Showing posts with label Birthday. Show all posts

Sunday, September 14, 2025

Happy Birthday wishes to Pope Leo from across the world

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Catholics and leaders worldwide send Birthday Wishes to Pope Leo

The universal Church and men and women of goodwill across the globe rejoice as Pope Leo XIV celebrates his birthday.

Birthday wishes for Pope Leo XIV

Birthday greetings are arriving from all over the world for Leo XIV, who today, 14 September, turns 70. Offering them “on behalf of the Italian people, together with his sincere wishes for spiritual and personal well-being,” is President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella.

In his message, the Head of State highlights the Pope’s “urgent appeals for a ceasefire and the resumption of the path of dialogue, for the common good of peoples,” in a time when “fears have grown that the world is heading down a dangerous slope, driven by a widespread logic of domination and increasingly marked by lacerating conflicts.” “It is above all the many thousands of civilian victims who pay every day an intolerable price of blood and destruction,” Mattarella writes, adding that “in the face of such anxieties, men and women of goodwill feel the urgent need for peace and justice” and that “from every continent, people look with great hope” to the Pope’s words.

Quoting St. Augustine, who affirmed that “we are the times,” the Italian President underlines that it is the duty of all, “and in particular of those who hold public office,” to work “so that circumstances may improve, reopening horizons of dialogue, justice, and concrete protection of the dignity of every person,” and assures Leo XIV of the collaboration of the Italian State in his “high apostolic mission.”

Greetings from the Italian Bishops’ Conference

From the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) comes “the most heartfelt best wishes of the Churches in Italy,” with prayers “of praise and thanksgiving for Your ministry.” Thanking the Pope “for the paternal spirit” with which he “accompanies” and “encourages” the Italian Church, the bishops join him “in invoking a ‘disarmed and disarming peace’ in all situations of conflict that are bleeding vast areas of the planet.” At the same time, they continue to draw close to peoples afflicted by suffering through actions of solidarity and human promotion, and express the hope “that the unity of intentions, voices, and prayers rising from the whole world to implore solutions of peace may soon be heard.”

A letter from the President of the German Bishops

The German Bishops’ Conference has also extended its greetings to the Pope. In a letter published yesterday, 13 September, its president, Bishop Georg Bätzing of Limburg, writes: “On behalf of the German Bishops’ Conference, of the faithful in Germany, and personally, I extend my most sincere best wishes for your seventieth birthday, which you celebrate these days. For the new decade of life I wish you God’s blessing, much strength in the Petrine ministry, and continuing good health.” The head of the German bishops also recalls Leo XIV’s tireless commitment to peace and asks him “not to desist in this effort and to use all the means of Vatican diplomacy so that your vision — peace for humanity — may become reality.”

The affection of the Diocese of Rome

“On the occasion of Your birthday, your entire diocese joins you in gratitude to the Father for the gift of life,” reads the message of Cardinal Vicar Baldassare Reina on behalf of the Diocese of Rome. “Receive our prayer and affection for all that you accomplish each day, with tireless dedication, in service of the universal Church beginning with the Church of Rome,” the Cardinal continues. Sharing the Pope’s concerns “especially for the many scenarios of war that are bleeding the world,” he wishes “that you may realise the desires of your heart and continue to sow hope for the men and women of our time.”

Drawings from the young patients of Bambino Gesù

Many drawings have reached the Pope from the young patients of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, who in the hospital playroom, set to work with colours to wish Leo XIV a “happy birthday.” In their drawings. The children combine the Pope’s wish for peace for the whole world, expressed since the day of his election, with their own thoughts. Confident that the Pope can be the one to find paths of dialogue, one drawing depicts Leo saying “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it” while waving a peace flag, standing between a dove with an olive branch and St. Peter’s Basilica painted in white and yellow, the colours of the Vatican flag. “We love you so much, Pope Leo the Fourteenth,” is the big embrace sent to the Holy Father by the children of Bambino Gesù on his birthday.

Italian Christian Workers Association walking with the Pope

“In these months since his election, we have been able to appreciate his pastoral and human qualities, and in particular his dedication to the theme of peace, understood as the synthesis of the major social and political issues of our time,” write the Christian Associations of Italian Workers (ACLI) on their website. They reaffirm their “commitment to continue” along the path of faith indicated by the Pope “and to promote and defend human life in communion with the whole Church and with men and women of goodwill.”

Gratitude from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart

The Catholic University of the Sacred Heart also sends greetings to Leo XIV. In a message signed by Rector Elena Beccalli, the university extends “its most sincere wishes.” On behalf of the entire academic community, Professor Beccalli prays that “the grace of the Risen Lord” may guide the Pope “in his mission as Bishop of Rome and Pastor of the universal Church, in the name of peace, justice, and reconciliation among peoples.” “In the Holy Year of Hope,” she concludes, “the university family expresses to the Pope a feeling of filial gratitude and assures him of closeness in prayer and fidelity in carrying out the educational mission to which it is called.”

A guide for the Catholic University of Lublin

Greetings also arrived from the academic community of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. His life and pastoral ministry are described as a shining testimony of faith, hope, and charity, “the true pillars of Christian life,” in a message sent by Rector Mirosław Kalinowski. He highlights “the profound inspiration” the university draws from the Pope’s leadership. “Your paternal concern for the spiritual and moral renewal of humanity resonates deeply with our mission to unite faith and reason, to serve the Church and society through education, and to seek the wisdom that leads to God,” Professor Kalinowski writes, concluding with an invocation that God may grant the Pope “strength, wisdom, and peace.”

Happy 70th Birthday to Pope Leo XIV

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

In time for his 88th birthday, Pope Francis autobiography "Hope"

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Pope: Faith is not the opium of the people, but encounter and service

To mark his 88th birthday, Pope Francis has released several excerpts from his autobiography “Hope,” which will hit bookshelves in January, recounting his childhood in Buenos Aires and the logistical difficulties of his 2021 visit to Iraq.

By Isabella Piro

The “concentrate of humanity” experienced in Buenos Aires' slums, and the “arrow to the heart” experienced in Iraq in 2021, are central themes in Pope Francis' autobiography “Hope”, written with Carlo Musso.

Published by Mondadori, an Italian publisher, the book will be released on January 14 in over 100 countries.

On December 17—the Pope’s 88th birthday—two Italian newspapers “La Repubblica” and “Il Corriere della Sera” published a few excerpts.

Childhood in the Flores barrio

“When someone tells me I am a villero Pope, I pray to be worthy of it,” says Pope Francis, as he recalls the “complex, multiethnic, multireligious, and multicultural microcosm” of the Flores barrio in Buenos Aires, where he spent his childhood.

“Differences were normal, and we respected each other,” he says, pointing to his relationships with Catholic, Jewish, and Muslim friends.

The “contemporary Magdalenes”

Pope Francis tells of his childhood experiences of seeing prostitutes on the streets of Buenos Aires, calling it an image of the “darkest and most difficult side of existence.”

As a bishop, he celebrated Mass for some of these women who had reformed their lives.

He recalls one woman, named Porota, telling him, “I’ve worked as a prostitute everywhere—even in the United States. I earned money, then fell in love with an older man who was my lover. When he died, I changed my life. I have a pension now, and I go to bathe elderly people in nursing homes who have no one to care for them. I don’t go to Mass much, and I did everything with my body, but now I want to care for the bodies no one else is interested in.”

Pope Francis calls her a “contemporary Magdalene.” Porota called him one last time, from the hospital, just before dying, to receive the Anointing of the Sick and Communion.

“She died well — like ‘the tax collectors and prostitutes’ who ‘precede us in the kingdom of God’ (Mt 21:31). I loved her dearly. Even now, I never forget to pray for her on the day of her death,” he writes.

Friendship with “Father Pepe”

The Pope recalls the prisoners who made clothing brushes, and recounts his friendship with Father José de Paola, known as “Father Pepe”, pastor at Virgen de Caacupé in Villa 21. The Pope, then Jorge Mario Bergoglio, supported Father Pepe through a vocational crisis.

Speaking about those liminal areas where “the State was absent for forty years” and drug addiction is “a scourge that multiplies despair,” the Pope affirms that “in these peripheries, which the Church must increasingly make its center, a group of lay people and priests like Father Pepe live and witness the Gospel every day, among those discarded by a killing economy.”

Religion is not the opium of the people; faith is an encounter

From these harsh realities emerges the truth that religion, as some claim, “is not the opium of the people, a comforting story to alienate individuals,” the Pope insists.

On the contrary, he says, “It is thanks to faith and that pastoral and civil commitment” that the villas “have progressed in unimaginable ways, despite enormous difficulties.” Just like faith, “every service is an encounter, and we especially can learn much from the poor.”

Trip to Iraq and “the arrow to the heart” of Mosul

From the drama of urban outskirts to the devastation of Iraq, Pope Francis’ gaze remains fixed on a wounded humanity.

Reflecting on his historic Apostolic Journey to Iraq, on March 5–8, 2021, Pope Francis describes the “arrow to the heart” represented by Mosul.

“One of the world’s oldest cities,” he says, “overflowing with history and traditions, which had seen different civilizations come and go and was a symbol of peaceful coexistence of diverse cultures in one country—Arabs, Kurds, Armenians, Turks, Christians, Syriacs—appeared to my eyes as a field of rubble after three years of occupation by the Islamic State, which had chosen it as its stronghold.”

Viewed from a helicopter, he says the territory looked like “an X-ray of hatred, one of the most effective sentiments of our time.”

The poisoned fruits of war

The Pope recalls the visit’s difficult context, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and security concerns.

“I was advised against going by almost everyone… but I felt I had to,” he writes, referring to the land of Abraham, “the common ancestor of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.”

He mentions a warning from British intelligence about two assassination attempts that had been planned during his visit to Mosul: one by a woman strapped with explosives, another involving a truck.

Both attackers were intercepted and killed by Iraqi police. “This struck me deeply,” Pope Francis emphasizes. “It was also a poisoned fruit of war.”

An appeal to prioritize reason over conflict

In all this hatred, however, the Pope found a light of hope in his March 6 meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, an encounter that “the Holy See had prepared for decades.”

Held in a spirit of fraternity in al-Sistani’s home, it was “a gesture eloquent in the East, even more than declarations or documents, as it signifies friendship and belonging to the same family,” the Pope explains. “It did my soul good and made me feel honored.”

He recalls the Ayatollah’s joint appeal to the great powers “to abandon the language of war, prioritizing reason and wisdom.” The Pope expresses appreciation for a phrase from their meeting: “Human beings are either brothers in religion or equals in creation.”

In addition to “Hope”, Pope Francis’ life will also be recounted in a film based on Life: My Story in History, an autobiography written with Fabio Marchese Ragona and published in March by HarperCollins.

Sunday, December 17, 2023

Happy 87th Birthday Pope Francis

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Pope celebrates 87th birthday, asks Christians to celebrate Jesus’ birth

As well-wishes pour in for his birthday, Pope Francis encourages Christians to prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas.

By Devin Watkins

Pope Francis turned 87 years old on Sunday, 17 December.

As he often does ahead of Christmas, the Pope spent a few moments with children and families assisted by the Santa Marta Dispensary, who presented him with a birthday cake and sang ‘Happy Birthday’.

The Santa Marta Dispensary has provided medical assistance to children and families in need for over 90 years, and is based just a stone’s throw away from the Pope’s residence inside the Vatican. It was established in 1922 by Pope Pius XI.

Preparing our hearts for Christmas

In brief remarks, Pope Francis thanked those present for their birthday wishes.

He also urged everyone to prepare ourselves to receive Jesus as Christians celebrate His birth at Christmas.

“We need to prepare ourselves for the great feast of Christmas, which will be next week,” he said. “It is the feast when we think and recall when Jesus came among us. He came to be with us.”

The Pope invited the children and families gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall to close their eyes and think about what special grace they would like to ask Jesus for this Christmas.

He wrapped up his words of greeting by extending his Christmas greetings.

“Merry Christmas to you all,” he said. “Keep those smiles on your faces, and may the Lord grant you everything you desire. Thank you!”

Birthday greetings

On the Pope’s birthday, the President of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, sent his well wishes.

He offered Pope Francis his “most sincere and affectionate wishes for well-being and for the fruitful continuation of your prolific magisterium.”

The Italian Bishop’s Conference took the opportunity to pray for peace in our war-torn world.

“We believe this would be the best gift for our Churches,” said the Bishops. “We, together with you, want to be artisans of peace to overcome a culture of war, hatred, ignorance, and prejudice.”

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Pope celebrates birthday of author and Holocaust survivor

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Pope sends birthday wishes to friend and Holocaust survivor Edith Bruck

On her 92nd birthday, Pope Francis sends birthday wishes to the Holocaust survivor and writer Edith Bruck, saying that her work "tells young people about the importance of fighting for an ideal."

By Joseph Tulloch

Pope Francis was in the middle of a catechesis about his recent trip to Hungary when he paused and laid his prepared remarks to one side.

“We have in Rome an excellent Hungarian poet,” he said, speaking off-the-cuff, “who has been through many trials, and tells young people about the importance of fighting for an ideal, about not being defeated by persecutions, by discouragement.”

“This poet is 92 years old today: Happy Birthday, Edith!”

A witness to evil

Edith Bruck, a writer and Holocaust survivor, was born in 1931 to Hungarian Jewish parents.

In 1944 she and her family were sent to a concentration camp, where her parents and brother died. Mrs Bruck was liberated from the camp, together with her sister, in 1945.

She first moved back to Hungary, then to Israel, before finally settling in Rome, where she began a career as a writer.

Bruck has dedicated much of her work – which has included novels, poetry, plays, translations, and screenplays – to bearing witness to the evils she experienced in the concentration camps. She was asked to do so by two fellow concentration camp inmates, she says, who asked her to “tell the story. They will not believe you. But if you survive, tell the story, for us too.”

Friendship with Pope Francis

In 2021, the Osservatore Romano, the Vatican City's daily newspaper, conducted an interview with Mrs Bruck for Holocaust Memorial Day. Pope Francis read the interview and was so moved by it that he requested to meet with her.

A month later, he paid a visit to her apartment in Rome, telling her that he had come “to thank you for your testimony, and to pay homage to your people, martyred by the madness of Nazi populism."

A friendship then sprang up between the pair, who went on to exchange letters, phone calls, and gifts. A year later, Mrs Bruck came to visit the Pope in his residence in the Vatican, and wrote a book entitled Sono Francesco (I am Francis) reflecting on their encounter, to which the Pope wrote the preface.

Following the pair’s second meeting, the Holy See’s Press Office released a statement saying that their conversation had focused on “the priceless value of passing down the memory of the past to younger generations, including its most painful aspects, so as to avoid falling into the same tragedies.”

Saturday, April 16, 2022

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI turns 95 today

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Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI turns 95 on Holy Saturday

As Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI turns 95 years old on Holy Saturday, his personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, grants an interview to Radio Horeb in Munich, and describes the daily life of a man who "has shaped the Church and theology".

By Mario Galgano and Johannes Wieczorek

It was 16 April 1927 - a Holy Saturday - when Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, was born in the Bavarian town of Marktl am Inn. This year, too, his birthday falls on the Holy Vigil of Easter.

As Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Benedict XVI's private secretary, points out, his personality has profoundly shaped the Church and theology. "The Pope Emeritus," says Archbishop Gänswein, "is in good spirits. He is of course physically relatively weak and frail, but lucid."

The silence of Holy Saturday

Ninty-five is an important age. There will not be a feast, says Archbishop Gänswein, because Holy Saturday is "the day that expresses Christ's sepulchral rest".

On Easter Sunday, he adds, "there will be a liturgical celebration. Then, during Easter week, smaller delegations and some people will come to offer their good wishes".

Archbihop Gänswein recalls Pope Francis' visit to the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens for greetings on 13 April, an early visit since Holy Saturday is "a very busy day for Pope Francis".

For some time now, Archbishop Gänswein says, the Pope Emeritus no longer celebrates Easter as the main celebrant, simply "because he no longer has the strength to stand up all the time, and he no longer has the strength in his voice."

"Nevertheless," he adds, "he follows the liturgy and he participates in it concelebrating, with great inner emphasis. He also draws new strength from it, day after day, for his life."

A routine marked by the Word of the Lord

In general, the daily routine at Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, explains Archbishop Gänswein, "has not changed since the Pope became Emeritus. It always begins with the most important part of the day, early in the morning, that is, Holy Mass and the prayers of the Breviary. Then comes breakfast and a break after which Benedict XVI devotes himself to correspondence and the morning readings. Every now and then there is space for music, until lunchtime."

In the afternoon, there is another moment for a short rest and from time to time to welcome people visiting.

"Everything depends," concludes Monsignor Gänswein, "on how the Pope Emeritus feels. In the afternoon, he typically takes a "short walk in the Vatican Gardens with the recitation of the Rosary, but seated".

His day usually ends after dinner with the news in Italian and with Evening Prayer.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

A Pope visits a Pope; Happy birthday Benedict XVI

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Pope Francis visits Benedict XVI to offer Easter and birthday wishes

Pope Francis visits Benedict XVI at the Vatican's Mater Ecclesiae Monastery ahead of Easter and the Pope Emeritus's 95th birthday on Holy Saturday.

By Vatican News staff reporter

Pope Francis made a special visit to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Wednesday afternoon to offer his best wishes for Easter and for his 95th birthday.

According to a brief statement released by Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni, the Holy Father visited the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery residence in the Vatican where Benedict resides.

Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has visited Benedict for Easter, interrupted only due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

"After a brief and affectionate conversation, and after praying together, Pope Francis returned to Casa Santa Marta," said Mr. Bruno.

Benedict XVI will celebrate his 95th birthday on Holy Saturday, 16 April.

Joseph Ratzinger was born and baptized in his native Bavaria on Holy Saturday, 95 years ago, in 1927.