The Weekly Francis

Introduction

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of documents, speeches, and other texts brought into an ebook format.

The Weekly Francis was inspired by Catholic Apologist Jimmy Akin who came up with the idea to create a weekly link page to the words of the Holy Father.

All texts are © Copyright 2013 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Considering the increasing prevalence of electronic book readers and their ease in reading textual documents this provides an ideal format in making available the words of Pope Francis. This ebook compilation is provided as a public service with no associated fees.

Jeff Miller The Curt Jester blog

Catholic Apologist Jimmy Akin's blog can be found at JimmyAkin.org

While this ebook publication take it's cue from Jimmy Akin's weekly post with links, it is done without association and any copyright problems or formatting mistakes are entirely my own.

Index of Source Links

List of direct document links on Vatican.va used.

Angelus

- 23 June 2013

General Audiences

- 19 June 2013

Homilies

- 29 June 2013 - Holy Mass for the imposition of the Pallium on new Metropolitan Archbishops

Messages

- 30 May 2013 - On the occasion of the National Eucharistic Congress of Germany [Köln, 5–9 June 2013]

- 11 June 2013 - Audio-message to the Italian Union of Blind and Visually Impaired

Speeches

- 8 June 2013- To participants in the initiative ‘Ten Squares for Ten Commandments’

- 17 June 2013 - Pope Francis meets the participants in the Ecclesial Convention of the Diocese of Rome

- 20 June 2013 - To participants in the Assembly of Organizations for Aid to the Eastern Churches

- 21 June 2013 - To participants in the days dedicated to Papal Representatives

- 22 June 2013 - To the pilgrims from the Diocese of Brescia

- 23 June 2013 - To the Sts Peter and Paul Association

- 24 June 2013 - To a delegation of representatives of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations

- 28 June 2013 - To the Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

- 24 June 2013 - John the Baptist a model for the Church

- 25 June 2013 - No one is Christian by chance

- 26 June 2013 - The joy of fatherhood

- 27 June 2013 - Daily Homily - Resting our faith on the rock of Christ

- 28 June 2013 - The Mystery of God’s patience

Papal Tweets

- @pontifex, 24 June 2013

- @pontifex, 26 June 2013

- @pontifex, 28 June 2013

- @pontifex, 29 June 2013

- @pontifex, 30 June 2013

Angelus/Regina Caeli

23 June 2013  - Angelus

POPE FRANCIS

ANGELUS

St Peter's Square

Sunday, 23 June 2013

Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!

In this Sunday’s Gospel resound some of Jesus’ most incisive words: “Whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it” (Lk 9:24).

This is a synthesis of Christ’s message, and it is expressed very effectively in a paradox, which shows us his way of speaking, almost lets us hear his voice.... But what does it mean “to lose one’s life for the sake of Jesus”? This can happen in two ways: explicitly by confessing the faith, or implicitly by defending the truth. Martyrs are the greatest example of losing one’s life for Christ. In 2,000 years, a vast host of men and women have sacrificed their lives to remain faithful to Jesus Christ and his Gospel. And today, in many parts of the world, there are many, many — more than in the first centuries — so many martyrs, who give up their lives for Christ, who are brought to death because they do not deny Jesus Christ. This is our Church. Today we have more martyrs than in the first centuries! However, there is also daily martyrdom, which may not entail death but is still a “loss of life” for Christ, by doing one’s duty with love, according to the logic of Jesus, the logic of gift, of sacrifice. Let us think: how many dads and moms every day put their faith into practice by offering up their own lives in a concrete way for the good of the family! Think about this! How many priests, brothers and sisters carry out their service generously for the Kingdom of God! How many young people renounce their own interests in order to dedicate themselves to children, the disabled, the elderly.... They are martyrs too! Daily martyrs, martyrs of everyday life!

And then there are many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, who “lose their lives” for truth. And Christ said “I am the truth”, therefore whoever serves the truth serves Christ. One of those who gave his life for the truth is John the Baptist: tomorrow, 24 June, is his great feast, the Solemnity of his birth. John was chosen by God to prepare the way for Jesus, and he revealed him to the people of Israel as the Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (cf. Jn 1:29). John consecrated himself entirely to God and to his envoy, Jesus. But, in the end, what happened? He died for the sake of the truth, when he denounced the adultery of King Herod and Herodias. How many people pay dearly for their commitment to truth! Upright people who are not afraid to go against the current! How many just men prefer to go against the current, so as not to deny the voice of conscience, the voice of truth! And we, we must not be afraid! Among you are many young people. To you young people I say: Do not be afraid to go against the current, when they want to rob us of hope, when they propose rotten values, values like food gone bad — and when food has gone bad, it harms us; these values harm us. We must go against the current! And you young people, are the first: Go against the tide and have the daring to move precisely against the current. Forward, be brave and go against the tide! And be proud of doing so.

Dear friends, let us welcome Jesus’s words with joy. They are a rule of life proposed to everyone. And may St John the Baptist help us put that rule into practice. On this path, as always, our Mother, Mary Most Holy, precedes us: she lost her life for Jesus, at the Cross, and received it in fullness, with all the light and the beauty of the Resurrection. May Mary help us to make ever more our own the logic of the Gospel

After the Angelus:

Dear brothers and sisters, remember this well: Do not be afraid to go against the current! Be courageous! And like this, just as we do not want to eat food that has gone bad, we will not carry with us rotten values, that ruin life and take away our hope. Forward!

I greet you all with affection: the families, parish groups, associations and schools. I greet alumni of the Diocesan school of Vipàva, Slovenia; the Polish community of Ascoli Piceno; UNITALSI of Ischia di Castro; the boys of the Oratory of Urgnano — I see their flag here, well done, you are very good! — the faithful of Pordenone; the Sisters and workers of the hospital “Miulli”, Acquaviva delle Fonti; a group of trade union delegates from Venice.

I wish you all a good Sunday! Pray for me and have a good lunch!

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General Audiences

19 June 2013 - General Audience

POPE FRANCIS

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Saint Peter's Square

Wednesday, 19 June 2013

Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!

Today I am pausing to reflect on another expression by which the Second Vatican Council indicates the nature of the Church: body; the Council says that the Church is the Body of Christ (cf. Lumen Gentium, n. 7).

I would like to start with a text from the Acts of the Apostles that we know well: the conversion of Saul, later called Paul, one of the greatest evangelizers (cf. Acts 9:4-5). Saul is a persecutor of Christians, but while he is travelling on the road to the city of Damascus, a light suddenly envelops him, he falls to the ground and hears a voice saying to him: “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”. He asks: “Who are you, Lord?”, and the voice responds: “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (v. 3-5). St Paul’s experience speaks to us of how profound the union between us Christians and Christ really is. When Jesus ascended into heaven he did not leave us orphans, but through the gift of the Holy Spirit our union with him became even more intense. The Second Vatican Council says that “by communicating his Spirit, Christ mystically constitutes as his body those brothers of his who are called together from every nation” (Lumen Gentium, n. 7)

The image of the body helps us to understand this profound bond Church-Christ, which St Paul developed in a particular way in his First Letter to the Corinthians (cf. Chapter 12). First of all, the body reminds us of a living reality. The Church is not a welfare, cultural or political association but a living body that walks and acts in history. And this body has a head, Jesus, who guides, feeds and supports it. This is a point that I would like to emphasize: if one separates the head from the rest of the body, the whole person cannot survive. It is like this in the Church: we must stay ever more deeply connected with Jesus. But not only that: just as it is important that life blood flow through the body in order to live, so must we allow Jesus to work in us, let his Word guide us, his presence in the Eucharist feed us, give us life, his love strengthen our love for our neighbour. And this forever! Forever and ever! Dear brothers and sisters, let us stay united to Jesus, let us trust in him, let us orient our life according to his Gospel, let us be nourished by daily prayer, by listening to the Word of God, by sharing in the Sacraments.

And here I come to a second aspect of the Church as the Body of Christ. St Paul says that just as the limbs of the human body, although diverse and many, form one body, so have we been baptized by one Spirit into one body (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-13). Consequently, in the Church there is variety and a diversity of roles and functions; there is no flat uniformity, but a wealth of gifts that the Holy Spirit distributes. Yet, there is communion and unity: each one relates to the other and comes together to form a single living body, deeply tied to Christ. Let us remember this well: being part of the Church means being united to Christ and receiving from him the divine life that makes us live as Christians; it means staying united to the Pope and to the Bishops who are instruments of unity and communion; and it also means learning to overcome subjectivism and division, to understand each other better, to harmonize the variety and the richness of each person; in a word to love God and the people beside us more, in the family, in the parish, in associations. Body and limb, in order to live, must be united! Unity is superior to conflict, always! Conflicts, if not properly resolved, divide us from each other, separate us from God. Conflict can help us to grow, but it can also divide us. Let us not go down the path of division, of fighting among ourselves! All united, all united in our differences, but united, always: this is the way of Jesus. Unity is superior to conflict. Unity is a grace for which we must ask the Lord that he may liberate us from the temptation of division, of conflict between us, of selfishness, of gossip. How much evil gossip does, how much evil! Never gossip about others, never! So much damage to the Church comes from division among Christians, from biases, from narrow interests. Division among us, but also division among communities: Evangelical Christians, Orthodox Christians, Catholic Christians, why are we divided? We must try to bring about unity. I will tell you something: today, before leaving home, I spent 40 minutes, more or less, half an hour, with an evangelical pastor and we prayed together and sought unity. Because we have to pray together as Catholics and also with other Christians, pray that the Lord give us the gift of unity, unity among us. But how will we have unity among Christians if we are not capable of it among ourselves, as Catholics? Or in our families? So many families fight and are divided! Seek unity, the unity that builds the Church. Unity comes from Jesus Christ. He sends us the Holy Spirit to create unity.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us ask God: help us to be members of the Body of the Church, ever more deeply united to Christ; help us not to cause the Body of the Church to suffer through our conflicts, our divisions, our selfishness. Help us to be living limbs bound one to the other by that unique force, love, which the Holy Spirit pours into our hearts (cf. Rom 5:5).

Greetings:

I offer an affectionate greeting to all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at today’s Audience, including those from England, Scotland, Slovakia, Sweden, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the West Indies and the United States. May your stay in the Eternal City confirm you in love for our Lord and for his Body which is the Church. God bless you all!

I address a special thought to young people, to the sick and to newlyweds.

I thank you for coming to this encounter. I ask you to pray for me and for my service to the Church, and I hope that each one of you may receive abundant graces, that you may be reinforced in your generous fidelity to the call of the Lord.

Appeal

Tomorrow the World Day for Refugees is being celebrated. This year we are asked to consider in particular the situation of refugee families, often forced to flee their homes and homeland suddenly, losing all their possessions and security in order to escape violence, persecution or grave discrimination because of the religion they profess, the ethnic group they belong to or their political ideas.

In addition to the dangers of migration, these families often risk being broken up and, in the countries that receive them, they must come to terms with cultures and societies different from their own. We cannot be insensitive to the families and to all our brothers and sisters who are refugees. We are called to help them, opening ourselves to understanding and hospitality. May people and institutions that help them never be lacking anywhere in the world; their faces reflect the face of Christ!

Last Sunday, during this Year of Faith, on the Day of Evangelium Vitae, we celebrated the God who is Life and the source of life, Christ who gives us the gift of divine life, and the Holy Spirit who keeps us in our vital relationship as true children of God. I would like once more to invite everyone to witness to the “Gospel of Life”, to promote and defend life in all its dimensions and at every stage. The Christian is the person who says “yes” to life, who says “yes” to God, the Living One.

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Homilies

29 June 2013 - Homily - Holy Mass for the imposition of the Pallium on new Metropolitan Archbishops

PAPAL MASS ON THE SOLEMNITY OF SAINTS PETER AND PAUL

IMPOSITION OF THE SACRED PALLIUM

ON METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOPS

HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS

Vatican Basilica

Saturday, 29 June 2013

Your Eminences,

Your Eminence, Metropolitan Ioannis,

My Brother Bishops and Priests,

Dear Brothers and Sisters

We are celebrating the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles, principal patrons of the Church of Rome: a celebration made all the more joyful by the presence of bishops from throughout the world.  A great wealth, which makes us in some sense relive the event of Pentecost.  Today, as then, the faith of the Church speaks in every tongue and desire to unite all peoples in one family.

I offer a heartfelt and grateful greeting to the Delegation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, led by Metropolitan Ioannis.  I thank Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomaios I for this renewed gesture of fraternity.  I greet the distinguished ambassadors and civil authorities.  And in a special way I thank the Choir of the Thomaskirche of Leipzig – Bach’s own church – which is contributing to today’s liturgical celebration and represents an additional ecumenical presence.

I would like to offer three thoughts on the Petrine ministry, guided by the word “confirm”.  What has the Bishop of Rome been called to confirm?

1. First, to confirm in faith.  The Gospel speaks of the confession of Peter: “You are Christ, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16), a confession which does not come from him but from our Father in heaven.  Because of this confession, Jesus replies: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church” (v. 18).  The role, the ecclesial service of Peter, is founded upon his confession of faith in Jesus, the Son of the living God, made possible by a grace granted from on high.  In the second part of today’s Gospel we see the peril of thinking in worldly terms.  When Jesus speaks of his death and resurrection, of the path of God which does not correspond to the human path of power, flesh and blood re-emerge in Peter: “He took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him ... This must never happen to you” (16:22).  Jesus’ response is harsh: “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a hindrance to me” (v. 23).  Whenever we let our thoughts, our feelings or the logic of human power prevail, and we do not let ourselves be taught and guided by faith, by God, we become stumbling blocks.  Faith in Christ is the light of our life as Christians and as ministers in the Church!

2. To confirm in love.  In the second reading we heard the moving words of Saint Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tm 4:7).  But what is this fight?  It is not one of those fights fought with human weapons which sadly continue to cause bloodshed throughout the world; rather, it is the fight of martyrdom.  Saint Paul has but one weapon: the message of Christ and the gift of his entire life for Christ and for others.  It is precisely this readiness to lay himself open, personally, to be consumed for the sake of the Gospel, to make himself all things to all people, unstintingly, that gives him credibility and builds up the Church.  The Bishop of Rome is called himself to live and to confirm his brothers and sisters in this love for Christ and for all others, without distinction, limits or barriers. And not only the Bishop of Rome: each of you, new archbishops and bishops, have the same task: to let yourselves be consumed by the Gospel, to become all things to everyone. It is your task to hold nothing back, to go outside of yourselves in the service of the faithful and holy people of God.

3. To confirm in unity.  Here I would like to reflect for a moment on the rite which we have carried out.  The pallium is a symbol of communion with the Successor of Peter, “the lasting and visible source and foundation of the unity both of faith and of communion” (Lumen Gentium, 18).  And your presence today, dear brothers, is the sign that the Church’s communion does not mean uniformity.  The Second Vatican Council, in speaking of the hierarchical structure of the Church, states that the Lord “established the apostles as college or permanent assembly, at the head of which he placed Peter, chosen from their number” (ibid., 19).  To confirm in unity: the Synod of Bishops, in harmony with the primate. Let us go forward on the path of synodality, and grow in harmony with the service of the primacy. And the Council continues, “this college, in so far as it is composed of many members, is the expression of the variety and universality of the people of God” (ibid., 22).  In the Church, variety, which is itself a great treasure, is always grounded in the harmony of unity, like a great mosaic in which every small piece joins with others as part of God’s one great plan.  This should inspire us to work always to overcome every conflict which wounds the body of the Church.  United in our differences: there is no other Catholic way to be united. This is the Catholic spirit, the Christian spirit: to be united in our differences. This is the way of Jesus!  The pallium, while being a sign of communion with the Bishop of Rome and with the universal church, with the Synod of Bishops, also commits each of you to being a servant of communion.

To confess the Lord by letting oneself be taught by God; to be consumed by love for Christ and his Gospel; to be servants of unity.  These, dear brother bishops, are the tasks which the holy apostles Peter and Paul entrust to each of us, so that they can be lived by every Christian. May the holy Mother of God guide us and acompany us always with her intercession.  Queen of Apostles, pray for us!  Amen.

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Messages

30 May 2013 - Message - On the occasion of the National Eucharistic Congress of Germany [Köln, 5-9 June 2013]

MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS

ON THE OCCASION OF THE NATIONAL EUCHARISTIC CONGRESS

OF GERMANY [COLOGNE, 5-9 JUNE 2013]

To my Venerable Brothers Cardinal Joachim Meisner Archbishop of Cologne

Archbishop Robert Zollitsch President of the German Bishops’ Conference

The Catholics of Germany, as well as faithful from neighbouring countries, are gathered in these days on the occasion of the National Eucharistic Congress in Cologne on the theme: “Lord, to whom shall we go?” (Jn 6:68). The event fits into this city’s long tradition of venerating the Eucharist. The city was one of the first to celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi, beginning in the 13th century, with processions of the Most Holy Sacrament, and was the seat of a World Eucharistic Congress in 1909. I am therefore glad to send Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes from Rome as my Special Envoy to express my deep spiritual communion with German Catholics, and to demonstrate the universal communion of the Church. May the heavenly Father grant to all the participants abundant fruits of grace from their adoration of Christ in the Eucharist.

“Lord, to whom shall we go?”. With this question, confronting the incomprehension of many people who were listening to Jesus and would have liked selfishly to profit from him, St Peter spoke on behalf of the faithful followers. The disciples do not stop at the worldly satisfaction of those who have eaten their fill (cf. Jn 6:26), and yet still labour for food that perishes (cf. Jn 6:27). Of course, Peter too knows hunger; for a long time he had not found the food that would have been able to satisfy his hunger. He later formed a relationship with the man from Nazareth. He followed him. He then knew his Teacher not only by hearsay. Full trust developed in Peter through daily relations with him. This is faith in Jesus; and quite rightly Peter expected from the Lord the hoped for life in abundance (cf. Jn 10:10).

“Lord, to whom shall we go?”. We too, members of today’s Church, ask ourselves this question. Even though it may be more hesitant on our lips than it was on Peter’s, our answer, like that of the Apostle, can only be the Person of Jesus. Of course, he lived 2,000 years ago. Yet we can meet him in our time when we listen to his word and when we are uniquely close to him in the Eucharist. The Second Vatican Council calls this: “sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree” (Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, n. 7). May Holy Mass never slip into a superficial routine for us! May we draw increasingly from its depths! It is Mass itself which integrates us into Christ’s immense work of salvation, which hones our spiritual vision so that we can perceive his love: his “prophecy in action”. With this he initiated in the Upper Room the gift of himself on the Cross, his definitive victory over sin and death, which we proudly and joyfully proclaim.

Blessed John Paul II once said at a Roman Seminary to the young men who were questioning him on the profound recollection with which he was celebrating the Mass, that “we must learn how to live Holy Mass” (cf. Visit to the Pontifical Germanic-Hungarian College, 18 October 1981). “Learn to live Holy Mass!”. What helps us to do this is pausing in adoration in front of the Lord in the Eucharist, in the Tabernacle, and receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

“Lord, to whom shall we go?”. Lastly, several people of our day still ask this question — lucidly or with an understanding that is still unclear — who are seeking the Father of Jesus Christ. The Redeemer wants to respond to them through us who, thanks to Baptism, have become his brothers and sisters and, in the Eucharist, have received the strength to carry out together his mission of salvation. With our life and with our words we must proclaim to them that along with Peter and the Apostles we have recognized: “Lord, you have the words of eternal life” (cf. Jn 6:68). Our witness will set them on fire, just as we were set on fire by Christ. All of us, bishops, priests, deacons, religious and lay people, have the task of bringing God to the world and the world to God.

Encountering Christ, entrusting ourselves to Christ, proclaiming Christ — are the pillars of our faith that are concentrated ever anew in the focal point of the Eucharist. The celebration of the Eucharistic Congress, in this Year of Faith, announces with renewed joy and certainty: the Lord of the Church lives within her. With my cordial greeting, I warmly impart to you all the Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 30 May 2013,Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Franciscus PP

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11 June 2013 - Message - Audio-message to the Italian Union of Blind and Visually Impaired

AUDIO-MESSAGE OF POPE FRANCIS

TO THE ITALIAN UNION OF BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED

Dear Friends,

My affectionate greeting to you all. I know that you are gathered in Tirrenia for a little while, and that some of you would have liked to come to Rome. Thanks to modern technology, I can come myself to you! Thank you for your esteem and affection and especially for your prayers.

The Gospel tells us that Jesus paid special attention to the blind. He healed many of them, along with many other sick people. But the healing of a visually impaired person has a particular symbolic meaning; it represents the gift of faith. And it is a sign that pertains to all of us, because we all need the light of faith to walk on the path of life. Thus Baptism, the first sacrament of the faith, of old was also called “illumination”.

I ask the Lord to renew in each one of you the gift of faith, that your spirit may be for us ever the light of God, the light of love, which gives meaning to your life, illuminates it, gives us hope, and makes us good and available to our brothers.

I also wish all the best to your association, the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired. Spread always the culture of encounter, solidarity, acceptance of people with disabilities, not only by asking for just social welfare, but also by fostering their active participation in the life of society.

I entrust you all to the protection of Mary Most Holy, our Mother. I ask you to pray for me and for my service to the Church, and I bless you with all my heart, together with your loved ones.

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Speeches

8 June 2013 - Speech - To participants in the initiative 'Ten Squares for Ten Commandments'

VIDEO-MESSAGE OF HOLY FATHER FRANCIS

TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE INITIATIVE ENTITLED

"TEN SQUARES FOR TEN COMMANDMENTS"

Saturday, 8 June 2013

Good evening to you all!

I am glad to join you who are taking part in this rereading of the Ten Commandments in Italy’s main squares. The project is called: “When Love gives meaning to your life...”. It is on the art of living through the Ten Commandments, which God did not only give to Moses but also to us, men and women of every era. Many thanks to the leaders of Renewal in the Holy Spirit — these members of Renewal in the Holy Spirit are excellent, congratulations! — who have organized this praiseworthy initiative in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization and with the Italian Episcopal Conference. I extend my thanks to all those who generously contribute to the implementation of this special project in the Year of Faith. Let us therefore ask ourselves: what do these Ten Words mean for us? What do they say to our turbulent and bewildered time which seems to want to do without God?

The Ten Commandments are God’s gift. The word “commandment” is not in style; it reminds people today of something negative, of someone’s desire to impose restrictions, to put obstacles in life’s way. Unfortunately history, even recent history, is marked by forms of tyranny, ideologies, types of logic that have imposed and oppressed and have not sought the good of people but, on the contrary, power, success, and profit.

The Ten Commandments come from a God who created us for love, from a God who made a Covenant with mankind, a God who only wants man’s good. Let us give God our trust! Let us trust God! The Ten Commandments point out a path for us to follow, and they are a kind of “ethical code” in order to build just societies attuned to man. How much inequality there is in the world! What hunger for food and for truth! What moral and material poverty stem from the rejection of God and from replacing him with so many idols! Let us be guided by these Ten Words that enlighten and direct those who seek peace, justice and dignity.

The Ten Commandments point to a way of freedom which finds fullness in the law of the Spirit that is not written on stone tables but on the heart (cf. 2 Cor 3:3): it is here that the Ten Commandments are written! It is fundamental to remember when God gave the Ten Commandments to the People of Israel through Moses. At the Red Sea the People had experienced great liberation; they had felt tangibly the power and faithfulness of God, of the God who sets us free. Now on Mount Sinai God himself points out to his People, and to all of us, the way to stay free, a way that is engraved in the human heart as a universal moral law (cf. Ex 20:1-17; Dt 5:1-22). We must not see the Ten Commandments as limitations of freedom — no, that is not what they are — but rather as signposts to freedom. They are not restrictions but indicators of freedom. They teach us to avoid the slavery to which we are condemned by so many idols that we ourselves build — we have experimented with them so often in history, and we are still experimenting with them today. They teach us to open ourselves to a broader dimension than that of the material, and to show people respect, overcoming the greed for power, for possessions, for money, in order to be honest and sincere in our relations, to protect the whole of creation and to nourish our planet with lofty, noble spiritual ideals. Following the Ten Commandments means being faithful to ourselves and to our most authentic nature, and walking towards the genuine freedom that Christ taught us in the Beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:3-12, 17; Lk 6:20-23).

The Ten Commandments are a law of love. Moses climbed the mountain to receive the tablets of the Law from God. Jesus journeys in the opposite direction: the Son of God humbles himself, he comes down into our humanity to show us the profound meaning of these Ten Words: you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength and your neighbour as yourself (cf. Lk 10:27). This is the most profound sense of the Ten Commandments: the commandment of Jesus who bears within him all the commandments, the Commandment of love. For this reason I say that the Ten Commandments are Commandments of Love. Here lies the heart of the Ten Commandments: the Love that comes from God and gives life meaning, love that makes us live, not as slaves but as true sons and daughters. This is love that gives life to all relationships: with God, with ourselves — we often forget this — and with others. True freedom is not that of following our own selfishness, our blind passions; rather it is that of loving, of choosing what is good in every situation. The Ten Commandments are not a hymn to the “no”, they are to the “yes”. A “yes” to God, a “yes” to Love, and since I say “yes” to Love, I say “no” to non-Love, but the “no” is a consequence of that “yes” which comes from God and makes us love.

Let us rediscover and live out the Ten Words of God! Let us say “yes” to these “ten paths of love”, perfected by Christ, in order to defend human beings and direct them to true freedom! May the Virgin Mary accompany us on this journey. I warmly impart my Blessing to you, to your dear ones, to your cities. My thanks to you all!

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17 June 2013 - Speech - Pope Francis meets the participants in the Ecclesial Convention of the Diocese of Rome

ADDRESS OF POPE FRANCIS

TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE ECCLESIAL CONVENTION

OF THE DIOCESE OF ROME

Paul VI Audience Hall

Monday, 17 June 2013

Good evening to you all, Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The Apostle Paul ended this passage of his Letter to our forebears with these words: you are no longer under law but under grace. And this is our life: walking under grace, because the Lord has loved us, has saved us, has forgiven us. The Lord has done all things and this is grace, God’s grace. We are on our way under the grace of God who came down to us in Jesus Christ who saved us.

However this opens us toward a wide horizon and this is a joy to us. “You are not under law but under grace”. What does this “living under grace mean?”. It is our joy, it is our freedom. We are free. Why? because we live under grace. We are no longer slaves of the Law: we are free, because Jesus Christ liberated us, he gave us freedom, the full freedom of God’s children, which we live under grace. This is a treasure. I shall try to explain something of this mystery, which is so beautiful and so important: living under grace.

This year you have worked both on Baptism and also on the renewal of your post-baptismal pastoral care. Baptism, this admittance to being “under law”, “under grace” is a revolution. There have been so many revolutionaries in history, many indeed. Yet none of them have had the force of this revolution which brought Jesus to us: a revolution to transform history, a revolution that changes the human heart in depth. The revolutions of history have changed political and economic systems but none have really changed the human heart. True revolution, the revolution that radically transforms life was brought about by Jesus Christ through his Resurrection. Moreover Benedict XVI said of this revolution that “it is the greatest mutation in the history of humanity”.

Let us think about this: it is the greatest mutation in humanity’s history, it is a true revolution, we are revolutionaries and what is more revolutionaries of this revolution. For we have taken this road of the greatest metamorphosis in humanity’s history. In this day and age unless Christians are revolutionaries they are not Christians. They must be revolutionaries through grace! Grace itself, which the Father gives us through the crucified, dead and risen Jesus Christ makes us revolutionaries because — and once again I cite Benedict XVI — “he is the greatest mutation in the history of humanity” because he changes the heart.

The Prophet Ezekiel said: “I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh”.

This is the experience the Apostle Paul had after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. It radically changed his outlook on life and he received Baptism. God transformed his heart! However, only think: a persecutor, a man who hounded out the Church and Christians, became a saint, a Christian to the marrow, a genuine Christian! First he was a violent persecutor, then he became an apostle, a witness of Jesus Christ so brave that he was not afraid of suffering martyrdom. In the end the Saul who wanted to kill those who proclaimed the Gospel gave his own life to proclaim it.

This is the mutation, the most important mutation of which Pope Benedict spoke to us. I change your heart, from that of a sinner — a sinner: we are all sinners — he transforms you into a saint. Is there any one of us who is not a sinner? If so, raise your hand! We are all sinners, each and every one. We are all sinners! But the grace of Jesus Christ saves us from sin: it saves us!

If we — all of us — accept the grace of Jesus Christ he changes our heart and from sinners makes us saints. To become holy we do not need to turn our eyes away and look somewhere else, or have as it were the face on a holy card! No, no, that is not necessary. To become saints only one thing is necessary: to accept the grace which the Father gives us in Jesus Christ. There, this grace changes our heart. We continue to be sinners for we are weak, but with this grace which makes us feel that the Lord is good, that the Lord is merciful, that the Lord waits for us, that the Lord pardons us, this immense grace that changes our heart.

The Prophet Ezekiel said he would take out the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. What does this mean? A heart that loves, a heart that suffers, a heart that rejoices with others, a heart filled with tenderness for those scarred from the injuries of life, who feel they are on the fringes of society. Love is the greatest power for the transformation of reality because it pulls down the walls of selfishness and fills the ditches that keep us apart. This is the love that comes from a mutated heart, from a heart of stone that has been turned into a heart of flesh, a human heart. And this is what grace does, the grace of Jesus Christ which we have all received. Is there any one of you who knows what grace costs? Where grace is sold? Where I can purchase grace? No one can answer: no. Do I go to buy it from the parish office, perhaps grace is sold there? Does some priest sell grace?

Listen to this carefully: grace is neither bought nor sold; it is a gift of God in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ gives us grace. He is the only one who gives us grace. It is a present: he is offering it to us, to us. Let us accept it. This is beautiful. Jesus’ love is like this : he gives us grace freely, he freely gives it to us. and we must give it freely to our brother and sisters. It is a little sad when one meets some who sell grace: in the history of the Church this has sometimes happened, and it did such harm, such harm. However, grace cannot be sold: you receive it freely and give it freely. And this is the grace of Jesus Chris.

In the midst of so many sufferings, so many problems, as there are here in Rome, there are people who live without hope. Each one of us can think in silence of people who live with no hope and are steeped in profound sadness from which they struggle to emerge, believing they have found happiness in alcohol, in drugs, in gambling, in the power of money, in sexuality unbridled by rules.... However they find themselves even more disappointed and sometimes vent their rage against life with violent behaviour unworthy of the human being.

How many sad people, how many sad people without hope! Think too of the many young people who after trying out so many things, fail to find a meaning for life and opt for suicide as a solution. Do you know how many young people commit suicide in the world today? A large number. Why? They have no hope. They have tried so many things and society, which is cruel — it is cruel! — cannot give you hope. Hope is like grace: it cannot be bought, it is a gift of God. We must offer Christian hope with our witness, our freedom and our joy. The present offered by the God of grace gives hope.

Can we who have had the joy of knowing that we are not orphans, that we have a Father, be indifferent to this city which asks of us, perhaps even unwittingly, without being aware of it, a hope that will help it look to the future with greater confidence and serenity? We cannot remain indifferent. But how can we do this? How can we step forward and offer hope? By going on our way saying: “I have hope”? No! With your witness, with your smile, saying: “I believe I have a Father”. This is what Gospel proclamation is: it is saying with my words, with my witness: “I have a Father. We are not orphans. We have a Father”, and means sharing this sonship with the Father and with everyone else. “Father, now I understand: it is a question of convincing others, of proselytizing!”. No: it is nothing of the kind. The Gospel is like seed: you scatter it, you scatter it with your words and with your witness. and then it is not you who calculate the statistics of the results; it is God who does. It is he who makes this seed germinate but we must sow it with the certainty that he will water it, that he gives the growth. And we do not gather in the harvest. Some other priest will do this, some other lay person, a man or woman, someone else will do it. However the joy of sowing with our witness — for with words alone it is not enough, it is not enough. Words without witness are hot air. Words do not suffice. It must be the true witness that Paul speaks of.

The proclamation of the Gospel is destined for the poor first of all, for all those all who all too often lack what they need in to live a dignified life. To them first are proclaimed the glad tidings that God loves them with a preferential love and comes to visit them through the charitable works that disciples of Christ do in his name. Go to the poor first of all: this is the priority. At the moment of the Last Judgement, as we can read in Matthew 25, we shall all be judged on this. Some, however, may think that Jesus’ message is for those who have no cultural background. No! No! The Apostle affirms forcefully that the Gospel is for everyone, even the learned. The wisdom that comes from the resurrection is not in opposition to human wisdom but on the contrary purifies and uplifts it. The Church has always been present in places where culture is worked out. But the first step is always the priority for the poor. Nevertheless we must also reach the frontiers of the intellect, of culture, of the loftiness of dialogue, of the dialogue that makes peace, the intellectual dialogue, the reasonable dialogue.

The Gospel is for everyone! This reaching out to the poor does not mean we must become champions of poverty or, as it were, “spiritual tramps”! No, no this is not what it means! It means we must reach out to the flesh of Jesus that is suffering, but also suffering is the flesh of Jesus of those who do not know it with their study, with their intelligence, with their culture. We must go there! I therefore like using the expression “to go toward the outskirts”, the outskirts of existence. All all the outskirts?, from physical and real poverty to intellectual poverty, which is also real. All the peripheries, all the crossroads on the way: go there. And sow there the seed of the Gospel with your words and your witness.

This means we must have courage. Paul VI used to say that he did not understand disheartened Christians, he simply did not understand them: those sad and anxious Christians who make one wonder whether they believe in God or in “the goddess of complaint”. One never knows. Day in day out they complain, they moan; and see how the world is going, look what disasters, what disasters. But think: the world is no worse than it was five centuries ago! The world is the world; it always was the world. And when someone complains: and it goes on like this, nothing can be done, O dear, young people! I shall ask you a question. Do you know Christians of this kind? There are some, there are some! However, Christians must be brave. In facing a problem, in facing a social or religious crisis they must have the courage to move onwards, to go ahead bravely. And when nothing can be done, patiently: putting up with it. Tolerating. Courage and patience, these two virtues of Paul. Courage: moving ahead, bearing a forceful witness: onwards! Putting up with things: bearing on our shoulders the things that cannot yet be changed. but moving forward with this patience, with this patience that grace gives us.

However what must we do with courage and with patience? Come out of ourselves, step out of ourselves. Go out of our communities to go where men and women live in order to work and suffer and proclaim to them the mercy of the Father who made men and women acquainted with him in Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Proclaim this grace that was given to us by Jesus.

If I asked priests on Holy Thursday to be shepherds with the smell of their sheep, I say to you, dear brothers and sisters: be everywhere heralds of the word of life in our neighbourhoods, our workplaces and everywhere that people meet one another and develop relationships. You must go outside. I do not understand Christian communities that are shut into a parish.

I want to tell you something. There is a beautiful passage of the Gospel which tells us about the shepherd who, when he returned to the sheepfold realized that one sheep was missing. He left the 99 others and went in search of it, he went off to look for one. But brothers and sisters, we have one sheep. We have lost the other 99! We must go out, we must go out to them! In this culture — let us tell the truth — we only have one, we are a minority! And do we feel the fervour, the apostolic zeal to go out and find the other 99? This is an enormous responsibility and we must ask the Lord for the grace of generosity, and the courage and patience to go out, to go out and preach the Gospel. Ah, this is difficult. It is easier to stay at home, with that one sheep! It is easier with that sheep to comb its fleece, to stroke it... but we priests and you Christians too, everyone: the Lord wants us to be shepherds, he does not want us to fuss with combing fleeces! Shepherds! And when a community is withdrawn, always among the same people who speak, this community is not a life-giving community. It is barren, it is not fertile. The fecundity of the Gospel comes through the grace of Jesus Christ, but through us, our preaching, our courage, our patience.

The whole thing is a little long, isn’t it? But it is not easy! We must tell each other the truth: the work of evangelizing, of freely carrying grace ahead, is not easy, because we are not alone with Jesus Christ; there is also an adversary, an enemy who wants to keep men and women separate from God and for this reason instils in hearts disappointment when we do not see our apostolic commitment immediately rewarded. Every day the Devil scatters in our hearts seeds of pessimism and gall, and it is discouraging, we become discouraged. “It’s no good! We’ve done this, that and the other and it’s no good! And look how that religion attracts people whereas we don’t!”. It is the Devil who inspires this. We must prepare ourselves for the spiritual combat. This is important. It is impossible to preach the Gospel without this spiritual battle, a daily battle against sadness, against bitterness, against pessimism; a daily battle! Sowing is far from easy. Reaping is lovely but sowing is difficult and the daily battle of Christians consists in this.

Paul said he felt urgently impelled to preach and had had the experience of this spiritual fight, when he told us: “I have a thorn of Satan in my flesh and I feel it every day”. We too have thorns of Satan that hurt us, that impede our progress and very often discourage us. Let us prepare ourselves for the spiritual combat: evangelization asks true courage of us partly because this inner fight, this battle in our hearts, so speak with prayer, with mortification, with the desire to follow Jesus, with the sacraments that are an encounter with Jesus, that are speaking to Jesus: thank you, thank you for your grace. I want to bring it to others. but this is work: this is work. It is called — do not be shocked — martyrdom. This is martyrdom: fighting every day, in order to bear witness. This is what martyrdom is; and the Lord also asks of some people the martyrdom of life, but there is everyday martyrdom, at every moment: testimony against the spirit of evil which does not want us to be evangelizers.

I would now like to conclude with one thing in mind. In this epoch, when gratuitousness seems enfeebled in personal relationships because everything is bought and sold and gratuitousness is hard to find, let us Christians proclaim a God who to be our friend asks nothing other than to be accepted. The only thing that Jesus asks for: to be made welcome. Let us think of all who live in desperation because they have never met anyone who showed them attention or comforted them, anyone who made them feel precious and important. Can we, disciples of the Crucified One, refuse to go to those places where no one wants to go, for fear of compromising ourselves or of the opinion of others, and hence deny these brethren of ours the proclamation of God’s word? Gratuitousness! We have received this gratuitousness, this grace, freely; we must give it freely. And this is what, in the end, I want to tell you. Do not be afraid, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of love, of the love of God our Father. Do not be afraid. Do not be afraid to receive the grace of Jesus Christ, do not be afraid of our freedom which is given by the grace of Jesus Christ or, as Paul used to say: “you are not under law but under grace”. Do not be afraid of grace, do not be afraid of going out of our Christian communities to seek and find the 99 who are not at home. And go and talk to them, and tell them what we think, go and show them our love, which is the love of God.

Dear brothers and sisters: do not be afraid! Let us keep going, to tell our brothers and sisters that we are under grace, that Jesus gives us grace and that this costs nothing: only, accept it. Onwards!

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20 June 2013 - Speech - To participants in the Assembly of Organizations for Aid to the Eastern Churches

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

TO THE ASSEMBLY OF ORGANIZATIONS

FOR AID TO THE EASTERN CHURCHES (R.O.A.C.O.)

Consistory Hall

Thursday, 20 June 2013

Dear Friends,

1. Welcome to you all! I receive you joyfully to thank the Lord, together with our brothers and sisters of the East, represented here by some of their pastors and by you, the superiors and co-workers of the Congregation for the Eastern Churches, as well as the members of the Agencies of which ROACO consists. I am grateful to God for the fidelity to Christ, to the Gospel and to the Church of which Eastern-rite Catholics have given proof down the ages, facing every difficulty in Christ’s name as Christians for “keeping the faith” (cf. 2 Tim 4:6-8). I am close to them with gratitude.

I extend my thanks to each one of you — and to the Churches which you represent — for all you do for them, and I reciprocate the Cardinal Prefect’s cordial greeting. Like my Predecessors, I wish to encourage and support you in the exercise of charity which for disciples of Jesus is their sole reason for pride. This charity flows from the love of God in Christ: its summit is the Cross, a luminous sign of God’s mercy and charity for all, which was poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 5:5).

2. It is my duty to press for charitable action, which is inseparable from the faith in which the Bishop of Rome, Successor of the Apostle Peter, is bound to strengthen his brethren. The Year of Faith impels us to profess the love of God in Christ Jesus even more convincingly. I ask you to accompany me in the task of combining faith with charity, which is inherent in the Petrine Service.

St Ignatius of Antioch has that essential expression with which he defines the Church of Rome: “the Church which presides in charity” (Letter to the Romans, greeting). I therefore ask you to cooperate “in faith and in the charity of Jesus Christ our Lord” (ibid.), reminding you that our action will only be effective if it is rooted in faith and nourished by prayer, especially by the Blessed Eucharist, the Sacrament of faith and charity.

3. Dear friends, this is the first witness we must offer in our service to God and to our brethren. Only in this way will all our actions be fruitful. Continue your intelligent and caring work in implementing well thought-out and coordinated projects that give formation appropriate priority, especially to youth. However, never forget that these projects must be a sign of that profession of God’s love which constitutes the Christian identity.

The Church, in the multiplicity and riches of her members and of her activities, does not find her security in human means. The Church belongs to God, she trusts in his presence and in his action and brings to the world the force of God which is the power of love. May the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Medio Oriente be an invaluable reference to you in your service.

4. The presence of the Patriarchs of Alexandria for Copts and of Babylon for Chaldeans, as well as of the Papal Representatives in the Holy Land and in Syria, of the Auxiliary Bishop of the Patriarch of Jerusalem and of the Custos of the Holy Land, takes my heart to the Holy Places of our Redemption and rekindles within me my deep ecclesial concern for the situation of so many brothers and sisters who live in insecurity and violence that seem never-ending and spare neither the innocent nor the weakest.

We believers are asked for constant and trusting prayer, that the Lord may grant the longed-for peace, accompanied by sharing and practical solidarity.

I would like once again from the depths of my heart to appeal to the leaders of nations and of international organizations, to the believers of every religion, and to men and women of good will for an end to all suffering, all violence, and all religious, cultural and social discrimination.

May conflict that sows death make room for encounter and reconciliation that bring life. To all who are suffering I say forcefully: never lose hope! The Church is beside you, accompanies you and sustains you! I ask you to do all you can to alleviate the serious needs of the stricken populations, especially those of Syria, the people of beloved Syria, refugees, ever more numerous.

Ignatius of Antioch himself asked the Christians of Rome: “Remember in your prayers the Church of Syria... Jesus Christ will watch over her and your charity” (Letter to the Romans IX, 1). I, too, repeat this to you: remember in your prayers the Church of Syria.... Jesus Christ will watch over her and your charity.

I entrust the innumerable victims to the Lord of life and I implore the Most Holy Mother of God to comfort all who are in “great tribulation” (Rev 7:14). It is true, Syria is passing through great tribulation.

To each one of you, to the Agencies and to all the Eastern Churches I warmly impart the Apostolic Blessing.

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21 June 2013 - Speech - To participants in the days dedicated to Papal Representatives

ADDRESS OF POPE FRANCIS

TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE PAPAL REPRESENTATIVES' DAYS

Clementine Hall

Friday, 21 June 2013

Dear Confreres,

These days in the Year of Faith are an opportunity the Lord has offered us to pray and reflect together in fraternal reunion. I thank Cardinal Bertone for the words he has addressed to me on behalf of you all and I would like to thank each one of you for your service, which helps me in my solicitude for all the Churches in the ministry of unity, which is central for the Successor of Peter. You represent me in the Churches scattered across the world and with the Governments, but seeing so many of you today also gives me a sense of the Church’s catholicity and of her universal scope. A truly heartfelt “thank you”! “Important” is the word that springs to mind when it comes to your work, but it is a formal word. Your job is more than important, it is the work of making the Church, of constructing the Church; among the particular Churches and the universal Church, between the Bishops and the Bishop of Rome. You are not intermediaries; rather you are mediators, who create communion with your mediation. Some theologians who study ecclesiology speak of the local Church and say that the papal representatives and the presidents of bishops’ conferences make a local Church which is not a divine institution. It is organizational but helps the Church to forge ahead. The most important work is that of mediation and in order to mediate it is necessary to know. Not merely in order to know the cards — it is very important to read cards and there are so many — but to know people. I therefore consider the personal relationship between the Bishop of Rome and you as essential. It is true, the Secretariat of State exists and helps us, but the latter point, the personal relationship, is important. And we must create it on both sides.

I have thought about this meeting and I offer you some simple thoughts on certain, I would say essential, aspects of your life as papal representatives. They are things I have pondered in my heart, thinking mainly of putting myself beside each one of you. At this meeting I should not like to address to you merely formal words or words especially fitting for the circumstance. It would be bad for all of us, both for you and me. What I am saying now comes from inside me, I assure you, and is dear to my heart.

1. I would first like to emphasize that your life is nomadic. I have often thought about this: poor men! Every three or four years for the co-workers, a little longer for the Nuncios, you change your post, you move from one continent to another, from one country to another, from one Church situation to another, which often differ greatly. You are always carrying a suitcase. I wonder: what does this life tell us all? What is its spiritual meaning? I would say that it means going on a journey which is central in the life of faith, starting with Abraham, a man of faith who went on a journey. God asked him to leave his land, his securities, to set out, trusting in a promise, which he did not see but simply kept in his heart as a hope that God was offering him (cf. Gen 12:1-9). And to my mind this involves two elements.

The first is mortification, because going about carrying a suitcase really is a mortification, the sacrifice of stripping oneself of things, of friends, of ties, and of starting over and over again. And this is not easy; it means living in temporary circumstances, going out of yourselves, without having anywhere in which to put down roots, a permanent community, and yet loving the Church and the country you are called to serve.

A second aspect that this nomadic life, constantly on the move, entails is what is described to us in chapter 11 of the Letter to the Hebrews. In listing examples of the fathers’ faith, the author says that they saw the good things promised to them and they greeted them from afar — this is a beautiful image — after acknowledging that they were pilgrims on this earth (cf. 11:13). Such a life is of great merit, a life like yours, when it is lived with intense love and an active memory of your first call.

2. I would like to think briefly about the aspect of “seeing from afar”, seeing the promises from afar, greeting them from afar. What did the Fathers of the Old Testament see in the distance? The good things promised by God. Each one of us can ask: what is my promise? What am I looking at? What do I seek in life? What our founding memory impels us to seek is the Lord. He is the promised good. This must never seem to us something to be taken for granted. On 25 April 1951, in a famous discourse, Mons. Montini, then Substitute of the Secretariat of State, recalled that the figure of the papal representative “is of someone truly aware that he is bringing Christ with him”, as the precious good to communicate, to proclaim, and to represent. Property, the prospects of this world, end in disappointment, they feed the urge never to be satisfied; the Lord is the good that does not disappoint, the only one that does not disappoint. And this demands a detachment from ourselves that can only be achieved in a constant relationship with the Lord and in the unification of our life round Christ. And this is called “familiarity” with Jesus. Familiarity with Jesus Christ must be the daily nourishment of the papal representative because it is nourishment that originates in the memory of the first encounter with him and also constitutes the daily expression of faithfulness to his call. Familiarity. Being on familiar terms with Jesus Christ in prayer, in the Eucharistic celebration, is never to be neglected in the service of charity.

3. For men of the Church too there is always a risk of giving in to what, borrowing the words of De Lubac, I call “spiritual worldliness”: succumbing to the spirit of the world that leads to acting for one’s own fulfilment rather than for the glory of God (cf. Méditations sur l’Eglise, 1952), to that sort of “bourgeoisie of spirit and life” which spurs us to lie back, to seek a comfortable, quiet life. I also reminded the students of the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy that for Blessed John XXIII, service as a papal representative was one of the areas — and not a secondary one — in which his holiness was shaped, and I quoted several passages of the Journal of a Soul that referred specifically to this long stretch of his ministry. He said he understood increasingly that for his action to be effective he was constantly obliged to prune the vine of his life, cutting away all that was merely useless foliage to go straight to the essential, which is Christ and his Gospel, for otherwise he would risk turning a holy mission into a ridiculous one (cf. Giornale dell’Anima, [Journal of a Soul] Edizioni di San Paolo: Cinisello Balsamo 2000, pp. 513-514). This “ridiculous” is a strong word but it is true: giving into the worldly spirit exposes especially us Pastors to ridicule. We may perhaps first receive some applause, but the very same people who seem to approve of us will later criticize us behind our backs. This is a common rule.

However, we are Pastors! And we must never forget it! Dear papal representatives, you are a presence of Christ, you are a priestly presence, a presence of pastors. Of course you will not teach a particular portion of the People of God which has been entrusted to you, you will not be at the helm of a local Church but you are pastors who serve the Church. Your role is to encourage, to be ministers of communion and it is also your duty, which is not always easy, to reprimand.

Always do everything with deep love! You are also pastors in your relations with civil authorities and your colleagues: always seek good, the good of all, the good of the Church and of every individual person. However, this pastoral work, as I said, should be carried out in familiarity with Jesus Christ in prayer, in the Eucharistic celebration, in charitable works: the Lord is present there. Yet, for your part, you must also act with professionalism and this will be, as it were, your — and here I am prompted to use a word — your cilice [hair shirt], your penance: always do everything with professionalism because this is how the Church wants you to act. Moreover when a papal representative does not do things with professionalism he also loses authority.

I would like to conclude with a word too on one of the important aspects, at least for the vast majority, of your service as papal representatives: collaboration with the bishops' provisions. You know the famous expression that indicates a basic criterion in the choice of the person who must govern: si sanctus est oret pro nobis, si doctus est doceat nos, si prudens est regat nos — if he is holy let him pray for us, if he is learned, let him teach us, if he is prudent let him govern us. In the delicate task of carrying out the investigation required prior to making episcopal appointments, be careful that the candidates are pastors close to the people: this is the first criterion. Pastors close to the people. He is a great theologian, has a learned mind: Let him go to university where he will do such great good! Pastors! We need them! May they be fathers and brothers, may they be gentle, patient and merciful; may they love poverty, interior poverty, as freedom for the Lord, and exterior poverty, as well as simplicity and a modest lifestyle; may they not have the mindset of “princes”. Be careful that they are not ambitious, that they are not in quest of the episcopate. It is said that at an early audience Blessed John Paul II was asked by the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops about the criterion for the selection of candidates for the episcopate, and the Pope said with his special voice: “the first criterion: volentes nulumus”. Those who seek the episcopate.... no, they won’t do. And may they be bridegrooms of one Church, without being constantly on the lookout for another. May they be able to “watch over” the flock that will be entrusted to them, in other words to care for all that keeps it united; to “monitor” it, to be on the alert for dangers that threaten it, to nurture hope, so that hearts may be filled with sunshine and light, to sustain lovingly and patiently the plans God brings about among his People.

Let us think of St Joseph who watched over Mary and Jesus, of his care for the family God had entrusted to him, and of the attentive gaze with which he guided it to avoid the perils on the way. For this reason may pastors know how to be in front of the flock to show it the way, in the midst of the flock to keep it united, and behind the flock to prevent anyone from being left behind and because the flock itself has, so to speak, a “good nose” for finding the way. This is how the pastor must move!

Dear papal representatives these are only a few thoughts that come from my heart, I have given a lot of thought to writing this: I wrote it myself! I thought deeply and I prayed. These thoughts come from my heart, they are words with which I do not claim to say new things — no, none of the things I have said are new — but I ask you to reflect on them for the sake of the important and precious service you render to the entire Church.

Yours is a life that is frequently difficult, at times in places of conflict — as I know well: I have twice spoken to one of you recently. What pain, what suffering! A constant pilgrimage with no possibility of putting down roots in one place, in one culture, in one specific ecclesial situation. Yet it is a life that journeys on towards the promises and greets them from afar. A life on the way, but always with Jesus Christ who holds your hand. This is certain. He is holding your hand. Thank you again for this! We know that our permanence does not exist in things, in our own projects or ambitions, but rather in being true pastors who keep their gaze fixed on Christ. Once again, thank you! I ask you please to pray for me, because I am in need of it. May the Lord bless you and Our Lady keep you. Many thanks.

© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

22 June 2013 - Speech - To the pilgrims from the Diocese of Brescia

ADDRESS OF POPE FRANCIS

TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE PILGRIMAGE

FROM THE DIOCESE OF BRESCIA

Vatican Basilica

Saturday, 22 June 2013

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Diocese of Brescia, good morning!

Thank you for offering me the opportunity to commemorate with you the Venerable Servant of God Paul VI. I greet you all with affection, starting with your pastor, Bishop Luciano Monari, to whom I am grateful for his kind words. I greet the priests, the men and women religious and the lay faithful. This is your pilgrimage in the Year of Faith, and it is lovely that you chose to make it on the 50th anniversary of the election of Paul vi, your great compatriot.

How many things I should like to say and to recall about this great Pontiff. In thinking of him I shall limit myself to three fundamental aspects to which he bore witness and taught us, letting his enthusiastic words illustrate them: love for Christ, love for the Church and love for man. These three words are fundamental attitudes, but they are also Paul vi’s passionate words.

1. In difficult years Paul VI was able to bear witness to faith in Jesus Christ. His invocation: “We need you, O Christ!”, rings out more clearly than ever. Yes, Jesus is more necessary than ever to people today, to the world today, because in the “wildernesses” of the secular city he speaks to us of God and reveals his face to us. Montini’s total love for Christ shines through his life, and also in the choice of his name as pope which he explained with these words: Paul is the Apostle “who loved Christ supremely, who wanted to and did his utmost to take Christ’s Gospel to all the peoples and who gave his life for love of Christ (Homily, 30 June 1963: aas 55 [1963], 619). Moreover it was this totality which he indicated to the Council in his Opening Discourse for the Second Session in St Paul Outside-the-Walls, as he pointed to the Basilica’s great mosaic in which Pope Honorius III, a minuscule figure, appears, lying at the feet of the imposing figure of Christ. This is how the Assembly of the Council was: at the feet of Christ, to be his servants and servants of the Gospel (cf. Discourse 29 September 1963: aas 55 [1963], 846-847).

Deep love for Christ, not to possess him but to proclaim him. Let us remember Paul VI’s passionate words in Manila [at the Mass in Quezon Circle]: “Christ: yes, I feel the need to proclaim him, I cannot keep silent.... He reveals the invisible God, he is the firstborn of all creation, the foundation of everything created. He is the Teacher of mankind, and its Redeemer.... He is the centre of history and of the world; he is the One who knows us and who loves us; he is the companion and the friend of our life. He is the man of sorrows and of hope. It is he who will come and who one day will be our judge and — we hope — the everlasting fullness of our existence, our happiness” (Address, 29 November 1970: ore, 10 December 1970, p. 3). These passionate words are important words. But I confide one thing to you: this discourse in Manila, and also the one in Nazareth, have given me spiritual strength, they have done me so much good in my life. And I return to this discourse again and again because it does me good to hear these words of Paul VI today. And us? Do we have the same love for Christ? Is he the centre of our life? The witness of our daily actions?

2. The second point: love for the Church, a passionate love, the love of a whole life, joyful and anguished, expressed from his very first Encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam. Paul VI experienced to the full the Church’s travail after the Second Vatican Council: the lights, the hopes, the tensions. He loved the Church and expended himself for her, holding nothing back. In Pensiero alla morte he wrote: “I would like to embrace her, to greet her, to love her in every being of which she is made, in every bishop and priest who assists her and guides her, in every living soul who illustrates her”. And in his Testament he addressed these words to the Church: “receive with my blessing and greeting my final act of love” (30 June 1965; ore, 24 August 1978, p. 2). This is the heart of a true pastor, an authentic Christian, a man capable of love! Paul VI saw very clearly that the Church is a mother who brings Christ and brings to Christ. He asked this question in his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi — to my mind the greatest pastoral document that has ever been written to this day — he asked this question: “after the Council and thanks to the Council, which was a time given her by God, at this turning-point of history, does the Church or does she not find herself better equipped to proclaim the Gospel and to put it into people's hearts with conviction, freedom of spirit and effectiveness?” (8 December 1975, n. 4). And he continued: “is [the Church] firmly established in the midst of the world and yet free and independent enough to call for the world’s attention? Does she testify to solidarity with people and at the same time to the divine Absolute? Is she more ardent in contemplation and adoration and more zealous in missionary, charitable and liberating action? Is she ever more committed to the effort to search for the restoration of the complete unity of Christians, a unity that makes more effective the common witness, ‘so that the world may believe’?” (ibid., n. 76). These questions are also put to our Church today, to all of us. We are all responsible for the answers and must ask ourselves: are we really a Church united to Christ in order to go out and proclaim him to everyone, also and above all in what I call the “existential outskirts”? Or are we closed in on ourselves, in our own groups, in our own little churches? Or do we love the great Church, Mother Church, the Church that sends us out on mission and brings us out of ourselves?

3. The third element: love for people. This too is bound to Christ: it is God’s own passion that spurs us to encounter people, to respect them, recognize them and serve them. At the last Session of the Second Vatican Council Paul VI gave a discourse which on rereading never fails to impress, particularly where he speaks of the Council’s attention for people today. And he said this: ultimately “secular humanism, revealing itself in its horrible anti-clerical reality has, in a certain sense, defied the Council. The religion of the God who became man has met the religion (for such it is) of man who makes himself God. And what happened? Was there a clash, a battle, a condemnation? There could have been, but there was none. The old story of the Samaritan has been the model of the spirituality of the Council. A feeling of boundless sympathy has permeated the whole of it. The discovery of human needs... But call upon those, who call themselves modern humanists, and who have renounced the transcendent value of the highest realities give the Council credit for one quality and to recognize our own new type of humanism: we, too, in fact, we more than any others, honour mankind” (Homily, 7 December 1965: aas 58 [1966], 55-66). And with an overall look at the work of the Council he remarked: “all this rich teaching is channelled in one direction, the service of mankind, let us say to people of every condition, in every weakness and need. The Church has, so to say, declared herself the handmaid of humanity” (ibid.). Moreover this gives us light today, in this world where man is denied, where people prefer to take the road of Gnosticism, the road of Pelagianism, or of the “no flesh” — a God who did not take flesh — or of the “no God” — the Prometheian man who can walk on. We in our time can say the same things as Paul VI: the Church is the servant of man, the Church believes in Christ who came in the flesh and therefore serves man, loves man and believes in man. This is the inspiration of the great Paul VI.

Dear friends, it does us good to meet each other in the name of the Venerable Servant of God Paul VI! His witness nourishes within us the flame of love for Christ, of love for the Church, of the drive to proclaim the Gospel to the people of today with mercy, with patience, with courage and with joy. For this I thank you once again. I entrust you all to the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, and I warmly bless you all, together with your loved ones, and especially your children and the sick.

© Copyright - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

23 June 2013 - Speech - To the Sts Peter and Paul Association, 23 June 2013

ADDRESS OF POPE FRANCIS

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE STS PETER AND PAUL ASSOCIATION

Hall of Blessings

Sunday, 23 June 2013

Good morning!

I would like to say thank you, thank you very much! Right from the start you have accompanied me with your prayers, your affection and your precious service in the various celebrations. I warmly thank you for this.

I know that there is a lot of organization “behind the scenes”. I also know that in addition to your service of welcoming people to the liturgical celebrations in St Peter’s Basilica, your apostolate also extends to cultural and charitable work. Charity above all, caring in a practical way for others, for the poorest, for the weak and for the needy, is a badge of Christians. Furthermore, you have a full formation programme for candidates and young students who wish to take part in the life of the Association. To bring and to live out his mercy to all, seeing his Face in the faces of those we meet, growth in the knowledge and love of God is essential. I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude to you for all this.

I congratulate the 22 new Members who made their promises this morning: let Christ’s love always be your certainty so that you witness to him with generosity and conviction!

It is beautiful to belong to an association like yours, composed of people of different ages, united in the common desire to bear a special witness to Christian life, serving the Church and our brethren and asking nothing in return. This is beautiful: serving without asking for anything in return, just as Jesus did. Jesus served everyone and asked for nothing in return! Jesus did things free of charge and you do things free of charge. Your reward is exactly this: the joy of serving the Lord and of serving him together! Get to know him better and better, through prayer, retreat days, meditation on the word and study of The Catechism, so as to love him more and more and to serve him with a generous and great heart, with magnanimity. This is a marvellous Christian virtue: magnanimity, being great-hearted, ceaselessly dilating the heart, patiently, loving everyone; and none of that pettiness that does us so much harm, but with magnanimity. Your testimony will be more convincing and effective and your service, too, better and more joyful.

I entrust you all to the motherly protection of Our Lady, and to the intercession of Sts Peter and Paul. I likewise pray for your relatives, especially those who are sick, and for your children who are growing up. I have seen so many children here: it is so beautiful, it is really beautiful! Continue to pray for me. My blessing to you all, with affection. Thank you! I will now impart my blessing to you. Think of all the people you love so much: your family, your friends, so that my Blessing may come down upon them. But think as well of those you do not love so much, of those who hurt you, of those whom you find a little annoying. Think of them too so that this blessing may also be for them.

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24 June 2013 - Speech - To a delegation of representatives of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS

TO MEMBERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL JEWISH COMMITTEE

ON INTERRELIGIOUS CONSULTATIONS

Hall of Popes

Monday, 24 June 2013

Dear elder brothers and sisters, Shalom!

With this greeting, dear also to the Christian tradition, I am pleased to welcome a delegation of representatives of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations.

I greet Cardinal Koch, as well as the other members and officials of the Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, with whom you have continued a regular dialogue for more than forty years. The twenty-one meetings held until today have certainly helped to reinforce mutual understanding and the links of friendship between Jews and Catholics. I know that you are preparing the next meeting in October in Madrid and that it will have as its theme Challenges to Faith in Contemporary Society. Thank you for your commitment to this!

In these first months of my ministry I have already had the chance to meet important personalities of the Jewish world, but this is the first time I have talked with an official group of representatives of Jewish organizations and communities, and so I cannot fail to mention what was solemnly stated by the Second Vatican Council in paragraph 4 of the Declaration Nostra Aetate, as it remains for the Catholic Church a key point of reference for relations with the Jewish people.

In that Council text, the Church recognizes that "the beginnings of its faith and election are to be found in the patriarchs, Moses and prophets". And, with regard to the Jews, the Council recalls the teaching of Saint Paul, who wrote "the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable" and who also firmly condemned hatred, persecution and all forms of anti-Semitism. Due to our common roots, a Christian cannot be anti-Semitic!

The fundamental principles expressed by the Declaration have marked the path of greater awareness and mutual understanding trodden these last decades by Jews and Catholics, a path which my predecessors have strongly encouraged, both by very significant gestures and by the publication of a series of documents to deepen the thinking about theological bases of the relations between Jews and Christians. It is a journey for which we must surely give thanks to God.

Having said that, this is only the most visible element of a whole movement to be found here and there throughout the world, as I know from personal experience. During my time as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, I had the joy of maintaining relations of sincere friendship with leaders of the Jewish world. We talked often of our respective religious identities, the image of man found in the Scriptures, and how to keep an awareness of God alive in a world now secularized in many ways. I met with them on various occasions to discuss the challenges which Jews and Christians both face. But above all, as friends, we enjoyed each other’s company, we were all enriched through encounter and dialogue, and we welcomed each other, and this helped all of us grow as people and as believers.

This has happened in many other places in the world, and these friendly relations are in a way the basis for the development of a more official dialogue. So I encourage you to follow this path trying, as you do so, to involve younger generations. Humanity needs our joint witness in favour of respect for the dignity of man and woman created in the image and likeness of God, and in favour of peace which is above all God’s gift. As the prophet Jeremiah said, "I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future of hope" (29:11).

With this word, Peace – Shalom – I conclude my words, asking for your prayers and assuring you of my own.

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28 June 2013 - Speech - To the Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

Dear Brother,

Dear Brothers in Christ,

I am especially glad to offer you a warm welcome in the Church of Rome, as it celebrates the feast of its patron saints, Peter and Paul. Your presence on this occasion is a sign of the profound bond uniting the Church of Constantinople to the Church of Rome in faith, hope and charity. The fine custom of an exchange of delegations between our Churches for their respective patronal feasts, which started in 1969, gives me great joy: fraternal encounter is an essential part of the journey towards unity. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to His Holiness Bartholomaios I and to the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, who this year have chosen once again to send a high-ranking delegation. I recall with fraternal affection the exquisite gesture of His Holiness Bartholomaios I, in choosing to honour me with his presence at the celebration of the inauguration of my ministry as Bishop of Rome. I am sincerely grateful to Your Eminence too for your participation in that event, and I am pleased to welcome you again on this occasion.

The search for unity among Christians is an urgent task – you have said that "it is not a luxury, but an imperative" – from which, today more than ever, we cannot prescind. In our world, which hungers and thirsts for truth, love, hope, peace and unity, our witness demands that we should at last be able to proclaim with one voice the good news of the Gospel and to celebrate together the Divine Mysteries of new life in Christ! We are well aware that unity is primarily a gift from God for which we must pray without ceasing, but we all have the task of preparing the conditions, cultivating the ground of our hearts, so that this great grace may be received.

An essential contribution to the search for full communion between Catholics and Orthodox is offered by the Mixed International Commission for Theological Dialogue, co-chaired by Your Eminence, Metropolitan Ioannis, and my Venerable Brother Cardinal Kurt Koch. I thank you sincerely for your valued and tireless labour. This Commission has already produced many common texts and is now studying the delicate theme of the theological and ecclesiological relationship between primacy and synodality in the Church’s life. It is significant that today we are able to reflect together on these areas in truth and love, beginning from what we have in common, yet without concealing what still divides us. This is no mere theoretical exercise: it demands in-depth knowledge of one another’s traditions in order to understand them and sometimes also to learn from them. I am speaking for example of Catholic Church’s reflection on the meaning of episcopal collegiality and the tradition of synodality, so characteristic of the Orthodox Churches. I am confident that the effort to reflect together, complex and laborious though it is, will bear fruit in due course. I find it reassuring to know that Catholics and Orthodox share a notion of dialogue that is not about seeking a theological lowest common denominator on which to reach a compromise, but is rather about deepening our grasp of the sole truth that Christ has given to his Church, a truth that we never cease to understand better, as we follow the Holy Spirit’s promptings. Hence, we must not be afraid of encounter and true dialogue. This does not lead us away from the truth; rather, through an exchange of gifts, it leads us, under the guidance of the Spirit of Truth, towards the whole Truth (cf. Jn 16:13).

Venerable Brothers, I thank you once again for being here with us on the occasion of the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. Let us confidently invoke their intercession and that of Saint Andrew, Peter’s brother, for our faithful and for the needs of the whole world, especially the poor, the suffering and those unjustly persecuted on account of their faith. I ask you, finally, to pray for me – I need your prayers – and to ask your people to pray for me, that the Lord may assist me in my ministry as Bishop of Rome and Successor of Peter.

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Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

The daily homilies from the pope, technically called fervorinos, are not printed in full from the Vatican.  Instead Vatican Radio is providing summaries about what is said.

In a statement released from Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi:

"After careful reflection, therefore, it was decided that the best way to make the richness of the Pope's homilies accessible to a wider public, without altering their nature, is to publish an ample synthesis, rich also in original quoted phrases that reflect the genuine flavor of the Pope's expressions. It is what L'Osservatore Romano is committed to doing every day, whereas Vatican Radio, on the basis of its characteristic nature, offers a briefer synthesis, but accompanied also with some passages of the original recorded audio, as well as CTV which offers a video-clip corresponding to one of the inserted audios published by Vatican Radio."

24 June 2013 - Daily Homily - John the Baptist a model for the Church

(Vatican Radio) The church exists for courageously proclaiming -until martyrdom- Christ, to serve and "take nothing for herself". In his homily at morning Mass on Monday, Pope Francis pointed to St. John the Baptist as model for Church: he didn't claim the Truth, the Word as his own; he diminished himself so Christ could shine.

June 24th is the Solemnity of the Birth of the Saint, whom the Gospels indicate as the forerunner or precursor of Jesus. Dedicating his homily to him Pope Francis said the Church is called to proclaim the Word of God, even to martyrdom.

Pope Francis began his homily by addressing best wishes to all who bear the name John. The figure of John the Baptist, the Pope said, is not always easy to understand. "When we think of his life - he observed – we think of a prophet," a "man who was great and then ends up as a poor man." Who is John? The Pope said john himself explains: "I am a voice, a voice in the wilderness," but "it is a voice without the Word, because the Word is not him, it is an Other." Here then is the mystery of John: "He never takes over the Word," John "is the one who indicates, who marks". The "meaning of John's life - he added - is to indicate another." Pope Francis then spoke of being struck by the fact that the "Church chooses to mark John’s feast day” at a time when the days are at their longest in the year, when they "have more light." And John really "was the man of light, he brought light, but it was not his own light, it was a reflected light." John is "like a moon" and when Jesus began to preach, the light of John "began to decline, to set". "Voice not Word - the Pope said - light, but not his own"

"John seems to be nothing. That is John’s vocation: he negates himself. And when we contemplate the life of this man, so great, so powerful - all believed that he was the Messiah - when we contemplate this life, how it is nullified to the point of the darkness of a prison, we behold a great mystery. We do not know what John’s last days were like. We do not know. We only know that he was killed, his head was put on a platter, as a great gift from a dancer to an adulteress. I don’t think you can lower yourself much more than this, negate yourself much more. That was the end that John met".

Pope Francis noted that in prison John experienced doubts, anguish and he called on his disciples to go to Jesus and ask him, "Are you You, or should we expect someone else?". His life is one of “pain and darkness”. John “was not even spared this”, said the Pope, who added: "the figure of John makes me think so much about the Church":

"The Church exists to proclaim, to be the voice of a Word, her husband, who is the Word. The Church exists to proclaim this Word until martyrdom. Martyrdom precisely in the hands of the proud, the proudest of the Earth. John could have made himself important, he could have said something about himself. 'But I never think', only this: he indicated, he felt himself to be the voice, not the Word. This is John’s secret. Why is John holy and without sin? Because he never, never took a truth as his own. He would not be an ideologue. The man who negated himself so that the Word could come to the fore. And we, as a Church, we can now ask for the grace not to become an ideological Church ... "

The Church, he added, must hear the Word of Jesus and raise her voice, proclaim it boldly. "That - he said - is the Church without ideologies, without a life of its own: the Church which is the mysterium lunae which has light from her Bridegroom and diminish herself so that He may grow"

"This is the model that John offers us today, for us and for the Church. A Church that is always at the service of the Word. A Church that never takes anything for herself. Today in prayer we asked for the grace of joy, we asked the Lord to cheer this Church in her service to the Word, to be the voice of this Word, preach this Word. We ask for the grace, the dignity of John, with no ideas of their own, without a Gospel taken as property, only one Church that indicates the Word, and this even to martyrdom. So be it! "

Mass was concelebrated by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, and attended by a group of priests and collaborators of the Pontifical Council for Culture, a group of employees of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology and the Vatican’s Philatelic and Numismatic Office.

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25 June 2013 - Daily Homily - No one is Christian by chance

(Vatican Radio) Being Christian is a response to the voice of love, to a call to become children of God. This was the central theme of Pope Francis’ remarks at Mass on Tuesday morning in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae residence in the Vatican. The Holy Father also spoke of the Christian certainty that God never leaves us alone and asks us to go forward, even in the midst of difficulties.

Pope Francis focused his homily on the first reading of the day, from the Book of Genesis, which tells of the discussion between Abram and Lot his cousin for the division of the earth. “When I read this,” he said, “I think of the Middle East and so I ask the Lord [intensely] that He give wisdom to all of us, the wisdom [to say] let’s not fight, [you and I], I from here and you from there... the wisdom for peace.” Abram, the Pope observed, “keeps walking.” He said, “[Abram] had left his land to go he knew not where, but wherever the Lord would tell him.” He kept on walking, then, because he believed in the Word of God, which, “had invited him to go out of his land.” This man, perhaps ninety years old, said the Pope, looked upon the land that the Lord had shown him and believed:

"Abram departed his land [carrying] a promise: his entire journey is a going toward this promise. The way he walked his path is a model for how we [ought to walk our own]. God called Abram, a [single] person, and that one person makes an entire people. If we go to the Book of Genesis, to the beginning, to the creation, we find that God creates the stars, creates the plants, creates the animals, creates the these and the that’s and the others ... But He creates Man in the singular, one. God always speaks in the singular to us, because He has created in his image and likeness. And God speaks in the singular. He spoke to Abram and gave him a promise and invited him to come out of his land. We Christians have been called one-by-one: none of us is Christian by pure chance. No one.”

There is a call, “by name, and with a promise,” the Pope said, “Go ahead, I am with you! I walk beside you.” This, he said, Jesus knew as well: “Even in the most difficult moments He turns to the Father”:

"God accompanies us, God calls us by name, God promises [there will be] a line of heirs. This is something of ‘the surety of the Christian. It is not a coincidence, it is a call - a call that keeps us going. Being a Christian is a call of love, friendship, a call to become a child of God, brother of Jesus, to become fruitful in the transmission of this call to others, to become instruments of this call. There are so many problems, so many problems, there are difficult times, Jesus had many of His own! But always with that confidence: ‘The Lord has called me. The Lord is like me. The Lord has promised me.”

The Lord, he reiterated, "is faithful, for He can never deny Himself: He is faithfulness.” Thinking of the passage in which Abram, “is anointed father, for the first time, the father of peoples,” we also think of ourselves – we, who have been anointed in Baptism, and we think of our Christian life.”:

"Someone will say, ‘Father, I am a sinner’, but we all are, as everyone knows. The problem is: sinners, go forward with the Lord, go forward with that promise that He has made us, with the promise of fruitfulness, and tell others, recount to others others that the Lord is with us, that the Lord has chosen us and that He does not leave us alone, not ever! That certainty of the Christian will do us good. May the Lord give us, all of us, this desire to move forward, which Abram had, in the midst of all his problems: to go forward with the confidence that He who called me, who promised me so many beautiful things, is with me.”

The Mass was concelebrated by Cardinal Robert Sarah of the Pontifical Council cor unum and by the emeritus vicar-general of the Rome diocese, Cardinal Camillo Ruini. It was attended by staff from cor unum as well as of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Vatican Observatory, accompanied by the Observatory’s director, Fr. José Gabriel Funes, SJ.

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26 June 2013 - Daily Homily - The joy of fatherhood

(Vatican Radio) The desire to be a father is ingrained in all men, even priests, who are called to give life, care, protection to their spiritual children entrusted to them. This was the focus of Pope Francis homily at morning Mass Wednesday, in the chapel of Casa Santa Marta. Mass was concelebrated by the Cardinal Archbishop Emeritus of Palermo, Salvatore De Giorgi, who was celebrating the 60th anniversary of his priestly ordination. Emer McCarthy reports:

"When a man does not have this desire, something is missing in this man. Something is wrong. All of us, to exist, to become complete, in order to be mature, we need to feel the joy of fatherhood: even those of us who are celibate. Fatherhood is giving life to others, giving life, giving life… For us, it is pastoral paternity, spiritual fatherhood, but this is still giving life, this is still becoming fathers. "

Pope Francis was inspired by Wednesday's passage from Genesis, in which God promises an elderly Abram the joy of a child, along with descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. To seal this covenant, Abram follows God's directions and prepares a sacrifice of animals which he then defends from attack by birds of prey. "It moves me - said the Pope – to picture this ninety year old man with a stick in his hand", defending his sacrifice. "It makes me think of a father defending his family, his children":

"A father who knows what it means to protect his children. And this is a grace that we priests must ask for ourselves: to be a father, to be a father. The grace of fatherhood, of pastoral paternity, of spiritual paternity. We may have many sins, but this is commune sanctorum: We all have sins. But not having children, never becoming a father, it like an incomplete life: a life that stops half way. And therefore we have to be fathers. But it is a grace that the Lord gives. People say to us: 'Father, Father, Father ...'. They want us to be this, fathers, by the grace of pastoral fatherhood. "

Pope Francis then turned to Cardinal De Giorgi, who is marking the 60 the anniversary of his priestly ordination. "I do not know what our dear Savlvatore did," but "I'm sure that he was a father." "And this is a sign," he says pointing to the many priests who accompanied the cardinal. “Now it's up to you” he said, adding: every tree "bears its own fruit, and if it is good, the fruit must be good, right?". So, the Pope concluded lightheartedly , "do not let him look bad ..."

"We thank God for this grace of fatherhood in the Church, which is passed from father to son, and so on ... And I think, finally, these two icons and one more: the icon of Abram who asks for a child, the icon of Abraham with a stick in his hand, defending his family, and the icon of the elderly Simeon in the Temple, when he receives the new life : this is a spontaneous liturgy, the liturgy of joy , in Him. And to you, the Lord today gifts great joy. "

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27 June 2013 - Daily Homily - Resting our faith on the rock of Christ

(Vatican Radio) There are people who "masquerade as Christians," and sin by being excessively superficial or overly rigid, forgetting that a true Christian is a person of joy who rests their faith on the rock of Christ. Some think they can be Christian without Christ; others think being Christian means being in a perpetual state mourning. This was the focus of Pope Francis’ homily at morning Mass on Thursday.

Rigid and sad. Or happy but with no idea of Christian joy. These are two - in a sense opposite - "houses", in which two categories of believers live and which are both seriously flawed: they are grounded in a Christianity made of words and fail to rely on the "rock" of the Word of Christ. Pope Francis identified both groups in his comments on the Gospel of the day, the famous passage from Matthew of the houses built on sand and rock.

"In the history of the Church there have been two classes of Christians: Christians of words - those" Lord, Lord, Lord "- and Christians of action, in truth. There has always been the temptation to live our Christianity not on the rock that is Christ. The only one who gives us the freedom to say 'Father' to God is Christ, our rock. He is the only one who sustains us in difficult times, no? As Jesus said: the rain falls, rivers overflow, winds blow, but the rock is safe, words, the words take flight, they are not needed. But this is the temptation of these Christians of words, of a Christianity without Jesus, a Christianity without Christ. And this has happened and is happening today in the Church: being Christians without Christ. "

Pope Francis went on to analyze these "Christians of words," revealing their specific characteristics. There is a first type – which he defined as "gnostic -"who instead of loving the rock, loves beautiful words "and therefore lives floating on the surface of the Christian life. And then there's the other, who Pope Francis called "pelagian", who leads a staid and starched lifestyle. Christians, the Pope ironically added, who “stare at their feet” :

"And this temptation exists today. Superficial Christians who believe, yes, God, yes Christ, but not ‘everywhere’: Jesus Christ is not the one who gives them their foundation. They are the modern gnostics. The temptation of gnosticism. A 'liquid' Christianity. On the other hand, there are those who believe that the Christian life should be taken so seriously that they end up confusing solidity, firmness, with rigidity. They are rigid! This think that being Christian means being in perpetual mourning. "

Pope Francis continued that the fact is that there “are so many” of these Christians. But, he argued, "they are not Christians, they disguise themselves as Christians." "They do not know – he added - what the Lord is, they do not know what the rock is, do not have the freedom of Christians. To put it simply ‘they have no joy ":

"The former have a ‘superficial’ happiness. The others live in perpetual state of mourning, but do not know what Christian joy is. They do not know how to enjoy the life that Jesus gives us, for they know not to talk to Jesus. They do not feel that they rest on Jesus, with that firmness which the presence of Jesus gives. And they not only have no joy, they have no freedom either. They are the slaves of superficiality, of this life widespread, and the slaves of rigidity, they are not free. The Holy Spirit has no place in their lives,. It is the Spirit who gives us the freedom! Today, the Lord calls us to build our Christian life on Him, the rock, the One who gives us freedom, the One who sends us the Spirit, that keeps us going with joy, on His journey, following His proposals. "

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28 June 2013 - Daily Homily - The Mystery of God's patience

(Vatican Radio) The Lord asks us to be patient, after all He is always patient with us. Moreover there is no "set protocol" for how God intervenes in our lives; sometimes it's immediate, sometimes we just have to have a little patience. This was the lesson drawn by Pope Francis from the daily readings at Mass Friday morning in Casa Santa Marta. Emer McCarthy reports:

The Lord slowly enters the life of Abraham, who is 99 years old when He promises him a son. Instead He immediately enters the life of the leper, Jesus listens to his prayer, touches him and preforms a miracle. Pope Francis went on to speak of how the Lord chooses to become involved "in our lives, in the lives of His people." The lives of Abraham and the leper. "When the Lord intervenes - said the Pope– He does not always do so in the same way. There is no ‘set protocol’ of action of God in our life", "it does not exist ". Once, he added, "He intervenes is one way, another time in a different way” but He always intervenes. There is "always - he said - this meeting between us and the Lord".

"The Lord always chooses His way to enter into our lives. Often He does so slowly, so much so, we are in danger of losing our 'patience', a little. But Lord, when? 'And we pray, we pray ... And He doesn’t intervene in our lives. Other times, when we think of what the Lord has promised us, that it such a huge thing, we don’t believe it, we are a little skeptical, like Abraham – and we smile a little to ourselves ... This is what it says in the First Reading, Abraham hid his face and smiled ... A bit 'of skepticism:' What? Me? I am almost a hundred years old, I will have a son and my wife at 90 will have a son? '.

Sarah is equally skeptical, the Pope recalled, at the Oaks of Mamre, when the three angels say the same thing to Abraham. "How often, when the Lord does not intervene, does not perform a miracle, does not do what we want Him to do, do we become impatient or skeptical?"

"But He does not, He cannot for skeptics. The Lord takes his time. But even He, in this relationship with us, has a lot of patience. Not only do we have to have patience: He has! He waits for us! And He waits for us until the end of life! Think of the good thief, right at the end, at the very end, he acknowledged God. The Lord walks with us, but often does not reveal Himself, as in the case of the disciples of Emmaus. The Lord is involved in our lives - that's for sure! - But often we do not see. This demands our patience. But the Lord who walks with us, He also has a lot of patience with us. "

The Pope turned his thoughts to "the mystery of God's patience, who in walking, walks at our pace." Sometimes in life, he noted, "things become so dark, there is so much darkness, that we want - if we are in trouble - to come down from the cross." This, he said, "is the precise moment: the night is at its darkest, when dawn is about to break. And when we come down from the Cross, we always do so just five minutes before our liberation comes, at the very moment when our impatience is greatest ".

"Jesus on the Cross, heard them challenging him: 'Come down, come down! Come '. Patience until the end, because He has patience with us. He always enters, He is involved with us, but He does so in His own way and when He thinks it's best. He tells us exactly what He told Abraham: Walk in my presence and be blameless', be above reproach, this is exactly the right word. Walk in my presence and try to be above reproach. This is the journey with the Lord and He intervenes, but we have to wait, wait for the moment, walking always in His presence and trying to be beyond reproach. We ask this grace from the Lord, to always walk in His presence, trying to be blameless'.

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Papal Tweets

24 June 2013 - 30 June 2013

- “Are we ready to be Christians full-time, showing our commitment by word and deed?” @pontifex, 24 June 2013

- “Charity, patience and tenderness are very beautiful gifts. If you have them, you want to share them with others.” @pontifex, 26 June 2013

- “Jesus didn’t save us with an idea. He humbled himself and became a man. The Word became Flesh.” @pontifex, 28 June 2013

- “Let’s learn to lose our lives for Christ, like a gift or a sacrifice. With Christ we lose nothing!” @pontifex, 29 June 2013

- “A Christian is never bored or sad. Rather, the one who loves Christ is full of joy and radiates joy.” @pontifex, 30 June 2013

Table of Contents

Introduction

Index of Source Links

Angelus/Regina Caeli

23 June 2013 - Angelus

General Audiences

19 June 2013 - General Audience

Homilies

29 June 2013 - Homily - Holy Mass for the imposition of the Pallium on new Metropolitan Archbishops

Messages

11 June 2013 - Message - Audio-message to the Italian Union of Blind and Visually Impaired

Speeches

8 June 2013 - Speech - To participants in the initiative 'Ten Squares for Ten Commandments'

17 June 2013 - Speech - Pope Francis meets the participants in the Ecclesial Convention of the Diocese of Rome

20 June 2013 - Speech - To participants in the Assembly of Organizations for Aid to the Eastern Churches

21 June 2013 - Speech - To participants in the days dedicated to Papal Representatives

22 June 2013 - Speech - To the pilgrims from the Diocese of Brescia

23 June 2013 - Speech - To the Sts Peter and Paul Association, 23 June 2013

24 June 2013 - Speech - To a delegation of representatives of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations

28 June 2013 - Speech - To the Delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

Daily Homilies (fervorinos)

24 June 2013 - Daily Homily - John the Baptist a model for the Church

25 June 2013 - Daily Homily - No one is Christian by chance

26 June 2013 - Daily Homily - The joy of fatherhood

27 June 2013 - Daily Homily - Resting our faith on the rock of Christ

28 June 2013 - Daily Homily - The Mystery of God's patience

Papal Tweets

24 June 2013 - 30 June 2013