THE POPE IN LAMPEDUSA: LET THE VEHICLES OF HOPE NEVER AGAIN
BECOME VEHICLES OF DEATH
- THE POPE TO SEMINARIANS, NOVICES AND THOSE
DISCERNING THIEIR VOCATIONS: OUR MISSION IS TO ENCOUNTER THE LORD WHO CONSOLES
AND TO CONSOLE THE PEOPLE OF GOD
- ANGELUS: JESUS IS NOT AN ISOLATED
MISSIONARY
-
AUDIENCE WITH PRESIDENT OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
- CARDINAL VAN THUAN: A
WITNESS OF HOPE
- AUDIENCES
- OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
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THE POPE IN LAMPEDUSA: LET THE VEHICLES OF HOPE NEVER AGAIN BECOME VEHICLES
OF DEATH
Vatican City, 6 July 2013 (VIS) – This morning Pope Francis visited
the Italian island of Lampedusa, for some years now an entry point for many
immigrants, a significant number of whom have lost their lives in the
surrounding seas.
The pope left Rome's Ciampino military airport at 8 a.m. arriving at the
island at 9.15 a.m., where he was greeted by Archbishop Francesco Montenegro
of Agrigento and by the mayor of Lampedusa, Giuseppina Nicolini. He proceeded
to Cala Pisana by car,
where he boarded a boat in order to arrive at the Port of Lampedusa by water.
The Holy Father was accompanied by fishermen in their boats. During the
journey he committed a wreath to the sea in memory of those immigrants who
have lost their lives
attempting to cross the Mediterranean. The Pope's arrival at the port at Punta
Favarolo was awaited by a group of around fifty immigrants, many of whom were
Muslims, living in the reception shelters in Lampedusa. He greeted them one by
one and then
departed by car for the nearby “Arena” sports field in the Salinas
quarter, where at 10.30 a.m. he celebrated Mass.
The form of the Mass was that “for the forgiveness of sins”,
included in the Missal among the masses for particular needs. The Liturgy of
the Word consisted of readings on the story of Cain and Abel, the massacre of
the innocents, and the
Miserere psalm, emphasizing the penitential aspect of the Liturgy. The Holy
Father used a crosier and chalice from the parish of Lampedusa made of wood
from boats by which immigrants reached the island. Both were the work of an
artisan from Lampedusa,
who had offered assistance to the immigrants during the emergencies.
Given below are extensive extracts from the Pope's homily:
“Immigrants dying at sea, in boats which were vehicles of hope and
became vehicles of death. Since I first heard of this tragedy a few weeks ago,
and realised that it happens too frequently, it has constantly come back to me
like a painful
thorn in my heart. So, I felt that I had to come here today, to pray and to
offer a sign of my closeness, but also to challenge our consciences lest this
tragedy be repeated. Please, let it not be repeated!”
The Pope thanked the inhabitants and the authorities of Lampedusa for their
solidarity with the immigrants and greeted the Muslims among them who today
begin the fast of Ramadan, and added, “The Church is at your side as you
seek a more
dignified life for yourselves and your families”.
“This morning, in the light of God's Word which has just been
proclaimed, I wish to offer some thoughts to challenge people's consciences,
to lead them to reflection and a concrete change of heart”.
“'Adam, where are you?' This is the first question God poses to man
after his sin. Adam lost his bearings, his place in creation because he
thought he could be powerful, able to control everything, to be God. Harmony
was lost, man errs and this
error occurs over and over again also in relationships with others. The
'other' who is no longer a brother or sister to be loved, but simply another
person who disturbs our lives and our comfort. God asks a second question,
'Cain, where is your
brother?'. The illusion of being powerful, of being as great as God, even of
being God Himself, leads to a whole series of errors, a chain of death, even
to the spilling of a brother's blood! God's two questions echo even today, as
forcefully as ever.
How many of us, myself included, have lost our bearings; we are no longer
attentive to the world in which we live … we do not take care of that
which God created for all of us, and we are no
longer capable even of looking after each other. And when humanity as a whole
loses its bearings, it results in tragedies like the one we have witnessed.
“'Where is your brother?' His blood cries out to me, says the Lord.
This is not a question directed to others, it is a question directed to me, to
you, to each of us. These brothers and sisters of ours were trying to escape
difficult situations
to find some serenity and peace; they sought a better place for themselves and
their families, but instead they found only death. How often do such people
fail to find understanding, fail to find acceptance, fail to find solidarity.
And their cry rises
up to God! I recently listened to one of these brothers of ours. Before
arriving here, he and the others were at the mercy of traffickers, people who
exploit the poverty of others, people who live off the misery of others. How
much these people have
suffered! Some of them never made it here.
“'Where is your brother?' Who is responsible for this blood? In
Spanish literature there is a work by Lope de Vega which narrates how the
inhabitants of the city of Fuente Ovejuna kill their tyrannical governor, and
they do so in a way that
no-one knows who carried out the execution. And when the king's judge asks,
'Who killed the governor?', they all answer, “Fuente Ovejuna, my
lord”. Everybody and nobody! Today too, this question emerges
forcefully: who is responsible for the
blood of these, our brothers and sisters? Nobody! That is our answer: it isn't
me, I don't have anything to do with it; it must be someone else, but
certainly not me. Yet God is asking each of us: 'Where is the blood of your
brother which cries out to
me?'. Today no-one in our world feels responsible; we have lost a sense of
responsibility for our brothers and sisters; we have fallen into the hypocrisy
of the priest and the Levite whom
Jesus described in the parable of the Good Samaritan: we see our brother half
dead on the side of the road, perhaps we say to ourselves: 'poor soul...!',
and then go on our way; it's not our responsibility, and with that we feel
reassured. The culture
of comfort, which makes us think only of ourselves, makes us insensitive to
the cries of other people, makes us live in soap bubbles which, however
lovely, are insubstantial; they offer a fleeting and empty illusion which
results in indifference to
others; indeed, it even leads to the globalisation of indifference. We have
become used to the suffering of others, it doesn't affect me; it doesn't
concern me; it is none of my business. The globalisation of indifference makes
us all 'unnamed',
responsible yet nameless and faceless.
“'Adam, where are you?' 'Where is your brother?' These are the two
questions which God asks at the dawn of human history, and which he also asks
each man and woman in our own day, which he also asks us. But I would like us
to ask a third
question: 'Has any one of us wept because of this situation and others like
it?' Has any one of us grieved for the death of these brothers and sisters?
Has any one of us wept for these persons who were on the boat? For the young
mothers carrying their
babies? For these men who were looking for a means of supporting their
families? We are a society which has forgotten how to weep, how to experience
compassion – 'suffering with' others: the globalization of indifference
has taken from us the
ability to weep! In the Gospel we have heard the crying, the wailing, the
great lamentation: 'Rachel weeps for her children… because they are no
more'. Herod sowed death to protect his
own comfort, his own soap bubble. And so it continues… Let us ask the
Lord to remove the part of Herod that lurks in our hearts; let us ask the Lord
for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty of our
world, of our own
hearts, and of all those who in anonymity make social and economic decisions
which open the door to tragic situations like this.
“In this liturgy, a penitential liturgy, we beg forgiveness for our
indifference to so many of our brothers and sisters. Father, we ask your
pardon for those who are complacent and closed amid comforts which have
deadened their hearts; we beg
your forgiveness for those who by their decisions on the global level have
created situations that lead to these tragedies”.
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THE POPE TO SEMINARIANS, NOVICES AND THOSE DISCERNING THIEIR VOCATIONS: OUR
MISSION IS TO ENCOUNTER THE LORD WHO CONSOLES AND TO CONSOLE THE PEOPLE OF
GOD
Vatican City, 7 July 2013 (VIS) – The joy of consolation, the Cross
and prayer were the reference points in Christian mission proposed by Pope
Francis to the young seminarians, novices and all those who participated in
Mass celebrated this
morning in St. Peter's Basilica. A broad summary of the Holy Father's homily
is given below:
“You are seminarians, novices, young people on a vocational journey,
from every part of the world. You represent the Church’s youth! If the
Church is the Bride of Christ, you in a certain sense represent the moment of
betrothal, the
Spring of vocation, the season of discovery … in which foundations are
laid for the future. … Today the word of God speaks to us of mission.
… What are the reference points of Christian mission? The readings we
have heard suggest
three: the joy of consolation, the Cross and prayer.
“The first element: the joy of consolation. The prophet Isaiah is
addressing a people that has been through a dark period of exile, a very
difficult trial. But now the time of consolation has come for Jerusalem;
sadness and fear must give way
to joy. ... What is the reason for this invitation to joy? Because the Lord is
going to pour out over the Holy City and its inhabitants a 'cascade' of
consolation, a veritable overflow of consolation, a cascade of maternal
tenderness: 'You shall be
carried upon her hip and dandled upon her knees'. As when a mother takes her
child upon her knee and caresses him or her: so the Lord will do and does with
us. This is the cascade of tenderness which gives us much consolation.
… Every Christian,
and especially you and I, is called to be a bearer of this message of hope
that gives serenity and joy: God’s consolation, his tenderness towards
all. But if we first experience the joy of being consoled by
him, of being loved by him, then we can bring that joy to others. This is
important if our mission is to be fruitful: to feel God’s consolation
and to pass it on to others! I have occasionally met consecrated persons who
are afraid of the
consolations of God, and … the poor things, they were tormented,
because they are afraid of this divine tenderness. But do not be afraid. Do
not be afraid of the consolations of the Lord. We must find the Lord who
consoles us and go to console
the people of God. This is the mission. People today certainly need words, but
most of all they need us to bear witness to the mercy and tenderness of the
Lord, which warms the heart, rekindles hope, and attracts people towards the
good. What a joy it
is to bring God’s consolation to others!
“The second reference point of mission is the Cross of Christ. Saint
Paul, writing to the Galatians, says: 'Far be it from me to glory except in
the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ'. … In his ministry Paul experienced
suffering, weakness
and defeat, but also joy and consolation. This is the Paschal mystery of
Jesus: the mystery of death and resurrection. ... In the hour of darkness, in
the hour of trial, the dawn of light and salvation is already present and
operative. The Paschal
mystery is the beating heart of the Church’s mission! And if we remain
within this mystery, we are sheltered both from a worldly and triumphalistic
view of mission and from the discouragement that can result from trials and
failures. Pastoral
fruitfulness, the fruitfulness of the Gospel proclamation is measured neither
by success nor by failure according to the criteria of human evaluation, but
by conforming to the logic of the Cross of Jesus, which is the logic of
stepping outside oneself and offering oneself, the logic of love. It is the
Cross – always the Cross that is present with Christ, because at times
we are offered the Cross without Christ: this has no purpose! … It is
from the Cross, the
supreme act of mercy and love, that we are reborn as a 'new creation'.
“Finally the third element: prayer. In the Gospel we heard: 'Pray
therefore the Lord of the harvest, to send out labourers into his harvest'.
The labourers for the harvest are not chosen through advertising campaigns or
appeals of service and
generosity, but they are 'chosen' and 'sent' by God. It is He who chooses, it
is He who sends ... it is He who gives the mission. For this, prayer is
important. The Church, as Benedict XVI has often reiterated, is not ours, but
God’s; and how many
times do we, consecrated men and women, think that the Church is ours! We make
of it… something that we invent in our minds. But it is not ours!, it
is God’s. The field to be cultivated is His. The mission is grace. And
if the Apostle is
born of prayer, he finds in prayer the light and strength of his
action”.
“Dear seminarians, dear novices, dear young people discerning your
vocations. … Listen well: 'evangelization is done on one’s
knees'. Always be men and women of prayer! Without a constant relationship
with God, the mission becomes
a job. But for what do you work? As a tailor, a cook, a priest – is your
job being a priest, being a sister? No. It is not a job, but rather something
else. The risk of activism, of relying too much on structures, is an
ever-present danger. If we
look towards Jesus, we see that prior to any important decision or event he
recollected himself in intense and prolonged prayer. Let us cultivate the
contemplative dimension, even amid the whirlwind of more urgent and heavy
duties. And the more the
mission calls you to go out to the margins of existence, let your heart be the
more closely united to Christ’s heart, full of mercy and love. Herein
lies the secret of pastoral fruitfulness, of the fruitfulness of a
disciple of the Lord!
“Jesus sends his followers out with no 'purse, no bag, no sandals'.
The spread of the Gospel is not guaranteed by the number of persons, nor by
the prestige of the institution, nor by the quantity of available resources.
What counts is being
permeated by the love of Christ, allowing oneself be led by the Holy Spirit
and to graft one’s own life onto the tree of life, which is the
Lord’s Cross.
“Dear friends, with great confidence I entrust you to the
intercession of Mary Most Holy. She is the Mother who helps us to take life
decisions freely and without fear. May she help you to bear witness to the joy
of God’s consolation,
without being afraid of joy, she will help you to conform yourselves to the
logic of love of the Cross, to grow in ever deeper union with the Lord in
prayer. Then your lives will be rich and fruitful!”
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ANGELUS: JESUS IS NOT AN ISOLATED MISSIONARY
Vatican City, 8 July 2013 (VIS) – At midday, following the Holy Mass
celebrated on the Day for seminarians, novices and those discerning their
vocations, in the context of the Year of Faith, Pope Francis appeared at the
window of his study to
pray the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's
Square.
The Bishop of Rome appealed to all those present to pray for the
participants in this Day, “that their love for Christ might mature more
and more in their lives and that they might become true missionaries of God's
Kingdom”, and then went
on to comment on this Sunday's gospel, relating it to the call to the
vocation.
“Jesus is not an isolated missionary”, he said; “he does
not want to fulfill his mission alone, but involves his disciples. Today we
see that, in addition to the Twelve Apostles, He calls seventy-two others, and
sends them into the
villages, two by two, to announce that the Kingdom of God is near. This is
very beautiful! Jesus does not want to act alone, He has come to bring to the
world the love of God and wants to spread that love with communion and
fraternity. For this reason,
he immediately forms a community of disciples, a missionary community, and
trains them for the mission”.
“Beware, however: the purpose is not to socialize, to spend time
together – no, the purpose is to proclaim the Kingdom of God, and this
is urgent! There is no time to waste in small talk, no need to wait for the
consent of all – it
is necessary to go out and proclaim. The peace of Christ is to be brought to
everyone, and if some do not welcome it, then you go on. Healing is to be
brought to the sick, as God wishes to heal man from all evil. How many
missionaries do this! They sow
life, health, comfort in the peripheries of the world”.
“These seventy-two disciples, whom Jesus sent ahead of him, who are
they? Whom do they represent? If the Twelve are the Apostles, and therefore
also represent the Bishops, their successors, these may represent seventy-two
other ordained
ministers – priests and deacons – but in a wider sense we can
think of other ministries in the Church, catechists and lay faithful who
engage in parish missions, those who work with the sick, with the various
forms of discomfort and
alienation, but always as missionaries of the Gospel, with the urgency of the
Kingdom that is at hand. Everyone must become missionaries, everyone can hear
Jesus' call and go on to proclaim His kingdom!
“The Gospel says that those seventy-two returned from their mission
full of joy, because they had experienced the power of the Name of Christ
against evil. … We should not boast as if we were the protagonists: the
protagonist is the Lord
and His grace. Our joy is only this: in being His disciples, His friends.
… Do not be afraid of being joyful! … It is the joy that the
Lord gives us when we let Him enter into our lives and invite us to go forth
into the peripheries of
life and announce the Gospel, with joy and courage!”
After the Angelus, Pope Francis mentioned that two days ago his first
encyclical, “Lumen Fidei” (On the Light of Faith) was published.
Pope Benedict XVI had started this encyclical for the Year of Faith and to
follow the previous
encyclicals dedicated to love and hope. “I picked up this fine project
and completed it. I offer it with joy to the whole People of God: indeed,
today more than ever before, we need to return to the essentials of the
Christian faith, to deepen it,
and to measure current issues by it. I think that this encyclical, at least in
some parts, can also be useful to those who are searching for God and for the
meaning of life. I entrust it to the hands of Mary, the perfect icon of faith,
that it may bring
the fruits the Lord wishes”.
The Holy Father went on to greet the young people of the diocese of Rome
who are preparing to go to Rio de Janeiro to participate in World Youth Day.
“Dear young people, I too am preparing! Let us walk together towards
this great celebration of
faith! May Our Lady accompany us”.
Finally, he greeted the Franciscan Sisters and the Rosminian Angeline
Sisters, who are holding their General Chapters, and the leaders of the
Community of Sant'Egidio who have come to Rome from various countries to
attend a training course.
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AUDIENCE WITH PRESIDENT OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Vatican City, 6 July 2013 (VIS) – This morning in the Vatican
Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father received in audience the president of the
Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Anthony Thomas Aquinas Carmona. The president
subsequently went on to
meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B., accompanied by
Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.
During the course of the colloquial discussions, several topics were
covered including the contribution the Catholic Church offers to the
population, especially in the fields of education, health and assistance to
the needy and vulnerable. The
Parties expressed their commitment to fruitful collaboration in supporting the
young in the fight against crime and violence.
Finally, the focus turned to important themes such as the full formation of
the person and the protection of the family.
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CARDINAL VAN THUAN: A WITNESS OF HOPE
Vatican City, 6 July 2013 (VIS) - “A witness of hope” was how
Pope Francis defined the late Cardinal Francois-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, who
had been the president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and
for whom the diocesan
phase of the beatification process has now come to an end.
This morning in the Vatican Apostolic Palace the Holy Father greeted the
participants in the closing session of this phase and thanked Waldery
Hilgeman, postulator of the cause of Cardinal Van Thuan's beatification,
emphasizing that “many
people can testify to their edification through meeting the Servant of God
Francois-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan in various stages of his life”.
“The experience shows that his renowned holiness was transmitted
through the testimony of the many people who met him and who cherish within
their hearts his gentle smile and the greatness of his sensibility. Many
encountered him through his
writings, simple yet profound, which demonstrate his priestly heart, deeply
united with He who called him to be the minister of His mercy and His love.
Many people have written to tell of grace received and signs attributed to the
intercession of this
venerated Brother, son of the east, who has completed his earthly journey in
the service of Peter's Successor.
“We entrust the furthering of his cause, and all the others currently
in process, to the intercession of the Virgin Mary. May Our Lady help us to
live ever more the beauty and joy of communion with Christ”, the Pope
concluded.
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AUDIENCES
On Saturday 6 July the Holy Father received in audience Cardinal Achille
Silvestri, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
On Saturday 6 July the Holy Father appointed Archbishop George Kocherry as
apostolic nuncio to Bangladesh. Archbishop Kocherry, titular of Othona, was
previously apostolic nuncio to Zimbabwe.
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