KINSHASA, Congo (CNS) – After flying across the equator, Pope Francis was welcomed warmly – in every sense – to Congo where Catholics make up the majority of the population and where, for decades, the Catholic Church has been at the forefront of efforts to bring peace, education and health care to the people.

During the seven-hour flight from Rome to Kinshasa on Janaury 31, the Pope told reporters he was happy finally to be able to make the trip, even though “I had wanted to go to Goma” in the east, “but with the war it was not possible”.

Before leaving his residence at the Vatican, Pope Francis met with nine refugees from Congo and South Sudan, where he will travel on February 3. The refugees are assisted in Rome by the Jesuit Refugee Service’s Centro Astalli.

About two hours into the flight, when the chartered plane was flying over the Sahara Desert, the Pope led everyone on the plane in a moment of silent prayer for all those who, “seeking a bit of well-being, a bit of freedom”, felt forced to try to cross the desert “but did not make it”.

Too often, he said, they end up being thrown into “lagers,” detention centres in Libya, “and suffer there. Let us pray for them”.

Leaving Italy, the Pope sent a telegram to Italian President Sergio Mattarella explaining that he was making the trip “moved by a deep desire to meet brothers and sisters in the faith and the inhabitants of those dear nations, bringing a message of peace and reconciliation.”

In addition to cardinals from the Secretariat of State, the Dicastery for Evangelisation and the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, Pope Francis included in his official entourage Congolese Sister Rita Mboshu Kongo, a theologian and member of the Daughters of Mary Most Holy.

The Pope has referred to Sister Mboshu Kongo as the “bishop” of the Congolese community in Rome “because the mission of a bishop is to serve” and that is what she does.

A bishop’s role, she told Vatican News on the eve of the trip, “is not to command and give orders, but to say to the others, ‘Let’s get up and walk together.'”

She said she thought the Pope invited her to join the entourage for some on-the-job training, as if to say, “‘Look, daughter, at how I act, and you must do the same with your brothers and your sisters.’ I have so much to learn.”

“For us, Pope Francis is an untiring missionary, a card-carrying evangeliser who is visiting our country to pray with and for the Congolese,” she said. “He is like a father who has heard the screams and cries of his children and says, ‘Don’t give up. Continue. God is with you.'”

The wounds of Congo and its people are deep, she said. “There are criminals who continue to slaughter the innocent without pity. There are people without scruples who want to grab strategic minerals.”

“The pope is going to denounce and announce,” Sister Mboshu Kongo said. “He will denounce the evil so that those who foment war will renounce their diabolical ways, and he will proclaim Jesus Christ, light of the world.”

The people of Congo are more precious than any of the gems or minerals found in the earth beneath their feet, yet they have been slaughtered by warmongers and exploited by prospectors, Pope Francis said on January 31 at a meeting with Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi, other government and political leaders, diplomats and representatives of civil society.

“This country, so immense and full of life, this diaphragm of Africa, struck by violence like a blow to the stomach, has seemed for some time to be gasping for breath,” the Pope said.

Poverty, internal displacement, crime and violence plague the Congolese people. The United Nations and human rights organisations say more than 100 armed groups are operating in the country, sowing terror particularly in the east.

Tens of thousands of people lined the streets from the airport to the city centre, cheering as the Pope passed by in the popemobile. Many children and teens were dressed in their school uniforms, parishioners proudly held banners welcoming the Pope in the name of their communities and many of the women wore brightly coloured cotton dresses with images of the Pope.

President Tshisekedi told the Pope that the welcome and harmony that had characterized Congo for centuries has, in the past 30 years, “been undermined by the enemies of peace as well as terrorist groups, mainly from neighbouring countries.”

“Indeed,” he told the Pope, with “the inaction and silence of the international community, more than 10 million people have had been their lives taken from them atrociously. Innocent women, even pregnant ones, are raped and disembowelled, young people and children have their throats slit, families, the elderly and children are condemned to brave fatigue and exhaustion, wandering far from their homes in search of peace because of the atrocities committed by these terrorists in the service of foreign interests”, who want to exploit the countries natural resources.

Pope Francis, responding to the president, added that Congo is suffering from a “forgotten genocide”, one the world must recognize.

Returning to his prepared text, the Pope chose diamonds as the key image in his first speech in Congo, insisting that “you, all of you, are infinitely more precious than any treasure found in this fruitful soil!”

In a speech frequently interrupted by applause and shouts of “Amen,” the Pope urged the Congolese people to demand the respect they deserve; he pleaded with the country’s political leaders to put the common good ahead of greed and a lust for power; and he begged the international community to help Congo, not plunder it.

“Diamonds are usually rare,” he said, “yet here they are abundant.”

“If that is true of the material wealth hidden in the soil, it is even more true of the spiritual wealth present within your hearts,” he said. “For it is from hearts that peace and development are born, because, with God’s help, men and women are capable of justice and of forgiveness, of concord and reconciliation, of commitment and perseverance in putting to good use the many talents they have received.”

Every person in Congo has a part to play, Pope Francis insisted.

Photo: Pope Francis greets children as he arrives at the international airport in Kinshasa, Congo, Jan. 31, 2023. (OSV News photo/Vatican Media vis Reuters)

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VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Lengthy, abstract homilies are “a disaster”, so preaching should be limited to 10 minutes, Pope Francis said.

Speaking off the cuff to diocesan liturgical directors on January 20, the Pope said that homilies are not academic conferences. “I sometimes hear people say, ‘I went to this parish, and yes it was a good philosophy lesson, 40, 45 minutes,'” he said.

Pope Francis encouraged priests to keep their homilies to “no more than eight to 10 minutes”, and always include in them “a thought, a feeling and an image”, so that “the people may bring something home with them”.

Homilies are “sacramentals” to be “prepared in prayer” and “with an apostolic spirit”, he said.

But, in the Catholic Church, he said, “in general, the homilies are a disaster”.

The liturgical directors were in Rome to participate in a formation course on liturgy, “Living Liturgical Action Fully,” at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy.

Pope Francis also warned against the liturgical master of ceremonies assuming too central a role during Mass. “The more hidden a master of ceremonies is, the better,” he said. “It is Christ that makes the heart vibrate, it is the meeting with him that draws in the spirit.”

Beyond a “deep knowledge” of religious celebrations, the Pope said that experts on liturgy must have a strong pastoral sense to improve a community’s liturgical life, and that religious celebrations must foster the “fruitful participation of the People of God”, and not just of the clergy.

A pastoral approach to the liturgy allows religious celebrations to “lead the people to Christ, and Christ to the people”, which the Pope said is the “principal objective” of liturgy and an essential principle of the Second Vatican Council.

“If we neglect this, we will have beautiful rituals, but without vigour, without flavour, without sense, because they do not touch the heart and the existence of the People of God,” said Pope Francis.

The Pope encouraged the liturgical directors to spend time in parishes, observe liturgical celebrations and help pastors reflect on how they prepare liturgy with their communities.

If teachers of liturgy are “in the midst of the people, they will immediately understand and know how to accompany their brothers and sisters, how to suggest what is suitable and feasible to communities, and what the necessary steps are to rediscover the beauty of the liturgy and celebrating together”, he said.

The job of a diocesan liturgical director, said Pope Francis, is to offer parishes a liturgy “that is imitable, with adaptations that the community can take to grow in liturgical life”.

A liturgical director should not care about a parish’s liturgy only when the bishop comes to visit and then let the liturgy go back to how it was after he leaves, the Pope said.

“To go to parishes and not say anything when faced with somewhat sloppy, neglected, poorly prepared liturgies means not helping the community, not accompanying them,” he added.

Photo: Pope Francis speaks to participants who attended his meeting with diocesan liturgy directors at the Vatican on January. 20, 2023. The liturgists were attending a course at the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy in Rome. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

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But in interviews he always was respectful of Pope Francis and argued repeatedly over the past 10 years that Catholics should not be attacking each other in the media, but calmly discussing their differences with each other.

Shortly after Cardinal Pell’s death, Damian Thompson, associate editor of the British magazine The Spectator, published what he said was a recent submission to the magazine by Cardinal Pell criticising the current process for the Synod of Bishops as “a toxic nightmare”.

Cardinal Pell’s secretary, Father Joseph Hamilton, confirmed Cardinal Pell wrote the article for The Spectator.

The article took particular aim at the working document for the synod’s continental stage. Titled “Enlarge the Space of Your Tent”, it attempted to present the most common hopes, dreams and concerns raised by Catholics in the local and national listening sessions. It was to be the basis of regional discussions being held from December to March.

In The Spectator article, Cardinal Pell described it as “this potpourri, this outpouring of New Age good will”.

“It is not a summary of Catholic faith or New Testament teaching,” he said. “It is incomplete, hostile in significant ways to the apostolic tradition and nowhere acknowledges the New Testament as the Word of God, normative for all teaching on faith and morals. The Old Testament is ignored, patriarchy rejected and the Mosaic Law, including the Ten Commandments, is not acknowledged.”

Also, an Italian blogger Sandro Magister, claimed on January 11 that Cardinal Pell was the author of a “A Memorandum on the Next Conclave”, which Magister published on his blog in March last year under the pseudonym “Demos”. Among other things, the piece was critical of Pope Francis’ pontificate.

In a September 2021 interview streamed live and uploaded by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Cardinal Pell had said Pope Francis has “a great gift of empathy and sympathy”, and a great capacity to show closeness to people who are suffering and those who care for them.

Asked why there is so much opposition to Pope Francis among conservative Catholics, Cardinal Pell said, “I think a lot of conservative Catholics feel a little bit confused, a little bit uncertain, they wonder just what is being taught”.

Pope Francis, he said, has “a great gift, like Jesus did, of reaching out to those on the peripheries and ‘sinners’, and categories that are not always seen in the front row at church, and that can and has confused people”.

Photo: Australian Cardinal George Pell gestures as he leaves a session of the extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the family at the Vatican in this 2014 file photo (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

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Cardinal Pell died in Rome on January 10 at the age of 81 after suffering a heart attack following hip replacement surgery.

The cardinal’s funeral was expected to be celebrated in St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican with burial to take place in St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, but the Vatican did not offer details immediately.

In an interview with Italy’s Mediaset broadcast on December 18, Pope Francis was asked what part of his job he would have preferred not having had to deal with, and he responded, the Vatican’s financial chaos and scandals.

The need for a thorough clean up “was clearly seen by Cardinal Pell, who is the one who started” making progress, the Pope said, but then he was required to return to Australia “because of this calumny” of being accused of sexual abuse.

“He was innocent,” Pope Francis said in the December interview. “He is a great man, and we owe him so much.”

The Pope made the same points in a telegram addressed on January 11 to Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals.

Offering his condolences also to Cardinal Pell’s brother and family members, Pope Francis said the Australian prelate would be remembered for “his consistent and committed witness, his dedication to the Gospel and the Church, and particularly his diligent cooperation with the Holy See in its recent economic reform, for which he laid the foundations with determination and wisdom”.

He prayed that the cardinal, “who without wavering followed his Lord with perseverance even in the hour of trial”, would be “received into the joy of heaven and receive the reward of eternal peace”.

Australian Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth, president of the Australian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said, “Cardinal Pell’s impact on the life of the Church in Australia and around the world will continue to be felt for many years. As we remember him and reflect on his legacy, I invite all Catholics and other people of goodwill to join in praying for Cardinal Pell, a man of deep and abiding faith, and for the repose of his soul.”

Australian Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane, former president of the conference, said, Cardinal Pell “didn’t claim to be a saint; he knew he was flawed. But he did claim – and rightly – to be a man of faith and a man of the Church”.

Cardinal Pell “became the victim of an outrageous injustice as he was convicted and jailed for 13 months before a final vindication”, Archbishop Coleridge said, referring to the cardinal’s conviction in late 2018 on five counts of sexual abuse. The cardinal had served more than 400 days of a six-year sentence when the judges of the High Court of Australia overturned the conviction, concluding there was “a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the requisite standard of proof”.

“The spiritual poise and strength he showed through all of this was extraordinary,” Archbishop Coleridge said. “It revealed a depth to George Pell that often went unrecognised.”

“Through his legal troubles,” the archbishop said, “he was identified wholly with the Catholic Church and vice versa. Pell was the Church, and the Church was Pell – big, powerful and heartless in the eyes of many.”

“Yet,” he continued, “if George Pell had anything they were a good heart and a sense of humour. It was a pity that more of this didn’t show in his media appearances.”

Born June 8, 1941, in Ballarat, Australia, he was a star football player in high school and college, but left that behind to enter the seminary, studying first in Australia and then at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1966 at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.

St John Paul II appointed him an auxiliary bishop of Melbourne in 1987, archbishop of Melbourne in 1996, archbishop of Sydney in 2001 and gave him the cardinal’s red hat in 2003.

Soon after his election, Pope Francis named Cardinal Pell to his international Council of Cardinals to advise him on the reform of the Roman Curia and, in 2014, Pope Francis named him prefect of the new Council for the Economy.

Cardinal Pell’s death leaves the College of Cardinals with 223 members, 125 of whom are under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave.

Photo: Pope Francis greets Australian Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, during an audience to exchange greetings with members of the Roman Curia in Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican in this December 22, 2016, file photo (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

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“Benedict XVI’s thought and magisterium are and always will remain fruitful because he knew how to focus on the fundamental references of our Christian life: first of all, the person and the word of Jesus Christ, as well as the theological virtues, namely charity, hope and faith,” the Pope wrote in the introduction to a new book.

The Vatican publishing house described the book “Dio è Sempre Nuovo”, (“God is Ever-New”), as a collection of the “spiritual thoughts” of the late pope, “an anthology of the principal themes of the Christian faith in the words of Pope Benedict XVI”.

The book was edited by Luca Caruso, communications officer for the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, and was scheduled for release on January 14. The Vatican published Pope Francis’ introduction on January 4.

Pope Francis’ highest praise for theologians always has been that they “do theology on their knees” in prayer and with love for the Church.

“Benedict XVI did theology on his knees”, the pope wrote in the book’s introduction. “His explanation of the faith was carried out with the devotion of a man who has surrendered all of himself to God and who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, sought an ever-greater participation in the mystery of that Jesus who had fascinated him from his youth.”

The new book’s title, Pope Francis said, “expresses one of the most characteristic aspects of my predecessor’s magisterium and vision of faith: yes, God is always new because he is the source and reason for beauty, grace and truth”.

“God is never repetitive, God surprises us, God brings newness,” the pope wrote, and the “spiritual freshness” of the late pope’s writings confirms those affirmations “with intensity”.

Pope Benedict, he said, offered all Christians a model showing how “heart and reason, thought and affection, rationality and emotion interact” in both living and explaining the power of the Gospel.

The selected quotations, Pope Francis said, offer “a sort of ‘spiritual synthesis’ of Benedict XVI’s writings”, and demonstrate “his ability to show the depth of the Christian faith ever anew”.

Quoting just six words of the late pope – “God is an event of love” – is enough to do “full justice to a theology that always shows the harmony between reason and affection”, the Pope said.

Another book about the late pope also was scheduled for release in January.

The Italian publisher Piemme announced it would publish on January 12 a book, “Nient’altro che la Verità” (“Nothing but the Truth”) by the late pope’s longtime personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein.

Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said on January 4 that he had not spoken to the archbishop about the book so could not say if the publisher’s description was hype or reflected the contents of the book.

Piemme had said that with the death of Pope Benedict, “the time has come” for the archbishop “to tell the truth about the blatant calumnies and dark manoeuvres that tried in vain to cast shadows on the German Pontiff’s magisterium and actions.”

Photo: Retired Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis exchange greetings at the conclusion of a consistory at which Pope Francis created 20 new cardinals in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Feb. 14, 2015. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

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The Vatican press office said on December 12 that the Pope is asking government leaders to consider freeing or reducing the sentences of men and women they believe would benefit from such a gesture of mercy “so that this time marked by tensions, injustices and conflicts may be opened to the grace that comes from the Lord”.

The Vatican did not release a copy of the letter or explain what prompted it besides the approach of Christmas.

From his days as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and continuing after his election to the papacy, Pope Francis has made a special effort to maintain regular contact with prisoners, to meet them in Rome and on his trips around the world and to phone and write them.

At the end of his Angelus address on December 11, the Pope gave a shout-out to “the detainees in the Due Palazzi prison of Padua: I greet you affectionately!”

In 2016, a group of inmates from the Padua prison were allowed to visit Rome during the Holy Year of Mercy; the Pope granted them a private audience in his residence, the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

Then, in 2020, Pope Francis asked the inmates that frequent the prison’s Catholic chaplaincy to write the meditations for his Good Friday Way of the Cross ceremony, which was held in St Peter’s Square because of the Covid-19 pandemic. And, for most years of his pontificate, he has gone to a prison or juvenile detention facility on Holy Thursday to celebrate Mass and wash the feet of inmates.

Visiting the Gulf nation of Bahrain in November, the Pope said the way a country treats prisoners “is a measure of the dignity and the hope of a society”.

Photo: Pope Francis greets an inmate as he washes the feet of prisoners during the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper at a prison in Civitavecchia, Italy, on April 14, 2022 (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

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Meeting with a delegation from the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Pope supported their proposal to launch a series of educational programmes aimed at helping Christians and Jews in Latin America tap into their common spiritual heritage to become “agents of social change”.

Rabbi Ariel Stofenmacher, rector of the seminary, said in a statement that they saw Pope Francis as a key ally in harnessing religious teachings to combat indifference, the breakdown of the family, growing social conflicts, “the disenchantment with democracy”, hopelessness, addiction and “the madness of new wars”.

Speaking without a prepared text to the group on December 2, Pope Francis said he was not kidding when he told them that when a religious leader speaks of justice, echoing the prophets’ call to care for the orphan, the widow, the stranger, the poor – often detractors will “tell you that you are a communist. And look, they say to me: ‘This Pope, instead of talking about God, is talking about social things.'”

But the two go together, he said. Throughout the Bible, believers are called to love God and love their neighboyr, “that is, worship and serve, worship and help”.

Spiritual leaders must work to show people how “our faith becomes works and that our works lead us to faith. It’s a circle”, the Pope said. “We have to emphasise it, because misinterpreting the things that we pastoral agents say is our daily bread: they take a little bit of what we said, and not everything, and they decontextualise it.”

Pope Francis also spoke to the delegation about the war in Ukraine, which “bothers me, it makes me suffer”.

Not only because it has pitted “brothers against brothers”, but also because “if no weapons were made for a year, hunger in the world would end”.

“A war is waged when an empire feels weak, then it kills to feel strong and to use the weapons it has” so that it can make new ones, he said. “It makes me suffer to see them testing those drones that they were sending around Ukraine, that they are testing new weapons at the expense of people dying.”

In the face of a “culture of cruelty”, Pope Francis pledged that the Catholic Church would work with the Jewish community to promote the teaching of “our sacred books”, which insist God is the father of all people, therefore they are all brothers and sisters.

Photo: Pope Francis receives a shofar from Rabbi Ariel Stofenmacher, rector of the Latin American Rabbinical Seminary, during an audience with a delegation from the seminary at the Vatican (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

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“In its genuine poverty,” the Pope said, “the creche helps us to rediscover the true richness of Christmas and to purify ourselves of so many aspects that pollute the Christmas landscape.”

Pope Francis met on December 3 with the artisans who carved the 18-piece Nativity scene in St Peter’s Square; the donors of the white pine Christmas tree; the residents of a psychiatric rehabilitation centre who, along with a group of students and grandparents, created the ornaments; and with representatives of the government of Guatemala, which set up another Nativity scene in the Vatican audience hall.

“Simple and familiar, the Nativity scene recalls a Christmas that is different from the consumerist and commercial Christmas. It is something else. It reminds us how good it is for us to cherish moments of silence and prayer in our days, often overwhelmed by frenzy,” Pope Francis told them during a midday gathering.

The group was scheduled to gather in St Peter’s Square in the evening for the official unveiling of the Nativity scene and the lighting of the Christmas tree. But a major rainstorm with a forecast for more caused the Vatican to move the evening festivities indoors, although hundreds of people still were in the square for the lighting.

Meeting with the donors, Pope Francis encouraged everyone to find some quiet time to spend before a creche at Christmas.

“Silence encourages contemplation of the child Jesus,” the Pope said, and “helps us to become intimate with God, with the fragile simplicity of a tiny new-born baby, with the meekness of his being laid down, with the tender affection of the swaddling clothes that envelop him.”

“If we really want to celebrate Christmas,” he said, “let us rediscover through the crib the surprise and amazement of littleness, the littleness of God, who makes himself small, who is not born in the splendour of appearances, but in the poverty of a stable.”

To truly encounter Jesus, the Pope said, people must meet him in the manger, leaving their own vanity and pretence behind.

“Prayer is the best way to say thank you before this gift of free love, to say thank you to Jesus who desires to enter our homes and our hearts,” he said. “Yes, God loves us so much that he shares our humanity and our lives.”

“Even in the worst moments,” the Pope said, “he is there, because he is the Emmanuel, the God with us, the light that illuminates the darkness and the tender presence that accompanies us on our journey.”

The lights on the Christmas tree, he said, are a reminder that Jesus came “to lighten our darkness, our existence often enclosed in the shadow of sin, fear, pain”.

But, the Pope said, the tree also should make people think about the importance of roots.

Like a tree, he said, only a person who is “rooted in good soil remains firm, grows, matures, resists the winds that shake him and becomes a point of reference for those who look upon him”.

The Christmas tree, Pope Francis said, is a reminder of the need to remain rooted in Christ.

Photo: The Nativity scene and Christmas tree decorate St Peter’s Square after a lighting ceremony at the Vatican on December 3, 2022 (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

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The Italian news agency Askanews reported the ambassador, Aleksandr Avdeyev, said the exchanges of prisoners occur in accordance with the lists of military prisoners of the Armed Forces of Ukraine; the lists are handed over by Pope Francis.

“In this case, we highly appreciate the personal actions of the Pontiff, who is carrying out a very important humanitarian mission that allows hundreds of people to return to their families,” Avdeyev said.

Returning to the Vatican from Bahrain on November 6, Pope Francis told reporters traveling with him that the Vatican is “constantly attentive” to what is happening in Ukraine, and that the Secretariat of State continues to do what is possible and has worked behind the scenes to help arrange prisoner exchanges.

The Pope also told reporters he thinks the cruelty of the attacks on Ukraine and its civilians are the work of mercenaries, not Russians, who are “a great people” and have a strong “humanism”.

Meeting with Jesuits in Kazakhstan in September, Pope Francis said he met with some Ukrainian envoys and government ministers, one of whom gave him a list of more than 300 civilian and military prisoners.

“They asked me to do something to make the exchange happen. I immediately called the Russian ambassador to find out if something could be done, if it was possible to speed up the exchange of prisoners,” Pope Francis said in Kazakhstan on September 15.

On September 21, Russia released 215 war prisoners in exchange for Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian member of Parliament, as well as 54 others.

On October 17, a prisoner swap included 218 people, including 108 women.

On November 3, each country released 107 captured service members.

Photo: A serviceman from the Russian-controlled Donetsk region of Ukraine sits with his mother in Amvrosiivka, Ukraine, on November 6, 2022, following his release in a recent prisoner exchange.

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If people feel they are “not up to the challenges of life and, even less, of the Gospel, mired in problems and sins, Jesus always looks at us with love”, the Pope told people gathered in St Peter’s Square on October 30 for the recitation of the Angelus prayer.

Jesus “comes toward us, he calls us by name and, if we welcome him, he comes to our home”, he said.

Commenting on the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus, who collected taxes on behalf of the Roman rulers, the Pope said Zacchaeus was rich, hated and branded a traitor and a sinner.

But, despite his lowliness, Zacchaeus “feels the need to seek another way of looking” and “awaits someone who will free him from his condition”, the Pope said.

“Zacchaeus teaches us that, in life, all is never lost,” he said. “We can always find space for the desire to begin again, to start over, to convert.”

The Pope said, “let us remember this: the gaze of God never stops at our past full of errors but looks with infinite confidence at what we can become”.

“God has never looked down on us,” he does not humiliate or judge people, Pope Francis said. “On the contrary, he lowered himself to the point of washing our feet, looking at us from below and restoring our dignity to us.”

“How do we look at ourselves?” the Pope asked. “Do we feel inadequate and resign ourselves, or precisely there, when we feel down, do we seek an encounter with Jesus?”

And then, he added, “what gaze do we have toward those who have erred, and who struggle to get up again from the dust of their mistakes? Is it a gaze from above, that judges, disdains, excludes?”

“We Christians must have the gaze of Christ, who embraces from below, who seeks those who are lost, with compassion. This is, and must be, the gaze of the Church, always, the gaze of Christ, not the condemning gaze,” he said.

Photo: A crowd is assembled in St Peter’s Square on Oct. 30, 2022, for the midday recitation of the Angelus by Pope Francis. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

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