Breitbart reported priest-journalist Fr Filippo Di Giacomo saying that these days fewer cardinals show up willingly at fancy restaurants where they might get spotted by paparazzi.

"Even the relatives of religious are now careful not to give presents that appear too luxurious, because they know that the Pope does not like them," said a Rome vendor of religious goods, Giovanna Salustri.

Her golden crosses, rings, reliquaries and monstrances, chalices, ciboria and censers sit unsold in her boutique shop.

"Look at the beautiful cardinals' crosses in the cases," she added, "made of silver studded with amethysts and lapis lazuli, each costing between 200 and 500 euros.

"Nobody buys them anymore because Francis wouldn't like it and would never give his blessing to these objects.

"He always says, give the money to the poor."

An Italian bishop is now reportedly ashamed to wear any of his extensive collection of mitres.

Fr Di Giacomo recounted the story of how Francis, on being elected Pope, refused to go to the tailor but ordered his cassock from the Serpone catalog from Naples.

"His cassock is polyester and cotton and cost at most 120 euros, not silk and mohair like many of the cardinals," Fr Di Giacomo said.

Life for the 46 cardinals and 80 bishops living in Rome has changed, at least in appearance.

"The caravan of midnight blue cars has ended," said Fr Di Giacomo, referring to the parade of chauffeured automobiles that used to be seen every morning taking many of the prelates to their offices.

Francis, he said, is travelling in a Ford Focus. So now the cardinals go on foot.

Sources

• Breitbart
• Image: Face of Malawi

I really don't think Lent is about giving up or taking on more, as such; rather, it's about seeking God with more intensity of focus than we manage at other times.

To do that we need simplicity— and we have become such complicated creatures that simplicity is more and more alien to us.

That is why our lives need to take on a plainness they often lack.

Our food is simpler and less copious; our prayer is simpler, too, reverting to more ancient forms, especially as we enter Holy Week.

Our compassion — almsgiving — has, or should have, a wider spread; and all because we seek the Lord. Love is our motive, and Love himself our reward. Continue reading.

Sr Catherine Wybourne is a Benedictine nun of Benedictine nun from Holy Trinity Monastery, Howton Grove Priory, U.K.

Source: iBenedictines

Image: @DigitalNun

"Our preparation for Christmas in the season of Advent is a time of waiting for a child who was born in poverty, in a stable because there was no place that would take in his family," says Archbishop John Dew, President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference.

"For some New Zealanders, Christmas is becoming a time of over-consumption, while for others it is a time of great stress and anxiety to meet their basic necessities. It would be good if all of us could think about how we can live a bit more simply this Christmas and, wherever possible, reach out to someone who might be struggling even just a bit more than we are ourselves."

Archbishop John says there are many ways that people could assist others, from donating to a food bank or soup kitchen, to giving food as a Christmas gift to neighbours or friends, or inviting someone over for a meal.

Source

• NZCBC
• Image: remnantculture.com

The conference follows on the heels of an important report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which warns of the urgency of immediately addressing the alarming escalation of climate change in order to avoid catastrophic consequences.

Scientists talk of "tipping points" and "abrupt climate change." Political leaders talk of the "challenges" that lie ahead. Scripture speaks of human crisis and God's forgiving grace. All three make it clear that the time will come when we must face consequences; the time will come when it is simply too late.

At first glance, it may appear strange for the leader of a religious institution concerned with "sacred" values to be so profoundly involved in "worldly" issues. After all, what does preserving the planet have to do with saving the soul?

It is commonly assumed that global climate change and the exploitation of our nature's resources are matters that primarily concern politicians, scientists and technocrats. At best, perhaps they are considered the preoccupation of interest groups, naturalists or activists.

Nevertheless, there are no two ways of looking at either the world or God.

There is no distinction between concern for human welfare and concern for ecological preservation. The way we relate to nature as creation directly reflects the way we believe in God as Creator of all things. The sensitivity with which we handle the natural environment clearly mirrors the sacredness that we reserve for the divine. Continue reading.

His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople is spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. He resides in Istanbul, Turkey. This post was delivered to the 19th Session of the Conference of the Parties, (Warsaw, November 2013)

Source: Huffington Post

Image: Pope Francis embraces Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, at the Vatican March 20. CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano

"There is a real clash of cultures between Germany's current cardinals and bishops, nominated under John Paul II or Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis," the reform-group spokesman said.

Since his election, Pope Francis tries to reform the way the church does business, and NCR reports German dioceses are reportedly chafing under the new direction.

As Francis drives around Vatican City in a 30-year-old white Renault, German Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, balked at the idea of giving up his company car, a BMW 740d.

"To me that car is not a status symbol; it is the office I use when I am traveling," Zollitsch said at a press event in early October, when asked whether he would trade it down.

In Germany, most of the church's top officials drive high-powered Mercedes, BMWs or Audis.

Other German clergymen have been chastised for lavish expenditures.

Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich's archdiocese spent around $11 million renovating the archbishop's residence and another $13 million for a guesthouse in Rome.

Carsten Frerk, who specializes on church finances in Germany, said German bishops' reluctance to follow Francis' new course is no surprise.

"The German Catholic Church is one of the country's wealthiest and largest organizations and its top officials expect a certain lifestyle," said Frerk, who has published two books on the German churches' wealth and what he describes as their opaque financing. "But they are wary of the extent of their wealth becoming broadly known because it might lead to fewer donations."

Sources

• NCR
• Image: Whispers in the Loggia

As he appeared for the first time, Francis' choice of a simple white cassock made a very clear and immediate statement.

BBC reports that soon after the election result was declared in the Sistine Chapel, the Master of Ceremonies offered the new Pope red papal cape trimmed with ermine.

"No thank you, Monsignore, ... Carnival time is over!" BBC reports Pope Francis as saying.

Later, at Mass with the Cardinals, Francis again broke with the recent practice of using an ornate vestment, rather choosing a more simple style.

Simplicity was also on his mind when he broke the seals of the Papal Apartment in the Apostolic Palace. Entering the apartment Francis seemed overwhelmed, momentarily motionless, "There's room for 300 people here," he's reported to have remarked. "I don't need all this space."

Stories continue to circulatie in the media of Francis' simplicity, his continued use of his old black shoes, making personal telephone calls of thanks to the Jesuit Superior General and to friends of his in Rome, and quietly visiting a sick cardinal in hospital.

While many of the faithful are already marveling at their new leader's refreshing simplicity, his sense of all-embracing equality and distaste for outward show, they can sit uneasily within an institution responsible for supporting and guarding its global leader, and Francis is already discovering that his power, and his insistence on humble practice, has limits.

While, Thursday, riding in a modest Vatican car with a small security detail to pray in the downtown St Mary Major basilica, Francis asked for the basilica to be kept open, allowing others to also use the church, however it was not to be.

"The gendarmes of the Vatican said no," said an employee at the church who declined to give his name.

"The pope wanted it open, but the wish of the pope was not obeyed."

"(The) only people not charmed by Francis so fare: Vatican security personnel scrambling to keep up with him as he presses the flesh," reports John Allen on Twitter.

In his farewell speech, Pope Benedict, in an apparent message to his successor, said that whoever succeeds him "no longer has any privacy. He belongs forever and totally to everyone, to all the church."

Sources

• BBC
• LA Times
• CathNews
• John Allen (Twitter)