A radio message from the Pope

On Saturday afternoon, after having lunch, His Holiness, Pope Francis visited the studios of Radio Cattedrale in Rio de Janeiro, where he shared a few words.

Radio broadcast of His Holiness, Pope Francis

Hello, good evening to all who are listening.  I want to thank you for your attention and thanks also to the Members of this Radio station for the kindness of giving me the microphone. I thank them, and as I look at the radio, I see that the various means of communications today are very important.  I would say that a radio, a Catholic radio today is the closest pulpit that we have.  From this pulpit, we can preach, by means of the radio, human values, religious values, and above all, we can preach Jesus Christ, the Lord; give the Lord room to be present in the midst of our lives.  I salute you, and I thank you for the dedication of this Archdiocese to have a radio station and for maintaining it, with such a large network.  To all those who are listening, I ask you to pray for me, to pray for this radio station, to pray for the bishop, to pray for the Archdiocese, so that all of us may be united in prayer and work, as the priest said just a little while ago, and work together to build a more human culture, richer in values and never excluding anyone.  May every person work together for this word that today causes us grief: solidarity.  It is a word that we are tempted to set apart, always, because it is an annoying word, and yet it reflects human and Christian values which are required for us to swim against the tide – as the priest said just a while ago – the culture of waste, according to which, everything is dispensable.  A culture which always leaves people out: leaves children out, leaves youth out, leaves the elderly out, leaves everyone who is not useful and who is not productive out – and this cannot be so!  On the other hand, solidarity includes everyone.  We must continue to work for this culture of solidarity and for the gospel.

Request for the importance of the family:

Not only would I say that the family is important for the evangelization of the new world.  The family is important, is necessary for the survival of humanity.  If we didn’t have the family, the cultural survival of humanity would be at risk.   Whether we like our families or not, they are the basis of our survival.