Jubilee Audience on Reconciliation

This morning, at 10:00am, the fifth Jubilee Audience was held in Saint Peter's Square.  These special gatherings were introduced by Pope Francis and are held on Saturdays in order that he might meet with pilgrims and the faithful who have come to Rome during the Jubilee of Mercy.

During his speech, the Pope added his meditation on an essential aspect of mercy: reconciliation (cf 2 Cor 5:20-21) and he also offered greetings to members of the Armed Forces and the Police who are participating in the Jubilee.

After having summarized his catechesis in various languages, His Holiness offered particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.

The Jubilee Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.

Catechesis of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

for the General Audience

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today, I want to reflect with you on an important aspect of mercy: reconciliation.  God has never stopped offering his forgiveness to mankind: his mercy is felt from one generation to another.  Often, we believe that our sins distance God from us, but in reality, when we sin, we distance ourselves from Him, but He is conscious of our danger and comes looking for us.  God never gives up on the possibility that a person might remain estranged from his love, as long as he finds some sign within us of repentance from the evil that we have committed.

Our efforts alone are not enough for us to be reconciled with God.  Sin is truly an expression of our rejection of his love, with the consequence of being closed in upon ourselves, surrounded with the illusion of finding greater freedom and autonomy.  But distanced from God we no longer have a goal, pilgrims in this world, we become wanderers.  A common saying is that when we sin, we turn away from God.  This is true: the sinner sees only himself and pretends in this way to be self-sufficient; thus, sin always spreads more distance between us and God, and this can become a chasm.  However, Jesus is searching for us, like a good shepherd who is never content until he has found the lost sheep, as we read in the gospel (cf Lk 15:4-6).  He rebuilds the bridge that leads us back to the Father and allows us to rediscover the dignity of his children.  With the offering of his life, he has reconciled us with the Father and has given us eternal life (cf Jn 10:15).

Allow yourself to be reconciled with God! (2 Cor 5:20): the cry that the apostle Paul issued to the first Christians in Corinth, is addressed to us today with the same force and conviction.  Allow yourself to be reconciled with God!  This Jubilee of Mercy is a time of reconciliation for everyone.  Many people would like to be reconciled with God, but they don't know how to go about it, or they don't feel worthy, or they don't want to admit it, even to themselves.  The Christian community can and must encourage a sincere return to God by all those who feel these sentiments.  Above all, those who offer the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18) are called to be docile instruments of the Holy Spirit so that where sin once abounded, the mercy of God may abound even more (cf Rm 5:20).  May no person have to remain distanced from God because of obstacles imposed by human beings!  This is equally true - and I say this with emphasis - for confessors - it is true for them: please, do not put obstacles in the path of people who want to be reconciled with God.  The confessor should be a father! He acts in place of God the Father!  The confessor should welcome people who come to him in order to be reconciled with God, and help them along the path toward this reconciliation that we are creating.  This is such a beautiful ministry: it is neither a torture room nor an interrogation, no, the Father receives and welcomes a person and forgives.  Let us allow ourselves to be reconciled with God!  All of us!  This Holy Year is a favourable time to rediscover the need for the tenderness and closeness of the Father, and to return to Him with all our hearts.

The experience of reconciliation with God permits us to discover the necessity for other forms of reconciliation: in families, in inter-personal relationships, in ecclesial communities, and also in social and international relationships.  Someone told me, in recent days, that there are more enemies in the world than there are friends, and I believe that he was right.  But no, let us also build bridges of reconciliation among ourselves, beginning within our own families.  How many brothers and sisters have fought with one another and have been distanced from one another merely because of matters pertaining to inheritances?  This is not right!  This year is the year of reconciliation, with God and among us!  In fact, reconciliation is also work for peace, toward the recognition of the fundamental rights of people, toward solidarity and the welcoming of all people.

Let us therefore accept the invitation to be reconciled with God, in order to become new creatures and to be able to radiate his mercy among our brothers, among all people.

Greetings to participants in the Jubilee of the Armed Forces and the Police
With joy, I welcome the representatives of the Armed Forces and the Police, from many parts of the world, who have come in pilgrimage to Rome on the occasion of the Extra-ordinary Jubilee of Mercy.  The Forces of order - both military and the police - have for their mission to ensure a safe environment, so that every citizen can live in peace and serenity.  In your families, in various dimensions in which you work, be instruments of reconciliation, builders of bridges and sowers of peace.  You are in fact called not only to prevent, manage and end conflicts, but also to contribute to the construction of order that is founded on truth, on justice, harmony and freedom, according to the definition of peace that was given by Saint John XXIII in his Encyclical Pacem in terris (cf PT 18 ff).

The affirmation of peace is not an easy task, above all because of war which dries up the heart and increases violence and hatred.  I exhort you to not be discouraged.  Continue your journey of faith and open your hearts to God our merciful Father who never grows tired of forgiving us.  Faced with everyday challenges, allow Christian hope to shine, the assurance of the victory of hope over hatred and of peace over war.

As he has done during other Jubilee Audiences, the text of Pope Francis' catechesis was then translated (in summary form) into various languages, and His Holiness offered personal greetings to each of the groups of pilgrims in attendance.  To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:

I greet the English-speaking visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly those from the armed forces and police agencies who have come from Canada, Kenya, Korea, the Philippines and the United States of America. I also greet the pilgrimage groups from Scotland and the United States. In the joy of the Risen Lord, I invoke upon you and your families the loving mercy of God our Father. May the Lord bless you all!

Speaking about regenerative medicine

At 12:00 noon today, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience a group of participants taking part in the III International Conference on Regenerative Medicine entitled Cellular Horizons: How Science, Technology, Information and Communication will Impact Society.  The conference is taking place in the New Synod Hall from April 28-30, 2016) and is organized and promoted by the Pontifical Council for Culture and by various other partners, among which is the Stem For Life Foundation.

Address of His Holiness, Pope Francis

to the participants taking part in the 

III International Conference on Regenerative Medicine

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to welcome all of you. I thank Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi for his words and, above all, for having organized this meeting on the challenging problem of rare diseases within today’s social and cultural context. During your discussions, you have offered your professionalism and high-level expertise in the area of researching new treatments. At the same time, you have not ignored ethical, anthropological, social and cultural questions, as well as the complex problem of access to care for those afflicted by rare conditions. These patients are often not given sufficient attention, because investing in them is not expected to produce substantial economic returns. In my ministry I frequently meet people affected by so called rare diseases. These illnesses affect millions of people throughout the world, and cause suffering and anxiety for all those who care for them, starting with family members.

Your meeting takes on greater significance in the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy; mercy is the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life (Misericordiae Vultus, 2). Your work is a sign of hope, as it brings together people and institutions from diverse cultures, societies and religions, all united in their deep concern for the sick.

I wish to reflect, albeit briefly, on three aspects of the commitment of the Pontifical Council for Culture and institutions working with it: the Vatican Science and Faith Foundation–STOQ, the Stem for Life Foundation, and many others who are cooperating in this cultural initiative.

The first is increasing sensitivity. It is fundamentally important that we promote greater empathy in society, and not remain indifferent to our neighbour’s cry for help, including when he or she is suffering from a rare disease. We know that we cannot always find fast cures to complex illnesses, but we can be prompt in caring for these persons, who often feel abandoned and ignored. We should be sensitive towards all, regardless of religious belief, social standing or culture.

The second aspect that guides your efforts is research, seen in two inseparable actions: education and genuine scientific study. Today more than ever we see the urgent need for an education that not only develops students’ intellectual abilities, but also ensures integral human formation and a professionalism of the highest degree. From this pedagogical perspective, it is necessary in medical and life sciences to offer interdisciplinary courses which provide ample room for a human formation supported by ethical criteria. Research, whether in academia or industry, requires unwavering attention to moral issues if it is to be an instrument which safeguards human life and the dignity of the person. Formation and research, therefore, aspire to serve higher values, such as solidarity, generosity, magnanimity, sharing of knowledge, respect for human life, and fraternal and selfless love.

The third aspect I wish to mention is ensuring access to care. In my Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I highlighted the value of human progress today, citing areas such as health care, education and communications (EG, 52). I also strongly emphasized, however, the need to oppose an economy of exclusion and inequality (EG, 53) that victimizes people when the mechanism of profit prevails over the value of human life. This is why the globalization of indifference must be countered by the globalization of empathy. We are called to make known throughout the world the issue of rare diseases, to invest in appropriate education, to increase funds for research, and to promote necessary legislation as well as an economic paradigm shift. In this way, the centrality of the human person will be rediscovered. Thanks to coordinated efforts at various levels and in different sectors, it is becoming possible not only to find solutions to the sufferings which afflict our sick brothers and sisters, but also to secure access to care for them.

I encourage you to nurture these values which are already a part of your academic and cultural programme, begun some years ago. So too I urge you to continue to integrate more people and institutions throughout the world into your work. During this Jubilee Year, may you be capable and generous co-operators with the Father’s mercy. I accompany you and bless you on this journey; and I ask you, please, pray for me. Thank you.

The trial continues

Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, provided some information this evening to accredited journalists relating to the legal process currently in progress concerning the divulging of embargoed news and documents.

Today, Thursday, April 28, at 3:30pm, in the Vatican City State's Tribunal Hall, the latest hearing of the legal process concerning the publication of reserved news and documents took place.  Present today, in addition to the judicial College (Professors Giuseppe Della Torre, Piero Antonio Bonnet, Paolo Papanti-Pellettier and Venerando Marano) and the Promotors of Justice (Professors Gian Piero Milano and Roberto Zannotti), the accused Lucio Ángel Vallejo Balda, Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui and Nicola Maio, along with their respective lawyers: Emanuela Bellardini, Laura Sgrò and Rita Claudi Baffioni.The accused Emiliano Fittipaldi and Gianluigi Nuzzi were absent, but were represented by their lawyers: Lucia Teresa Musso and Roberto Palombi.

During the audience, the presentation of testimony continued, and the session was dedicated to the delivery of two testimonies: offered by Doctor Paola Monaco and by Ms. Paola Pellegrino, who at the time were respectively the Secretary to the Cardinal President and the Archivist of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See.  These two witnesses were interrogated by the judges, the Promotors of Justice and the defence lawyers.

Following the interrogation of each of the witnesses, the respective transcripts were read aloud and approved.

The audience concluded at approximately 8:15pm.

The next session will take place on Saturday, May 7 at 9:30am, with the possibility of a second session in the afternoon of that day.  It is anticipated that further testimonies will be heard, according to the list of witnesses that has been compiled.

Annual Report of the AIF

At 11:30am today, in the John Paul II Hall at the Holy See Press Centre, there was a briefing held to present the Annual Report of the Financial Information Authority (AIF) concerning financial information activity and vigilance, both in matters of prudence and in matters of prevention and the combat against money laundering and the financing of terrorism for the fourth year of its existence (2015).

Presentations at today's briefing were made by Doctor René Brülhart, President of the AIF and by Doctor Tommaso Di Ruzza, Director of the AIF.

Press Release 

2015 Annual Report of the AIF

The Autorità di Informazione Finanziaria (AIF) of the Holy See and the Vatican City State has presented its Annual Report for 2015. The report reviews the activities and statistics of AIF for the year 2015.

2015 has seen an effective implementation and application of the regulatory framework of the Holy See and the Vatican City State. Furthermore, international cooperation of the Vatican competent authority with its foreign counterparts to fight illicit financial activities has been intensified.

The full implementation and application of Regulation No. 1 has shown the effectiveness of the regulatory framework of the Holy See and Vatican City State, said René Brülhart, President of AIF. International cooperation remains a key commitment of AIF. Additional Memoranda of Understandings with competent authorities of other jurisdictions were signed and the exchange of information on a bilateral level has increased significantly.

The reporting system has been consolidated and in the last three years, 893 Suspicious Transaction Reports (STR) (202 in 2013, 147 in 2014 and 544 in 2015) have been filed with AIF.

The increase of STRs was not due to higher potential illicit financial activities, but to a number of different factors, namely the finalization of the closure of client relationships no longer compliant with Vatican legislation and policies adopted by supervised entities, the monitoring of clients’ activities under foreign countries’ voluntary tax compliance programs as well as the general strengthening of the reporting system and the increased awareness of the supervised entities, said Tommaso Di Ruzza, Director of AIF. In 2015, 17 reports were submitted to the Vatican Promoter of Justice for further investigation by judicial authorities. The number of cases of bilateral cooperation between AIF and foreign competent authorities increased from 4 in 2012 to 81 in 2013 to 113 in 2014 and 380 in 2015.

Since 2012, the number of declarations of outgoing cash above the amount of EUR 10,000 decreased steadily from 1,782 (2012) to 1,557 (2013) and 1,111 in 2014 and remained stable in 2015 (1,196).

Declarations for incoming cash also decreased from 598 (2012) to 550 (2013) to 429 in 2014 and 367 in 2015. This is due to an increased monitoring by the competent authorities and the introduction of reinforced procedures at the supervised entities.

About AIF
The Financial Information Authority is the competent authority of the Holy See and Vatican City State for supervision and financial intelligence for the prevention and countering of money laundering and financing of terrorism as well as prudential supervision.

Established by Pope Benedict XVI with the Apostolic Letter in form of Motu Proprio of 30 December 2010, AIF carries out its institutional activities in accordance with its new Statute introduced by Pope Francis with Motu Proprio of 15 November 2013 and Law No. XVIII of 8 October 2013.

In 2015, AIF signed MOUs with the financial intelligence units (FIUs) of Albania, Cuba, Luxemburg, Norway, Paraguay and Hungary. In previous years, AIF had already signed MOUs with the Authorities of Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Cyprus, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Romania, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom United States of America, South Africa and Switzerland. AIF became a member of the Egmont Group in 2013.

General Audience on the Good Samaritan

Thaïs morning's General Audience took place in Saint Peter's Square, where the Holy Father met with pilgrims from Italy and from all the corners of the world.

Catechesis of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

for the General Audience

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning.

Today, we reflect on the parable of the Good Samaritan (cf Lk 10:25-37).  A doctor of the Law puts Jesus to the test with this question: Master, what must we do to inherit eternal life?  (Lk 10:25). Jesus asks him to furnish the answer himself, and this he gives perfectly: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself (Lk 10:27).  Then Jesus concludes: Do this and you will live (Lk 10:28).

The man then asks another question that becomes precious to us: Who is my neighbour? (Lk 10:29), as though to suggest: My relatives? My fellow citizens? Those who follow my religion? ... What he is searching for is a clear rule that will allow him to distinguish between those who are his neighbours and those that are not, with whom he can become a neighbour and with whom he cannot.

And Jesus responds with a parable, that focuses on a priest, a Levite and a Samaritan.  The first two are figures that are linked to the life of the Temple, to worship; the third is a schismatic Jew, considered to be a stranger, a foreigner, a impure pagan, namely the Samaritan.  On the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, the priest and the Levite encounter a dying man who brigands have assaulted, robbed and abandoned.  In other such situations, the Law of the Lord prescribed an obligation to help him, but both of them passed by without stopping.  They were in a hurry ... maybe the priest looked at his watch and said: But I will be late for Mass ... I have to say Mass.  The other one said: But I don't know if the Law would permit me to help him because there is blood, and I would be impure ... Both of them go on their way and neither of them helps him.  Here the parable offers us a first lesson: it is not a given thing that someone who frequents God's house and has experienced His mercy is able to love his neighbour.  This is not automatic!  You can know the whole bible, and all the liturgical rules, you can know everything about theology, but just because you know these things does not mean that you know how to love.  Love has a another path, we need intelligence but we need something else ... The priest and the Levite saw, but they ignored; the looked but they did not provide.  Yet true worship cannot exist if it is not transformed into service to our neighbour.  Let us never forget this: faced with the suffering of so many people who are destroyed by hunger, by violence and by injustices, we cannot remain as spectators.  What does it mean to ignore another man's suffering?  It means that we are ignoring God!  If I do not stay close to that man, to that woman, to that child, to that elderly person who is suffering, I am not staying close to God.

Now let us come to the centre of the parable: the Samaritan, that is to say in fact, the one who was scorned, the one on whom no one would have wagered anything, and who nevertheless himself had his fair share of commitments and things to do, when he saw the wounded man, did not pass by like the other two had, because they had commitments at the Temple, but he had compassion for him (Lk 10:33).  The gospel says: He had compassion, which means that his heart was moved, he was moved from within.  This is the difference.  The other two saw but their hearts remained closed, cold.  By comparison, the Samaritan's heart was attuned to God's heart.  In fact, compassion is an essential characteristic of God's mercy.  God has compassion for us.  What does this mean?  He suffers with us, with our sufferings.  He feels them.  Compassion means sharing with.  The verb indicates that something within us is moved, trembles when we see someone else's suffering.  In the gestures and actions of the good Samaritan, we see the merciful action of God throughout the history of salvation.  This is the same compassion with which the Lord comes to encounter each one of us: He does not ignore us, he knows our sufferings, he knows how much we need his help and his consolation.  He comes close to us and never abandons us.  Every one of us should ask ourselves, and respond in our hearts: Do I believe this?  Do I believe that the Lord has compassion for me, just as I am, a sinner, with so many problems and preoccupations?  Thinking about this, the answer is: Yes!  But every one of us should look into our own hearts and ask whether we trust in God's compassion, the compassion of God who is so good and who is close to us, who heals us, who caresses us.  Even if we refuse him, he always waits: he is patient, always standing beside us.

The Samaritan conducted himself with true mercy: he tended to the man's wounds, took him to an inn, personally took care of him and provided for his assistance.  All this teaches us that compassion, love, is not an abstract sentiment, but it means taking care of others, to the point of paying personally.  It means committing ourselves to all the necessary steps in order to come close to another person, even to identifying ourselves with that person: love your neighbour as you love yourself.  This is the Lord's Commandment.  Having concluded the parable, Jesus turns the question back to the doctors of the Law and asks: Which one of these three, do you think, proved himself to be a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers? (Lk 10:36).  The response is finally unequivocal: The one who had compassion for him (Lk 10:27).  At the beginning of the parable, for the priest and the Levite, the neighbour was the dying man; in the end, the neighbour is the Samaritan who stayed close to the dying man.  Jesus turns the perspective around: it is not up to us to examine others in order to discover who is our neighbour and who is not.  We can become a neighbour to anyone we meet who is in need, and this will be the case if we have compassion in our hearts: if we have the capacity to suffer with someone else.

This parable is a stupendous gift for all of us, and it is also a commitment!  To each of us, Jesus repeats what he said to the doctors of the Law: You too, go and do likewise (Lk 10:37).  We are all called to travel the same path as the good Samaritan, who is the figure of Christ: Jesus has bent down to us, made himself our servant, and therefore he has saved us, so that we too can love as He has loved us, in the same way.

The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages, and His Holiness offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.  To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:

I greet the English-speaking visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the pilgrims from England, Sweden, Slovakia, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, the Philippines, Canada and the United States of America. In the joy of the Risen Lord, I invoke upon you and your families the loving mercy of God our Father. May the Lord bless you all!

At the heart of a disciple's life

Five weeks into the Easter season, the gospel reminds us of the key position of love in the life of every disciple of Jesus.

Radical disciples

On Friday evening of this past week, Jews throughout the world began the annual observance of the Passover: the week-long festival during which they remember the Lord’s call to Moses to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt, through the waters of the Red Sea and into the promised land.  Every year, Jewish families gather during this week to commemorate this pivotal moment in their faith history.

Five weeks into the Easter season, today’s gospel brings our focus back to the Upper Room, to that night when Jesus and his disciples were also beginning their observance of the Passover.  Gathered in that room, in the midst of sharing a meal, Jesus knew that his time was limited, and still he was teaching his disciples.  The subject of his lesson was perhaps the most important wisdom that he could share: I give you a new commandment, that you love one another (Jn 13:34).  Love was at the centre of the relationship Jesus had with each of his disciples.  Love, demonstrated in acts of mercy, is the key to the power that Jesus still entrusts to his disciples today.

The power of love is so persuasive that it became the key to the message that has been proclaimed by all of Jesus' disciples ever since.  Love was the message that Paul and his companion Barnabas took with them and proclaimed to all those they met, throughout Greece and into modern-day Turkey (Acts 14:21-27).  Love is the cornerstone of the new heaven and the new earth (cf Rev 21:1) that John witnessed in his vision. Love was the gift that God wanted to share with his people when he sent his Son to create the home of God among humans (Rev 21:3).  Even today, love is the secret to the message that the Church proclaims: the key to the mercy that we must embody in the relationships we cultivate with our brothers and sisters.

This morning in Saint Peter's Square, Pope Francis met with thousands and thousands of boys and girls who had gathered in Rome to celebrate the Jubilee of Children.  Having heard the words Jesus spoke to his disciples in today's gospel, the Holy Father told the children that love is the Christian's best identification card.  Love is the gift that distinguishes Jesus' disciples from all other people.  This is the reason why the Church continues to focus our efforts on seeking out love in all its forms and celebrating Christ's love wherever and whenever it is found.

A little more than two years ago, Pope Francis asked us to identify the challenges facing the institution of Marriage, the icon of love that is shared between a man and a woman.  In preparation for a special meeting of Bishops which was held in October 2014, a questionnaire was circulated to all dioceses throughout the world.  Through this series of questions, the Pope was asking for those who are happy in marriage and those who are not to share their wisdom with him.  The results of the consultation were gathered and presented in Rome during the Extra-ordinary Synod that discussed the pastoral challenges facing the family in the context of evangelization.

One year later, in October 2015, love was once again the subject of conversation during the Ordinary Synod that considered the vocation and mission of the family in the Church and in the world.  As a result of these discussions, Pope Francis has recently published a new document that speaks about love as it is lived in the context of modern-day families.

This document is part of the ongoing efforts of the Church to proclaim the message that we ourselves have received from the Lord: Love one another as I have loved you (Jn 13:34).  Love has always been at the heart of the radical message that God shares with us.  Love is still at the heart of the radical message that God challenges each of us to share with others.  Love has the power to change lives, to make us more aware of the many ways that God invites us to be present to those in our world who need our help.  The question is, are we willing to accept the challenge to love others as our God has first loved us?  If we can answer yes, then we have begun to understand the truth of the Easter miracle.

Regina Caeli for the Jubilee of Children

At the conclusion of the Mass celebrated in Saint Peter's Square on the occasion of the Jubilee of Boys and Girls, Pope Francis blessed crosses and entrusted them to each of the adolescents, gifts from the Pope for their participation in the Holy Year of Mercy.

Then, before chanting the Regina Caeli, Pope Francis spoke to the young people, the faithful and the pilgrims who were gathered in Saint Peter's Square.

Greetings of His Holiness, Pope Francis

before the recitation of the Regina Caeli

At the conclusion of this jubilee celebration, my thoughts go out in a special way to all of you, dear boys and girls.  You came from Italy and from various other parts of the world to experience moments of shared faith and fraternity.  Thank you for your joyous and enthusiastic testimony.  Go on with courage!

Yesterday, in Burgos (Spain), Father Valentín Palencia Marquina and four of his companions, all of whom were martyred, young people, killed for their faith during the Spanish civil war, were Beatified.  Let us praise the Lord for these courageous witnesses, and let us implore their intercession, that the world will be freed from every kind of violence.

I am still preoccupied with concern for brother bishops, priests and religious, both Catholic and Orthodox, who have been held captive for a long time in Syria.  May our Merciful God touch the hearts of their captors and grant that our brothers and sisters will be freed as soon as possible so that they might return to their communities.  I ask you all to pray for this, as well as for other people throughout the world who have been abducted.

Let us confide all our aspirations and hopes to the intercession of Mary, our Mother of Mercy.

Following the recitation of the Regina Caeli, the Holy Father continued:

Dear young people, you have celebrated the Jubilee; now you return home with the joy of your Christian identity.  On foot, with your heads held high, and with your identity card in your hands and in your hearts!  May the Lord be always with you, and please, pray also for me.  Thank you.

Mass for the Jubilee of Children

At 10:30am today, the Holy Father, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in Saint Peter's Square, marking the Jubilee of Children, which is taking place in Rome from April 23 to 25.

Homily of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

for the Mass celebrated with children

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another (Jn 13:35).

Dear young friends, what an enormous responsibility the Lord gives us today! He tells us that the world will recognize the disciples of Jesus by the way they love one another. Love, in other words, is the Christian’s identity card, the only valid document identifying us as Christians. It is the only valid document. If this card expires and is not constantly renewed, we stop being witnesses of the Master. So I ask you: Do you wish to say yes to Jesus’ invitation to be his disciples? Do you wish to be his faithful friends? The true friends of Jesus stand out essentially by their genuine love; not some pie in the sky love; no, it is a genuine love that shines forth in their way of life. Love is always shown in real actions. Those who are not real and genuine and who speak of love are like characters in a soap opera, some fake love story. Do you want to experience his love? Do you want this love: yes or no? Let us learn from him, for his words are a school of life, a school where we learn to love. This is a task which we must engage in every day: to learn how to love.

Before all else, love is beautiful, it is the path to happiness. But it is not an easy path. It is demanding and it requires effort. Think, for example, of a moment when we receive a gift. It makes us happy, but receiving a gift means that someone generous has invested time and effort; by their gift they also give us a bit of themselves, a sacrifice they have made. Think too of the gift that your parents and group leaders have given you in allowing you to come to Rome for this Jubilee day dedicated to you. They planned, organized, and prepared everything for you, and this made them happy, even if it meant that they had to give up a trip for themselves. This is putting love into action. To love means to give, not only something material, but also something of one’s self: one’s own time, one’s friendship, one’s own abilities.

Look to the Lord, who is never outdone in generosity. We receive so many gifts from him, and every day we should thank him … Let me ask you something. Do you thank the Lord every day? Even if we forget to do so, he never forgets, each day, to give us some special gift. It is not something material and tangible that we can use, but something even greater, a life-long gift. What does the Lord give to us? He offers us his faithful friendship, which he will never take back. The Lord is a friend forever. Even if you disappoint him and walk away from him, Jesus continues to want the best for you and to remain close to you; he believes in you even more than you believe in yourself. This is an example of genuine love that Jesus teaches us. This is very important! Because the biggest threat to growing up well comes from thinking that no one cares about us - and that is always a sadness - from feeling that we are all alone. The Lord, on the other hand, is always with you and he is happy to be with you. As he did with his first disciples, he looks you in the eye and he calls you to follow him, to put out into the deep and to cast your nets wide trusting in his words and using your talents in life, in union with him, without fear. Jesus is waiting patiently for you. He awaits your response. He is waiting for you to say yes.

Dear young friends, at this stage in your lives you have a growing desire to demonstrate and receive affection. If you let him teach you, the Lord will show you how to make tenderness and affection even more beautiful. He will guide your hearts to love without being possessive, to love others without trying to own them but letting them be free. Because love is free! There is no true love that is not free! The freedom that the Lord gives to us is his love for us. He is always close to each one of us. There is always a temptation to let our affections be tainted by an instinctive desire to have to have what we find pleasing; this is selfishness. Our consumerist culture reinforces this tendency. Yet when we hold on too tightly to something, it fades, it dies, and then we feel confused, empty inside. If you listen to his voice, the Lord will reveal the secret of love to you. It is caring for others, respecting them, protecting them and waiting for them. This is putting tenderness and love into action.

At this point in life you feel also a great longing for freedom. Many people will say to you that freedom means doing whatever you want. But here you have to be able to say no. If you do not know how to say no, you are not free. The person who is free is he or she who is able to say yes and who knows how to say no. Freedom is not the ability simply to do what I want. This makes us self-centred and aloof, and it prevents us from being open and sincere friends; it is not true to say it is good enough if it serves me. No, this is not true. Instead, freedom is the gift of being able to choose the good: this is true freedom. The free person is the one who chooses what is good, what is pleasing to God, even if it requires effort, even if it is not easy. I believe that you young men and women are not afraid to make the effort, that you are indeed courageous! Only by courageous and firm decisions do we realize our greatest dreams, the dreams which it is worth spending our entire lives to pursue. Courageous and noble choices. Do not be content with mediocrity, with simply going with the flow, with being comfortable and laid back. Don’t believe those who would distract you from the real treasure, which you are, by telling you that life is beautiful only if you have many possessions. Be sceptical about people who want to make you believe that you are only important if you act tough like the heroes in films or if you wear the latest fashions. Your happiness has no price. It cannot be bought: it is not an app that you can download on your phones nor will the latest update bring you freedom and grandeur in love. True freedom is something else altogether.

That is because love is a free gift which calls for an open heart; love is a responsibility, but a noble responsibility which is life-long; it is a daily task for those who can achieve great dreams! Woe to your people who do not know how to dream, who do not dare to dream! If a person of your age is not able to dream, if they have already gone into retirement … this is not good.Love is nurtured by trust, respect and forgiveness. Love does not happen because we talk about it, but when we live it: it is not a sweet poem to study and memorize, but is a life choice to put into practice! How can we grow in love? The secret, once again, is the Lord: Jesus gives us himself in the Mass, he offers us forgiveness and peace in Confession. There we learn to receive his love, to make it ours and to give it to the world. And when loving seems hard, when it is difficult to say no to something wrong, look up at Jesus on the cross, embrace the cross and don’t ever let go of his hand. He will point you ever higher, and pick you up whenever you fall. Throughout life we will fall many times, because we are sinners, we are weak. But there is always the hand of God who picks us up, who raises us up. Jesus wants us to be up on our feet! Think of the beautiful word Jesus said to the paralytic: Arise!. God has created us to be on our feet. There is a lovely song that mountain climbers sing as they climb. It goes like this: In climbing, the important thing is not to not fall, but to not remain fallen! To have the courage to pick oneself up, to allow oneself to be raised up by Jesus. And his hand is often given through the hand of a friend, through the hand of one’s parents, through the hand of those who accompany us throughout life. Jesus himself is present in them. So arise! God wants us up on our feet, ever on our feet!

I know that you are capable of acts of great friendship and goodness. With these you are called to build the future, together with others and for others, but never against anyone! One never builds against; this is called destruction. You will do amazing things if you prepare well, starting now, by living your youth and all its gifts to the fullest and without fear of hard work. Be like sporting champions, who attain high goals by quiet daily effort and practice. Let your daily programme be the works of mercy. Enthusiastically practice them, so as to be champions in life, champions in love! In this way you will be recognized as disciples of Jesus. In this way, you will have the identification card of the Christian. And I promise you: your joy will be complete.

Video greetings to young boys and girls

Pope Francis prepared a video message which was shared this evening with boys and girls who are gathered in Rome's Olympic Stadium for a large celebration of music and testimonies as part of the Jubilee of Teens.

Video message of His Holiness, Pope Francis

addressed to participants taking part in the

Jubilee for Teens

Dear boys and girls, good evening!

You have gathered for a time of celebration and joy. I was not able to come and I'm sorry. And I decided to greet you with this video. I would have loved to be able to come to the Stadium, but was not able to join you. I thank you for having accepted the invitation to come here to celebrate the Jubilee in Rome. This morning you turned Saint Peter's Square into a big confessional and then you entered through the Holy Door. Do not forget that the Door is the encounter with Christ, who introduces us to the Father who asks us to be merciful as He is merciful.

Tomorrow, we will celebrate Mass together. It was right that there would also be a place to get together with joy and listen to some important testimonies, which should help you to grow in faith and in life.

I know you have a bandana with the corporal works of mercy written on it: be sure to put these words into your head because they are the style of the Christian life. As you know the works of mercy are simple gestures that belong to every day life, allowing you to recognize the Face of Jesus in the faces of so many people, even young people! Young people like you who are hungry and thirsty; who are refugees or strangers or sick and in need of our help and our friendship.

To be merciful means to be able to forgive. And this is not easy, eh? It can happen that, sometimes, in the family, at school, in the parish, in the gym or in places where we play, someone can do us wrong and we are outraged; or in moments of nervousness we, too, can offend others. We do not remain with resentment or the desire for revenge! There is no purpose for this because it is a worm that eats away at the soul and does not allow us to be happy. Let us forgive and forget the wrong done to us; in this way we can understand the teaching of Jesus and be his disciples and witnesses of mercy.

Young people, how many times does it happen to me that I phone friends, however I can't get through to them because there is no signal (WiFi or connection). I'm sure it happens to you too: the cell phone signal in some places does not work. Just remember that if Jesus is not in your life, it is as though there was no signal.  Let’s always place ourselves where we have the signal (connection): the family, the parish, the school, because in this world we will always have something to say that is good and true.

Now I greet you all, I want you to live this moment with joy and I am waiting for you all tomorrow in Saint Peter's Square. Ciao!

Pope hears confessions in the square

Pope Francis surprised thousands of teenagers in Saint Peter's Square by personally hearing confessions for more than an hour Saturday morning.

The Holy Father celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation with 16 teenage boys and girls gathered in Saint Peter's Square for the Jubilee for Teens.

More than 150 priests were present in the Square to hear confessions.

As part of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, this weekend's Jubilee of Teens, which focuses on the theme: Growing merciful as the Father, has gathered 70,000 teens from Italy and all other parts of the world who have come in pilgrimage to Saint Peter's Square, to enter the Holy Door, to celebrate Confession at various stations around the colonnade.

Later tonight, they will travel To Rome's Olympic Stadium, where they will receive a video message prepared by the Holy Father.

Tomorrow morning, they will return to Saint Peter's Square for a Mass which will be presided over by the Holy Father.

Euthanasia: Make your views known

In view of the draft federal legislation on euthanasia and assisted suicide that was tabled in the House of Commons on April 14, 2016, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) is working in close collaboration with the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience. Bishops across Canada are urging all Catholics and others who share similar principles and values to inform federal and provincial / territorial legislators of their concerns on the sanctity of life and the conscience rights of healthcare workers and institutions when they are faced with a patient's choice for assisted death.

• Resources furnished by the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience
• Statement prepared by the Canadian Organization for Life and Family (COLF)
• Department of Justice's Questions and Answers about Bill C-14

An ecumenical and interfaith news conference was held at the National Press Gallery in Ottawa on April 19, 2016, focusing on the protection of vulnerable persons and the conscience rights of health-care workers and institutions, together with the need for better palliative care. Those participating in the news conference were His Eminence Thomas Cardinal Collins, Archbishop of Toronto (on behalf of the CCCB and the Coalition); Mr. Bruce Clemenger, President, Evangelical Federation of Canada; Imam Sikander Hashmi, Canadian Council of Imams; Commissioner Susan McMillan, Salvation Army; Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka, Congregation Machzikei Hadas, Ottawa; and Dr. Caroline Girouard MD, FRCPC, a hematologist - oncologist at the Hôpital du Sacré-Cœur, Montreal, and Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Montreal.

The Coalition's website enables individuals to indicate their support for the Coalition's proposal, as well as to write to appropriate officials in the federal government and in each province or territory regarding its plans to protect conscience rights. In addition, the Coalition has developed materials in both official languages which outline the proposed approach to respect the conscience rights of health-care workers and institutions. The details have been developed in consultation with Catholic moral theologians, including the Most Reverend William Terrence McGrattan, Bishop of Peterborough, and Dr. Moira McQueen, Executive Director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute, Toronto.

Words for charitable workers

At 12:30pm local time today, in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in the 38th Convention of Caritas from the Dioceses of Italy, which is taking place at the Fraterna Domus (Sacrofano, Rome) from April 18 to 21, focused on the theme: Merciful like the Father ... Be merciful, as your Father is merciful (Lk 6:36).

Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

for the meeting with members of Caritas

from dioceses throughout Italy

Dear brothers and sisters,

I welcome you at the conclusion of the work of your National Convention and I affectionately greet you all.  I cordially greet Cardinal Francesco Montenegro, President of Caritas Italy, and I thank him for the words he has offered me in the name of all who are here.  Your meeting takes place 45 years after the birth of this ecclesial organization, which Blessed Paul VI greatly desired; and he wanted it to have a pastoral and an educative character.  In 1972, on the occasion of the first national meeting with Caritas, he confided this precious mandate to you: Sensitize local Churches and individual members of the faithful to the sense and the duty of charity in ways that are suitable for our times (Insegnamenti X, 1972, 989).  Today, with renewed faithfulness to the gospel and to the mandate you received, you walk in new paths of comparison and verification in order to deepen and to best inform all people about efforts that have been undertaken and that are being developed.

Your teaching mission, which is always directed toward communion in the Church is a service with wide horizons, which requires of you the commitment of concrete love toward every human being, with a preferential option for the poor, in and through whom Jesus himself asks for our help and our closeness (cf Matt 25:35-40).  A love that is expressed in gestures and signs, that represent an important educational task for the Caritas community  - as my predecessor, Benedict XVI pointed out, and then added: My wish for you is that you will discover how to cultivate the best quality of work that is possible.  Make them capable of speaking, concerning yourself above all with the interior motivations that animate them, and the quality of the testimony that is given.  They are works that are hidden in faith.  They are works of the Church, expressions of our commitment to those who make the most effort.  They are pedagogical actions, for they help the poor to grow in their dignity, the Christian communities to walk in the footsteps of Christ, and civil society to consciously assume their obligations (Speech to Caritas Italia on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of their foundation, 24 November 2011; Insegnamenti VII, 2, 2011, 776).

Faced with the challenges and the contradictions of our times, Caritas has the difficult but fundamental task of ensuring that charitable activity becomes a commitment for all of us, that is to say that the entire Christian community becomes the subject of charity.  This therefore, is the principal object of your existence and your activity: to be motivated and animated so that the entire community can grow in charity and be able to find new avenues to bring us closer to those who are poor, so that we will be able to read and to confront the situations that oppress millions of our brothers - in Italy, in Europe and throughout the world.  In this regard, the role that Caritas plays in promoting and training others for the diverse expressions of volunteering is particularly relevant - volunteers who are called to invest time, resources and abilities to involve the whole community in the commitment toward ongoing and growing solidarity.  Equally essential is your task of motivating others to face civic institutions and to encourage adequate legislation in favour of the common good and the care for those who are most in need; a commitment that is seen in the constant offering of opportunities and instruments for the development of adequate knowledge and constructive approaches to situations.

Faced with global challenges that sow fear, guilt, financial speculation - even concerning food -, environmental degradation and war, it is necessary, in addition to your daily work on the ground to continue your efforts to educate others toward the respectful and fraternal encounter between cultures and civilizations, and toward the care for creation for the sake of an integral ecology.  Caritas Italy is also faithful to its statutory mandate.  I encourage you to never grow tired of promoting, with tenacity and patient perseverance, communities that have a passion for dialogue, in order that they might experience conflicts in a gospel fashion, without neglecting them but finding in them more opportunities for growth and for reconciliation: this is the peace that Christ won for us, and which we are now invited to share.  Your strength comes from a desire to trace the causes of poverty, to seek to remove them: the effort to prevent marginalization; to affect the mechanisms that generate injustice; to work against any sinful structure.  For this purpose, it is your task to teach individuals and groups so that they can lead lifestyles that promote awareness, so that all people will truly feel responsible for others, beginning in parishes: this is the precious and extensive work of parish Caritas groups, which continue to spread and multiply throughout the country.

I also want to encourage you to continue in your commitment to remain close to immigrants.  The phenomenon of migration, which today presents critical aspects that need to be managed with organic  and far-reaching policies remains an asset and a resource from various points of view.  Thus your work is precious, as well as an attitude of solidarity, a tendency to favour choices that aim toward integration between strangers and Italian citizens, providing people with basic cultural and professional instruments that are suitable for the complexity of the phenomenon and its particular needs.

The witness of charity becomes authentic and credible when it engages all the moments and the relationships of life, but it is born and most at home in the family, the domestic Church.  The family is Charity by its very makeup because God himself has made it that way: the soul of the family and of her mission is love.  The merciful love that - as I recalled in my post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Amoris laetitia - can accompany, discern and integrate situations of frailty.  The most complete answers to many discomforts can be offered by the very families who, overcoming the temptation to short-sighted and episodic solidarity, at times purely out of necessity, chose to collaborate between themselves and with all other support services in a given territory, to offer resources on a daily basis, and how many beautiful examples we have of this reality in our communities!

With full trust in the presence of the risen Christ and with the courage that comes from the Holy Spirit, may you continue along the way free of fear and discovering perspectives that are ever new in your pastoral commitment, to strengthen styles and motivations, and thus respond even better to the Lord who comes to meet us in the faces and the stories of our brothers and sisters most in need.  They are at the door of our hearts, of our communities, waiting for someone to respond to their discrete and insistent rapping: waiting for charity, the merciful caress of the Father, through the hands of the Church.  A caress that expresses the tenderness and closeness of the Father.  In today's world, which is complex and inter-connected, your mercy must be attentive and informative; concrete and competent, capable of analysis, research, study and reflection; personal but also communitarian; credible by virtue of a coherence that bears witness to the gospel and, at the same time, organized and trained to provide more precise and targeted services; responsible, coordinated, capable of alliances and innovation; delicate and welcoming, full of significant relationships; open to all, delicately inviting the small and the poor of the world to take an active part in the life of the community, which has as its culminating point the celebration of the Sunday Eucharist.  For the poor are the insistent proposition that God presents to our Church in order that she may grow in love and in faithfulness.  Communion with Christ in the Mass finds its coherent expression in the encounter with this same Jesus who is present in the smallest of our brothers.

This is your, our embrace, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary and of Blessed Paul VI.  I bless you and accompany you in prayer.  And you also, I ask you, pray for me!  Thank you.

A message for Passover

The Holy Father, Pope Francis has sent a message to the Chief Rabbi in Rome, Doctor Riccardo di Segni, on the occasion of the celebration of Passover which will begin this coming Friday, April 22 and continue until Saturday, April 30.

Message of His Holiness, Pope Francis

to the Chief Rabbi of Rome

To the Illustrious Doctor Riccardo di Segni
Chief Rabbi of Rome
Jewish Community of Rome - Major Temple
Lungotevere Cenci - 00186 Rome

Remembering with renewed gratitude our meeting on 17th January, when I was cordially welcomed by you and by the Jewish Community of the city in the Great Synagogue, I wish to express my most heartfelt wishes for the feast of Passover. It points out that the Almighty has released his beloved people from slavery and brought them to the Promised Land . May God also accompany you today with the abundance of his Blessings, protect your community and, in His mercy, bestow peace upon everyone. I ask you to pray for me, as I assure you of my prayers for you: may the Almighty allow us to be able to grow more and more in friendship.

Francis

The seed in the earth

Today we gave thanks for the life of a woman who loved deeply, and taught others the meaning of the word love.

Funeral homily for Margery Devost

A church is a place of prayer.  It is also a place where people create community, and a place where people come to look for guidance.  For Margery, her church was all this and more.  In fact, the parish church was more important to her than her place of work … but even her church was outranked in importance by the family home, and that is as it should be. 

Still, Margery would often come to the church when she celebrated the joyous moments in life, like the day she married her beloved Lionel, or the days on which she witnessed the baptism of each of her newborn children, or on occasions such as parish picnics when she would prepare enough pies to feed everyone who was going to be there.

She would also come to the church to look for guidance if she had to deal with a worry or a concern about how to be the best mother she could be, and of course there was no greater pleasure for her than to watch her sons as they donned their freshly starched soutanes and assisted the priest at the altar.

Running a dairy farm, and later a cattle farm was hard work, but even today, people who are closest to the soil can teach the rest of us some very valuable lessons: a work ethic, generosity, the ability to laugh and to enjoy simple things, the value of an honest day’s work.  In the language of the bible, these are the people who know what it’s like to witness a grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies (cf Jn 12:24).  All seeds need to be planted, to give of themselves to the point where it is impossible to distinguish the seed itself because it has become one with the earth around it.  Only then can it give birth to a new plant that sprouts and bears fruit.

Each of you who have known Margery in this life can attest to the fact that everything she did was for the good of another, and the more she did for others, the more she was loved in return.  The same is true for the relationship we have with our heavenly Father: the more we get to know him, the more we learn how to seek his advice, the more we try to do his will, the less we tend to focus on our own desires, and the more we seem to be concerned about the needs of others.  Whether she was serving a customer, or pushing a vacuum, or doing laundry or preparing a special feast for a birthday party, Margery was always doing things for others.

God granted her sixty-five years to spend in the company of her beloved husband.  When people have that much time to spend together, they get to know each other very well, even the point that they could sit in a room together and not have to utter a word.  The Book of Ecclesiastes says that there is a time to speak and a time to keep silence (Ecc 3:7).  Merely being in one another’s presence was enough.  As they sat together on such occasions, I wonder whether Margery ever reflected on the life she had lived: the moments when she had known the joy, the struggles she had endured, the successes she had celebrated, every one of them an occasion for giving thanks to God.

In her latter years, the liberty of youth was constrained as she found herself confined to a wheelchair.  The warmth with which she would have welcomed conversation gave way increasingly to frustration as she lost more and more of her hearing, and then the ravages of dementia wrapped their arms around her.

She who throughout her life had poured herself out in service to others found herself being poured out in a different way.  Where once she would have been the one to take care of others, she now needed to allow others to take care of her, yet she could rightly utter the words that Saint Paul wrote to his apostle Timothy and apply them to herself: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Tim 4:7).

Today, we commend her eternal soul into the loving arms of our Father in heaven.  We give thanks for all that we have known and loved because we have known and loved her, and we ask her to intercede for us now before the throne of God so that when our time comes, we too will be found worthy of the crown of righteousness which the Lord will give … to all who have longed for his appearing (2 Tim 4:8).

General Audience on the sinner's tears

This morning's General Audience began at 10:00am in Saint Peter's Square where the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of pilgrims and the faithful from Italy and from every corner of the world.

In his speech, the Pope continued his mediation on mercy from the perspective of the bible, focusing on the theme: The tears of the sinner obtain forgiveness (Lk 7:37-38, 44, 47-48).

After having summarized his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father addressed particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.  Then, he issued a call for prayers for the Ukrainian people who are being tried by prolonged conflict, inviting support once again for the collection he has proposed, that will take place next Sunday, April 24 throughout all churches in Europe.

The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the Apostolic Blessing.

Catechesis of His Holiness, Pope Francis

for the General Audience

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today, we want to focus on an aspect of mercy that is well represented in the passage from the gospel of Luke that we have just heard.  It presents something that happened to Jesus while he was a guest in the house of one of the Pharisees named Simon, who invited Jesus to his home because he had heard good things about him, and that he was a prophet.  While they were seated for lunch, a woman who was known to everyone in the city as a sinner came in.  Without saying a word, she placed herself at the feet of Jesus and burst into tears; her tears washed over the feet of Jesus and she wiped them away with her hair, then she kissed them and anointed them with some perfumed oil that she had brought with her.

What stands out is a comparison between these two figures: Simon, the zealous servant of the law, and the anonymous sinful woman.  While the first judged others on the basis of their appearance, the second, expressed her sincerity through her gestures.  Even though he had invited Jesus, Simon neither wanted to compromise nor share his life with the Master; the woman, on the contrary, fully confided herself to him with love and veneration.

The Pharisee could not understand how Jesus could allow himself to be contaminated by this sinner.  He thought that if he were really a prophet, he should recognize her and keep her far away from him in order to avoid being infected, as though she were a leper.  This attitude is typical of a certain way of understanding religion; it is motivated by the fact that God and sin are radically opposed to each other.  But the Word of God teaches us to distinguish between the sin and the sinner: with the sin, there is no need to compromise, whereas with sinners - that is to say all of us! - we are like the sick, who need to be cured, and in order for us to be cured, we need the doctor to be close by, to visit us, to touch us.  And of course for someone who is sick to be healed, he must first recognize that he is in need of a doctor!

Between the Pharisee and the sinful woman, Jesus sided with the latter, Jesus, free from any prejudice that might prevent the expression of mercy, leaves her alone.  He, the Holy One of God, allows us to touch him without any fear of being contaminated.  Jesus is free, because he is close to God who is a merciful Father, and this closeness to God, the merciful Father, gives Jesus freedom.  Indeed, entering into a relationship with the sinful woman, Jesus puts an end to the condition of isolation to which the merciless judgement of the Pharisee and of his companions - who had exploited her - had condemned her: Your sins are forgiven (Lk 7:48).  Therefore, the woman can now go in peace.  The Lord has seen the sincerity of her faith and of her conversion; for this reason, in front of everyone, he proclaims: Your faith has saved you (Lk 7:50).  On one hand, we see the hypocrisy of the doctors of the law, on the other hand, we see the sincerity, the humility and the faith of the woman.  We are all sinners, but many times we fall into the temptation of hypocrisy, of believing ourselves to be better than others, and we say: Look at your sin ... Instead, we should look at our own sin, our stumbling, our mistakes and we should look to the Lord.  This is the way of salvation: the relationship between me, a sinner and the Lord.  If I think myself justified, this relationship of salvation cannot exist.

At this point, an even greater sense of wonder overcomes those who are gathered around the table: Who is this, who even forgives sins? (Lk 7:49).  Jesus does not give an explicit response, but the conversion of the sinful woman happens right before their eyes and demonstrates that in him, the power of God's mercy shines, and it is capable of transforming hearts.

The sinful woman teaches us the connection between faith, love and gratitude.  She has been forgiven many sins and therefore she loves much; whereas he of whom little is forgiven loves little (Lk 7:47).  Even Simon himself has to admit that one who as been forgiven more loves more.  God has locked it all up in the same mystery of mercy; and from this love, which always precedes us, we all learn how to love.  As Saint Paul recalls: In Christ, through his blood, we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, according to the abundance of his grace.  He has poured them out in abundance over us (Eph 1:7-8).  In this text, the term grace is particularly synonymous with mercy, and it is called abundance, that is to say beyond our expectations, for it is grace that implements the salvific plan of God for every one of us.

Dear brothers and sisters, we are grateful for the gift of faith, let us thank the Lord for his love that is so great and unmerited!  Let us allow the love of Christ to be poured out in us: this is the love which the disciple draws on and on it we are founded; from this love, everyone can be nourished and fed.  So, in love we recognize that we in turn pour ourselves out for the good of our brothers and sisters, in our homes, in our families and in society as we proclaim the Lord's mercy to all people.



The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages and His Holiness offered greetings to each of the groups of pilgrims in attendance.  To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:

I greet the English-speaking visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the pilgrims from Croatia, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, the Philippines and the United States of America. In the joy of the Risen Lord, I invoke upon you and your families the loving mercy of God our Father. May the Lord bless you all!

Immediately prior to imparting the Apostolic Blessing, the Holy Father made the following appeal:

The people of the Ukraine have been suffering for quite some time as a result of armed conflict which has been forgotten by many people.  As you know, I have invited the Church in Europe to support the initiative which I proposed to assist with emergency humanitarian efforts.  I thank in advance all those who will contribute so generously next Sunday, April 24.