reaffirming the importance of combating terrorism, the need for interreligious
dialogue was underlined.

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 "Never fail to listen to those who knock at your door", say the Pope to men
and
women religious in Rome
 Vatican City, 16 May 2015 (VIS) - Thousands of men and women religious from
Rome - representing the 25 thousand who belong to the Pope's diocese - gathered
in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall this morning to meet with the Holy Father, who
spoke with them for over an hour, answering all their questions on consecrated
life and its difficulties and joys, the relationship between the bearers of
different charisms in the Church, and the rapport between cloistered
monasteries
and the outside world.
 The first question, asked by a nun, related to the balance between cloistered
life and involvement in diocesan life, and between silent prayer and
proclamation.
 "Your vocation is a tension between enclosure and visibility, between God's
call to a hidden life and His call to make oneself visible in a certain way, to
give a sign", answered the Pope. "One of the things you must never, ever leave
behind is time to listen to people. ... It is important to have a connection
with
the world, to know what is happening, as your vocation is not a refuge: it is
about going straight onto the battlefield, it is about fighting, calling to the
heart of the Lord for your city. ... Like Moses who lifted his hands up in
prayer
as his people fought. There are also monasteries that set aside half an hour or
an hour a day to give food to those who come to ask for it, and this does not
go
against enclosure in God. ... It is a service, it is a smile".
 The second question, again from a religious sister, concerned the similarities
between marriage and consecrated virginity in the vocation to love, and the
help
that consecrated persons can offer Christian spouses and vice versa.
 "In female consecration there is a spousal element", said Francis. "It is
present in male consecration too: we say that a bishop is the spouse of the
Church, in Jesus' place. But do not forget that the Church is feminine: she is
Jesus' bride. We often forget this, as we forget that the love of nuns is
maternal, since the love of the Church is maternal, and the love of Our Lady is
maternal. Faithfulness, the expression of the love of the consecrated woman,
should - not as a duty but as a natural characteristic - reflect the
faithfulness, love and tenderness of the Mother Church and the Mother Mary.
... It
is the concrete love ... that we find in the Beatitudes. ... Jesus' plan is
concrete. I often think that the Beatitudes are the Church's first encyclical".
 The third question, from a monk, was dedicated to the concrete collaboration
between bearers of different charisms in the local Church, without friction or
competition.
 "The Church is currently thinking of offering and restoring an old document on
the relations between consecrated persons and the bishop", the Holy Father
explained. "The 1994 Synod called for the document 'Mutuae relationes' (14 May
1978). Many years have passed and it has not been done. The relationship
between
consecrated persons and the bishop, the diocese and priests is not an easy one.
However it is necessary to face this task together. In the prefectures, how
does
one work on the pastoral plan for this quarter, all together? So it should be
in
the Church too. The bishop should not use consecrated persons as substitutes,
and equally the religious should not see the bishop as the head of a company
providing work".
 The last question regarded the accompaniment and spiritual direction of
consecrated persons, over 80% of whom are women.
 "The accompaniment of men and women religious can be a problem", acknowledged
the Pope. "In my former diocese, I always said to the nuns who came to ask for
advice, 'Tell me, in your community or your congregation, is there not a wise
sister, one who lives the charism well, a good sister with experience, who
might
be your spiritual guide?'. 'But she is a woman! But it is a charism of the
laity'. Yes, spiritual direction is not the exclusive charism of presbyters: it
is a charism of the laity. In primitive monasticism the laity were the great
directors. ... The spiritual director is one thing, the confessor is another. I
tell the confessor my sins ... but I tell the spiritual director what is
happening
in my heart. ... Superiors have the responsibility of finding those in the
community, in the congregation, and in the province, who have this charism, of
giving them this mission and of forming them and helping them in this. ... I
think
that in this respect, however, we are still immature".

___________________________________________________________

 The Pontifical Council for the Family presents the initiative "The Great
Mystery: the Gospel of the family, school of humanity for our times"
 Vatican City, 16 May 2015 (VIS) - This morning a press conference was held in
the Holy See Press Office for the presentation of the project "The Great
Mystery: the Gospel of the Family, school of humanity for our times", promoted
by the Pontifical Council for the Family and by Maestro Andrea Bocelli. It is a
series of events, in particular light and sound shows, to take place in
different European cities during the year dedicated to reflection on the family
in view of the upcoming Synod assembly in October. The speakers at the
conference were Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for
the Family, the tenor Andrea Bocelli, and Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach,
archbishop of Barcelona, the first city to host the event in the Basilica of
the
Sagrada Familia.
 Cardinal Martinez Sistach recalled the universal dimension of Barcelona's
basilica, which is visited by more than three million people every year, and
its
wealth of biblical, theological and liturgical symbolism. He emphasised that
the
initiative of the Pontifical Council, which will open during a time dedicated
to
the holy family, will propose, through beauty, music and thought, to "present
the beauty and transcendence of the mystery of the Christian family, which
consists of an intimate community of life and love between spouses and between
parents, children, brothers and sisters, in the bosom of a much larger family,
in society and in the Church. The great virtues and values of today's Christian
family are necessary and very urgent. We must not forget that Vatican Council
II, speaking of marriage and the family, tells us that the well-being of
people,
society and the Church are strictly linked to the prosperity of the conjugal
and
family communities".
 "The basilica of the Sagrada Familia is a manifestation of the great mystery
of
God and man", explained the archbishop of Barcelona. "In our time, in which man
attempts to build a life without God, as if He had nothing to say to us, this
magnificent temple has great meaning. Gaudi, in his masterpiece, shows us that
God is the true measure of man. That the secret of his authentic originality
resides, as he himself said, in returning to his origins, which are God. The
basilica, in the middle of this great city, a space of beauty, faith and hope,
leads man to the encounter with He Who is Truth and Beauty itself".

___________________________________________________________

 Audiences
 Vatican City, 16 May 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father received in separate
audiences:
 - Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, Italy, president of the
Italian Episcopal Conference;
 - Archbishop Alberto Bottari de Castello, apostolic nuncio in Hungary;
 - Archbishop Nicola Girasoli apostolic nuncio in Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua
and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, Grenada, in the Co-operative
Republic of Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, Santa Lucia, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, and Suriname; apostolic delegate in the Antilles;
 - Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, president of the Supervisory Board of the
Institute
for the Works of Religion.
 - Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, penitentiary major, with the regent of the
apostolic
penitentiary, Msgr. Krzysztof Josef Nykiel.

___________________________________________________________

 Other Pontifical Acts
 Vatican City, 16 May 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Rev. Dariusz Buras
as apostolic administrator of Atyrau (area 747,600, population 2,395,000,
Catholics 2,000, priests 8, religious 4), Kazakhstan. Rev. Buras was born in
Skrzyszow, Poland in 1971 and was ordained a priest in 1998. He has served as
parish vicar of the Cathedral Church of Oslo and head of continuing formation
of
the priests of the diocese of Tarnow, Poland in service in Norway.

___________________________________________________________

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