VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXV - # 199
DATE 11-11-2015

Summary:
- Conviviality, a thermometer for measuring the health of family relationships
- The Pope meets with President Dragan Covic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
- A humanism with the face of charity, says the Pope at Mass in Florence
- The Holy See at UNESCO: the importance of education on climate change
- Other Pontifical Acts

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 Conviviality, a thermometer for measuring the health of family relationships
 Vatican City, 11 November 2015 (VIS) - This morning's Wednesday general
audience was held in St. Peter's Square, attended by thousands of faithful.
Before beginning, the Holy Father invited those present to recite a Hail Mary
for the cardinals, bishops, consecrated persons and laypeople who are currently
meeting in Florence for the National Congress of the Italian Church.
 He dedicated today's catechesis to conviviality, a typical characteristic of
family life. This attitude of sharing the goods of life and of being happy to
do
so is, he said, "a precious virtue". He continued, "Its symbol, its icon, is
the
family gathered around the table, partaking of a meal together - and therefore
not merely food, but also sentiments, stories, and events. It is a fundamental
experience. When there is a celebration - a birthday, an anniversary - the
family gathers around the table. In some cultures it is customary to do so also
following bereavement, to stay close to those who suffer for the loss of a
family member".
 "Conviviality is a sure thermometer for measuring the health of relations: if
in the family there is a problem or a hidden trouble, you understand
immediately
at the table. A family that almost never eats together, or in does not talk at
the table but instead watches the television, or smartphones, is not a close
family. Christianity has a special vocation to conviviality, as we all know.
The
Lord Jesus taught at the table, and represented the Kingdom of God as a festive
banquet. Jesus also chose to consign to the disciples His spiritual testament
at
the table, condensed in the memorial gesture of His Sacrifice".
 Francis explained that the family brings to the Eucharist its own experience
of
conviviality, and opens it to the grace of a universal conviviality, of God's
love for the world. "Participating in the Eucharist, the family is purified of
the temptation to close up in itself, fortified in love and in faith, and
broadens the boundaries of its own fraternity according to Christ's heart. In
our time, marked by closed minds and too many walls, the conviviality generated
by the family and extended in the Eucharist becomes a crucial opportunity. The
Eucharist and families it nourishes are able to overcome such limitations and
to
build bridges of acceptance and charity".
 "Nowadays many social contexts impede family conviviality. We must find a way
to recover it, if adapting it to the times. Conviviality seems to have become
something to buy and sell, but in that way it becomes something else.
Nourishment is not always the symbol of a just sharing of goods, able to reach
those who have neither bread nor affection. In rich countries we are induced to
spend first on excessive consumption, and then again to remedy the excess. This
senseless behaviour diverts our attention from the true hunger of the body and
the mind".
 "The living and vital alliance of Christian families, which support and
embracesin the dynamism of their hospitality the burdens and joys of everyday
life, cooperates with the grace of the Eucharist, which is able to create ever
new communities with its strength that includes and saves". The Pope concluded,
"the Christian family thus shows the true extent of its horizon, which is the
horizon of the Mother Church and all humanity, the abandoned and excluded among
all peoples".

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 The Pope meets with President Dragan Covic of Bosnia and Herzegovina
 Vatican City, 11 November 2015 (VIS) - Before today's general audience, in the
study of the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father received Dragan Covic, the incumbent
chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, accompanied by the
representatives of the Organising Committee of the State and the Church for his
pastoral visit on 6 June this year.
 "I would like to thank you for your visit", he said. "I still hold in my heart
that many great and beautiful things I have learned from you: your capacity for
suffering, your capacity for forgiveness or at least to seek to forgive, your
capacity to join and work together, your capacity for dialogue. Many thanks for
the examples you give to humanity. I ask you to greet, on my behalf, your
people, all the people, the two other presidents, and the communities that have
a different religion but which meet, speak, and dialogue for the good of the
country. May they speak between themselves and help your homeland to go ahead.
And greet your good young people! I remember the questions they asked me. They
are the promise of your homeland".
 The Holy Father thanked those present, asking them for their prayers. He gave
his blessing to Bosnia-Herzegovina and its families, children and future,
encouraging them to continue on their path.

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 A humanism with the face of charity, says the Pope at Mass in Florence
 Vatican City, 11 November 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis concluded his brief
pastoral visit to Florence yesterday with Mass celebrated before fifty thousand
people in the "Artemio Franchi" stadium. Even the detainees in the Florentine
prison participated in a way, as the altar at which the Holy Father consecrated
the Eucharist was produced by them, for which he warmly thanked them.
 In his homily, the Holy Father began from Christ's question to His disciples:
"Who do people say that the Son of Man is?". "Jesus is interested in what
people
think, not to keep them happy, but to be able to communicate with them", he
explained. "Without knowing what people think, the disciple isolates himself
and
begins to judge people according to his own thoughts and convictions.
Maintaining a healthy contact with reality, with what people experience, their
tears and their joys, is the only way of being able to help them ... to open
their
hearts to God. In reality, when God wanted to speak with us He incarnated
Himself. Jesus' disciples must never forget where they were chosen from - that
is, among the people - and must never give in to the temptation to assume
detached attitudes, as if what the people think and live did not affect them or
as if it were of little importance to them. ... This also applies to us. The
fact
that we are gathered today to celebrate Holy Mass in a sports stadium is a
reminder of this. The Church, like Jesus, lives amid the people and for the
people. For this reason the Church, throughout her history, has always carried
within her the same question: who is Jesus for the men and women of today?".
 "Safeguarding and announcing the true faith in Jesus Christ is at the heart of

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