At 12:15pm today, in the Sala Clementina at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience a delegation from the International Catholic Conference of Guiding. The Conference is marking the 50th anniversary of its foundation.
Dear sisters and brothers,
I am happy to welcome you to Rome for the fiftieth anniversary of the International Catholic Conference of Guiding. Guides occupy a specific post among other educative movements, rooted in a long tradition of widely tested pedagogy. I give thanks along with you for all the good that the Lord has allowed us to experience in our hearts. At the same time, I hope that the Holy Spirit will guide the various Associations that you represent along the road that leads ahead, so that they will be able to face the challenges of the future. Education is in fact the essential means by which girls learn to become active and responsible women, proud and happy to live their faith in Jesus every day. In this way, they participate in the building of a world which is imbued with the gospel.
I appreciate the theme you have chosen for your meeting: To live the joy of the gospel as a guide. It is a wonderful plan: to announce to others, through the witness of our lives, that meeting Jesus makes you happy: that meeting Jesus frees us and heals us; that meeting Jesus opens us to the needs of others and motivates us to proclaim this joy especially to those who are poor, to those who have been distanced, who are alone and abandoned. Within the Catholic Associations of Guides, this tradition of encountering Jesus and of joyful openness and generosity toward the needs of others has always been present, and I invite you to continue it and to develop this precious heritage even more.
As Catholic leaders, you also have the opportunity to share the explicit proclamation of Christ, who gives joy and light to the world, in the heart of the World Association of Girl Guides and Scouts. Here in this place, you meet with head guides from every culture and religion. I hope that this will be an occasion for sincere and true dialogue between you, of respect for each other's convictions, and of serene affirmation of your faith and of your Catholic identity.
In the recently-published Encyclical Laudato Si', I wrote that education about ecology is essential in order to transform mentalities and habits, in order to overcome the disturbing challenges facing mankind with regard to the environment. I think that the Guiding movement, which in its pedagogy provides an important place for contact with nature, is especially predisposed for this task. I hope that the Guides will continue to be ready to welcome the presence and the goodness of the Creator in the beauty of the world which surrounds them. This contemplative attitude will help them to live in harmony with themselves, with others and with God. It is a new style of living, more in union with the gospel, which they in turn will be able to pass on to others in the places where they live.
Finally, it is very important in our time that women be adequately valued, and that they may assume fully the place that is theirs in the Church and in society. Even here, the role of educative Associations like yours - involving young women - are absolutely essential for the future, and your teaching should be clear on such matters. We live in a world where others defend ideologies which are the most in contrast to nature and to the plan of god for the family and for marriage. It is therefore a matter of teaching the girls not only about the beauty and the greatness of their vocation as women, in right but differentiated relationships between men and women, but also to assume important responsibilities within the Church and in society. In some countries, where women are still in positions of inferiority, where they are still exploited and abused, you are certainly called to play a major role in their promotion and education. I ask you also not to forget the necessary and explicit openness of your teaching toward the possibility of a life consecrated to the Lord: one of the ways that the Guiding movement has been very fruitful throughout its history.
The Virgin Mary is the model of women who follow the gospel and the heart of God. The Church and our society needs such women very much. May Mary be fore you a fountain of encouragement and inspiration. I entrust you all to her intercession and with all my heart, I willingly impart my blessing.
Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the meeting with representatives of the
Conférence Internationale Catholique du Guidisme
Dear sisters and brothers,
I am happy to welcome you to Rome for the fiftieth anniversary of the International Catholic Conference of Guiding. Guides occupy a specific post among other educative movements, rooted in a long tradition of widely tested pedagogy. I give thanks along with you for all the good that the Lord has allowed us to experience in our hearts. At the same time, I hope that the Holy Spirit will guide the various Associations that you represent along the road that leads ahead, so that they will be able to face the challenges of the future. Education is in fact the essential means by which girls learn to become active and responsible women, proud and happy to live their faith in Jesus every day. In this way, they participate in the building of a world which is imbued with the gospel.
I appreciate the theme you have chosen for your meeting: To live the joy of the gospel as a guide. It is a wonderful plan: to announce to others, through the witness of our lives, that meeting Jesus makes you happy: that meeting Jesus frees us and heals us; that meeting Jesus opens us to the needs of others and motivates us to proclaim this joy especially to those who are poor, to those who have been distanced, who are alone and abandoned. Within the Catholic Associations of Guides, this tradition of encountering Jesus and of joyful openness and generosity toward the needs of others has always been present, and I invite you to continue it and to develop this precious heritage even more.
As Catholic leaders, you also have the opportunity to share the explicit proclamation of Christ, who gives joy and light to the world, in the heart of the World Association of Girl Guides and Scouts. Here in this place, you meet with head guides from every culture and religion. I hope that this will be an occasion for sincere and true dialogue between you, of respect for each other's convictions, and of serene affirmation of your faith and of your Catholic identity.
In the recently-published Encyclical Laudato Si', I wrote that education about ecology is essential in order to transform mentalities and habits, in order to overcome the disturbing challenges facing mankind with regard to the environment. I think that the Guiding movement, which in its pedagogy provides an important place for contact with nature, is especially predisposed for this task. I hope that the Guides will continue to be ready to welcome the presence and the goodness of the Creator in the beauty of the world which surrounds them. This contemplative attitude will help them to live in harmony with themselves, with others and with God. It is a new style of living, more in union with the gospel, which they in turn will be able to pass on to others in the places where they live.
Finally, it is very important in our time that women be adequately valued, and that they may assume fully the place that is theirs in the Church and in society. Even here, the role of educative Associations like yours - involving young women - are absolutely essential for the future, and your teaching should be clear on such matters. We live in a world where others defend ideologies which are the most in contrast to nature and to the plan of god for the family and for marriage. It is therefore a matter of teaching the girls not only about the beauty and the greatness of their vocation as women, in right but differentiated relationships between men and women, but also to assume important responsibilities within the Church and in society. In some countries, where women are still in positions of inferiority, where they are still exploited and abused, you are certainly called to play a major role in their promotion and education. I ask you also not to forget the necessary and explicit openness of your teaching toward the possibility of a life consecrated to the Lord: one of the ways that the Guiding movement has been very fruitful throughout its history.
The Virgin Mary is the model of women who follow the gospel and the heart of God. The Church and our society needs such women very much. May Mary be fore you a fountain of encouragement and inspiration. I entrust you all to her intercession and with all my heart, I willingly impart my blessing.
No comments:
Post a Comment