By Vatican News

“Today I would like to pray in particular for the population of the northern region of Nigeria, victim of violence and terrorist attacks.”

Those were the words Pope Francis used after praying the Angelus on Saturday, praying for and asking us to pray for our brothers and sisters in northern Nigeria.

Insecurity and terrorism

On 8 August, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria issued a statement addressing the “increasing insecurity” and acts of violence in Northern Nigeria.

“We continue to hear of increasing insecurity and unabated acts of terrorism in Northern Nigeria. We are all tired of this situation,” said the Bishops’ statement.

Using the word “massacre” to describe the violence in Southern Kaduna, the Bishops said the “killings must stop.”

Violence on the rise

In June 76 people were killed in an attack on Sabon Birni Local Government Area of Sokoto State. Five humanitarian aid workers were violently murdered in July by Boko Haram militants after having been abducted in Borno State in June. At least three attacks attributed to the Fulani militia took place in Southern Kaduna in July alone.

On 5 August, at least thirty-three persons, mostly women and children, were killed by unknown gunmen in an attack on five Atyap chiefdom villages in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State. The State government recently imposed a curfew in the area due to the rising tensions.

Appeal to the government and for prayers

The Nigerian bishops appealed to the country’s government of their campaign promises to end corruption, guarantee safety of persons and property and to stimulate the economy. .

In addition, the Bishops turn to all Catholics that we join in prayer, praying praying one Our Father, three Hail Marys and one Glory Be to the Father “every day after the Angelus for forty days.”

This joint prayer will start from 22 August through to 30 September 2020 – the eve of Nigeria’s Independence Day anniversary. On 1 October (Nigeria’s Independence Day), the faithful are to pray the five decades of the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary “for God to save Nigeria.”

By Robin Gomes

Pope Francis on Saturday invited Christians to thank and praise God for the good that He has done in our life just as the Virgin did in the Magnificat, which became the source of her joy.

Pope Francis made the exhortation at the midday “Angelus” prayer in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square, on the day the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into heaven.

The dogma of faith that Pope Pius XII proclaimed on November 1, 1950, asserts that the Virgin Mary “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory”.  Pope Francis said that the Assumption shines “as a sign of sure hope and solace to the People of God during its sojourn on earth”, as the Second Vatican Council puts it.

Assumption: with God nothing is lost 

Addressing a holiday crowd from the window of his studio overlooking the square, the Pope said in Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, we celebrate an infinitely greater conquest than the “giant step for mankind” when man first set foot on the moon.   When the lowly Virgin of Nazareth set foot in paradise, body and spirit, he said, it was “the huge leap forward for humanity”.

This, the Pope said, gives us hope that “we are precious, destined to rise again”. “God does not allow our bodies to vanish into nothing. With God, nothing is lost!”

Mary’s lowliness magnifies God goodness

Mary’s advice to us, the Holy Father said, lies in her song, the “Magnificat” – “My soul magnifies the Lord”.   “Mary ‘aggrandizes’ the Lord: not problems, which she did not lack at the time,” the Pope explained. She does not allow herself to be “overwhelmed by difficulties and absorbed by fears”.  Rather, she puts God as the first greatness of life, which becomes the source of her Magnificat.  Her joy is born “not from the absence of problems, which come sooner or later, but from God’s presence”, because He is great and he looks on the lowly ones.  “We,” the Pope stressed, “are the weakness of His love.”

Mary, the Pope continued, acknowledges that she is small and exalts the “great things” that the Lord has done for her. She is grateful for the gift of life, she is a virgin yet she becomes pregnant, and Elizabeth, too, who was elderly, is expecting a child.  The Pope said, “the Lord works wonders with those who are lowly …, who give ample space to God in their life”, for which Mary praises God.

Forgetting the good shrinks the heart

Pope Francis thus invited all to ask ourselves, whether we, like Mary, praise and thank God for the good things He does for us, for His love, forgiveness, tenderness and for giving us His Mother and our brothers and sisters.

“If we forget the good,” the Pope warned, “the heart shrinks.”  “But if, like Mary, we remember the great things that the Lord does, if at least once a day we were to “magnify” Him, then we would take a great step forward,” the Pope concluded, adding, our hearts will expand and our joy will increase.

By Vatican News

On Saturday evening, to the applause of the faithful, Archbishop Fabio Dal Cin, Pontifical Delegate to the Shrine at Loreto announced the Pope’s decision to extend the Lauretan Jubilee until 10 December 2021. The Jubilee was granted on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the proclamation by Pope Benedict XV of Our Lady of Loreto, Patroness of all airmen.

December 2021 extension

Imparting the news from the Shrine of the Holy House, the Archbishop said, “In this difficult time for mankind, Holy Mother Church gives us another twelve months to start anew with Christ, letting us be accompanied by Mary, a sign of consolation and sure hope for all”.

The Jubilee was officially inaugurated on 8^{December, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, with the opening of the Holy Door presided over by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, but “unfortunately not celebrated in all its entirety because of the Covid-19 epidemic”.}

Apostolic Decree

An Apostolic Decree issued on July 16 by the Apostolic Penitentiary states that there will be for another twelve months to experience grace and forgiveness for all the faithful who visit the Pontifical Shrine. Grace which also extends to the many chapels of the civil airports and air force bases around the world.

The decree co-signed by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, Major Penitentiary and Regent Father Krzysztof Józef Nykiel also states that “the faithful will draw from the generous extension good intentions and spiritual vigor to be implemented in life according to the law of the Gospel”.