Pope, Cantalamessa: “Christians persecuted even in 2015″ – The Republic

CITY ‘VATICAN – It ended with a prayer “for our brothers in faith persecuted, and for all’ Ecce homo ‘that there are at this time on earth, Christians and non-Christians “The homily that Father Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the Pontifical Household, held, the present Pope in the Vatican Basilica, during the ceremony of commemoration of the” Passion of the Lord “.

Pope Francis, who at the beginning of the celebration remained prostrate on the floor, praying, for about two minutes, then followed sitting reading and singing of the biblical story of the Passion and, like all the others, knelt for a long time as the player has told the precise moment of Christ’s death on Golgotha. At the ceremony in the Vatican basilica attended cardinals and bishops, including Angelo Sodano, Giovanni Battista Re, Jean Louis Tauran, the deputy to the secretary of state Msgr. Angelo Becciu, the “foreign minister” Vatican Gallagher.

Possible accents related to passion Father Cantalamessa, as did the Pope in the general audience last Wednesday, insisted on Persecution of Christians, driven by a current tragic Kenya, Nigeria, Syria and the Middle East. The cut of the sermon Cantalamessa, this bergogliano, was marked by concreteness. “For once – invited the preacher – not we think of social ills, collective: hunger, poverty, injustice, exploitation of the weak. Of these we talk often, though never enough, but there is a risk they become abstractions. ” “For once – he continued – we think of the suffering of individuals, people with a name and identity precise; torture decided in cold blood and inflicted voluntarily, at this very moment by humans to other humans, even children” . How Ecce homo in the world, those who are in the same condition of Jesus under Pilate, alone, handcuffed, tortured, at the mercy of military rough and full of hate, who indulge in all sorts of physical and psychological cruelty, fun to see suffer .

“Do not sleep, do not leave them alone. ‘” In an insert in the arm, the preacher then inserted the memory of the massacre, yesterday, in a boarding school in Kenya at least 147 people killed, he said, “by the fury jahidista”. And martyrdom, noted the preacher will be the reality for many Christians, “even the Easter of this year 2015 AD”, denouncing also “the disturbing indifference of world institutions and the public in front of everything.” “We risk being all, institutions and people of the Western world, of Pilati who wash their hands.”

Jesus, said Father Cantalamessa, died shouting a request for forgiveness, “is shouted, because you oda well “:” We must believe that the Father has also heard this last prayer on the cross, and that even those who crucified Jesus, certainly not without first, somehow repented, and are with him in paradise, to testify to the ‘ eternity far has been able to push the love of God. ” “We Christians – said in another way – we react in horror to the idea that you can kill in the name of God”, and the Genesis introduces us to a world without violence, “even to avenge Abel therefore to punish a murderess, it is permissible to kill” .

After the sermon Cantalamessa, the celebration continues with the universal prayer, the procession of the cross, adoration (will the Pope to lift the timber and offer it to the prayer of the faithful) and the final blessing. The rite should be completed shortly after 19. At 21.15 the Pope will celebrate the Colosseum the rite of the Via Crucis.