APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THAILAND AND JAPAN

(19-26 NOVEMBER 2019)

Live video transmission
(Vatican Media)

• Multimedia
• Missal for the Apostolic Journey
• Video message of the Holy Father on the occasion of his Apostolic Journey to Thailand
• Video message of the Holy Father on the occasion of his Apostolic Journey to Japan
• Photo Gallery

   

Tuesday, 19 November 2019

ROME-BANGKOK

Wednesday, 20 November 2019

ROMA-BANGKOK

Thursday, 21 November 2019

BANGKOK

Friday, 22 November 2019

BANGKOK

Saturday, 23 November 2019

BANGKOK-TOKYO

Sunday, 24 November 2019

TOKYO-NAGASAKI-HIROSHIMA-TOKYO

Monday, 25 November 2019

TOKYO

Tuesday, 26 November 2019

TOKYO-ROME

Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 2 October 2019

Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 28 October 2019

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO MEMBERS OF THE PARISH EVANGELIZATION CELL SYSTEM

Paul VI Audience Hall
Monday, 18 November 2019

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

I am glad that you have chosen to return to Rome to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of your history. I thank Don Piergiorgio Perini for the tireless work of evangelisation he has carried out over these decades. Now you are able to admire some of the fruits that the Lord has granted you with His grace. And thank you for the witness of 65 years of the priesthood and 90 of age! I asked him for the recipe: what does he do to be like this?

The Lord Jesus left His disciples a challenging teaching when He told them: “I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (Jn 15:16).Go, bear fruit and abide. This is the call to which one cannot escape when meeting the Lord and being conquered by his Gospel. Of course, Jesus did not tell His disciples that they would see the fruits of their work. He only assured them that the fruits would abide. This promise also applies to us. It is human to think that after so much work we also want to see the fruit of our effort; yet, the Gospel pushes us in a different direction.

Jesus did not give make it easy for His disciples when He spoke of the radicality with which it was necessary to follow Him. He told them: “When you have done all you were commanded, say: ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty” (Lc 17: 10). Yet, if our efforts to proclaim the Gospel are total and we are always ready, then the perspective changes. Another parable reminds us of this, when Jesus says: “Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them” (Lk 12: 37). Let us touch with our own hands to feel how great and infinite God’s love for us is! If we are faithful and vigilant, then He also allows us to see the fruits of our work.

Your history as Parish Cells of Evangelisation can easily be inscribed in this context. The fruitfulness of your commitment is reflected in the multiplication of Cells, which are now present in many parts of the world. Never tire of following the paths that the Spirit of the Risen Lord sets before you. Do not be afraid of the new, and do not let your pace be slowed by the difficulties that are inevitable on the path of evangelisation. When you are a missionary disciple, then enthusiasm must never be lacking! In your effort, support the prayer addressed to the Holy Spirit Who is the Comforter; in weakness, feel the strength of the community that never allows you to be left to your own devices.

Our parishes are invaded by many initiatives, where often, however, the life of the people is not deeply affected. You too are entrusted with the task of reviving, especially in this period, the life of our parish communities. This will be possible to the extent that they become, above all, a place to listen to the Word of God and celebrate the mystery of His death and resurrection. Only from here can one expect the work of evangelisation to become effective and fecund, capable of bearing fruit. Unfortunately, for many reasons, many have moved away from our parishes. It is urgent, therefore, that we recover the need for encounter so as to reach the people where they live and work. If we have encountered Christ in our lives, then we cannot keep Him only for ourselves. It is crucial that we share this experience with others as well; this is the main road of evangelisation.

Do not forget: every time you meet someone, you play out a real story that can change a person’s life. And this is not proselytizing, it is bearing witness. It has always been like that. When Jesus saw Peter, Andrew, James and John working along the shore of the lake, He looked at them and transformed their lives (cf. Lk 5: 1-11). The same thing is repeated in our day, when the encounter is the fruit of Christian love; it changes life because it reaches people’s hearts and touches them deeply. May your proclamation become a witness of mercy, with which to make it clear that every attention given to one of the least is given to Jesus Himself, Who identifies with them (cf. Mt 25: 40).

I accompany you with my blessing and ask you please not to forget to pray for me. Thank you.

*Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 18 November 2019

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO PARTICIPANTS AT THE MEETING PROMOTED BY THE
"INSTITUTO PARA EL DIALOGO INTERRELIGIOSO DE LA ARGENTINA" (IDI)

Ladies and gentlemen:

I am happy to welcome all of you who are taking part in the meeting focusing on the document: “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together”, signed in Abu Dhabi last 4 February.

I thank all the organizers of this meeting, promoted by His Excellency Mr. Rogelio Pfirter, ambassador of the Argentine Republic to the Holy See, under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, and in collaboration with the Institute of Interreligious Dialogue of Buenos Aires.

I am pleased to note that this document, which is universal in nature, is also being disseminated in the Americas. I am convinced that the particularity and sensitivity of different countries and continents can truly contribute to a detailed reading of this Document and to a greater and more effective understanding of the message it conveys.

As I said during the World Conference of Human Fraternity: “There is no alternative: we will either build the future together or there will not be a future. Religions, in particular, cannot renounce the urgent task of building bridges between peoples and cultures. The time has come when religions should more actively exert themselves, with courage and audacity, and without pretence, to help the human family deepen the capacity for reconciliation, the vision of hope and the concrete paths of peace” (4 February 2019). Our religious traditions are a necessary source of inspiration to foster a culture of encounter. It is fundamental for there to be interreligious cooperation, based on the promotion of sincere and respectful dialogue that goes towards unity without confusion, maintaining identities. But a unity that transcends the mere political pact. Once, at the beginning of last February, a very wise man, a very wise European politician, told me about this document: “it goes beyond the methodology of the pact to maintain balance and peace, which is very good, but these documents go further”. And he gave me this example: “let us think of the end of the Second World War, let us think of Yalta; in Yalta a balance was struck in order to break the impasse, a balance that was weak but possible. The cake was shared, and a period of peace was maintained, but these documents, this attitude that goes towards dialogue among the transcendent, creates fraternity, surpasses pacts, surpasses the political; it is political in that it is human, but it surpasses this, it transcends this, it makes it nobler”. This is the way. And meanwhile, yes, at the political level, doing what can be done, because it is also important.

The world observes us, believers, to see what our attitude is to the common home and to human rights; it also asks us to collaborate among ourselves and with men and women of good will who do not profess any religion, so that we may give effective responses to the many scourges in our world, such as war, hunger, the poverty that afflicts millions of people, the environmental crisis, violence, corruption and moral degeneration, the crisis of the family and of the economy and, above all, the lack of hope.

The intention of the Document is to adopt: the culture of dialogue as a way; common collaboration as conduct; mutual knowledge as a method and criterion. From now on it can be affirmed that religions are not a closed system that cannot be changed, but with their own identity. And this is the key: identity cannot be negotiated, because if you negotiate identity there is no dialogue, there is submission. With their own identity, they are in motion.

Fraternity is a complex human reality, to which one must pay attention and treat with delicacy. When God asks us: “Where is your brother?”, the first question on fraternity that is in the Bible, “Where is your brother?” no one may answer: “I do not know” (cf. Gen 4: 9). Then different questions arise: How can we take care of each other in the one human family in which we are all brothers? How can we nurture a fraternity so that it is not theoretical and so that it translates into fraternity? How can we make the inclusion of the other prevail over exclusion in the name of belonging? What can we do so that religions are channels of fraternity instead of barriers of division? A little history should alarm us: religious wars, Christians, let us think of the last thirty years, even if we just think of Saint Bartholomew’s Eve. If one does not feel a little alarmed inside, one should wonder why.

It is important to demonstrate that we believers are a factor of peace for human societies, and that we will thus respond to those who unjustly accuse religions of fomenting hatred and being the cause of violence. In today’s precarious world, dialogue among religions is not a sign of weakness. It finds its own raison d'être in God’s dialogue with humanity. It is about changing historical attitudes. A scene from The Song of Roland comes to me as a symbol, when the Christians defeat the Muslims and put them all in line in front of the baptismal font, and one with a sword. And Muslims had to choose between baptism or the sword. That is what we Christians did. It was a mentality that today we cannot accept, nor understand, nor can it work anymore. Beware of the fundamentalist groups: everyone has his own. In Argentina too there is a little fundamentalist corner. And let us try, with fraternity, to go forward. Fundamentalism is a scourge and all religions have some kind of fundamentalist first cousin there, which forms a group.

I hope that this Message of Fraternity will be received by the international community, for the good of the whole human family, which must move from simple tolerance to true coexistence and peaceful coexistence. Keep up the good work.

And please do not forget to pray for me, as I need it. Thank you.

*Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 18 November 2019

VIDEO MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
ON THE OCCASION OF HIS UPCOMING APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO JAPAN

[23 - 26 NOVEMBER 2019]

[Multimedia]

Dear friends:

As I prepare for my imminent visit to Japan, I would like to address these words of friendship to you.

The theme chosen for my visit is “Protect All Life”. This strong instinct, which resonates in our hearts, to defend the worth and dignity of every human person, takes on particular importance in the face of the threats to peaceful coexistence that the world faces today, especially in armed conflicts. Your country is well aware of the suffering caused by war. Together with you, I pray that the destructive power of nuclear weapons will never be unleashed again in human history. Using nuclear weapons is immoral.

You also know how the importance of the culture of dialogue, of fraternity, especially among the different religious traditions, which can help to overcome division, promote respect for human dignity and advance the integral development of all peoples. I trust that my visit will encourage you on the path of mutual respect and encounter, which leads to a peace that is secure and lasts in time, which does not go back. Peace is beautiful, and when it is real, it does not retreat: it is defended tooth and nail.

I will also have the opportunity to appreciate the great natural beauty that characterizes your nation, and express the shared desire to promote and strengthen the protection of that life which includes the earth, our common home, and which your culture symbolizes so beautifully with cherry blossoms.

I know that there are many people who are working to prepare for the visit. I sincerely thank you for these efforts. And in the hope that the days we will spend together will be rich in grace and joy, I assure you of my prayer of solidarity for each and every one of you. And I ask you, please, to also pray for me. Thank you very much.

*Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 18 November 2019

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
FOR THE OPENING OF THE SECOND REGULAR SESSION
OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME

To Mr David M. Beasley
Executive Director of the World Food Programme

On the occasion of the opening of the second regular session of the World Food Programme, I am pleased to greet Mr David M. Beasley, Executive Director, and Ambassador Hisham Mohamed Badr, current President of the Executive Board, together with all members and participants.

At the beginning of this new session, you are seeking to formulate practical initiatives aimed at making more effective the fight against hunger in the world. Your many projects include promoting decisive measures to eliminate food waste, a phenomenon that increasingly weighs on our conscience.

In many places, our brothers and sisters do not have access to sufficient and healthy food, while in others, food is discarded and squandered. This is what my predecessor Saint John Paul II called the paradox of abundance, which continues to be an obstacle to resolving the problem of feeding humanity (cf. Address at the Opening of the International Conference on Nutrition, 5 December 1992).

This paradox involves mechanisms of superficiality, negligence and selfishness that underlie the culture of waste. Unless we recognize this dynamic and seek to contain it, it will be difficult to honour the commitments of the Paris Agreement on climate change and realize the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. Accomplishing this objective is the responsibility not only of international organizations and governments, but of everyone. Families, schools, and the communications media have an important task in educating and raising awareness in this regard. No one can be considered exempt from the need to combat this culture that oppresses so many people, especially the poor and vulnerable in society.

The World Food Programme contributes to this cause by recently launching its global campaign Stop the Waste, highlighting the fact that food waste damages the lives of many individuals and prevents the progress of peoples. If we wish to build a future where no one is left behind, we must create a present that radically rejects the squandering of food. Together, without losing time, by pooling resources and ideas, we can introduce a lifestyle that gives food the importance it deserves. This new lifestyle consists in properly valuing what mother Earth gives us, and will have an impact on humanity as a whole.

I assure you, in addition, that the Catholic Church is working to foster solidarity among all people and desires to cooperate with the World Food Programme by reaffirming that each human being has a right to healthy and sustainable nutrition.

I would like this campaign to help assist all those who in our time suffer the effects of poverty, and to demonstrate that whenever the human person is put at the centre of political and economic decisions, peace and stability are consolidated between nations, even as mutual understanding, the foundation of authentic human progress, everywhere increases.

May your commitment and dedication awaken in all people of good will the desire to build a new and better world under the banner of fraternity, justice and peace. May God bless all those who walk on this path.

From the Vatican, 18 November 2019

Franciscus

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

The Gospel of this penultimate Sunday of the liturgical year (cf. Lk 21: 5-19) presents to us Jesus’ discourse on the end of time. Jesus pronounces it in front of the temple of Jerusalem, a building admired by the people for its grandeur and splendour. But He prophesied that of all the beauty of the temple, that grandeur, “there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (v. 6). The destruction of the temple foretold by Jesus is not so much a figure of the end of history as of the purpose of history. Indeed, before the listeners who want to know how and when these signs will happen, Jesus responds with the typical apocalyptic language of the Bible.

He uses two apparently contrasting images: the first is a series of frightening events: catastrophes, wars, famines, riots and persecutions (vv. 9-12); the other is reassuring: “Not a hair of your head will perish” (v. 18). First of all there is a realistic look at history, marked by calamities and also by violence, by traumas that wound creation, our common home, and also the human family that lives there, and the Christian community itself. Think of the many wars today, so many calamities today. The second image – enclosed in Jesus’ reassurance – tells us the attitude that the Christian must adopt in living this story, characterized by violence and adversity.

And what is the attitude of the Christian? It is the attitude of hope in God, which allows us not to be overwhelmed by tragic events. Indeed, they are an “opportunity to bear witness“ (v. 13). Christ’s disciples cannot remain slaves to fears and anxieties; instead they are called to live history, to stem the destructive force of evil, with the certainty that the Lord’s action of goodness is always accompanied by His providential and reassuring tenderness. This is the eloquent sign that the Kingdom of God is coming to us, that is, that the realization of the world as God wants it is approaching. It is He, the Lord, Who guides our existence and knows the ultimate purpose of things and events.

The Lord calls us to collaborate in the construction of history, becoming, together with Him, peacemakers and witnesses of hope in a future of salvation and resurrection. Faith makes us walk with Jesus on the very often tortuous roads of this world, in the certainty that the power of His Spirit will bend the forces of evil, subjecting them to the power of God’s love. Love is superior, love is more powerful, because it is God: God is love. The Christian martyrs are an example to us – our martyrs, of our times too, who are more numerous than those of the beginnings – who, despite persecution, are men and women of peace. They give us an inheritance to preserve and imitate: the Gospel of love and mercy. This is the most precious treasure that has been given to us and the most effective witness that we can give to our contemporaries, responding to hatred with love, to offence with forgiveness. Even in our daily lives: when we receive an offence, we feel pain; but we must forgive from the heart. When we feel we are hated, we must pray with love for the person who hates us. May the Virgin Mary, through her maternal intercession, sustain our daily journey of faith, following the Lord Who guides history.

After the Angelus, the Pope continued:

Dear brothers and sisters,

Yesterday in Riobamba, Ecuador, Blessed Father Emilio Moscoso was proclaimed a martyr priest. A member of the Society of Jesus, he was killed in 1897 in a climate of persecution against the Catholic Church. May his example of a humble religious, an apostle of prayer and an educator of youth, sustain our journey of faith and Christian witness. Let us applaud the new Blessed!

Today we celebrate World Day of the Poor, which has as its theme the words of the psalm “The hope of the poor shall not perish forever” (Ps 9: 18). My thoughts go to all those in dioceses and parishes around the world who have promoted initiatives of solidarity to provide tangible hope to the poorest people. I thank the doctors and nurses who have served in these days in the Medical Presidium here in St. Peter’s Square. I thank you for the many initiatives in support of the people who suffer, the needy, and this must bears witness to the attention that must never be lacking towards our brothers and sisters. Recently, a few minutes ago, I saw some statistics on poverty. They make us suffer! Society’s indifference to the poor... Let us pray. [Silent prayer]

I greet all pilgrims who have come from Italy and from different countries. In particular, I greet the Ecuadorian Community of Rome, which celebrates the Virgen del Quinche; the faithful of New Jersey and those of Toledo; the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians from various countries and the Italian Association of Marian Shrine Accompaniers in the World. I greet the groups from Porto d’Ascoli and Angri; and the participants in the pilgrimage of the Lasallian Schools of Turin and Vercelli for the conclusion of the third centenary of the death of Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle.

On Tuesday I will begin my journey to Thailand and Japan: I ask you for a prayer for this Apostolic Journey. And I wish you all a happy Sunday. And please do not forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch and arrivederci!

WORLD DAY OF THE POOR

HOLY MASS

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

Vatican Basilica
33th Sunday of Ordinary Time, 17 November 2019

[Multimedia]

In today’s Gospel, Jesus astounds both his contemporaries and us. While every else was praising the magnificent temple in Jerusalem, Jesus tells them that “one stone” will not be left “upon another” (Lk 21:6). Why does he speak these words about so sacred an institution, which was not merely a building but a unique religious symbol, a house for God and for the believing people? Why does he prophesy that the firm certitude of the people of God would collapse? Why, ultimately, does the Lord let our certitudes collapse, when our world has fewer and fewer of them?

Let us look for answers in the words of Jesus. He tells us that almost everything will pass away. Almost everything, but not everything. On this next to last Sunday in Ordinary Time, he explains that what will collapse and pass away are the penultimate things, not the ultimate ones: the temple, not God; kingdoms and human events, not humanity itself. The penultimate things, which often appear definitive but are not, pass away. They are majestic realities like our temples, and terrifying ones like earthquakes; they are signs in heaven and wars on the earth (cf. vv. 10-11). To us, these are front page news, but the Lord puts them on the second page. That which will never pass away remains on the front page: the living God, infinitely greater than any temple we build for him, and the human person, our neighbour, who is worth more than all the news reports of the world. So, to help us realize what really counts in life, Jesus warns us about two temptations.

The first is the temptation of haste, of the right now. For Jesus, we must not follow those who tell us that the end is coming immediately, that “the time is at hand” (v. 8). That is, we must not follow the alarmists who fuel fear of others and of the future, for fear paralyzes the heart and mind. Yet how often do we let ourselves be seduced by a frantic desire to know everything right now, by the itch of curiosity, by the latest sensational or scandalous news, by lurid stories, by the screaming those who shout loudest and angriest, by those who tell us it is “now or never”. This haste, this everything right now, does not come from God. If we get worked up about the right now, we forget what remains forever: we follow the passing clouds and lose sight of the sky. Drawn by the latest outcry, we no longer find time for God or for our brother and sister living next door. How true this is today! In the frenzy of running, of achieving everything right now, anyone left behind is viewed as a nuisance. And considered disposable. How many elderly, unborn, disabled and poor persons are considered useless. We go our way in haste, without worrying that gaps are increasing, that the greed of a few is adding to the poverty of many others.

As an antidote to haste, Jesus today proposes to each of us perseverance. “By your endurance you will gain your lives” (v. 19). Perseverance entails moving forward each day with our eyes fixed on what does not pass away: the Lord and our neighbour. This is why perseverance is the gift of God that preserves all his other gifts (cf. SAINT AUGUSTINE, De Dono Perseverantiae, 2.4). Let us ask that each of us, and all of us as Church, may persevere in the good and not lose sight of what really counts.

There is a second illusion that Jesus wants to spare us. He says: “Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ Do not go after them” (v. 8). It is the temptation of self-centredness. Christians, since we do not seek the right now but the forever, are not concerned with the me but with the you. Christians, that is, do not follow the siren song of their whims, but rather the call of love, the voice of Jesus. How is Jesus’ voice discerned? “Many will come in my name”, the Lord says, but they are not to be followed: wearing the label “Christian” or “Catholic” is not enough to belong to Jesus. We need to speak the same language as Jesus: that of love, the language of the you. Those who speak the language of Jesus are not the ones who say I, but rather the ones who step out of themselves. And yet how often, even when we do good, does the hypocrisy of the self take over? I do good so that I can be considered good; I give in order to receive in turn; I offer help so that I can win the friendship of some important person. That is how the language of the self speaks. The word of God, however, spurs us to a “genuine love” (Rom 12:9), to give to those who cannot repay us (cf. Lk 14:14), to serve others without seeking anything in return (cf. Lk 6:35). So let us ask ourselves: “Do I help someone who has nothing to give me in return? Do I, a Christian, have at least one poor person as a friend”?

The poor are valuable in the eyes of God because they do not speak the language of the self: they do not support themselves on their own, by their own strength; they need someone to take them by the hand. The poor remind us how we should live the Gospel: like beggars reaching out to God. The presence of the poor makes us breathe the fresh air of the Gospel, where the poor in spirit are blessed (cf. Mt 5:3). Instead of feeling annoyed when they knock on our doors, let us welcome their cry for help as a summons to go out of ourselves, to welcome them with God’s own loving gaze. How beautiful it would be if the poor could occupy in our hearts the place they have in the heart of God! Standing with the poor, serving the poor, we see things as Jesus does; we see what remains and what passes away.

Let us return to our initial questions. Amid so many penultimate and passing realities, the Lord wants to remind us today of what is ultimate, what will remain forever. It is love, for “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8). The poor person who begs for my love leads me straight to God. The poor facilitate our access to heaven: this is why the sense of the faith of God’s People has viewed them as the gatekeepers of heaven. Even now, they are our treasure, the treasure of the Church. For the poor reveal to us the riches that never grow old, that unite heaven and earth, the riches for which life is truly worth living: the riches of love.

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO PARTICIPANTS AT THE WORLD CONGRESS
OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PENAL LAW

Sala Regia
Friday, 15 November 2019

Distinguished ladies and gentlemen,

First of all I want to apologize for the delay. I am sorry, it was a scheduling error, two major appointments together. What happened was the opposite of what happened in the Book of Joshua_ there, the sun went backwards; here the clock, the sun, went ahead. Excuse me, and thank you for your patience.

I greet you cordially and, as in our previous meeting, I express my gratitude for your service to society and for your contribution to the development of justice respecting the dignity and rights of human beings. I would like to share with you some reflections on issues that also concern the Church in her mission of evangelization and service to justice and peace. I thank Professor Paola Severino for her words.

On the current state of criminal law

For several decades now, criminal law has incorporated – mainly from contributions from other disciplines – different areas of knowledge about certain problems related to the exercise of the sanctioning function. I referred to some of them in the previous meeting[1].

However, despite this epistemological openness, criminal law has not been able to protect itself from the threats that, in our day, impinge on democracies and the full force of the rule of law. On the other hand, criminal law often neglects the data relating to reality and in this way assumes the physiognomy of merely speculative knowledge.

Let us look at two important aspects of the current context.

1. The idolatry of the market. The fragile, vulnerable person finds himself “defenceless before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule” (Evangelii gaudium, 56; see Laudato si', 56). Today, some economic sectors exercise more power than the States themselves (cf. Laudato si', 196): a reality that is even more evident in times of globalization of speculative capital. The principle of profit maximization, isolated from all other considerations, leads to a model of exclusion – automatic, no? – that violently inflicts on those who suffer its social and economic costs in the present, while condemning future generations to pay for its environmental costs.

The first thing jurists should ask themselves today is what they can do with their own knowledge to counter this phenomenon, which puts democratic institutions and the very development of humanity at risk. In real terms, the present challenge for every criminal lawyer is to contain punitive irrationality, which manifests itself, among other things, in mass imprisonment, crowding and torture in prisons, arbitrariness and abuse of the security forces, expansion of the scope of the penalty, the criminalisation of social protest, the abuse of preventive imprisonment and the repudiation of the most basic criminal and procedural guarantees.

2. The risks of criminal idealism. One of the major challenges of criminal science today is to overcome the idealistic vision that equates “should be” with reality. The imposition of a sanction cannot be morally justified by the alleged ability to strengthen confidence in the normative system and in the expectation that each individual will assume a role in society and behave according to what is expected of him.

Criminal law, also in its normativist currents, cannot be separated from the elementary data of reality, such as those which manifest the real functionality of the sanction. Every reduction of this reality, far from being a technical virtue, contributes to hiding the most authoritarian features of the exercise of power.

The social damage of economic crimes

One of the frequent omissions of criminal law, a consequence of selectivity in sanctioning, is the scarce attention – or lack therefore – to crimes committed by the most powerful, in particular the macro-delinquency of corporations. I am not exaggerating with these words. I appreciate that your Congress has taken this issue into consideration.

Global financial capital is the source of serious crimes not only against property but also against people and the environment. It is organized crime that is responsible, among other things, for the over-indebtedness of states and the plundering of the natural resources of our planet.

Criminal law must not remain unconnected with conduct in which, by taking advantage of asymmetrical situations, a dominant position is exploited to the detriment of collective welfare. This is the case, for example, when the prices of public debt securities are artificially reduced through speculation, without worrying that this will affect or aggravate the economic situation of entire nations (see Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones. Considerations for an ethical discernment regarding some aspects of the current economic-financial system, 17).

These are crimes that have the seriousness of crimes against humanity, when they lead to hunger, misery, forced migration and death from avoidable diseases, environmental disaster and ethnocide of indigenous peoples.

Protection of the environment by criminal law

It is true that the criminal response comes when the crime has been committed, that it does not repair damage or prevent repetition, and that it rarely has dissuasive effects. It is also true that, because of its structural selectivity, the sanctioning function usually affects the most vulnerable sectors. I am also aware that there is a punitivist current that claims to resolve the most varied social problems through the penal system.

Instead, an elementary sense of justice would require that certain conduct, for which corporations are usually responsible, does not go unpunished. In particular, all those that can be considered as “ecocide”: the massive contamination of air, land and water resources, the large-scale destruction of flora and fauna, and any action capable of producing an ecological disaster or destroying an ecosystem. We must introduce – we are thinking about it – in the Catechism of the Catholic Church the sin against ecology, the ecological sin against the common home, because it is a duty.

In this sense, recently, the Synod Fathers for the Pan-Amazon Region proposed to define ecological sin as action or omission against God, against one’s neighbour, the community and the environment. It is a sin against future generations and is manifested in acts and habits of pollution and destruction of the harmony of the environment, in transgressions against the principles of interdependence and in the breaking of networks of solidarity between creatures (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 340-344)[2].

As has been pointed out in your work, “ecocide” is to be understood as the loss, damage or destruction of the ecosystems of a given territory, so that its utilization by inhabitants has been or can be seen as severely compromised. This is a fifth category of crimes against peace, which should be recognised as such by the international community.

On this occasion, and through you, I would like to appeal to all the leaders and actors in this area to contribute their efforts to ensuring adequate legal protection for our common home.

On some abuses of the power to sanction

To conclude this part, I would like to refer to some of the problems that have worsened in the years since our previous meeting.

1. Misuse of pre-trial detention. I was concerned about the arbitrary use of pre-trial detention. Unfortunately, the situation has worsened in several countries and regions, where the number of unconvicted prisoners already far exceeds 50% of the prison population. This phenomenon contributes to the deterioration of detention conditions and is the cause of the illicit use of police and military forces for these purposes[3]. Preventive detention, when imposed without exceptional circumstances or for an excessive period of time, violates the principle that every defendant must be treated as innocent until a final sentence establishes his guilt.

2. The involuntary incentive to violence. Reforms of the institution of legitimate defence have been implemented in several countries and this has been claimed to justify crimes committed by agents of the security forces as legitimate forms of the fulfilment of duty[4]. It is important for the legal community to defend traditional criteria to prevent punitive demagogy from degenerating into incentives to violence or a disproportionate use of force. They are inadmissible conduct in the rule of law and, in general, accompany racist prejudices and contempt for marginalized social groups.

3. The culture of rejection and hatred. The throwaway culture, combined with other psycho-social phenomena widespread in welfare societies, is showing a serious tendency to degenerate into a culture of hatred. There are unfortunately not isolated episodes, certainly in need of a complex analysis, in which the social hardships of both young people and adults find their way. It is no coincidence that sometimes emblems and actions typical of Nazism reappear. I confess to you that when I hear some speeches, some head of the order or of the government, Hitler’s speeches in 1934 or 1936. Today. They are actions typical [of Nazism] which, with its persecution of Jews, gypsies, people of homosexual orientation, is the quintessential negative model of the culture of rejection and hatred. This is what was done in that time and today these things are being reborn. It is necessary to be vigilant, both in the civil and ecclesial spheres, in order to avoid any possible compromise which is assumed to be involuntary – with these degenerations.

4. Lawfare. It periodically emerges that false accusations are made against political leaders, made jointly by the media, opponents and colonized judicial bodies[5]. In this way, with the instruments of lawfare, the ever necessary fight against corruption is exploited in order to combat unwelcome governments, reduce social rights[6] and promote a sense of anti-politics which benefits those who aspire to exercise authoritarian power.

And at the same time, it is curious that the use of tax havens, a device that serves to hide all sorts of crimes, is not perceived as a fact of corruption and organized crime[7]. Similarly, widespread phenomena of appropriation of public funds go unnoticed or are minimized as if they were mere conflicts of interest. I invite everyone to reflect on this.

Call for Responsibility

I would like to extend an invitation to all of you who are experts in criminal law and who, in your various roles, are called upon to perform functions relating to the application of criminal law. Bearing in mind that the fundamental aim of criminal law is to protect the most important legal assets for the community, every task and every role in this area always has a public resonance, an impact on the community. This requires and implies at the same time a more serious responsibility for the operator of justice, at whatever level he is, from the judge, to the clerk of the court, to the agent of the public forces.

Every person called upon to perform a task in this area must constantly bear in mind, on the one hand, respect for the law, the provisions of which must be observed with care and a duty of conscience appropriate to the seriousness of the consequences. On the other hand, it must be remembered that the law alone can never achieve the aims of the penal function; it must also be applied for the effective benefit of the persons concerned. This adaptation of the law to the concrete situation of cases and persons is an exercise that is as essential as it is difficult. In order for the criminal judicial function not to become a cynical and impersonal mechanism, we need people who are balanced and prepared, but above all passionate – passionate – about justice, aware of the serious duty and the great responsibility they bear. Only in this way will the law – all law, not only criminal law – not be an end in itself, but at the service of the persons involved, whether they be the perpetrators of the crimes or those who have been offended. At the same time, by acting as an instrument of substantive justice and not just formal justice, criminal law will be able to perform the task of real and effective protection of the essential legal goods of the community.

And we must head, certainly, towards restorative criminal justice

In every crime there is an injured party and there are two damaged links: that of the person responsible for the crime with his victim, and that of the perpetrator with society. I have pointed out that there is an asymmetry between punishment and crime[8] and that one evil does not justify the imposition of another evil as a response. It is a question of bringing justice to the victim, not of executing the aggressor.

In the Christian view of the world, the model of justice finds perfect incarnation in the life of Jesus, who, after having been treated with contempt and even violence that led to His death, in the final instance, in His resurrection, brings a message of peace, forgiveness and reconciliation. These are values that are difficult to achieve but necessary for the good life of all. And I return to Professor Severino’s words on prisons: prisons must always have a window, that is, a horizon. Looking towards reintegration and one must, in this sense, think deeply about the way of managing a prison, the way of sowing the hope of reintegration and thinking if the penalty is capable of leading this person … and also the accompaniment of this. And seriously rethinking the life sentence.

Our societies are called to advance towards a model of justice based on dialogue, on encounter, so that wherever possible, the bonds damaged by the crime may be restored and the damage repaired. I do not think it is a utopia, but it is certainly a great challenge. A challenge that we must all face if we are to deal with the problems of our civil coexistence in a rational, peaceful and democratic manner.

Dear friends, I thank you for three things: for your dual patience in waiting an hour and the other patience of listening to this long address, and again for this meeting. Thank you. And I assure you that I will continue to be close to you in this arduous work at the service of man in the field of justice. There is no doubt that, for those of you who are called to live the Christian vocation of your own Baptism, this is a privileged field of evangelical inspiration of the world. All of you, even those among you who are not Christians, need the help of God, the source of all reason and justice. I invoke for each of you, through the intercession of the Virgin Mother, the light and power of the Holy Spirit. I bless you from the heart and, please, I ask you to pray for me. Thank you.

_______________________

[1] Cfr Address to the delegation of the International Association of Penal Law, 23 October 2014.

[2] Cfr Final Document of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region: New Paths for the Church and for Integral Ecology, 26 October 2019, 82.

[3] Cfr Address to the delegation of the International Association of Penal Law, 23 October 2014.

[4] Cfr Address of the Holy Father Francis to the Delegation of the International Commission against the Death Penalty, 17 December 2018.

[5] Cfr Homily, 17 May 2018. L’Osservatore Romano (17 May 2018).

[6]Cfr Address to the Summit of Pan-American Leaders on Social Rights and Franciscan Doctrine, 4 June 2019.

[7] Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones. Considerations for an ethical discernment regarding some aspects of the current economic and financial system, 30.

[8] Cfr Letter to participants in the 19th International Congress of the International Association of Penal Law and the Third Congress of the Latin American Association for Penal Law and Criminology, 30 May 2014.

*Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 15 November 2019

VIDEO MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
ON THE OCCASION OF HIS UPCOMING APOSTOLIC JOURNEY TO THAILAND

[19 - 23 NOVEMBER 2019]

[Multimedia]

Dear friends,

On the eve of my apostolic trip to Thailand, I greet you with affection.

I know that, as a multi-ethnic and diverse nation with rich spiritual and cultural traditions, Thailand has worked hard to promote harmony and peaceful coexistence, not only among its people but throughout the Southeast Asian region. In this world that too often experiences discord, division and exclusion, this commitment to forge a unity respectful of the dignity of every man, woman and child can serve as an inspiration for the efforts that people of goodwill around the world are making to promote a great, true development of our human family in solidarity, in justice and in living in peace.

During my trip, I will have the opportunity to meet with the Catholic community in Thailand to encourage them in their faith and in the contribution they make to the whole of society. They are Thais and must work for their homeland. I also hope to strengthen the bonds of friendship that we share with many Buddhist brothers and sisters who bear eloquent witness to the values of tolerance and harmony that are so characteristic of your people. I hope that my visit will help to highlight the importance of interreligious dialogue, mutual understanding and fraternal cooperation, especially in the service of the poor, those most in need, and in the service of peace: at this time we must work so much for peace.

I know that many people are working to prepare for my visit, and I thank you with all my heart. In these days, I remember you all, dear friends, in my prayers. I pray for you, for your families, for your country; and please pray for me as well. Thank you very much.

*Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 15 November 2019

VIDEO MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE “FRATELLO GATHERING 2019”

[Multimedia]

Dear pilgrims of Fratello:

Welcome to Lourdes for this Third World Day of the Poor.

It is Mary who welcomes us here. She is the Immaculate One!

She appeared to Bernadette, a poor little shepherdess. It is good news for all of us who recognize ourselves as poor and little: God has “hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to little children”.

God wants to reveal His sweet presence to each one of us.

Brothers and sisters, I need you all, each one of you.

You, who are at the foot of the cross, perhaps alone, isolated, abandoned, homeless, expelled from your family or from your country, victims of alcohol, prostitution, sickness. Be aware that God loves you. God listens to your prayer in particular.

The world suffers and your prayer moves the Lord.

You who are small, you are poor, you are fragile, you are the treasure of the Church.

You are in the heart of the Pope, in the heart of Mary, in the heart of God.

Every time your life has been trampled on, mistreated, offended, it is Jesus Who has been trampled on, mistreated, offended.

Today, the Pope wants to console you, to surround you (give you) consolation and to tell you that he loves you and invites you to go to the source.

1. Pray: And to do this, receive Mary within you, hold on to her. She is the door of the Church which is wide open. She welcomed the Holy Spirit completely. She gives us Jesus and leads us to Him.

Pray, implore God, ask Him to come into our lives:

“Lord, come and love me so that I may love as you do”.

Ask God to spread His sweet compassion over the world.

Live the sacraments: The Church proposes that you live the sacraments; they are gifts.

Do you want to be Christians? Ask for baptism.

I invite you to discover in a special way confession, the sacrament of forgiveness in which God shows us His tenderness and liberates us.

Live the Eucharist to welcome God Himself into your body and soul.

He gives you faith and joy.

Live also the sacrament of the anointing of the sick, so precious for those of you who are wounded in your body or mind. Live charity yourselves: there is no one so poor as to have nothing to give. Let us ask the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Love, to inspire in us acts of charity, of benevolence towards those around us.

Love saves the world and God wishes to pass through us to save the world.

Finally, when you return, do not leave as you have come.

Return with Hope, be witnesses of God’s love around you.

Tell the world what your treasure is: “Jesus”. Go with Mary, that she may make you apostles of God’s tenderness. The Pope loves you and trusts in you.

I bless each and every one of you, may the Holy Spirit renew you all through His LOVE! Amen

*Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 15 November 2019

VIDEO MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE POPULATION OF SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LA HABANA, CUBA,
FOR THE CELEBRATIONS FOR THE FIFTH CENTENARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE CITY

[Multimedia]

Dear brothers and sisters of Havana:

I am happy to be able to join, through this video message, in the celebration of the fifth centenary of the foundation of your city of San Cristóbal de La Habana.

Interwoven in the five hundred years of history of that beloved people, there are the many lives given by others, many dreams, efforts, and shared sacrifices to build the present and the future of the children of Cuba.

On this occasion, I would like to highlight three historical aspects that were present from the beginning, and still continue to be pillars for this time. And these are faith, charity and hope.

Faith is at the roots of the city. And roots sustain life that is gestating, roots nourish, roots help to grow. Do not forget those roots, the testimony of faith of your ancestors. The founding act of the city of Havana was the celebration of Holy Mass. Therein lies the centrality of Christian life: in the Eucharist, the sacrament that brings us Christians together as a people in the presence of the Lord Who speaks to us, nourishes us, and sends us to be witnesses in the midst of the world. Witnesses of the Gospel.

The Lord Jesus invites us to be witnesses of faith and also witnesses of charity and love. Charity is another aspect that distinguishes the Cuban people. You have learned it from Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who from the beginning was present among you in the invocation of the Virgin of Charity of Copper. The charity that Mary teaches us is to give love, and to give it with tenderness, with dedication, and to give love in daily life. Where? Well, in the family, among neighbours, at work, with everyone and always. It doesn’t matter if one thinks in one way or another. Let there be love, let there be harmony. And this is how the unity of the Cuban people is founded. Harmony among you. Each one of you. May Mary teach us to live this charity, which is not only to give “something” to others, but above all to “give” ourselves. To live the “social friendship” that helps a people to move forward.

And finally, another pillar is hope: may the Jubilee you celebrate be a reason to renew hope. Just as Saint Christopher lifted up and carried his brothers on his shoulders, so also among yourselves, please support each other, help each other, encourage each other and continue without faltering, always with your eyes on the goal. There will always be difficulties in life, peoples have difficulties, but this unity of a people, united in charity, in the hope of moving forward, helps the people to grow strong.

I ask the Lord that these pillars of faith and charity and hope that sustain them, as well as the joy that characterizes them, may be renewed and increased in this time of Jubilee grace.

May Jesus bless you, may He bless all the Cuban people, whom I remember with affection when I visited you: What a great people! And may Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre take care of you. And please, do not forget to pray for me. Thank you very much.

*Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 15 November 2019

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY OF THE SOPHIA UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF LOPPIANO

Consistory Hall
Thursday, 14 November 2019

Dear brothers and sisters,

I welcome you and thank Msgr. Coda for his kind words. I greet with affection Fr. Juan Carlos Scannone, who has received a doctorate honoris causa in Culture of Unity. Congratulations, dear Father! I also greet the professors from various countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, who alongside Fr. Scannone form part of the working group on “Trinitarian anthropology” at the CELAM, in collaboration with “Sophia”, as well as the teachers who constitute the initial core of the local seat of “Sophia” in Latin America and the Caribbean.

I am happy with the journey you have made in these twelve years of life. Keep going! The journey has just begun.

In the path that lies before you there is no lack of points of reference: in particular, the inspiration of the charism of unity from which your University was born and, at the same time, the outlines I gave in the Apostolic Constitution Veritatis gaudium, which your academic and formative project aims to reflect. Your participation in the preparation and development of the Global Educational Pact also heads in this direction.

I will leave you three words, urging you to continue your journey with joy, vision and determination: wisdom, covenant, and outgoing.

Wisdom: your University is called “Sophia” because its objective is first of all to communicate and learn wisdom in order to infuse all its sciences. Wisdom is in fact the Light of the countenance of God that illuminates the face of man: his mystery, his questions, his sufferings, his destiny. For us Christians, wisdom is Jesus crucified and risen, but His light illuminates all men (cf. Jn 1: 9): all religions, all cultures, all authentic exercises of humanity. For this reason, we are called to walk together with each other – as you do – to build a true and harmonious culture of encounter.

Hence the second word: covenant. The covenant is the keystone of creation and history, as the Word of God teaches us: the covenant between God and men, the covenant between generations, the covenant between peoples and cultures, the covenant – in school – between teachers and learners, the covenant between man, animals, plants and even the inanimate realities that make our common home beautiful and colourful. Everything is related to everything else, everything is created to be a living icon of God Who is the Trinity of Love! Today, therefore, it is a priority task to educate people to live out this covenant, or rather to be this living covenant in all these dimensions: to open the paths of the future to a new civilization that embraces humanity and the cosmos in universal brotherhood.

And finally the third word: outgoing. Without going out one does not encounter wisdom, without going out the covenant does not spread to all, in ever wider and more inclusive concentric circles. Only by going out does one encounter the real face of our brothers and sisters, with their wounds and aspirations, their questions and their gifts. We must learn with the heart, mind and hands to “come out of the camp” – as the Letter to the Hebrews says (13: 13) – so as to meet, right out there, the face of God in the face of every brother and sister.

Dear friends, I thank you once again for your commitment. I entrust you to the Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom and Mother of Unity, and from my heart I bless you.

*Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 14 November 2019

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE CONGRESS ON
"CHILD DIGNITY IN THE DIGITAL WORLD"

Clementine Hall
Thursday, 14 November 2019

Your Majesty,
Your Highness,
Distinguished Authorities and Religious Leaders,
Your Eminences, Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I thank His Highness Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Father Federico Lombardi for their kind words of greeting and introduction to this meeting.

The issues that you will be addressing in these days are of immense importance. Many of you have been dealing with these issues with determination and farsightedness for some time. When, two years ago, I received the participants in the Congress on “Child Dignity in the Digital World”, I urged you to join forces in order to address more effectively the protection of the dignity of children in the digital world. In effect, this complex problem calls for cooperation on the part of all: experts in science and technology, entrepreneurs and economists, legislators, politicians and security agents, educators and psychologists, and, not least, religious and moral leaders (cf. Address to the Participants in the Congress on “Child Dignity in the Digital World”, 6 October 2017). I am pleased to know that you have continued on this path, along with new initiatives, including particularly the interreligious conference held in Abu Dhabi a year ago, taken up by our meeting today.

In recent decades, from painful and tragic experience, the Catholic Church has become profoundly aware of the gravity and effects of the sexual abuse of minors, the suffering it causes, and the urgent need to heal wounds, combat such crimes and establish effective means of prevention. For this reason, the Church senses the duty to approach these issues with a long-term vision.

We are in fact confronting critical challenges that threaten the future of the human family due to the astonishing development of technology in the information and communications media. Doubtless, the development of new technologies in the digital world provides great opportunities for minors, for their education and for their personal growth. It allows for a wider sharing of knowledge, promotes economic development and offers new possibilities in a number of areas, including that of health care. New technologies open up new horizons, particularly for those minors living in situations of poverty and distant from the urban centres of more industrialized countries.

The challenge before us, then, is to ensure that minors have safe access to these technologies, while at the same time ensuring their healthy and serene development and protecting them from unacceptable criminal violence or grave harm to the integrity of their body and spirit.

Tragically, the use of digital technology to organize, commission and engage in child abuse at a distance, cutting across national borders, is outstripping the efforts and resources of the institutions and security agencies charged with combating such abuse; as a result, it becomes quite difficult to fight these horrific crimes effectively. The spread of images of abuse or the exploitation of minors is increasing exponentially, involving ever more serious and violent forms of abuse and ever younger children.

The dramatic growth of pornography in the digital world is, in itself, most serious, the fruit of a general loss of the sense of human dignity; frequently it is linked to human trafficking. What makes this phenomenon even more disturbing is the fact that this material is widely accessible even to minors via the internet, especially through mobile devices. The majority of scientific studies have highlighted the profound impact of pornography on the thinking and behaviour of children. It will surely have lifelong effects on them, in the form of grave addiction, violent behaviour and deeply troubled emotional and sexual relationships.

A greater awareness of the enormity and gravity of these phenomena is urgently required. Indeed, one feature of today’s technological development is that it is always one step ahead of us, for frequently we first see its most attractive and positive aspects (which indeed are many), but only realize their negative effects once they are widespread and very hard to remedy. I would say this to you, who are scholars and researchers: you find yourselves before an essential challenge! Since these problems are vast and complex, a clear understanding of their nature and extent is needed. We cannot deceive ourselves into thinking that we can address these issues on the basis of shallow and superficial knowledge. Laying the foundations for greater protection of the dignity of minors should be one of the most noble aims of your scientific research.

The role of the communications media is no less important. There is a need to increase throughout society an awareness of the risks inherent in an unchecked development of technology. We have not yet understood – and often do not want to understand – the gravity of this issue in its totality and future consequences. This cannot come about without close cooperation with the media, that is, with you, communications workers, for you have the ability to influence society and public opinion.

You have rightly chosen as the theme of this meeting: “From Concept to Action”. Indeed, it is not enough to understand; we must act. The moral condemnation of the harm inflicted on minors through the misuse of new digital technologies needs urgently to be translated into concrete initiatives. The longer we wait, the more entrenched and insurmountable this evil becomes. This concern has been raised by those who – like many of you – have generously dedicated their lives to this battle in direct contact with this crime and its victims, whether as educators, law enforcement and security agents, and many others.

A crucial aspect of the problem concerns the tension – which ultimately becomes a conflict – between the idea of the digital world as a realm of unlimited freedom of expression and communication, and the need for a responsible use of technologies and consequently a recognition of their limits.

The protection of complete freedom of expression is linked to the protection of privacy through increasingly sophisticated forms of message encryption, which would make any control extremely difficult, if not impossible. A fitting balance must be found between the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression and the interests of society, so as to ensure that digital media are not used to perpetrate criminal activities against minors. For the sake of advancing the development of the internet and its many benefits, companies that provide services have long considered themselves mere suppliers of technological platforms, neither legally nor morally responsible for the way they are used. The potential of digital technology is enormous, yet the possible negative impact of its abuse in the area of human trafficking, the planning of terrorist activities, the spread of hatred and extremism, the manipulation of information and – we must emphasize – in the area of child abuse, is equally significant. Public opinion and lawmakers are finally coming to realize this. How can we help them take suitable measures to prevent abuse? Allow me to emphasize two things.

First. Freedom and the protection of privacy are valuable goods that need to be balanced with the common good of society. Authorities must be able to act effectively, using appropriate legislative and executive measures that fully respect the rule of law and due process, in order to counter criminal activities that harm the life and dignity of minors.

Second. Large companies are key players in the astonishing development of the digital world; they easily cut across national borders, are at the cutting edge of technological advances, and have accumulated enormous profits. It is now clear that they cannot consider themselves completely unaccountable vis-à-vis the services they provide for their customers. So I make an urgent appeal to them to assume their responsibility towards minors, their integrity and their future. It will not be possible to guarantee the safety of minors in the digital world without the full involvement of companies in this sector and without a full awareness of the moral and social repercussions of their management and functioning. Such companies are bound not only to respect the law, but also to be concerned with the direction taken by the technological and social developments which they produce and promote, since such developments are far ahead of the laws that would seek to regulate them.

Although these challenges are difficult to meet, there are a number of areas of action. I will limit myself to a few examples.

Initiatives such as the “Safety by Design” legislation sponsored by a Commission of the Australian government are valuable because they ensure that the digital industry is proactive and consistent in its approach to customer safety starting from the development of online products and services. In this way, responsibility for overall safety is explicitly acknowledged to be incumbent upon not only the consumer, but also on those who manufacture, develop and supply such products and services.

In some countries too, legislators are committed to ensuring that companies providing internet navigation on mobile devices are obliged to verify the age of their customers, in order to prevent minors from accessing pornographic sites. This is to be encouraged. Indeed, minors today for the most part use cell phones, and the filters used for PCs have remained ineffective. Reliable studies tell us that the average age of first access to pornography is currently eleven, and tends to keep lowering. This is in no way acceptable.

While parents are primarily responsible for raising their children, it must be acknowledged that, for all their good will, it is increasingly difficult for them to control their children’s use of electronic devices. Therefore, the industry must cooperate with parents in their educational responsibilities. Consequently, the identification of a user’s age should not be considered a violation of the right to privacy, but an essential requirement for the effective protection of minors.

The possibilities offered by technology are constantly growing. Today there is much talk about the applications of artificial intelligence. The identification and elimination of illegal and harmful images from circulation on the net by the use of increasingly refined algorithms, represents a very significant area of research. Scientists and those working in the digital world should continue to promote such research, engaging in a noble competition to combat the wrongful use of newly available technology. I therefore appeal to computer engineers to feel personally responsible for building the future. It is their task to undertake, with our support, an ethical development of algorithms, and in this way, to help create a new ethics for our time.

The development of technology and the digital world involve huge economic interests. The influence that these interests tend to have on the conduct of companies cannot be overlooked. There is a need to ensure that investors and managers remain accountable, so that the good of minors and society is not sacrificed to profit. We have seen how society has grown more sensitive to the areas of environmental care and respect for the dignity of labour. A similar concern for the effective protection of minors and the fight against pornography should become increasingly felt in the finance and the economy of the digital world. The safe and sound growth of our young is a noble goal worth pursuing; it has far greater value than mere economic profit gained at the risk of harming young people.

In a world like ours, where boundaries between countries are continually blurred by the developments in digital technology, our efforts should emerge as a global movement associated with the deepest commitment of the human family and international institutions to protecting the dignity of minors and every human person. This demanding task sets before us new and challenging questions. How can we defend the dignity of persons, including minors, in this digital age, when the life and identity of an individual is inextricably linked to his or her online data, which new forms of power are constantly seeking to possess? How can we formulate shared principles and demands in the globalized digital world? These are challenging questions that call us to cooperate with all those working with patience and intelligence for this goal at the level of international relations and regulations.

Man’s creativity and intelligence are astonishing, but they must be positively directed to the integral good of the person from birth and throughout life. Every educator and every parent is well aware of this, and needs to be helped and supported in this task by the shared commitment born of a new alliance between all institutions and centres of education.

A contribution to this can be made not only by sound ethical reasoning, but also by a religious vision and inspiration, which has universal scope because it places respect for human dignity within the framework of the grandeur and sanctity of God, the Creator and Saviour. In this regard, I am gratified by the presence of a number of distinguished religious leaders who, in a spirit of solidarity and cooperation, have readily taken up the task of addressing these problems. I greet them with great respect and I thank them most heartily. We ought to be as one in the effort to protect minors in the digital world, now and in the future. For in this way, we bear witness to God’s love for each person, beginning with the smallest and the most vulnerable, so as to foster in everyone, in every part of the world and in every religious confession, concern, care and awareness. We must ban from the face of the earth violence and every form of abuse against children. Let us look into their eyes: they are your sons and daughters; we must love them as God’s masterpieces and children. They have the right to a good life. We have the duty to do everything possible to ensure that right. Thank you.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good Morning!

This audience is divided into two groups: the sick are in the Paul vi Hall — I was with them. I greeted and blessed them. They are roughly 250 in number. They will be more comfortable there because of the rain — and we are here. But they can see us on the maxi screen. Let us greet both groups with a round of applause.

The Acts of the Apostles recounts that as a tireless evangelizer, after his stay in Athens, Paul continues the Gospel’s journey throughout the world. The next leg of his missionary journey is Corinth, the capital city of the Roman province of Achaea, a commercial and cosmopolitan city thanks to its two important ports.

As we read in Chapter 18 of the Acts, Paul is welcomed by a married couple, Aquila and Priscilla (or Prisca), who was forced to move from Rome to Corinth after Emperor Claudius had ordered the expulsion of all Jews (cf. Acts 18:2). I would like to pause here. Jewish people have suffered greatly throughout history. They were exiled, persecuted ... And in the last century, we saw very great brutality perpetrated against Jewish people and we were all certain that this had ended. But scattered here and there, today the habit of persecuting Jews is beginning to reappear. Brothers and sisters, this is neither human nor Christian. The Jews are our brothers! And they should not be persecuted. Understood? These spouses show that they have a heart that is filled with faith in God and is generous to others, capable of making room for those who, like them, experience the condition of being a foreigner. Their sensitivity makes them altruistic in order to practice the Christian art of hospitality (cf. Rom 12:13; Heb 13:2) and open the doors of their home to welcome the Apostle Paul. They thus welcome not only the evangelizer, but also the Good News that he brings with him: the Gospel of Christ which is “the power of God for salvation to every one who has faith” (Rom 1:16). And from that moment their home is permeated by the scent of the “living” Word (Heb 4:12) that enlivens hearts.

Aquila and Priscilla also share the same trade as Paul, that is, tent making. Indeed, Paul greatly admired manual labour and considered it to be favourable to bearing Christian witness (1 Cor 4:12) as well as a good way to support oneself without being a burden on others or on the community (cf. 1 Thess 2:9; 2 Thess 3:8).

Aquila and Priscilla’s home opens its doors not only to the Apostle but also to the brothers and sisters in Christ. Indeed, Paul can speak of “a community that gathers in their house” (cf. 1 Cor 16:19), which becomes a “house of the Church”, a “domus ecclesiae”, a place in which to listen to the Word of God and celebrate the Eucharist. Even today, in some countries where there is no religious freedom and Christians have no freedom, Christians still meet in a house, a little hidden, to pray and celebrate the Eucharist. Today too there are these homes, these families that become a temple for the Eucharist.

After staying a year and a half in Corinth, Paul leaves that city with Aquila and Priscilla who remain at Ephesus. There too, their house becomes a place of catecheses (cf. Acts 18:26). Eventually the spouses will return to Rome and become the recipients of splendid praise that the Apostle describes in his Letter to the Romans. Listen: “Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Jesus Christ, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I but also all the Churches of the Gentiles give thanks” (Rom 16:4). How many families risk their lives in times of persecution, in order to keep the persecuted hidden! This is the first example: a family welcomes even in bad times.

Among Paul’s many coworkers, Aquila and Priscilla emerge “as models of conjugal life responsibly committed to the service of the entire Christian community” and they remind us that Christianity has come to us, thanks to the faith and the commitment to evangelization of many lay people like them. Indeed, in order “to take root in people's land and develop actively, the commitment of these families” was necessary (ibid). Just think that from the very beginning, Christianity was preached by lay people. You lay people are also responsible for your Baptism, to carry the faith forward. It was the commitment of many families, of these spouses, of these Christian communities, of the lay faithful, “in order to offer the ‘humus’ for the growth of the faith” (ibid). This sentence of Benedict XVI is beautiful: lay people offer the humus for the growth of the faith (Benedict XVI General Audience, 7 February 2007).

Let us ask the Father who chose to make the spouses his true living sculptures — (cf. Amoris Laetitia, n. 11) — I think there are newlyweds here: listen to your vocation, you must be the true living sculpture — to spread his Spirit to all the Christian couples so that by the example of Aquila and Priscilla, they may open the doors of their hearts to Christ and to our brothers and sisters, and transform their homes into domestic churches. Fine words: a home is a domestic church in which to experience communion and offer the example of worship of a life lived in faith, hope and charity. We must pray to these two Saints, Aquila and Prisca, so that they may teach our families to be like them: a domestic church where there is humus so that faith may grow.

Special Greetings and Appeal

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially the groups from England, Denmark, Australia, Malaysia, and the United States of America. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. May God bless you!

I offer a special thought to dear Burkina Faso which has been suffering from recurring violence for some time and where a recent attack killed almost 100 people. I entrust to the Lord all the victims, the injured, the numerous displaced and those who suffer from these tragedies. I make an appeal for the protection of the most vulnerable and I encourage civil and religious Authorities and people of good will to multiply their efforts in the spirit of the Abu Dhabi Document on Human Fraternity, in order promote interreligious dialogue and harmony.

Lastly, I greet young people, the elderly, the sick and newlyweds, in particular the young couples from the Diocese of Fabriano-Matelica. I invite everyone to pray for my upcoming Apostolic Journey to Thailand and Japan, that the Lord may grant those whom I will visit bountiful gifts of grace.

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL FOR INCLUSIVE CAPITALISM

Monday, 11 November 2019

Your Eminence,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I extend a cordial welcome to each of you gathered for this meeting of the members of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism. I thank Cardinal Peter Turkson for his kind words offered in your name.

During my meeting three years ago with participants in the Fortune-Time Global Forum 2016, I addressed the need for more inclusive and equitable economic models that would permit each person to share in the resources of this world and have opportunities to realize his or her potential. The 2016 Forum allowed for an exchange of ideas and information aimed at creating a more humane economy and contributing to the eradication of poverty on the global level.

Your Council is one of the results of the 2016 Forum. You have taken up the challenge of realizing the vision of the Forum by seeking ways to make capitalism become a more inclusive instrument for integral human wellbeing. This entails overcoming an economy of exclusion and reducing the gap separating the majority of people from the prosperity enjoyed by the few (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 53-55). Rising levels of poverty on a global scale bear witness to the prevalence of inequality rather than a harmonious integration of persons and nations. An economic system that is fair, trustworthy and capable of addressing the most profound challenges facing humanity and our planet is urgently needed. I encourage you to persevere along the path of generous solidarity and to work for the return of economics and finance to an ethical approach which favours human beings (cf. ibid., 58).

A glance at recent history, in particular the financial crisis of 2008, shows us that a healthy economic system cannot be based on short-term profit at the expense of long-term productive, sustainable and socially responsible development and investment.

It is true that “business is a noble vocation, directed to producing wealth and improving our world. It can be a fruitful source of prosperity for the areas in which it operates, especially if it sees the creation of jobs as an essential part of its service to the common good” (Laudato Si’, 129). However, as my predecessor Saint Paul VI reminded us, authentic development cannot be restricted to economic growth alone but must foster the growth of each person and of the whole person (cf. Populorum Progressio, 14). This means more than balancing budgets, improving infrastructures or offering a wider variety of consumer goods. Rather, it involves a renewal, purification and strengthening of solid economic models based on our own personal conversion and generosity to those in need. An economic system detached from ethical concerns does not bring about a more just social order, but leads instead to a “throw away” culture of consumption and waste. On the other hand, when we recognize the moral dimension of economic life, which is one of the many aspects of social doctrine of the Church that must be integrally respected, we are able to act with fraternal charity, desiring, seeking and protecting the good of others and their integral development.

Dear friends, you have set before yourselves the goal of extending the opportunities and benefits of our economic system to all people. Your efforts remind us that those who engage in business and economic life are in fact possessed, as bears repeating, of a noble vocation, one that serves the common good by striving to increase the goods of this world and make them more accessible to all (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 203). In the end, it is not simply a matter of “having more”, but “being more”. What is needed is a fundamental renewal of hearts and minds so that the human person may always be placed at the centre of social, cultural and economic life.

Your presence here is thus a sign of hope, because you have recognized the issues our world is facing and the imperative to act decisively in order to build a better world. I express to you my heartfelt gratitude for your commitment to the promotion of a more just and humane economy, in line with the core principles of the social doctrine of the Church, always taking into account the whole person, both in the present generation and in the ones to come. An inclusive capitalism that leaves no one behind, that discards none of our brothers or sisters, is a noble aspiration, worthy of your best efforts.

I thank you for this meeting and I accompany you with my prayers. Upon all of you, your families and your colleagues, I invoke God’s blessings of wisdom, strength and peace. And I ask you, please, to pray for me. Thank you.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Good Morning!

Today’s Gospel reading (Lk 20:27-38) offers us a wonderful teaching of Jesus on the resurrection of the dead. Jesus is asked by some Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection and therefore provoke Him with an insidious question: in resurrection, whose wife would a woman be if she had seven successive husbands, who were all brothers, who all died one after the other? Jesus does not fall into the trap and replies that in the hereafter the risen “neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (vv. 35-36). This is how Jesus responds.

With this response, first and foremost, Jesus invites His interlocutors — and us too — to consider that this earthly dimension in which we now live is not the only dimension, but that there is another, no longer subject to death, which will  fully manifest that we are children of God. It is of great comfort and hope to listen to this simple and clear word of Jesus about life beyond death; we need it very much especially in our time, so rich in knowledge about the universe but so lacking in wisdom about eternal life.

Jesus’ clear certainty about resurrection is based entirely on the fidelity of God, Who is the God of life. In fact, behind the question of the Sadducees is hidden a more profound question: not only whose wife will be the widow of the seven husbands, but to whom will her life belong. This is a doubt that touches mankind of  every age and also us: after this earthly pilgrimage, what will become of our life? Will it belong to nothing, to death?

Jesus responds that life belongs to God, who loves us and cares very  deeply about us, to the point of linking His name to ours: He is “the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now He is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him” (vv. 37-38). Life exists where there is [a] bond, communion, brotherhood; and it is a life stronger than death when it is built on true relationships and bonds of fidelity. On the contrary, there is no life where one has the presumption of belonging only to oneself and of living as an island: death prevails in these attitudes. It is selfishness. If I live for myself, I am sowing death in my heart.

May the Virgin Mary help us to live every day from the perspective of what we affirm in the final part of the Creed: “ We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come”. Awaiting the hereafter.

Following the Angelus, the Pope continued:

Dear brothers and sisters, yesterday in Granada, Spain, María Emilia Riquelme y Zayas, Foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Most Blessed Sacrament and  Mary Immaculate, was proclaimed Blessed. And today, in Braga, Portugal, a Mass of thanksgiving will be celebrated for the equipollent Canonization of Saint Bartolomeu Fernandes dos Mártires. The new Blessed was an example of fervour in Eucharistic adoration and was generous in his service to those most in need; while the new Saint was a great evangelizer and pastor of his people. An applause for both the Blesseds!

I address a special thought to the dear people of South Sudan, whom I will visit this [next] year. With the memory, still vivid, of the spiritual retreat which took place in the Vatican last April for the Authorities of the country, I wish to renew my invitation to all those involved in the national political process, in a spirit of true brotherhood, to seek that which unites and to overcome that which divides. The South Sudanese people have suffered too much in recent years, and they look forward with great hope to a better future, especially the definitive end to conflicts and a lasting peace. I therefore urge those responsible to continue tirelessly in their commitment to an inclusive dialogue in the search for consensus for the good of the nation. I also express the hope that the international community will not neglect to accompany South Sudan on the path to national reconciliation. I invite you all to pray together for this country, for which I feel particular affection.

[Hail Mary]

I also wish to entrust to your prayers the situation of beloved Bolivia, close to my homeland. I invite all Bolivians, particularly political and social actors, to await in a constructive spirit and unconditionally, in a climate of peace and serenity, for the results of the process of the revision of the elections, which is currently underway. In peace.

In Italy today, we are celebrating the National Day of Thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth and work. I join with the bishops in recalling the strong link between bread and work, in the hope that courageous employment policies take into account dignity and solidarity and prevent the risks of corruption. May workers not be exploited; may there be work for all: but real work, not slave labour.

I thank all of you who have come from Rome, from Italy and from many other parts of the world. I greet the pilgrims of Haaren, Germany; Darwin, Australia; and the students of Neuilly, France; as well as the faithful of the diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio, and those from Bianzè and Burano.

I wish you all a happy Sunday. Please do not forget to pray for me. Thank you. Enjoy your lunch and Arrivederci!

FEAST OF THE DEDICATION OF THE BASILICA OF SAINT JOHN LATERAN

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

Basilica of St. John Lateran
Saturday, 9 November 2019

[Multimedia]

• Prayer
• Homily

For the millions of children bent by pangs of hunger who have lost their smile but still want to love.

For the millions of young people who, without any reason to believe or to live, search in vain for a future in this senseless world.

Father, we beseech you to send workers into your harvest.

For the millions of men, women and children whose hearts still beat strongly enough to fight, whose spirit rises up against the unjust destiny imposed on them, whose courage demands the right to invaluable dignity.

Father, we beseech you to send workers into your harvest.

For the millions of children, women and men who do not want to curse, but rather to love and pray, work and unite so that a more solidary earth may be born; An earth, our earth, where every man gives the best of himself before he dies.

Father, we beseech you to send workers into your harvest

For all those who pray, may they be listened to by God, and receive from him the strength to eliminate misery from a humanity made in his image.

Father, we beseech you to send workers into your harvest.

This evening, during this celebration for the Dedication [of the Basilica] I would like to offer you three verses taken from the Word of God that you can use as the subject of meditation and prayer.

I feel that the first one is addressed to us all, to the entire diocesan community of Rome. It is the Responsorial Psalm: “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God” (Ps 46[45]:4). Christians who live in this city are like the river that springs from the temple: they bring a Word of life and of hope that can make fruitful the desert of hearts, just like the stream described in Ezekiel’s vision (chap. 47) which fertilizes the Arabah desert and heals the salty and lifeless waters of the Dead Sea. The important thing is that the course of the water leave the temple and flow towards hostile looking lands. The city cannot but rejoice on seeing Christians becoming joyful proclaimers, determined to share with others the treasures of the Word of God and to devote themselves to the common good. The terrain that seemed destined to be arid, reveals an extraordinary potential: it becomes a garden with evergreen trees and leaves and fruit with healing properties. Ezekiel explains the reason for such fruitfulness: “the water for them flows from the sanctuary” (Ez 47:12). God is the secret of this new life-giving power!

May the Lord rejoice at seeing us in movement, ready to listen with our hearts to his poor that cry out to him. May the Mother Church of Rome experience the comfort of seeing once again the obedience and courage of her children filled with enthusiasm for this new season of evangelization. Meeting others, engaging in dialogue with them, listening to them with humility, generosity and poverty of heart ... I invite all of you to live this, not as a burdensome effort, but with spiritual lightness: instead of letting performance anxiety take over, it is more important to widen your perception in order to grasp God’s presence and action in the city. It is a contemplation that stems from love.

I would like to dedicate a verse from the Second Reading, in the first Letter to the Corinthians, to you presbyters: “no other foundation can any one lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11). This is your task, the heart of your ministry: to help the community always be at the Lord’s feet in order to listen to his Word; to keep it far from all worldliness, from bad compromises; to keep the foundation and the holy root of the spiritual building; to defend it from vicious wolves, from those who want to make it deviate from the path of the Gospel. Like Paul, you too are “master builders”, masters because you are well aware that any other idea or situation we may want to use as a foundation of the Church, instead of the Gospel, would perhaps guarantee us greater success or immediate gratification, but would inevitably lead to the collapse, the collapse of the entire spiritual edifice!

In my time as Bishop of Rome, I have come to know many of you more closely, dear presbyters. I have admired your faith and love for the Lord, your closeness to people and your generosity in caring for the poor. You know the neighbourhoods of the city like no one else and you keep in your heart the faces, smiles and tears of many people. You have set aside ideological differences and personal “spotlights” in order to make room for what God asks of you. The realism of those who keep their feet on the ground and know “the way of the world” did not prevent you from flying high with the Lord and from having great dreams. May God Bless you. May the joy of intimacy with him be the truest reward for all the good that you do daily.

And lastly, a verse for you, members of the pastoral teams who are here to receive a special mandate from the Bishop. I could not but choose it from the Gospel (Jn 2:13-22), in which Jesus behaves in a divinely provocative manner. In order to shake the obtuseness of mankind and lead people to make radical changes, God sometimes chooses to act in a strong way to bring about a break in the situation. With his action, Jesus wants to introduce a change of pace, a change in direction. Many saints shared that same style: some of their behaviour that was incomprehensible from a human point of view, was the result of intuitions caused by the Spirit, with the intention of arousing their contemporaries and helping them understand that “my thoughts are not your thoughts” (Is 55:8), which God says through the prophet Isaiah.

In order to better understand today’s Gospel passage, we must highlight an important characteristic. The merchants were in the courtyard reserved for Gentiles, the area that was accessible to non Jews. This very hall had been transformed into a market. But God wants his temple to be “a house of prayer for all peoples” (Is 56:7). Hence, Jesus’ decision to topple the currency exchange tables and to drive away the animals. This purification of the sanctuary was necessary so that Israel could rediscover its vocation: to be a light for all people, a small group of people chosen to serve the salvation that God wants to give everyone. Jesus knows that this provocative behaviour will cost him dear. And when they ask him: “What sign have you to show us for doing this?” (Jn 2:18), the Lord answers by saying: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19).

And it is this very verse which I want to offer to you pastoral teams, this evening. You have been entrusted with the task of helping your communities and pastoral workers to reach all the city’s inhabitants, identifying new ways to encounter those who are distant from the faith and from the Church. However, in carrying out this service, you bear within this awareness, this trust: there is no human heart in which Christ does not want to and cannot be reborn. In our lives as sinners, we often happen to distance ourselves from the Lord and to dampen the Spirit. We destroy the temple of God which is each of us. And yet this is never a definitive situation: three days are enough for the Lord to rebuild his temple within us!

As much as they may have been wounded by evil, no one is condemned to be forever separated from God on this earth. In an often mysterious but real way, the Lord opens new small openings in hearts, the desire for truth, good and beauty that make room for evangelization. At times, one can come across mistrust and hostility. One should not allow oneself to be stopped but rather safeguard the conviction that for God three days are enough to resuscitate his Son in the heart of man. It is also the history of some of us: deep conversions that are fruit of the unpredictable action of grace! I am thinking about Vatican Council ii: “since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 22).

May the Lord give us the opportunity to experience all this in our evangelizing action. May we grow in faith in the Paschal Mystery and be associated with his “zeal” for our home. Enjoy your journey.

CONFERRAL OF THE "RATZINGER PRIZE"

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

Clementine Hall
Saturday, 9 November 2019

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am pleased this year once again to confer the Ratzinger Prizes in person, which for me is a welcome moment.  Firstly, I wish to express my appreciation for the two distinguished prizewinners who have been presented to us by Cardinal Angelo Amato, President of the Scientific Committee of the Joseph Ratzinger–Benedict XVI Foundation: Professor Charles Taylor and Father Paul Béré, whom I respectfully greet, along with their relatives and those accompanying them on this occasion.  I greet also the leaders and friends of the Foundation.

I am happy to have this opportunity to express again my esteem and affection for my predecessor, dear Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.  We are all grateful for his teaching, and for his exemplary service to the Church, demonstrated by his reflections, his thought and study, his listening, dialogue and prayer.  His aim was that we might consciously retain a lively faith despite the changing times and situations; and that believers could give an account of their faith in a language that can be understood by their contemporaries, entering into dialogue with them, together seeking pathways of authentic encounter with God in our time.

This has always been a keen desire of Joseph Ratzinger the theologian and pastor, who never closed himself off in a disembodied culture of pure concepts, but gave us the example of seeking truth where reason and faith, intelligence and spirituality, are constantly integrated.  All the arts and disciplines thus cooperate in contributing to the full growth of the human person, which is to be found ultimately in the encounter with the living person of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Logos, the revelation of the God who is love.

It is a duty for theology to be and remain in active dialogue with cultures, even as they change over time and evolve differently in various parts of the world.  At the same time, it is a condition necessary for the vitality of Christian faith, for the Church’s mission of evangelization.

It is from this perspective that our two prizewinners have offered important contributions, which we recognize today with gratitude.

During his years of active research and teaching, Professor Taylor has covered many fields, but he has particularly devoted his mind and heart to understanding the phenomenon of secularization in our time.  Secularization effectively poses a significant challenge for the Catholic Church, indeed for all Christians, and for all believers in God.  Pope Benedict repeatedly told us that the priority of his pontificate was to proclaim God anew — the God of Jesus Christ — in a time when that proclamation seems to be on the wane for a large part of humanity.  Few scholars in the present day have posed the problem of secularization with the breadth of vision as has Professor Taylor.  We are indebted to him for the profound manner in which he has treated the problem, carefully analyzing the development of Western culture, the movements of the human mind and heart over time, identifying the characteristics of modernity in their complex relationships, in their shadows and lights.  Thus, he helps us to read in a non-reductive way the reasons for the changes that have taken place in religious practice.  He invites us to intuit and seek new ways to live and express the transcendent dimensions of the human soul, those spiritual dimensions in which the Spirit continues to work imperceptibly.  This allows us to deal with Western secularization in a way that is neither superficial nor given to fatalistic discouragement.  This is needed not only for a reflection on contemporary culture, but also for an in-depth dialogue and discernment in order to adopt the spiritual attitudes suitable for living, witnessing, expressing, and proclaiming the faith in our time.

Father Paul Béré is the first African recipient of the Ratzinger Prize and a renowned scholar of Sacred Scripture.  I am pleased on the occasion of this award to express my appreciation and encouragement to all those committed to inculturation of the faith in Africa through their original and deepened study.  In the first centuries of Christianity, northern Africa gave the Church great figures — Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine — but the spread of Islam followed by centuries of colonialism prevented a true African inculturation of the Christian message until the second half of the last century.  Contemporary African theology is therefore still young, though dynamic and full of promise.  Father Béré provides an example of this by his work on the interpretation of Old Testament texts in a context of oral culture, thus bringing to fruition the experience of African culture.  He has committed himself to making the Synods that he participated in known, understood, and received in the African context.

In his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, Saint Paul VI said: “Evangelizing means bringing the Good News into all the strata of humanity, and through its influence transforming humanity from within and making it new” (no.18).  This is true for all cultures: access to redemption for humanity in all of its dimensions should be sought with creativity and imagination; this search can be expressed with appropriate language in all areas and spaces in which men and women live their pains, joys and hopes.

Although the two laureates come from different continents and cultural backgrounds, their message is much more similar than appears at first sight.  In the variety of cultures, diverse across time and space, one can and should always seek the way to God and the encounter with Christ.  This has been and remains the work to which Professor Taylor and Father Béré have dedicated themselves.  This is the mission of all who follow the teaching of Joseph Ratzinger as theologian and Pope, to be “co-workers of the truth”.

It is therefore my hope that the recipients of the Ratzinger Prizes, together with all present, continue with enthusiasm and joy their journey on this path. Thank you.

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO PARTICIPANTS AT THE CONFERENCE
"CHURCH, MUSIC, INTERPRETERS: A NECESSARY DIALOGUE",
PROMOTED BY THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR CULTURE

Consistory Hall
Saturday, 9 November 2019

Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!

I offer you a cordial welcome as you gather for this Third International Congress devoted to the theme: Church, Music, Interpreters: A Necessary Dialogue. I am grateful to the Pontifical Council for Culture, which, in cooperation with the Pontifical Institute for Sacred Music and the Liturgical Institute of the Pontifical Athenaeum of Sant’Anselmo, has made this meeting possible. I greet all taking part, and in a particular way, I thank Cardinal Ravasi for his kind words of introduction. I hope that the work accomplished in these days may prove to be for everyone a stimulating experience of the Gospel, of liturgical life, and of service to the Church and culture.

We often think of an interpreter as a kind of translator, a person whose task is to convey something he or she has received in such a way that another person can understand it. Yet an interpreter, especially in the field of music, necessarily “translates” in a unique and personal way – in a unique and personal way – what the composer has written, in order to create a beautiful and outstanding artistic experience. In effect, a musical work exists only insofar as it is interpreted, and thus only when someone is there to interpret it.

A good interpreter feels great humility before a work of art that is not his or her property. Recognizing that they put their expertise at the service of the community, such interpreters constantly strive to be formed and transformed, interiorly and professionally, in order to bring out the beauty of the music and, in the context of the liturgy, to serve others through the works they perform (cf. Sacrosanctum Concilium, 115). Every interpreter is called to develop a distinctive sensibility and genius in the service of art which refreshes the human spirit, and in service to the community. This is especially the case if the interpreter carries out a liturgical ministry.

The interpreter of music has much in common with the biblical scholar, with the proclaimer of God’s word, but also with those who seek to interpret the signs of the times, and, even more generally, with all those – and each of us should be one of them! – who are open and attentive to others in sincere dialogue. Every Christian, in fact, is an interpreter of the will of God in his her own life, and by his or her life sings a joyful hymn of praise and thanksgiving to God. Through that song, the Church interprets the Gospel as she makes her pilgrim way through history. The Blessed Virgin Mary did this in an exemplary way in her Magnificat, while the saints interpret the will of God by their lives and mission.

Saint Paul VI, in the course of an historic meeting with artists in 1964, offered this reflection: “Our ministry, as you know, consists in preaching and rendering accessible, comprehensible, and indeed moving, the things of the spirit, the invisible, the ineffable, the things of God himself. And in this activity, that transfers the invisible world into accessible, intelligible formulas, you are masters. It is your task, your mission; and your art consists in grasping treasures from the heavenly realm of the spirit and clothing them in words, colours, forms, thus making them accessible” (Insegnamenti II [1964], 313). In this sense, then, the interpreter, like the artist, expresses the ineffable by using words and materials that transcend concepts, in order to convey the kind of “sacramentality” typical of aesthetic representation.

There is a dialogue, because experiencing a work of art is never something static or mathematical. There is a conversation between the author, the work and the interpreter. It is a three-way conversation. And this conversation is original for each of its interpreters: one interpreter understands it this way, and renders it this way; another in a different way. But what is important is the dialogue, that also allows for development in the performance of a work of art. I am thinking, for example, of a work of Bach performed by Richter or by Gardiner: they are different things. The dialogue is something else, and the interpreter must enter into the conversation between author, work and himself. We should never forget this.

The artist, the interpreter and – in the case of music – the listener, all have the same desire: to understand what beauty, music and art allow us to know of God’s grandeur. Now perhaps more than ever, men and women have need of this. Interpreting that reality is essential for today’s world.

Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you again for your commitment to the study of music, and liturgical music in particular. My wish is that, day by day, you may become – each in his or her own way – ever better interpreters of the Gospel, of the beauty that the Father has revealed to us in Christ Jesus, and of the praise that expresses our filial relationship to God. I give you my heartfelt blessing, and I ask you please not to forget to pray for me. Thank you.

GREETING OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO A DELEGATION OF THE SALVATION ARMY 

Friday, 8 November 2019

General Peddle,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am happy to have this opportunity to renew to you and to all the members and volunteers of the Salvation Army my grateful appreciation for the witness you give to the primacy of discipleship and service to the poor. This makes you an evident and credible sign of evangelical love, in obedience to the Lord’s commandment: “Love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples” (Jn 13:34).

As I have mentioned on several occasions – and again just now, when we spoke – it was by encountering members of the Salvation Army that I received, many years ago, from my grandmother, my first lesson in ecumenism – I was four years old!. Their example of humble service to the least of our brothers and sisters spoke louder than any words. I am reminded, General, of the insight expressed by your predecessor when we met five years ago: “Holiness transcends denominational boundaries”. The holiness that shows itself in concrete actions of goodness, solidarity and healing speaks to the heart and testifies to the authenticity of our discipleship. On this basis, Catholics and Salvationists can increasingly assist one another and cooperate in a spirit of mutual respect and in a life of holiness as well.

Such a common witness is like the leaven that in Jesus’s parable, a woman took and mixed with flour until the whole mass of dough began to rise (cf. Lk 13:21). The gratuitous love that inspires acts of service to those in need is not only a leaven; it also has the fragrance of freshly baked bread. It attracts and convinces. Young people in particular need to breathe in that fragrance, since in many cases it is absent from their daily experience. In a world where selfishness and divisions abound, the noble fragrance of genuine self-giving love can offer a much-needed antidote and open minds and hearts to the transcendent meaning of our existence.

As the Bishop of Rome, of this Diocese, I would like to thank the Salvation Army for all that you do in this city for the homeless and the marginalized, of whom there are so many in Rome. I am also aware of your significant involvement in the fight against human trafficking and other modern forms of slavery. May God bless your efforts.

Thank you once more for your visit. Let us remember one another in our prayers, and continue to work to spread God’s love through acts of service and solidarity.

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THE XXXI MEETING OF THE PARTIES TO THE MONTREAL PROTOCOL

To the Participants in the Thirty-first Meeting
of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol

I offer a cordial greeting to all those taking part in the Thirty-first Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This Protocol, together with its Amendments and the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, represents a model of international cooperation not only in the area of environmental protection but also that of the promotion of integral human development.

Nearly thirty-five years have passed since the first legally binding international Convention devoted to the protection of the ozone layer was opened for signature in Vienna on 22 March 1985. It was to become the first Convention of the United Nations system to gain universal endorsement on the part of the entire family of nations, which today numbers one hundred and ninety-seven signatory States.

These thirty-five years have yielded positive results. In fact, many scientific studies, including more recent ones, attest to how the thinning of the ozone layer is gradually being reduced.

In this regard, I would like to focus on three lessons that we can learn from the thirty-five years that have passed since the implementation of the international ozone regime.

First, there is a need to emphasize and appreciate how that regime arose from a broad and fruitful cooperation among different sectors: the scientific community, the political world, economic and industrial actors and civil society.

This cooperation has shown how we can “achieve important outcomes, which make it simultaneously possible to safeguard creation, to promote integral human development and to care for the common good, in a spirit of responsible solidarity and with profound positive repercussions for present and future generations”.[1]

In a certain sense, the international ozone regime demonstrates that “we have the freedom needed to limit and direct technology; we can put it at the service of another type of progress, one which is healthier, more human, more social, more integral” (Laudato Si’, 112). This allows us to be confident that “although the post-industrial period may well be remembered as one of the most irresponsible in history, nonetheless there is reason to hope that humanity at the dawn of the twenty-first century will be remembered for having generously shouldered its grave responsibilities” (Laudato Si’, 165).

We are in fact facing a “cultural” challenge either for or against the common good. Here, an honest and fruitful dialogue truly capable of listening to different needs and free of special interests, together with a spirit of solidarity and creativity, are essential for the building of the present and future of our planet.

In the same way, and here is the second lesson I would mention, this cultural challenge cannot be met solely on the basis of a technology that, “presented as the only way of solving these problems, in fact proves incapable of seeing the mysterious network of relations between things and so sometimes solves one problem only to create others” (Laudato Si’, 20).

This was evidenced by the need to adopt, in 2016, a new Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, the Kigali Amendment. That Amendment has the aim of prohibiting substances which, in themselves, do not contribute to damaging the ozone layer, but which affect the warming of the atmosphere and whose use has increased as a means of replacing certain substances harmful to the ozone layer.

It is important that the Kigali Amendment quickly gain universal approval on the part of the whole family of nations, as has happened with the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol.

In this regard, I am pleased to announce the intention of the Holy See to adhere to the Kigali Amendment. With this gesture, the Holy See desires to continue giving its moral support to all those States committed to the care of our common home.

Moving ahead, the third lesson which I would mention is the importance that this care for our common home be anchored in the realization that “everything is connected”.

It can be said that the Kigali Amendment also appeals to this principle, since it represents a sort of bridge between the ozone problem and the phenomenon of global warming, thus highlighting their interaction.

Careful consideration of the various interconnections of our decisions and their resulting impact involves numerous levels of complexity. We are living at an historic moment marked by challenges that are pressing yet stimulating for the creation of a culture effectively directed to the common good. This calls for the adoption of a farsighted vision on how most effectively to promote integral development for all the members of the human family, whether near or far in space or time. This vision must take shape in centres of education and culture where awareness is created, where individuals are trained in political, scientific and economic responsibility, and, more generally, where responsible decisions are made.

The continued acceleration of changes affecting humanity and our planet, coupled today with a more intense pace of life and work, should constantly urge us to ask whether the goals of this progress are truly directed to the common good and to a sustainable and integral human development, or whether they cause harm to our world and to the quality of life of much of humanity, now and in the future (Laudato Si’, 18).

A thoughtful response to this question can only be given in the light of a consideration of the three points on which I have focused. First, to give real life to dialogue for the sake of shared responsibility for the care of our common home, one in which no one “absolutizes” his or her own point of view. Then, to make technological solutions part of a broader vision that takes into consideration the variety of existing relationships. Finally, to structure our decisions on the basis of the central concept of what we can call “integral ecology”, grounded in the realization that “everything is connected”.

I express my prayerful hope that the international ozone regime, as well as other praiseworthy initiatives of the global community on care for our common home, can continue on this complex, challenging, but always stimulating path.

From the Vatican, 7 November 2019

[1] Statement, attached to the instrument of adhesion on the part of the Holy See to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and its first four Amendments, 9 April 2008.

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO PARTICIPANTS AT THE MEETING OF THE SOCIAL JUSTICE AND
ECOLOGY SECRETARIAT OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS

Clementine Hall
Thursday, 7 November 2019

Good morning, and welcome,

As we are all aware, since its foundation, the Society of Jesus has been called to the service of the poor, a vocation that Saint Ignatius included in the Formula of 1550. The Jesuits were to dedicate themselves to “the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine and for the propagation of the faith”, and to “reconcile the estranged, compassionately assist and serve those in prisons or hospitals, and indeed to perform ... any other works of charity” (Formula of the Institute, 21 June 1550, approved and confirmed by Pope Julius iii). The Formula was not a declaration of intent, but rather a confirmation of a lifestyle the Jesuits had already experienced, and this filled them with consolation for they felt they had been sent by the Lord.

This original Ignatian tradition has come down to our day. Father Arrupe proposed to strengthen it, for at the basis of his vocation was the experience of contact with human pain. Years later he wrote: “I have seen (God) so close to those who suffer, to those who cry, to those who are shipwrecked in this life of abandonment, that there has been a burning desire in me to imitate him in this voluntary proximity to the derelict of the world, whom society despises” (Este Japón increible. Memoria del P. Arrupe, 4th edition Mensajero, Bilbao, 1991, p. 19).

Today, we use the word discarded, do we not? We are talking about a throwaway culture, this great majority of people left behind. For me, what strikes me deeply about this text is where it originated, where it comes from. From prayer, am I not correct? Arrupe was a man of prayer, a man who wrestled with God every day, and from hence comes this strength.

Father Pedro always believed that the service of faith and the promotion of justice were inseparable: they were fundamentally united. For him, all of the Society’s ministries needed to respond to the challenge of proclaiming the faith and, at the same time, of promoting justice. What until then had been a task for a few Jesuits, needed to become a concern for them all.

The poor, a place of encounter with the Lord

Every year the liturgy invites us to contemplate God in the candour of an underprivileged child who came among his own people, but was not received (cf. Jn 1:11). According to Saint Ignatius, a handmaid — a maidservant, a person, a young woman who serves — assists the Holy Family (cf. Spiritual Exercises, nn. 111-114). Together with her, Ignatius exhorts us to be there too. I will make “myself a poor creature and a wretch of an unworthy slave, looking at them and serving them” (ibid). This is neither poetry nor publicity; Ignatius felt this. And he practiced it.

This active contemplation of God, of a disregarded God, helps us to discover the beauty of every marginalized person. No service replaces “appreciating the poor in their goodness, in their experience of life, in their culture, and in their ways of living the faith” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, n. 199).

Amongst the poor you have found a privileged place to encounter Christ. This is a precious gift in the life of the follower of Christ: to receive the gift of encountering him among the victims and the poor.

The encounter with Christ among his beloved ones refines our faith. This is the case with the Society of Jesus, whose experience with the least ones has deepened and strengthened the faith. “Our faith has become more paschal, more compassionate, more tender, more evangelical in its simplicity” (General Congregation 34 of the Society of Jesus, 1995, d 2, n. 1), especially in the service to the poor.

You have experienced a true personal and corporative transformation in silent contemplation of your brothers’ and sisters’ pain. A transformation that is a conversion, a return to look at the face on the crucifix, he who invites us every day to stay close to him and to bring him down from the cross.

Do not cease to offer such familiarity with the vulnerable. Our broken and divided world needs to build bridges so that the human encounter allows each of us to discover in the least ones the beautiful face of our brother, in whom we recognize ourselves, and whose presence, in its poverty, though without words, demands our care and our solidarity.

Following Jesus among the crucified

Jesus had “nowhere to lay his head” (Mt 8:20), dedicated as he was to preaching “the gospel of the kingdom” and to healing “every disease and every infirmity” (Mt 4:23). Today, his Spirit, alive amongst us, impels us to follow him in the service of the crucified people of our time.

At present there is an abundance of injustice and situations of human pain with which we are all too familiar. “Perhaps one can speak of a third war, one fought ‘piecemeal’, with crimes, massacres, destruction...” (Homily, Redipuglia, 13 September 2014). Human trafficking exists; instances of xenophobia and the selfish search for national interests abound; inequality between countries, and increasingly so within them, and all without a remedy. And I would say growing exponentially.

On the other hand, “never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years” (Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’, n. 53). It is not surprising that once again “the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet” (ibid., n. 48).

To follow Jesus in these circumstances involves a set of tasks. It begins with accompanying the victims, to contemplate in them the face of our crucified Lord, and continues in being attentive to the human needs that arise, many times innumerable and unattainable in their entirety. Today, it is also necessary to reflect on the reality of the world, to unmask its evils, to discover the best responses, to generate the apostolic creativity and depth that Father Nicolás so desired for the Society.

But our response cannot stop there. We need a true “cultural revolution” (ibid., n. 114), a transformation of our collective gaze, of our attitudes, of our ways of perceiving ourselves and of placing ourselves before the world. Finally, social ills often become embedded in the structures of a society, with a potential for disintegration and death (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, n. 59). Hence, the importance of the gradual work of transforming structures, through participation in public dialogue, where decisions are made that condition the lives of the lowly (cf. Meeting of Popular Movements, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, 9 July 2015).

Some of you, and many of the Jesuits who preceded you, have begun works of service to the poorest, educational projects, attention to refugees, the defence of human rights and social services in many fields. Continue with this creative commitment, which is always in need of renewal in a society of accelerated change. Help the Church in the discernment which we must undertake today, also concerning our apostolates. Do not cease to network among yourselves and with other ecclesial and civil organizations in order to speak out in defense of the most needy in this increasingly globalized world. With this globalization that is lopsided, that erases cultural identities, religious identities, personal identities, everything is the same. True globalization must be multifaceted. Uniting us but each one maintaining his or her uniqueness.

In the pain of our brothers and sisters and of our common home under threat, it is necessary to contemplate the mystery of the crucifix in order to be able to give one’s life to the end, as many Jesuit companions have done since 1975. This year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Jesuits of the Central American University of El Salvador, which caused so much pain to Father Kolvenbach and which led him to seek the help of Jesuits throughout the Society. Many responded generously. The life and death of the martyrs is an encouragement to our service to the least ones.

And opening paths to hope

Our world needs transformations that protect life under threat and defend the weakest. We seek changes and many times we do not know what they should be, or we do not feel able to deal with them; they are beyond us.

At the borders of exclusion we run the risk of despair if we follow human logic alone. It is surprising that so often the victims of this world do not allow themselves to be overcome by the temptation to give in; rather, they trust and cling to hope.

We are all witnesses to the fact that “the lowly, the exploited, the poor and underprivileged” can and do achieve a lot... When the poor organize themselves they become genuine “social poets: creators of work, builders of housing, producers of food, above all for people left behind by the world market” (Meeting of Popular Movements, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, 9 July 2015).

Does the social apostolate exist to solve problems? Yes, but above all to promote processes and to encourage hope. Processes that help people and communities to grow, that lead to awareness of their rights, to deploy their skills and to create their own future.

May you work for “true Christian hope, which seeks the eschatological kingdom, [and which] always generates history” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, n. 181). Share your hope wherever you are, to encourage, console, comfort and revive. Please open the future, or, to use the expression of a current scholar, frequent the future. Open the future, inspire possibilities, generate alternatives, help to think and act differently. Take care of your daily relationship with the risen and glorious Christ, and be workers of charity and sowers of hope. May you walk, singing and weeping, so that the struggles and concerns for the lives of the least and for threatened creation may not take away from you the joy of hope (cf. Laudato Si’, n. 244).

I would like to conclude with an image — we priests in the parishes distribute holy cards, so that people can take an image home, an image of our family. Father Arrupe’s testament, there in Thailand, in the refugee camp, with the discarded, with all that man had sympathy for, to suffer with those people, with those Jesuits who, at that moment, were opening a open in this whole apostolate, asks of you one thing: do not neglect prayer. That was his testament. He left Thailand that day and had a stroke during the flight. May this holy card, this image, always accompany you. Thank you.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good Morning!

Let us continue our “journey” with the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. After the trials experienced in Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea, Paul arrived in Athens, the very heart of Greece (cf. Acts 17:15). This city that lived in the shadow of its ancient glory despite its political decline, still held the primacy of culture. Here the Apostle’s “spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16). However rather than avoid this “collision” with paganism it spurs him to create a bridge to converse with that culture.

Paul chooses to acquaint himself with the city and he thus began to visit its most important sites and people. He goes to the synagogue, the symbol of the life of the faith; he goes to the square, the symbol of city life; and he goes to the Areopagus, the symbol of political and cultural life. He meets Jews, philosophers, Epicureans, Stoics and many others. He meets all the people. He does not withdraw. He goes to speak to all the people. In this way, Paul observes the culture and he observes the environment of Athens “with a contemplative gaze” that discovers “God dwelling in their homes, in their streets and squares” (Evangelii Gaudium, 71). Paul does not look at the city of Athens and the pagan world with hostility, but rather with the eyes of faith. And this makes us question ourselves about the way we look at our cities: do we observe them with indifference? With disdain? Or with a faith that recognizes God’s children in the midst of anonymous crowds.

Paul chooses the gaze that spurs him to create an opening between the Gospel and the pagan world. In the heart of one of the most celebrated institutions in the ancient world, the Areopagus, he achieves an extraordinary example of inculturation of the message of faith: he proclaims Jesus Christ to the idol worshippers, and he does not do so by attacking them, but by making himself “a Pope, a builder of bridges” (Homily at Sanctae Marthae, 8 May 2013).

Paul is inspired by the altar of the city dedicated to “an unknown god” (Acts 17:23) — there was an altar with the inscription “to an unknown god”; no image, nothing, only that inscription. Starting from their “worship” of an unknown god, so as to empathize with his listeners, he proclaims that God “dwells among them” (Evangelii Gaudium, 71) and “does not hide himself from those who seek him with a sincere heart, even though they do so tentatively” (ibid). It is precisely this presence that Paul tries to unveil: “What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23).

In order to reveal the identity of the god that the Athenians adore, the Apostle begins from Creation, that is from biblical faith in the God of revelation, in order to reach salvation and judgement, that is, the true Christian message. He shows the disproportion between the greatness of the Creator and the temples built by man, and explains that the Creator always makes himself sought, in such a way that each one can find him. In this way, according to a beautiful expression Pope Benedict XVI used, Paul “is proclaiming him whom men do not know and yet do know – the unknown-known” (Benedict XVI, Meeting with representatives from the world of culture at the Collège des Bernardins, Paris, 12 September 2008). He then invites everyone to go beyond the “times of ignorance” and to choose conversion in view of the imminent judgment. Paul thus arrives at kerygma and alludes to Christ without naming him, defining him as the “man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31).

And herein lies the problem. Paul’s word, which had kept the speakers in suspense — because it was an interesting discovery —, meets a stumbling block: the death and Resurrection of Christ appears to be “folly” (1 Cor 1:23) and raises scorn and derision. Paul then distances himself: his attempt appears to have failed; instead some accept his word and open themselves to the faith. Among them is a man, Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, and a woman, Damaris. The Gospel takes root even in Athens, and can then proceed with two voices: that of men and that of women!

Today, let us ask the Holy Spirit to teach us to build bridges through culture, with those who do not believe and those who have a different belief from ours. Always building bridges, always with outstretched hand, no aggression. Let us ask him for the ability to inculturate the message of faith with sensitivity, to have a contemplative gaze towards those who do not know Christ, to be moved by love that warms even the hardest of hearts.

Special Greetings

I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those from England, Scotland, Malta, Zimbabwe, India, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, the Philippines and the United States of America. Upon all of you I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!

Lastly, I greet young people, the elderly, the sick and newlyweds. May the month of November, which is dedicated to remembering and praying for the departed, be an opportunity to reconsider the meaning of human life and of eternal life. May this time help us to understand that life has great value if it is lived as a gift, not only for oneself, but also for God and for our neighbours.

HOLY MASS FOR THE REPOSE OF THE SOULS OF THE CARDINALS AND BISHOPS
WHO DIED OVER THE COURSE OF THE YEAR

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

Vatican Basilica, Altar of the Chair of Saint Peter
Monday, 4 November 2019

[Multimedia]

The readings we have heard remind us that we came into this world in order to be raised up; we were not born for death but for resurrection. As Saint Paul writes in the second reading, even now “our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20) and, as Jesus says in the Gospel, we shall be raised up on the last day (cf. Jn 6:40). It is likewise the thought of the resurrection that leads Judas Maccabaeus in the first reading to do “an excellent and noble thing” (2 Macc 12:43). Today we can ask ourselves: how does the thought of the resurrection affect me? How do I respond to my call to be raised up?

Help comes to us first from Jesus, who in today’s Gospel says: “Anyone who comes to me I will never drive away” (Jn 6:37). That is his invitation: “Come to me” (cf. Mt 11:28). To come to Jesus, the living one, in order to be inoculated against death, against the fear that everything will end. To come to Jesus: this might seem a generic and even banal spiritual exhortation. But let us try to make it concrete by asking a few questions. Today, in the files that I handled in the office, did I draw nearer to the Lord? Did I make them an occasion for speaking to him? In the persons whom I met, did I involve Jesus? Did I bring them to him in prayer? Or did I do everything while thinking only of my concerns, rejoicing only in things that went well for me and complaining about those that didn’t? In a word, did I live my day coming to the Lord, or was I simply orbiting around myself? And where am I headed? Do I seek only to make a good impression, to protect my role, my schedule and my free time? Or do I come to the Lord?

Jesus words are striking: “Anyone who comes to me I will never drive away”. As if to say that any Christian who does not come to him will be driven away. For those who believe, there is no middle ground. We cannot belong to Jesus and orbit around ourselves. Those who belong to Jesus live by constantly going forth from ourselves and towards him.

Life itself is a constant going forth: from our mother’s womb to our birth, from infancy to adolescence, from adolescence to adulthood and so on, until the day of our going forth from this world. Today, as we pray for our brother cardinals and bishops who have gone forth from this life in order to meet the risen Lord, we cannot forget the most important and difficult “going forth”, the one that gives meaning to all the others: that of going forth from our very selves. Only by going forth from ourselves do we open the door that leads to the Lord. Let us implore this grace: “Lord, I want to come to you, along the roads and with my traveling companions each day. Help me to go out of myself in order to come towards you, for you are life itself”.

I would like to propose a second thought, about the resurrection, drawn from the first reading and the “noble thing” that Judas Maccabeus did for those who had died. He did it, we are told, because “he was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness” (2 Macc 12:45). Godliness, piety, is richly rewarded. Piety towards others opens the gates of eternity. To bow down before the needy in order to serve them is to be on the path to heaven. If, as Saint Paul says, “love never ends” (1 Cor 13:8), then love is itself the bridge linking earth to heaven. We can ask ourselves whether we are advancing along this bridge. Do I let myself be touched by the situation of someone in need? Can I weep with those who are suffering? Do I pray for those whom no one thinks about? Do I help someone who has nothing to give back to me? This is not to be sentimental or to engage in little acts of charity; these are questions of life, questions of resurrection.

Lastly, I would offer a third thought about the resurrection. I take it from the Spiritual Exercises, where Saint Ignatius suggests that before making any important decision, we should imagine ourselves standing before God at the end of time. That is the final and inevitable moment, one that all of us will have to face. Every life decision, viewed from that perspective, will be well directed, since it is closer to the resurrection, which is the meaning and purpose of life. As the departure is calculated by the goal, as the planting is judged by the harvest, so life is best judged by starting from its end and purpose. Saint Ignatius writes: “Let me consider myself as standing in the presence of my judge on the last day, and reflect what decision on the present matter I would then wish to have made; I will choose now the rule of life that I would then wish to have observed” (Spiritual Exercises, 187). It can be a helpful exercise to view reality through the eyes of the Lord and not only through our own; to look to the future, the resurrection, and not only to this passing day; to make choices that have the flavour of eternity, the taste of love.

Do I go forth from myself each day in order to come to the Lord? Do I feel and practise compassion for those in need? Do I make important decisions in the sight of God? Let us allow ourselves to be challenged at least by one of these three thoughts. We will be more attuned to the desire that Jesus expresses in today’s Gospel: that he lose nothing of what the Father has given him (cf. Jn 6:39). Amid so many worldly voices that make us forget the meaning of life, let us grow attuned to the will of Jesus, risen and alive. Thus we will make of our lives this day a dawn of resurrection.

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO PARTICIPANTS AT THE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
FOR LEADERS OF CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES:
"NEW FRONTIERS FOR UNIVERSITY LEADERS.
THE FUTURE OF HEALTH AND THE UNIVERSITY ECOSYSTEM"

Distinguished Rectors and Professors,

I welcome you on the occasion of this Forum of the International Federation of Catholic Universities devoted to the theme “New Frontiers for University Leaders: The Future of Health and the University Ecosystem”. I offer a cordial greeting to the President, Professor Isabel Capeloa Gil, whom I thank for her kindness in speaking Spanish, and to all present. I am grateful to the members of the Federation for their commitment to study and research.

The university system today faces new challenges arising from the development of the sciences, the evolution of new technologies and the needs of society, all of which invite academic institutions to provide appropriate and up-to-date responses. This strong pressure, felt in different areas of socio-economic, political and cultural life, challenges the very vocation of the university. This is especially the case for those who are called to teach, conduct research and prepare new generations to become not only qualified professionals in various disciplines, but also proponents of the common good, creative and responsible leaders in social and civil life, equipped with a proper vision of the person and the world. Universities today, then, need to consider what contribution they can and must make to the integral health of the person and to an inclusive ecology.

If these challenges concern the university system as a whole, Catholic universities should feel these needs even more acutely. With your universal openness (precisely as an “universitas”), you can enable the Catholic university to become a place where solutions for civil and cultural progress for individual persons and for humanity, marked by solidarity, are pursued with perseverance and professionalism. You can also examine that which is contingent without losing sight of that which has a more general value. Old and new problems must be studied in their specificity and immediacy, but always within a personal and global perspective. Interdisciplinary approaches, international cooperation and the sharing of resources are important elements that can permit universality to translate into shared and fruitful projects on behalf of humanity, of all men and women, and the environment in which they live and grow.

The development of the technosciences, as we can already see, is destined increasingly to influence people’s physical and psychological health. This also affects the methods and procedures of academic study. Today, we need to remember more than ever that all teaching entails questioning the “why”. In other words, it calls for reflection on the foundations and purposes of each discipline. Education reduced to mere technical instruction, or mere passing on of information, becomes an alienated and fragmented education. To believe that we can transmit knowledge without concern for its ethical dimension is essentially to abandon the task of teaching.

We need to overcome the legacy of the Enlightenment. Education in general, but university education in particular, is not only about filling the head with concepts. Three kinds of language are needed, and all three languages need to come into play: the language of the mind, the language of the heart and the language of the hands. We need to think in harmony with what we feel and what we do, to feel in harmony with what we think and do, and to act in harmony with what we feel and think. An overall harmony, never divorced from the whole.

In the first place, then, we must start from an idea of education conceived as a teleological process, that is, one that looks to an end, is necessarily oriented to an end, and in this sense towards an accurate vision of the human person. A further perspective is necessary in the field of education in order to face questions involving the “why” – questions, that is, of the ethical order. This has to do with the essentially epistemological character of education, which deals with the whole span of knowledge, not only the liberal arts, but also natural, scientific and technological studies. The link between education and end leads us to the theme of intentionality and the role of the subject in every cognitive process. And in this way we arrive at a new kind of episteme. This is the challenge: to come to a new episteme. Traditional epistemology had emphasized this by considering the impersonal character of all knowledge as a condition of objectivity, an essential requirement for the universality and communicability of knowledge. Today, however, many authors stress that completely impersonal experiences do not exist: the forma mentis, the normative convictions, categories, creativity and existential experiences of the subject represent a “tacit dimension” of knowledge, one that is always present and is an indispensable factor for the understanding of scientific progress. We cannot come up with a new episteme in a laboratory. That will not do, for it has to come from real life.

In this light, the university has a conscience, but also an intellectual and moral force with responsibility not just for the person to be educated but for the needs of humanity as a whole. The International Federation of Catholic Universities is called to take up the moral imperative of striving to achieve a more united international academic community. On the one hand by basing itself more faithfully on the Christian context from which universities originated; and on the other, by consolidating the network of older and newer universities, so as to develop a universal spirit aimed at increasing the quality of the cultural life of individuals and peoples. The ecosystem of universities develops when every member of the university becomes sensitive to each person and to the whole person, to the context in which people live and grow, and to everything that can contribute to their advancement.

The training of leaders achieves its goal when it seeks to make the life of the university develop not only the mind but also the “heart”, the conscience, together with students’ practical abilities. Scientific and theoretical knowledge must be blended with the sensitivity of the scholar and researcher, so that the fruits of study are not acquired in a self-referential way, concerned with professional training alone, but have a relational and social end. Ultimately, just as every scientist and every person of culture has an obligation to greater service, because he or she possesses greater knowledge, so too university communities, especially those of Christian inspiration, and the ecosystem of academic institutions must feel the same obligation.

In this perspective, the path that the Church and Catholic scholars must follow was succinctly expressed by the patron of the FIUC, the newly-canonized Cardinal John Henry Newman: the Church “fears no knowledge, but she purifies all; she represses no element of our nature, but cultivates the whole”[1].

Thank you.

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today’s Gospel (cf. Lk 19: 1-10) places us in the footsteps of Jesus Who, on His way to Jerusalem, stopped in Jericho. There was a great crowd to welcome Him, including a man named Zacchaeus, the head of the “publicans”, that is, of those Jews who collected taxes on behalf of the Roman Empire. He was rich not from honest earnings, but because he asked for “bribes”, and this increased contempt for him. Zacchaeus “was seeking to see who Jesus was” (v. 3); he didn’t want to meet Him, but he was curious: he wanted to see that character about whom he had heard extraordinary things. He was curious. And being short in stature, “to see him” (v. 4) he climbs up a tree. When Jesus comes close, he looks up and sees Him (cf. v. 5).

And this is important: the first glance is not from Zacchaeus, but from Jesus, who among the many faces that surrounded Him – the crowd – seeks precisely that one. The merciful gaze of the Lord reaches us before we ourselves realize that we need it in order to be saved. And with this gaze of the divine Master there begins the miracle of the conversion of the sinner. Indeed, Jesus calls to him, and He calls him by his name: “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today” (v. 5). He does not reproach him, He does not deliver a “sermon” to him; He tells him that he must go to Him: “he must”, because it is the will of the Father. Despite the murmuring of the people, Jesus chose to stay at the home of that public sinner.

We too would have been scandalized by this behaviour of Jesus. But contempt for and rejection of the sinner only isolate him and cause him to harden in the evil he commits against himself and the community. Instead, God condemns sin, but tries to save the sinner; He goes looking for him to bring him back on the right path. Those who have never felt they are sought by God’s mercy find it difficult to grasp the extraordinary greatness of the gestures and words with which Jesus approaches Zacchaeus.

Jesus’ acceptance and attention to him lead him to a clear change of mentality: in just a moment he realized how petty life is when it revolves around money, at the cost of stealing from others and receiving their contempt. Having the Lord there, in his house, makes him see everything with different eyes, even with a little of the tenderness with which Jesus looked at him. And his way of seeing and using money also changes: the gesture of grabbing is replaced by that of giving. Indeed, he decides to give half of what he possesses to the poor and to return four times the sum to those from whom he has stolen (cf. v. 8). Zacchaeus discovers from Jesus that it is possible to love gratuitously: until this moment he was mean, but now he becomes generous; he had a taste for amassing wealth, now he rejoices in distributing. By encountering Love, by discovering that he is loved despite his sins, he becomes capable of loving others, making money a sign of solidarity and communion.

May the Virgin May obtain for us the grace always to feel Jesus’ merciful gaze upon us, to go with mercy towards those who have erred, so that they too may welcome Jesus, Who “came to seek and to save the lost” (v. 10).

After the Angelus, the Pope continued:

Dear brothers and sisters,

I am saddened by the violence against Christians in the Tewahedo Orthodox Church of Ethiopia. I express my closeness to this Church and to the Patriarch, dear brother Abuna Matthias, and I ask you to pray for all the victims of violence in that land.

Let us pray together: “Hail Mary...”.

I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to the municipality and the diocese of San Severo in Puglia for the signing of the memorandum of understanding on Monday 28 October last, which will allow the workers of the so-called “ghettos of the Capitanata” in the Foggia area, to obtain a domicile in the parishes and registration in the municipal registry office. The possibility of having identity and residence documents will offer them new dignity and will allow them to leave behind the condition of irregularity and exploitation. Many thanks to the municipality and to all those who have worked on this plan.

I extend my cordial greetings to all of you, Romans and pilgrims. In particular, I greet the historical Corporations of the Schützen and the Knights of Saint Sebastian from various European countries; and the faithful from Lordelo de Ouro, Portugal.

I greet the groups from Reggio Calabria, Treviso, Pescara and Sant’Eufemia di Aspromonte; I greet the young people from Modena who have received Confirmation, those from Petosino, diocese of Bergamo, and the scouts who have come by bicycle from Viterbo. I greet the members of the Hakuna movement from Spain.

I wish you all a good Sunday. Please, do not forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch, and arrivederci.

HOLY MASS IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FALLEN

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

Catacombs of Priscilla, on the Via Salaria
Saturday, 2 November 2019

[Multimedia]

The celebration of the feast of all the departed in a catacomb — it is the first time in my life that I enter a catacomb, it is a surprise — tells us many things. We can think about the lives of those people who had to hide, who had that custom of burying the dead and celebrating the Eucharist in here. It was a bad period in history, but one which has not been overcome. It continues still today. There are many of them. Many catacombs in other countries where people even have to pretend to be having a party or a birthday in order to celebrate the Eucharist as it is forbidden in that place. Today too there are many persecuted Christians, even more than in the first centuries; more. This — the catacombs, the persecution, the Christians — and these Readings make me think of three words; identity, place and hope.

The identity of those people who gathered here to celebrate the Eucharist and to praise the Lord is the same as that of our brothers and sisters of today in many, many countries where being Christian is a crime; it is forbidden; they have no rights. The same. The identity is the one that we have heard: the Beatitudes. The identity of the Christian is this: the Beatitudes. There is no other. If you do this, if you live like this, then you are Christian. “No, but look, I belong to that association, to the other ... I am with this movement ...”. Yes, yes all fine things but they are fantasies with respect to this reality. Your identity card is this [he points to the Gospel], and if you do not have this, all the movements to which you may belong and your memberships in others are useless. You either live this way or you are not Christian. Simple. The Lord said this. “Yes but it is not easy, I do not know how to live like this ...”. There is another passage in the Gospel that helps us better understand this and that Gospel passage will also be the “great protocol” by which we will be judged. It is in Matthew 25. With these two Gospel passages, the Beatitudes and the great protocol, by living this, we will show our identity as Christians. Without this, there cannot be an identity. There is the pretence of being Christian, but not the identity.

This is the identity of the Christian. The second word: the place. Those people who came here to hide to be safe, and also to bury their dead; and those people who today celebrate the Eucharist in hiding in the countries where it is forbidden ... I am thinking about that nun in Albania who was in a re-education camp in the Communist era when it was forbidden for priests to administer the Sacraments. And this nun used to baptize them in secret. The people, the Christians knew that this nun administered Baptisms and mothers used to approach her with their babies. However, she did not have a glass, something in which to collect water. She did it with her shoes. She would take water from the river with a shoe and baptize them. The place of Christians is a bit everywhere. We do not have a privileged place in life. Some would like to have it. They are “qualified” Christians. But they run the risk of remaining with just the “qualified” and dropping the “Christian”. What is the place of Christians? The “souls of the righteous are in the hand of God” (Wis 3:1): the place of Christians is in the hand of God where he wants them to be. God’s hands which are wounded, that are the hands of his Son who wanted to take the wounds with him to show them to the Father and intercede for us. The place of the Christian is in the intercession of Jesus before the Father. In God’s hands. And there we are safe come what may, even the cross. Our identity [he points to the Gospel] tells us that we will be blessed if they shall persecute us, if they say something against us; but if we are in God’s hands, wounded by love, we are safe. This is our place. And today we can ask ourselves: Where do I feel safest? In God’s hands or in other things, with other securities that we “rent” but which in the end will fail, that do not have any solidity?

These Christians with this identity card who lived and live in God’s hand are men and women of hope. And this is the third word that comes to mind today; hope. We heard it in the second Reading: that final vision where everything is “re-done”, where everything is recreated, that homeland we will all go to. And in order to enter it, there is no need for strange things, there is no need for attitudes that are somewhat sophisticated. All that is required is to show the identity card: “It is fine, go ahead”. Our hope is in Heaven, our hope is anchored there and holding the rope in our hands, we steady ourselves by looking at the shore of the river that we must reach.

Identity: Beatitudes and Matthew 25; Place, the safest place: in God’s hand, wounded by love. Hope, the future: the anchor there on the other shore, but I am firmly clinging to the rope. This is important, always clinging fast to the rope! Many times, we will only see the rope, not even the anchor, not even the other shore, but cling to the rope and you will reach it safely.

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Today’s solemnity of All Saints reminds us that we are all called to holiness. The Saints of all times, whom today we celebrate all together, are not simply symbols, distant, unreachable human beings. On the contrary, they are people who lived with their feet on the ground; they experienced the daily toil of existence with its successes and failures, finding in the Lord the strength to rise again and again, and to continue on their journey. From this we can understand that holiness is a goal that cannot be achieved only through one’s own strengths, but rather it is the fruit of God’s grace and of our free response to it. Therefore, holiness is a gift and a calling.

Inasmuch as it is a grace of God, that is a gift of His, it is something we cannot buy or barter, but that we receive, thus participating in the same divine life through the Holy Spirit Who has dwelt in us since the day of our Baptism. The seed of holiness is indeed Baptism. It is a matter of increasingly maturing the awareness that we are grafted onto Christ, as the branch is united to the vine, and therefore we can and must live with Him and in Him as children of God. So, holiness is living in full communion with God, now already, during this earthly pilgrimage.

But holiness, besides being a gift, is also a calling: it is a vocation common to of all of us Christians, to Christ’s disciples; it is the path of fullness that every Christian is called to follow in faith, proceeding towards the final goal of definitive communion with God in eternal life. Holiness thus becomes a response to God’s gift, since it manifests itself as an assumption of responsibility. From this perspective, it is important to make a daily commitment to sanctification in the conditions, duties and circumstances of our lives, trying to live everything with love, with charity.

The saints we celebrate today in the liturgy are brothers and sisters who admitted in their lives that they needed this divine light, abandoning themselves to it with confidence. And now, before the throne of God (cf. Rev 7: 15), they sing His glory for ever. They constitute the “holy city” to which we look with hope, as our definitive goal, while we are pilgrims in this “earthly city”. Let us walk towards that “holy city” where these holy brothers and sisters await us. It is true, we are wearied by the harshness of the road, but hope gives us the strength to move forward. Looking at their lives, we are encouraged to imitate them. Among them are many witnesses to a holiness “found in our next-door neighbours, those who, living in our midst, reflect God’s presence” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et exsultate, 7).

Brothers and sisters, the memory of the Saints leads us to raise our eyes to Heaven: not to forget the realities of the earth, but to face them with greater courage, with more hope. May Mary, our most holy Mother, accompany us with her maternal intercession, as a sign of consolation and sure hope.

After the Angelus, the Pope continued:

Dear brothers and sisters,

I greet you all with affection, pilgrims from Italy and various countries; in particular the children of Catholic Action; here with their educators from many Italian dioceses, on the fiftieth anniversary of the ACR. One, two, three... [the boys in the square sing]. I greet the young people of the Deanery of Mauges, France; and young people from Carugate. Milan.

I greet the athletes who took part in the Corsa dei Santi (The Saints Race), organized by the “Missioni Don Bosco” Foundation to emphasize, even in a form of popular celebration, the religious value of the feast of All Saints. I thank you and all those in the parishes and communities who are promoting prayer initiatives in these days to celebrate All Saints and to commemorate the dead. These two Christian feasts remind us of the bond that exists between the Church of the earth – us – and that of heaven, between us and our loved ones who have passed away.

Tomorrow afternoon I will celebrate the Eucharist in the Catacombs of Priscilla, one of the burial places of the first Christians of Rome. In these days, in which, unfortunately, there are also negative cultural messages regarding death and the dead, I invite you not to neglect, if possible, a visit to and a prayer at the cemetery. It will be an act of faith.

I wish you all a happy feast in the spiritual company of the Saints. Please do not forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch, and arrivederci!

VIDEO MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE FOURTH GLOBAL MEETING OF YOUNG PEOPLE
ORGANIZED BY THE “SCHOLAS OCCURRENTES” FOUNDATION
IN COLLABORATION WITH WORLD ORT

[Mexico City, 28-31 October 2019]

[Multimedia]

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO MEMBERS OF THE "DON CARLO GNOCCHI" FOUNDATION

Paul VI Audience Hall
Thursday, 31 October 2019

Dear brothers and sisters!

I welcome you and thank your President, and your friend, for the words of greeting and presentation of this beautiful association for welfare and social assistance, the Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation, which sprang from the mind and heart of this distinguished Ambrosian priest. In his homily for the Beatification, which took place in Milan ten years ago, Cardinal Tettamanzi pointed out to the Church that he was “a restless seeker of God and a courageous seeker of man, who has spent his life searching for the face of Christ imprinted in the face of every man”. How beautiful!

Indeed, Blessed Don Carlo Gnocchi, an apostle of charity, served Christ heroically in children, young people, the poor and the suffering, from the beginning of his priestly ministry, as a passionate educator. Then, as a military chaplain, he encountered the cruelty of the Second World War, first on the Greek-Albanian front, then, with the Alpines of the “Tridentine” Division, in the dramatic Russian campaign. During the disastrous retreat from the front, he worked tirelessly for the wounded and dying, and developed the plan for an organization to assist orphans and children mutilated by explosives. Returning to Italy, he implemented this wonderful project; his was not only a social enterprise, but was also moved by Christ’s charity. A work, a fruit of Christ's charity.

Many years later, you carry forth his legacy and, like a precious talent, you are multiplying it with the same apostolic zeal and fidelity to the Gospel. For this I am grateful to each of you: directors and managers of the Centres, doctors and workers, volunteers and friends. And you are here today, together with patients, guests and their families, to confirm your commitment to be close to the sufferings of the most fragile people, in the style of the Good Samaritan and following the example of your Blessed Founder. Never tire of serving the least on the difficult frontier of infirmity and disability: together with the most advanced therapies and techniques for the body, offer to those who confidently turn to your structures the medicines of the soul, that is, God’s consolation and tenderness.

Inspired by the care, delicacy and sensitivity of Blessed Carlo Gnocchi as a priest, you are called to combine social and health service with evangelizing action in the concrete aspects of daily life. For you, this means courageously fighting the causes of suffering and lovingly tending to the distress of those who are suffering or in difficulty. Times have changed since the beginning, but it is necessary to go on with the same spirit, with the attitude and style that Don Gnocchi described as follows: “Active, optimistic, serene, concrete and profoundly human Christians who look at the world no longer as an enemy to be defeated or fled, but as a prodigal son to be conquered and redeemed with love” (Education of the heart).

The meaning and value of the health profession, and of every service rendered to our ailing brothers, are fully manifested in the ability to combine competence and compassion, both together. Competence is the fruit of your preparation, experience and the updating of your skills; and all this is supported by a strong motivation to serve your suffering neighbour, a motivation which in the Christian is animated by the charity of Christ. Competence is the quality that makes the witness of the lay faithful credible in the different environments of society; competence also guarantees you when you go against the tide with respect to the dominant culture: in your case, when you devote time and resources to fragile life, even if to someone it may seem useless or even unworthy of being lived.

Competence and compassion. The suffering of our brothers demands to be shared, demands for attitudes and initiatives of compassion. It is a matter of “suffering with”, pitying like Jesus who, out of love for man, became man Himself in order to be able to share fully, in a very real way, in flesh and blood, as is shown to us in His Passion. A society that is not able to welcome, protect and give hope to suffering is a society that has lost its piety and that has lost its sense of humanity. The vast network of centres and services that you have set up in Italy and in other countries is a good model because it seeks to combine assistance, hospitality and evangelical charity. In a social context that favours efficiency over solidarity, your structures are instead houses of hope, whose purpose is the protection, appreciation and true benefit of the sick, the handicapped and the elderly.

Dear friends, I renew my appreciation for the service you render to those who find themselves in difficulty. I encourage you to continue your journey in your commitment to human promotion, which is also an indispensable contribution to the Church’s evangelizing mission. Indeed, the proclamation of the Gospel is more credible thanks to the tangible love with which Jesus’ disciples bear witness to their faith in Him.

May the human and Christian witness of Blessed Don Carlo Gnocchi, characterized by love for the weakest, always guide your choices and your activities. May the Lord grant you everywhere to be messengers of His mercy and consolation, messengers of His tenderness. I accompany you with my prayer and from my heart I impart to you my Blessing, which I gladly extend to those who are hosted in your centres. And please do not forget to pray for me. Thank you!

*Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 31 October 2019

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THE FIFTH INTERNATIONAL COURSE OF FORMATION
OF CATHOLIC MILITARY CHAPLAINS
ON INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW

Clementine Hall
Thursday, 31 October 2019

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I offer you a warm welcome on the occasion of the Fifth International Course of Formation of Catholic Military Chaplains on International Humanitarian Law, dedicated to the theme “The Loss of Personal Freedom in the Context of Armed Conflicts: The Mission of the Military Chaplain”. I thank Cardinal Peter Turkson for his kind words offered in your name.

Four years ago, when I received the participants in the previous session of this course, I highlighted the need to reject the temptation of viewing the other as merely an enemy to be destroyed, and not as a person endowed with intrinsic dignity, created by God in his image. I also urged everyone never to tire of remembering that even amid the devastations of war and conflict every person is immensely holy.[1]

This encouragement, which I would renew today, becomes all the more significant in the case of persons deprived of personal freedom due to armed conflicts, since in addition to their vulnerability as prisoners, they are also in the hands of their adversaries. Often, persons detained in the context of armed conflicts are victims of violations of their fundamental rights. These violations include abuse, violence and various forms of torture and cruel treatment that are inhuman and degrading.

How many civilians, too, have been kidnapped, forcibly disappeared and killed! Among these, we can count numerous men and women religious of whom we hear nothing more, or who have given their lives for their consecration to God and their service to others, without favouritism or nationalistic bias.

I assure all these persons and their families of my prayers, that they may always have the courage to move forward and not lose hope.

International humanitarian law contains a number of provisions aimed at the protection of the dignity of detainees; this is especially the case in regard to the law governing international armed conflicts. The ethical foundation and crucial importance of these norms for safeguarding human dignity in the tragic context of armed conflicts means that they must be properly and rigorously respected and enforced. This also applies to encounters with detainees, independently of the nature and gravity of the crimes they may have committed. Respect for the dignity and physical integrity of the human person, in fact, cannot depend upon the actions they have done, but is a moral duty to which every person and every authority is called.

Dear Ordinaries and military chaplains: as you carry out your mission to form the consciences of the members of the armed forces, I encourage you to spare no effort to enable the norms of international humanitarian law to be accepted in the hearts of those entrusted to your pastoral care. Let yourselves be guided by the words of the Gospel: “I was in prison and you came to me” (Mt 25:36).

This means assisting the particular portion of the People of God entrusted to your care to identify those elements of the common patrimony of humanity, based on the natural law, that can become a bridge and a platform of encounter with everyone. The servants of Christ in the military world are also the first to be at the service of men and women and of their fundamental rights. I think of those among you who are close to military personnel in situations of international conflict; you are called to open their consciences to that universal love which brings one person closer to another, no matter what the other’s race, nationality, culture or religion may be.

But even before this, something else is required: an educational effort alongside that of families and Christian communities. This involves instilling the values of friendship, understanding, tolerance, goodness, and respect for all persons. It means forming young people who are sensitive to other cultures and their richness and committed to a global citizenship, in order to promote the growth of the one great human family. The Second Vatican Council calls those in military service “custodians of the security and freedom of their people” (Gaudium et Spes, 79). You are in their midst so that those words, which war contradicts and nullifies, can become a reality, so that they can give meaning to the lives of so many, both young and not so young, who, as military personnel, do not want to be robbed of human and Christian values.

Dear brothers and sisters, on 12 August 1949, the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War was signed. On this, its seventieth anniversary, I want to reaffirm the importance the Holy See gives to international humanitarian law and to express the hope that its norms will be respected in every circumstance. The latter should be further clarified and reinforced where appropriate, especially with regard to non-international armed conflicts, and in particular with regard to the protection of persons deprived of freedom because of these conflicts.

I assure you that the Holy See will continue to make its contribution in discussions and negotiations within the family of nations. I entrust you to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy, and I impart my heartfelt blessing to you and your loved ones. And I ask you please to pray for me. Thank you!

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

Reading the Acts of the Apostles, one can see how the Holy Spirit is the protagonist of the Church’s mission. It is he who guides the journey of the evangelizers by showing them the path to follow.

We can see this clearly in the moment in which the Apostle Paul, having reached Troas, has a vision. A Macedonian beseeches him: “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9). The people of North Macedonia are proud of this; they are very proud of having called Paul for it was Paul who proclaimed Jesus Christ. I remember well those beautiful people who welcomed me with so much warmth. May they preserve this faith which Paul preached to them! The Apostle does not hesitate and leaves for Macedonia, certain that it is precisely God who is sending him, and he arrives in Philippi, a “Roman colony” (Acts 16:12) on the Via Egnatia, to preach the Gospel. Paul stops there for some days. Three events characterize his stay in Philippi in three days; three important events. 1) the evangelization and baptism of Lydia and her family; 2) the arrest he endures, along with Silas, after exorcising a slave exploited by her owners; 3) the conversion and baptism of his jailer and his family. Let us look at these three episodes in Paul’s life.

The power of the Gospel is mostly addressed to the women of Philippi, in particular to Lydia, a merchant of purple goods from the city of Thyatira, a believer in God whose heart the Lord opens in order “to give heed to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14). Indeed Lydia welcomes Christ, receives baptism together with her family and welcomes those who are of Christ, hosting Paul and Silas in her home. We have here the testimony of Christianity’s arrival in Europe: the beginning of a process of inculturation which continues still today. It entered via Macedonia.

After the warmth experienced in Lydia’s home, Paul and Silas find themselves having to deal with the harshness of prison: they go from the comfort of this conversion of Lydia and her family, to the desolation of prison where they have been thrown for having freed in the name of Jesus, a “slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain” with her position as soothsayer (Acts 16:16). Her owners earned well and this wretched slave did what fortune tellers do: she would guess your future, she would read your palms — as the song says: “prendi questa mano zingara” (take this hand, gypsy) — and people paid her for this. Today too, dear brothers and sisters, there are people who pay for this. I remember in my own diocese, in a very large park, there were more than 60 small tables where men and women fortune tellers sat reading palms and the people believed in these things! And they paid. And this also happened in Saint Paul’s days. In retaliation, her owners reported Paul and they brought the Apostles before the magistrates with the charge of public disorder.

But what happens? Paul is in prison and during his imprisonment a surprising fact occurs. He is desolated but instead of complaining, Paul and Silas begin to sing hymns praising God and this praise unleashes a power that frees them: during the prayer, an earthquake shakes the foundations of the prison, the doors open and everyone’s fetters fall off (cf. Acts 16:25-26). Just like the prayer of Pentecost, even the one said in prison brings about extraordinary effects.

Believing that the prisoners had escaped, the jailer was on the verge of committing suicide because jailers paid with their lives if a prisoner escaped. But Paul cries out: “we are all here” (Acts 16:28). He then asks: “what must I do to be saved?” (v. 30). The answer is: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (v. 31). At this point a change occurs: in the middle of the night, the jailer listens to the Word of the Lord with his family, he welcomes the Apostles, washes their wounds — because they had been beaten — and together with his family, he receives Baptism; then “he rejoiced with all his household that he had believed in God” (v. 34). He prepares a meal and invites Paul and Silas to stay with them: the moment of comfort! In the middle of this anonymous jailer’s night, the light of Christ shines and defeats the darkness: the chains of the heart fall off and a previously unknown joy blossoms within him and his relatives. Thus, the Holy Spirit is on mission: from the start, from Pentecost onwards he is the protagonist of the mission. And he carries us forward. We must be faithful to the vocation to which the Spirit moves us. In order to bring the Gospel.

Today, let us too ask the Holy Spirit for an open heart, like Lydia’s, receptive to God and welcoming towards our brothers and sisters and a bold faith, like that of Paul and Silas, and also an open heart like that of the jailer who allows himself to be touched by the Holy Spirit.

Appeal and Special Greetings

Dear brothers and sisters, my thoughts go to beloved Iraq where this month’s protest demonstrations left many dead and wounded. As I express my condolences for the victims and my closeness to their families and to the wounded, I invite the Authorities to listen to the cry of the people who are calling for a dignified and peaceful life. I exhort all Iraqis, with the support of the international community, to journey on the path of dialogue and reconciliation and to seek the just solutions to the challenges and problems of the country. I pray that this martyred people can find peace and stability after many years of war and violence during which they have greatly suffered.

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially the groups from England, Ireland, Denmark, Australia, Korea, Indonesia, Israel, the Philippines, Canada and the United States of America. Upon all of you, and your families, I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!

Lastly, I offer a special greeting to young people, the elderly, the sick and newlyweds. I can see they are many ... At the end of the month of October let us invoke Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother. May you learn to turn to her, praying to her with the prayer of the Rosary. May Our Lady be your support in the sequela of her Son, Jesus Christ.

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

The Mass celebrated this morning in Saint Peter’s concluded the Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazon Region. The first reading, from the Book of Sirach, reminded us of the starting point of this journey: the invocation of the poor, who go “past the clouds”, because “God listens” to the prayer of the oppressed (Sir 35: 21, 16). The cry of the poor, together with that of the earth, came to us from the Amazon. After these three weeks we cannot pretend that we have not heard it. The voices of the poor, along with those of many others inside and outside the Synod Assembly – pastors, young people, scientists – urge us not to remain indifferent. We have often heard the phrase “later is too late”: this phrase cannot remain a slogan.

What was the Synod? It was, as the word says, a journey undertaken together, comforted by the courage and consolations that come from the Lord. We walked, looking each other in the eye and listening to each other, sincerely, without concealing difficulties, experiencing the beauty of moving forward together in order serve. The Apostle Paul stimulates us in this, in today’s second reading: in a dramatic moment for him, while he knows that he is “already being poured out as a drink offering” – that is, executed – “and the time of my departure has come” (cf. 2 Tim 4: 6), he writes, at that moment: “But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it” (v. 17). This is Paul’s final wish: not something for himself or for one of his own, but for the Gospel, that it may be proclaimed to all nations. This comes first of all and counts more than anything. Each of us must have asked ourselves many times what good might be done in one’s own life. Today is the time; let us ask ourselves: “Me, what can I do that is good for the Gospel?”

In the Synod we asked ourselves this question, wishing to open up new paths for the proclamation of the Gospel. Only what is lived is proclaimed. And to live by Jesus, to live by the Gospel, one must come out of oneself. We felt spurred on to go out to sea, to leave the comfortable shores of our safe harbours to enter deep waters: not into the marshy waters of ideologies, but the open sea in which the Spirit invites us to cast our nets.

For the way ahead, let us invoke the Virgin Mary, venerated and loved as Queen of the Amazon. She became one not by conquering, but by “inculturating” herself: with a mother’s humble courage she became the protector of her children, the defence of the oppressed. Always going out to the culture of the peoples. There is not a standard culture, there is not a pure culture that purifies the others; there is the Gospel, pure, which is inculturated. To she who cared for Jesus in the poor house of Nazareth, we entrust the poorest children and our common home.

After the Angelus, the Pope continued:

Dear brothers and sisters,

I address a special thought to the dear Lebanese people, in particular to the young, who in recent days have made their cry heard in the face of the challenges and social, moral and economic problems of the country. I urge everyone to seek the right solutions in the way of dialogue, and I pray to the Virgin Mary, Queen of Lebanon, so that, with the support of the international community, the country may continue to be a place of peaceful coexistence and respect for the dignity and freedom of every person, for the benefit of the entire Middle Eastern Region, which suffers so much.

I greet you all with affection: pilgrims from Italy and various countries, especially those from São Paulo, Brazil and Poland, and the group of the “Céntro Académico Romano Fundación” from Spain.

I greet the Apostles of the Sacred Heart, who celebrate the centenary of their foundation; the Syro-Malabar community of the diocese of Patti; and the seminarians of the diocese of Reggio Emilia-Guastalla, who served Mass in the Basilica this morning. And I also see that there are the confirmands from Galzignano: I greet you!

This is the last Sunday of October, the missionary month, which this year has had an extraordinary character, and it is also the month of the Rosary. I renew my invitation to pray the Rosary for the mission of the Church today, especially for missionaries who encounter the greatest difficulties. At the same time let us continue to pray the Rosary for peace. The Gospel and peace go hand in hand.

I wish you all a happy Sunday. Please do not forget to pray for me. Have a good lunch, and arrivederci!

HOLY MASS CONCLUDING THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS FOR THE PAN-AMAZON REGION

PAPAL CHAPEL

HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS

Vatican Basilica
XXX Sunday of Ordinary Time, 27 October 2019

The word of God today helps us to pray through three figures: in Jesus’ parable both the Pharisee and the tax collector pray, while the first reading speaks of the prayer of a poor person.

1. The prayer of the Pharisee begins in this way: “God, I thank you”.

This is a great beginning, because the best prayer is that of gratitude, that of praise. Immediately, though, we see the reason why he gives thanks: “that I am not like other men” (Lk 18:11). He also explains the reason: he fasts twice a week, although at the time there was only a yearly obligation; he pays tithes on all that he has, though tithing was prescribed only on the most important products (cf. Dt 14:22ff). In short, he boasts because he fulfils particular commandments to the best degree possible. But he forgets the greatest commandment: to love God and our neighbour (cf. Mt 22:36-40). Brimming with self-assurance about his own ability to keep the commandments, his own merits and virtues, he is focused only on himself. The tragedy of this man is that he is without love. Even the best things, without love, count for nothing, as Saint Paul says (cf. 1 Cor 13). Without love, what is the result? He ends up praising himself instead of praying. In fact, he asks nothing from the Lord because he does not feel needy or in debt, but he feels that God owes something to him. He stands in the temple of God, but he worships a different god: himself. And many “prestigious” groups, “Catholic Christians”, go along this path.

Together with God, he forgets his neighbour; indeed, he despises him. For the Pharisee, his neighbour has no worth, no value. He considers himself better than others, whom he calls literally “the rest, the remainders” (loipoi, Lk 18:11). That is, they are “leftovers”, they are scraps from which to keep one’s distance. How many times do we see this happening over and over again in life and history! How many times do those who are prominent, like the Pharisee with respect to the tax collector, raise up walls to increase distances, making other people feel even more rejected. Or by considering them backward and of little worth, they despise their traditions, erase their history, occupy their lands, and usurp their goods. How much alleged superiority, transformed into oppression and exploitation, exists even today! We saw this during the Synod when speaking about the exploitation of creation, of people, of the inhabitants of the Amazon, of the trafficking of persons, the trade in human beings! The mistakes of the past were not enough to stop the plundering of other persons and the inflicting of wounds on our brothers and sisters and on our sister earth: we have seen it in the scarred face of the Amazon region. Worship of self carries on hypocritically with its rites and “prayers” – many are Catholics, they profess themselves Catholic, but have forgotten they are Christians and human beings – forgetting the true worship of God which is always expressed in love of one’s neighbour. Even Christians who pray and go to Mass on Sunday are subject to this religion of the self. Let us examine ourselves and see whether we too may think that someone is inferior and can be tossed aside, even if only in our words. Let us pray for the grace not to consider ourselves superior, not to believe that we are alright, not to become cynical and scornful. Let us ask Jesus to heal us of speaking ill and complaining about others, of despising this or that person: these things are displeasing to God. And at Mass today we are accompanied providentially not only by indigenous people of the Amazon, but also by the poorest from our developed societies: our disabled brothers and sisters from the Community of L’Arche. They are with us, in the front row.

2. Let us turn to the other prayer. The prayer of the tax collector helps us understand what is pleasing to God. He does not begin from his own merits but from his shortcomings; not from his riches but from his poverty. His was not economic poverty – tax collectors were wealthy and tended to make money unjustly at the expense of their fellow citizens – but he felt a poverty of life, because we never live well in sin. The tax collector who exploited others admitted being poor before God, and the Lord heard his prayer, a mere seven words but an expression of heartfelt sincerity. In fact, while the Pharisee stood in front on his feet (cf. v. 11), the tax collector stood far off and “would not even lift up his eyes to heaven”, because he believed that God is indeed great, while he knew himself to be small. He “beat his breast” (cf. v. 13), because the breast is where the heart is. His prayer is born straight from the heart; it is transparent. He places his heart before God, not outward appearances. To pray is to stand before God’s eyes – it is God looking at me when I pray – without illusions, excuses or justifications. Often our regrets filled with self-justification can make us laugh. More than regrets, they seem as if we are canonizing ourselves. Because from the devil come darkness and lies – these are our self-justifications; from God come light and truth, transparency of my heart. It was a wonderful experience, and I am so grateful, dear members of the Synod, that we have been able to speak to one another in these weeks from the heart, with sincerity and candour, and to place our efforts and hopes before God and our brothers and sisters.

Today, looking at the tax collector, we rediscover where to start: from the conviction that we, all of us, are in need of salvation. This is the first step of the true worship of God, who is merciful towards those who admit their need. On the other hand, the root of every spiritual error, as the ancient monks taught, is believing ourselves to be righteous. To consider ourselves righteous is to leave God, the only righteous one, out in the cold. This initial stance is so important that Jesus shows it to us with an unusual comparison, juxtaposing in the parable the Pharisee, the most pious and devout figure of the time, and the tax collector, the public sinner par excellence. The judgment is reversed: the one who is good but presumptuous fails; the one who is a disaster but humble is exalted by God. If we look at ourselves honestly, we see in us all both the tax collector and the Pharisee. We are a bit tax collectors because we are sinners, and a bit Pharisees because we are presumptuous, able to justify ourselves, masters of the art of self-justification. This may often work with ourselves, but not with God. This trick does not work with God. Let us pray for the grace to experience ourselves in need of mercy, interiorly poor. For this reason too, we do well to associate with the poor, to remind ourselves that we are poor, to remind ourselves that the salvation of God operates only in an atmosphere of interior poverty.

3. We come now to the prayer of the poor person, from the first reading. This prayer, says Sirach, “will reach to the clouds” (35:21). While the prayer of those who presume that they are righteous remains earthly, crushed by the gravitational force of egoism, that of the poor person rises directly to God. The sense of faith of the People of God has seen in the poor “the gatekeepers of heaven”: the sense of faith that was missing in [the Pharisee’s] utterance. They are the ones who will open wide or not the gates of eternal life. They were not considered bosses in this life, they did not put themselves ahead of others; they had their wealth in God alone. These persons are living icons of Christian prophecy.

In this Synod we have had the grace of listening to the voices of the poor and reflecting on the precariousness of their lives, threatened by predatory models of development. Yet precisely in this situation, many have testified to us that it is possible to look at reality in a different way, accepting it with open arms as a gift, treating the created world not as a resource to be exploited but as a home to be preserved, with trust in God. He is our Father and, Sirach says again, “he hears the prayer of one who is wronged” (v. 16). How many times, even in the Church, have the voices of the poor not been heard and perhaps scoffed at or silenced because they are inconvenient. Let us pray for the grace to be able to listen to the cry of the poor: this is the cry of hope of the Church. The cry of the poor is the Church’s cry of hope. When we make their cry our own, we can be certain, our prayer too will reach to the clouds.

Firstly, I would like to thank you all for bearing witness by working, listening, researching, trying to put into practice this synodal spirit on which we are perhaps just learning to focus. And which we are still not able to finalize. But we are on the way; we are on a good path. We are increasingly coming to understand what this walking together is; we are beginning to understand what it means to discern, what it means to listen, what it means to incorporate the Church’s rich tradition in cyclical moments. Some think that tradition is a museum of old things. I like to repeat what Gustav Mahler used to say: “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire”. It is like a root from which comes sap, that makes the tree grow so that it bears fruit. To take this and make it move forward: this is what the first Fathers understood tradition to be. To receive and to walk in the same direction with this very beautiful three-fold dimension that Vincent of Lerins described back in the 5th century: Remaining absolutely intact and unaltered, Christian Dogma is consolidated with the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age. (cf. Commonitorium, Cap 23 : pl 50, 667-668). Thank you for all this.

One of the themes that were voted on and that obtained a majority — three themes obtained a majority for the next Synod — is that of synodality. I do not know whether it will be chosen; I have not decided yet. I am reflecting and thinking but I can certainly say that we have journeyed a lot and we must still journey more along this path of synodality. Thank you all for your companionship.

The Post-Synodal Exhortation, which is not obligatory for the Pope to issue, probably not; excuse me, the easiest thing to do would be: “well, here is the document, you see to it”. In any case, a word from the Pope on what he experienced during the Synod can do some good. I would like to say it before the end of the year so that not too much time goes by. Everything depends on the amount of time that I will have to think about it.

We have spoken about four dimensions. Firstly, the cultural dimension: we worked on it; we spoke about inculturation, about the promotion of culture, and all this very animatedly, and I was pleased with what was said regarding this, that it is within the Church’s tradition. Inculturation: the Puebla Conference to name the nearest one, had opened that door. Secondly, the ecological dimension. Here I would like to pay tribute to one of the pioneers of this awareness within the Church, Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. He was one of the first to pave the way to create this conscience. And many followed him, and with that concern, and always with the exponential acceleration of the Paris team; and then other encounters followed. This is how Laudato Si’ was conceived; as an inspiration on which many people worked, on which many scientists, theologians and pastoral workers worked. Thus this ecological awareness advances and today denounces a path of compulsive exploitation, destruction, of which the Amazon is one of the most important aspects. I would say that it is a symbol. This ecological dimension on which our future depends, is that not so? In the demonstrations by young people, in Greta’s movement and that of others, several people held up a placard that read: “The future is ours”, that is, “you do not decide our future”. “It is ours!”. In this, there is already the awareness of ecological peril, obviously not only in the Amazon but also in other places: the Congo is another one, other sectors; in my country, in the Chaco, there is the “Impenetrable” zone which is small, but in some way, we too know the problem. Alongside the ecological dimension, there is the social dimension which we have addressed, which is no longer just all creation, Creation that is savagely exploited, but also people. And in the Amazon all kinds of injustices appear: the destruction of people, the exploitation of people at every level and the destruction of cultural identity. I remember that arriving in Puerto Maldonado — I think I have already said this, I am not sure — at the airport there was a poster with the image of a very beautiful girl with the words: “Defend yourself and beware of trafficking. That is, this is the warning to the arriving tourist. Trafficking listens and trafficking at the highest level of corruption of people at every level. And this, together with the destruction of cultural identity which is another phenomenon that you have singled out very well in the Document. How is cultural identity destroyed in all this? It is the fourth dimension which includes them all — and I would say the main one — the pastoral dimension, the Announcement of the Gospel is urgent; it is urgent. But that it be heard, that it be assimilated, that it be understood by those cultures. There have already been discussions about the laity, priests, permanent deacons, men and women religious, on whom to rely in this field. And there has been talk of what they do and how to strengthen this. There has been talk of new ministries inspired by Paul VI’s Ministeria Quaedam, of creativity in this. Creativity in the new ministries and seeing how far one can go. There was talk of indigenous seminarians, and with great intensity. I thank Cardinal O’Malley for the courage he had because he rubbed salt in the wound with regards to something which is a true social injustice, that is in fact, that indigenous people are not permitted to take the path of seminarians and the path of priesthood. Creativity in all that relates to the new ministries. I welcome the request to reconvene the Commission and perhaps expand it with new members in order to continue to study the permanent diaconate that existed in the early Church. You know you have reached an agreement among yourselves, which however, is unclear. I delivered this to the women religious, to the Union of [Superiors General] of Women Religious who asked me to conduct the research. I delivered it to them and now each of the theologians is seeking, is investigating. I will try to do it again with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and include new people in this Commission. I welcome the challenge that you have given me, “and that they may be heard”. I accept the challenge [applause]. Some things emerged which should be reformed: the Church must always reform. Priestly formation in the country. In some countries, I heard in a group or here once — I heard it once — that a certain lack of apostolic zeal was noted among the clergy in the non Amazon area with respect to the Amazon area.

When a religious Congregation leaves a vicariate, Cardinal Filoni and I have some difficulty in finding priests from the country who will take its place: “No, I am not suitable for this”. Well this must be reformed. Priestly formation in the country is universal and there is the responsibility to take on all the problems of the geographical countries, let us say, of that Episcopal Conference. In order to reform, it is necessary that there be no lack of zeal. I also recall that two people also said that there may not be such an evident lack of zeal. Excuse me, whether evident or less evident, there is a lack of zeal but ... among young religious, and it is something to take into account. Young religious have a very great vocation and they should be trained in apostolic zeal to go to the frontier territories. It would be good that the formation planning of religious include an experience of one year or longer in neighbouring regions. Moreover, and this is just a suggestion that I received in writing, but which I will now mention: that in the Holy See’s diplomatic service, in the curriculum of the diplomatic service, young priests should spend at least one year in mission territory, but not doing an internship at the Nunciature as happens now, which is very useful, but simply at the service of a bishop in a mission area. This point will be examined but it is also a reform to be considered. And the redistribution of the clergy in the same country. In reference to a specific situation, it was said that there is a large amount of priests from that first world country, for example in the United States, in Europe, and that there are not enough of them to send them out to the Amazon region of that same country. This will be evaluated, but there needs to be agreement. The fidei donums involved ... it is true that at times — it has happened to me when I was a bishop in another diocese — someone you sent to study arrives and tells you that he has fallen in love with the place and that he remained in the place and, despite everything that the first world offers, he does not want to return to the diocese. Clearly, in order to save the vocation, one concedes. But on this point we must be very careful and not indulge. I thank the true fidei donum priests who come to Europe from Africa, Asia and from America but those who are true fidei donums repay that fidei donum which Europe had given them. But those who come and remain are a danger. A bishop in Italy told me a sad thing; he has three of these priests who stayed and who will not go to celebrate Mass in the small mountain towns unless they have first received an offering. It is a story of here, today. So let us be attentive to this and let us demonstrate courage in making redistribution reforms of the clergy within the same country.

And one issue of the pastoral dimension was women. Obviously women: what the Document says is “not enough”; what is woman, right? In transmitting the faith, in preserving culture. I would just like to underscore this: that we have not yet understood what the woman signifies in the Church and we limit ourselves only to the functional aspect which is important and must be in the councils ... or in all that was said. But the role of women in the Church goes well beyond functionality. And more work must continue on this. Well beyond.

Then in the final part of the Document, there was talk of reorganization, and I noticed in the voting that some were not convinced. Service bodies, imitating repam, to make a type of ... that repam may have more substance, a kind of Amazon face. I do not know, making progress in the organization, progressing in the semi-Episcopal Conferences, that is, there is an Episcopal Conference in a country but there is also a semi-Episcopal Conference that is part of an area and this occurs everywhere. Here in Italy, there is the Lombardy Episcopal Conference; that is, there are countries that have sector-based Episcopal Conferences, so why can’t the countries in the Amazon region create small Amazon Episcopal Conferences that belong to the general one but that carry out their work. By organizing this structure like repam, like an Amazon celam ...opening.

There was talk of a ritual reform, to be open to rites. This is the responsibility of the Congregation for Divine Worship and it can do so by following the criteria and I know that it can do it very well and make the necessary proposals required by inculturation. But one must always aim at going beyond, going beyond. Not only ritual organization but also other types of organization: that which inspires the Lord. Of the 23 Churches with their own rites that are mentioned in the Document and which were mentioned at least in the pre-document, I believe that 18 if not 19 of them are sui iuris Churches and have started out with little, creating traditions that will lead them where the Lord will take them. We must not fear organizations which safeguard a special life. Always with the help of the Holy Mother Church, Mother of all, who guides us on this journey so that we do not separate. Do not be afraid of them.

And a contribution also with respect to the Roman Curia. I believe it must be made and I will speak about how to do so with Cardinal Turkson. To open an Amazon sector within the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. So that since he has no work, I will give him more ...!

I would also like to thank you as I have already done, to thank all those who worked outside, mostly outside this Hall. The secretaries who helped, the hidden secretariat, the media, the dissemination team, those who organized the meetings and the information. The great hidden ones who permit something [like this] to move forward. The famous direction that helped us so much. My gratitude goes also to them.

I include the presidency of the Secretariat General in my general gratitude and thanks to the means of communication — whom I thought would be here to listen to the voting since it is public —, for what they have done. Thank you for the favour they show us in disseminating the Synod. I would ask them a favour: that in their dissemination of the Final Document, they will focus above all on the diagnosis which is the more significant part, the part in which the Synod truly expressed itself best: cultural diagnosis, social diagnosis, pastoral diagnosis and ecological diagnosis. Because society must take this on. The danger can be that at times they may linger — it is a danger; I am not saying that they will do it but society demands it — on seeing what was decided on the disciplinary issue, what they decided on another, which party won and which one lost. That is, in other words on small disciplinary things which have their importance but that would not do the good that this Synod must do. May society take on the diagnosis that we have made in the four dimensions. I would ask the media to do all this.

There is always an “elite” group of Christians which likes to interfere in this type of diagnosis, as if it were universal; in the smaller ones or in that type of resolution that is more intra-ecclesiastic discipline, I am not saying inter-ecclesial, intra-ecclesiastic, and to say that this section has won over that section. No, we have all won with the diagnoses that we have made and how far we have come in the pastoral and intra-ecclesiastic issues. But one does not close oneself in on this. Thinking today about these Catholics and at times Christian “elites”, but above all Catholics who want to go to “the small” [picture] and forget the “big” [picture], a verse from Péguy came to mind and I went to look for it. I will try to translate it well. I think it can help us, when it describes these groups who want the “small thing” and forget the “thing”: Because they do not belong to someone else, they think they belong to God. Because they love no one else, they think that they love God. I am very pleased that we did not fall prey to these selective groups that, concerning the Synod, just want to see what was decided on this or that intra-ecclesiastic point and they deny the corpus of the Synod which consists in the diagnoses that we have carried out in the four dimensions.

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE GENERAL CHAPTER
OF THE ORDER OF THE SERVANTS OF MARY

Friday, 25 October 2019

Impromptu address of the Holy Father

Prepared address of the Holy Father

IMPROMPTU ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER

Excuse me if I remain seated, as I am not going to read the written speech. I will give it to you [the Superior], because since yesterday, when I saw that I would meet you today, my memory turned to the year 1957, to the Seminary of Villa Devoto [in Buenos Aires]. At that time there were two of you who were studying there. I don't know if one of you is here. Then I lost sight of them. The year 1957: 62 years ago. You grow old in life! They told me the story of Alessio Falconieri and the other six, and I was enthusiastic about this as an example of holiness. To see rich men, merchants - indeed, Florentines [laughs] – who were able to make this decision for Our Lady. It is the word “servant”, “service”, in the service of Our Lady. This way of service, of humiliation, of the humble journey. And I was so enthusiastic that, throughout my life, from that moment on, I celebrate with particular love the 17th of February [liturgical memory of the Seven Founders of the Servants of Mary], even with Mass. I was struck by that testimony, and this is what I want to tell you.

So, today, you “staked one and earned two”: take with you this written speech, and also what I will tell you now. I will give it to you so that you may give it to everyone.

The phrase “Servants of Mary” makes me think of something that Saint Ignatius [of Loyola, in the Exercises] puts in his meditation on the birth of Jesus. He says: “I must be present – in meditation – as a servant who helps Our Lady to do what she must Bethlehem, in the crib”. Servants of Our Lady. In this there is a great relationship with what Our Lady does. She enables Jesus to be born, she raises Him grow, and then she makes the Church grow. And those great merchants – because they had money, they were not without it – in the end left everything to become servants, servants of Our Lady, because they understood the role of Our Lady in redemption, a role that so often the so-called “modern” theologies forget. But Our Lady brought us Jesus! And your Founders understood this, they understood and they became servants. They went to pray [on Mount Senario]; and then they did all their work.

The word “service” is also the one Our Lady says to the Angel: “I am the servant, I am here to serve”. They imitate Our Lady in this service. And they make themselves her servants, so that she may lead them precisely in this way of service. The first word: service. You are servants. Never forget this. You are not masters. Serve. “Look at that other one...”. But you are the servant of the other. “But that bishop...”. You are the servant of that bishop. “But the Church...”. You are a servant of the Church. “And the people...”. You are the servant of the people. Never stray from that founding grace that is being a servant. A servant by choice. The other Saint Alexius [of Rome] had also become a beggar, he lived under the stairs. Your Alessio made a choice: he was a servant by choice, in order to become a saint. This is precisely the path taken by the Word: “He emptied Himself. …He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (cf. Phil 2: 7-8). It is the way of service. Yes, but even more: servitude. “Does this mean that I must be a slave?” Yes. “That I must also renounce certain freedoms in order to become a servant?”. Yes, I do. Meditate on this name of yours: servants of Our Lady, the handmaid of the Lord, who as Lord became a servant, Jesus.

This is the first idea that comes to mind, but still thinking of the year 1957, when these two brothers of yours spoke to me about the spirituality of the congregation. It has remained impressed on me.

And service is a service of hope. If there is one person who does not seem to have reasons for human hope, it is Our Lady, with those strange things that happened in her life: from the birth of Jesus, then persecution and flight, then the return, and seeing the son growing in contradictions... But she looked forward: she was the Lady of hope. Today, we are all experts in the lack of hope. We always find loopholes to have no hope, when we begin to complain about the world: “But this... and these calamities, the things that happen...”. Bad things happen, but no worse than those which happened in Our Lady’s time. It is the same. The world changes its forms, but the slavery, wars and cruelty of that time are those of today. We must sow hope, look beyond. Our Lady also teaches us to sow hope. Think of Calvary; think of Pentecost when she prayed with her disciples. She is Our Lady of sorrows, and in sorrow, in poverty, in spoliation, hope comes, she sees herself clearly. When one is well, it is not so easy to express hope, but when there are difficulties, hope comes. And she [Mary] is a teacher, she has taught us so much. She has taught us so much.

Then, the other word [of the theme of your Chapter]: “in a changing world”. Change. Time is always changing. We are always tempted to stop time, to divide it, to dominate it... As one here said, at the Synod for the Amazon: “You Europeans have the clock, we [natives] have time”. Placing a stake on time. Yes, things change, but time is God’s. And do not close yourself off in our times, which are too human, too human. To go ahead according to God’s time: He knows.

To be servants of Our Lady, of hope, in a time that changes, in change, is only possible through prayer. Your seven Founders first of all withdrew to pray. And they prayed well! I recommend that you do not neglect prayer. It is the foundation of your life. Prayer is also like begging Our Lady for alms: “Help me to be a faithful servant”. This prayer is fruitful and will give you vocations and many things. Prayer is the instrument that works miracles. It works miracles. But there are many unbelievers regarding the power of prayer. And I am tempted to say – it is a temptation but I say it myself – that very often we are the most incredulous: bishops, priests, who do not believe in the miracle of prayer. We do not believe what Jesus tells us: “Ask and you will receive”. We don't believe in our Father Who has such strength.

That's what I wish to tell you, in this way, fraternally. Remembering that experience in 1957 and also on 17 February every year, when I look at those good men who gave this sign; they did so through inspiration of the Lord, but they were faithful to that inspiration. This shows you the way to go. The other things I say there, in the written address.

A final reference, finally, to the spirit... but not to the Holy Spirit! The beautiful gesture of bringing me a bit of spirit to lift the heart! [wine produced on the farm of the Servants of Mary in Tuscany] Thank you, thank you so much! And pray for me, as I am in need, so that I too may be something of a servant to Our Lady in a changing time, a servant of hope. Thank you!

PREPARED ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER

Dear brothers,

You are now at the end of your 214th General Chapter, and you wished to meet the Successor of Peter to be confirmed in faith and encouraged in your commitment to witness and to service. I greet you all with affection, and I thank the Prior General for his words.

The Order of the Servants of Mary had its origins and its first development in thirteenth-century Florence, a city as lively as it was bellicose. It was born of a group of men: the Seven Holy Founders, dedicated to trade and volunteering. However, your religious family places the germinal core of its charism in its special consecration to the Virgin Mary, recognized as the true “foundress”. You live your personal consecration to Mary as a daily commitment to assimilate her style, as it is handed down by the Sacred Scripture. The theological-pastoral study of the figure of Mary of Nazareth also becomes for you an integral part of a vocation, which you transmit in particular through teaching in the “Marianum” Pontifical Theological Faculty.

Another area in which you bear witness to the Gospel, inspired by the Blessed Virgin, is that of the apostolate and mission. Here you strive to imitate Mary, inspired in particular by four of her attitudes. When after the Annunciation she goes to help Elizabeth; when at Cana in Galilee she obtains from Jesus the sign of water changed into wine for the joy of the newlyweds; when she remains full of faith and pain at the foot of Jesus’ cross; and finally when she prays in the Upper Room with the Apostles awaiting the Holy Spirit. Starting from these four Marian “moments”, you are always called to deepen your understanding of the founding charism in order to make it present, so that it may respond with hope to the challenges that the contemporary world is launching for the Church and also for your Order. The theme that guided your General Chapter, “Servants of Hope in a Changing World”, expresses precisely this intention, which becomes a roadmap and a mission for the coming years.

From this perspective, I would like to recall an important aspect of your history, which can be paradigmatic. The Seven Holy Founders knew how to live the mountain and the city. Indeed, from Florence they climbed Mount Senario, where they had the profound experience of the encounter with the One who is Hope, Jesus Christ. They then descended again from the mountain, establishing their home in Cafaggio, immediately outside the walls of Florence, on the outskirts of the city, to commit themselves in their daily life, in witness and in service to society and the Church.

It may be good to re-read, in the light of the Gospel account of the Transfiguration (cf. Lk 9: 28-36), this journey of your Founders. Strengthened by the experience of God, they descend more deeply into history, renewed inwardly. In this way they can live the Gospel, responding to the needs of the people, of brothers and sisters who ask to be welcomed, supported, accompanied and helped throughout their lives. Going back to their unique human and vocational experience, you too increasingly become men of hope, capable of dispelling the fears that sometimes torment the heart, even in a religious community. I am thinking, for example, of the scarcity of vocations in certain parts of the world; as well as of the difficulty of being faithful to Jesus and to the Gospel in certain community or social contexts. The Lord, He alone, allows you to take everywhere, through the holiness of life, a presence of hope and an outlook of trust, identifying and valuing the many emerging buds of positivity. Let us think of vocations in the new territories where you are present. I urge you to enjoy the beauty and cultural and spiritual novelty of the many peoples to whom you have been sent to proclaim the Gospel.

To be men of hope means to cultivate dialogue, communion and fraternity, which are the profiles of holiness. Indeed, sanctification “is a journey in community, side by side with others. We see this in some holy communities” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et exsultate, 141).

Being men of hope means finding the courage to face some everyday challenges. I think, for example, of that of using in a responsible way the means of communication, which convey positive news, but which can also destroy the dignity of people, weaken spiritual momentum, and harm fraternal life. It is a matter of educating oneself in an evangelical use of these instruments. Another challenge to be taken on and managed is that of multiculturalism, which in fact you have addressed in this Chapter. There is no doubt that Catholic religious communities have become “laboratories” in this sense, certainly not without problems and yet offering to all a clear sign of the Kingdom of God, to which all peoples are invited, through the one Gospel of salvation. It is not easy to experience human differences in harmony, but it is possible, and a reason for joy if we make room for the Holy Spirit, who in this, as they say, “goes to the wedding”.

May your communities also be a sign of universal brotherhood, schools of welcome and integration, places of openness and relationality. With this witness you will help to keep away divisions and foreclosures, prejudices of superiority or inferiority, cultural, ethnic, linguistic, walls of separation. And your communities will be so to the extent that you are men of communion, fraternity and unity, as were your Founders.

May the Virgin Mary always safeguard in you the joy of the Gospel. I cordially bless you and all the brothers of the Order, as well as the communities entrusted to you. And I ask you, please, to pray for me.

*Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 25 October 2019

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

The Book of the Acts of the Apostles recounts that after that transformative encounter with Jesus, Saint Paul is welcomed by the Church of Jerusalem thanks to the mediation of Barnabas, and he begins to proclaim Christ. However, due to the hostility of some, he is forced to move on to Tarsus, his native city, where Barnabas joins him in order to engage him in the long journey of the Word of God. We can say that the Book of the Acts of the Apostles on which we are commenting in these catecheses is the Book of the long journey of the Word of God: the Word of God is to be proclaimed, and to be proclaimed everywhere. This journey begins in the wake of severe persecution (cf. Acts 11:19); but instead of provoking a setback for evangelization, it becomes an opportunity to expand the field on which to sow the good seed of the Word. The Christians do not feel afraid. They must flee, but they flee with the Word and they spread the Word somewhat everywhere.

Paul and Barnabas arrive first in Antioch, Syria, where they stay for a whole year to teach and help the community to put down roots (cf. Acts 11:26). They proclaimed to the Hebrew community, to the Jews. Antioch thus becomes the centre of missionary impulse, thanks to the preaching of the two evangelizers — Paul and Barnabas — which impresses the hearts of believers who, here in Antioch, are called “Christians” for the first time (cf. Acts 11:26).

The nature of the Church appears from the Book of the Acts; she is not a fortress but a tent able to enlarge her space (cf. Is 54:2) and give access to all. Either the Church “goes forth” or she is not a Church; either she is on a journey always widening her space so that everyone can enter, or she is not a Church. A “Church whose doors are open” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 46), always with open doors. When I see a small church here, in this city, or when I would see one in the other diocese that I come from, with closed doors, this is a bad sign. Churches should always have their doors open because this is the sign of what a church is: always open. The Church is always “called to be the house of the Father... so that if someone, moved by the Spirit, comes there looking for God, he or she will not find a closed door” (ibid., 47).

But this novelty of doors open to whom? To the Gentiles, because the Apostles were preaching to the Jews, but the Gentiles came to knock at the Church’s doors; and this novelty of doors open to the Gentiles triggers a very lively controversy. Several Jews affirm the need to become Jewish through circumcision in order to be saved, and then to receive Baptism. They say: “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1), that is, you cannot receive Baptism afterwards. First the Jewish rite and then Baptism: this was their position. And to resolve the issue, Paul and Barnabas seek the advice of the Apostles and of the elders of Jerusalem, and what takes place is what is held to be the First Council in the history of the Church, the Council or Assembly of Jerusalem, to which Paul refers in the Letter to the Galatians (2:1-10).

A very delicate theological, spiritual and disciplinary issue is addressed, that is, the relationship between faith in Christ and observance of the Law of Moses. During the Assembly, the discourses of Peter and James — “pillars” of the Mother Church — are decisive (cf. Acts 15:7-21; Gal 2:9). They exhort not imposing circumcision on the Gentiles but, instead, asking them only to reject idolatry and all its expressions. From the discussion emerges the common path, and this decision was ratified with the so-called Apostolic Letter sent to Antioch.

The Assembly of Jerusalem sheds important light on the way to face differences and to seek the “truth in love” (Eph 4:15). It reminds us that the ecclesial method for resolving conflict is based on dialogue made of careful and patient listening and on discernment undertaken in the light of the Spirit. Indeed, it is the Spirit who helps to overcome closure and tension, and works within hearts so that they may achieve unity in truth and goodness. This text helps us understand synodality. It is interesting how they write the Letter: the Apostles begin by saying: “The Holy spirit and we believe that...”. The presence of the Holy Spirit is proper to synodality, otherwise it is not synodality. It is the parlour, parliament, something else....

Let us ask the Lord to strengthen in all Christians, particularly in presbyters, the desire and the responsibility of communion. May he help us to experience dialogue, listening and encounter with our brothers and sisters in faith and with those afar, in order to savour and manifest the fruitfulness of the Church which is called to be, in every age, the “joyous mother” of many children (cf. Ps 113[112]:9).

Appeal and Special Greetings

I have been following with concern what is happening in Chile. I hope that by putting an end to the violent demonstrations through dialogue, an effort may be made to find solutions to the crisis and to face the difficulties that caused it, for the good of the entire population.

I greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially the groups from England, Hungary, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, 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. May God bless you!

Lastly, I greet young people, the elderly, the sick and newlyweds. Yesterday we celebrated the liturgical memorial of Saint John Paul II. Let us imitate him, this teacher of faith and of evangelic life, an example of love for Christ and mankind.

 APOSTOLIC LETTER
ISSUED "MOTU PROPRIO"

FOR THE CHANGE OF THE NAME OF THE
VATICAN SECRET ARCHIVE

TO THE

VATICAN APOSTOLIC ARCHIVE

Historical experience teaches us that every human institution, created with the best protection and with vigorous and well-founded hopes for progress, fatally touched by time, precisely to remain faithful to itself and to the ideal aims of its nature, feels the need, not to change its features, but to transpose its inspirational values into different eras and cultures and to make those updates that become convenient and sometimes necessary.

Even the Vatican Secret Archives, for which the Roman Pontiffs have always reserved solicitude and care on account of the immense and important documentary heritage that it preserves, so precious for the Catholic Church as well as for universal culture, cannot escape such inevitable conditioning, in its now more than four centuries-long history.

The Pontifical Archive, which arose from the documentary nucleus of the Apostolic Chamber and of the Apostolic Library itself (the so-called Bibliotheca secreta) between the first and second decade of the 17th century, began to be called the Secret (Archivum Secretum Vaticanum) only around the middle of that cen. It was accommodated in suitable rooms in the Apostolic Palace, grew over time to a remarkable extent and was immediately opened to requests for documents that came to the Roman Pontiff, to the cardinal Camerlengo and then to the cardinal Archivist and Librarian from all over Europe and the world. While it is true that the official opening of the Archive to researchers from every country was only in 1881, it is also true that between the 17th and 19th centuries many scholarly works could be published with the help of faithful or authentic documentary copies that historians obtained from the custodians and prefects of the Vatican Secret Archive. So much so that the famous German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz, who also drew from it, wrote in 1702 that it could be considered in a certain way the Central Archive of Europe (quod quodam modo totius Europae commune Archivum censeri debet).

This long service rendered to the Church, to culture and to scholars from all over the world has always earned the Vatican Secret Archives esteem and gratitude, all the more so since Leo XIII's death today, both because of the progressive “opening” of documentation made available for consultation (which from 2 March 2020, by my provision, will extend until the end of the pontificate of Pius XII), and because of the increase in the number of researchers who are admitted daily to the Archives and helped in every way in their research.

This worthy ecclesial and cultural service, greatly appreciated, responds well to the intentions of all my predecessors, who according to the times and possibilities have favoured historical research in this vast Archive, equipping it, according to the suggestions of cardinal archivists or prefects pro tempore, with staff, resources and also with new technologies. In this way the structure of the Archive itself has gradually grown in view of its ever more demanding service to the Church and to the world of culture, always remaining faithful to the teachings and directives of the Popes.

However, there is one aspect that I think could still be useful to update, reaffirming the ecclesial and cultural aims of the mission of the Archives. This aspect concerns the very name of the institute: Vatican Secret Archive.

Born, as mentioned, from the Bibliotheca secreta del Romano Pontefice, that is, from the part of codes and scriptures more particularly owned and under the direct jurisdiction of the Pope, the Archive was entitled first simply Archivum novum, then Archivum Apostolicum, then Archivum Secretum (the first attestations of the term date back to about 1646).

The term Secretum, which has become the institution’s proper name and which has prevailed in recent centuries, was justified because it indicated that the new Archive, created at the behest of my predecessor Paul V around 1610-1612, was none other than the Pope's private, separate, reserved archive. This is how all the Popes always intended to define it, and this is how scholars still define it today, without any difficulty. This definition, moreover, was widespread, with similar meaning, in the courts of kings and princes, whose archives were defined indeed as secret.

As long as there was still an awareness of the close link between the Latin language and the languages that derive from it, there was no need to explain or even justify this title of Archivum Secretum. With the progressive semantic changes that have however occurred in modern languages and in the cultures and social sensibilities of different nations, to a greater or lesser extent, the term Secretum in relation to the Vatican Archive began to be misunderstood, to be coloured with ambiguous, even negative nuances. Having lost the true meaning of the term secretum and instinctively associating its value with the concept expressed by the modern word “secret”, in some areas and environments, even those of a certain cultural importance, this term has taken on the prejudicial meaning of secret, as in not to be revealed and reserved for a few. This is entirely the opposite of what the Vatican Secret Archive has always been and intends to be, which – as my holy predecessor Paul VI said – preserves “echoes and vestiges” of the passage of the Lord in history (Teachings of Paul VI, I, 1963, p. 614). And the Church “is not afraid of history but, rather, she loves it, and would like to love it more and better, as God loves it!” (Address to the Officials of the Vatican Secret Archives, 4 March 2019: L'Osservatore Romano, 4-5 March 2019, p. 6).

Requested in recent years by some esteemed prelates, as well as by my closest collaborators, and having also listened to the opinion of the Superiors of the same Vatican Secret Archive, with this my Motu proprio I decide that:

From now on the present Vatican Secret Archive, without prejudice to its identity, its structure and its mission, should be called the Vatican Apostolic Archive.

Reaffirming its active desire to serve the Church and culture, the new name highlights the close link between the Roman See and the Archive, an indispensable instrument of the Petrine ministry, and at the same time underlines its immediate dependence on the Roman Pontiff, as is already the case in parallel for the name of the Vatican Apostolic Library.

I order that this Apostolic Letter in the form of a Motu proprio be promulgated by publication in the daily newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, coming into immediate force upon publication, so as to be immediately incorporated into the official documents of the Holy See, and that, subsequently, it be inserted into the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on 22 October 2019, seventh of our Pontificate.

Franciscus

*Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office, 28 October 2019

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS
TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE 2019 WORLD CONFERENCE OF THE
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN MARITIME ASSOCIATION (ICMA)

I offer greetings of peace and goodness to all of you, dear Delegates of the International Christian Maritime Association.

You have gathered at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, for your Eleventh World Conference, during which you commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of your praiseworthy Association. This anniversary allows me an opportunity to encourage you to persevere, with renewed ecumenical spirit, in your service to seafarers and maritime personnel.

In these days of encounter and reflection, I am confident that you will identify increasingly effective ways of assisting sailors, fishers and their families. In this regard, the 1997 Apostolic Letter Stella Maris remains most timely. There, my Predecessor Saint John Paul II set forth basic principles for the pastoral care of seafarers, their families and all those who travel by sea, and urged that every effort be made to see that they are “provided abundantly with whatever is required to lead holy lives” (II § 2).

I renew that invitation to all of you who represent different Christian traditions. May you help seafarers and maritime personnel to know Jesus Christ and to live in accordance with his teachings, in respect and in mutual acceptance.

I encourage you to surmount whatever difficulties you may encounter in your mission and to promote with conviction the spirit of ecumenism. I accompany you with my prayers and my blessing, which I readily invoke upon you, upon your deliberations in these days, and upon all those entrusted to your pastoral service.