At 12:20pm today (Rome time), in the Consistory Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in the 138th General Chapter of the Order of Clerics Regular of Somasca (Somascan Fathers), which is taking place at the Albano Lazio (Rome) from 14 March until 1 April 2017. The theme of this gathering is Let us go to the other side, together with our brothers with whom we wish to live and die.
Dear brothers,
I am pleased to welcome you and to cordially greet you, beginning with your Superior General, who I thank for his words. The theme that you have chosen for your General Chapter: Let us go to the other side, together with our brothers with whom we wish to live and die is inspired by the words of Jesus (cf Lk 8:22) refers to a crucial passage from the history of your Institute where it grasps its prophetic value. In fact, beginning in 1921, a small group of Somascans left the shores of Europe and landed on the shores of the far distant American continent. It was a matter of a decisive missionary openness, which gave new momentum and broad apostolic prospects to your religious family.
Now you have proposed drawing upon ideal motives that inspire evangelization, in order to implement these ideas in the modern-day Church and in society, faithful to the charism of your Founder and taking into account the changing social and cultural conditions. In this discernment, you are supported by the spiritual fruits of the Somacan Gubilee - 2011-2012 - which was such a blessing and which continues to inspire your community. In this significant circumstance, in which you have gratefully commemorated the fifth centenary of the foundation of your Order, my venerable predecessor Benedict XVI sent you a Message in which he exhorted you to follow the luminous example of Saint Jerome Emiliani, taking to heart every poverty of our youth, moral, physical, essential and above all the poverty of love, rooted in every serious human problem (20 July 2011).
The ideal that motivated Jerome Emiliani was the reform of the Church toward the works of charity. His project was aimed at reforming first himself in fidelity to the gospel, then the Christian community and the civil society, which cannot ignore the little ones and those who are marginalized but rather must rescue them and promote their integral human development. I too encourage you to remain faithful to this original inspiration and to place yourselves in service in order to go out toward humanity which is wounded and discarded with evangelically effective choices that arise from a knowing look at the world and humanity with the eyes of Christ. The characteristic feature of your vocation is above all the care of the forgotten ones, particularly orphans and abandoned youth, according to the teaching methods of your Founder, firmly centred on the person, his dignity, the development of his intellectual and manual capacity. And speaking of orphans, there are new kinds of orphans: migrants, teenagers, children who are alone in our lands and who need to find fatherhood and motherhood. I want to point this out: there are many who are alone in boats, many who need this presence. All this and more is your task.
In order to make your service to the gospel even more close to the concrete examples of the lives of people, you are working on new ways to accomplish your mission. In particular, beginning with the modern-day reality of your Order, you are facing the question of its international and inter-cultural makeup as this pertains to the service you offer to the poor and the forgotten. I encourage you to be attentive to the various forms of marginalization in the geographic and existential peripheries. Do not be afraid to leave the old wineskins, and to address the transformation of structures where this would be useful in order to provide more evangelical service that is coherent with your original charism. The structures, in certain cases, provide false protection and hinder the dynamism of the charity and service done for the sake of the Kingdom of God. I want to repeat this: the structures, in some cases, give false protection and slow the dynamism of the charity and service done for the sake of the Kingdom of God. But at the foundation of all these processes there is always the joyous experience of the encounter with Christ and consecration to Him, there is the joyous need for the primacy of God and of placing nothing else before Him and the things of the Spirit, there is the gift of demonstrating his mercy and his tenderness in fraternal life and in mission.
To provide adequate service in the field of under-aged or juvenile discomfort, you have the opportunity of engaging Somascan laity, in a greater effort in the social field of charism. Human rights, caring for minors, the rights of infants and adolescents, caring for cases of under-aged workers, preventing exploitation and trafficking are all questions that must be addressed with the freeing strength of the gospel and, at the same time, with adequate operational tools and professional skills.
Saint Jerome Emiliani, a contemporary of Luther, experienced suffering and tears for the sake of Catholic unity as he cultivated and promoted the reform of the Church in Italy - his ardent thirst - with the work of charity, obedience to Pastors, contemplation of the Crucified Christ and of his mercy, catechetical teaching, faithfulness to the Sacraments, Eucharistic practice and the love of the Virgin Mary. May his example and his intercession motivate you to consecrate your strengths to the proclamation of salvation in Christ, so that you may reach the people and the community of nations in which you are present and their traditions; so that inculturation may progress - a necessary condition for the rooting of the Church in the world. In particular, I wish to encourage you to actively continue your work of forming catechists, lay animators and clergy. One of the most grave dangers - stronger than the Church today - is clericalism. Work with the laity, encourage them to carry on, to have the courage to keep going, and support them and help them in their priestly work, as religious. This is a very precious service to the local Church, in communion with your Pastors and in union with the entire Church and her living tradition.
Even ecumenical dialogue is worthy of your support. The path toward full and lasting unity requires patient listening to that which the Spirit says to the Churches and, today in particular, to the ecclesial community in Africa and in Asia, in which you are working with apostolic ardour. Possible collaboration between all the baptized and the search for greater fidelity to the one Lord are all part of the mission. May the Lord support your efforts in this regard.
Dear brothers, before you lies the task of continuing and developing the work inspired by God and by Saint Jerome Emiliani, who was declared by Pope Pius XI as universal patron saint of orphans and of abandoned youth. May renewed missionary zeal inspire you to dedicate yourselves in service to the Kingdom of God through education of the young, so that they may grow strong in their faith, free and responsible, courageous in bearing witness and generous in serving others. I encourage you to continue your journey of following and developing your apostolic zeal, so that it may remain rich in the number of its efforts and always open to new expressions, according to the most urgent needs of the Church and of society at various times and in various circumstances. Faithful to the charism of the Institute and united to your Pastors, continue to give fruitful contributions to the evangelizing mission of the Church. I ask the Holy Spirit, with the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, to illuminate you in your Chapter work and I willingly impart my Apostolic blessing.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
addressed to the Somascan Fathers
Dear brothers,
I am pleased to welcome you and to cordially greet you, beginning with your Superior General, who I thank for his words. The theme that you have chosen for your General Chapter: Let us go to the other side, together with our brothers with whom we wish to live and die is inspired by the words of Jesus (cf Lk 8:22) refers to a crucial passage from the history of your Institute where it grasps its prophetic value. In fact, beginning in 1921, a small group of Somascans left the shores of Europe and landed on the shores of the far distant American continent. It was a matter of a decisive missionary openness, which gave new momentum and broad apostolic prospects to your religious family.
Now you have proposed drawing upon ideal motives that inspire evangelization, in order to implement these ideas in the modern-day Church and in society, faithful to the charism of your Founder and taking into account the changing social and cultural conditions. In this discernment, you are supported by the spiritual fruits of the Somacan Gubilee - 2011-2012 - which was such a blessing and which continues to inspire your community. In this significant circumstance, in which you have gratefully commemorated the fifth centenary of the foundation of your Order, my venerable predecessor Benedict XVI sent you a Message in which he exhorted you to follow the luminous example of Saint Jerome Emiliani, taking to heart every poverty of our youth, moral, physical, essential and above all the poverty of love, rooted in every serious human problem (20 July 2011).
The ideal that motivated Jerome Emiliani was the reform of the Church toward the works of charity. His project was aimed at reforming first himself in fidelity to the gospel, then the Christian community and the civil society, which cannot ignore the little ones and those who are marginalized but rather must rescue them and promote their integral human development. I too encourage you to remain faithful to this original inspiration and to place yourselves in service in order to go out toward humanity which is wounded and discarded with evangelically effective choices that arise from a knowing look at the world and humanity with the eyes of Christ. The characteristic feature of your vocation is above all the care of the forgotten ones, particularly orphans and abandoned youth, according to the teaching methods of your Founder, firmly centred on the person, his dignity, the development of his intellectual and manual capacity. And speaking of orphans, there are new kinds of orphans: migrants, teenagers, children who are alone in our lands and who need to find fatherhood and motherhood. I want to point this out: there are many who are alone in boats, many who need this presence. All this and more is your task.
In order to make your service to the gospel even more close to the concrete examples of the lives of people, you are working on new ways to accomplish your mission. In particular, beginning with the modern-day reality of your Order, you are facing the question of its international and inter-cultural makeup as this pertains to the service you offer to the poor and the forgotten. I encourage you to be attentive to the various forms of marginalization in the geographic and existential peripheries. Do not be afraid to leave the old wineskins, and to address the transformation of structures where this would be useful in order to provide more evangelical service that is coherent with your original charism. The structures, in certain cases, provide false protection and hinder the dynamism of the charity and service done for the sake of the Kingdom of God. I want to repeat this: the structures, in some cases, give false protection and slow the dynamism of the charity and service done for the sake of the Kingdom of God. But at the foundation of all these processes there is always the joyous experience of the encounter with Christ and consecration to Him, there is the joyous need for the primacy of God and of placing nothing else before Him and the things of the Spirit, there is the gift of demonstrating his mercy and his tenderness in fraternal life and in mission.
To provide adequate service in the field of under-aged or juvenile discomfort, you have the opportunity of engaging Somascan laity, in a greater effort in the social field of charism. Human rights, caring for minors, the rights of infants and adolescents, caring for cases of under-aged workers, preventing exploitation and trafficking are all questions that must be addressed with the freeing strength of the gospel and, at the same time, with adequate operational tools and professional skills.
Saint Jerome Emiliani, a contemporary of Luther, experienced suffering and tears for the sake of Catholic unity as he cultivated and promoted the reform of the Church in Italy - his ardent thirst - with the work of charity, obedience to Pastors, contemplation of the Crucified Christ and of his mercy, catechetical teaching, faithfulness to the Sacraments, Eucharistic practice and the love of the Virgin Mary. May his example and his intercession motivate you to consecrate your strengths to the proclamation of salvation in Christ, so that you may reach the people and the community of nations in which you are present and their traditions; so that inculturation may progress - a necessary condition for the rooting of the Church in the world. In particular, I wish to encourage you to actively continue your work of forming catechists, lay animators and clergy. One of the most grave dangers - stronger than the Church today - is clericalism. Work with the laity, encourage them to carry on, to have the courage to keep going, and support them and help them in their priestly work, as religious. This is a very precious service to the local Church, in communion with your Pastors and in union with the entire Church and her living tradition.
Even ecumenical dialogue is worthy of your support. The path toward full and lasting unity requires patient listening to that which the Spirit says to the Churches and, today in particular, to the ecclesial community in Africa and in Asia, in which you are working with apostolic ardour. Possible collaboration between all the baptized and the search for greater fidelity to the one Lord are all part of the mission. May the Lord support your efforts in this regard.
Dear brothers, before you lies the task of continuing and developing the work inspired by God and by Saint Jerome Emiliani, who was declared by Pope Pius XI as universal patron saint of orphans and of abandoned youth. May renewed missionary zeal inspire you to dedicate yourselves in service to the Kingdom of God through education of the young, so that they may grow strong in their faith, free and responsible, courageous in bearing witness and generous in serving others. I encourage you to continue your journey of following and developing your apostolic zeal, so that it may remain rich in the number of its efforts and always open to new expressions, according to the most urgent needs of the Church and of society at various times and in various circumstances. Faithful to the charism of the Institute and united to your Pastors, continue to give fruitful contributions to the evangelizing mission of the Church. I ask the Holy Spirit, with the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, to illuminate you in your Chapter work and I willingly impart my Apostolic blessing.
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