consecrated life, so that service to the Gospel and to our brothers does not
remain a prisoner of our viewpoints, of the transient realities of this world,
but rather a continual surpassing of ourselves, anchoring us in external
realities and submerging ourselves in the Lord, our strength and our hope. And
this will also be our fruitfulness".
"The other important aspect of the life of Don Bosco is service to the young.
He achieved this with steadfastness and constancy, notwithstanding obstacles
and
hardships, with the sensibility of a generous heart. ... The charism of Don
Bosco
leads us to be educators of the young, implementing that pedagogy of the faith
that may be summarised thus: 'evangelise by educating and educate by
evangelising'. To evangelise the young, to educate the young full-time,
starting
from the most fragile and abandoned, proposing an educational style made of
reason, religion and affection, universally appreciated as a 'preventive
system'. I encourage you to continue with generosity and trust your many
activities in support of the new generations: oratories, youth centres,
professional institutes, schools and colleges. But without forgetting what Don
Bosco called the 'street children': they are greatly in need of hope, of being
formed in the joy of Christian life".
"Don Bosco was always obedient and faithful the Church and the Pope, following
suggestions and pastoral indications. Today the Church turns to you, spiritual
sons and daughters of this great Saint, and in a concrete way invites you to
reach out, to go out anew to find the children and young people where they are:
in the peripheries of the metropolises, in the areas of physical and moral
danger, in social contexts where many material things are missing, but where
above all there is a lack of love, understanding, tenderness and hope. Go
towards them with the overflowing paternity of Don Bosco. The oratory of Don
Bosco was born of the encounter with street children and for a certain time he
lived an itinerant life in the quarters of Turin. May you be able to announce
Jesus' mercy to all, making every place an 'oratory', especially those that
seem
most impervious; carrying in your hearts Don Bosco's oratory style and looking
to ever-broader apostolic horizons. From the solid root that he laid down two
hundred years ago in the terrain of the Church and in society, many branches
have grown: thirty religious institutions that live the charism to share the
mission of carrying the Gospel to the outer reaches of the peripheries. The
Lord
has blessed this service, inspiring among you, throughout these two centuries,
a
great number of people whom the Church has proclaimed saints and blesseds. I
encourage you to continue on this path, imitating the faith of your
predecessors".
___________________________________________________________
Francis visits the Cottolengo: the poor continue to be excluded from necessary
care
Vatican City, 21 June 2015 (VIS) - "I could not visit Turin without stopping
in
this house: the Little House of Divine Providence [Cottolengo], founded almost
two centuries ago by St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo. Inspired by the merciful
love of God the Father and trusting fully in His Providence, he welcomed the
poor, abandoned and sick who could not be received in hospitals at that time",
said the Pope to the patients and differently-abled persons who awaited him at
the Cottolengo in Turin following his meeting with the Salesians.
After blessing and personally greeting each person present, the Pope gave a
brief address in which he remarked that "the exclusion of the poor and their
difficulty in receiving the necessary assistance and treatment is a situation
that unfortunately still exists today. Great progress has been made in medicine
and in social assistance, but a culture of waste remains widespread as a
consequence of an anthropological crisis that instead of placing man at the
centre, favours consumption and economic interests".
He continued, "among the victims of this culture of waste, I would like to
mention the elderly in particular ... they are the memory and wisdom of the
people. Their longevity is not always considered as a gift from God, but at
times instead as a difficult burden to bear, especially when their health is
compromised. This mentality is not good for society, and our task is to develop
'antibodies' against this way of looking at the elderly or persons with
disabilities, as if theirs were lives no longer worth living. It is a sin, a
grave social sin! Instead, Cottolengo loved these people with great tenderness.
Here we can learn another outlook on life and on the person. ... From him we
can
learn the reality of evangelical love, so that many poor and sick people may
find a home, live as if they were in a family, and feel that they belong to a
community rather than being excluded and tolerated".
"Dear patients, brothers and sisters: you are valuable members of the Church!"
exclaimed the Pope. "You are the flesh of Christ crucified, whom we have the
honour of touching and serving with love. With the grace of Jesus we can be
witnesses and apostles of the divine mercy that saves the world. Looking upon
the crucified Christ, full of love for me, and also with the help of those who
care for you, you will find the strength and the consolation to bear your cross
each day".
"The reason for the existence of this little house is not mere assistance, or
philanthropy, but the Gospel: ... Jesus' predilection for the frailest and
weakest. And therefore work like this cannot be carried out without prayer ...
as
shown by the six monasteries of nuns of contemplative life linked to it",
concluded the Holy Father, who went on to thank the priests and men and women
religious of Turin, in the Cottolengo and throughout the world. "Along with
many
lay workers, volunteers and 'Friends of the Cottolengo', you are called upon to
continue, with creative fidelity, the mission of this great saint of charity".
___________________________________________________________
Meeting with the young: go against the grain
Vatican City, 22 June 2015 (VIS) - The first day of the Pope's apostolic trip
to Turin concluded with his encounter with the young in Piazza Vittorio.
Francis
answered to questions from three of them regarding the meaning of love, trust
in
life and the importance of sharing ideals, setting aside the discourse he had
prepared. The following is a summary of the Holy Father's answers:
"Love, life, friends: ... these three words are important for life, and they
share a common root: the desire to live. ... Love moves on two axes: first of
all,
love is found in actions more than in words: love is concrete. ... God began to
talk about love when he was involved with His people ... when He made a
covenant
with His people, He saved His people, He made gestures of love, acts of love.
And the second dimension, the second axis on which love turns, is that love
always communicates itself, that is, love listens and responds, love is found
in
dialogue and communion. Love is neither deaf nor mute, it communicates itself.
...
Love is very respectful to others, it does not use them, and therefore love is
chaste. ... It considers the life of the other person to be sacred: I respect
you,
I do not want to use you. ... Forgive me if I say something you did not expect,
but I ask you: make the effort to live love chastely. And a consequence derives
from this: ... love sacrifices itself for others. Love is service. When Jesus,
after the washing of the feet, explains this gesture to the apostles, He
teaches
them that we are made to serve one another".
"Very often we breathe an air of distrust in life. There are situations that
make us think, 'But is it worth living like this?'. I think of the wars in this
world. At times I have said that we are living a third world war, but in
pieces.
There is war in Europe, there is war in Africa, there is war in the Middle
East,
there is war in other countries ... But can I trust in a life like this? Can I
trust world leaders? When I go to vote for a candidate, can I trust that he or
she will not take my country to war? If you trust only in men, you have lost!
Think of the people, leaders, entrepreneurs, who say they are Christians and
then produce weapons! They say one thing and do another. Hypocrisy ... But we
see
what happened during the last century: in 1914, or rather in 1915 precisely.
There was the great tragedy in Armenia. Many people died. I do not know how
many, but certainly more than a million. Where were the great powers of the
time? They looked away. Why? Because they were interested in war: their war!
And
those who died, they were second class people, human beings. Then, in the 1930s
and 1940s, the tragedy of the Shoah. The great powers had photographed the
railway lines that carried the trains to the concentration camps, such as
Auschwitz, to kill Jews, and also Christians, Roma, homosexuals, to kill them
there. But tell me, why did they not bomb them? Interests! And soon after,
almost at the same time, there were the lagers in Russia: Stalin ... how many
Christians suffered and were killed. The great powers divided Europe like a
cake. Many years had to pass before reaching a certain 'freedom'. There is the
hypocrisy of speaking about peace and producing arms, and even selling weapons
to this one, who is at war with that one, and to that one who is at war with
this!"
"I understand what you say about distrust in life: today, too, we are living a
culture of waste. All that is not of economic use is discarded. ... And so,
with
this culture of waste, is it possible to trust in life? ... A young person who
cannot study, who does not have a job, who suffers the shame of not feeling
worthy because he does not have a job, does not earn life. ... How often do
young
people commit suicide? ... Or how often do they go to fight with terrorists, at
least to do something, for an ideal? ... And this is why Jesus told us not to
place our security in wealth, in worldly powers. How can I live a life that
does
n destroy, that is not a life of destruction, a life that does not discard
people? How can a live a life that does not disappoint me?".
"We must go ahead with our plans to build, and this life does not disappoint.
If you are involved in a plan for construction, to help ... that sense of
distrust
in life goes away. Be active, and go against the grain. For you, young people,
who experience this economic and also cultural, hedonistic, consumerist
situation with its soap bubble values, with these values it is not possible to
go ahead. Do constructive things, even if they are small, that bring us
together
again, that unite us together, with our ideals: this is the best antidote to
this distrust of life, against this culture that offers you only pleasure. ...
The
secret is clearly understanding where you live. In this land ... at the end of
the
nineteenth century there were the worst possible conditions for the growth of
the young: Freemasonry prevailed, even the Church could do nothing; there was
anti-clericalism, there was Satanism. ... It was one of the worst times and one
of
the worst places in the history of Italy. But in that period, many saints were
born. Why? Because they realised that they had to swim against the tide of that
culture, that way of life. Live in reality, and if that reality is glass and
not
diamond, I find an alternative reality and make it my own, a reality that is of
service to others".
___________________________________________________________
To the Waldensian Church: God is not resigned to human sin
Vatican City, 22 June 2015 (VIS) - At 9 a.m. today the Holy Father visited the
Waldensian Temple where he was received by the pastor Eugenio Bernardini,
moderator of the Waldensian Mass, the president of the Consistory of the
Evangelical Waldensian Church of Turin, Sergio Velluto, and the pastor Paolo
Ribet, titular of the Evangelical Waldensian Church of Turin. The moderator of
the Evangelical Waldensian Church of Uruguay, pastor Oscar Oudri, was also
present. The welcome reminded the Pope "of the meetings with friends in the
Waldensian Evangelical Church of Rio de la Plata, where I could appreciate the
spirituality and faith and learn many good things".
"One of the main fruits that the ecumenical movement has enabled us to gather
in recent years is the rediscovery of the fraternity that unites all those who
believe in Jesus Christ and have been baptised in His name", remarked Francis.
"This bond is not based simply on human criteria, such as the radical sharing
of
the experience on which Christian life is based: the encounter with God's love
that is revealed to us in Jesus Christ and the transforming action of the Holy
Spirit that helps us on our path in life. The rediscovery of this fraternity
enables us to grasp that deep bond that already unites us, despite our
differences".
"Unity, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, does not mean uniformity", he
emphasised. "Brothers, effectively, are united by a common origin, but they are
not identical to each other. This is clear in the New Testament where, despite
calling brothers all those who share the same faith in Jesus Christ, it can be
intuited that not all Christian communities had the same style or an identical
internal organisation ... and even in the announcement of the Gospel itself
there
--- MPost/386 v1.21
* Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)
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