BY LISE ALVES
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
SAO PAULO (CNS) - Father Julio Lancellotti was caught by surprise Oct. 10 when Pope Francis personally called him asking about his work with the homeless. "I picked up the phone and a voice on the other side of the line asked, 'Parla Italiano? Hablas Espanol? Qui e Papa Francesco," the 71-year-old priest told Catholic News Service. Father Lancellotti, who has led homeless services for the Archdio- cese of Sao Paulo for more than 30 years, said he was taken aback by the call. "I sent a letter to the pope a while back with photos about the (home- less) situation here in Sao Paulo, but I never expected to get an answer. He (Pope Francis) must get thousands of letters per month," he said. Father Lancellotti told CNS the pope said he had seen the photos and told him he knew of the difficulties the homeless were facing. "The pope wanted me to transmit to those living in the streets his love and told me to tell them that he prays for them every day. He blessed them and asked us all to pray for him," said Father Lancellotti. "He also asked me to describe my day," chuckled the priest. "At the end he told me not to be discouraged and 'Live as Jesus did, always being close to the poor,'" said Father Lancellotti. People who work with Father Lan- cellotti say "discouraged" is not in his vocabulary. "I've seldom seen him discour- aged," said Auxiliary Bishop Luiz Carlos Dias of Sao Paulo. "He is out on the streets working with the homeless every day. He has embraced the (homeless) cause and dedicated his entire life to it." Bishop Dias said the priest is known throughout Brazil. "Those with nowhere to go seek out Father Julio, because they know he will be there for them," he said. The bishop said Father Lancelloti's commitment to the homeless and drug addicts has made him a few enemies. "There is a minority who is bothered by the work he does," noted Bishop Dias. Last year, news of threats against the priest's life made it all the way to the Organization of American States, which urged the Brazilian govern- ment to provide protection for the priest. Father Lancellotti, however, said he does not need official protec- tion. "They (homeless) are always watch- ing out for me, asking me if I need help. I feel protected by them," said Father Lancellotti.
BY MANUEL RUEDA
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
PAMPLONA, Colombia (CNS) - Jan Pieros walked along a Colombian high- way with his family, brav- ing the midday heat. With both of his arms stretched forward, he pushed a stroller that car- ried his 2-year-old son while carrying his belong- ings in a blue backpack that hung from his shoul- ders. Pieros was making a 1,500 mile-long trek to Ecuador, where his family had been offered work in a farm. He left his hometown of Caracas, Venezuela, in the middle of September, on foot, because he could not afford a bus ticket. "In Venezuela, we could no longer feed our children properly," said Pieros, who had been walking with his wife and three children for two weeks. "It may not be the best time to travel," he admit- ted. "But we are willing to do anything to improve our quality of life." Thousands of people are once again leaving Venezuela as neighboring countries like Colombia, Ecuador and Peru reopen their economies and lift restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic. The poorest are leav- ing on foot, and joining 5 million people who have already left Venezuela to escape hyperinflation, food shortages and the lowest wages in the West- ern Hemisphere. This new wave of migra- tion has prompted church groups in Colombia to reactivate aid programs that had been suspended this spring, as lockdowns slowed down Venezuelan migration. In the Colombian border city of Cucuta, by the end of October the local dio- cese plans to have distrib- uted bags with food, face masks and sanitizing gel to 4,000 migrants walking along roads that lead out of the city. The supplies were purchased with the support of Caritas Poland, a local supermarket chain and the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Hu- man Development. "What worries us is that there are many more fami- lies on the road now," said Msgr. Israel Bravo, vicar general of the Diocese of Cucuta. "Before it used to be mostly men, but mi- grants are now bringing their families." The pandemic has made leaving Venezuela harder. Gasoline shortages force migrants to walk for weeks just to reach the border. In Colombia, municipal governments have ordered shelters and soup kitchens to shut down in a bid to prevent large gatherings. To make the journey less dangerous, some church groups are trying to pro- vide migrants with assis- tance along the toughest stretches of the road. In the mountain town of Pamplona, Caritas France is supporting a program run by the local diocese that provides orientation, food and clothes for cold weath- er to Venezuelan migrants. Pamplona is located at 10,500 feet above sea level and gets cold at night. It's one of the first stops along a mountainous road that leads into the center of Colombia.
Use the internet to imitate Blessed Carlo
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (CNS) - A Vietnamese archbishop urged young people to imitate Blessed Carlo Acutis by establishing close links with God and other people on social media. Ucanews.com reported that about 500 young people attended a special meeting, "Access the Internet With Carlo," Oct. 10 at Tan Phuoc Church, the day Blessed Carlo was beatified in Assisi, Italy. The event was sponsored by Ho Chi Minh City Archdiocese's youth ministry committee. Archbishop Joseph Nguyen Nang told them Blessed Carlo, a 15-year-old who died of leukemia in 2006, was a programmer who used social media to unite many people and spread Christian values. Archbishop Nang said God is the first programmer who has a plan for human beings, inviting them to pursue eternal happiness. Blessed Carlo responded to his call and adored the Eucharist so much that he called it his highway to heaven. The archbishop said Blessed Carlo showed that all people could become holy even in a society full of temptations to sins. "We should access the internet and do what the blessed teen did so that we can be- come holy," Archbishop Nang told the congregation.
Pope thanks Cardinal Pell for his 'witness'
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - "Thank you for your witness," Pope Francis told retired Australian Cardinal George Pell as the two sat down for a private meeting Oct. 12, six months after the High Court of Australia over- turned the cardinal's conviction on sex abuse charges. "More than a year," the pope could be heard saying to Cardinal Pell in a brief video released by Vatican News. The pope's comments likely were a reference to the 405 days the 79-year-old cardinal spent in jail after be- ing convicted on five counts related to the abuse of two choir boys. In a decision read April 7, the High Court overturned that conviction, concluding there was "a significant possibility that an innocent person has been convicted because the evidence did not establish guilt to the req- uisite standard of proof."
Pope calls Brazilian priest, thanks him for work with homeless
Church groups help new wave of Venezuelan migrants
2 AROUND THE WORLD
THE CATHOLIC FREE PRESS OCTOBER 16, 2020
Indian Jesuit, 83, held for terrorism
MUMBAI, India (CNS) - A special court in Mumbai has placed Jesuit Father Stan Swamy, a tribal rights activist, in judicial custody until Oct. 23 amid protests in many parts of the country. Officials of the National Investigation Agency, which probes terrorism-linked activities, arrested the 83-year-old priest Oct. 8 at his residence at Bagaicha, a Jesuit social work center in the outskirts of the Ranchi, reported ucanews. com. Officials arrested him for alleged links to outlawed Maoist rebels, which the Jesuits and Indian rights activists say are trumped-up charges. "We are consulting lawyers to move the appropriate court for his bail," said Jesuit Father Davis Solomon, a colleague of Father Swamy. A statement from the Jesuits' Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat noted that, two days before his arrest, Father Swamy released a video explaining his fight for tribal land rights.
Catholic politicians must fight abortion, euthanasia
ROME (CNA) - Catholic politicians have an obligation to fight against abortion and euthanasia, while apply- ing the whole of Catholic social teaching in their politi- cal work, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, prefect emeritus of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said this week. Catholic politicians, the cardinal told CNA Oct. 7, "have to fight abortion and euthanasia. The pope, the congregations and the bishops have said that we can- not accept euthanasia in civil society because it is con- trary to life, or abortion because it means the death of the innocent child in the mother's womb." "Each life of the individual man has an absolute val- ue in itself," the cardinal continued, adding that politi- cians can "call themselves Catholics only if they accept this obligation to fight for the fundamental principles of social ethics, which are human rights."
CNS PHOTO LUCINEY MARTINS
Father Julio Lancellotti is pictured in a file photo blessing a homeless man in Sao Paulo. Father Lancellotti, who has led work with the homeless in Sao Paulo for more than 30 years, was surprised Oct. 10, by a call from Pope Francis, asking about his work with the homeless.
Share a memory of a priest who was a blessing in your life or a tribute to your favorite priest along with photos on facebook.com/celebratepriesthood
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CNS PHOTO LUCINEY MARTINS
BRIEFSI
CNS PHOTO MANUEL RUEDA
Jan Pineros pushes a stroller carrying his 2-year-old son as he walks along a road leading to Pamplona, Colombia, in late September. Pineros and his family were walking from Venezuela to Ecuador, where they had been offered work on a farm.
Dante is prophet of hope
VATICAN CITY (CNS) - In the run-up to next year's 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri, Pope Francis said he hoped people would read the Ital- ian poet's work, especially the "Divine Comedy," which still resonates today. "Dante, in fact, invites us once again to rediscover the lost or clouded sense of our human journey," he said in an audience at the Vatican Oct. 10 with a delegation from the Italian Archdio- cese of Ravenna-Cervia. Born in Florence in 1265, Dante played an essential role in Italian literature by writing in the vernacular, not Latin, making literature more accessible to the wider public. His final work, Divine Comedy, imagines an al- legorical journey through hell, purgatory and heaven and is considered one of the masterpieces of world litera- ture. It was completed while he was in exile in Ravenna, where he died Sept. 13, 1321, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. In his speech to the visiting delegation, Pope Francis re- called how St. Paul VI in 1965 donated a golden cross to Ravenna to place on Dante's tomb to mark the 700th an- niversary of his birth. Acutis t a W t A H m N a
Mexican president again asks pope for apology
MEXICO CITY (CNS) - Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador has asked Pope Francis to apologize for the church's role in the conquest of the Americas. It's the second time he has made such a request of the pope in less than two years. In a letter made public Oct. 10 - after it was personally deliv- ered to Pope Francis during an audience with Beatriz Gutirrez Mller, Lpez Obrador's wife - the president once again insisted that "the Catholic Church, Spanish crown and Mexican state must offer a public apology to the indigenous people that suffered the most igno- minious acts in order to loot their lands and subju- gate them from the Conquest of 1521 until the recent past." The letter continued: "They deserve not only this generous attitude on our part but also a sincere commitment that never again will these disrespectful acts be committed against their beliefs and cultures - and much less that they be judged or marginalized for economic reasons or racism." In March 2019, Lpez Obrador asked the Catholic Church and Spanish crown to apologize for the conquest of the Americas - some- thing Spain has said is unnecessary.
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