At 9:30 this morning, the Holy Father, Pope Francis met in the Room of the Disrobing of Saint Francis at the residence of the Archbishop of Assisi with the poor who are assisted by the work of Caritas.
Following the words of presentation addressed by the Archbishop of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino, His Excellency, Domenico Sorrentino, the Holy Father spoke with those who were present in an impromptu fashion, choosing to leave the prepared speech behind for future reading.
My brother bishop tells me that this is the first time in 800 years that a Pope has come here. These days, there is quite a fervor in the newspapers and in the media: The Pope is going there to disrobe the Church. What is it about the Church that needs to be disrobed? The Church needs to be stripped of Bishops' clothing, of Cardinals' vestments; it needs to be disrobed of itself. This is a good opportunity to call out to the Church, to urge her to get undressed. But all of us are the Church! All of us! From the first one who was baptized, all of us are the Church, and we all must walk the road of Jesus who himself walked a road of disrobing. He became a servant; he accepted humiliation, even to the point of being nailed to a cross. If we want to be Christians, there is no other way. There is no other way to be a more human Christian - you might say - without the cross, without Jesus, without disrobing ourselves. Otherwise, we become bakery Christians, like beautiful cakes, like beautiful desserts. Beautiful, but not truly Christians. Someone might say: but what is it that we must strip away from the Church? Today, we must strip ourselves of a very serious danger that threatens every person in the Church, everyone: the danger of worldliness. No Christian can truly live according to the spirit of the world. Worldliness leads to vanity, arrogance and pride, and these are idols; they are not God. They are idols, and idolatry is the strongest sin!
When the media speaks about the Church, they believe that the Church is the priests, the nuns, the bishops, the Cardinals and the Pope, but the Church is all of us, as I have said. All of us need to rid ourselves of this worldliness: the spirit that is contrary to the spirit of the Beatitudes, the spirit that is contrary to the spirit of Jesus. Worldliness is hurtful. It's so sad to see a worldly Christian, convinced - according to himself - of the promises of his faith and at the same time the promises that the world provides. No one can work devotedly for both these aims. The Church - all of us - need to strip away worldliness because it leads to vanity, arrogance and pride.
Jesus himself warned his disciples: You cannot serve two masters; either you serve God or you serve money (cf Mt 6:24). Money represented the fullness of this worldly spirit: money, vanity, pride - worldly choices to which we cannot afford to fall prey. It would be sad to cancel with one hand what we write with the other. The gospel is the gospel! God is one! Jesus made himself a servant for our sake and the spirit of the world has no place in this understanding. Today I am here with you. Many of you have been stripped by this wild world that doesn't provide work, that doesn't help, that doesn't care whether there are starving children in the world, not even if there are many families who have nothing to eat, who don't even have the dignity of bringing some bread home; a world that doesn't seem to care that so many people have to escape from slavery or from hunger, fugitives in search of freedom. How much suffering there is, how many times do we hear about those who have died, like we heard happened yesterday at Lampedusa: today is a day of tears! This is the work of the worldly spirit. It is truly ridiculous to think that a Christian - a true Christian - that a priest, a sister, a bishop, a Cardinal, the Pope should want to travel the road of this worldliness: it would be a suicidal attitude. Spiritual worldliness kills! Kills the soul! Kills people! Kills the Church!
Here in this place, when Francis undressed himself, he was a young boy. He didn't possess the personal strength to do that. It was the power of God that drove him to do it. It was the power of God that inspired him to want to remind us about what Jesus had said about the spirit of the world, about what Jesus prayed to the Father, asking the Father to save us from the spirit of the world.
Today, in this place, ask for this grace for all Christians. That the Lord may give us all the courage to undress, not only to enlighten our pockets or to lose a bit of weight, but to strip ourselves of the spirit of worldliness which is a leprosy, the cancer of our society! It is the cancer of the revelation of God! The worldly spirit is Jesus' nemesis. Let us ask the Lord to give us all the courage and the grace to undress ourselves.
Thank you. Thank you very much for your warm welcome. Please pray for me ... I need your prayers, all your prayers. Thank you.
At the conclusion of the encounter with the poor, the Pope left the Bishop's residence and traveled on foot to the Church of Saint Mary Major where he made a private visit and spent some time in prayer. At the entrance to the church, the Holy Father was welcomed by the Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, Capuchins, Father Mauro Johri, and by the Religious who provide pastoral services there. Then, Pope Francis traveled by car to the Major Basilica of Saint Francis.
Following the words of presentation addressed by the Archbishop of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino, His Excellency, Domenico Sorrentino, the Holy Father spoke with those who were present in an impromptu fashion, choosing to leave the prepared speech behind for future reading.
Impromptu greetings offered by His Holiness, Pope Francis
to the poor of Assisi
My brother bishop tells me that this is the first time in 800 years that a Pope has come here. These days, there is quite a fervor in the newspapers and in the media: The Pope is going there to disrobe the Church. What is it about the Church that needs to be disrobed? The Church needs to be stripped of Bishops' clothing, of Cardinals' vestments; it needs to be disrobed of itself. This is a good opportunity to call out to the Church, to urge her to get undressed. But all of us are the Church! All of us! From the first one who was baptized, all of us are the Church, and we all must walk the road of Jesus who himself walked a road of disrobing. He became a servant; he accepted humiliation, even to the point of being nailed to a cross. If we want to be Christians, there is no other way. There is no other way to be a more human Christian - you might say - without the cross, without Jesus, without disrobing ourselves. Otherwise, we become bakery Christians, like beautiful cakes, like beautiful desserts. Beautiful, but not truly Christians. Someone might say: but what is it that we must strip away from the Church? Today, we must strip ourselves of a very serious danger that threatens every person in the Church, everyone: the danger of worldliness. No Christian can truly live according to the spirit of the world. Worldliness leads to vanity, arrogance and pride, and these are idols; they are not God. They are idols, and idolatry is the strongest sin!
When the media speaks about the Church, they believe that the Church is the priests, the nuns, the bishops, the Cardinals and the Pope, but the Church is all of us, as I have said. All of us need to rid ourselves of this worldliness: the spirit that is contrary to the spirit of the Beatitudes, the spirit that is contrary to the spirit of Jesus. Worldliness is hurtful. It's so sad to see a worldly Christian, convinced - according to himself - of the promises of his faith and at the same time the promises that the world provides. No one can work devotedly for both these aims. The Church - all of us - need to strip away worldliness because it leads to vanity, arrogance and pride.
Jesus himself warned his disciples: You cannot serve two masters; either you serve God or you serve money (cf Mt 6:24). Money represented the fullness of this worldly spirit: money, vanity, pride - worldly choices to which we cannot afford to fall prey. It would be sad to cancel with one hand what we write with the other. The gospel is the gospel! God is one! Jesus made himself a servant for our sake and the spirit of the world has no place in this understanding. Today I am here with you. Many of you have been stripped by this wild world that doesn't provide work, that doesn't help, that doesn't care whether there are starving children in the world, not even if there are many families who have nothing to eat, who don't even have the dignity of bringing some bread home; a world that doesn't seem to care that so many people have to escape from slavery or from hunger, fugitives in search of freedom. How much suffering there is, how many times do we hear about those who have died, like we heard happened yesterday at Lampedusa: today is a day of tears! This is the work of the worldly spirit. It is truly ridiculous to think that a Christian - a true Christian - that a priest, a sister, a bishop, a Cardinal, the Pope should want to travel the road of this worldliness: it would be a suicidal attitude. Spiritual worldliness kills! Kills the soul! Kills people! Kills the Church!
Here in this place, when Francis undressed himself, he was a young boy. He didn't possess the personal strength to do that. It was the power of God that drove him to do it. It was the power of God that inspired him to want to remind us about what Jesus had said about the spirit of the world, about what Jesus prayed to the Father, asking the Father to save us from the spirit of the world.
Today, in this place, ask for this grace for all Christians. That the Lord may give us all the courage to undress, not only to enlighten our pockets or to lose a bit of weight, but to strip ourselves of the spirit of worldliness which is a leprosy, the cancer of our society! It is the cancer of the revelation of God! The worldly spirit is Jesus' nemesis. Let us ask the Lord to give us all the courage and the grace to undress ourselves.
Thank you. Thank you very much for your warm welcome. Please pray for me ... I need your prayers, all your prayers. Thank you.
At the conclusion of the encounter with the poor, the Pope left the Bishop's residence and traveled on foot to the Church of Saint Mary Major where he made a private visit and spent some time in prayer. At the entrance to the church, the Holy Father was welcomed by the Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, Capuchins, Father Mauro Johri, and by the Religious who provide pastoral services there. Then, Pope Francis traveled by car to the Major Basilica of Saint Francis.
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