Pope Francis urged his priests Thursday to avoid “clerical hypocrisy” and treat their flocks with mercy as he delivered a lengthy set of marching orders to Rome-based priests at the start of a busy few days leading to Easter.
A strong-looking Francis presided over a Holy Thursday Mass in St Peter’s Basilica during which the oils for church services are blessed. Later in the afternoon, he travels to Rome’s main women’s prison for the annual Holy Week ritual in which he washes the feet of inmates in a symbol of humility and service.
The 87-year-old Francis, who has been hobbled by a long bout of respiratory problems this winter, appeared in good form for the morning Mass. He read aloud a long homily, after skipping his text at the last minute during Palm Sunday Mass last weekend.
In his remarks, Francis warned priests against “sliding into clerical hypocrisy,” or preaching one thing to their flocks but doing differently in their own spiritual lives. Rather, he urged them to always show mercy to the faithful and not judge them, and weep instead for their own sins.
Doing so, he said, “means looking within and repenting of our ingratitude and inconstancy, and acknowledging with sorrow our duplicity, dishonesty and hypocrisy,” he said.
The Mass was the first major papal liturgy in St Peter’s since Bernini’s great columned canopy over the altar, known as a baldacchino, was covered in scaffolding for a months-long renovation and cleaning.
Francis has a busy few days coming up that will test his stamina.
On Friday, he is due to travel at night to the Colosseum for the Way of the Cross procession re-enacting Christ’s crucifixion.
On Saturday, he presides over an evening Easter Vigil in St Peter’s Basilica followed a few hours later by Easter Sunday Mass in the piazza and his big noontime Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) speech highlighting global conflicts and disasters afflicting humanity.
Norwegians facing
a shortage
A shortage of eggs in shops during Holy Week has led Norwegians to flock to supermarkets across the border in Sweden and hoard the traditional Easter food.
Norwegian news outlet Nettavisen said on Thursday that the Nordby shopping centre in Sweden, located just off the border about 100 kilometers (62 miles) south of the capital, Oslo, has been filled by “desperate” Norwegians trying stock up on eggs.
The centre’s Maxi-Mat food store ran out of eggs Tuesday, while the adjacent Nordby Supermarket has had to limit the number of eggs purchased to three 20-packs per household, the news outlet reported.
Not only are the Swedish stores better stocked with eggs, a traditional Easter treat needed for many dishes, but the product is also more affordable in Sweden, Nettavisen said.
“It’s far cheaper than you get in Norway — if you can get eggs in Norway at all, that is,” Stale Lovheim, the head of the Nordby shopping centre, told Nettavisen. “The last time I was in Norway, the store was empty” of eggs.
A pack of 20 eggs in Sweden sells for a price equivalent to 39.90 Norwegian kroner (USD 3.70), about 30 per cent less than the price in Norway. Concerns about overproduction of eggs in Norway led to farmers being offered compensation to reduce egg production. That and the effects of bird flu have led to a shortage, according to news reports.
Egg prices are at near-historic highs in many parts of the world as Easter approaches, reflecting a market battered by disease, high demand and growing costs for farmers.
Ranked consistently among the most expensive countries in the world, Norway is known for its substantially high cost of living, especially in regards to food products and alcohol, which are heavily taxed even when compared to well-to-do Nordic neighbours.
Many residents living in southern Norway regularly make shopping trips across the border to Sweden, where products and services enjoy a lower value-added tax, a phenomenon that has evolved into a lucrative business for Swedish store owners.
