Pope Francis in Slovakia: An Overview of His Apostolic Visit | EWTN News In Depth September 17, 2021

hannah thank you for joining us today from reggio calabria italy the pope celebrated the byzantine rite divine liturgy in slovakia and we know slovakia is primarily a christian country but almost half are catholic there and a very small percentage are byzantine how does this mass impact unity in the church and the country well you're exactly right that pope francis celebrated this byzantine divine liturgy for just a small percentage of the catholics in the country since most catholics are roman catholic and he spoke about the theme of unity not only there but also in other meetings and about catholics in the country working together it was interesting that pope francis went there also several other places he went during his trip were significant obviously we know pope francis likes to visit the peripheries he likes to visit the marginalized the minority communities and he did that on this trip one other significant thing to know is there's a place he didn't go someplace john paul ii went on his visits to slovakia is the city of nitra which is very important for catholic history in europe and so his choice also to avoid that popular spot instead choosing more places on the eastern side of the country which is also a poorer area less developed i think is also very significant we'll get to the issue of the marginalized in a second but let's talk about young people the pope had a message for the young people of slovakia about courage rejecting the culture of the ephemeral and giving of yourself without half measures and my favorite part recognizing the usefulness of shame to signal we need a new path but not letting guilt silence us from speaking the truth how is this message specific to the people of slovakia well obviously they have a very difficult history when it comes to communism and the catholic church in the country and so i i saw the pope really calling uh young people here to a renewed faithfulness their catholic majority but obviously we all have room to grow in our faithfulness our the depth of our relationship to jesus christ he spoke a lot about the sacrament of confession and it was obvious he wanted to give this message about um about renewal one of the most memorable moments of his trip was when he visited with the roma people who as you mentioned are often discriminated against and suffer from racism across europe and he urged them to integrate into slovakia and not segregate themselves despite the barriers that they face how do you think this message was received and why was it important well honestly it was very surprising i heard from slovakians it was even surprising that the pope chose to go to visit the roma in this um in their neighborhood where they live that was already a surprising choice and by that alone he was showing this message of unity of um defense of the vulnerable of the more weak uh so um i i think the meeting was well received but obviously not necessarily a pause a popular decision by the pope and hannah we introduced this segment of our show with the pope's joke with the clergy that their homilies are too long and maybe a little boring but connecting with the faithful is incredibly important what was their reaction um well obviously everyone had a good chuckle at the pope's jokes and and people have been talking about what he said about you know homilies no more than 10 to 15 minutes but i think it's important to notice what else he said about about homilies that they also should be based on the scriptures that they should apply to people's lives and he said you know they should be short unless they're very engaging so i think there's some room there um for those who are very dynamic preachers but then he tied that into obviously spreading the gospel so we have the homily the preaching at mass which priests uh do but then to tying that to the baptismal call of every catholic to spread the gospel and he really did that on this trip encouraging uh slovak catholics to continue to spread the faith and to stay firm in their catholic roots so a request for renewal in our interior life but also in the way that we share the gospel that's great to hear hannah we're so grateful that you are there to give us this analysis and we look forward to staying in touch absolutely thank you thank you [Music] you

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Length: 4min 34sec (274 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021