VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 210
DATE 27-11-2014

Summary:
- Serve new wine in new wineskins says the Pope to representatives of
consecrated life
- Migrants and the poor, dual challenge of urban pastoral ministry
- To the Pauline family: take the breath of the Gospel to the most diverse
cultures and social contexts
- Holy Father's calendar for December 2014 and January 2015
- Christians and Muslims condemn extremism and violence committed in the name
of religion
- Audiences

___________________________________________________________

 Serve new wine in new wineskins says the Pope to representatives of
consecrated life
 Vatican City, 27 November 2014 (VIS) - The Congregration for the Institutes
of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life celebrated their
plenary assembly reflecting on the current state of consecrated life in the
Church, fifty years after the Conciliar documents "Lumen gentium" and
"Perfectae caritatis". The theme chosen was "New wine in new wineskins", and
Pope Francis, who received eighty participants in audience this morning, based
his discourse on the multiple meanings of this phrase.
 "In the part of the Lord's vineyard selected by those who have chosen to
imitate Christ more closely through the profession of evangelical counsels,
new grapes are matured and new wine is obtained", said the Holy Father. "In
these days you have been offered the chance to discern the quality and ageing
of the 'new wine' that has been produced during the long season of renewal,
and at the same time to evaluate whether the wineskins that contain it,
represented by the institutional forms present today in consecrated life, are
adequate to contain this 'new wine' and to favour its full maturation. As I
have recalled many times, we must not be afraid of setting aside the 'old
wineskins': of renewing those habits and those structures that, in the life of
the Church and therefore also in consecrated life, we realise no longer
respond to what God asks of us today to further His Kingdom in the world: the
structures that give us false protection and that condition the dynamism of
charity; the habits that distance us from the flock to which we are sent and
prevent us from hearing the cry of those who await the Good News of Jesus
Christ".
 "You do not hide those areas of weakness that it is possible to find today in
consecrated life (such as the resistance to change of certain sectors, the
diminished power of attraction, the not insignificant number of those who
abandon the vocation, the fragility of certain formative itineraries, concern
for institutional and ministerial tasks at the expense of spiritual life, the
difficult integration of cultural and generational diversity, and a
problematic balance in the exercise of authority and the use of goods), but
you wish to continue to listen for signals from the Spirit, that opens up new
horizons and leads to new paths, always starting out from the supreme rule of
the Gospel and inspired by the bold creativity of your founders".
 The Pope went on to list the criteria to follow for guidance in the "arduous
task of evaluating the new wine and testing the quality of the wineskins": the
evangelical originality of the choices, charismatic fidelity, the primary of
service, attention to the least and most fragile, and respect for the dignity
of every person.
 He encouraged those present to "continue to work with generosity and
resourcefulness in the Lord's vineyard", to obtain "that generous wine that
will be able to reinvigorate the life of the Church and to bring cheer to the
heart of the many brothers and sisters in need of your care", and he
underlined that "even the substitution of old for new wineskins ... does not
take place automatically, but requires commitment and ability, to offer the
suitable space for welcoming and bringing to fruition the new gifts with which
the Spirit continues to embellish the Church, His spouse". He concluded, "do
not forget ... to carry on the process of renewal that has been initiated and
to a great extent accomplished in these fifty years, examining every novelty
in the light of the Word of God and in listening to the needs of the Church
and of the contemporary world".

___________________________________________________________

 Migrants and the poor, dual challenge of urban pastoral ministry
 Vatican City, 27 November 2014 (VIS) - This morning, in the Consistory Hall
of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis received in audience the participants in
the second phase of the International Pastoral Congress on the World's Big
Cities, held in Barcelona, Spain from 24 to 26 November. The Holy Father took
the opportunity to explore in depth four challenges and possible prospects for
urban pastoral ministry. "The places where God is calling us to ... and the
aspects to which we should pay special attention".
 Firstly, he mentioned the need to "implement a change in our pastoral
mentality". We are no longer in the era "in which the Church was the sole
point of reference for culture". Previously, "as an authentic teacher, she was
aware of her responsibility to outline and to impose not only cultural forms
but also values". He continued, "Today we are no longer the only ones who
produce culture, nor are we the first or the most listened to. We are
therefore in need of a change in pastoral mentality, but not a 'relativist
pastoral'", that in its wish to be part of the cultural mix, "loses its
evangelical perspective, leaving humanity to its own devices and freed from
God's hand. No, this is the path of relativism, the easy route. This cannot be
considered as pastoral ministry! He who acts in this way is not truly
interested in man, but instead leaves him to the mercy of two equally grave
dangers: concealing both Jesus, and the truth of man himself, from him - a way
that leads humanity to solitude and death". Therefore, the Pope added, "we
need to have the courage to carry out an evangelising pastoral ministry, bold
and without fear, as men, women, families and the various groups that inhabit
the city expect from us, and need for their lives, the Good News that is Jesus
and His Gospel".
 As a second challenge, he emphasised "dialogue with multiculturality" and the
need for pastoral dialogue without relativism, that does not negotiate its own
Christian identity, but that instead seeks to reach the heart of others, of
those different to ourselves, and to sow the Gospel there. We need a
contemplative attitude, that without denying the contribution of the different
sciences in understanding the urban phenomenon - these contributions are
important - seeks to discover the foundation of cultures, that in their
deepest core are always open to and thirst for God". To face this challenge,
Francis underlined that it would help us greatly to know the "invisible
cities, the groups or human territories that are identified by their symbols,
languages, rites and ways of narrating life".
 "The religiosity of the people" was the third point he focused on. "We must
discover, in the religiosity of our populations, the authentic religious
substratum, that in many cases is Christian and Catholic. We must not fail to
recognise, or regard with disdain, this experience of God that, although at
times dispersed or mixed with other things, needs to be discovered and not
constructed. He we find the semina Verbi sown by the Spirit of the Lord". The
Pope also commented on the many migrants and poor people who fill our cities,
"pilgrims of life, in search of salvation", who pose a "dual challenge": that
of "being hospitable to the poor and migrants, not generally the case in the
city, which pushes them away, and of recognising the value of their faith".
"The urban poor", who constitute the fourth point with which the Holy Father
concluded his discourse, are "excluded and discarded. The Church cannot ignore
their cry, nor can she enter into the game of unjust, mean and self-serving
systems that seek to render them invisible".

--- MPost/386 v1.21
 * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)