Pope Leo XIV greets African pilgrims today after Mass in St. Peter's Basilica

 

Pope Leo XIV takes a group photo with those who attended the Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on May 26, 2025 

Pope

• Pope Leo XIV
• Africa
• diplomacy
• #JUBILEE2025
• prayer

Pope: May every baptized Christian feel called to be a sign of hope in our world

As pilgrims and representatives of the African continent celebrate Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo XIV makes a surprise visit and invites everyone to live our faith as a sign of hope in our world.

By Devin Watkins

Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday afternoon for Ambassadors of African nations who are accredited to the Holy See, along with several people taking part in the Jubilee pilgrimage.

At the end of the Mass, which came a day after the 62nd Africa Day, Pope Leo XIV made an unannounced appearance to greet the delegations and offer his encouragement.

In his off-the-cuff remarks, spoken in English, the Pope said the 2025 Holy Year inspires us all and invites us all to look for hope, but also to be signs of hope.

He said it is important for each and every baptized person feel himself or herself called by God to be a sign of hope in the world today.

Faith gives Christians strength, he continued, noting that our faith enables us to see the light of Jesus Christ in our lives and to understand how important it is to live our faith, not only on Sundays, not only during a pilgrimage, but each and every day.

Pope Leo said faith allows us to be filled with the hope that only Jesus Christ can give us.

He expressed his hopes that all of us together will continue to walk united as brothers and sisters to praise our God, to recognize that everything we have and everything we are is a gift from God, and to place those gifts at the service of others.

The Pope then thanked the Ambassadors and pilgrims for living their own faith in Jesus Christ.

He said the group was well accompanied by Cardinal Turkson, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academies of Sciences and Social Sciences, Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect Emeritus of the (then-) Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and Archbishop Fortunatus Nwachukwu, Secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization.

In conclusion, Pope Leo XIV invited everyone to join his prayer for the group: Thank you, Lord Jesus, and may your name be praised.

Cardinal Arinze: Shorten up those homilies

 

Cardinal Arinze cautions priests against lengthy homilies

Cardinal Francis Arinze during the centenary celebrations of Bigard Memorial Major Seminary in Rome in November 2024. | Credit: Bigard Memorial Major Seminary

By Jude Atemanke

Enugu, Nigeria, Nov 17, 2024 / 07:00 am

Vatican-based Nigerian Church leader Cardinal Francis Arinze has urged priests to avoid lengthy homilies, saying a homily should not be an exhibition of “theological acrobatics” but rather a reflection of the priest’s prayer life and a clear, concise proclamation of the Gospel.

In his keynote address during the 12-day centenary celebrations of Nigeria’s Bigard Memorial Major Seminary, Arinze emphasized the importance of priests delivering homilies that are deeply rooted in Scripture, liturgical texts, and sound theology. 

“A homily well prepared should last around 10 minutes. A university lecture of 45 minutes is for a different setting. A homily is not a display of theological acrobatics nor a harangue about money,” the cardinal said during a Nov. 13 event.

A homily, Arinze added, “is not an exposition of the local political climate nor a social disquisition on the economic hardships of the people. It should be the sharing of the prayer life of the priest for the past week in the presence of the Lord Jesus in the holy Eucharist.”

He explained that the major points of the homily are best put in writing and that the language of a homily should be clear — “not an admixture of English and the local language, nor an exhibition of the preacher’s ability to navigate in idioms.”

“A poor homily is an offense against the Word of God and against God’s people gathered to hear his word,” the cardinal said.

In his address titled “The Impact of Formations House on Education in Nigeria,” Arinze reflected on the priestly vocation and the role of seminaries in preparing future priests.

“It is expected that the seminary will train the future priest to be a good pastor of God’s people. He is the spiritual director of individual Catholics and of their associations … [h]is patient attendance at their meetings, where he delivers well-prepared addresses, is one of the ways in which he serves them,” the cardinal continued. “Lay leaders remain necessary according to the nature of each association. But the priest is their irreplaceable shepherd. As a good shepherd, he is neither in front nor behind his people; he is in their midst. As the pope would put it, he has the smell of the sheep.”

Arinze noted the alarming trend of young people drifting from the Catholic faith, turning instead to African traditional religions and other superstitions. 

“In many parts of our country, Nigeria, there is a lamentation that many young people today are rather poor in their knowledge of the Catholic faith. Many of them relapse into practices of the African traditional religion,” he said.

“They may engage in real idol worship; they believe in charms; they consult fortune tellers and some go so far as to kill even a relative in the hope that that will attract big money. It is not a surprise if such young people keep away from the sacraments.”

Arinze continued: “The problem is not solved by blaming the catechists for a job not well done. Some Nigerian dioceses have a remarkable increase in the number of their priests … Suppose such a diocese adopts the policy that a priest is to be the teacher of religion in every class in schools primary or secondary. It is not below the dignity of the priest to teach the young about God and religion. Moreover, the teenagers need answers to life’s challenges.”

“The seminary also has the role of preparing its [students] to be good preachers. A priest should be a convinced announcer of the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.”

In his keynote address at the beginning of the 12-day centenary celebrations, Arinze reflected on the challenge of inculturation in the Catholic Church in Nigeria.

The cardinal pointed to ongoing efforts in the Church to respect local cultures, including the adoption of local names in baptism and hymns in Indigenous languages. 

However, he underscored the need for a more thorough and careful process of inculturation, involving bishops, theologians, and cultural experts. 

“For an element of culture to be inculturated, the bishops’ conference of the area or country in question has first to set up a multidisciplinary study commission of experts in theology, liturgy, scriptural studies, ethnology, psychology, and music. Such a high-powered commission will have to sift the many sides of an indicated custom or tradition and, if it considers it ripe, make recommendations to the bishops’ conference,” he said.

“Inculturation is very demanding on a local Church,” Arinze pointed out. “It is not a one-man affair. It is not the fruit of someone’s over-fertile imagination, which concocts an idea on Saturday evening and forces it down the throat of the innocent and unsuspecting Sunday Mass congregation the following morning.”

As Bigard Memorial Seminary enters its second century of formation, Arinze expressed gratitude for its successes, calling on future generations of seminarians and priests to continue the work of evangelization and faith integration. 

“Bigard Memorial Seminary has come a long way in 100 years in preparing clergy for evangelization. It has done a good job!” the cardinal said. “May the Lord of the harvest continue to bless and guide this respected alma mater of ours as it walks into its second century. May the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Apostles, intercede for Bigard.” 

Bigard Memorial Major Seminary in Enugu was founded in Onitsha in 1922 and officially opened in 1924. It was moved to its current location in 1951. It was named after benefactors Stephanie and Jeanne Bigard, a French mother and daughter who were foundresses of the Pontifical Society of St. Peter the Apostle, who donated the funds for the main building.

In 1982, Pope John Paul II visited Bigard Memorial Major Seminary, the first Nigerian seminary to receive such a guest. 

This story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA's news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

Got to love Cardinal Arinze; says it like it is; with truth and well, truth

Cardinal: Communion cannot be shared with friends like beer or cake

• In Catholic News Service, Church in UK and Ireland
• Simon Caldwell
  May 25, 2018
  CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze and Pope Francis concelebrate Mass May 20. (Credit: Paul Haring/CNS.)

Holy Communion is exclusively for Catholics in a state of grace and not something to be shared between friends like beer or cake, said a former senior adviser to two popes.

BUCKFASTLEIGH, United Kingdom - Holy Communion is exclusively for Catholics in a state of grace and not something to be shared between friends like beer or cake, said a former senior adviser to two popes.
Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze said any moves to give greater access to Communion to divorced and remarried Catholics and to non-Catholic spouses of Catholics represented “serious” challenges to the teaching of the Church on the Eucharist.
In a May 23 interview with Catholic News Service, he implicitly objected to interpretations of Pope Francis’s 2016 apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia that would permit divorced and remarried Catholics who had not received an annulment to receive Communion in certain circumstances.
“If a person is divorced and remarried (without the first marriage being annulled) then there is a problem,” said Arinze, adding that Jesus taught that their arrangements constituted adultery.
“It is not we who made that (teaching),” said the cardinal, 85, who served as prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments under St. John Paul II and now-retired Pope Benedict XVI. “It is Christ who said it.”
“We cannot be more merciful than Christ,” he continued. “If any of us says he has permission from Christ to change one of the major points Christ gave us in the Gospel, we would like to see that permission and also the signature.”
“You can see that it is not possible,” he said. “Not even if all of the bishops agree, it doesn’t become so. It is rather serious, because it touches the faith on the holy Eucharist and also that marriage cannot be dissolved between Christians who have lived together and no human power can dissolve it. It is rather serious.”
In his interview at Buckfast Abbey, a Benedictine monastery, Arinze also said that sharing Communion with Protestant spouses was not an issue of hospitality.
He said that while he wished other Christians well it was important to understand that “the holy Eucharist is not our private possession which we can share with our friends.”
“Our tea is such and also our bottle of beer. We can share those with our friends,” Arinze said.
“It isn’t just that we wish one another well. After Mass you can go to the refectory and have a cup of tea and even a glass of beer and a bit of cake. That’s OK. But the Mass is not like that,” he added.
“It is very important to look at the doctrine,” he said. “The eucharistic celebration of the Mass is not an ecumenical service. It is not a gathering of those who believe in Christ and who invent a prayer for the occasion, it is a celebration of the mysteries of Christ who died for us on the cross, who made bread into his body and wine into his blood and told the apostles ‘do this in memory of me.’

“The eucharistic celebration of the Mass is the celebration of the faith community - those who believe in Christ, they are communicating in the faith, and in the sacraments, and in ecclesiastical communion … ecclesiastical unity with their pastor, their bishop and the pope. It is the community which celebrates the holy Eucharist. Anybody who is not a member of that community does not fit in at all,” he said.
He said if Protestants wished to receive holy Communion in Catholic churches then they should become Catholics.
“Come, be received into the Church, and then you can receive holy Communion seven times a week. Otherwise no,” said Arinze.
The cardinal flew into England from Rome May 22 to attend a May 24 Mass in celebration of the millennium year of the founding of Buckfast in 1018. The abbey was dissolved by King Henry VIII during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, but it was rebuilt a century ago on the exact site.
His comments were made amid a controversy over the German bishops’ pastoral handbook titled, “Walking with Christ - In the Footsteps of Unity: Mixed Marriages and Common Participation in the Eucharist.”
The document has divided the German bishops and seven of them, including a cardinal, have requested the intervention of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.
Francis has invited leaders of the German bishops’ conference and some of the bishops opposed to the guidelines to travel to the Vatican for a discussion with officials from the three offices.
The text of the guidelines has not been made public, but it is widely assumed to foresee situations in which a Lutheran married to a Catholic and attending Mass with the spouse could receive Communion regularly.
It follows ongoing confusion within the Church about what scope Amoris Laetitia allows concerning Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics whose previous marriage was not annulled.
Some bishops’ conferences, such as those of Germany and Malta, have interpreted the papal exhortation liberally, while others insist that Church teaching and practice remains unchanged and unchangeable.
Francis has declined to issue a clarification on the contentious points of the document and has effectively ignored a dubia, or list of questions, submitted in 2016 by four cardinals, two of whom are now deceased.

Fifty years a Bishop; the man who would have been a great Pope

Cardinal Francis Arinze: 50 years as a Bishop

 

2015-08-30 Vatican Radio

Yesterday Saturday 29 August 2015, Francis Cardinal Arinze, 82, marked fifty years as a Bishop. In an interview with Vatican Radio’s English Africa Service to mark to the milestone, Cardinal Arinze was in high spirits.
Although now retired and living in the Vatican, Cardinal Arinze is very much sought after and continues to travel, take on speaking engagements and he writes. He has just completed two books, one of which is about Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi.
The Cardinal is also proud and very upbeat about the state of the Church in his country of origin, Nigeria. “How would you explain this faith (of the Nigerian Catholic Church)? The people believe; the clergy is motivated; the religious are quite a number and they serve the people; the lay people are wonderfully committed!” he exclaims. He puts it down to divine providence.
At fifty years as a Bishop in the Catholic Church and as one of its Cardinals what are his sentiments today?  “What comes to mind spontaneously is gratitude to God…also gratitude to all the people who have helped me along the way since I was ordained priest in 1958 and Bishop in 1965. No one is a priest or Bishop or Cardinal for himself. It is always for the Church, for others. It is they that we serve and it is with them that we move along. To all these people I remain grateful,” he says.
If he were to name a secret to his illustrious apostolate, what would it be? “I don't have a big secret in the sense of hidden but perhaps big, in the sense of Jesus Christ, himself, in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist,” Cardinal Arinze responds.
The Cardinal says that it is the Lord Jesus principally in the Holy Mass that he celebrates every day who motivates him…but also Jesus Christ in, “in the tabernacle…Christ in the Holy Eucharist is my secret. Along with Christ is his (Jesus’) Blessed Mother, Mary, whom he gave us on the cross and who in turn gave us Christ on Christmas day,” he explains.
Cardinal Arinze says that the resurrection and the presence of Christ, “with the Apostles between Ascension day and Pentecost –the first novena,” is a source of great consolation to him. It is a reassurance that Jesus continues to be with us, even to this day.  Our Lord Jesus was with the Apostles, “on Pentecost day when the Church was made manifest to the world and was with the early Church after Pentecost. So, Jesus and Mary are my secret, “he finally reveals.
The state of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, his country of origin, is very important to Cardinal Arinze. It fills him with great joy.
“We thank God that he has given strong faith to the Church in Nigeria. How would you explain this faith? The people believe; the clergy is motivated; the religious are quite a number and they serve the people; the lay people are wonderfully committed!  The lay apostolate is very well-organised at the provincial, diocesan and parish levels. It is very encouraging, “the Cardinal says.
Asked why this is so when so many Catholics in the world are struggling in their faith? Cardinal Arinze says, “The Strength of the Church in Nigeria can be attributed (first) to divine providence because God is the director general of the work of evangelization. Second, African traditional religions were a providential preparation for Christianity in Nigeria. In other words, the traditional religions of the people, before the arrival of Christianity and before the arrival of Islam (predisposed the people for the kind of evangelization that came afterwards). The people of Africa with traditional religions believed in one God; they honoured the ancestors and honoured good spirits and tried to avoid the evil spirits. The (Africans) had a religion with prayer, with sacrifice and with a priesthood. When Christianity arrived, especially the Catholic faith, it was like midday Sunshine to a people who were looking for light at 4 O’clock in the morning,” Cardinal Arinze affirms.
He goes on to commend Irish missionaries who were among the earliest in Nigeria. “Another explanation is the good work done by the missionaries especially the Irish missionaries. The Irish were very methodical. They promoted good Catechetical Sacramental preparation and they attended to families,” he emphasises.
Cardinal Arinze also credits his own people, the Nigerians, for the manner in which they received the message of Christ. “We very much thank God for the local people’s response. The first Catechists who were near the missionaries; those who gave missionaries land and helped them with the (local) languages and then the first priests and the religious and the first bishops and the present ones, lay people and families... I believe for all these reasons, the Church in the country is rather strong,” Cardinal Arinze says.
It has often been said that Cardinal Arinze’s life, from the start, was greatly influenced by Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi whom he knew personally. When asked about this, the Cardinal says, “Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi is the first priest that I ever knew. He began our parish in Onitsha, in 1940. He baptised me. My first confession was at his hands; first communion from his hands; he prepared me for confirmation and I was his Mass Server in 1945.” He continues, “The area where Blessed Tansi worked has many vocations to the priesthood and religious life because of the person he was,” the Cardinal says.
According to Cardinal Arinze, Blessed Tansi was a model priest. He promoted the Catholic faith and schooling for children. He championed women’s issues often standing up against entrenched local traditional customs. Blessed Tansi also promoted family life.
“Fr. Tansi was also known for asceticism. He ate very little,” says Cardinal Arinze and tongue-in-cheek adds, “His cook did not have much work.”
Later, Tansi became a Cistercian Monk at Mount Saint Bernard Monastery in Nottingham, England. He joined the Cistercians of the Strict Observance sometimes called the Trappists. Tansi took on the name Cyprian when he became a monk. He was a diocesan priest for 13 years and a Monk for 14 years. He died in 1964 and was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II on 22nd March 1998, in Nigeria.
Of the beatification, Cardinal Arinze says, “One million or two million people were at that Mass. We are now looking forward to a miracle so that Tansi can be canonised. I have written a book about him and this book is expected this year.”
Several events are lined up for the celebration of Cardinal Arinze’s golden jubilee as a Bishop. There will be Mass at the ‘Altare della Cattedra’ in St Peter’s Basilica on the evening of 26 October 2015. This will be a day following the closure of the Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family, scheduled to take place in the Vatican from 4 October to the 25 October. The timing of the golden jubilee Mass in St. Peter’s should provide opportunity for friends of the Cardinal to be present. Priests, the religious, friends and the Nigerian community in Italy will certainly attend.
Apart from other smaller private functions, the big jubilee celebration that should crown all celebrations is probably the one scheduled for Onitsha, Nigeria on 28 November. It is the last day of the liturgical year. Many people in Nigeria will certainly not want to miss that one.
Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect emeritus of the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, was born on 1 November 1932 in Eziowelle, a city of the Archdiocese of Onitsha, Nigeria. He was ordained priest during a ceremony which took place at the Church of the Pontifical Urban University in Rome on 23 November 1958. On 29 August 1965 he was ordained coadjutor Archbishop of Onitsha Archdiocese and became the substantive Archbishop two years later. In 1984 Pope St. John Paul II asked him to head, as pro-president, the Secretariat for Non-Christians (now the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue). He was created Cardinal on 25 May 1985.
Since the year 2005, Cardinal Arinze holds the title of Cardinal-Bishop of Velletri-Segni.