Scottish Catholic Observer

During his Angelus yesterday, the Pope greeted Muslims following Eid-ul-Fitr, the feast marking the end of Ramadan, and hoped both religions would show mutual respect ‘through the education of the new generations.’ Last week the Holy Father changed the Vatican’s traditional end of Ramadan message to the Muslims of the world into a personal greeting from himself.

Earlier in the Angelus, the Pope spoke of how God’s love is our greatest treasure and described that day’s Gospel from St Luke as representing our ‘desire’ for meeting with Christ. “[All of us] have this desire in our hearts, be it explicit or hidden,” the Pope said before asking the congregation: “Do you have a heart with a wish, or do you have a closed heart, a sleeping heart, a heart that is anaesthetised?”

yesterday was also the feast of St Clare of Assisi, and Pope Francis praised the saint, describing her as giving beautiful witness of today’s Gospel and helping us live it out to our own vocation. He concluded the Angelus with by telling pilgrims to ‘Go and make disciples among all nations,’ reminding them of the message given during the recent World Youth Day in Rio.

—Don’t miss the SCO special section on Scottish pilgrims’ experiences of WYD in the next print edition of the SCO, in parishes August 16.