Bulletins, Newsletters, and Flocknotes

The following is the telegram of condolence, sent on behalf of the Holy Father Leo XIV by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, for the victims of the military attack this morning on the Church of the Holy Family in Gaza:

 

Telegram

HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV WAS DEEPLY SADDENED TO LEARN OF THE LOSS OF LIFE AND INJURY CAUSED BY THE MILITARY ATTACK ON THE HOLY FAMILY CATHOLIC CHURCH IN GAZA, AND HE ASSURES THE PARISH PRIEST, FATHER GABRIELE ROMANELLI, AND THE WHOLE PARISH COMMUNITY OF HIS SPIRITUAL CLOSENESS. IN COMMENDING THE SOULS OF THE DECEASED TO THE LOVING MERCY OF ALMIGHTY GOD, THE HOLY FATHER PRAYS FOR THE CONSOLATION OF THOSE WHO GRIEVE AND FOR THE RECOVERY OF THE INJURED.  HIS HOLINESS RENEWS HIS CALL FOR AN IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE, AND HE EXPRESSES HIS PROFOUND HOPE FOR DIALOGUE, RECONCILIATION AND ENDURING PEACE IN THE REGION.

CARDINAL PIETRO PAROLIN

SECRETARY OF STATE

This morning, in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience the participants in the Ecumenical Orthodox-Catholic pilgrimage from the United States of America.

The following is the Pope’s address to those present:

 

Address of the Holy Father

 

 

My   dear brothers and sisters,

I offer a cordial greeting to all of you, especially to   Metropolitan Elpidophoros, Cardinal Tobin and I thank them for arranging this meeting as part of your pilgrimage. You are all very welcome. I am sorry that I am a little bit late. Several meetings were scheduled this morning. But I am very happy to have this moment to spend with you in this beautiful place, Castel Gandolfo.

You have set out from the United States, which as you know, is also   my native country, and this journey which is meant to be a return to the roots,   the sources, the places, the memorials of the Apostles Peter and Paul in Rome, and of the Apostle Andrew in Constantinople. It is also a way to experience anew and in a concrete way the faith that comes from listening to the Gospel,   hearing the Gospel handed down to us by the Apostles (cf.  Rom  10:16). It is significant that your pilgrimage is taking place this year, in which we celebrate one thousand seven hundred years of the Council of Nicaea. The Symbol of Faith adopted by the assembled Fathers remains – together with the additions made at the Council of Constantinople in 381 – the common patrimony of all Christians, for many of whom the Creed is an integral part of their liturgical celebrations. Then too, by a providential coincidence, this year the two calendars in use in our Churches coincide, with the result that we were able to chant as one the Easter Alleluia: “Christ is risen! He is truly risen!”

Those words proclaim that the darkness of sin and death have been vanquished by the Lamb that was slain, Jesus Christ our Lord. This inspires us with great hope, for we know that no cry of the innocent victims of violence, no lament of mothers mourning their children will go unheard. Our hope is in God, yet precisely because we constantly draw from the inexhaustible source of his grace, we are called to be witnesses and bearers of hope. The Catholic Church is presently celebrating our   Jubilee year whose motto, chosen by my predecessor  Pope Francis , is  “Peregrinantes in Spe” , that is, pilgrims in hope. Your Eminence, Metropolitan Elpidophoros, your very name tells us that you are a bearer of hope! It is my hope that your pilgrimage will confirm all of you in the hope born of our faith in the risen Lord!

Here in Rome, you have spent time in prayer at the tombs of Peter and Paul. As you now visit the See of Constantinople, I would ask you to bring greetings and my embrace, an embrace of peace, to my venerable brother Patriarch Bartholomew, who so kindly attended the Holy Mass for the inauguration of my pontificate. I hope to be able to meet you again, in a few months, to take part in the ecumenical commemoration of the anniversary of the Council of Nicaea.

Your pilgrimage is one of the abundant fruits of the ecumenical movement aimed at restoring full unity among all Christ’s disciples in accordance with the Lord’s prayer at the Last Supper, when Jesus said, “that they may all be one” ( Jn  17:21). At times, we take for granted these signs of sharing and fellowship that, albeit not yet signifying full unity, already manifest the theological progress and the dialogue of charity that have marked recent decades. On December 7 th ,   1965, on the eve of the conclusion of the  Second Vatican Council , my predecessor  Saint Paul VI  and the Patriarch, Athenagoras signed a  Joint Declaration  removing from memory and the midst of the Church the sentences of excommunication that followed the events of the year   1054. Before then, a pilgrimage like your own would probably not even have been possible. The work of the Holy Spirit created in hearts the readiness to take those steps as a prophetic presage of full and visible unity. For our part, we too must continue to implore from the Paraclete, the Consoler, the grace to pursue the path of unity and fraternal charity.

Unity among those who believe in Christ is one of the signs of God’s gift of consolation; Scripture promises that “in Jerusalem you will be comforted” ( Is  66:13). Rome, Constantinople and all the other Sees, are not called to vie for primacy, lest we risk finding ourselves like the disciples who along the way, even as Jesus was announcing his coming passion, argued about which of them was the greatest (cf.  Mk  9:33-37).

In his Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee Year,  Pope Francis  noted that “the Holy Year will also guide our steps towards yet another fundamental celebration for all Christians: 2033 will mark the two thousandth anniversary of the redemption won by the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus” ( Spes Non Confundit , 6). Spiritually, all of us need to return to Jerusalem, the City of Peace, where Peter, Andrew and all the Apostles, after the days of the Lord’s passion and resurrection, received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and from there bore witness to Christ to the ends of the earth.

May our return to the roots of our faith make all of us experience the gift of God’s consolation and make us capable, like the Good Samaritan, of pouring out the oil of consolation and the wine of gladness on today’s humanity. Thank you.

This morning, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience:

- Archbishop Giordano Piccinotti, titular of Gradisca, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See;

- Participants in the Ecumenical Orthodox-Catholic pilgrimage from the United States of America.

Resignation of bishop of Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Resignation and appointment of metropolitan archbishop of Cebu, Philippines

Resignation and appointment of archbishop of Baalbek of the Greek-Melkites

Resignation and succession of bishop of Oslo, Norway

Appointment of Pontifical Legate for the Basilicas of Saint Francis and Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi

 

Resignation of bishop of Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria, presented by Bishop Georgi Ivanov Yovchev.

 

Resignation and appointment of metropolitan archbishop of Cebu, Philippines

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the metropolitan archdiocese of Cebu, Philippines, presented by Archbishop Jose Serofia Palma.

The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Alberto Sy Uy as metropolitan archbishop of Cebu, Philippines, transferring him from the diocese of Tabgilaran.

Curriculum vitae

Archbishop-elect Alberto Sy Uy was born on 18 October 1966 in Poblacion, Ubay, Bohol. He carried out his studies in philosophy at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Tagbilaran City, and in theology at the Saint John Mary Vianney Theological Seminary in Cagayan de Oro City. He was awarded a licentiate in sacred theology from the Loyola School of Theology in Quezon City, and a master’s degree in pastoral ministry.

He was ordained a priest for the diocese of Talibon on 14 April 1993.

After ordination, he first held the roles of parish vicar of Saint Michael the Archangel in Jagna (1993-1995) and dean of seminarians at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary (1995-1997). He obtained a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (2002-2006), and went on to serve as vice rector of the Saint John Mary Vianney Theological Seminary in Cagayan de Oro City (2006-2010), parish priest of Saint Michael the Archangel in Jagna (2010-2013), parish priest of Blessed Trinity Cathedral in Talibon (2013-2016), and episcopal vicar for the clergy for the diocese of Talibon (2013-2016).

On 13 October 2016 he was appointed as bishop of Tagbilaran. Within the local episcopal conference he is chair of the Commission on Ecumenical Affairs (ECEA) and a member of the Commission on Cultural Heritage of the Church (ECCHC) and the Office on Bioethics.

 

Resignation and appointment of archbishop of Baalbek of the Greek-Melkites

The Synod of Bishops of the Patriarchal Church of Antioch of the Greek-Melkites has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the archdiocese of Baalbek of the Greek-Melkites, presented by Archbishop Elias Youssef Rahal, S.M.S.P., and has elected the Reverend Fr. Makhoul Farha, O.C.D., as archbishop of the same circumscription, to which the Holy Father had granted his assent.

Curriculum vitae

Archbishop-elect Makhoul Farha was born in Ras-Baalbek, Lebanon, on 28 December 1959. He entered the Carmelite family in 1974 and gave his solemn vows in 1983. He was ordained a priest on 14 July 1984.

He obtained a licentiate in canon law from the Pontifical Urbaniana University of Rome (1988), and has held various offices in his Order in Lebanon, including: rector of the studentate (1989-2002), provincial counsellor (1996-1999), superior of the Notre Dame du Mont Carmel Monastery in Hazmieh and first provincial counsellor (1999-2002), and provincial superior (2002-2008 and 2011-2017). He has also served as judicial vicar of the apostolic vicariate of Beirut of the Latins (2012-2020), responsible in Lebanon for the Ecclesiastical Tribunal for faithful of Latin Rite (1989-2002) and president of the Ecclesiastical Appeals Tribunal for the Latins (1992-2012), the Chaldeans (1992-2020) and the Syriac Catholics (2000-2002), judicial vicar and president of the Tribunal for the faithful of Syriac Rite (2002-2017), and judicial vicar and president of the Tribunal for faithful of Armenian Rite (2000-2020).

He has been a member of the Committees for the Liturgy, the Family, and Canonical Affairs, and the Ecclesiastical Tribunals of the Assembly of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon (1995-2020). Since 2020 he has been the delegate of the Superior General of the Carmelites for Egypt.

 

Resignation and succession of bishop of Oslo, Norway

The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Oslo, Norway, presented by Bishop Bernt Ivar Eidsvig, C.R.S.A.

He is succeeded by Bishop Fredrik Hansen, until now coadjutor bishop of the same diocese.

 

Appointment of Pontifical Legate for the Basilicas of Saint Francis and Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi

The Holy Father has appointed His Eminence Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime, S.D.B., pro-prefect of the Dicastery for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life, as Pontifical Legate for the Basilicas of Saint Francis and Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi.

The following is the text of the Holy Father Leo XIV’s video message on the occasion of the Match of the Heart 2025, which took place this evening at 21.30 at the “Gran Sasso d’Italia Italo Acconcia” Stadium in L’Aquila:

 

Video Message of the Holy Father

Dear friends who are playing or watching the Match of the Heart, this encounter of yours leads me to share some reflections, starting from the meaning of the words that define it: “match” and “heart”.

“Match” means, in this case, encounter. An encounter where even opponents find a cause that unites them: this year, in a particular way, that of children who ask for help, the children who arrive in Italy from war zones, and who are welcomed by the project of the Bambin Gesù Hospital and Foundation, and Caritas Italy. It seems increasingly difficult, almost impossible, to find spaces for listening to these things.

Another match comes to mind, the one narrated in a film, Joyeux Noël , and in a song by Paul McCartney, played on 25 December 1914 by some soldiers (German, French and English) in the so-called Christmas truce , near the town of Ypres, in Belgium.

It is still possible – it is always possible – to come together, even in a time of divisions, bombs and wars. It is necessary to create the opportunities to do so. To challenge divisions and to recognize that this is the greatest challenge: to come together. To contribute together to a good cause. To restore unity to broken hearts, ours and those of others. To recognize that in the heart of God, we are one. And that the heart is the place of the encounter with God and with others.

“Match” and “heart” thus become two words to conjugate together. And it is also good that this happens in a charitable event that is both sporting and televised. And which raises funds for life, for healing, not for destruction and death.

Sport – when it is experienced well by those who practice it and those who support it – has this greatness, that transfigures confrontation into encounter, division into inclusion. Loneliness into community. And television, when it is not only connection but also a communion of views, can make us rediscover each other, with love instead of hatred.

It is also significant that there are two teams playing today, one made up of politicians, and the other, singers. It tells us that politics can unite instead of divide, if it does not settle for the propaganda that feeds on the construction of enemies, but engages in the difficult and necessary art of exchange, in search of the common good. And it also reminds us how music enriches our words and our memories with meaning; ever since, as children, we began to speak and to remember. Children – to whom this encounter is dedicated – know these things. They have the purity of heart that allows them to see God.

I hope that every one of you, and all those who will be united by this event, and will help the project it supports, will look in the eyes of children and learn from them. To find the courage of welcome and to be men and women of encounter. And the strength to believe in and demand a truce, a time that stops the pursuit of hatred. Our humanity is at stake. May this match, which speaks of peace, score a point in its favour.