On November 8th 2017, on Wednesday a fiery Pope Francis chastised those who spend Mass talking to others, looking at their phone or even taking pictures during papal liturgies, saying these are distractions that take focus away from the “heart of the Church,” which is the Eucharist.

“The Mass is not a show: it is to go to meet the passion and resurrection of the Lord,” the Pope said. “The Lord is here with us, present. Many times we go there, we look at things and chat among ourselves while the priest celebrates the Eucharist… But it is the Lord!”

In particular, Francis condemned the use of cell phones to take photos at papal Masses. At one point during the Mass the priest says, “we lift up our hearts,” he said. “He does not say, ‘We lift up our phones to take photographs!’”

“It’s a bad thing! And I tell you that it gives me so much sadness when I celebrate here in the Piazza or Basilica and I see so many raised cellphones, not just of the faithful, even of some priests and even bishops.” “But think: when you go to Mass, the Lord is there! And you’re distracted. But it is the Lord!”

Card. Mario Zenari, apostolic nuncio in Syria, has restarted the “Open Hospitals” project, reported the AsiaNews agency on November 2, 2017. This health program aims to offer free medical attention to all Syrians.

“From an economic and social point of view, the situation remains difficult” in Syria, Cardinal Zenari said. Poverty is spreading while prices are increasing, he explained. This critical situation has led the cardinal to revive the Open Hospitals project, providing medical attention for Syrians completely free of charge.

To do this, said the nuncio, it is necessary to renew three Catholic hospitals in the country. “Over half of the facilities are out of use” and “two-thirds of doctors have left the country,” he lamented. With this program, Cardinal Zenari hopes to “bring the operating capacity from the present 20%-30% to 90%-100%.” He plans on reaching this objective thanks to the support of Pope Francis and of Msgr. Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, Delegated Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

The cardinal also mentioned that the program receives support from foreign medical centers, including the pontifical Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital, which has already sent a pediatric team on-site to train Syrian doctors.

A diocese in northern Vietnam has begun constru-ction of a church dedicated to Dominican martyrs replacing the ruins of an earlier one destroyed during a US air raid in 1967.

Bishop Joseph Vu Van Thien of Hai Phong celebrated a special Mass on Nov. 6 to begin the construction of the new church at the Hai Duong Martyrs Shrine in Hai Duong City, some 60 kilometers southeast of Hanoi.

Seventy priests concelebrat-ed at the Mass attended by 7,000 people from throughout the country. Representatives from government agencies and Buddhists were also present at the event with many offering congratulatory flowers.

“Today, 50 years after the destruction of the martyr shrine, we are happy to begin the construction of the new church. This is a historic landmark of our diocese,” Bishop Thien said during the Mass.

Bishop Thien said the shrine was a place where many Catholics and missionaries were executed for their faith. Among them were three Spanish Dominicans – Bishops Jeronimo Hermosilla Liem and Valentino Berrio Ochoa Vinh, and Father Pedro Almato Binh – who were killed Nov. 1, 1861 and Vietnamese Dominican Brother Joseph Nguyen Duy Khang who was killed on Dec. 6 of the same year.

The feast day for the four martyrs, among 117 Vietnamese martyrs who were canonized on June 19, 1988 by St. Pope John Paul II, is observed by the diocese on Nov. 6.

Bishop Thien said the new facilities aim to express the local Catholics’ deep gratitude to themartyrs and show the heritage of their faith. “I would like to call on all of you to follow the martyrs’ shining examples by loving and working with other people to build a society of peace and justice,” he said.

An elderly Chinese priest who died following an accident at a construction site has been remembered by both open and underground Catho-lic communities in Wenzh-ou Diocese as an upright man who put the interests of the church first.

Fr Thaddaeus Sun Zhenhua died of serious injuries during a pastoral trip when the accident occurred on a pier in Yongjia, Zhejiang province in eastern China on Nov. 2. He was 83.

Fr Sun was an “open” church priest in Wehzhou Diocese who also gained respect from priests and Catholics of the underground church because he obstructed a delegate from the Bishops Con-ference of Catholic Church in China and Chinese Patriotic Association from reading an appointment letter during Bishop Zhu Weifang’s installation in 2010. Usually it is the pope who appoints bishops but under pressure from the government, open church bishops in China typically only dare to read the pope’s appointment letter secretly or to a small group, while the government’s appointment letter is read publicly.

Fr Sun’s courage earned him praise from Catholics, but also resulted in him being detained by the authorities.

Fr Sun also wrote letters to state leaders during the gover-nance of Hu Jintao to express his opinion on the state policies regarding the Catholic Church.

Although some senior clerics regarded such behavior impe-tuous and rash, they admitted that his intention was for safeguarding the Catholic Church’s interests.

Thomas, an open church Catholic, said that Fr Sun ignored the consequences to safeguard the church. “To do what he believed is right to do. Although it was not easy, he was right,” Thomas told ucanews.com.

“In today’s Gospel we hear a conversation between Jesus Christ and the disciples of John the Baptist. This is a talk about the main questions which John’s pupils ask Jesus: ‘Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?’ Actually, this question means: Who are You? This is a consolidation of the question about identity,” with such words the Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church began his homily.

According to him, the Old Testament people were awaiting the Messiah by certain signs. Jesus Christ answers this question. “Coming of Jesus Christ means closeness of God to a man. It’s not a man who came to God but the Lord came to a man. It’s not a man who touched God, but He touched a man,” emphasized the Head of the Church.

In His Beatitude Sviatoslav’s opinion, in the person of Jesus Christ we can see the advent of God’s Kingdom to us a real, visible one, – and feel God’s presence among people. “Jesus says: ‘Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me…’ What did He mean? People got used so much that God is far away; that one must shout so He could hear him; one must almost apply force to knock the doors of Heavenly Kingdom so that the Lord would open them for us… So when the Gospel says that He is close, people would not believe it,” said the preacher.

His Beatitude Sviatoslav believes that a man does not always want to accept everything that Jesus wants to give him. He must believe and be with God Who is part of his life. “I think that this uneasy question ‘Who are you?’ every Christian should ask himself. What is a true Christian today?” ponders the Primate and adds: “A Christian is the one who is baptized in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And this is the one who by his own life is preaching the good news that God is close. Christians live with God and He lives in them. This is who the Christians are,” stressed the Head of the Church.

The Primate assured that God is close to us but we, too, must be close to Him. Every day we must try in our soul and heart to be true Christians. “We are living in a not simple world now.