At 11:40am today, in the Consistory Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the Community from the Pontifical Pio Romeno Roman College on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the foundation of that College.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I greet you warmly. I am pleased to meet you in the 80th anniversary of the foundation of your College. This is an occasion for gratefulness to God and to all those who through the years have dedicated themselves to the good of the Pio Romeno College so that it might contribute to the formation of future pastors. The path you have travelled is part of a history that has preceded you and at the same time it is part of the preparations for the future of the Greek-Catholic Church in Romania. I would therefore like to express two wishes for you: that you preserve the memory of the past and that you cultivate hope for the future.
Preserve memory. Your College began in a period of development for the Oriental (Eastern) Catholic Community; she later suffered the tragic events related to persecutions by atheists; she then experienced a beautiful re-birth and opened herself to new challenges over the most recent years. This history, composed of great witnesses of faith and moments of trial, of rigid winters and thriving springs, belongs to you. It is good to preserve this memory, not in order to remain anchored in the past, but in order to live the events that each era presents with the support of a living evangelizing memory that embraces a history that is greater than we, one that remains open to the actions of the Spirit. Treasuring, through prayer and intense study, what the Lord has done in his People, is a beautiful opportunity for you during your years that you spend in Rome, where you can even breathe the universality of the Church.
Paying attention to your ecclesial memory will help you to overcome a dangerous temptation that can arise: the temptation to be content with mediocrity, to settle for a normal life - in parentheses ! - where everything continues without any sense of direction or drive, and where sooner or later you end up becoming the jealous keepers of your time, of your own security, of your own well-being. Instead, motivated by means of the examples of your great witnesses of faith, aspire to live a ministry that is afire with the gospel, one that has the strong and genuine flavour of the gift that it is. A pastor, a disciple configured to Christ who gave his life to the end (Jn 13:1), cannot allow you to settle for a mediocre life or to adapt to situations without risking anything. May your College be more and more a gymnasium where you can train for the time when you will give your life willingly; your studies are tools of service for the Church, which will also embellish the rich cultural tradition of your beloved country. Preserving your memory is therefore not merely a matter of remembering the past, but of laying the groundwork for the future, for an adventure of hope. If we do not keep a memory of the past, we will end up living the mediocrity of clericalism.
My second wish is for you to cultivate hope. There is such need for nourishing Christian hope, the hope that gives a new look, one that is capable of discovering and seeing good, even when it has been obscured by evil: If hope revives our eyes, we will see what is hidden, wrote Saint Ephrem (CArmen Nisib, 70). The Acts of the Apostles, that we are reading during the Easter season, shows us how the Church, that lives with faith in the Risen Lord, is preserved by prayer, communion and charity, never loses sight of this hope and gives it to the world, even when it is without means, unfinished or opposed. I hope that your house will be a cenacle where the Spirit creates missionaries of hope, contagious bearers of the presence of the Risen Lord, courageous in your creativity and never discouraged in the face of problems and lack of means. May the Holy Spirit also arouse in you the desire to seek out and to promote with purified hearts, the path of concord and unity among all Christians.
Dear brothers and sisters, while, through you, I extend my greetings to your Major Archbishop and the Bishops of your Synod, I wish to also affectionately send this greeting to students of the Pontifical Saint Ephrem College who are here present and those who your community welcomes. As I meet with you, I am conscious of the situation in which so many of the faithful in your land find themselves, many families who are obliged to abandon their homes as a result of waves of violence and suffering. These brothers and sisters of yours, I wish to embrace in a special way, together with their Patriarchs and Bishops. With them, I invoke the paschal gift of peace: may Jesus, a refuge that encourages and consoles, the hope of those who are without hope (cf Saint Ephrem, The second coming of Our Lord, 24-25) inspire your hearts and minds so that they may open paths to reconciliation and goodness.
Thank you, and I ask you, please, do not forget me in your prayers. Thank you.
Greetings of His Holiness, Pope Francis
for the meeting with the Community
from the Pontifical Pio Romeno College
Dear brothers and sisters,
I greet you warmly. I am pleased to meet you in the 80th anniversary of the foundation of your College. This is an occasion for gratefulness to God and to all those who through the years have dedicated themselves to the good of the Pio Romeno College so that it might contribute to the formation of future pastors. The path you have travelled is part of a history that has preceded you and at the same time it is part of the preparations for the future of the Greek-Catholic Church in Romania. I would therefore like to express two wishes for you: that you preserve the memory of the past and that you cultivate hope for the future.
Preserve memory. Your College began in a period of development for the Oriental (Eastern) Catholic Community; she later suffered the tragic events related to persecutions by atheists; she then experienced a beautiful re-birth and opened herself to new challenges over the most recent years. This history, composed of great witnesses of faith and moments of trial, of rigid winters and thriving springs, belongs to you. It is good to preserve this memory, not in order to remain anchored in the past, but in order to live the events that each era presents with the support of a living evangelizing memory that embraces a history that is greater than we, one that remains open to the actions of the Spirit. Treasuring, through prayer and intense study, what the Lord has done in his People, is a beautiful opportunity for you during your years that you spend in Rome, where you can even breathe the universality of the Church.
Paying attention to your ecclesial memory will help you to overcome a dangerous temptation that can arise: the temptation to be content with mediocrity, to settle for a normal life - in parentheses ! - where everything continues without any sense of direction or drive, and where sooner or later you end up becoming the jealous keepers of your time, of your own security, of your own well-being. Instead, motivated by means of the examples of your great witnesses of faith, aspire to live a ministry that is afire with the gospel, one that has the strong and genuine flavour of the gift that it is. A pastor, a disciple configured to Christ who gave his life to the end (Jn 13:1), cannot allow you to settle for a mediocre life or to adapt to situations without risking anything. May your College be more and more a gymnasium where you can train for the time when you will give your life willingly; your studies are tools of service for the Church, which will also embellish the rich cultural tradition of your beloved country. Preserving your memory is therefore not merely a matter of remembering the past, but of laying the groundwork for the future, for an adventure of hope. If we do not keep a memory of the past, we will end up living the mediocrity of clericalism.
My second wish is for you to cultivate hope. There is such need for nourishing Christian hope, the hope that gives a new look, one that is capable of discovering and seeing good, even when it has been obscured by evil: If hope revives our eyes, we will see what is hidden, wrote Saint Ephrem (CArmen Nisib, 70). The Acts of the Apostles, that we are reading during the Easter season, shows us how the Church, that lives with faith in the Risen Lord, is preserved by prayer, communion and charity, never loses sight of this hope and gives it to the world, even when it is without means, unfinished or opposed. I hope that your house will be a cenacle where the Spirit creates missionaries of hope, contagious bearers of the presence of the Risen Lord, courageous in your creativity and never discouraged in the face of problems and lack of means. May the Holy Spirit also arouse in you the desire to seek out and to promote with purified hearts, the path of concord and unity among all Christians.
Dear brothers and sisters, while, through you, I extend my greetings to your Major Archbishop and the Bishops of your Synod, I wish to also affectionately send this greeting to students of the Pontifical Saint Ephrem College who are here present and those who your community welcomes. As I meet with you, I am conscious of the situation in which so many of the faithful in your land find themselves, many families who are obliged to abandon their homes as a result of waves of violence and suffering. These brothers and sisters of yours, I wish to embrace in a special way, together with their Patriarchs and Bishops. With them, I invoke the paschal gift of peace: may Jesus, a refuge that encourages and consoles, the hope of those who are without hope (cf Saint Ephrem, The second coming of Our Lord, 24-25) inspire your hearts and minds so that they may open paths to reconciliation and goodness.
Thank you, and I ask you, please, do not forget me in your prayers. Thank you.
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