St. Stanislaus of Szczepanów is depicted as the patron saint of Poland in a miniature painted by Stanisław Samostrzelnik of Mogiła. / Credit: Polona Digital Library|Wikimedia|PD-Art

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 8, 2024 / 16:53 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis during his Wednesday general audience invoked the intercession of St. Stanislaus, patron saint of Poland, for peace in Ukraine and Israel.

Addressing Polish pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, the pope said: “Today you celebrate the solemnity of St. Stanislaus, bishop and martyr, patron of your homeland.”

“St. John Paul II wrote of him,” Francis went on, “that from high in heaven, he shared in the sufferings and hopes of your nation, sustaining its survival, especially during the Second World War.”

Francis prayed that the intercession of St. Stanislaus “obtain, even today, the gift of peace in Europe and throughout the world, especially in Ukraine and the Middle East.”

What does Poland have to do with these wars? 

This comes as the wars in Ukraine and Israel continue to drag on, currently with no end in sight. With both wars raging in highly populated areas, civilians, including children, have had to suffer the effects of bombings, drone strikes, and starvation. 

The Polish people, meanwhile, have been instrumental in bringing humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine as well as in helping to feed, clothe, and shelter the nearly 20 million Ukrainian refugees who have crossed the Polish border since the start of the war. 

Francis has previously praised Poland as an example of charity in response to tragedies for their efforts to help the Ukrainian people.

“You were the first to support Ukraine, opening your borders, your hearts, and the doors of your homes to Ukrainians fleeing the war,” the pope told Polish pilgrims in a 2022 audience. “You are generously offering them everything they need to live in dignity, despite the current tragic situation. I am deeply grateful to you, and I bless you!”

Why St. Stanislaus? 

Poland, a country that is known for its religious fervor (it is 85% Roman Catholic), has a deep devotion to St. Stanislaus.

St. Stanislaus was born Stanislaus Szczepanowski near Krakow in 1030. After his parents’ deaths, Stanislaus gave away his wealth to the poor and became a priest. 

As a priest and then bishop of Krakow, Stanislaus became known as a vigorous preacher against immorality at all levels of society. He was an early spreader of the faith in Poland, encouraging Polish King Boleslaus to establish more monasteries throughout the country. 

Eventually, he incurred the wrath of Boleslaus for speaking out against his sexual immorality and occasional cruelty toward his people. Enraged, the king is said to have personally killed Stanislaus, striking him down while he was celebrating Mass. Stanislaus was proclaimed a martyr and canonized in 1253, becoming the first native-born Pole to be made a saint. 

Before becoming pope, then-Archbishop Karol Wojtyla filled the “See of Stanislaus” as head of the Archdiocese of Krakow. St. John Paul II often praised Stanislaus and hailed him as a “champion of true freedom” and a saint for “turbulent times.” 

“There is a deep spiritual bond between the figure of this great patron of Poland and the multitude of saints and blesseds who made an immense contribution of goodness and holiness in the history of our homeland,” John Paul II said. 

In a letter to the people of the Archdiocese of Krakow on the 750th anniversary of Stanislaus’ canonization, John Paul II said: “At the dawn of our history God, Father of peoples and nations, showed us through this holy patron that the moral order, respect for the law of God and the just rights of every person, are fundamental conditions for the existence and development of every society.”

Today, Stanislaus continues to be an inspiration of bravery in pursuit of human rights and service to God. His burial site, within the Archcathedral Basilica of Saint Stanislaus and Saint Wenceslaus in Krakow, is a popular pilgrimage site and a symbol of Polish identity.

The French 19th-century three-masted barque Belem is seen from the Palais du Pharo in the southern port city of Marseille on May 8, 2024, before the Olympic Flame arrival ceremony, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Belem is set to reach Marseille on May 8 and ten thousand torchbearers will then carry the flame across 64 French territories. / Credit: SYLVAIN THOMAS/AFP via Getty Images

Rome Newsroom, May 8, 2024 / 11:52 am (CNA).

As 206 countries prepare to send their top athletes to participate in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, the Vatican is organizing an event to look at the relationship between the Catholic Church and sports, through both a spiritual and anthropological lens.

“In the current context of wars tearing our world apart, Olympism is first and foremost a message of peace, and the commitment of the universal Church, like that of France, is essential. The role of the Church in promoting Olympism is well known,” said Florence Mangin, the ambassador of France to the Holy See, during a press conference held on Monday at the Vatican. 

The three-day international conference on sport and spirituality, titled “Putting Our Lives on the Line,” is a joint effort between the Vatican’s Dicastery for Culture and Education and the Embassy of France to the Holy See. It will be held May 16-18 at the Institut Français Centre Saint Louis (the French cultural institute of Rome), which sits adjacent to the Piazza Navona.

“At first glance, observing a conference on sport organized by a Dicastery of the Holy See seems a bit eccentric,” said Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, during the press conference. 

“But starting from the words of Pope Francis, when he compares sport to holiness, we realize the many points of connection that exist between sport and spirituality.” 

Mendonça noted that the conference will look at sports today in order to “understand why it is so popular,” as well as to “identify its risks” and “assess its relevance for building a more fraternal, tolerant, and equitable society.” 

The conference will bring together some 200 participants, including representatives from the Vatican, athletes, sports club managers, journalists, academics, pastoral representatives from different European dioceses, and philosophers for a series of roundtable discussions. 

“In essence, there are two fundamental questions that we want to answer with this conference: What does sport have to say to the Church? What does the Church have to say to sport?” Mendonça said. 

The first day, based on the theme “Church and Sport: A Relationship We Need to Deepen,” will include a series of discussions on these fundamental questions, including: “The Church at the Olympic Games,” “Sport in the Parish,” and “Catholic Schools and Sport.” 

“If we look at the history of sport in parallel with the history of the Church, there have been many moments in which sport has been an inspiration and a metaphor for the life of Christians, or Christianity itself has enriched sport with its humanistic vision,” Mendonça said. 

The second day will take a philosophical and anthropological approach, aimed at understanding the connection between mind, body, and sport through a different panel discussions such as “Sport: A Challenge for Humanization,” “Resurrection of the Body through Sport,” and “Disappearance of the Self and the Body.” 

“We will address the implications of a certain technicalization of sports practice, brought forward by the constant search for performance if not for records,” Mangin said.  

“The dazzling progress of Paralympic athletes, increasingly better equipped, provides an exceptional vision of the evolution of the human body, which some already wish to increase,” she said.  

The event will close on Saturday, May 18, with “The Relay Race of Solidarity” held at Rome’s iconic Circus Maximus at 4 p.m.

Pope Francis addresses pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square during his Wednesday general audience on May 8, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Rome Newsroom, May 8, 2024 / 09:13 am (CNA).

During the papal general audience on Wednesday Pope Francis focused on the importance of the theological virtue of hope, noting that it is both a fundamental building block of the Christian life, orienting believers toward the future, as well as a powerful antidote to nihilism. 

“Christians have hope not through their own merit. If they believe in the future, it is because Christ died and rose again and gave us his Spirit,” the pope said to thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square. 

“We say that hope is a theological virtue. It does not emanate from us, it is not an obstinacy we want to convince ourselves of, but it is a gift that comes directly from God,” he continued.

Looking to St. Paul as an example, Francis observed that the apostle established a “new logic of the Christian experience” for many “doubting Christians” when he explained that the “resurrection of Christ” is a bedrock upon which a new life is born, and that “no defeat and no death is forever.” 

The pope reflected on the central role hope plays in the daily lives of Christians, noting that it is an “answer offered to our heart,” thereby enabling Christians to confront pressing existential questions such as: “What will become of me? What is the purpose of the journey? What is the destiny of the world?”

The pope cautioned that the absence of hope “produces sadness,” which, in turn, could impress a nihilistic attitude where one falls into the belief that there is “no meaning to the journey of life,” a tendency the pope sharply rebuked as antithetical to Christian life. 

“If hope is missing, all the other virtues risk crumbling and ending up as ashes,” Francis warned. 

He added that the sins against hope can manifest in “bad nostalgia,” “in our melancholy,” “when we think that the happiness of the past is buried forever,” or when “we become despondent.” 

Looking up from his prepared remarks, the Holy Father repeated twice the affirmation: “God forgives everything; God always forgives.” 

“The world today is in great need of this Christian virtue,” Francis declared, noting that the virtue of hope is closely linked with patience, which, when both are taken together, form the fundamental attributes of those seeking peace. 

“Patient men are weavers of goodness. They stubbornly desire peace,” the pope said. “Those who are inspired by hope and are patient are able to get through the darkest of nights.”

New Swiss Guards prepare to be sworn in on May 6, 2024, at the Vatican. / Credit: Elizabeth Alva/EWTN

ACI Prensa Staff, May 7, 2024 / 17:30 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis received the Vatican’s Swiss Guard Corps on the occasion of the swearing-in of the new guards on May 6.

After participating in a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, 34 new recruits and their families were received by Pope Francis at the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. At 5 p.m. local time, the young men pledged their loyalty and absolute resolve to serve the successor of Peter.

‘Thank you for your generous service’

Addressing the new recruits and their families, the Holy Father expressed his gratitude for their presence and their “daily service, always generous and diligent.”

The pope especially greeted Commander Christoph Graf, as well as the guard chaplain, whom he referred to as “an excellent Benedictine.”

After expressing his gratitude, the pontiff noted that among the guards there is “a positive and respectful atmosphere in the barracks, a courteous behavior with your superiors and guests, despite the sometimes long periods of intense and exhausting service.”

“You demonstrate a high level of motivation and willingness to serve, and also — this pleases me greatly — good relations among yourselves: You go on excursions together, you spend holidays together, you go out together often. And that’s very good,” he remarked.

Pope Francis  pointed out that “relationship is the key experience for us Christians: Jesus revealed and witnessed to us that God is love, he is in himself a relationship, and in this mystery we find the goal and the fullness of our existence.”

‘The great family of the Swiss Guard’

For Pope Francis, “good relationships are the path to our human and Christian growth and maturation.”

He reiterated that much of what characterizes our personality we have learned through relationships with our loved ones and noted that “life in the great family of the Swiss Guard, for at least two years of service, is such an important and formative period.”

The Holy Father assured them that “it is not just a period of work but a time of life and relationship” and highlighted that “this diversity and intensity of community and relationships among you in your daily barracks environment is an essential and qualifying aspect.”

The pope encouraged the new Swiss Guards to “actively cultivate community life.”

He lamented that many young people spend their free time alone with their cellphone or computer and therefore urged them to go “against the flow.”

“It’s better to use your free time for common activities, to get to know Rome, for moments of fraternity in which to relate and share, to play sports... these experiences build your inner self and will accompany you throughout your life,” the Holy Father said. 

Oath of the new Swiss Guards

Following an ancient tradition, on the afternoon of May 6, 34 new recruits of the Swiss Guard took their oath to serve the pope and the Church at the St. Damasus Cloister in the Vatican. 

The ceremony takes place on the day that commemorates the death of 189 Swiss soldiers in defense of Pope Clement VII in 1527 during the Sack of Rome.

Through their oath, the new Swiss Guards expressed their loyalty and absolute resolve to serve Peter’s successor.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Singer-songwriter Garth Brooks (left), former NFL quarterback Tom Brady (right), and other celebrity guests will meet Pope Francis in an audience at Apostolic Palace on May 11, 2024, as participants in the Vatican’s World Meeting on Human Fraternity. / Credit: SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty Images; Daniel Ibañez/CNA; TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images

Rome Newsroom, May 7, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

Garth Brooks may have friends in low places, but this Saturday he will perform at a high-level Vatican event with Nobel Peace Prize winners, business leaders, and professional athletes, including former NFL quarterback Tom Brady.

Brady, Brooks, and other celebrity guests will meet Pope Francis in an audience at the Apostolic Palace on the morning of May 11 as participants in the Vatican’s World Meeting on Human Fraternity.

It will be the second time that the longtime quarterback for the New England Patriots has met a pope. Brady met John Paul II in 2004 after winning the Super Bowl.

Brady will speak at a Vatican roundtable on sports titled “Competing in Mutual Esteem” on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the Italian National Olympic Committee’s Hall of Honor. 

It is one of 12 roundtables organized throughout Rome at the second annual World Meeting on Human Fraternity — called #BeHuman — on topics ranging from education to peace-building, with economist Jeffrey Sachs and New York Mayor Eric Adams among its speakers.

On Saturday night, Brooks will sing some of his country hits in St. Peter’s Square starting at 9:30 p.m. as the culminating concert of the two-day human fraternity event organized by the Fratelli Tutti Foundation.

When asked why Brooks was chosen to perform at the Vatican, Father Francesco Occhetta, the secretary general for the Fratelli Tutti Foundation organizing the event, told CNA that the foundation has built relationships in the United States, adding: “We did not have a lot of time to invite more artists.”

Last year, Grammy winner Andrea Bocelli performed at the World Meeting on Human Fraternity during which Pope Francis signed a document drafted by a dozen Nobel Peace Prize winners together with representatives of former Nobel Prize-winning organizations calling for a commitment to human fraternity.

Nobel Prize winners will return to the Vatican this year for a roundtable on peace on Friday, May 10. Cardinal Pietro Parolin will give the opening speech for the roundtable, which will include Russian journalist Dmitrji Muratov, American human rights activist Jody Williams, Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman, Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, Liberian pacifist Leymah Gbowee, Guatemalan activist Rigoberta Menchù Tum, and Bangladeshi economist and banker Muhammad Yunus.

Other participants in the peace roundtable include the former prime minister of Niger, Ibrahim Mayaki, and Graça Machel Mandela, the widow of the late Nelson Mandela.

Argentinian prelate Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández. / Credit: Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images

Rome Newsroom, May 7, 2024 / 09:02 am (CNA).

The Vatican’s doctrine office will publish a new document next week on discerning Marian apparitions and other supernatural events.

The Holy See Press Office announced on Tuesday that Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), will unveil new norms for discernment regarding “apparitions and other supernatural phenomena” on Friday, May 17.

In an interview with the National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, last month, Fernandez said that the document will provide “clear guidelines and norms” for discernment.

The new norms will be the first time that the Vatican’s doctrinal office has issued a general document on apparitions in four decades. Pope Paul VI approved norms on “the discernment of presumed apparitions or revelations” in 1978.

Fernandez will speak at a livestreamed Vatican press conference at noon on the day of the document’s publication, along with Monsignor Armando Matteo, the secretary for the DDF’s doctrinal section.

The announcement comes after Fernández and Matteo met privately with Pope Francis on May 4, a meeting in which the pope likely reviewed the forthcoming document.

The Catholic Church calls for “great prudence” in examining the facts related to presumed apparitions of revelations. According to the 1978 norms, it is the Church’s responsibility to first judge the facts before permitting public devotion in the case of an alleged apparition.

Under Pope John Paul II, the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued a lengthy document on popular piety in 2001 that reiterated the Church’s teaching that private revelations do not belong to the deposit of faith.

“Throughout the ages, there have been so-called private revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith,” paragraph 67 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states.

“It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.”

Pilgrims gather in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican for Pope Francis’ Regina Caeli prayer and address on Sunday, May 5, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

ACI Prensa Staff, May 6, 2024 / 14:07 pm (CNA).

A priest armed with several weapons and dressed in a cassock tried to enter St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican to participate in the Regina Caeli prayer with Pope Francis on Sunday, May 5.

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the priest, who is from the Czech Republic, tried to pass through the metal detector carrying an air pistol, two knives, a cutter, and a screwdriver.

After being arrested, the priest was reported to the authorities for illegal possession of weapons. When questioned, the priest said he carried the weapons for personal defense.

According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the priest is 59-year-old Father Milan Palkovic.

According to Europa Press, the weapons were in a bag that belonged to another man, a 60-year-old Czech who accompanied the priest and who was also detained.

Neither has a criminal record and both came to Rome on a pilgrimage from the Czech Republic.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), pictured in 1938-1939. / Credit: Public Domain

Rome Newsroom, May 6, 2024 / 11:12 am (CNA).

Edith Stein could be declared a doctor of the Church with the title “doctor veritatis,” or “doctor of truth,” following a petition from the Discalced Carmelites.

Pope Francis received an official request from the superior general of the Discalced Carmelites, Father Miguel Márquez Calle, on April 18 in a private audience at the Vatican to recognize the theological legacy of the saint who was martyred in Auschwitz.

If accepted, Stein, also known by her religious name St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, could become the fifth woman to be declared a doctor of the Church, a title that recognizes a substantial contribution to the Church’s theology and moral life.

With the petition, the Vatican Dicastery for the Causes of Saints can officially begin the required process to grant Stein the title.

The Carmelites first launched an international commission to gather the necessary documentation required by the Vatican in 2022, a year that marked both the 100th anniversary of Stein’s baptism and the 80th anniversary of her martyrdom.

A title that was proposed for her at the time was “doctor veritatis” because of her relentless intellectual pursuit of truth, which after her conversion she recognized in the person of Jesus Christ.

Stein was born in 1891 into a Jewish family in what is now Wrocław, southwestern Poland. The city was then known as Breslau and located in the German Empire.

After declaring herself to be an atheist at the age of 20, she went on to earn a doctorate in philosophy.

She decided to convert to Catholicism after spending a night reading the autobiography of the 16th-century Carmelite nun St. Teresa of Avila while staying at a friend’s house in 1921.

“When I had finished the book,” she later recalled, “I said to myself: This is the truth.”

Stein was baptized on Jan. 1, 1922, at the age of 30. She took the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross when she became a novice Carmelite nun 12 years later.

Ten years after Stein entered the Carmelite convent, she was arrested along with her sister Rosa, who had also become a Catholic, and the members of her religious community.

She had just finished writing a study of St. John of the Cross titled “The Science of the Cross.”

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross died in the Auschwitz concentration camp on Aug. 9, 1942. Pope John Paul II canonized her in 1998 and proclaimed her a co-patroness of Europe the following year.

“God is truth,” Stein wrote after her conversion. “Anyone who seeks truth seeks God, whether or not he is aware of it.”

Swiss Guard cadets prepare their armor in the guards' barracks at the Vatican on April 30, 2024. / Credit: Matthew Santucci/CNA

Vatican City, May 5, 2024 / 17:00 pm (CNA).

For the newest class of 34 Swiss Guards who will be sworn in on Monday, their service is based on faith and a love for the Church and the pope as storied as the uniform itself. 

“For me it was something, first and foremost, to give something to the Church, because the Catholic Church gave us a lot when I was a child and with this service, I can give something back,” explained Nicolas Hirt, one of the new guards who hails from the Swiss canton of Fribourg. 

The cadets, joined by their instructors, gathered for a media event on April 30 in the courtyard behind the barracks adjacent to the Sant’Anna entrance, which was adorned with the flags from each of the Swiss cantons. 

The Swiss Guard’s annual swearing-in ceremony will take place on Monday, May 6, in the San Damaso courtyard of the Apostolic Palace. There, the new guards will solemnly raise their right hands, with three fingers extended, representing the Holy Trinity, and proclaim their oath: “I swear I will faithfully, loyally, and honorably serve the Supreme Pontiff and his legitimate successors and I dedicate myself to them with all my strength. I assume this same commitment with regard to the Sacred College of Cardinals whenever the Apostolic See is vacant.”

There was a palpable sense of pride, perhaps even a hint of nervousness, as the young men marched last week in the storied corridors, perfecting the ancient rites ahead of a day that will mark a milestone in their lives. 

Renato Peter, who comes from a small village near St. Gallen (the first from his village to enter the guards), said he first developed a desire to enter into the service of the papal guards after a trip to Rome in 2012 with his diocese. 

“When you work in the Vatican, you have to feel like you go back in history because a lot of European history has been made here,” said Peter, who is mindful that those who wear the iconic tricolor uniform bear a great responsibility and represent a connection to the history of the Church. 

“We are the smallest military in the world,” Peter continued, emphasizing that service in the Swiss Guards is like no other. “But, we are not training to make war. We are like the military, yes, but we’re for the security of the pope.” 

The Swiss Guard is indeed the smallest standing army in the world, numbering only 135 members (Pope Francis increased its ranks from 110 in 2018), protecting not only the smallest sovereign territory in the world, Vatican City State, but also acting as the personal security force of the Holy Father. 

This year the Swiss Guard celebrated 518 years of service to the Apostolic See. Its history dates back to Jan. 22, 1506, when 150 Swiss mercenaries, led by Captain Kasper von Silenen from the central Swiss canton of Uri, arrived in Rome at the request of Pope Julius II.

But the swearing-in ceremony takes place on May 6, marking the anniversary of the Sack of Rome in 1527 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V when 147 guards died protecting Pope Clement VII. 

The Swiss Guards form an integral part of the history of the papacy and a core component of the security apparatus of the Vatican, but they also occupy a special palace in the popular imagination, one underscored by a profound spirituality. 

“It’s another world, another culture, and above all doing a fairly unique job, that is to say, there is the protection of the Holy Father,” said Vice-Corporal Eliah Cinotti, spokesman for the guards. 

“I don’t think there are many of us who are lucky enough to have the opportunity to serve the Holy Father in that way, therefore the Swiss Guard is a quite unique institution.”

Cinotti observed that for many of the pilgrims coming to Rome, which is often a once-in-a-lifetime experience, the guards act as a point of encounter between the people and the Church, shedding light on an evangelical dimension of their mission. 

“Since we are Swiss Guards and represent the pope, we are also there to be Christians, to listen to these people. There is no specific training for this because it already comes from our Christian character to help others.”

Service in the Swiss Guards is both physically and psychologically demanding, and the entry requirements are strict, even though the guards do not face deployment to active war zones like conventional soldiers.

A prospective guard must hold Swiss citizenship, be Catholic, single, and male (after five years in service the guards are allowed to marry), and be at least 1.74 meters tall (approximately 5’8”). They are required to have completed secondary school (or the equivalent) and have completed mandatory military service. 

Despite what some may consider prohibitive entry restrictions, Cinotti noted, during the annual call for applications there are anywhere from 45-50 applicants, and there has not been a problem with recruitment. 

During the first round, prospective candidates go through a preliminary screening and, if selected, they will sit with a recruitment officer in Switzerland for an initial interview, which generally lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to one hour. Candidates also have to undergo an intensive psychological test to assess whether they can withstand the demands of the job. 

Should their candidacy proceed, they are then sent to Rome where, for the first two months, they are exposed to the working environment of the Vatican and receive approximately 56 hours of intensive instruction in Italian. Their instruction also includes an emphasis on their cultural and spiritual formation.

The cadets are then sent to the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino in Switzerland, where they are instructed in self-defense and the use of firearms by local police. While the guards carry medieval halberds — an ax blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft — during official papal events, each is equipped with a 9mm GLOCK 19 Gen4 pistol, taser, and pepper spray. 

There is also a two-year minimum service requirement after which they can decide to remain or return to Switzerland. 

“About 80% return to Switzerland and 20% stay,” Cinotti said. “And the 80% who return to Switzerland go to the police or the army or return to their basic profession or go to study at university.” 

He also noted there have been some years where a guard will discern a vocation to the priesthood. “And we also had a certain point, people who entered the seminary at the time, one per year more or less.” 

He added: “We haven’t had anyone for two years, but I think they will arrive, or rather it’s a question of vocations.”

Cinotti spoke on the myriad security challenges that a guard will have to face in his day-to-day work, which can last anywhere from six to 12 hours of continuous duty, noting that there has been an uptick in the number of people coming to the Vatican for help. 

Cinotti also noted that for all of the guards, there has been the additional learning curve of adapting to Pope Francis’ pastoral style, which has brought him in close proximity to the faithful during his audiences in Rome and his travels abroad.  

“Pope Francis is like every pope,” Cinotti remarked. “He has his own style, and we must adapt to the pope.” 

“If he wants to go to contact the people of God, we must guarantee that, of course, everything is fine, but we cannot prevent it. He does what he wants, he is the pope,” he added. 

While this can raise some logistical problems, Cinotti reassured that the guards have been trained to respond to possible threats. He said they have developed a symbiotic, and always professional, relationship with Francis. 

“He transmits a certain serenity and a certain awareness that we are there next to him, we are there, like the gendarmerie, which allows us to operate in complete tranquility on the ground without being disturbed,” he said. 

“He likes to change plans and will change plans throughout the day,” Cinotti added, “but it suits us very well because we adapt to him and we do this service and for us, it is still important to guarantee his safety.” 

Pope Francis greets the crowd gathered at St. Peter's Square on May 5, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, May 5, 2024 / 09:30 am (CNA).

Pope Francis asked for a moment of silence as he spoke from the window of the Apostolic Palace on Sunday for people to thank the Lord for their friends. 

The pope reflected on the gift of friendship during his Regina Caeli address on May 5.

“Since childhood, we learn how beautiful this experience is: We offer friends our toys and the most beautiful gifts; then, growing up, as teenagers, we confide our first secrets to them; as young people we offer loyalty; as adults, we share satisfactions and worries; as seniors, the memories, considerations, and silences of long days,” the 87-year-old pope said.

“The word of God, in the Book of Proverbs, tells us that ‘Oil and perfume make the heart glad, and the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel’ (Prv 27:9). Let us think a moment of our friends and thank the Lord for them.”

Speaking to the crowd gathered below in St. Peter’s Square on a sunny Sunday in Rome, the pope remarked that Jesus desires to share in this great gift of friendship with us.

“Today the Gospel tells us about Jesus’ words to the apostles: ‘I do not call you servants any longer, but friends,’” he said.

“And today Jesus, in the Bible, tells us that for him we are precisely this, friends: dear people beyond all merit and expectation, to whom he extends his hand and offers his love, his grace, his Word; with whom he shares what is dearest to him, all that he has heard from the Father (cf. Jn 15:15),” he added.

Pope Francis asked people to reflect on whether they feel loved by the Lord as a beloved friend or if Jesus seems like more of a stranger.

“May Mary help us to grow in friendship with her Son and to spread it around us,” the pope said as he began to pray the Regina Caeli prayer in Latin.

At the end of his address, the pope prayed for peace in Ukraine and the Holy Land and offered his solidarity to people affected by the heavy flooding in southern Brazil that has killed at least 60 people.

Pope Francis gave a shoutout to pilgrims visiting Rome from Texas, Chicago, Berlin, and Paris, as well as to the Pontifical Swiss Guards, who will celebrate their swearing-in ceremony on Monday.

The pope also wished a happy Easter to Orthodox Christians and Eastern-rite Catholics who are celebrating Easter this weekend according to the Julian calendar.

“May the risen Lord fill all communities with joy and peace and comfort those who are in trial,” Pope Francis said.