Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
An employee holds the hand of a person at an elderly residence in Brussels April 14, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. During his April 15 morning Mass at the Vatican, Pope Francis prayed for the elderly who are fearful of dying alone during the pandemic. (CNS photo/Yves Herman, Reuters) 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis offered prayers for elderly people living alone or in retirement homes who are living in fear of contracting the coronavirus and dying alone.

"They are our roots, our history. They have given us the faith, traditions, the sense of belonging to a homeland. Let us pray for them so that the Lord may be close to them in this moment," the pope said April 15 at the beginning of the live broadcast of his morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

The pope reflected on the day's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, in which Peter and John heal a beggar crippled from birth.

"I have neither silver nor gold, but what I do have I give you: in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, rise and walk," Peter told the man before he was healed.

In healing the crippled man, the pope said, God shows that he is faithful to his promise of closeness to his people.

"God, who is capable of remaking things, of re-creating, as he did with this man crippled from birth" whom he healed, he said. "This is his faithfulness to us; it is a 're-creation' that is more wonderful than creation."

Like the shepherd who goes in search of the lost sheep and the father of the prodigal son, the pope continued, "our God is a God who works overtime out of love, out of fidelity."

"God's faithfulness is feast; it is joy; it is such a joy that it makes us do as this crippled man did: he entered the temple walking, jumping, praising God. God's faithfulness is feast, it is a free feast; a feast for all of us."

Pope Francis said that patience is also a hallmark of God's faithfulness as proven by Christ's appearance to Peter after the resurrection even though Peter had denied him.

"We know that it was God's fidelity that sought Peter," the pope said. "God's faithfulness always precedes us and our faithfulness is always the answer to that faithfulness that precedes us."

We don’t have comments turned on everywhere anymore. We have recently relaunched the commenting experience at America and are aiming for a more focused commenting experience with better moderation by opening comments on a select number of articles each day.

But we still want your feedback. You can join the conversation about this article with us in social media on Twitter or Facebook, or in one of our Facebook discussion groups for various topics.

Or send us feedback on this article with one of the options below:

We welcome and read all letters to the editor but, due to the volume received, cannot guarantee a response.

In order to be considered for publication, letters should be brief (around 200 words or less) and include the author’s name and geographic location. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

We open comments only on select articles so that we can provide a focused and well-moderated discussion on interesting topics. If you think this article provides the opportunity for such a discussion, please let us know what you'd like to talk about, or what interesting question you think readers might want to respond to.

If we decide to open comments on this article, we will email you to let you know.

If you have a message for the author, we will do our best to pass it along. Note that if the article is from a wire service such as Catholic News Service, Religion News Service, or the Associated Press, we will not have direct contact information for the author. We cannot guarantee a response from any author.

We welcome any information that will help us improve the factual accuracy of this piece. Thank you.

Please consult our Contact Us page for other options to reach us.

City and state/province, or if outside Canada or the U.S., city and country. 
When you click submit, this article page will reload. You should see a message at the top of the reloaded page confirming that your feedback has been received.

The latest from america

Jay Sefton in ‘Unreconciled’ (barebones theater company)
”Unreconciled” looks abuse, disregard and callousness in the eye and witnesses instead to radical kindness.
Elise L. RyanApril 04, 2025
‘A Man Escaped’ is a story of a man seeking temporal salvation, but Robert Bresson’s film takes on deeper meaning, becoming a parable of the Spirit.
John DoughertyApril 04, 2025
The thought of losing Pope Francis one day is a hard one for me to grapple with; I know my reasons why. What surprised me was how many of my non-Catholic friends, even those whose feelings toward the church are decisively negative, also expressed their care and concern.
Molly CahillApril 04, 2025
How is Catholic Charities navigating political opposition to their work with migrants?
JesuiticalApril 04, 2025