Reflecting on Pope Francis

Welcome to the Christ by the Sea, Catholic collaborative podcast for the parishes of Saint Anthony in Cohasset and Saint Mary of the Assumption and Hall. Now to start off the show, here's father Scott.

Hello. This is father Scott. I'm the pastor of Saint Anthony of Padua Parish in Cohasset, Massachusetts and Saint Mary of the Assumption Parish in Hull, Massachusetts. And together, we are the Christ by the Sea Catholic Collaborative. Welcome to this fourteenth episode of our podcast.

In this episode of the podcast, we're going to reflect upon the papacy of Pope Francis and the first week of the papacy of Pope Leo the fourteenth. As you well know, pope Francis died on Easter Monday, April twenty first of this year, twenty twenty five, at the age of 88. Pope Francis's pontificate was twelve years long. I'd like to take a few moments with you to share some of the key things I will remember about Pope Francis's pontificate. These are not ranked in any order of importance, and perhaps he did some more important things that I don't know about, things about reform in the Vatican.

But these are five things that I will remember about Pope Francis's pontificate. The first is that he added Saint Joseph to the Eucharistic prayers, which did not already include him. And so now every time I pray the Eucharistic prayers and I hear Joseph's name, I will think of pope Francis. Now Saint Joseph was already included in the Roman canon or Eucharistic prayer one, but Pope Francis added his name to all of the other Eucharistic prayers. So whenever I pray a Eucharistic prayer and mention the name of Saint Joseph, I will think of pope Francis and thank him for adding Saint Joseph to those Eucharistic prayers.

A second thing I'll remember about pope Francis's pontificate is his elevation of the memorial of Saint Mary Magdalene. As you might know, in the Catholic church, we have a hierarchy of liturgical solemnity. Of course, at the bottom of the pyramid would be the ordinary days. For example, the second Tuesday of ordinary time or Tuesday of the second week in ordinary time, an ordinary day. A little further up on the pyramid would be an optional memorial.

This would be a saint's day typically, and we have the option to celebrate it or not. A little further up on the pyramid would be an obligatory memorial. Those days which we don't have a choice on, we have to celebrate them. A little further up the pyramid from the obligatory memorial is a feast day, those extra special days. On these days, typically, when we celebrate the mass, we include the Gloria.

And going even further up to the top of the pyramid, we have solemnities. These have a great importance for the universal church, and so they have a very high importance in our liturgical celebration. Well, Saint Mary Magdalene had been an obligatory memorial, so pretty important. We have to, celebrate her, but pope Francis raised her celebration to the level of a feast. And so whenever I celebrate that feast of Saint Mary Magdalene Magdalene, I will always remember pope Francis.

A third thing for which I'll remember pope Francis and his pontificate is his simplification of the annulment process. For many, the annulment process is very difficult. It requires looking at a marriage which failed, a marriage which ended for for people and people and somewhat complicated for good reason because we in the Catholic church hold the importance of marriage so high. But Pope Francis, provided, a simpler path to, annulment. This is not to say that he made obtaining an annulment any easier.

He just made the process easier. And, for example, the much simpler process when the reason for an annulment is so clear and then also a briefer process. The other thing he did around the annulment process was remove any mention of money, especially at the beginning of the process, almost making it seem as if somebody were purchasing an annulment. Rather, as in our archdiocese, at the end of the process, we can ask the people, whether they would like to make a gift once the decision has already been rendered about that case. So anytime I help somebody with an annulment process and it's a little easier for them, not so much to get the annulment, but easier for them to ask for a study of their marriage, I will think of pope Francis.

A fourth reason that I will remember pope Francis's pontificate is the extraordinary year of mercy in 2015 into 2016. We are currently in a jubilee year, an ordinary jubilee year, which in the Catholic church happens every twenty five years. The last one we celebrated in an ordinary way was the year February and the new millennium. The next one we will celebrate in ordinary course would be in 2050. And so we are in this ordinary jubilee year twenty twenty five, which pope Francis, inaugurated prior to his death last December when he opened the doors of the Basilica Of Saint John Lateran as well as symbolically open some doors in a local Roman prison.

And he gave us a beautiful theme for this jubilee year, pilgrims of hope. Now though we have ordinary jubilee years every twenty five years, occasionally, a pope will call for an extraordinary jubilee year as pope Francis did in for late twenty fifteen into 2016, and it was the year of mercy. And I will remember pope Francis for that. I recall being in my previous assignment at Holy Family Parish in Amesbury and Star of the Sea Parish in Salisbury, and one of the initiatives we took on for the jubilee year, the extraordinary jubilee year of mercy, was to educate people about the corporal and spiritual works of Mercy. And we set a goal for ourselves to educate people about those works of Mercy and to encourage them to practice them that we might get to 1,000,000 works of mercy in that extraordinary jubilee year.

I will remember pope Francis and his pontificate for that extraordinary jubilee year of mercy. And the fifth and final thing that I want to remember from Pope Francis's pontificate was one of his early writings called Evangelii Gaudium, the joy of the gospel. There were many remarkable quotes from it, but one I'd like to recall in particular, it spoke about the parish and whether the parish was an outdated mode of expression in the church. And this is what Pope Francis said in Evangelii Gaudium. The parish is not an outdated institution precisely because it possesses great flexibility.

It can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if it proves capable of self renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be the church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters. This presumes that it really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people and does not become a useless structure out of touch with people or a self absorbed cluster made up of a chosen few. Well, the whole, writing of pope Francis and the Evangelii Gaudium was wonderful, but this particular quote, very challenging for me because it would ask me to think about whether our parish, in our case, two parishes, our parishes have great flexibility. Can we assume different contours depending on what we need to do?

What is my own openness and missionary creativity as the pastor of these two parishes? What is the openness and missionary creativity of these communities? What is the challenge of these parishes? Is it integrated with the lives, the homes of the people of these parishes? Do we remain in contact with these homes and these people, or do we become a useless structure that's out of touch with people?

Or on the other extreme, as pope Francis said, a self absorbed cluster made up of a chosen few. So I will always remember this challenging quote from pope Francis about the work of parishes and of parish priests. There are many other things we could recall about pope Francis and his twelve year pontificate. These are just five in no particular order, not ranked in importance, but five things that I will remember about pope Francis and his pontificate. As I conclude this section of the podcast, please join me in praying for pope Francis.

Oh god, faithful rewarder of souls, grant that your departed servant, pope Francis, whom you made successor of Peter and shepherd of your church, may happily enjoy forever in your presence in heaven the mysteries of your grace and compassion, which he faithfully ministered on earth through our lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever. Amen. Well, even as we remember pope Francis, we celebrate that pope Leo the fourteenth was elected pope on May eighth of this year, 2025. That is cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected and selected the name of pope Leo the fourteenth. Even as we remember pope Francis and pray for the repose of his soul, we are excited about the new pope, and we want to know more about him.

It is in the early days of one's papacy that we get small signs, and we're all looking for whatever direction the pope might lead the universal church in. And in Pope Leo the fourteenth, one of the things that would give us maybe some indication about, him is the reason he chose Leo. And if he has chosen Leo the fourteenth as his name, who is Leo the fifteenth? Who is Leo the thirteenth? Sorry about that.

And who is Leo the thirteenth? Well, we need to look back to the late eighteen hundreds to learn more about Leo the thirteenth, and we need to, study what he wrote. He wrote over 80 encyclicals, a very brilliant man, Pope Leo the thirteenth. But perhaps his most greatest encyclical, the one that so many people even today read, was called Rerum Novarum, of New Things. And so I think that one of the things we can do is learn as much as possible about Leo the thirteenth and one of his encyclicals, arguably his greatest encyclical, that we read, Rerum Novarum, and see what it is in that writing.

What were the challenges that Leo the thirteenth was facing in his own day and time, and are there basic principles of Catholic teaching in that encyclical which we might apply to our own challenges and difficulties in our own day and time. And so I'm going to take some time, to do that, with parishioners here. If you're not in our parishes or in the local South Shore Of Boston area, you can find this encyclical, Arrarum Novarum online, and I recommend reading it and looking for the big ideas in it, which might be applied to our own circumstances today. But for those who are in our parishes or the local South Shore Of Boston area, I'm going to offer two opportunities. One is a set of three Monday nights in June.

This will take place over in Hull, June Nine, June Twenty Three, June Thirty. They're Monday nights, and we'll gather from five to six to learn about Leo the thirteenth, hoping that it will give us some insight into Leo the fourteenth. Immediately after those Monday evenings, there is a Eucharistic holy hour along with the opportunity for reconciliation. So come to those three nights over in Hull, but I'll also be offering three Tuesday nights in Cohasset, June Third, June Seventeenth, and July 1. Similarly, we will learn about Leo the thirteenth, and we'll read rarum novarum and identify the big principles which still apply today.

The big principles which, if we unpack them, may give us insight into Pope Leo the fourteenth as well as give us insight to how to deal with some of the difficulties and challenges that we face today. All of this will be down in the notes for this podcast, the information about these three Monday nights and three Tuesday nights, as well as a link to the encyclical rerum novarum. Please join me in ending this portion of the podcast and the port podcast in general, by praying for our new pope, pope Leo the fourteenth. Oh god, who in your providential design will that your church be built upon blessed Peter, whom you said over the apostles, look with favor, we pray, on Leo, our pope, and grant that he, whom you have made Peter's successor, may be for your people a visible source and foundation of unity and faith and of communion. Through our lord Jesus Christ, your son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.

Amen. Well, I'm father Scott Uvard, pastor of Saint Anthony of Padua Church in Cohasset, Saint Mary Of The Assumption Parish Church in Hull. And, together, we are the Christ by the Sea Catholic Collaborative. And I thank you for joining me for this fourteenth episode of our podcast in which we remembered the pontificate of pope Francis and prayed for the repose of his soul, and in which we gave thanks for the election of cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as our new pope and for the name which he has taken, pope Leo the fourteenth. We've looked a little bit at why it is that he chose that name, and we have taken that next step of maybe looking into Leo the thirteenth to see if that will give us insight into our new pope, pope Leo the fourteenth.

Thank you. God bless.

Speaker 0: In the Catholic church, we dedicate the entire month of May to the blessed virgin Mary. And this time of year, we're always we always find ourselves in the middle of the two great feasts of Easter and Pentecost. You know, right after Pentecost arrives in the not too distant future, we're going to be focused on a feast called Mary, mother of the church. In fact, in the decree that established this celebration, it occurs on the Monday after the feast of Pentecost, that decree states that Mary, when standing at the foot of the cross, became the mother of the church when she accepted her son's testament of love and welcomed all people in the person of the beloved disciple as sons and daughters to be reborn unto eternal life. And therefore, it's in Mary and her life of humble, obedient service that we discover the model of her own vocation to accept her son's testament of love.

From the very moment of Mary's response to the angel Gabriel through her assumption into heaven to sit in glory with her son, Mary demonstrated the importance of bringing Jesus to a suffering world, and the manner in which to do that. Whether it was her personal response to God, as at

Speaker 1: the

Speaker 0: Annunciation, or her intervention on behalf of others, as at the wedding feast at Cana, Mary demonstrated the essential virtues needed to be a faithful follower of her son, and to carry out our part in the unfolding of the story of salvation. It was Mary's humility which allowed her to abandon herself to god's will, and gave her the courage to follow god into an unknown future. And it was this trusting humility that gave her the strength to say yes under all circumstances of her life. Mary committed herself to following the will of God and to bring his son into the world so that we all might be the adopted children and co heirs to the glory of the resurrection. But at no time in her life can we think that she fully understood all that this entailed.

She, like us, wondered about a divine plan which would include great pain, bewilderment, and sorrow. It was, however, her humble obedience, her total and absolute reliance upon divine love, that gave her a never failing strength to be the first and greatest disciple of her son. Mary gave birth to Jesus at Bethlehem, but she continued to give birth to his presence in this world for the entirety of her life here on earth and in heaven as she invites each and every one of us to simply do whatever he tells you. Mary is our pattern, our model of true discipleship. It is she who teaches us to listen humbly and to act boldly upon the invitation of God with the absolute conviction that we too are called to bring Jesus to a suffering world through lives of humble obedience to God's will.

Thanks for listening to the Christ by the Sea Catholic Collaborative Podcast. You can follow us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This has been a production of The Parish Podcast Project.