Social justice and martyrdom: Unpacking Francis’ vision for evangelization

People take photos of an image of St. Oscar Romero at St. Camillus Church in Silver Spring, Md., April 10, 2018. (CNS photo/Tyler Orsburn)

This week on “Inside the Vatican,” Gerry and I explain the latest developments in the Vatican’s ongoing investigation into possible financial misconduct in the Vatican state department’s $200 million purchase of a building in an upscale London neighborhood. Cardinal Angelo Becciu was implicated in leaked documents about the deal, and this week denied any wrongdoing. We cover what questions remain in the investigation.

For our second story, the Jesuits celebrated the anniversary of their Secretariat of Social Justice and Integral Ecology this week, marking 50 years since the order began implementing the Second Vatican Council’s preferential option for the poor. In the last five decades, 57 Jesuits have been killed while evangelizing on the margins of society. (Just a note: We mistakenly said 59 on the show and regret the error.) This week, Gerry and I examine the theme of martyrdom that has emerged repeatedly in recent weeks and how it relates to Pope Francis’ vision of evangelization.

Finally, a group of U.S. bishops headed to Rome this week for their “ad limina” visits to the pope and the Roman curia. We talk about how those meetings have changed under Francis’ pontificate and what subjects the bishops are likely to address.

Links from the show:

Vatican official denies allegations of financial mismanagement
From 2014: Were 'Hidden Funds' Really 'Discovered' in The Vatican?
America Special Topic: The Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador
Pope Francis recalls persecuted Christians during Mass in catacombs

Show Comments (

)

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

Provide feedback on this article

form.antibot * :not(.antibot-message) { display: none !important; }You must have JavaScript enabled to use this form.

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.

Email address

Full name

Location

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.