VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 158
DATE 17-09-2015
Summary:
- Audience with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg: assistance to refugees and
displaced persons
- To young consecrated persons: prophecy, closeness, memory and adoration
- The Church cannot remain silent as women and children live on the streets
- The Pope: no-one can remain oblivious to the atrocities and human rights
violations in Syria and Iraq
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Audience with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg: assistance to refugees and
displaced persons
Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican Apostolic
Palace the Holy Father Francis received in audience the Prime Minister of the
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, who subsequently met with Cardinal
Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Archbishop Paul Richard
Gallagher, secretary for Relations with States.
The cordial discussions offered the opportunity to reaffirm the wish to
consolidate the existing good relations between the Holy See and the Grand
Duchy
of Luxembourg and to consider issues of common interest, with special attention
to the relationship between Church and State, underlining the relevance of
religious freedom and spiritual values for social cohesion.
Within the context of Luxembourg's term of presidency of the European Union,
attention then turned to various matters of a European and international
nature,
with particular reference to current conflicts, the issue of migration and the
need to provide assistance to refugees and displaced persons, as well as the
situation of persecuted religious minorities.
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To young consecrated persons: prophecy, closeness, memory and adoration
Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received
in audience the participants in the World Meeting of Young Consecrated Men and
Women, which took place within the context of the Year of Consecrated Life.
During the audience, and after special greetings for those from Syria and Iraq
in which he recalled the martyrs of these countries, the Pope answered three
questions posed to him by those present.
The first question, asked by a woman religious, related to the problem of
instability and mediocrity in the vocational path. Francis recalled that,
according to St. Teresa of Jesus, strict observance removed freedom. "The Lord
calls you - and calls all of us - to the 'prophetic way' of freedom, that is
the
freedom that is to be united with witness and fidelity. A mother who raises her
children in a strict fashion ... and does not let them dream ... annuls their
creative future, rendering them barren. Consecrated life, too, can be barren,
when it is not truly prophetic, when dreaming is not permitted. ... Prophecy,
the
capacity to dream, is the opposite of rigidity. And observance must not be
rigid: if it is, it is personal egoism. ... Always keep your heart open to what
the Lord says to you and bring it into your dialogue with the superior, the
teacher or your spiritual guide, the Church, the bishop. Openness, an open
heart, dialogue, and also community dialogue. ... I tell you sincerely, one of
the
sins I most frequently encounter in community life is the incapacity for
forgiveness between brothers and sisters. ... Gossip in a community obstructs
forgiveness and puts distance between people. ... It is the scourge of
community
life. ... It is a bomb that destroys the reputation of others who are unable to
defend themselves as gossip takes place in obscurity, not in the light of day".
The Pope went on to affirm that ever since the beginning of consecrated life
there have been moments of instability. "There will always be temptations ...
and
returning to St. Teresa of Jesus, she said that one must pray for those who are
about to die, as this is the moment of greatest instability, in which the
temptations arise with force. Culturally it is true, we live in a very unstable
time ... we live in a culture of the provisional. ... And this culture has also
entered into the Church, into religious communities, into the family and
marriage. ... Instead there is the culture of the definitive - God sent His Son
for ever, not in a temporary way, to one generation or country, but rather to
all and forever. And this is a criterion of spiritual discernment ... taking on
definitive commitments so as not to disintegrate".
In response to another question on evangelisation, the Pope emphasised that
apostolic zeal comes from a wish to evangelise that inflames the heart.
"Evangelising is not the same as proselytism", he remarked. "We are not a
football team seeking members and supporters. ... Evangelisation is not about
simply convincing, it is about bearing witness that Jesus lives. ... And this
witness is given with the flesh, with one's own life. And here - forgive me if
I
am a bit of a feminist - I would like to give thanks for the witness of
consecrated women. You always have the wish to go to the front line, as you are
mothers, you have the maternity of the Church, that brings you close to people.
... You are the icons of the Church's tenderness and love, of the maternity of
the
Church and of Our Lady".
"Another key word in consecrated life is memory. I do not think that James and
John ever forgot their first encounter with Jesus, and nor did the other
apostles. ... The memory of one's own vocation. In the darkest moments, the
moments of temptation, in the difficult moments of our consecrated life, return
to the source, treasure the memory and wonder of when the Lord looked upon us".
The Pope was asked to share his memory of the first calling he received. "I
don't know how it was. I entered the Church by chance, I saw a confessional and
I left changed, I left in a different way. My life changed then. And what
attracted me to Jesus and the Gospel? I don't know ... their closeness to me.
The
Lord has never left me alone, not even in dark and difficult moments, nor in
moments of sin ... because the Lord always meets us definitively. He is not
part
of the culture of the provisional: He loves us for ever and He accompanies us
always".
"So, proximity to the people, prophecy in our witness, with an ardour, with
the
apostolic zeal that warms the hearts of others, even without words ... and
memory,
always returning to the source".
"I would like to end with two words", Francis concluded. "One is ... among the
worst attitudes of the religious: gazing upon one's own reflection in the
mirror, narcissism. Be on your guard against this. ... And yes, instead, to the
contrary, to what despoils us of all narcissism, yes to adoration. I think this
is one of the central themes. We all pray and give thanks to the Lord, we ask
favours, we praise the Lord ... but do we adore the Lord? The prayer of silent
adoration: 'You are the Lord', is the opposite of narcissism. I would like to
finish with this word, adoration. Be men and women of adoration".
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The Church cannot remain silent as women and children live on the streets
Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) - This morning in the Clementine Hall
the
Holy Father received the participants in the International Symposium on the
Pastoral Care of the Street, organised by the Pontifical Council for Migrants
and Itinerant Peoples. The aim of the meeting was to draw up a plan of action
to
respond to the phenomenon of women and children - and their families - who live
mainly on the streets.
Among the often sad causes of the phenomenon, the Pope lists indifference,
poverty, family and social violence, and human trafficking. "They involve the
--- MPost/386 v1.21
* Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)
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