist Home Missions
