Vatican City, 6 May 2013 (VIS) – Today, in commemoration of the death
of 147 Swiss soldiers, fallen while defending the pontiff during the sack of
Rome (1527), the swearing-in ceremony of the new recruits of that Corps will
take place. This
year, 35 new recruits will take the oath at 5:00pm in the St. Damaso Courtyard
before the Holy Father's representative, Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu,
substitute of the Secretariat of State. Cardinals, bishops, members of the
Curia, and
representatives of diplomatic delegations to the Holy See will participate at
the ceremony.
Subject: VISnews130506
From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt
The delegation from the government of the Canton of Zug will be headed by
President Beat Villiger and the President of the Swiss Conferderation, Ueli
Maurer, will also be present at the ceremony. The oath-swearing day began this
morning with the
celebration of Mass at the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter at 9:30am, followed
by the commemoration of the 147 fallen guards in the Square of Roman
Protomartyrs.
Pope Francis, who received the 35 recruits and their families this morning,
addressed them. “On this day,” he said, “you commemorate the
sacrifice of the Swiss Guards who engaged in the vigorous defence of the Pope
during the 'Sack
of Rome'. Today you are not called to this heroic gesture but to another form
of sacrifice, which is also challenging: to put your youthful energies at the
service of the Church and the Pope. To do this you must be strong, motivated
by love, and
sustained by your faith in Christ. … I am certain that the decision to
place years of your lives in service of the Pope is not foreign to your faith.
Indeed, the deepest motivations that have brought you here to Rome originate
in your faith. It
is a faith that you have learned in your family, have cultivated in your
parishes, and that also shows that attachment of Swiss Catholics to the
Church. Remember it well: the faith that God has given you on the day of your
Baptism is the most precious treasure you have! And your mission of service to
the Pope and the Church also finds its source there.”
During your stay in Rome,” he continued, “you are called upon
to bear witness to your faith with joy and a courteous manner. How important
this is for so many people who pass through Vatican City! But it is also
important for those who
work here for the Holy See and for me as well! Your presence is a sign of the
strength and the beauty of the Gospel that, in every time, calls the young to
follow it. I would also like to invite you to live the time you spend in the
'Eternal City' in a
spirit of genuine brotherhood, helping one another to live a good Christian
life that corresponds to your faith and your mission in the Church.”
The Holy Father finished by reminding the new recruits that their specific
ecclesial experience in the Swiss Guard Corps represents “a privileged
opportunity to deepen the knowledge of Christ and his Gospel and to follow
him, almost breathing
here in Rome the catholicity of the Church. Today, when some of you swear to
faithfully carry out your service in the Guard and others renew this oath in
their hearts, think that your service is a testimony to Christ who calls you
to be authentic men
and true Christians, protagonists of your own existence.”
___________________________________________________________
TRUE EVANGELICAL, ECCLESIAL, AND MISSIONARY SPIRIT: CHARACTERISTICS OF
CONFRATERNITIES
Vatican City, 6 May 2013 (VIS) – Yesterday, under incessant rain,
thousands of persons, members of confraternities from Italy, France, Spain,
Ireland, Malta, Poland … paraded up Via della Conciliazione to gather
in St. Peter's Square for
the Mass presided by the Holy Father for the confraternities' pilgrimage to
Rome on the Year of Faith.
In his greeting to the Pope, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, said that “here
are represented ten centuries of history that few know about because it is
made of simple,
everyday gestures, etched nevertheless, in people's hearts. Confraternities
have been an expression of faith's most genuine fruit: charity toward the
poor, the abandoned, the suffering, and the marginalized.”
“It is brave of you to come here in this rain,” the Bishop of
Rome responded. “May the Lord bless you abundantly! As part of the
journey of the Year of Faith, I am happy to celebrate this Eucharist dedicated
in a special way to
confraternities: a traditional reality in the Church, which in recent times
has experienced renewal and rediscovery.”
Continuing, the Pope recalled that “whoever loves the Lord Jesus
welcomes him and his Father interiorly and, thanks to the Holy Spirit,
receives the Gospel in his or her heart and life. Here we are shown the centre
from which everything must go
forth and to which everything must lead: loving God and being Christ’s
disciples by living the Gospel. When Benedict XVI spoke to you, he used this
expression: 'evangelical spirit'. Dear confraternities, the popular piety of
which you are an
important sign is a treasure possessed by the Church, which the bishops of
Latin America defined, significantly, as a spirituality, a form of mysticism,
which is 'a place of encounter with Jesus Christ'. … Down the
centuries, confraternities have
been crucibles of holiness for countless people who have lived in utter
simplicity an intense relationship with the Lord. Advance with determination
along the path of holiness; do not rest content with a mediocre
Christian life, but let your affiliation serve as a stimulus, above all for
you yourselves, to an ever greater love of Jesus Christ.”
He then commented on the passage of the day's Liturgy from the Acts of the
Apostles that “speaks to us about what is essential. In the early Church
there was immediately a need to discern what was essential about being a
Christian, about
following Christ, and what was not. … Difficulties were overcome: not
from without, but from within the Church. And this brings up a second element
which I want to remind you of, as Benedict XVI did, namely: 'ecclesial
spirit'. Popular piety is a
road which leads to what is essential, if it is lived in the Church in
profound communion with your pastors. Dear brothers and sisters, the Church
loves you! Be an active presence in the community, as living cells, as living
stones. The Latin American
Bishops wrote that the popular piety which you reflect is 'a legitimate way of
living the faith, a way of feeling that we are part of the Church'. This is
wonderful! ... Love the Church! Let yourselves be guided
by her! In your parishes, in your dioceses, be a true 'lung' of faith and
Christian life, a breath of fresh air! In this Square I see a great variety:
earlier on it was a variety of umbrellas, and now of colours and signs. This
is also the case with the
Church: a great wealth and variety of expressions in which everything leads
back to unity; the variety leads back to unity, and unity is the encounter
with Christ.”
Finally, he touched upon the third characteristic of the confraternities:
“missionary spirit”.” You have a specific and important
mission,”he explained, “that of keeping alive the relationship
between the faith and the
cultures of the peoples to whom you belong. You do this through popular piety.
When, for example, you carry the crucifix in procession with such great
veneration and love for the Lord, you are not performing a simple outward act;
you are pointing to the
centrality of the Lord’s paschal mystery, his passion, death and
resurrection which have redeemed us, and you are reminding yourselves first,
as well as the community, that we have to follow Christ along the concrete
path of our daily lives so
that he can transform us. Likewise, when you express profound devotion for the
Virgin Mary, you are pointing to the highest realization of the Christian
life.”
“You express this faith, born of hearing the word of God, in ways
that engage the senses, the emotions and the symbols of the different cultures
… In doing so you help to transmit it to others, and especially the
simple persons whom, in
the Gospels, Jesus calls “the little ones”. In effect, 'journeying
together towards shrines, and participating in other demonstrations of popular
piety, bringing along your children and engaging other people, is itself a
work of
evangelization'.”
“May you also be true evangelizers! May your initiatives be
'bridges', means of bringing others to Christ, so as to journey together with
him. And in this spirit may you always be attentive to charity. Each
individual Christian and every
community is missionary to the extent that they bring to others and live the
Gospel, and testify to God’s love for all, especially those experiencing
difficulties. Be missionaries of God’s love and tenderness! Be
missionaries of God’s
mercy, which always forgives us, always awaits us and loves us d
arly.”
“Evangelical spirit, ecclesial spirit, and missionary spirit,”
the pontiff repeated. “Three themes! Do not forget them! Let us ask the
Lord always to direct our minds and hearts to him, as living stones of the
Church, so that all
that we do, our whole Christian life, may be a luminous witness to his mercy
and love. In this way we will make our way towards the goal of our earthly
pilgrimage, towards that extremely beautiful shrine, the heavenly
Jerusalem.”
___________________________________________________________
POPE AT LIBERIAN BASILICA: MARY HELPS US FACE LIFE
Vatican City, 4 May 2013 (VIS) – At 6:00pm this afternoon, the Holy
Father took possession of the Basilica of St. Mary Major with the traditional
kiss of the crucifix. It is the second time, since the beginning of his
pontificate, that Francis
has gone to pray at the oldest Marian shrine in the West, which houses the
image of “Salus Populi Romani" (Protectress of the Roman People). On 14
March, the day after his election, the pontiff went to St. Mary Major to place
the ministry he had
just received under Mary's protection. This time, the first Saturday of May,
he wished to pray the glorious mysteries of the Rosary.
On his arrival, the Pope was welcomed by Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello,
archpriest of the basilica, who greeted him with the words: “We want to
warmly embrace a request that we know well is frequently on the lips of our
Pope: 'pray, pray for
me'. We will do so, even in the future, because it is a pastoral line that we
want to privilege in this basilica—that of seeking to reawaken the faith
in the Christian peoples with a double emphasis: with a Marian touch and
united with the
Pope—frequently echoing the Holy Father's teaching and words …
which will urge us toward religious and human margins where there are so many
places to fill and accompany”.”
In his homily, the Pope highlighted three aspects of Mary's maternity: she
helps us to grow, to face life, and to be free.
“With his Passion, Death and Resurrection,” the Bishop of Rome
said, “Jesus Christ brings us salvation. He gives us the grace and the
joy of being God’s children, of calling him truly BY the name of Father.
Mary is a mother
and a mother worries above all about the health of her children … What
does this mean that the Madonna safeguards our health? I am thinking mainly of
three aspects: … she helps us to grow, she helps us to face life, and
she helps us to be
free.”
Mary Helps Us to Grow
A mother helps her children to grow and wants them to grow well. This is
why she teaches them not to give in to laziness—which is something that
also arises from a certain well-being—not to not to slip into a life of
ease that desires
nothing beyond material possessions. A mother takes care that her children
grow always more, that they grow strong and capable of taking on
responsibility, of committing themselves in their lives, and of holding high
ideals. … This is exactly
what the Madonna does in us. She helps us to grow humanely and in faith, to be
strong and not to yield to the temptation of being superficial persons and
Christians, but to live responsibly, always reaching higher.”
Mary Helps Us to Face Life
Then a mother thinks of her children's health, also teaching them to face
life's difficulties. You can't teach, can't care for one's health by avoiding
problems as if life were a highway without obstacles. A mother helps her
children to look
realistically at life's problems and to not get lost in them but to tackle
them with courage; not to be weak and to know how to overcome them with the
healthy balance that a mother “feels” between the limits of safety
and the areas of risk.
… A life without challenges doesn't exists and a boy or a girl who
doesn't know how to face them, putting themselves on the line, is a boy or a
girl without a backbone! ... Mary lived many difficult times in her life, from
the birth of Jesus ...
until Calvary. And like a good mother she is close to us so that we never lose
courage in the face of life's adversities, in the face of our own weakness, in
the face of our sins. She gives us
strength, pointing us to the path of her Son. From the cross, indicating John,
Jesus tells Mary: 'Woman, here is your son', and to John: 'Here is your
mother!' We are all represented in that disciple.”
Mary Helps Us to Be Free
One last aspect … a good mother also helps to make important
decisions with freedom. ... But what does freedom mean? Certainly not doing
whatever you want ... Freedom does not mean, so to say, throwing whatever we
don't like out the window.
No, that isn't freedom! Freedom is given to us so that we might know how to
make good choices in life! Like a good mother, Mary teaches us to be, like
her, capable of making ... important decisions at this time when, so to speak,
the 'philosophy of the
temporary' rules. It is so difficult to commit ourselves definitively. And she
helps us to make definitive choices with that full freedom with which she
answered 'yes' to God’s plan for her life.”
“How difficult it is, in our times, to take make definitive
decisions! The temporary seduces us. We are victims of a tendency that pushes
us towards the ephemeral… Part of it is the fascination of remaining
adolescents our entire lives!
We must not be afraid of definitive commitments, of commitments that involve
and affect our whole lives. In this way life becomes fruitful! And this is
freedom: having the courage to make these decisions with greatness.”
“Mary's whole existence is a hymn to life, a love song to life ...
The 'Salus Populi Romani' is the mother who gives us health in our growth,
gives us health to face and overcome problems, gives us health in making us
free to make definitive
choices. She is the mother who teaches us to be fruitful, to be open to life
… to never lose hope, to give life to others—both physical and
spiritual life. This is what we ask of you this evening, O Mary, 'Salus Populi
Romani', ... give us
the health that only you can give, so that we may always be signs and
instruments of life.”
After praying the Rosary, Francis went out of the basilica and addressed
the many faithful awaiting him in the piazza saying: “Thank you so much
for your presence here at the home of the mother of Rome, of our Mother. Long
live the Madonna. She
is our Mother. Let us entrust ourselves to her so that she might safeguard us
like a good mother. I pray for you but I ask that you pray for me because I
need it. Three 'Hail Marys' for me. I wish you a good Sunday tomorrow. Until
we meet again. Now I
give you the blessing—to all of you and all your families.”
___________________________________________________________
AUDIENCES
Vatican City, 4 May 2013 (VIS) – Today the Holy Father received ten
prelates from the Piemonte Region of the Italian Episcopal Conference on their
"ad limina" visit:
- Archbishop Cesare Nosiglia of Turin,
with Auxiliary Bishop Guido
Fiandino,
- Bishop Luciano Pacomio of Mondovi,
- Bishop Piergiorgio Debernardi of Pinerolo,
- Bishop Alfonso Badini Confalonieri of Susa,
- Bishop Giacomo Lanzetti of Alba,
- Bishop Giuseppe Guerrini of Saluzzo,
- Bishop Giuseppe Cavallotto of Cuneo and of Fossano,
- Bishop Franco Lovignana of Aosta, and
- Bishop Guido Gallese of Alessandria.
On Saturday, 4 May, the Holy Father received:
- Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for
Bishops, and
six prelates from the Marche region of the Italian Episcopal Conference on
their "ad limina" visit:
- Archbishop Giovanni Tonucci, prelate of Loreto and pontifical delegate
for the Shrine of Loreto,
- Archbishop Luigi Conti of Fermo,
- Archbishop Francesco Giovanni Brugnaro of Camerino-San Severino
Marche,
- Archbishop Giovanni Tani of Urbino-Urbania-Sant’Angelo in
Vado,
- Bishop Gervasio Gestori of San Benedetto del Tronto-Ripa
ransone-Montalto, and
- Bishop Armando Trasarti of Fano-Fossombrone-Cagli-Pergola.
___________________________________________________________
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican City, 4 May 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:
- appointed Fr. Zolile Peter Mpambani, S.C.J., as bishop of the Diocese of
Kokstad (area 17,655, population 1,809,000, Catholics 85,400, priests 21,
religious 60), KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The bishop-elect was born in
Umlamli, Eastern Cape, South
Africa in 1957 and was ordained a priest in 1987. Since ordination the
bishop-elect has served in several pastoral and institutional roles, most
recently as provincial superior of the Congregation of the Priests of the
Sacred Heart of Jesus in South
Africa and, alongside the vicar general, as pastor of Sterkspruit parish in
the Diocese of Aliwal.
- appointed Bishop Mark Joseph Seitz as bishop of the Diocese of El Paso
(area 69,090, population 848,00, Catholics 662,000, priests 103, permanent
deacons 27, religious 190), Texas, USA. Bishop Seitz, previously auxiliary of
Dallas, Texas, and
titular of Cozyla, serves as a member of the Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs
in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
- appointed Bishop Fernando Carlos Maletti as bishop of the Diocese of
Merlo-Moreno (area 301, population 913,000, Catholics 813,820, priests 58,
permanent deacons 30, religious 254), Argentina. On the Argentine Episcopal
Conference, Bishop Maletti,
previously of San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, serves as president of the
Commission for Assistance to Regions in Need and as a member of the Commission
for Aboriginals.
On Saturday, 4 May, the Holy Father appointed Archbishop Mario Aurelio Poli
of Buenos Aires as ordinary for Catholics of Oriental rite resident in
Argentina and without their own ordinary.
___________________________________________________________
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