Greetings for the visiting delegation

At 9:30am today (Rome time), the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the delegation sent by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, who are in Rome for the traditional visit on the occasion of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29).

Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

addressed to members of the delegation

Your Eminence,
Dear brothers in Christ,

I offer you a warm welcome and I thank you for being here for the celebration of Saints Peter and Paul, the principal patrons of this Church of Rome. I am most grateful to His Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and to the Holy Synod for having sent you, dear brothers, as their representatives, to share with us the joy of this feast.

Peter and Paul, as disciples and apostles of Jesus Christ, served the Lord in very different ways. Yet in their diversity, both bore witness to the merciful love of God our Father, which each in his own fashion profoundly experienced, even to the sacrifice of his own life. For this reason, from very ancient times the Church in the East and in the West combined in one celebration the commemoration of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul. It is right to celebrate together their self-sacrifice for love of the Lord, for it is at the same time a commemoration of unity and diversity. As you well know, the iconographical tradition represents the two apostles embracing one another, a prophetic sign of the one ecclesial communion in which legitimate differences ought to coexist.

The exchange of delegations between the Church of Rome and the Church of Constantinople on their respective patronal feasts increases our desire for the full restoration of communion between Catholics and Orthodox, of which we already have a foretaste in fraternal encounter, shared prayer and common service to the Gospel. In the first millennium, Christians of East and West shared in the same Eucharistic table, preserving together the same truths of faith while cultivating a variety of theological, spiritual and canonical traditions compatible with the teaching of the apostles and the ecumenical councils. That experience is a necessary point of reference and a source of inspiration for our efforts to restore full communion in our own day, a communion that must not be a bland uniformity.

Your presence affords me the welcome opportunity to recall that this year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the visit of Blessed Paul VI to the Phanar in July 1967, and of the visit of Patriarch Athenagoras, of venerable memory, to Rome in October of that same year. The example of these courageous and farsighted pastors, moved solely by love for Christ and his Church, encourages us to press forward in our journey towards full unity. Fifty years ago, those two visits were events that gave rise to immense joy and enthusiasm among the faithful of the churches of Rome and of Constantinople, and led to the decision to send delegations for the respective patronal feasts, a practice that has continued to the present.

I am deeply grateful to the Lord for continuing to grant me occasions to meet my beloved brother Bartholomew. In particular, I recall with gratitude and thanksgiving our recent meeting in Cairo, where I saw once more the profound convergence in our approach to certain challenges affecting the life of the Church and the world in our time.

Next September, in Leros, Greece, there will be a meeting of the Coordinating Committee of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, co-chaired by Your Eminence and Cardinal Kurt Koch, at the gracious invitation of Metropolitan Paisios. It is my hope that the meeting will take place in a spiritual climate of attentiveness to the Lord’s will and in a clear recognition of the journey already being made together by many Catholic and Orthodox faithful in various parts of the world, and that it will prove most fruitful for the future of ecumenical dialogue.

Your Eminence, dear brothers, the unity of all his disciples was the heartfelt prayer that Jesus Christ offered to the Father on the eve of his passion and death (cf Jn 17:21). The fulfilment of this prayer is entrusted to God, but it also involves our docility and obedience to his will. With trust in the intercession of Saints Peter and Paul, and of Saint Andrew, let us pray for one another and ask the Lord to make us instruments of communion and peace. And I ask you, please, to continue to pray for me.

Celebrating 25 years as a Bishop

At 8:00am this morning, in the Pauline Chapel at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis presided over the concelebration of the Eucharist in company with other Cardinals who are present in Rome.  Together they celebrated the XXV anniversary of Pope Francis' Episcopal Ordination.

Homily of His Holiness, Pope Francis

for the Mass celebrated on the occasion

of his 25th Anniversary of Episcopal Ordination

In the first reading, we heard how the dialogue continues between God and Abraham, that dialogue that began with that Go. Go from your country . . . (Genesis 12:1). And in this continuation of the dialogue, we find three imperatives: Rise! Look! Hope! Three imperatives that mark the way that Abraham must undertake and also the way to do it, the interior attitude: rise, look, hope.

Rise! Rise, walk, do not be still. You have a task, you have a mission and you must carry it out on the way. Do not stay seated: rise; stand up. And Abraham began to walk, always on the way. And the symbol of this is the tent. The Book of Genesis says that Abraham went with the tent, and when he stopped, the tent was there. Abraham never made a house for himself while there was this imperative: Rise! He only built an altar, the only thing, to adore Him who ordered him to rise, to be on the way, with the tent. Rise!

Look! Second imperative. Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward, eastward and westward (Genesis 13:14). Look. Look at the horizon; do not build walls. Look always and go on. And the mysticism [the spirituality] of the horizon is that the more one goes on the horizon is always farther. Push the look, push it forward, walking, but towards the horizon.

Third imperative: Hope! There is that beautiful dialogue: Lord, you have given me so much, but the heir will be this slave – The heir will issue from you, will be born of you. Hope! (cf Genesis 15:3-4). And this, said to a man who could not have heredity, be it because of his age, be it because of his wife’s sterility. But he will be of you. And your heredity – of you – will be as the dust of the earth: if one can count the dust of the earth, you will also be able to count your descendants (Genesis 13:16). And a bit further on: Lift up your eyes, look at the sky: count the stars, if you can. So shall be your descendants. And Abraham believed, and the Lord credited it to him as righteousness (cf Genesis 15:5-6). With Abraham’s faith begins that righteousness that the Apostle Paul would carry forward with the explanation of justification.

Rise! Look! – the horizon, no walls, the horizon – Hope! And hope is without walls, it is pure horizon. However, when Abraham was called he was more or less our age: he was about to retire, to retire to rest . . . He started out at that age. An elderly man, with the weight of old age, that old age that brings pains, sicknesses . . . But you, as if he were a youth, rise, go, go! As if he were a scout: go! Look and hope. And this Word of God is also for us, who are of Abraham’s age . . . more or less – there are some young men here, but the majority of us are of this age; and today the Lord says the same to us: Rise! Look! Hope! He tells us that it is not the hour to close our life, not to close our history, not to abridge our history. The Lord tells us that our history is still open: it is open to the end; it is open with a mission. And with these three imperatives He indicates to us the mission: Rise! Look! Hope!

Someone who does not love us says of us that we are the gerontocracy of the Church. It is a mockery. He doesn’t understand what he says. We are not the aged, we are grandfathers, we are grandfathers. And if we do not feel this, we should ask for the grace to feel it — grandfathers whose grandchildren look at them, grandfathers who must give them a sense of life with our experience, grandfathers not closed in the melancholy of our history but open to give this. And for us, this rise, look, hope, is called to dream. We are grandfathers called to dream and to give our dream to today’s youth: they need it, because they will draw from our dreams the strength to prophesy and to carry their task forward.

There comes to mind that passage of Luke’s Gospel (Lk 2:21-38), Simeon and Anna: two grandparents, but what capacity to dream these two had! And they told this whole dream to Saint Joseph, to Our Lady, to the people . . . And Anna went gossiping here and there and said: It is He! It is He! and she told the dream of her life. And this is what the Lord asks of us today: to be grandparents. To have the vitality to give to young people, because young people expect it from us; not to close ourselves but to give our best: they expect from our experience, from our positive dreams to take forward the prophecy and the work.

I ask the Lord to give all of us this grace, also for those that have not yet become grandfathers: we see the President of the Bishops of Brazil, he is a youth, . . . but he’ll catch up! The grace to be grandparents, the grace to dream, to give this dream to our young people: they need it.



At the end of the Mass, before the blessing, the Holy Father said:

I want to thank you all for the words addressed to me by Cardinal Sodano, who is your Dean, with the new Vice-Dean who is beside him – all good wishes! – I want to thank you for this common prayer on this anniversary, asking forgiveness for my sins and perseverance in faith, in hope, in charity. I thank you so much for this fraternal company and I ask the Lord to bless you and accompany you on the path of service to the Church. Thank you so much.

Encouragement for the fight against tumors

At 12:20pm today (Rome time), in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience the members of the Italian League for the Fight against Tumors (LILT).

Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

addressed to members of the

Italian League for the Fight against Tumors

Dear friends,

I welcome you and thank your President for the courteous words which he has offered in your name.

The commitment of your Institution is a double richness for all of society.  On one hand, with the multiplicity of services, you contribute to the formation of persons and of families in the practice of prevention: that is to say, promoting the mentality that cancer prevention is above all a style of life.  At the same time, together with many and various other Italian organizations, you promote volunteerism, an emblematic expression of the gratitude that should increasingly be a part of daily life.

Your work represents a very useful instrument for awareness and formation.  There is such need for defending the culture of life, a matter of attitudes and behaviour.  A true culture of the people, taken seriously, accessible to all, and not based on commercial interests.  More specifically, families need to be accompanied on a path of prevention; a journey that involves various generations in a common pact; a journey that values the experience of those who have lived, together with their family members, the tiring journey of oncological pathologies.

Equally valuable is the collaboration between volunteer members of the Italian League for the Fight against Tumors with other health professionals both public and private; as well as the help provided to families, especially in the often tiring and uninterrupted continuity of everyday life.

This last aspect constitutes a witness that the ecclesial community is particularly attuned to, for she is called by her vocation and mission to live in service to those who are suffering and to live according to the typical Christian virtues of humility and silence.  In fact, the good is accomplished and most effective when it is done without any thought of reward or appearance, in the concrete everyday situations of life.

 In this service of yours, there is also a continuous call to go out to the peripheries.  In fact, peripheries involve every man and woman who is experiencing a condition of marginalization; periphery is every person constrained to the margins of society and confined to certain relationships, above all when illness breaks a person's normal rhythms, as is the case with oncological pathologies.  These are the peripheries that call into question the responsibilities of every one of us, for every Christian, like any man who is driven by a desire for the truth and for goodness, constitutes a conscious instrument of grace.

Caregiving as it is witnessed in the common sense with many people who are sick is an inestimable wealth for society: it reminds the entire civil and ecclesial community to not be afraid of being close to others, not being afraid of tenderness, not being afraid to take time with others to offer them support and  mutual comfort, opportunities for authentic and informal solidarity.

Finally, I wish to point out that, since health is a primary and fundamental asset for every person, it is desirable that oncological prevention should be accessible to everyone, through collaboration between public and private services, initiatives of civil society and charitable initiatives.  In this way, with your specific contribution, we can attempt to make our societies even more inclusive.

I thank you for this meeting.  I entrust your commitment and the work of the volunteers, as well as all the sick persons you encounter, to the maternal protection of the Most Holy Mother, Salus infirmorum (Health of the sick), and I willingly impart my blessing to all of you.  Thank you.

Concern for a Bishop in China

In April of this year, a Bishop in China (recognized by the Vatican but a member of the underground Church in that country) was forcibly confined by police.

This morning, the Director of the Holy See Press Centre released the following statement concerning His Excellency, Peter Shao Zhumin of Wenzhou:

In response to questions from journalists regarding the case of Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin of Wenzhou (Continental China), I can state the following:

The Holy See is observing with grave concern the personal situation of Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin of Wenzhou, forcibly removed from his episcopal see some time ago.

The diocesan Catholic community and his relatives have no news or reasons for his removal, nor do they know where he is being held. In this respect, the Holy See, profoundly saddened for this and other similar episodes that unfortunately do not facilitate ways of understanding, expresses the hope that Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin may return as soon as possible to the diocese and that he can be assured the possibility of serenely exercising his episcopal ministry. We are all invited to pray for Bishop Shao Zhumin and for the path of the Catholic Church in China.

When one door closes, another opens

As one chapter draws to a close, the next one beckons.  At such moments, we pray for the grace to look backward in gratitude for all that has been and to look forward in hope of what is yet to come.

Have no fear

This weekend is about looking back upon the past five years and recalling the many moments that we have shared.  Each one of them was an opportunity for us to grow in our knowledge and appreciation for one another and an occasion for us to recognize and to thank God for his wisdom and guidance.

Looking backwards is a lot easier (in some respects) than looking forward: there is a certain level of security in reflecting on that which has already been discovered but there is always an element of the unknown when we dare to peer into the window of what is to come.

In my heart, I give thanks today for each one of you, for the gift it has been to share the journey with you, for the privilege of being part of your lives when children (and adults) have been welcomed into the faith, for the gift of sharing in the lives of those who have encountered the merciful heart of Jesus in the Sacrament of his forgiveness and of witnessing the innocent joy on the faces of those who receive Jesus in the Eucharist.  I have shared in the celebrations of those who have exchanged their wedding vows and together, we have prayed in thanksgiving for the witness of God’s gift of mutual love in the lives of those who have celebrated milestone anniversaries.  We have also gathered here to thank God for the gift of faith that we have witnessed in each one of the people we have known and loved in this life, but who now live forever in heaven.  For all these moments of grace, we give thanks to God today.

At the same time, we must look forward and pray for the grace to welcome the gifts that are yet to come.  It is perhaps by no coincidence that today’s scripture passages speak of the fear that we sometimes encounter when we consider what lies ahead.  None of us knows where the road will lead, and the natural human reaction is to fear the unknown.  When Jeremiah considered the task that lay ahead of him, he heard many voices trying to deter him from telling others about God (cf Jer 20:10).  Even the disciples encountered fear when they considered the possibility of having to go out into the world to share the good news that they had come to know.  Then, as now, Jesus encourages us not to be afraid of sharing the joy of our faith with others (Mt 10:26-31).

The days ahead will bring yet another new beginning for all of us.  By next weekend, we will all be meeting people we have not known, and some of us will be in places that are unfamiliar to us, yet this is what God asks of us, so we set out on the next leg of the journey carrying with us the joy of having encountered the Lord in this place and secure in the knowledge that the grace of God will always be with us.  The free gift of God’s grace, made known to us in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ (cf Rom 5:15), abounds even now for the many, for all of us.

Mary, our Heavenly Mother, is always willing to help us to walk in faith.  Let us ask her to help us always to look back and to be thankful for the blessings we have received, and to look forward, not in fear, but in hope.  Hail Mary ...

Angelus with encouragement: Do not be afraid

At noon today in Rome, the Holy Father, Pope Francis appeared at the window of his study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and with pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter's Square.

Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

prior to the recitation of the Angelus

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

In today's gospel (cf Mt 10:26-33), the Lord Jesus, after having called the disciples and sent them out on mission, instructs and prepares them to face the challenges and persecutions that they will encounter.  Going out on mission is not tourism, and Jesus admonishes his followers: You will be persecuted.  In this way, he encourages them: Do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed ... What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight ... And do not be afraid of those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul (Mt 10:26-28).  They can only kill the body, they have no power to kill the soul: do not be afraid of them.  Jesus' commission to go out on mission does not guarantee success for his disciples, nor does he shelter them from failure or from suffering.  They must be aware of the possibility of rejection and persecution.  This might scare them a bit, but it is the truth.

The disciple is called to conform his life to the life of Christ, who was persecuted by men, rejected, abandoned and put to death on a cross.  There is no Christian mission in the name of tranquility!  Difficulties and tribulations are part of the work of evangelization, and we are called to find in them, occasions to verify the authenticity of our faith and our relationship with Jesus.  We must consider these difficulties as the possibility for being even more missionary and for strengthening our trust in God, our Father, who never abandons his children in their time of trial.  In the midst of the difficulties of bearing Christian witness in the world, we are never forgotten; rather, we are always assisted by the Father's thoughtful solicitude.  For this reason, in today's gospel, Jesus reassures his disciples by repeating three times: Do not be afraid!

Even in our times, brothers and sisters, Christians are persecuted.  We pray for our brothers and sisters who are persecuted, and we praise God because, despite this truth, they courageously continue to bear witness and to demonstrate faithfulness to their faith.  Their example helps us not to hesitate, but to take positions in favour of Christ, courageously bearing witness in everyday situations, even in seemingly peaceful contexts.  In effect, one form of proof can also be the absence of hostility and tribulations.  In addition to sheep among wolves, even in our time, the Lord sends us out as sentinels in the midst of people who do not want to be awakened by worldly troubles, who ignore the gospel's word of truth, constructing their own passing truths.  And if we go out into these contexts or live in the midst of them and speak the Word of the gospel, people will be bothered by us and will not accept us.

But in all of this, the Lord continues to say to us, as he said to the disciples of his time: Do not be afraid!  Let us not forget this word: at all times, when we face such tribulations, such persecutions, some situations that cause us to suffer, let us listen to the voice of Jesus in our hearts: Don't be afraid!  Don't be afraid, keep going!  I am with you.  Don't be afraid of those who deride you and mistreat you, and don't be afraid of those who ignore you, or those who honour you to your face but fight against the gospel behind your back.  There are many people who smile at us but who will deny the gospel's truth when we are not looking.  We all know such people.  Jesus does not leave us alone because we are precious to him.  This is the reason why he does not leave us alone: every one of us is precious to Jesus, and He accompanies us.

May the Virgin Mary, a model of humility and courageous faithfulness to the Word of God, help us to understand that in bearing witness to our faith, it is not a matter of counting our successes, but faithfulness, faithfulness to Christ, recognizing in whatever circumstance, even the most troubling ones, the inestimable gift of being his missionary disciples.



At the conclusion of the Angelus, the Holy Father continued:

Dear brothers and sisters,

I express my closeness to the people of the Chinese village of Xinmo who were struck yesterday morning by a mudslide caused by heavy rains.  I am praying for all those who have died and for those who have lost their homes.  May God comfort their families and support all those who are trying to help.  You are very close to me!

Today in Vilnius (Lithuania), the Bishop Teofilo Matulionis is being proclaimed Blessed.  He was killed because of hatred for the faith in 1962, at the age of 90 years.  Let us give praise to God for the witness of this strenuous defender of the faith and of human dignity.  Let us greet him and all Lithuanians with our applause.

I greet all of you, Romans and pilgrims!  In particular, I greet the Major Archbishop, the Bishops, the priests and the faithful of the Greek-Ukrainian Catholic Church, as well as the pilgrims from Bielorussia, who are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the canonization of Saint Josaphat.  I am spiritually united to the Divine Liturgy which will soon be celebrated in the Basilica of Saint Peter, asking the Lord to grant us all the courage of Christian witness and the gift of peace for the beloved country of Ukraine.



I greet the ministers from Komorrow (Poland) and all the Polish faithful, with a special thought also for the pilgrims gathered at the Shrine of the Mother of God in Gietrwałd.  I greet the Chilean faithful from Santiago (Chile), Rancagua and Copiapó, and also those from Montpellier and from Corsica.  I greet the recently-Confirmed children from Tombolo and the pilgrimage from the Order of Minors of Saint Francis of Paola.

I wish you all a good Sunday and, please don't forget to pray for me.  Enjoy your lunch and good bye!

Sisters of Our Lady of Kilimanjaro

The fourth episode in the series Sisterhood will air tomorrow evening on Salt+Light Television.

The Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Kilimanjaro is an Order of Diocesan Rite and was founded in 1931 in the Catholic Diocese of Moshi, Tanzania by Bishop Henry A. Gogarty, C.S.Sp. Bishop Gogarty was inspired to evangelize the people of Kilimanjaro, but he needed support to fulfill his dream. To that end, he started this congregation whose charism focuses on evangelization, and he did so together with Mother Felicitas Tirpitz, C.P.S, the first formator. They began with a small group of twelve candidates who were as mustard seeds ever since.  Today, they are almost eight-hundred professed nuns.

The Congregation was placed under the protection of the Immaculate Conception who is their patroness and model for following Jesus. They honour the Blessed Mother in a special way and are inspired to follow in her footsteps in humility and total surrender to God’s will for his glory and the salvation of all people. This is a response to their charism: Simplicity and readiness to do the will of God for His glory and the salvation of humanity.

Pope's Itinerary for Columbia

Today, the Holy See Press Centre released the details of the planned itinerary for Pope Francis' trip to Columbia which is scheduled to take place from September 6 to 11, 2017.

Itinerary for the Apostolic Voyage of His Holiness, Pope Francis

to Columbia

Wednesday 6 September 2017
ROME-BOGOTÁ

11:00  Departure by air from Rome's Fiumicino airport for Bogotá

16:30  Arrival in the military area (CATAM) of the Bogotá airport
Welcome ceremony

Thursday 7 September 2017
BOGOTÁ

09:00  Encounter with the Authorities  in Plaza de Armas de la Casa de Nariño

09:30  Courtesy visit to the President in the Protocol Hall of the Casa de Nariño

10:20  Visit to the Cathedral

10:50  Blessing of the Faithful from the balcony of the Cardinal’s Palace

11:00  Meeting with Bishops in the Hall of the Cardinal’s Palace

15:00  Meeting with the Directive Committee of CELAM in the Apostolic Nunciature

16:30  Holy Mass in the Simon Bolivar Park

Friday 8 September 2017
BOGOTÁ-VILLAVICENCIO-BOGOTÁ

07:50  Departure from the military area (CATAM) of Bogotá airport for Villavicencio

08:30  Arrival at the Apiay Air Base in Villavicencio

09:30  Holy Mass in the CATAM area

15:40 Great Prayer Meeting for national reconciliation in the Parque Las Malocas

17:20  Pause at the Cross of the Reconciliation in the Parque de los Fundadores

18:00  Departure by air for Bogotá

18:45  Arrival in the military area (CATAM) of Bogotá airport.

Saturday 9 September 2017
BOGOTÁ-MEDELLIN-BOGOTÁ

08:20  Departure by air from the military area (CATAM) of Bogotá airport for Rionegro

09:10  Arrival at the Rionegro air base

09:15  Helicopter transfer to Medellin airport

10:15  Holy Mass at the Enrique Olaya Herrera airport of Medellin

15:00  Meeting in the Hogar San José (Saint John's Home)

16:00  Encounter with Priests, Religious Men and Women, Consecrated Persons, Seminarians and their families in the La Macarena indoor stadium

Helicopter transfer to the Rionegro air base

17:30  Departure by air for Bogotá

18:25  Arrival in the military area (CATAM) of Bogotá airport

Sunday 10 September 2017
BOGOTÁ-CARTAGENA-ROME

08:30 Departure by air for Cartagena

10:00  Arrival at Cartagena airport

10:30  Blessing of the cornerstone of the houses for the homeless and the work of talitha cum in Saint Francis of Assisi Square

12:00  Angelus in front of the Church of Saint Peter Claver

12:15  Visit to the shrine house of Saint Peter Claver

15:45  Helicopter transfer from the naval base to the port area of Contecar

16:30  Holy Mass in the port area of Contecar

18:30  Helicopter transfer to Cartagena airport

18:45  Farewell Ceremony

19:00  Departure by air for Rome Ciampino airport

Monday 11 September 2017
ROME

12:40  Arrival at Rome Ciampino airport

Encouragement for swimmers

At noon today, in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in the 54th Sette Colli Swimming Trophy competition (Rome, 23-25 June 2017).

Address of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

to swimmers competing in the Sette Colli competition

Dear friends of the Italian Swimming Federation
and athletes competing for the Sette Colli Swimming Trophy in Rome.

I thank the president of the Federation for his words introducing our meeting.

These are days of joy and enthusiasm for you and for the sports fans who support you, because sport is also a celebration. A celebration not without content, as it transmits values that are increasingly necessary in a society like ours, which is defined as fluid, without firm points of reference. Your sport is performed in water, but it is not fluid; rather, it is very solid as it requires constant commitment and fortitude.

For this familiarity that you have with water, I like to remember the words of Saint Francis of Assisi: Praised be You, my Lord, through Sister Water, which is very useful and humble and precious and chaste.

Your challenge to yourselves, competing, living in contact with water, can also be a contribution to a different culture of water: water is life, without water life does not exist. And talking about life means talking about God, the origin and wellspring of life, and also our Christian life begins with the sign of water, with Baptism.

The water in which you swim, dive, play, and compete, requires several forms of attention: the value of the body, which must be cared for and not idolized; the need for interiority and the search for meaning in what you do; the strength and courage to resist fatigue; the clear vision of which port to look for in life and how to reach it; and the value of authenticity, which means transparency, clarity, inner cleanliness.

In contact with water, you learn to be repelled by anything that is polluting, in sport and in life.

Dear managers and athletes, I thank you for your visit. I wish you every good to your activity, your families, and your plans. May the Lord bless you and always give you the joy of participating in sport together in a brotherly spirit.

Meeting with the Resurrectionists

At 11:30am this morning, in the Consistory Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in the XXXII General Chapter of the Congregation of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ (Resurrectionists), taking place in Rome from 11 to 25 June 2017 and focused on the theme: Witnesses of the presence of the Risen Lord, from Community to the world.

Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

for the meeting with the Resurrectionist Fathers

Dear brothers,

I am pleased to receive you on the occasion of your General Chapter. I thank the Superior General for his kind words, and through you, I greet all your confrères present in fifteen countries on four continents.

As spiritual sons of Bogdan Jański, the apostle of Polish émigrés in France in the nineteenth century, you were founded in order to testify that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the basis of the Christian life, to proclaim the need for personal resurrection, and to support the community in its mission of service to the Kingdom of God. In close connection to the charism of the Institute, you have chosen as the theme of this Chapter: Witnesses of the Presence of the Risen Lord: from Community to the World. I would like to reflect with you on three particular phrases.

1. Witnesses of the Presence of the Risen Lord. In a word, missionaries, apostles of the Living One. In this regard, I would propose to you as an icon Mary Magdalene, the apostle to the apostles. On Easter morn, having encountered the risen Jesus, she proclaimed him to the other disciples. She sought Jesus dead and found him alive. This is the joyful Good News she brought to the others: Christ is alive and he has the power to conquer death and bestow eternal life.

This brings us to a first reflection. Nostalgia for a past that was rich in vocations and impressive achievements must not prevent you from seeing the life that the Lord is causing to blossom, today too, in your midst. Do not yield to nostalgia, but be men who, moved by faith in the God of history and of life, proclaim the coming of the dawn amid the darkness of the night (cf Is 21:11-12). Men of contemplation, who, with the eyes of the heart fixed on the Lord, can see what others, caught up in the concerns of this world, cannot. Men capable of proclaiming, with the boldness born of the Spirit, that Jesus Christ is alive and is Lord.

A second reflection is this. Mary Magdalene and the other women who went to the tomb that morning (cf Lk 24:1-8) were women on the move: they abandoned their nest and set out; they took a risk. The Spirit is calling you too, Brothers of the Resurrection, to be men who set out, to be an Institute on the move towards every human periphery, wherever the light of the Gospel needs to be brought. The Spirit is calling you to be seekers of the face of God wherever it is to be found: not in the tombs – Why do you look for the living among the dead? (Lk 24:5) – but where it lives: in the community and in mission.

2. From Community to the World. Like the disciples of Emmaus, allow the Risen One to walk at your side, both as individuals and in community, especially along the path of disappointment and abandonment (cf Lk 24:11ff). This encounter will make you run once more, filled with joy and without delay, to the community, and from the community to the entire world, in order to tell others that The Lord is risen indeed! (Lk 24:34).

Those who believe in the Risen One have the courage to go forth and bring to others the Good News of the resurrection, embracing the risks of testimony, even as the Apostles did. How many people are waiting for this joyful proclamation! It is not right for us to deprive them of it. If the resurrection of Christ is our greatest certainty and our most precious treasure, how can we not run to proclaim it to others?

A concrete way of showing this is fraternal life in community. It entails accepting the brothers the Lord has given us: not those whom we choose, but those the Lord has given us. As the Apostle Paul tells us, now that Christ has risen from the dead, we can no longer look at others from a human point of view (cf 2 Cor 5:16). We view them and we accept them as a gift from the Lord. Others are a gift not to be taken for granted or looked down upon, but a gift to be received with respect, because in our brothers, especially if they are weak and frail, Christ comes to meet us.

I urge you to be builders of evangelical communities and not merely their consumers. I ask you to make fraternal life in community your primary form of evangelization. May communities be open to mission and flee every form of self-absorption, which leads to death. Do not let problems – for problems will always be there – overwhelm you. Instead, cultivate the mysticism of encounter and, together with the brothers the Lord has given you, as you dwell in the light of the loving relationship of the three divine Persons, seek ways and means to move forward (cf Apostolic Letter To All Consecrated People, 21 November 2014, I, 2). In a society that tends to reduce everything to flat uniformity, where injustice gives rise to divisions and hostility, in a world torn and aggressive, ensure that the witness of fraternal life and community will never be lacking!

3. Prophets of joy and of Easter hope. The Risen Lord poured out upon his disciples two forms of consolation: interior joy and the light of the paschal mystery. The joy of recognizing the presence of the Risen Jesus draws you into his Person and his will: for this very reason, it leads to mission. The light of the paschal mystery brings new hope, a trustworthy hope, as Pope Benedict XVI has said (Spe Salvi, 2). Risen in order to enable others to rise, set free in order to bring freedom to others, born to new life in order to bring new life to birth in everyone who crosses our path: this is your vocation and mission as Brothers of the Resurrection.

Why do you look for the living among the dead? (Lk 24:5). May these words continually resound in your hearts. They will help you to overcome moments of sadness and will open before you horizons of joy and hope. They will enable you to shatter tombstones, and give you the strength to proclaim the Good News in this culture so often marked by death. If we have the courage to descend to our personal and community tombs, we will see how Jesus can make us rise from them. This will enable us to rediscover the joy, the happiness and the passion of those moments when we first made of our lives a gift to God and others.

Dear brothers, I conclude by repeating something I have often said to consecrated persons, especially during the Year of Consecrated Life: remember the past with gratitude, live the present with passion, and embrace the future with hope. A grateful memory of the past: not archaeology, because charism is always a wellspring of living water, not a bottle of distilled water. A passion for maintaining ever alive and young our first love, who is Jesus. Hope, in the knowledge that Jesus is with us and guides our steps, even as he guided the steps of our founders.

May Mary, who in a singular way experienced and continues to experience the mystery of her Son’s Resurrection, watch over your journey with a Mother’s love. I give all of you my blessing. And I ask you, please, not to forget to pray for me. Thank you!

Be a friend to priests

At 12:30pm local time today, in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in the 75th Convention of Serra International.  The theme of their gathering, which is taking place in Rome from 22 to 25 June 2017 is Always going forward.  The courage of vocation.

Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

addressed to members of Serra International

Your Eminence,
Your Excellency,
Dear brothers and sisters,

I am pleased to greet all of you. From throughout the world you have gathered for this International Convention, which has as its theme: Siempre Adelante. The Courage of Vocation. In the joy of the Gospel, and with that boldness typical of the Christian mission, you have gathered here to discover anew, at the school of the Master, the meaning of every Christian vocation: to offer our lives as a gift, anointing our brothers and sisters with the tenderness and mercy of God. I thank Mister Dante Vannini, the President of Serra International, for his kind words. I would like to reflect on something he said which, I believe, is central to the experience of faith: to be friends.

To be friends to priests, sustaining their vocation and accompanying them in their ministry: with this great gift you enrich the Church! This is, above all else, what a Serran is – a special friend whom the Lord has brought into the lives of seminarians and priests.

Today the word friend has become a bit overused. In our daily lives, we run into various people whom we call friends, but that is just a word we say. Within virtual communications, friend is one of the most frequently found words. Yet we know that superficial knowledge has little to do with that experience of encounter or closeness evoked by the word friend.

When Jesus speaks of his friends, he points to a hard truth: true friendship involves an encounter that draws me so near to the other person that I give something of my very self. Jesus says to his disciples: No longer do I call you servants… but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you (Jn 15:15). He thus establishes a new relationship between man and God, one that transcends the law and is grounded in trust and love. At the same time, Jesus frees friendship from sentimentalism and presents it to us as a responsibility that embraces our entire life: Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (Jn 15:13).

We become friends, then, only if our encounter is more than something outward or formal, and becomes instead a way of sharing in the life of another person, an experience of compassion, a relationship that involves giving ourselves for others.

It is good for us to reflect on what friends do. They stand at our side, gently and tenderly, along our journey; they listen to us closely, and can see beyond mere words; they are merciful when faced with our faults; they are non-judgmental. They are able to walk with us, helping us to feel joy in knowing that we are not alone. They do not always indulge us but, precisely because they love us, they honestly tell us when they disagree. They are there to pick us up whenever we fall.

This is the also the kind of friendship that you seek to offer to priests. The Serra Club helps foster this beautiful vocation of being laity who are friends to priests. Friends who know how to accompany and sustain them in faith, in fidelity to prayer and apostolic commitment. Friends who share the wonder of a vocation, the courage of a definitive decision, the joy and fatigue of ministry. Friends who can offer priests support and regard their generous efforts and human failings with understanding and tender love. In this way, you are to priests like the home of Bethany, where Jesus entrusted his weariness to Martha and Mary, and, thanks to their care, was able to find rest and refreshment.

There is another phrase that describes you. You chose it for the theme of this convention: Siempre adelante! Keep moving forward! Like you, I believe that this is a synonym for the Christian vocation. For the life of every missionary disciple bears the impress of his or her vocation. The voice of the Lord invites his disciples to leave the safety of their homeland and to begin the holy journey towards the promised land of encounter with him and with our brothers and sisters. Vocation is an invitation to go forth from ourselves, to rejoice in our relationship with the Lord, and to journey along the ways that he opens up before us.

Of course, we cannot make progress unless we take a risk. We do not advance toward the goal if, as the Gospel says, we are afraid to lose our lives (cf Mt 16:25-26). No ship would ever set out into the deep if it feared leaving the safety of the harbour. So too, Christians cannot enter into the transforming experience of God’s love unless they are open to new possibilities, and not tied to their own plans and cherished ways of doing things. Pastoral structures can fall into this same temptation, being concerned more with self-preservation than with adapting themselves to the service of the Gospel.

On the other hand, when Christians go about their daily lives without fear, they can discover God’s constant surprises. They need only have the courage to dare, not to let fear stifle their creativity, not to be suspicious of new things, but instead to embrace the challenges which the Spirit sets before them, even when this means changing plans and charting a different course.

We can take as our inspiration Saint Junípero, as he made his way, limping, towards San Diego to plant the cross there! I fear those Christians who do not keep walking, but remain enclosed in their own little niche. It is better to go forward limping, and even at times to fall, while always trusting in the mercy of God, than to be museum Christians who are afraid of change. Even though they received a charism or vocation, instead of serving the eternal newness of the Gospel, they are caught up in defending themselves and their own roles.

A vocation is a calling received from an Other. It entails letting go of ourselves, setting out and placing ourselves at the service of a greater cause. In humility, we become co-workers in the Lord’s vineyard, renouncing every spirit of possession and vainglory. How sad it is to see that at times we, men and women of the Church, do not know how to cede our place. We do not let go of our responsibilities serenely, but find it hard to hand over to others the works that the Lord had entrusted to us!

So you too, siempre adelante! With courage, creativity and boldness. Do not be afraid to renew your structures. Do not rest on your laurels, but be ever ready to try new things. As in the Olympic Games, may you always be ready to pass the torch, above all to future generations, knowing that the flame is lit from on high, precedes our response and exceeds our efforts. Such is the Christian mission: One sows and another reaps (Jn 4:37).

Dear brothers and sisters, I encourage you to be true friends to seminarians and priests, showing your love for them by promoting vocations and through prayer and pastoral cooperation. Please, keep pressing forward! Forward in hope, forward with your mission, ever looking beyond, opening new horizons, making room for the young and preparing the future. The Church and priestly vocations need you. May Mary Most Holy, Mother of the Church and Mother of priests, be with you every step of the way. And I ask you, please, to pray for me!

New Patriarch of Antioch for Greek Melkites

The Synod of Bishops of the Greek-Melkite Church, assembled in Ain Traz (Lebanon) has elected a new Patriarch of Antioch for the Greek-Melkites, His Excellency, Joseph Absi, a member of the Society of Missionaries of Saint Paul.  Until now, His Excellency has held the titular office of Bishop of Tarso for Greek-Melkites and has exercised his ministry at the Patriarchal Curia of Damascus.

His Beatitude has assumed the name of Youssef Absi.

His Beatitude, Youssef Absi

Patriarch of Antioch for Greek-Melkites

His Beatitude, Youssef Absi was born in Damascus on 20 June 1946 and entered the Society of the Missionaries of Saint Paul, where he was ordained a priest on 6 May 1973.

After having concluded his studies in philosophy and theology at the Major Seminary of Saint Paul in Harissa (Lebanon), he later earned a Licence i Philosophy at the Lebanese University, a Licence in Theology at the Saint Paul Institute in Harissa and a Doctorate in Musical Sciences and Byzantine Hymnody at the St. Esprit University in Kaslik (Lebanon).

He served as Professor of Philosophy at the Saint Paul Institute, of Greek and of Music at the St. Esprit University in Kaslik.  He also held the office of Superior General of his Religious Institute.

On 15 July 2001, he was appointed Titular Archbishop of Tarso for Greek-Melkites at the Patriarchal Curia of Damascus.

The Holy Father has accorded Ecclesial Communion in conformity with Canon 76 § 2 of the Code of Canons of the Oriental Churches to His Beatitude, Youssef Absi, canonically elected as Patriarch of Antioch for Greek-Melkites on 21 June 2017 by the Synod of Bishops of the Patriarchal Church.

Following is the text of the Message that the Holy Father, Pope Francis sent to the new Patriarch of Antioch for Greek-Melkites, granting him Ecclesial Communion.

Message of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

addressed to His Beatitude, Youssef

Patriarch of Antioch of the Greek-Melkites

It is with great joy that I received the letter in which you informed me about your election as Patriarch of Antioch for Greek-Melkites by the Synod of Bishops, and asking me for Ecclesiastical Communion.

I wish to congratulate you and to assure you beginning at this moment of my prayer that Christ, the Good Shepherd will support you in the accomplishment of the mission that he entrusts to you for the service that is asked of you.

Your Beatitude's election takes place in a delicate situation for the venerable Greek-Melkite Church and at a time when many of the Christian communities in the Middle East, called to bear witness in a special way to their faith in Christ who died and rose again.  In this particularly difficult time, Pastors are called to demonstrate communion, unity, closeness, solidarity ad transparency before the suffering people of God.

I am certain that Your Beatitude, in a fraternal harmony with all the Synod Fathers, will, in evangelistic wisdom, be not only Pater et Caput (Father and Head) in service to the faithful of the Greek-Melkite Church, but also a faithful and authentic witness of the Risen Christ.

This is the reason why, Your Beatitude, as the successor of Peter, called by Jesus to preserve his Church in unity, with profound joy I grant you the Ecclesiastical Communion you have requested in conformity with the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches.

Confiding you to the maternal protection of the Most Holy Mother of God, I willingly grant to you the Apostolic Blessing which I also extend to the bishops, priests, religious men and women and to all the faithful of the Greek-Melkite Church.

From the Vatican
22 June 2017

Francis
(original text in French)

Netherlands at the Vatican

The Holy Father, Pope Francis received today in audience His Majesty King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, accompanied by his wife, Her Majesty, Queen Máxima. The Sovereigns then met with His Eminence, Pietro Parolin, the Cardinal Secretary of State and with His Excellency, Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States.

The cordial discussions enabled an exchange of appraisals of certain issues of shared interest, such as the protection of the environment and the fight against poverty, as well as on the specific contribution of the Holy See and the Catholic Church in these fields. Particular attention was paid to the phenomenon of migration, underlining the importance of peaceful co-existence between different cultures, and joint commitment to promoting peace and global security, with special reference to various areas of conflict.

Finally, there was a shared reflection on the prospects of the European project.

Witness interview with the Prefect of the CDF

This Sunday, a new Witness interview will premiere on Salt+Light Television.  In the spotlight this time is Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  Cardinal Müller also serves as President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, the International Theological Commission, and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei.

Gerhard Ludwig Müller was born in Mainz-Finthen, Germany in 1947. As the son of labourer, he grew up with his three siblings. Having completed secondary school in Mainz, he studied philosophy and theology in Mainz, Munich and Freiburg im Breisgau. He earned his doctorate in 1977 under Professor Karl Lehmann on the subject of The Church and Sacraments in Religionless Christendom. He was ordained as a priest in Mainz-Finthen in 1978. He was then active in three parishes as chaplain and as religious education teacher at secondary schools in Büdingen and Nidda. He became professor in 1985 in Freiburg im Breisgau, again under Professor Karl Lehmann. One year later, he was appointed Professor of Catholic Dogmatics at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich where he remains honorary professor today. At the age of 38 in 1986 he was one of the youngest professors at Munich’s university.

In 1999 he was appointed as peritus (theological consultant) to the Vatican’s Synod of European Bishops. In 2001 he was active as theological consultant to the International Bishops’ Synod in Rome on the subject of The Bishop as Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for World Hope. Following his appointment by Pope John Paul II as diocesan bishop on October 1, 2002, Professor Gerhard Ludwig Müller was consecrated as Bishop of Regensburg in the Regensburg Cathedral on November 24, 2002. In 2005 he participated in the International Bishops’ Synod on the Eucharist as a Synod Father.


On July 2, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop Müller as the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and simultaneously was named Archbishop. As Prefect of this important Vatican department, he became President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, the International Theological Commission, and the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis on February 22, 2014.

Words for workers who help the Eastern Churches

At noon today, in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience those who are participating in the Meeting of Workers for Help to the Oriental Churches (ROACO) who are gathered in Rome for their 90th Plenary Session.

Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

addressed to those participating in the

Meeting of Workers for Help to the Oriental Churches

Dear friends,

I cordially welcome you and I thank Cardinal Sandri for his greetings in the name of all of you, gathered in Rome for the 90th Plenary Session of the ROACO.  I renew my gratitude for the work and the constant efforts of charity and solidarity guaranteed since 1968 to the Oriental and the Latin Church in the territories entrusted to the care of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches: you support their pastoral, educational an aid activities and meet their urgent needs, also thanks to the work of Pontifical Representatives, who I also have the pleasure of greeting.  Through the Father Custos, I greet and bless the Franciscan Friars of the Custody, who have begun the celebrations of the eighth centenary of their presence in the Holy Land.

The Congregation for Oriental Churches is celebrating its centenary, a long time during which it has assisted the Supreme Pontiffs - a Congregation that has had a Prefect since 1967 - in their solicitude for all the Churches.  There have been decades of dramatic events:  the Oriental Churches have often been hit with terrible waves of persecution and trial both in Easter Europe and in the Middle East.  High numbers of emigrants have weakened the effects of its presence in territories which have flourished for centuries.  Now, thank God, some of them have returned to a state of freedom following painful periods spent under totalitarian regimes, but others - especially in Syria, Iraq and Egypt - are witnessing the suffering of their children due to ongoing wars and the senseless violence perpetrated by fundamental terrorism.

All these happenings have led us through the experience of the Cross of Jesus: caused by the experience of disturbance and suffering, but at the same time a source of salvation.  As I have had occasion to say during the days immediately following my election as Bishop of Rome, If we walk without the Cross, if we build without the Cross and if we confess a Christ without a Cross, we will not be the Lord's disciples (Homily for the Mass celebrated with the Cardinal electors, 14 March 2013)

For this reason, I am pleased that you have been able to reflect, together with some representatives of the Churches, on the important reality of the initial training of seminarians and the continuing education of priests.  In fact, we are aware of the choice for radicalism expressed by many of them and of the heroic witness of dedication they have shown while standing alongside their communities at times so sorely tried.  But we are also aware of the temptations that can be encountered, such as the search for a social status sought after by some consecrated persons in some geographic areas, or as a way of exercising a role driven by criteria of human affirmation and according to plans that are dictated by culture or environment.

The efforts put forward by the Congregation and by other Agencies should continue their support for projects and initiatives that authentically strengthen the Church's presence.  It is essential that you continue to nourish the style of evangelical closeness: in the Bishops, so that they too can live this way in relationship to their priests, so that they in turn may make the Lord's gentle caress known to the faithful entrusted to them.  But maintaining all the grace of restoring the Lord's disciples, beginning with the first ones who are learning to make themselves the least among the least.  Thus the seminarian and the young priest will experience the joy of being collaborators in the salvation that is offered by the Lord, who bends down to us like the Good Samaritan to pour the oil of consolation and the wine of evangelical hope over the wounds of our hearts and our human history.

May we always experience the presence of living stones, closely connected with Christ who is the cornerstone!  The Oriental Churches preserve many venerable memories, churches, monasteries, holy places which should be maintained and kept, thanks to your help, as a means of encouraging pilgrimages to the roots of the faith.  But when it is not possible to repair or to maintain these structures, we must continue to be living temples of the Lord, remembering that the clay of our believing existence was shaped by the hands of the potter, the Lord, who infused his living Spirit into us.  And let us not forget that in the Orient, even in our day, Christians - regardless of whether they are Catholics, Orthodox or Protestant - are shedding their blood as a sign of their witness.  If Oriental believers are forced to emigrate, they can be welcomed in places where they arrive, and thus they can continue to live according to their own ecclesial traditions.  In this way, your work, dear representatives of these Agencies, will be a bridge connecting the West with the East, both in countries of origin and in those from which you are coming.

I entrust you to the intercession of the Ever Blessed Mother of God, and I assure you that I accompany you with my prayer.  I bless you all most willingly, as well as your communities and your service.  And I ask you please to pray for me.  Thank you!

Details about the Pope's hope for South Sudan

At 11:30am today, in the Holy See Press Centre offices, there was a Press Conference held to present a new initiative entitled The Pope for South Sudan.

Present to speak at this Press Conference were:

• Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development;
• Sister Laura Gemignani, a Comboni Sister working at the Nazara Hospital in South Sudan;
• Doctor Michel Roy, Secretary General for Caritas Internationalis; and
• Sister Yudith Pereira-Rico, rjm, Associate Executive Director of Solidarity with Sudan.

Remarks prepared by His Eminence, Peter Turkson

Prefect of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am pleased to speak with you today, to make known today the support of the Holy Father for the people of South Sudan, a project which is called The Pope for South Sudan.  Far away from the spotlights, there is a war that continues to claim victims.  Death and despair are afflicting the people.  The conflict has been ongoing since 2013 and has brought about a serious humanitarian crisis that has affected more than half of the population, about 7.3 million people who suffer from hunger every day.  The lives of thousands of people have been put at risk due to an epidemic of cholera that is without precedent; a million and a half inhabitants have been forced to flee their villages and cities because of the war; in that country, there have been massacres and other atrocities which have been systemic and generalized, perpetrated against civilians based on their ethnic origins; every day, women and children are victims of violence and abuse.

Pope Francis is a universal shepherd who crosses borders.  He feels the pressing need to raise the awareness of the international community concerning this silent drama, by calling for greater and renewed efforts to reach a peaceful solution to this conflict.  On many occasions, the Pope has expressed his desire to travel to South Sudan, in spite of the painful situation in order to encourage, with his presence, the process of peace and in order to give voice to the desperate cry of a Church that wishes to say: enough weapons, enough raping, enough death!  At the end of May 2017, the Vatican spokesman, Greg Burke, announced the news that since the favourable conditions for a Papal visit to South Sudan are not yet in place, this voyage - which was planned for this coming October - was postponed.

Therefore, since the Holy Father is unable to travel to South Sudan in person, he wanted to make the presence and the closeness of the Church to this afflicted population tangible through this initiative known as The Pope for South Sudan.  It is an initiative that means to foster, support and encourage the work of various religious Congregations and international aid organizations who are present in the territory and who tirelessly continue to work at helping the population and promoting the process and development of peace.

I have the honour to inform you that the Pope intends to act on his desire to be close to the people of South Sudan by promoting - through this Dicastery of Integral Human Development, over which I preside - some initiatives in favour of the people in various ways.  Two projects are in the field of health.  They concern two Jesuit hospitals run by the Comboni Missionary Sisters in South Sudan: the hospital in Wau, and the hospital in Nzara.  Another project concerns the field of education: through the association known as Solidarity with South Sudan, we hope to provide scholarships for two-year periods of study at the Solidarity Teacher Training Centre in Yambio for students, to help them obtain diplomas in teaching for primary schools

In the field of agriculture, one of the Jesuit projects being administered by Caritas Internationalis which affects approximately 2,500 families in the Dioceses of Yei, Tombura-Yambio and Torit, involves tools to encourage livestock farming and livestock breeding to further the capacity of local communities to be self-sustaining.

The Holy Father has not forgotten victims who are unheard of or silent, victims of this bloody and inhuman conflict, he does not forget all the people who are forced to flee from their native countries because of abuse, injustice and war - he is remembering them all in his prayer and in his heart.  He truly hopes to be able to pay an official visit to that country in the very near future: the Church does not close herself off from the possibility of hope, even in a territory that is so troubled: instead, she invites all people to make bold choices and to believe that Divine Providence is capable of bringing about that which might seem unreal or impossible in the eyes of the world.



History
27 October 2016:  The Holy Father received in audience the three main Religious leaders of South Sudan, members of the South Sudan Council of Churches (SSCC);

15 March 2017:  The Holy Father, in a meeting with His Excellency, Paul Richard Gallagher, asked him to send a significant gift and to involve Monsignor Dal Toso, Secretary Delegate from the DSSUI in preparing a proposition for a suitable gift.  The Apostolic Nunciature (His Excellency, Charles D. Balvo) was to be kept informed about this proposition.

12 April 2017:  The Holy Father approved three projects:
1) In the field of health, the Comboni Sisters who manage two hospitals: support for medical personnel and for medicine for the hospital in Wau (Diocese of Wau) - 40,000 admissions per day and 6 per day; and support for medical personnel and for medicine for the hospital at Nzara (Diocese of Tombora-Yambio) - 90 patients per day and assistance for children.
2) In the field of work being carried out by Caritas Internationalis and Caritas South-Sudan: the purchase of seeds and agricultural tools in the dioceses of Tombura-Yambio, Yei, Torit, Malakai and Juba for 2,500 families through Diocesan Caritas offices.
3) In the field of education in Solidarity with South Sudan (which involves some religious congregations): instruction and formation of teachers (but also formation for nurses, obstetricians, agricultural workers and community leaders - involving 3,482 students in the Dioceses of Yambio.

General Audience on Saints as witnesses of hope

This morning's General Audience began at 9:10am 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 focused on the theme: Saints, witnesses and companions of hope (cf Heb 11:40-12:2).

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

The General 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!

On the day of our Baptism, people repeated the invocation of the saints.  Many of us were children at that moment, brought to the Church in the arms of our parents.  Shortly before anointing us with the Oil of Catechumens, a symbol of God's strength in the fight against evil, the priest invited the entire assembly to pray for those who were going to be Baptized, invoking the intercession of the saints.  That was the first time in our lives that we were given the company of elder brothers and sisters - the saints - who have also walked in our very footsteps, who have known our own labours and who now live forever in the embrace of God.  The Letter to the Hebrews defines this company that surrounds us with the expression multitude of witnesses (Heb 12:1).  This is what the saints are: a multitude of witnesses.

In our fight against evil, Christians do not despair.  Christianity cultivates an inflexible confidence: it does not believe that negative and disgraceful strengths can prevail.  The final word on the history of mankind is not hatred, not death, not war.  In every moment of life, we are assisted by the hand of God, and by the discrete presence of believers who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith (Roman Canon).  Their existence tells us above all that Christian life is not an unattainable ideal.  Together, we find comfort: we are not alone, the Church is composed of innumerable brothers, sometimes anonymous, who have preceded us, and who - through the action of the Holy Spirit - are involved in the affairs of those who still live here on earth.

Baptism is not the only time when the invocation of the saints marks the journey of a Christian life.  When two people consecrate their lives in the Sacrament of Matrimony, the saints are invoked once again for them, this time as a couple.  And this same invocation is a source of trust for the two young people who are beginning their journey in married life.  Those who truly love possess the desire and the courage to say forever - for always - but they know that they need the grace of Christ and the help of the saints in order to live married life forever.  It is not like some people say: as long as love lasts.  No: forever!  Otherwise, it would be better that you were not to be married.  Either forever or not.  For this reason, in the liturgy of a wedding, we invoke the presence of the saints, and in difficult moments, we must have the courage to raise our eyes to heaven, to think about the many Christians who have experienced the same tribulations and who have maintained the whiteness of their baptismal garments, washing them in the blood of the Lamb (cf Rev 7:14), as the Book of Revelation reminds us.  God never abandons us: whenever we are in need, his angel will return to us and console us.  Angels - at times with human faces and hearts, for the saints of God are always here, hidden in the midst of us.  This is difficult to understand and also to imagine, but the saints are present in our lives.  And when someone calls on a saint, it is precisely because the saints are close to us.

Priests also maintain a memory of the saints being invoked upon them.  This is one of the most touching moments of the liturgy of Ordination.  The candidates lie prostrate on the floor, with their faces toward the floor ... and the entire assembly, led by the Bishop, call upon the intercession of the saints.  A man would be crushed beneath the weight of the the mission entrusted to him, but knowing that all of heaven is behind him, that the grace of God will never fail because Jesus always remains faithful allows him to go forward with serenity and refreshed.  We are not alone.

And what about us?  We are dust aspiring to heaven.  Our strength is weak, but the mystery of grace that is present in our Christian lives is strong.  We are faithful on this earth, who Jesus has loved at every moment of our lives, but we know and we want to hope in the transfiguration of the world, in its definitive fulfilment where finally we will no longer experience tears, malice or suffering.

May the Lord give each of us the hope of being saints.  But someone among you may ask me: Father, can we be saints in everyday life?  Yes, we can.  But does that mean that we have to pray every day?  No, it means that you have to do your duty every day: pray, go to work, care for your children.  But we must do everything with our hearts open to God, so that our work, even our sicknesses and sufferings, even our trials can be open to God.  This is how we can become saints.  May the Lord give us the hope of being saints.  Let us not think that it is a difficult thing, that is is easier to be delinquent than it is to be saints!  We can all be saints because the Lord helps us; He is the one who helps us.

This is the great gift that each one of us can offer to the world.  May the Lord give us the grace to believe deeply in Him, to become images of Christ for our world.  Our history needs mystics: people who reject every domain, who aspire to charity and fraternity.  Men and women who live every day accepting a portion of suffering because they bear a part of the suffering of others.  Without such men and women, the world would have no hope.  This is my wish for all of you - and also for me - that the Lord may grant us the hope of being saints.

Thank you!



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

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, particularly the groups from Scotland, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and the United States of America. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pope speaks with members of the NFL

At 9:00am today, in the Atrium of the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican, the Holy Father, Pope Francis received in audience a delegation from the National Football League (NFL).

Greetings of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

offered to visitors from the NFL

Dear friends,

I am pleased to greet you, the members and directors of the American Pro Football Hall of Fame, and to welcome you to the Vatican. As many of you know, I am an avid follower of football, but where I come from, the game is played very differently!

I thank Mister Anderson for his gracious words of introduction, which stressed the traditional values of sportsmanship that you seek to embody, both on the field and in your own lives, your families and your communities. Our world, and especially our young people, need models, persons who show us how to bring out the best in ourselves, to use our God-given gifts and talents, and, in so doing, to point the way to a better future for our societies.

Teamwork, fair play and the pursuit of personal excellence are the values – in the religious sense, we can say virtues – that have guided your own commitment on the field. Yet these same values are urgently needed off the field, on all levels of our life as a community. They are the values that help build a culture of encounter, in which we anticipate and meet the needs of our brothers and sisters, and combat the exaggerated individualism, indifference and injustice that hold us back from living as one human family. How greatly our world needs this culture of encounter!

Dear friends, I pray that your visit to the Eternal City will increase your gratitude for the many gifts you have received and inspire you to share them ever more generously in shaping a more fraternal world.

Upon you and your families I invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace.

God bless you all!

Pope Francis visits Don Lorenzo Milani

This morning, at approximately 11:10am, the helicopter carrying the Holy Father, Pope Francis, who wished to visit the tomb of Don Lorenzo Milani, landed at the church of Barbiana (Florence).

Upon his arrival, the Pope was welcomed by the Archbishop of Florence, Cardinal Giuseppe Betori; and by the Mayor of Vicchio, Roberto Izzo.  He then immediately travelled to the cemetery to pay a private visit  there and to pray at the tomb of Father Milani.  The Holy Father then went by car to the church and, upon his arrival, in the square outside the church and inside the church, he greeted some of the disciples and former followers of the Florentine priest.

After a moment of personal prayer in the church, Pope Francis visited the locations of the Cathedral Canons and the school.  Then, on the adjacent lawn, introduced by greetings offered by Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, the Holy Father shared the following speech.

Speech of the Holy Father, Pope Francis

at the church of Barbiana

Dear brothers and sisters, I have come to Barbiana to pay homage to the memory of a priest who witnessed how in the gift of self to Christ one finds brothers in need and serves them there, so that their dignity as persons is defended and promoted, with the same gift of self that Jesus showed us to the cross.

I rejoice to meet with those who were at the time pupils of Father Lorenzo Milani, some in the popular school of Saint Donato at Calenzano, others here in the school of Barbiana. You are witnesses of how a priest lived his mission, in places where the Church called him, with full fidelity to the Gospel and, precisely because of this, in full fidelity to each one of you, whom the Lord had entrusted to him. And you are witnesses of his educational passion, of his attempt to reawaken the human dimension in people in order to open them to the divine.

Hence his complete dedication to the school, with an option that he would carry out here in Barbiana in an even more radical way. For Father Lorenzo, the school was not something different from his priest’s mission, but the concrete way in which to carry out that mission, giving it a solid foundation and capable of raising it to Heaven. And when the Bishop’s decision led him from Calenzano to here, among the youngsters of Barbiana, he understood immediately that the Lord had permitted him that detachment to give him new children to help grow and to love. To give back the word to the poor, because without the word there is no dignity and therefore neither freedom nor justice: Father Milani taught this. And it is the word that is able to open the way to full citizenship in the society, through work, and to full membership in the Church, with a conscious faith. This is also true in its own way for our times, in which only by possessing the word is one able to discern among the many and often confusing messages that rain on us, and to give expression to the profound yearnings of one’s heart, as well as to the expectations of justice of so many brothers and sisters that expect justice. Also forming part of that humanization that we claim for every person on this earth, next to bread, house, work and family, is the possession of the word as an instrument of freedom and fraternity.

Here, there are also some youngsters and young people, who represent for us the many youngsters and young people who today are in need of someone to accompany them in the course of their growth. I know that you, like so many others in the world, live in situations of marginalization, and that someone is beside you to not leave you alone and to point out a possible way out, a future that opens more positive horizons. From here I would like to thank all the educators, all those who put themselves at the service of promoting the growth of the new generations, in particular those who find themselves in situations of hardship. Yours is a mission full of obstacles but also joys. But it is, above all, a mission. A mission of love, because one cannot teach without loving and without the awareness that what is given is only a right that is recognized, that of learning. And there are so many things to be taught, but the essential is the growth of a free conscience, capable of confronting reality and being oriented in it by love, by the will to commit oneself to others, by taking charge of their toils and wounds, by fleeing from every form of egoism in order to serve the common good. We find written in a Letter to a Professor: I have learned that others’ problems are the same as mine. It is for politics to sort them all together. To sort them out based on one’s own is avarice. This is an appeal to responsibility. An appeal that concerns you, dear young people, but first of all us, adults, called to live freedom of conscience in an authentic way, seeking what is true, beautiful and good, ready to pay the price that it entails — and all this without compromises.

Last but not least, I turn to you priests whom I wanted beside me here at Barbiana. I see among you elderly priests, who have shared with Father Lorenzo Milani the seminary years or the ministry in nearby places; and also young priests, who represent the future of the Florentine and Italian clergy. Some of you, therefore, are witnesses of the human and priestly adventure of Father Lorenzo, others are heirs. I wish to remind you all that Father Lorenzo Milani’s priestly dimension is at the root of all that has been recalled up to now about him. The priestly dimension is at the root of all that he did. Everything was born out of his being a priest. But, in turn, his being a priest had an even more profound root: his faith. It was a totalizing faith, which became complete self-giving to the Lord and that which is found in the priestly ministry its full and completed form for the converted youth. Noted are the words of his spiritual guide, Father Raffaele Bensi, who attracted in those years the highest figures of Florentine Catholicism, so he was alive around the middle of the last century, under the paternal ministry of the Venerable Cardinal Elia Dalla Costa. Father Bensi said: Come to me to save your soul. From that August day until the autumn, he literally gorged himself with the Gospel and with Christ. That youngster left immediately for the absolute, without middle ways. He wanted to be saved and to save at any cost. Transparent and hard as a diamond, he would soon be wounded and he would wound” (Nazzareno Fabbretti, Interview with Monsignor Raffaele Bensi, Domenica del Corriere, June 27, 1971). To be a priest is the way in which to live the Absolute. His mother Alice said: My son was in search of the Absolute. He found it in religion and in the priestly vocation. Without this thirst for the Absolute we can be good functionaries of the sacred, but we cannot be priests, true priests, capable of becoming servants of Christ in brothers. Dear priests, with God’s grace, let us seek to be men of faith, a forthright faith, not wishy washy, and men of charity, pastoral charity to all those who the Lord entrusts to us as brothers and children. Father Lorenzo teaches us also to love the Church, as he loved her, with the forthrightness and truth that can also create tensions, but never fractures, abandonments. Let us love the Church, dear fellow priests, and make her loved, showing her as a solicitous Mother of all, especially the poor and most frail, be it in their social life be it in their personal and religious life. The Church that Father Milani showed the world has this maternal and solicitous face, inclined to give all the possibility of encountering God and therefore of giving consistency to their own person in all its dignity.

Before concluding, I cannot be silent about the gesture I carried out today, which is intended to be an answer to that request made many times by Father Lorenzo to his Bishop, and what was recognized and understood in his fidelity to the Gospel and in the rectitude of his pastoral action. In a letter to the Bishop, he wrote: If you do not honour me today with a solemn act, all my apostolate will appear as a private event . . .  Beginning with Cardinal Silvano Piovanelli, of blessed memory, all the Archbishops of Florence have given this recognition to Father Lorenzo on different occasions. Today the Bishop of Rome does so. This does not cancel the bitterness that accompanied Father Milani’s life – it is not about cancelling or denying history but, rather of understanding the circumstances and humanity in play –, however, it says that the Church recognizes in that life an exemplary way of serving the Gospel, the poor and the Church herself. With my presence at Barbiana, with the prayer at the tomb of Father Lorenzo Milani I believe that I have an answer to all that his mother hoped for: I would like above all that the priest be known, that the truth be known, that honour be rendered to the Church also for what he was in the Church and that the Church render honour to him . . . that Church, which made him suffer so much but which gave him the priesthood, and the strength of that faith that remains, for me, the most profound mystery of my son . . . If we do not really understood the kind of priest that Father Lorenzo was, it will be difficult to understand all the rest about him. For instance, his profound balance between hardness and charity (Nazareno Fabbretti, Meeting with the Mother of the Parish Priest of Barbiana Three Years after His Death, Il Resto del Carlino, Bologna, July 8, 1970. The priest transparent and hard as a diamond continues to transmit God’s light on the path of the Church. Take the torch and carry it forward! Thank you.

Hail Mary ...

(Blessing)

Thank you very much once again! Pray for me - don’t forget - that I may also follow the example of this good priest! Thank you for your presence. May the Lord bless you. And you priests, all of you — because there is no retirement in the priesthood! – all of you go forward and with courage! Thank you.



At the conclusion of the encounter, the Pope went to the esplanade below the church and, at 12:30pm, departed from Barbiana for the return flight to Rome.  His expected arrival at the Vatican heliport was scheduled for 1:15pm local time.