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L’O S S E RVATOR E ROMANOWEEKLY EDITION

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Forty-ninth year, number 5 (2432) Vatican City Friday, 5 February 2016

At the General Audience the Pope recalls that God wants not our condemnation but our salvation

Another kind of justice

who is steadfast in righteousness willlive, but he who pursues evil willdie” (11:19). Jesus, too, speaks aboutit in the parable of the widow whowent repeatedly to the judge andasked him: “Vindicate me againstmy adversary” (Lk 18:3). This pathhowever does not lead to true justicebecause in reality it does not con-quer evil, it merely checks it. Onlyby responding to it with good canevil be truly overcome.

There is then another way of do-ing justice, which the Bible presentsto us as the royal road to take. It isa process that avoids recourse to the

tribunal and allows the victim toface the culprit directly and invitehim or her to conversion, helpingthe person to understand that theyare doing evil, thus appealing totheir conscience. In this way, by fi-nally repenting and acknowledgingtheir wrong, they can open them-selves to the forgiveness that the in-jured party is offering them. Andthis is beautiful: after being per-suaded that what was done waswrong, the heart opens to the for-giveness being offered to it. This isthe way to resolve conflicts in thefamily, in the relationship between

spouses or between parents and chil-dren, where the offended party lovesthe guilty one and wishes to save thebond that unites them. Do not severthat bond, that relationship.

Certainly, this is a difficult jour-ney. It requires that those who havebeen wronged be ready to forgiveand desire good and salvation fortheir offender. Only in this way canjustice triumph, because thus, if theculprit acknowledges the evil doneand ceases to do it, the evil is nomore; and he who was unjust be-comes just, because he is forgivenand is helped to rediscover the pathof goodness. And this is where for-giveness and mercy come in.

This is how God acts towards ussinners. The Lord continually offersus his pardon and helps us to acceptit and to be aware of our wrong-doing so as to free us of it. For Godwants not our condemnation, butour salvation. God does not want tocondemn anyone! One of you mightask me: “But Father, didn’t Pilatedeserve condemnation? Did God

The Holy Father closes the Year of Consecrated Life

A sea of mercy

The International EucharisticCongress in Cebu

A school of service

PAGE 16

Papal Message for Lent

A season forthe works of mercy

PAGE 7

The first Jubilee Audience

My name is Christopher

PAGE 5

The Year of Consecrated Life,which began on the First Sundayof Advent, 30 November 2014,came to a close on Tuesday, 2 Feb-ruary, with a Papal Mass in StPe t e r ’s Basilica. Pope Franciscalled on consecrated men andwomen to make courageous andprophetic decisions and not to beafraid to walk the geographicaland existential peripheries of man-kind today.

PAGE 8/9

At the Angelus

No oneis excluded

PAGE 6

CONTINUED ON PA G E 3

The Pope’s interviewin the daily Asia Times

Encounter through dialogue

PAGE 11

To the Congregation for the Doctrineof the Faith

The truth lived in love

PAGE 4

“God wants not our condemnation, butour salvation”. The “Lord of mercy”was at the heart of the Pope’s reflectionduring the General Audience in StPeter’s Square on Wednesday, 3February. The following is a translationof the Pope’s catechesis, which hedelivered in Italian.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,Good morning,

Sacred Scripture presents God to usas infinite mercy and as perfectjustice. How do we reconcile thetwo? How does one reconcile thereality of mercy with the demands ofjustice? It might appear that the twocontradict each other; but in fact itis not so, for it is the very mercy ofGod that brings true justice to fulfil-ment. But what kind of justice arewe talking about?

If we think of the legal adminis-tration of justice, we see that thosewho consider themselves victims ofinjustice turn to a judge in atribunal and ask that justice bedone. It is retributive justice, whichinflicts a penalty on the guilty party,according to the principle that eachperson must be given his or her due.As the Book of Proverbs says: “He

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page 2 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 February 2016, number 5

VAT I C A N BULLETINAUDIENCES

Thursday, 28 January

H.E. Mr Faure Essozimna Gnas-singbé, President of the Republic ofTogo, with his entourageArchbishop George Panikulam, titu-lar Archbishop of Arpaia, ApostolicNuncio in UruguayMr Leonardo DiCaprioFriday, 29 January

Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, Pres-ident of the Administration of thePatrimony of the Apostolic See(APSA)Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko, Presidentof the Pontifical Council for theLaityArchbishop Luciano Suriani, titularArchbishop of Amiterno, ApostolicNuncio in Serbia

Saturday, 30 January

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, PSS, Prefectof the Congregation for BishopsMonday, 1 February

Bishop Marcelo Daniel Colombo ofLa Rioja, ArgentinaBishop Hugo Nicolás Barbaro ofSan Roque de Presidencia RoqueSáenz Peña, ArgentinaMother Zulema Nelly Zayas, Superi-or General of the Hijas del DivinoSalvador

CHANGES IN EP I S C O PAT E

The Holy Father appointed FrAdilson Pedro Busin, CS, as Auxili-ary Bishop of the Archdiocese ofPorto Alegre, Brazil, assigning himthe titular episcopal See of Guardi-alfiera. Until now he has been Re-gional Vicar for the South American

region with its headquarters in PortoAlegre (27 Jan.).

Bishop-elect Busin, 50, was bornin Sarandi, Brazil. He holds degreesin philosophy and in theology and alicence in pedagogy. He made hisreligious profession for the Mission-aries of St Charles Borromeo (Sca-labrinians) on 31 May 1992 and wasordained a priest on 9 January 1993.Within the Congregation he hasserved as: vocation animator; rectorof the minor seminary in Ciudad delEste, Paraguay; master of novicesand provincial superior; president ofthe Scalabrinian Association for theservice to migrants.

The Holy Father appointed Fr JoséHiraís Acosta Beltrán as Bishop ofHuejutla, Mexico. Until now he hasbeen Administrator of the said Dio-cese (28 Jan.).

Bishop-elect Acosta Beltrán, 49,was born in Pezmatlán, Brazil. Heholds a licence in philosophy. Hewas ordained a priest on 11 June1993. He has served in parish min-istry and as: vice-rector of the MinorSeminary; professor and formator atthe Major Seminary; judge at theEcclesiastical Tribunal in Huejutla;prefect of studies and spiritual dir-ector at the Major Seminary of Hue-jutla; defender of the bond at thediocesan tribunal and member ofthe College of Consultors.

The Holy Father accepted the resig-nation of Bishop Raffaele Calabro ofAndria, Italy. It was presented in ac-cord with can. 401 § 1 of the Codeof Canon Law (29 Jan.).The Holy Father appointed MsgrLuigi Mansi from the clergy of theDiocese of Cerignola-Ascoli Satri-ano, Italy, as Bishop of Andria. Un-til now he has been President of theNational Apostolic Union of Clergy(29 Jan.)

Bishop-elect Mansi, 63, was bornin Cerignola, Italy. He holds a li-cence in theology and a doctorate intheological anthropology. He wasordained a priest on 29 June 1975.He has served in parish ministry andas: vice-rector of the episcopal sem-inary in Foggia; rector of the dioces-an seminary in Cerignola-Ascoli Sat-riano; head of the vocational pastor-al ministry; director and professor oftheology; master of ceremonies andchancellor of the diocese; spiritualdirector of Pio XI seminary inMolfetta; diocesan assistant to Cath-olic Action; episcopal vicar for pas-toral ministry; member of the epis-copal council, the presbyteral coun-cil, and the College of Consultors.

The Holy Father appointed FrMiguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot, M C C J,as titular Bishop of Luperciana. Un-til now he has been Secretary of thePontifical Council for InterreligiousDialogue (29 Jan.).

The Holy Father appointed Fr Vir-gilio Do Carmo Da Silva, SDB, asBishop of Dili, East Timor. Untilnow he has been Provincial Superiorof the Salesians in East Timor (30Jan.).

Bishop-elect Do Carmo Da Silva,48, was born in Vanilale, EastTimor. He made his perpetual pro-fession for the Salesian Society ofDon Bosco on 19 March 1997 andwas ordained a priest on 18 Decem-ber 1998. He studied philosophyand theology and holds a licence inspirituality. He has served in parishministry and as: formator; treasurerof the Formation House in Venilale;master of novices; director of theSalesian House and of the DonBosco Technical High School inFa t u m a c a .

The Holy Father appointed Fr Car-los Alberto Salcedo Ojeda, OMI, asAuxiliary Bishop of the Archdioceseof Huancayo, Peru, assigning himthe titular episcopal See of Mat-tiana. Until now he has been Epis-copal Vicar and Parish Priest of SanFrancisco de Asís Parish and of ElSeñor de la Ascensión Parish in thesaid Archdiocese (30 Jan.).

Bishop-elect Salcedo Ojedo, 55,was born in Comas, Peru. He madehis solemn vows for the Congrega-tion of the Missionary Oblates ofMary Immaculate on 30 August 1993and was ordained a priest on 6January 1996. He has served in par-ish ministry and as: counsellor to theDelegation of the Missionary Ob-lates of Mary Immaculate in Peru;head of the pre-novitiate in Lima;secretary to the Missionary Oblatesof Mary Immaculate team for forma-tion in the Latin American region;assistant to the master of novices atthe International Novitiate in Asun-ción, Paraguay.

The Holy Father accepted the resig-nation of Bishop Vincent Cadieux,OMI, of Moosonee and Hearst,Canada, Dioceses united in personaepiscopi. It was presented in accordwith can. 401 § 1 of the Code ofCanon Law (2 Feb.).The Holy Father appointed FrRobert Bourgon as Bishop ofHearst, Canada, and Apostolic Ad-ministrator of the Diocese of Moo-sonee. Until now he has been VicarGeneral of Sault Sainte Marie,Canada (2 Feb.).

Bishop-elect Bourgon, 59, wasborn in Sudbury, Canada. He holdsa degree in psychology and philo-sophy, a Master of Divinity and adoctorate in canon law. He was or-dained a priest on 8 May 1981. Hehas served in parish ministry and as:member of the College of Con-sultors; judicial vicar of Sault SainteMarie and adjunct judicial vicar of

‘Our Sunday Visitor’ bids farewellto Greg Erlandson

At the end of January Greg Erlandson resigned as Editor-in-Chief of OurSunday Visitor. Erlandson joined the Catholic weekly paper in 1989 afterworking as a Rome correspondent for Catholic News Service and as newseditor for the National Catholic Register in Los Angeles. Under his leader-ship Our Sunday Visitor was redesigned and won numerous awards fromthe Catholic Press Association. Erlandson has written for a number ofpublications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and theLos Angeles Times. He is a consultor for the Pontifical Council for SocialCommunications and was part of the Vatican task force to reform Vaticanmedia, which was headed by Lord Patten. In a farewell statement to thestaff of the newspaper, he wrote: “By God’s grace I believe we have madea difference in many people’s lives”.

We, at the English edition of L’Osservatore Romano, would like tothank Greg Erlandson for his collaboration and wish him the best of luckin his future endeavours. CONTINUED ON PA G E 15

The Holy Father receives the Presidentof the Republic of Togo

solidation. Mention was made of the contribution of the Catholic Churchto the development of the country and the integral progress of the To-golese population, especially in the field of education.

Attention then turned to various challenges affecting West and Sub-Saharan Africa, with special emphasis on the need for joint commitmentto the promotion of security and peace in the Region.

On Thursday, 28 January, TheHoly Father received in audi-ence the President of the Re-public of Togo, H.E. Mr FaureEssozimna Gnassingbé, whosubsequently met with CardinalSecretary of State Pietro Parolin,accompanied by ArchbishopPaul Richard Gallagher, secret-ary for Relations with States.

During the cordial discussionsthe parties acknowledged thegood existing relations betweenthe Holy See and Togo, and theprospects for their further con-

number 5, Friday, 5 February 2016 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 3

For a purification of memory

Another kind of justicewant that?” No! God wanted to savePilate as well as Judas, everyone!He, the Lord of Mercy, wants tosave everyone! The difficulty is in al-lowing him to enter our hearts.Every word of the prophets is a pas-sionate appeal full of love whichseeks our conversion. This is whatthe Lord says through the ProphetEzekiel: “Have I any pleasure in thedeath of the wicked... and not ratherthat he should turn from his wayand live?” (18:23; cf. 33:11), that’swhat pleases God!

This is the heart of God, the heartof a Father who loves and wants hischildren to live in goodness and injustice, and thus that they might liveto the fullest and be happy. Theheart of a Father who goes beyondour little concept of justice to openus to the limitless horizons of hismercy. His is the heart of a Fatherwho does not treat us according toour sins nor repay us according toour faults, as the Psalm says(103[102]:9-10). His is precisely theheart of the father whom we want toencounter when we go to the confes-sional. Perhaps he will saysomething to help us better under-

stand our sin, but we all go to find afather who helps us to change ourlives; a father who gives us thestrength to go on; a father who for-gives us in the name of God. That iswhy being a confessor is such an im-portant responsibility, because thatson, that daughter who comes toyou is only looking for a father. Andyou, priest in the confessional, youare there in the place of the Fatherwho does justice with his mercy.

SPECIAL GREETINGS:I offer an affectionate greeting to

all the English-speaking pilgrimsand visitors present at today’s Audi-ence, including those from theUnited States of America. May youopen your lives to the Lord’s gift ofmercy, and share this gift with every-one you know. May you be childrenof the Good Father, missionaries ofhis merciful love. May God blessyou all!

A warm welcome to the Italian-speaking pilgrims! I am delighted towelcome the faithful from the Dio-cese of Livorno, with Bishop SimoneGiusti; participants of the seminarhosted by the University of SantaCroce; students of the Swiss Schoolof Rome and artists of the AmericanCircus. And I thank you! I wouldlike to repeat what I said a weekago, when there was a show likethis. You create beauty, and beautybrings us ever closer to God. Thankyou for this. But there is anotherthing that I would like to stress: thisis not improvised; behind this spec-tacle of beauty, there are hours andhours of training that is exhausting.Training is exhausting! The ApostlePaul tells us that in order to arriveat the end and in order to overcomewe must train; and this is an ex-ample for us all, that the seductionof the easy life, finding a good out-come without making any effort, is atemptation. With what you havedone today, and with all the trainingbehind it, you bear witness to usthat life without continuous effort isa mediocre life. Thank you so muchfor your example.

CONTINUED FROM PA G E 1

Lenten sermonsAt 9 am on Friday, 19 February,in the Redemptoris MaterChapel, the preacher of the PapalHousehold, Fr Raniero Can-talamessa, OFM Cap., will beginpreaching the Lenten sermons.The themes of the meditations is“Fifty years after the Second Vat-ican Council: A review from aspiritual point of view”. Cardin-als, archbishops, bishops, prelatesof the papal family, of the RomanCuria, of the Vicariate of Rome,superiors general and procuratorsof religious orders belonging thepapal chapel have been invited tothe sermons which will be heldon Fridays during Lent (26 Feb-ruary, and 4, 11 and 18 March).

Venerating the relics of Padre Pio and Leopold Mandić

Two saints and champions of Christian holiness

young people, become courageouswitnesses of your faith; dear sickpeople, offer up your cross everyday for the conversion of those farfrom the light of Christ; and you,dear newlyweds, be proclaimers ofhis love, beginning in your family.

I address an affectionate thoughtto young people, to the sick and tonewlyweds. Today we remember StBlaise, the martyr of Armenia. Thisholy bishop reminds us of the com-mitment to proclaim the Gospeleven in difficult conditions. Dear

On Wednesday, 3 February, urnscontaining the relics of St LeopoldMandić and St Pio of Pietrelcina ar-rived in Rome at the Church of StLawrence Outside-the-Walls. Theevent began at 3 pm with a welcomecelebration. Cardinal AgostinoVallini, Vicar of Rome, celebratedHoly Mass that evening. In hishomily, he called the two saints“champions of Christian holiness”.The relics remained in expositionuntil 8:30 pm the following day,during which time a number of cel-ebrations were reserved for the vastFranciscan family.

An all-night vigil was held at 10pm on Thursday, 4 February, in theJubilee Church of San Salvatore in

Lauro. Prayer continued until Fridaywith various celebrations and con-cluded with Holy Mass at 2 pmpresided by Archbishop MicheleCastoro of Manfredonia - Vieste -San Giovanni Rotondo.

At 4 pm on Friday the two urnscontaining the relics were carried ina procession from San Salvatore inLauro, proceeding the entire lengthof Via della Conciliazione which ar-rived at the altar of St Peter’s Ba-silica. Then Cardinal-ArchbpriestAngelo Comastri received the relicsand after a moment of prayer, ac-companied the relics into the Ba-silica where they were placed forveneration in the central nave beforethe Altar of the Confession.

At the conclusion of the GeneralAudience, Mr Rinaldo Marmarapresented to Pope Francis a copyof his book La Squadra Pontificiaai Dardanelli 1657 / İlk ÇanakkaleZafer 1657. This volume is anItalian and Turkish transliterationof a manuscript from the Chigicollection of the Vatican ApostolicLibrary, which is an account of thepapal fleet that participated in theSecond Battle of the Dardanellesin 1657. During his bookpresentation on Tuesday evening,the author stated that his objectivewas to make important archivalmaterial from the Vatican Archivesand Vatican Library accessible toTurkish historians and researchers.The book, notwithstanding thepainful memories of history,illustrates the importance ofscholarly research and of opening

up archives to historicalinvestigation in the service of truthand building bridges ofcooperation and mutualunderstanding. In light of thisgoal, there is much appreciationfor Turkey’s continuedcommitment to open its archives tohistorians and researchers ofinterested parties in order to arrivejointly at a better understanding ofhistorical events and the pain andsuffering endured by all partiescaught up in war and conflict,including the tragic events of 1915,regardless of their religious orethnic identity.The memory of the suffering andpain of both the distant and themore recent past — as in the caseof the June 1977 assassination ofTaha Carım, Ambassador ofTurkey to the Holy See at thehands of a terrorist group — u rg e sus also to acknowledge thesuffering of the present and tocondemn all acts of violence andterrorism, which continue to claimlives today. The violence andterrorism committed in the nameof God or religion is particularlyoffensive. As Pope Francis statedduring his visit to the CentralAfrican Republic: “Christians andMuslims are brothers and sisters...Together, we must say no tohatred, no to revenge and no toviolence, particularly that violencewhich is perpetrated in the nameof a religion or of God himself”(Address to the Muslim Community,Central Mosque of Koudoukou,Bangui, Central African Republic,30 November 2015). May thesewords inspire all people of goodwill to remember and affirm theirbrotherhood, solidarity,compassion and shared humanityand to reiterate their commonstand against all violence.

page 4 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 February 2016, number 5

To the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

The truth lived in loveThe “synodal dynamic” is to bepromoted and implemented in theChurch at all levels. This was thePope’s recommendation during anaudience in the Clementine Hall onFriday morning, 29 January, toparticipants in the Plenary Session ofthe Congregation for the Doctrine ofthe Faith. The following is atranslation of the Pope’s address, whichhe delivered in Italian.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,I am meeting with you at the closeof your Plenary Session. I cordiallygreet and thank the Cardinal Prefectfor his kind words.

We are now in the Holy Year ofMercy. I hope that in this JubileeYear all members of the Church mayrenew their faith in Jesus Christ whois the face of the Father’s mercy, thepath that unites God and man.Thus, mercy is the cornerstone thatsupports the life of the Church: thefirst truth of the Church, indeed, itis the love of Christ.

So, how could we not hope thatall Christian people — pastors and

faithful — rediscover and place backat the centre, during the Jubilee, thecorporal and spiritual works of mercy?And when, in the twilight of life, weare asked if we fed the hungry orgave drink to the thirsty, likewise wewill be asked if we helped peopleovercome doubt, whether we werecommitted to welcoming sinners, ad-monishing or correcting them,whether we were able to combat ig-norance, above all that regarding theChristian faith and an upright life.This attention to works of mercy isimportant: this is not a devotion. Itis how we, as Christians, further thespirit of mercy in practice. Once, inthese years, I received an importantMovement in the Paul VI Hall; itwas packed. And I touched uponthe subject of the works of mercy. Istopped and I posed the question:“Who among you remembers thespiritual and corporal works ofmercy? Whoever remembers them,raise your hand”. No more than 20did, in a hall of 7,000. We must goback to teaching this to the faithful;it is so important.

In faith and charity there is a cog-nitive and unifying relationship withthe mystery of Love, which is Godhimself. And, although God remainsa mystery in himself, God’s mercybecame effective in Jesus, who is af-fective mercy, as he himself becameman for the salvation of men. Thetask entrusted to your Dicasteryfinds here its ultimate foundationand its proper justification. TheChristian faith, indeed, is not simplyknowledge to be preserved inmemory, but rather truth to be livedin love. Thus, together with theDoctrine of the Faith, we also needto safeguard the integrity of cus-toms, especially those in the mostsensitive areas of life. Adhering infaith to the Person of Christ impliesboth an act of reason and a moral

response to his gift. In this regard, Ithank you for all the commitmentand responsibility that you exercisein treating cases of abuse of minorsby members of the clergy.

Care for the integrity of the faithand of customs is a delicate task.Collegial commitment is important incarrying out this mission effectively.Your Congregation highly values thecontribution of the Consultors andCommissions, whom I would like tothank for their valuable and humblework; and I encourage you to con-tinue your method of treating ques-tions in your weekly congress andthe more substantial ones in the Or-dinary or Plenary Session. Correctsynodality must be promoted at alllevels of ecclesial life. In this regard,last year you organized a timelymeeting — with the representativesof the Doctrinal Commissions of theEuropean Episcopal Conferences —to collegially address some doctrinaland pastoral challenges. Thus, youcontributed to awakening in thefaithful a new missionary impetus

and a greater opening to the tran-scendent dimension of life, withoutwhich Europe is at risk of losingthat humanistic spirit that it lovesand defends. I invite you to contin-ue to intensify with such advisorybodies, which help Episcopal Con-ferences and individual bishops intheir solicitude for sound doctrine,at a time of rapid change and thegrowing complexity of problems.

Another of your important contri-butions to the renewal of ecclesiallife is the study on the complementar-ity between hierarchical and charismaticgifts. According to the logic of unity— a logic that characterizes every au-thentic form of communion in thePeople of God —, hierarchical andcharismatic gifts, legitimately differ-ent, are called to work in synergy forthe good of the Church and of theworld. The testimony of this com-plementarity is all the more urgenttoday and it represents an eloquentexpression of that ordered pluri-formity that connotes every ecclesialfabric, as a reflection of the harmo-nious communion that lives in theheart of the Triune God. The rela-tionship between hierarchical andcharismatic gifts, in fact, refers backto its Trinitarian root, in the bondbetween the Divine Incarnate Logosand the Holy Spirit, who is always agift of the Father and the Son. Infact, if this root is recognized andreceived with humility, it enables theChurch to renew herself in every eraas “a people united in one in theunity of the Father, and of the Son,and of the Holy Spirit”, accordingto the expression of St Cyprian (DeOratione Dominica, n. 23). Unity andpluri-formity are the seal of aChurch that, moved by the Spirit, isable to set out with a sure and faith-ful step towards those goals that theRisen Lord indicates to her in thecourse of history. Here one clearlysees how the synodal dynamic, ifcorrectly understood, is born ofcommunion and leads to an evermore realized, deepened and expan-ded communion at the service of thelife and mission of the People ofGo d.

Dear brothers and sisters, I assureyou of my remembrance in prayerand I trust in yours for me. May theLord bless you and Our Lady pro-tect you.

A university course teaches Christians and Muslims mutual respect and coexistence

Friends in BethlehemDialogue between Christians and Muslims in such afragile area as the Middle East is growing andstrengthening in places such as university classrooms.Fr Iyad Twal, who for three years has served as dean ofthe Department of Religious Studies at BethlehemUniversity, has experienced this dialogue firsthand.

In discussing the interreligious dialogue programme,Fr Twal explained that when students first register,“their first goal is marks, high marks to get their de-gree. However, over time, they realize that their degreegoes beyond marks, and becomes a life lesson”. Inclass, the dean said in an AsiaNews report on 26 Janu-ary, “we want to provide a better understanding of theother, with a positive outlook, so that both Christiansand Muslims can speak truly and honestly.” BethlehemUniversity is the only academic institution of higherlearning in the area that offers this kind of programme.For students and their families, the programme offers“a step forward towards co-existence and mission. Thismeans that religion can become part of the solutionand a tool of peace in this land”.

Established in 1973 at the initiative of Pope Paul VI,the university has welcomed thousands of studentsover the past 40 years. At the university, students canstudy in one of five departments including BusinessAdministration and Nursing and Health Sciences.

Over the past few years, opportunities for interreli-gious dialogue have been offered to Christian andMuslim students from various faculties and depart-ments who are interested in learning the basics of thesetwo great religions. The goal is not academic per se,but the opportunity is meant to highlight the humanside of dialogue.

number 5, Friday, 5 February 2016 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 5

The connection between mercy and mission at the first Jubilee Audience

My name is ChristopherWith Baptism, Christians receive a“new name in addition to the one givento us by our mom and dad; this nameis ‘Christopher’”. During the firstJubilee Audience for the Year of Mercy— held on Saturday morning, 30January, in St Peter’s Square — thePontiff invited all the faithful to be “abearer of Christ” and to committhemselves to transmit the joy they havereceived from the Lord. The following isa translation of the address that theHoly Father delivered in Italian.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,Day by day we enter more deeplyinto the Holy Year of Mercy. By hisgrace, the Lord guides our footstepsas we pass through the Holy Doorand he comes to meet us and staywith us always, despite our failingsand contradictions. Let us never tireof feeling in need of his forgiveness.For when we are weak, being closeto him strengthens us and enablesus to live the faith with greater joy.

Today I wish to speak to youabout the close relationship betweenmercy and mission. As St John Paul IIreminds us: “The Church lives anauthentic life when she professesand proclaims mercy... and when shebrings people close to the sources ofthe Savior’s mercy” (Dives in Miseri-c o rd i a , n. 13). As Christians, we arecalled to be missionaries of the Gos-pel. When we receive good news, orwhen we experience beautiful mo-ments, we naturally seek to share

them with others. We feel inside thatwe cannot hold back the joy that wehave been given; and we want tospread it. The joy that stirs within issuch that it drives us to share it.

It ought to be the same when weencounter the Lord: the joy of thisencounter and of his mercy, sharethe mercy of the Lord. Indeed, theconcrete sign that we have truly en-countered Jesus is the joy that weshow in communicating it to others.And this is not “p ro s e l y t i z i n g ”, thisis giving a gift: I give you whatgives me joy. Reading the Gospel wesee that this was the experience ofthe first disciples: after their first en-counter with Jesus, Andrew went im-mediately to tell his brother Peter(cf. Jn 1:40-42), and Philip did thesame with Nathanael (cf. Jn 1:45-46).To encounter Jesus is to experiencehis love. This love transforms us andmakes us able to transmit to othersthe power it gives. In a way wecould say that from the day of ourBaptism each one of us is given anew name in addition to the onegiven to us by our mom and dad;this name is “Christopher”. We areall “Christophers”. What does thatmean? “Bearers of Christ”. It is thename of our attitude, the attitude ofa bearer of the joy of Christ, of themercy of Christ. Every Christian is a“Christopher”, that is, a bearer ofChrist!

The mercy that we receive fromthe Father is not given as a private

live as believers, because only thencan the Gospel touch a person’sheart and open it to receive thegrace of love, to receive this great,all-welcoming mercy of God.

At the end of the Jubilee Audience, thePontiff greeted to the various languagegroups. The following are his greetingsto English-speaking pilgrims and toyoung people, the sick and newlyweds.

I cordially welcome the Englishspeaking pilgrims here at this Audi-ence. May your stay in the EternalCity confirm you in the love ofChrist, and may he make us his mis-sionaries of mercy, especially for allthose who feel distanced from God.May God bless you all!

Some of you might havewondered what the Pope’s house islike, where the Pope lives. The Popelives behind here, in the Casa SantaMarta. It is a large home where

about 40 priests and a few bishops— who work with me in the Curia —live, and there are also a few visitingguests: cardinals, bishops, laymenwho come to Rome for meetings inthe Dicasteries, and such things....There is a group of men and womenwho carry out the housework,whether in cleaning, cooking, in thedining room. This group of menand women are a part of our family,they form a family: they are not dis-tant employees, because we considerthem part of our family. I would liketo tell you that today the Pope israther sad because yesterday a wo-man who has helped us so much foryears passed away. Her husband alsoworks here, with us, in this house.After a long illness, the Lord calledher to him. Her name is Elvira. Iask you today, to do two works ofmercy: to pray for the deceased andto comfort the suffering. I invite youto pray a Hail Mary for Elvira’seternal peace and eternal joy, andthat the Lord comfort her husbandand her children.

Lastly, I address young people, thesick and newlyweds. Tomorrow wewill remember St John Bosco,Apostle of Youth. Look to him, dearyoung people, as the exemplary edu-cator. You, dear sick people, learnfrom his spiritual experience in or-der to always trust in Christ cruci-fied. And you, dear newlyweds, referto his intercession in order to takeon your conjugal mission with gen-erous commitment.

consolation, but makesus instruments that oth-ers too might receive thesame gift. There is awonderful interplaybetween mercy and mis-sion. Experiencingmercy renders us mis-sionaries of mercy, andto be missionaries allowsus to grow ever more inthe mercy of God.Therefore, let us takeour Christian calling ser-iously and commit to

The Holy Father’s prayer for Elvira

The Jubilee of Mercy is a favourabletime to practice and deepen dia-logue among religions. The Apostol-ic Vicar of Phnom Penh, BishopOlivier Michel Marie Schmit-thaeusler, underlined this in a mes-sage sent to the faithful for the HolyYear. In the traditionally Buddhistcountry of Cambodia, there are afew thousand Catholics. Accordingto a Fides News Agency report on 2February, the Bishop invited thefaithful to open their hearts to theirneighbour and to cultivate candidand welcoming dialogue, recogniz-ing the moral values present in thefaithful of other religions.

The Jubilee in Cambodia

D eepeningreligious dialogue

Pope Francis asked the faithful atthe first Jubilee Audience to pray aHail Mary for ElviraAntobenedetto, an employee of theCasa Santa Marta, who died onFriday morning, 29 January, inRome after a long illness.Antobenedetto, 49, served as ahousekeeper and it was she whocleaned the Pontiff’s room. She issurvived by her husband, who isalso an employee of the Casa SantaMarta, and their two children, 24and 19. Elvira’s coworkersaffectionately remember her as “ahumble woman with great dignity,who never complained in the 2-and-a-half years she suffered withcancer”. The funeral will becelebrated in her hometown locatedin a province south of Rome. Shewas “a woman who helped us somuch”, Francis said, recalling hissadness and asking the faithful inSt Peter’s Square “to do two worksof mercy: to pray for the deceasedand to comfort the suffering”.One of the symbols characteringthe first Jubilee Audience is amodel ship in full sail, symbolizingfreedom. It was built by JackBenson, a young inmate from Côted’Ivoire, incarcerated in amaximum security prison inNuchis, Sardinia, who wanted tocommunicate his idea of freedomand hope to the Pope. CiroArgentino, another detainee who

was able to come to St Peter’sSquare because he was awardedspecial permission, delivered thegift to the Pope. In a touchingletter to the Pontiff, Jack wrote ofhis desire to build a boat with itssails unfurled “in order to expressthe hope that the Spirit’s breathmay provide in finding truef re e d o m ”. Francis was also given aletter from all of the inmates. “Weare sinners”, the letter reads,“because at a certain point duringour journey we were swallowed bydarkness. However we have

experienced that when we hitbottom, the love of Jesus reachesout to us and brings to usforgiveness with His mercy”. Thisinitiative was started by the gospelchoir of the Tel Thee Associationof Telti which sponsored the Eleosproject at the Sardinian prison. ThePresident, Maria Dolores Angius,said that “mercy also createscollective security both inside andoutside of prison”. The group alsogave Francis a clay image of OurLady of Bonaria made by GianMario Inzaina.

page 6 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 February 2016, number 5

At the Angelus with the children of Catholic Action

No one is excluded “No human condition can constitute areason for exclusion from the Father’sheart”. Pope Francis spoke to thefaithful in St Peter’s Square at theAngelus on Sunday, 31 January,reminding them of the day’s Liturgy.The Pontiff underlined that “Godcomes to meet the men and women ofall times and places, in their real lifesituations”. The following is atranslation of the Holy Father’s wordswhich were delivered in Italian.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,Good morning!To day’s Gospel account once again,like last Sunday, brings us to thesynagogue of Nazareth, the villagein Galilee where Jesus was broughtup in a family and was known byeveryone. He, who left not long be-fore to begin his public life, now re-turns and for the first time presentshimself to the community, gatheredin the synagogue on the Sabbath.He reads the passage of the ProphetIsaiah, who speaks of the futureMessiah, and he declares at the end:“Today this scripture has been ful-filled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21). Je-sus’ compatriots, who were at firstastonished and admired him, nowbegin to look sideways, to murmuramong themselves and ask: whydoes he, who claims to be the Lord’sConsecrated, not repeat here in hishomeland the wonders they say heworked in Capernaum and in nearbyvillages? Thus Jesus affirms: “noprophet is acceptable in his owncountry”, and he refers to the greatprophets of the past, Elijah and

Elisha, who had worked miracles infavour of the pagans in order to de-nounce the incredulity of theirpeople. At this point those presentare offended, rise up, indignant, andcast Jesus out and want to throwhim down from the precipice. Buthe, with the strength of his peace,“passed through the midst of themand went away” (cf. v. 30). His timehas not yet come.

This passage of Luke the Evangel-ist is not simply the account of anargument between compatriots, assometimes happens even in ourneighbourhoods, arising from envyand jealousy, but it highlights atemptation to which a religious manis always exposed — all of us are ex-posed — and from which it is im-portant to keep his distance. What is

this temptation? It is the temptationto consider religion as a human in-vestment and, consequently, “negoti-ate” with God, seeking one’s owninterest. Instead, true religion entailsaccepting the revelation of a Godwho is Father and who cares foreach of his creatures, even the smal-lest and most insignificant in theeyes of man. Jesus’ prophetic min-istry consists precisely in this: in de-claring that no human condition canconstitute a reason for exclusion —no human condition can constitute areason for exclusion! — from theFa t h e r ’s heart, and that the onlyprivilege in the eyes of God is thatof not having privileges, of not hav-ing godparents, of being abandonedin his hands.

“Today this scripture has been ful-filled in your hearing” (Lk 4:21).The ‘to day’, proclaimed by Christthat day, applies to every age; itechoes for us too in this Square, re-minding us of the relevance and ne-cessity of the salvation Jesus broughtto humanity. God comes to meet themen and women of all times andplaces, in their real life situations.He also comes to meet us. It is al-ways he who takes the first step: hecomes to visit us with his mercy, tolift us up from the dust of our sins;he comes to extend a hand to us inorder to enable us to return from theabyss into which our pride made usfall, and he invites us to receive thecomforting truth of the Gospel andto walk on the paths of good. He al-ways comes to find us, to look forus.

Let us return to the synagogue.Surely that day, in the synagogue ofNazareth, Mary, his Mother, wasalso there. We can imagine her heartbeating, a small foreboding of whatshe will suffer under the Cross, see-ing Jesus, there in the synagogue,first admired, then challenged, theninsulted, threatened with death. Inher heart, filled with faith, she keptevery thing. May she help us to con-vert from a god of miracles to themiracle of God, who is Jesus Christ.

After the Angelus, the Holy Fathersaid:

Dear brothers and sisters, todaywe celebrate World Leprosy Day.This disease, although in regression,unfortunately continues to afflict es-pecially people who are the poorestand most marginalized. It is import-ant to keep solidarity alive withthese brothers and sisters, disabledas a result of this disease. Let us as-sure them of our prayers and let usassure our support to those who as-sist them. Good lay people, goodsisters, good priests.

I affectionately greet all of you,dear pilgrims from various parishesin Italy and other countries, as wellas associations and groups.

Now I greet the young people ofCatholic Action of the Diocese ofRome! Now I understand why therewas such a clamour in the Square!Dear young people, again this year,accompanied by the Cardinal Vicarand by your leaders, you have comein great numbers at the end of your“Caravan of Peace”.

This year your witness of peace,enlivened by faith in Jesus, shall beeven more joyful and aware, becauseit is enriched by the gesture youhave just made by passing throughthe Holy Door. I encourage you tobe instruments of peace and mercyamong your peers! Now let us listento the message that your friends,here beside me, will read to us...

And now the young people in theSquare will let loose the balloons, asign of peace.

I wish to all a good Sunday and agood lunch. Please do not forget topray for me. Ar r i v e d e rc i !

Archbishop Fisichella reviews the first two months of the Jubilee

Beyond the numbersIn the almost two months since the Year of Mercy star-ted, over 1.39 million people have participated in Ju-bilee events. On Friday morning, 29 January, Arch-bishop Rino Fisichella, in a press conference in theHoly See Press Office, explained to journalists that“thousands of pictures and documents” have been re-ceived “from around the world, attesting to the com-mitment and the faith of believers”. The President ofthe Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the NewEvangelization underlined that 40% of those attendingthe events have come from abroad, most of whom areSpanish and French speakers. “We have registered pil-grims”, he said, “from Bangladesh, Hong Kong,Korea, Kenya, Mozambique, El Salvador, New Zeal-and, Argentina, Mexico, the Fiji Islands, Russia, Be-larus, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, the Ivory Coast, Chad,Kuwait, the United States of America and Albania”.

Nevertheless, Archbishop Fisichella said, the numberof pilgrims is not “the criteria by which to judge theactual outcome of the Jubilee. The Holy Year of Mercygoes well beyond the numbers, for it is intended totouch the hearts and minds of people in order to assistthem in coming to understand the ways in whichGo d’s great love manifests itself in their daily lives”.However the incredible participation in the events ofthe first two months of the Jubilee demonstrates that“the Pope’s instinct corresponds to a genuine expecta-tion of the People of God”. And thus the Holy Year isbeing “lived out intensely around the entire world”,and there are a significant number of pilgrims comingto Rome.

Among other things, Archbishop Fisichella discussedthe upcoming celebration on Ash Wednesday, when

the Pope will give the mandate to 1,071 missionaries ofmercy. There will be 700 missionaries in Rome fromBurma, Lebanon, China, South Korea, Tanzania,United Arab Emirates, Israel, Burundi, Vietnam, Zimb-abwe, Latvia, East Timor, Indonesia, Thailand, andEgypt. The Holy Father, the prelate said, “will meetwith them on 9 February in order to express his feel-ings regarding this initiative which will certainly beone of the most touching and significant of the Jubileeof Mercy”. On 10 February the missionaries will con-celebrate with Francis and on that occasion they willreceive the “mandate, as well as the faculty to absolvethose sins reserved to the Holy See”.

Antoine Lafréy, “The Seven Churches of Rome” (1575)

number 5, Friday, 5 February 2016 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 7

Lent is a time for conversion and solidarity

A season forthe works of mercy

The season of Lent is “a favourabletime to overcome our existentialalienation by listening to God’s wordand by practising the works of mercy”.In his message for Lent Pope Francisinvites Christians to prepare for Easterof this Jubilee Year. It is a season to“be lived more intensely as a privilegedmoment to celebrate and experienceGod’s mercy”. The following is theEnglish text of the Pope’s message.

“I desire mercy, and not sacrifice”(Mt 9:13).

The works of mercyon the road of the Jubilee

1. Mary, the image of a Church whichevangelizes because she is evangelized

In the Bull of Indiction of the Ex-traordinary Jubilee of Mercy, I askedthat “the season of Lent in this Ju-bilee Year be lived more intensely asa privileged moment to celebrateand experience God’s mercy”(Misericordiae Vultus, 17). By callingfor an attentive listening to the wordof God and encouraging the initiat-ive “24 Hours for the Lord”, Isought to stress the primacy of pray-erful listening to God’s word, espe-cially his prophetic word. The mercyof God is a proclamation made tothe world, a proclamation whicheach Christian is called to experi-ence first hand. For this reason, dur-ing the season of Lent I will sendout Missionaries of Mercy as a con-crete sign to everyone of God’scloseness and forgiveness.

After receiving the Good Newstold to her by the Archangel Gabri-el, Mary, in her Ma g n i f i c a t , prophet-ically sings of the mercy wherebyGod chose her. The Virgin of Naz-areth, betrothed to Joseph, thus be-comes the perfect icon of theChurch which evangelizes, for shewas, and continues to be, evangel-ized by the Holy Spirit, who madeher virginal womb fruitful. In theprophetic tradition, mercy is strictlyrelated — even on the etymologicallevel — to the maternal womb (ra -hamim) and to a generous, faithfuland compassionate goodness (hesed)shown within marriage and familyre l a t i o n s h i p s .

2. God’s covenant with humanity: ahistory of mercy

The mystery of divine mercy is re-vealed in the history of the covenantbetween God and his people, Israel.God shows himself ever rich inmercy, ever ready to treat his peoplewith deep tenderness and compas-sion, especially at those tragic mo-ments when infidelity ruptures thebond of the covenant, which thenneeds to be ratified more firmly injustice and truth. Here is a true love

story, in which God plays the role ofthe betrayed father and husband,while Israel plays the unfaithfulchild and bride. These domestic im-ages — as in the case of Hosea (cf.Hos 1-2) — show to what extent Godwishes to bind himself to his people.

This love story culminates in theincarnation of God’s Son. In Christ,the Father pours forth his boundlessmercy even to making him “m e rc yincarnate” (Misericordiae Vultus, 8).As a man, Jesus of Nazareth is atrue son of Israel; he embodies thatperfect hearing required of every Jewby the Shema, which today too is theheart of God’s covenant with Israel:“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our Godis one Lord; and you shall love theLord your God with all your heart,and with all your soul, and with allyour might” (D eut 6:4-5). As theSon of God, he is the Bridegroomwho does everything to win over thelove of his bride, to whom he isbound by an unconditional lovewhich becomes visible in the eternalwedding feast.

This is the very heart of theapostolic kerygma, in which divinemercy holds a central and funda-mental place. It is “the beauty of thesaving love of God made manifest inJesus Christ who died and rose fromthe dead” (Evangelii Gaudium, 36),that first proclamation which “wemust hear again and again in differ-ent ways, the one which we must an-nounce one way or anotherthroughout the process of catechesis,at every level and moment” (ibid.,164). Mercy “expresses God’s way ofreaching out to the sinner, offeringhim a new chance to look at himself,convert, and believe” (M i s e r i c o rd i a eVu l t u s , 21), thus restoring his rela-tionship with him. In Jesus cruci-fied, God shows his desire to drawnear to sinners, however far theymay have strayed from him. In thisway he hopes to soften the hardenedheart of his Bride.

3. The works of mercy

Go d’s mercy transforms humanhearts; it enables us, through the ex-perience of a faithful love, to be-

come merciful in turn. In an evernew miracle, divine mercy shinesforth in our lives, inspiring each ofus to love our neighbour and to de-vote ourselves to what the Church’stradition calls the spiritual and cor-poral works of mercy. These worksremind us that faith finds expressionin concrete everyday actions meantto help our neighbours in body andspirit: by feeding, visiting, comfort-ing and instructing them. On suchthings will we be judged. For thisreason, I expressed my hope that“the Christian people may reflect onthe corporal and spiritual works ofmercy; this will be a way toreawaken our conscience, too oftengrown dull in the face of poverty,and to enter more deeply into theheart of the Gospel where the poorhave a special experience of God’sm e rc y ” (ibid., 15). For in the poor,the flesh of Christ “becomes visiblein the flesh of the tortured, thecrushed, the scourged, the malnour-ished, and the exiled... to be ac-knowledged, touched, and cared forby us” (ibid.). It is the unpreceden-ted and scandalous mystery of theextension in time of the suffering ofthe Innocent Lamb, the burningbush of gratuitous love. Before thislove, we can, like Moses, take offour sandals (cf. Ex 3:5), especiallywhen the poor are our brothers orsisters in Christ who are sufferingfor their faith.

In the light of this love, which isstrong as death (cf. Song 8:6), thereal poor are revealed as those whorefuse to see themselves as such.They consider themselves rich, butthey are actually the poorest of thepoor. This is because they are slavesto sin, which leads them to usewealth and power not for the serviceof God and others, but to stiflewithin their hearts the profoundsense that they too are only poorbeggars. The greater their powerand wealth, the more this blindnessand deception can grow. It can evenreach the point of being blind toLazarus begging at their doorstep(cf. Lk 16:20-21). Lazarus, the poorman, is a figure of Christ, whothrough the poor pleads for our

conversion. As such, he representsthe possibility of conversion whichGod offers us and which we maywell fail to see. Such blindness is of-ten accompanied by the proud illu-sion of our own omnipotence, whichreflects in a sinister way the diabol-ical “you will be like God” (Gen 3:5)which is the root of all sin. This illu-sion can likewise take social andpolitical forms, as shown by the to-talitarian systems of the 20th cen-tury, and, in our own day, by theideologies of monopolizing thoughtand technoscience, which wouldmake God irrelevant and reduceman to raw material to be exploited.This illusion can also be seen in thesinful structures linked to a modelof false development based on theidolatry of money, which leads to alack of concern for the fate of thepoor on the part of wealthier indi-viduals and societies; they close theirdoors, refusing even to see the poor.

For all of us, then, the season ofLent in this Jubilee Year is a favour-able time to overcome our existentialalienation by listening to God’sword and by practising the works ofmercy. In the corporal works ofmercy we touch the flesh of Christin our brothers and sisters who needto be fed, clothed, sheltered, visited;in the spiritual works of mercy —counsel, instruction, forgiveness, ad-monishment and prayer — we touchmore directly our own sinfulness.The corporal and spiritual works ofmercy must never be separated. Bytouching the flesh of the crucifiedJesus in the suffering, sinners can re-ceive the gift of realizing that theytoo are poor and in need. By takingthis path, the “p ro u d ”, the “p ower-ful” and the “wealthy” spoken of inthe Ma g n i f i c a t can also be embracedand undeservedly loved by the cruci-fied Lord who died and rose forthem. This love alone is the answerto that yearning for infinite happi-ness and love that we think we cansatisfy with the idols of knowledge,power and riches. Yet the danger al-ways remains that by a constant re-fusal to open the doors of theirhearts to Christ who knocks onthem in the poor, the proud, richand powerful will end up con-demning themselves and plunginginto the eternal abyss of solitudewhich is Hell. The pointed words ofAbraham apply to them and to allof us: “They have Moses and theprophets; let them hear them” (Lk16:29). Such attentive listening willbest prepare us to celebrate the finalvictory over sin and death of theBridegroom, now risen, who desiresto purify his Betrothed in expecta-tion of his coming.

Let us not waste this season ofLent, so favourable a time for con-version! We ask this through thematernal intercession of the VirginMary, who, encountering the great-ness of God’s mercy freely bestowedupon her, was the first to acknow-ledge her lowliness (cf. Lk 1:48) andto call herself the Lord’s humble ser-vant (cf. Lk 1:38).

From the Vatican, 4 October 2015Feast of St Francis of Assisi

number 5, Friday, 5 February 2016 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 8/9

Three key words entrusted by the Pope to consecrated people

Prophecy, proximity and hopeProphecy, closeness and hope. These arethe three key words that the Popesuggested to the thousands of consecratedmen and women who attended anaudience on Monday morning, 1 February,in the Paul VI Hall. Setting aside hisprepared text, Francis delivered anextemporaneous address. The follow is atranslation of his remarks, which weremade in Italian.

Dear Sisters and Brothers,I prepared a speech for this occasionon topics regarding consecrated lifeand on the three pillars; there are oth-ers, but three [words] are important toconsecrated life. The first is prophecy,another is proximity and the third ishope. Prophecy, proximity hope. I havegiven the text to the Cardinal Prefect,because reading it is a little dull, and Iprefer to speak to you from my heart.O kay?

Men and women religious, that ismen and women consecrated to theL o rd ’s service, who in the Church pur-sue this path of arduous poverty, of achaste love that leads to a spiritualfatherhood and motherhood for all theChurch, of obedience.... There is al-ways something lacking in our obedi-ence, because perfect obedience is thatof the Son of God, who emptied him-self, who became man out of obedi-ence, unto death on the Cross. Thereare men and women among you wholive out an intense form of obedience,an obedience — not military, no, notthat; that is discipline, another thing —an obedience of giving of the heart.This is prophecy. “D on’t you wish todo something, something else?...” —

“Yes, but according to the rules I mustdo this, this and this. And according toregulations, this, this and this. And if Idon’t see something clearly, I speakwith the superior and, after the dia-logue, I obey”. This is prophecy, as op-posed to the seed of anarchy, which thedevil sows. “What do you do?” — “I dowhatever I please”. The anarchy of willis the daughter of the demon, it is notthe daughter of God. The Son of Godwas not an anarchist, he did not callhis [disciples] to mount a force of res-istance against his enemies; he said toPilate: “Were I a king of this world Iwould have called my soldiers to pro-tect me”. Instead, he was obedient tothe Father. He said only: “Fa t h e r,please, no, not this chalice.... But Thywill be done”. When out of obedienceyou accept something which perhapsoften you do not like... [he makes aswallowing gesture]... that obediencemust be swallowed, and it is done.Thus, prophecy. Prophecy is tellingpeople that there is a path to happinessand grandeur, a path that fills you withjoy, which is precisely the path to Je-sus. It is the path to be close to Jesus.Prophecy is a gift, it is a charism and itmust be asked of the Holy Spirit: thatI may know that word, in the right mo-ment; that I may do that thing in theright moment; that my entire life maybe a prophecy. Men and women proph-ets. This is very important. “Let’s dowhat everyone else does...”. No. Proph-ecy is saying that there is somethingtruer, more beautiful, greater, of greatergood to which we are all called.

Then another word is proximity.Men and women consecrated, but not

so as to distance themselves frompeople and have all the comforts, no,[but rather] to draw close and under-stand the life of Christians and of non-Christians — the suffering, the prob-lems, the many things that are under-stood only if a consecrated man andwoman is close: in proximity. “ButFather, I am a cloistered nun, whatshould I do?”. Think about St Thérèseof the Child Jesus, patron saint of themissions, who with her ardent heartwas close, and the letters she receivedfrom missionaries made her closer to

the people. Proximity. Becoming con-secrated does not mean climbing one,two, three steps in society. It is true, sooften we hear parents say: “You know,Father, my daughter is a nun, my sonis a brother!”. And they say it withpride. And it’s true! There is satisfac-tion for parents to have consecratedchildren, this is true. But for consec-rated people it is not a life status thatmakes me look at others like this [withdetachment]. Consecrated life shouldlead me to closeness with people; phys-ical, spiritual proximity, to know thepeople. “Ah yes Father, in my com-munity the superior gave us permissionto go out, to go into the poor neigh-bourhoods with the people...” — “Andin your community, are there elderlysisters?” — “Yes, yes... there is a nurse,on the third floor” — “And how oftenduring the day do you go to visit yoursisters, the elderly ones, who could beyour mother or your grandmother?” —“But you know, Father, I am very busywith work and I can’t go...”. Closeness!Who is the first neighbour of a consec-rated man or woman? The brother orsister of the community. This is yourfirst neighbour. A kind, good, lovingcloseness, too. I know that in yourcommunities there is never gossip, nev-er, ever.... A way of distancing oneself[is] to gossip. Listen carefully: no gos-sip, the terrorism of gossip. Becausethose who gossip are terrorists. Theyare terrorists in their own community,because like a bomb they drop a wordagainst this one or that one, and thenthey go calmly. Those who do this des-troy, like a bomb, and they distancethemselves. This, the Apostle Santiagosaid, was perhaps the most difficult vir-tue, the most difficult human and spir-itual virtue to have, that of bridling thetongue. If it comes to you to saysomething against a brother or sister, todrop a bomb of gossip, bite yourtongue! Hard! No terrorism in thecommunity! “But Father, what if thereis something, a defect, something toc o r re c t ? ”. You say it to the person: youhave an attitude that bothers me, orthat isn’t good. If this isn’t appropriate— because sometimes it isn’t prudent —

Francis closes the Year of Consecrated Life on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord

Flowing like a riverinto the sea of mercy

In St Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday, 2February, Pope Francis closed the Year ofConsecrated Life by explaining how it hasbeen a time “lived out with so muchenthusiasm”. In his homily, the HolyFather said this year “is now flowing likea river into the sea of mercy, in thisimmense mystery of love that we areexperiencing with the ExtraordinaryJubilee”. The following is a translation ofthe Pope’s homily which was given inItalian.

Before our eyes is a simple, humbleand great fact: Mary and Joseph takeJesus to the temple of Jerusalem. He isa child like so many, like all, but he isunique: he is the Only Begotten whocame for all. This Child has brought usthe mercy and tenderness of God: Je-sus is the face of the Father’s mercy.This is the icon that the Gospel offersus at the end of the Year of Consec-rated Life, a year lived out with somuch enthusiasm. Like a river, it isnow flowing into the sea of mercy, inthis immense mystery of love that weare experiencing with the ExtraordinaryJubilee.

To day’s celebration, especially in theEast, is called the feast of the encounter.Essentially, in the Gospel that has beenproclaimed, we see various encounters(cf. Lk 2:22-40). In the temple Jesuscomes to meet us and we go to meet him.We contemplate the encounter with theelderly Simeon, who represents Israel’sfaithful anticipation and the heartfeltjubilation for the fulfillment of the an-cient promises. We also admire the en-counter with the elderly prophetessAnna who, in seeing the Child, exultsin joy and praises God. Simeon andAnna are the anticipation and the proph-e c y, Jesus is the novelty and the fulfill-ment: he is presented to us as the per-ennial surprise of God; concentrated inthis Child born for all is the past, madeof memory and of promise, and the fu-t u re , full of hope.

We can see in this the beginning ofconsecrated life. Consecrated men andwomen are called first and foremost to bemen and women of encounter. Indeed, thevocation does not originate from a planwe have designed “on the drawingb oard”, but from a grace of the Lordwhich touches us, through a life-

changing encounter. Those who trulyencounter Jesus cannot remain thesame as before. He is the novelty thatmakes all things new. Those who ex-perience this encounter become wit-nesses and make the encounter possiblefor others; they also promote the cul-ture of encounter, avoiding the self-re f e re n t i a l i t y that makes us stay closedoff within ourselves.

The passage of the Letter to theHebrews which we heard reminds usthat in order to encounter us, Jesus didnot hesitate to share our human condi-tion: “Since therefore the children sharein flesh and blood, he himself likewisepartook of the same nature” (2:14). Je-sus did not save us “from the outside”,he did not remain outside of ourdrama, but wanted to share our life.Consecrated men and women are calledto be a tangible and prophetic sign ofthis closeness of God, of this sharing inthe condition of frailty, of sin and ofthe wounds of today’s mankind.

All forms of consecrated life, eachaccording to its characteristics, arecalled to be in a permanent state ofmission, sharing “the joys and thehopes, the griefs and the anxieties ofthe men of this age, especially thosewho are poor or in any way afflicted”(Gaudium et Spes, n. 1). The Gospelalso tells us that “his father and hismother marvelled at what was saidabout him” (Lk 2:33). Joseph and Marysafeguard the astonishment over thisencounter full of light and hope for allpeoples. We too, as Christians and asconsecrated people, are guardians of as-tonishment. An astonishment which re-quires ongoing renewal; woe to routinein spiritual life; woe to the crystaliza-tion of our charisms in an abstract doc-ument: the founders’ charisms — as Ihave said at other times — are not to besealed in a bottle, they are not museumpieces. Our founders were moved bythe Spirit and were not afraid to soiltheir hands with everyday life, with theproblems of the people, courageouslymoving along the geographical and ex-istential peripheries. They did not haltin the face of obstacles and the misun-derstandings of others, because theykept in their heart the astonishmentover the encounter with Christ. Theydid not tame the grace of the Gospel;they always had in their heart a healthyapprehension for the Lord, a heartrend-

ing desire to bring him to others, asMary and Joseph did in the temple.We too are called today to makeprophetic and courageous choices.

Lastly, through the encounter withJesus and through the gift of the voca-tion to consecrated life we learn fromto day’s celebration to experience g ra t i t -ude. Thanking, giving thanks: theEucharist. How beautiful it is when weencounter the happy faces of consec-rated people, perhaps already advancedin years like Simeon or Anna, contentand full of gratitude for their own vo-cation. This is a word that can sum-marize all that we have experienced inthis Year of Consecrated Life: gratitudefor the gift of the Holy Spirit, who al-ways enlivens the Church through vari-ous charisms.

The Gospel concludes with this ex-pression: “the child grew and becamestrong, filled with wisdom; and the fa-vour of God was upon him” (v. 40).May the Lord Jesus, through the ma-ternal intercession of Mary, grow in us,and increase in each person the desirefor encounter, the safekeeping of theastonishment and the joy of gratitude.Then others will be attracted by hislight, and they will be able to en-counter the Father’s mercy.

At the end of Mass, the Pope went to StPeter’s Square to greet the faithfulgathered outside:

Dear Consecrated Brothers and Sisters,Thank you so much! You partook inthe Eucharist while a bit chilly, but theheart is aflame!

Thank you for ending this Year ofConsecrated Life in this way, everyonetogether. Go forth! Each of us has arole, has a job in the Church. Please,do not forget the first vocation, thefirst call. Remember! And with the lovewith which you were called, today theLord continues to call you. Do notdownplay, never downplay the beauty,the wonder of the first call. And thenkeep working. It’s beautiful! Continue.There is always something to do. Themain thing is to pray. The “m a r ro w ” ofconsecrated life is prayer: pray! Andgrow old, but age like fine wine!

I’ll tell you something. I so enjoywhen I come across those elderly wo-men and men religious with eyes that

shine, because they have the flame ofspiritual life alight. It hasn’t gone out,that flame has not gone out! Go forthtoday, each day, and keep working andlook to tomorrow with hope, alwaysask the Lord to send us new vocations,so our work of consecration can go for-ward. Memory: do not forget the firstcall! Daily work and then the hope ofgoing forward and sowing well, so thatthe others who come after us can re-ceive the legacy that we shall leavethem.

Now let us pray to Our Lady....[Blessing]Have a good evening and pray for

me!

Prefect of the Congregation for the Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life reviews the Year

Committed on the journey of communionNICOLA GORI

The Year of Consecrated Life, whichbegan on 30 November 2014, endedwith prayer and gratitude. On Tues-day afternoon, 2 February, the Feastof the Presentation of the Lord,Pope Francis presided at theEucharistic celebration in St Peter’sBasilica, joined by thousands of con-secrated men and women celebratingtheir World Day. In an interviewwith L’Osservatore Romano, Cardinal

has led us to look at consecrated lifein a positive way and also at theproblems that are there: this meanscurrent problems, such as aging[members] or the lack of vocations oncertain continents. We have redis-covered that essentially it is a specialvocation which is an integral part ofthe Church. It is not an appendage,it’s not something temporary that isabout to end, but is a gift of God tothe community. It has been like thisfrom the very beginning; and we are

certain that God will continue tocall, even in many new forms. Thisprofound sense of gratitude andhope is extremely important.

How is the Jubilee challenging consec-rated people?

In places where I have been I’veseen that the Year of Mercy is beingexperienced as an appeal to bringour relationship with God back intobalance. He is the judge, but he is

with the [men’s] Union of SuperiorsGeneral and the [women’s] Interna-tional Union of Superiors General. Itis a very fruitful collaboration. ThePope has defined two central prin-ciples to work on: the spirituality ofcommunion and the co-essentiality ofthe hierarchical and charismatic di-mensions. I think we have to look atthe relationship between hierarchyand charisms in the sense of commu-nion. In the spirituality of commu-nion, indeed, the relationships com-plete each other and become true,positive. And this is how relationaldifficulties are overcome. The secondprinciple is that of bringing back tolight the co-essentiality of the hier-archical and charismatic dimensions,because these two dimensions comefrom the beginnings of the Church.The Holy Spirit who speaks in bothdimensions does not contradict him-self. This has some practical con-sequences, such as the need to re-store true relationships in truth, inmercy, and in freedom. We must findthis maturity for the good of theChurch. This means that we need tobe much more committed on thejourney of communion among all theinstitutes, and between the institutesand the local Churches. CONTINUED ON PA G E 10

João Braz de Aviz, Pre-fect of the Congregationfor the Institutes of Con-secrated Life and Societ-ies of Apostolic Life,looked back over theYear and pointed to thefuture. The following is atranslation of excerpts ofthe interview, which wasgiven in Italian.

Have the objectives pro-posed for the Year of Con-secrated Life been reached?

I have a deep sense ofgratitude to God and toPope Francis for thisYear. It has been like atouch of grace for us andhas revitalized hope. It

merciful. This definitionexpresses the profoundidentity of God. And wemust transform it into con-sciousness for the individu-al and the community. Thefact that God employsmercy with us means thatwe too are called to bemerciful toward others. Inthis sense, our relationshipswith others change a greatdeal.

How far along is the revisionof the document ‘Mutuae Re-lationis’ on relationshipsbetween bishops and reli-gious?

We have consulted andwe are working together

page 10 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 February 2016, number 5

Prophecy, proximity and hopeyou say it to the person who canremedy, who can resolve the prob-lem and to no one else. Under-stood? There is no use for gossip.“But in the chapter house?”. There,yes! In public, what you feel youhave to say; because there is tempta-tion not to say things in the chapterhouse, and then outside: “Did yousee the prioress? Did you see the ab-bess? Did you see the mother super-ior?...”. Why didn’t you say it therein the chapter house?... Is this clear?These are virtues of proximity. TheSaints, the consecrated Saints hadthis. St Thérèse of the Child Jesusnever, ever complained about work,about the bother it was to bring thatsister to the dining room every even-ing: from the choir to the diningroom. Never! Because that poor nunwas very old, almost paralyzed, shehad difficulty walking, she was inpain — I understand her too! — shewas even a bit neurotic.... Never,ever did she go to another sister tosay: “How she bothers me!”. Whatdid she do? She helped her sitdown, brought her a napkin, brokethe bread and did so with a smile.This is called proximity. Closeness!If you drop the bomb of gossip inyour community, this is not close-ness: this is waging war! This is dis-tancing yourself, this is creating dis-tance, creating anarchy in the com-munity. In this Year of Mercy, ifeach one of you could manage tonever be a gossiping terrorist, itwould be a success for the Church,a success of great holiness! Takecourage! Proximity

And now hope. I admit that itpains me a great deal when I see thedrop in vocations, when I receivebishops and ask them: “How manyseminarians do you have?” — “Fo u r,five...”. When, in your religiouscommunities — men’s and women’s— you have a novice or two... andthe community ages, it ages....When there are monasteries, greatmonasteries, and Cardinal AmigoVallejo [turning to him] can tell ushow many there are in Spain, thatare carried on by four or five elderlynuns, until the end.... This leads meto the temptation to lose hope:“Lord, what is happening? Why isthe womb of consecrated life becom-ing so barren?”. Several congrega-tions are experimenting with “artifi-cial insemination”. What are theydoing? They accept.... “Yes, come,come, come...”. And then there areinternal problems.... No. One mustaccept with seriousness! One mustcarefully discern whether this is atrue vocation and help it to grow. Ibelieve that in order to fight thetemptation to lose hope, which givesus this barrenness, we have to praymore. And pray tirelessly. It does mea lot of good to read the passage ofScripture in which Hannah,Samuel’s mother, prayed and askedfor a son. She prayed and movedher lips, and prayed.... And the eld-erly priest, who was a little blindand who didn’t see well, thought shewas a drunken woman. But that wo-man’s heart [she said to God]: “Iwant a son!”. I ask you: does yourheart, facing this drop in vocations,pray with this intensity? “Our con-gregation needs sons, our congrega-

tion needs daughters...”. The Lord,who has been so generous, will notfail in his promise. But we have toask him for it. We have to knock atthe door of his heart. Because thereis a danger — this is terrible, but Ihave to say it — when a religiouscongregation sees that it has no chil-dren and grandchildren and beginsto be smaller and smaller, it growsattached to money. And you knowthat money is the devil’s dung.When they cannot receive the graceof having vocations and children,they think that money will save itslife; and they think of old age: thatthis not be lacking, that that is notlacking.... Thus, there is no hope!Hope is only in the Lord! Moneywill never give it to you. On thecontrary: it will bring you down!Understo o d?

I wanted to tell you this, insteadof reading the pages that the Car-dinal Prefect will give you later....

I thank you so much for what youdo, consecrated people, each withyour own charism. And I want topoint out the consecrated women,the sisters. What would the Churchbe without nuns? I have said thisbefore: when you go to hospitals,colleges, parishes, neighbourhoods,missions, men and women who havegiven their lives.... In my last jour-ney to Africa — I believe I recountedthis in an audience — I met an 83-year-old Italian nun. She told me:“I’ve been here since I was — I don’tremember if she told me 23 or 26. Iam a hospital nurse”. Let’s think:from age 26 to 83! “And I wrote tomy family in Italy that I would nev-er return”. When you go to acemetery and see that there are somany religious missionaries and somany nuns dead at age 40 becausethey caught diseases, the fevers ofthose countries, their lives burntout.... You say: these are saints.These are seeds! We must tell theLord to come down to some of thesecemeteries and see what our ancest-ors have done and give us more vo-cations, because we need them!

I thank you very much for thisvisit. I thank the Cardinal Prefect,the Monsignor Secretary, the Under-secretaries, for what they have donein this Year of Consecrated Life. Butplease, do not forget prophecy,obedience, proximity, the most im-portant neighbour, the closest neigh-bours are the brothers and sisters ofthe community, and then hope. Maythe Lord bring forth more sons anddaughters in your congregations.And pray for me. Thank you!

The following is a translation of thewritten address consigned by the Pope.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,I am glad to meet with you at theend of this Year dedicated to consec-rated life.

One day, Jesus, in his infinitemercy, turned to each of us andasked us, personally: “Come, followme”! (Mk 10:21).

If we are here it is because we re-sponded “yes” to him. At times it istreated as a bond filled with enthusi-asm and joy, at times more difficult,perhaps uncertain. However, wehave followed him with generosity,

after me, let him [...] take up hisc ro s s ” (Lk 9:23). He has introducedus into his very relationship with theFather, he has given us his spirit, hehas expanded our hearts by themeasure of his own, teaching us tolove the poor and the sinners. Wehave followed him together, learningfrom him service, acceptance, for-giveness, fraternal love. Our consec-rated life has meaning becausedwelling with him and carrying himalong the streets of the world, con-forms us to him, makes us be theChurch, a gift for humanity.

The Year that we are concludinghas helped to make the beauty andholiness of consecrated life shinemore in the Church, strengtheningin consecrated people gratitude forthe call and the joy of responding.All consecrated men and womenhave had the opportunity to have aclearer perception of their own iden-tity, and thus project themselves into the future with renewed apostoliczeal in order to write new pages ofgood, in the wake of the Founders’charism. We are grateful to the Lordfor what he has given us in order tolive in this Year so rich of initiatives.I thank the Congregation for the In-stitutes of Consecrated Life and So-cieties of Apostolic Life, which pre-pared and brought about the greatevents here in Rome and in theworld.

The Year has ended, but our com-mitment to be faithful to the call re-ceived and to grow in love, in giv-ing, and in creativity continues. Forthis reason I offer you three words.

The first is p ro p h e c y. It is a charac-teristic of yours. What prophecydoes the Church and the world ex-pect from you? You are called, firstof all, to proclaim, with your lifeeven before than with words, thereality of God: to speak God. If attimes he is rejected or marginalizedor ignored, we must ask ourselveswhether perhaps we have not beentransparent enough to his Face,showing our own instead. The Faceof God is that of a Father “m e rc i f u land gracious, slow to anger andabounding in steadfast love” (Ps103[102]:8). In order to make himknown it is important to have a per-sonal relationship with him; and forthis it takes the capacity to adorehim, to cultivate friendship with himday after day, through a heart toheart conversation in prayer, espe-cially in silent adoration.

The second word I consign to youis p ro x i m i t y. God, through Jesus,made himself close to every manand every woman. He shared the joyof the spouses at Cana in Galileeand the anguish of the widow ofNain; he entered the house of Jairus,touched by death, and in the house

of Bethany perfumed with nard; hetook sickness and suffering uponhimself, until giving his life as aransom for all. Following Christmeans going there where he hasgone; taking upon oneself, as aGood Samaritan, the woundedwhom we meet on the street; goingin search of the lost sheep. Being,like Jesus, close to the people, shar-ing with them their joys and theirsorrows; showing, with our love, thepaternal face of God and the mater-nal caress of the Church. May noone ever feel distant, detached,closed and therefore barren. Each ofyou is called to serve our brothersand sisters, following your own char-ism: some by praying, some throughcatechesis, some through teaching,some by caring for the sick or thepoor, some by announcing the Gos-pel, some by performing variousworks of mercy. The important thingis not living for oneself, as Jesus didnot live for himself, but for theFather and for us.

Thus we come to the third word:hope. In bearing witness to God andhis merciful love, with the grace ofChrist you can instill hope in thishumanity of ours marked by variousreasons for anguish and fear and attimes tempted to be discouraged.You can make felt the renewingpower of the Beatitudes, of honesty,of compassion; the value of good-ness, of the simple, essential, mean-ingful life. You can also nourishhope in the Church. I think, for ex-ample, of ecumenical dialogue. Themeeting a year ago among consec-rated people of various Christianconfessions was a beautiful innova-tion, which deserves to be carriedon. The charismatic and propheticwitness of the life of consecratedpeople, in its various forms, canhelp to recognize all of us moreunited and foster full communion.

Dear brothers and sisters, in yourdaily apostolate, do not letyourselves be conditioned by age orby number. What counts most is thecapacity to repeat the initial “yes” tothe call of Jesus who continues tomake himself heard, in an ever newway, in every season of life. His calland our response keep our hopealive. P ro p h e c y, p ro x i m i t y, hope. By liv-ing this way, you will have joy inyour heart, the distinctive sign of thefollowers of Jesus and more so ofconsecrated people. Your life will bemore attractive to so many men andwomen, by the glory of God andthrough the beauty of the Bride ofChrist, the Church.

Dear brothers and sisters, I thankthe Lord for what you are and do inthe Church and in the world. I blessyou and I entrust you to Our Moth-er. Please, do not forget to pray forme.

CONTINUED FROM PA G E 8 allowing ourselves to beled on paths we wouldhave never even ima-gined. We have sharedintimate moments withhim: “Come away byyourselves [...] and resta while” (Mk 6:31); mo-ments of service andmission: “You give themsomething to eat” (Lk9:13); even his cross: “Ifany man would come

number 5, Friday, 5 February 2016 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 11

Pope Francis in the daily Asia Times

Encounter through dialogue

To mark the occasion of the upcom-ing Chinese New Year, the HolyFather spoke with journalistFrancesco Sisci in an extensive inter-view for the online daily, Asia Times(Hong Kong, see atimes.com). ThePope took the opportunity to ex-press his best wishes to President XiJinping, and his high esteem for theChinese people and their culture, inthe hope that the Chinese contribu-tion to dialogue between peoplesmay contribute to peace and the in-tegral development of the humanf a m i l y.

What is China to you? As a youngman, what did you imagine China tobe like? What does Matteo Ricci meanto you?

For me, China has always been areference point of greatness. A greatcountry. But more than a country, agreat culture, with an inexhaustiblewisdom. For me, as a boy, wheneverI read anything about China, it hadthe capacity to inspire my admira-tion. I have admiration for China.Later I looked into Matteo Ricci’slife and I saw how this man felt thesame thing in the exact way I did,admiration, and how he was able toenter into dialogue with this greatculture, with this age-old wisdom.He was able to “encounter” it.

When I was young, and Chinawas spoken of, we thought of theGreat Wall. The rest was not knownin my homeland. But as I lookedmore and more into the matter, Ihad an experience of encounterwhich was very different, in timeand manner, to that experienced byRicci. Yet I came across something Ihad not expected. Ricci’s experienceteaches us that it is necessary toenter into dialogue with China, be-cause it has an accumulation of wis-dom and history. It is a land blessedwith many things. And the CatholicChurch, one of whose duties is torespect all civilizations, before thiscivilization, I would say, has theduty to respect it with a capital “R”.The Church has great potential toreceive culture.

izations, but also civilizations thatencounter one another. Also, I don’tknow whether it is true but they saythat Marco Polo was the one whobrought pasta noodles to Italy(laughs). So it was the Chinese whoinvented them. I don’t know if thisis true. But I say this in passing.

This is the impression I have,great respect. And more than this,when I flew over China for the firsttime, I was told in the aircraft:“within ten minutes we will enterChinese airspace, and send yourg re e t i n g ”. I confess that I felt veryemotional, something that does notusually happen to me. I was movedto be flying over this great richnessof culture and wisdom.

China, for the first time in its history,is emerging as a real global player, cre-ating challenges for itself and for theworld. You have spoken of a thirdworld war furtively approaching: whatchallenges does this present in the questfor peace?

Being afraid is never a goodcounselor. Fear is not a good coun-selor. If a father and a mother arefearful when they have an adolescentson, they will not know how to dealwith him well. In other words, wemust not fear challenges of anykind, since everyone, male and fe-

the capacity to maintain the balanceof peace and the strength to do so.We must find the way, alwaysthrough dialogue; there is no otherway. (He opens his arms as if extend-ing an embrace.)

Encounter is achieved throughdialogue. The true balance of peaceis realized through dialogue. Dia-logue does not mean that we end upwith a compromise, half the pie foryou and the other half for me. Thisis what happened in Yalta and wesaw the results. No, dialogue means:look, we have got to this point, Imay or may not agree, but let uswalk together; this is what it meansto build. And the pie stays whole,walking together. The pie belongs toeveryone, it is humanity, culture.Carving up the pie, as in Yalta,means dividing humanity and cul-ture into small pieces. And cultureand humanity cannot be carved intosmall pieces. When I speak aboutthis large pie I mean it in a positivesense. Everyone has an influence tobear on the common good of all.(The Pope smiles and asks: “I don’tknow if the example of the pie is clearfor the Chinese?”, I nod: “I think so”.)

Over the last few decades, China hasexperienced unbelievable tragedy. Since1980 the Chinese have had to sacrificethat which has always been most dearto them: their children. For the Chinesethese are very serious wounds. In thisYear of Mercy what message can youoffer the Chinese people?

The aging of a population and ofhumanity is happening in manyplaces. Here in Italy the birth rate isalmost below zero, and in Spain too,more or less. The situation inFrance, with its policy of providingaid to families, is improving. And itis obvious that populations age.They age and they do not have chil-dren. In Africa, for example, it wasa pleasure to see children in thestreets. Here in Rome, if you walkaround, you will see very few chil-dren. Perhaps behind this there isthe fear you are alluding to, the mis-taken perception, not that we willsimply fall behind, but that we willfall into misery, so therefore, let’snot have children.

There are other societies that haveopted for the contrary. For example,during my trip to Albania, I was as-tonished to discover that the averageage of the population is approxim-ately 40 years. There exist young

countries; I think Bosnia andHerzegovina is the same. Countriesthat have suffered and opt foryouth. Then there is the problem ofwork. Something that China doesnot have, because it has the capacityto offer work both in the coun-tryside and in the city. And it is true,the problem for China of not havingchildren must be very painful; be-cause the pyramid is then invertedand a child has to bear the burdenof his father, mother, grandfatherand grandmother. And this is ex-hausting, demanding, disorientating.It is not the natural way. I under-stand that China has opened uppossibilities on this front.

How should these challenges be facedby families in China, given that theyfind themselves in a process of pro-found change and no longer corres-pond to the traditional Chinese modelof the family?

Taking up the theme, in the Yearof Mercy, what message can I giveto the Chinese people? The historyof a people is always a path. Apeople at times walks more quickly,at times more slowly, at times itpauses, at times it makes a mistakeand goes backwards a little, or takesthe wrong path and has to retrace itssteps to follow the right path. Butwhen a people moves forward, thisdoes not concern me because itmeans they are making history. AndI believe that the Chinese people aremoving forward and this is theirgreatness. It walks, like all popula-tions, through light and shadow.

Looking at this past — and per-haps the fact of not having childrencreates a complex — it is healthy totake responsibility for one’s ownpath. Well, we have taken this route,something here did not work at all,so now other possibilities haveopened up. Other issues come intoplay: the selfishness of some of thewealthy sectors who prefer not tohave children, and so forth. Theyhave to take responsibility for theirown path. And I would go further:do not be bitter, but be at peacewith your own path, even if youhave made mistakes. I cannot saythat my history was bad, that I hatemy history. (The Pope gives me a pen-etrating look.)

No, every people must be recon-ciled with its history as its own path,

male, has within them the capa-city to find ways of co-existing,of respect and mutual admira-tion. And it is obvious that somuch culture and so much wis-dom, and in addition, so muchtechnical knowledge — we haveonly to think of age-old medicin-al techniques — cannot remainenclosed within a country; theytend to expand, to spread, tocommunicate. Man tends tocommunicate, a civilization tendsto communicate. It is evidentthat when communication hap-pens in an aggressive tone to de-fend oneself, then wars result.But I would not be fearful. It isa great challenge to keep the bal-ance of peace. Here we have

The other day I had the oppor-tunity to see the paintings of anoth-er great Jesuit, Giuseppe Castiglione— who also had the Jesuit virus(laughs). Castiglione knew how toexpress beauty, the experience ofopenness in dialogue: receiving fromothers and giving of oneself on awavelength that is “civilized” ofcivilizations. When I say “civilized”,I do not mean only “educated” civil-

Grandmother Europe, as I said inStrasbourg. It appears that she is nolonger Mother Europe. I hope shewill be able to reclaim that roleagain. And she receives from thisage-old country an increasingly richcontribution. And so it is necessaryto accept the challenge and to runthe risk of balancing this exchangefor peace. The Western world, theEastern world and China all have

Matteo Ricci with Xu Guangqi

CONTINUED ON PA G E 12

For me, Chinahas always been areference point ofgreatness. Butmore than acountry, a greatculture, with aninexhaustiblewisdom.

page 12 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 February 2016, number 5

Interview with Asia Times

with its successes and its mistakes.And this reconciliation with one’sown history brings much maturity,much growth. Here I would use theword mentioned in the question:mercy. It is healthy for a person tohave mercy towards himself, not tobe sadistic or masochistic. That iswrong. And I would say the samefor a people: it is healthy for apopulation to be merciful towardsitself. And this nobility of soul ... Idon’t know whether or not to usethe word forgiveness, I don’t know.But to accept that this was mypath, to smile, and to keep going.If one gets tired and stops, one canbecome bitter and corrupt. And so,when one takes responsibility forone’s own path, accepting it forwhat it has been, this allows one’shistorical and cultural richness toemerge, even in difficult moments.

And how can it be allowed toemerge? Here we return to the firstquestion: in dialogue with today’sworld. To dialogue does not meanthat I surrender, because at timesthere is the danger, in the dialoguebetween different countries, of hid-den agendas, namely, cultural col-onizations. It is necessary to recog-nize the greatness of the Chinesepeople, who have always main-tained their culture.

And their culture — I am notspeaking about ideologies thatthere may have been in the past —their culture was not imposed.

The country’s economy has been grow-

ing at an overwhelming pace but sohas human and environmental dis-asters, which Beijing is trying to re-solve. At the same time, sometimeschildren and parents are separateddue to work demands. What messagecan you give them?

I feel rather like a “mother-in-law” giving advice on what shouldbe done (laughs). I would suggest ahealthy realism; reality must be ac-cepted from wherever it comes.This is our reality; as in football,the goalkeeper must catch the ballfrom wherever it comes. Realitymust be accepted for what it is. Berealistic. This is our reality. First, Imust reconcile with reality. I don’tlike it, I am against it, it makes mesuffer, but if I don’t come to termswith it, I won’t be able to do any-thing. The second step is to workto improve reality and to change itsd i re c t i o n .

Now, you see that these aresimple suggestions, somewhat com-monplace. But to be like an ostrichthat hides its head in the sand so asnot to see reality, nor accept it, isno solution. Well then, let us dis-cuss, let us keep searching, let uscontinue walking, always on thepath, on the move. River water ispure because it flows; still water be-comes stagnant. It is necessary toaccept reality as it is, without dis-guising it, without refining it, andto find ways of improving it. Well,here is something that is very im-portant. If this happens to a com-pany which has worked for twentyyears and there is a business crisis,

then there are few avenues of cre-ativity to improve it. On the con-trary, when it happens in an age-old country, with its age-old history,its age-old wisdom, its age-old cre-ativity, then tension is createdbetween the present problem andthis past of ancient richness. Andthis tension brings fruitfulness as itlooks to the future. I believe thatthe great richness of China todaylies in looking to the future from apresent that is sustained by thememory of its cultural past. Livingin tension, not in anguish. And thetension is between its very rich pastand the challenge of the presentwhich has to be carried forth intothe future; that is, the story doesn’tend here.

On the occasion of the Chinese NewYear, would you like to send a greetingto the Chinese people, to the Authorit-ies and to President Xi Jinping?

On the eve of the New Year, Iwish to convey my best wishes andgreetings to President Xi Jinpingand to all the Chinese people. AndI wish to express my hope that theynever lose their historical awarenessof being a great people, with agreat history of wisdom, and thatthey have much to offer to theworld. The world looks to thisgreat wisdom of yours. In this NewYear, with this awareness, may youcontinue to go forward in order tohelp and cooperate with everyonein caring for our common homeand our common peoples.

Thank you!

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To the Italian National Committee for Bioethics the Pope calls for care for the most vulnerable

Civil maturity in ethical questionsPope Francis addressed members ofItaly’s National Committee forBioethics, which was established by theOffice of the Prime Minister in 1990.In an audience held in the ConsistoryHall on Thursday, 28 January, heinvited them to combat the “manye x p re s s i o n s ” of the throw-away culture,which include “treating human embryosas disposable material, as well as thesick and elderly who are nearingdeath”. The following is a translationof the address, which the Popedelivered in Italian.

Distinguished Ladies andGentlemen,I offer my most cordial welcome toeach of you, and I thank the VicePresident, Prof. Lorenzo D’Avack,for his courteous words of introduc-tion to our meeting.

I am pleased to be able to expressthe Church’s appreciation of the factthat, more than 25 years ago, theNational Committee for Bioethicswas instituted by the Office of thePrime Minister. Everyone is aware ofhow sensitive the Church is to ethic-al issues, but perhaps not everyoneknows that the Church lays no claimto any privileged space in this field,but rather, she is pleased when civilconsciousness, on various levels, is

able to reflect, discern, and act onthe basis of free and open rationalityand of the values fundamental to theperson and to society. Indeed, pre-cisely this responsible civil maturityis a sign that the sowing of the Gos-pel — revealed and entrusted to theChurch — has borne fruit, beingable to promote the search for whatis true, good and beautiful in com-plex human and ethical questions.

Basically, it is about serving man,all of humanity, all men and women,with particular attention and care —as it was recalled — for the weakestand most disadvantaged, whostruggle to make their voices heard,or who still cannot, or can no longer

make themselves heard. On thisground the ecclesial and the civilcommunities meet and are called tocooperate according to their respect-ive distinct competencies.

On many occasions this Commit-tee has raised the question concern-ing respect for the integrity of thehuman being and protection ofhealth from conception to naturaldeath, taking the person in his orher uniqueness, always as an endand never simply as a means. Thisethical principle is also fundamentalwith regard to the application of bi-otechnology in the medical field,which must never be used in a waythat is detrimental to human dignity,nor must such technology be guidedsolely for industrial and commercialends.

Bioethics came about in order tocompare, through a critical study, tothe reasons and conditions that thedignity of the human person re-quires, to developments in the sci-ences and in biological and medicaltechnologies, which, due to theirspeed, tend to overlook every refer-ence other than utility and profit.

How arduous it is at times toidentify these reasons and in howmany different ways one seeks toframe them is evidenced by the very

opinions formulated by the NationalCommittee for Bioethics. Thereforethe response to the challenges ofseeking the ethical truth can be at-tributed to all those engaged in it,especially in a context marked by re-lativism and with little confidence inthe capacity of human reason. Youare aware that this research on com-plex bioethical issues is not easy anddoes not always reach a harmoniousconclusion quickly; that it always re-quires humility and realism, and isnot afraid of comparison with thedifferent positions; because in theend the testimony given to the truthcontributes to the maturation of thecivil conscience.

In particular, I would like to en-courage your work in several areas,which I shall briefly mention:

1. An interdisciplinary analysis ofthe causes of environmental degrad-ation. I hope that the Committeemay formulate guidelines in thefields of biological sciences in orderto encourage projects of conserva-tion, preservation and care of the en-vironment. In this area it is fitting tomake a comparison between bio-centric and anthropocentric theories,in search of ways that recognize thecorrect centrality of man with re-spect to other living beings and tothe environment as a whole, andalso to help identify the conditionsthat are fundamental for the protec-tion of future generations. When Ionce mentioned the protection of fu-ture generations, a somewhat em-bittered and skeptical scientistreplied, saying: “Tell me, Father, willthere be any?”

2. The issue of disability and ofthe marginalization of the most vul-nerable people in a society thattends toward competition and theacceleration of progress. The chal-lenge is to oppose the throw-awayculture, which is expressed in somany ways today, among which istreating human embryos as dispos-able material, along with the sickand the elderly who are nearingdeath.

3. An ever greater effort to pro-mote an international consensus inview of a possible and desirable, al-beit complex, harmonization of thestandards and rules of biologicaland medical activities, rules that areable to uphold fundamental rightsand values.

Lastly, I wish to express my ap-preciation to your Committee be-cause it has sought to identify waysto increase public awareness, begin-ning with schools, regarding bioeth-ical issues, such as explaining bio-technological progress.

Distinguished ladies and gentle-men, I thank you for coming andfor this moment of reflection andencounter. May the Lord bless eachof you and your valuable work. I as-sure you of my affinity and remem-brance in prayer, and I trust thatyou will also do the same for me.Thank you.

number 5, Friday, 5 February 2016 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 13

Morning Mass at the Domus Sanctae MarthaeThursday, 28 January

Without measureWitness, as a fundamental elementof Christian life, was the focus ofPope Francis’ reflection during Massat Santa Marta on Thursday morn-ing. What are the features of wit-ness? The Pontiff drew the answerto this question directly from theday’s passage of the Gospel accord-ing to Mark (4:21-25), which imme-diately follows the “parable of theseed”. After speaking “of the seedthat manages to bear fruit” and ofthose seeds that after falling “onpoor soil cannot bear fruit”, Jesus“tells us of the lamp”, which is notto be placed under a bushel but in acandlestick. This, the Pope ex-plained, “is light, and the Gospel ofJohn tells us that the mystery ofGod is light and that the light cameinto the world, but the darkness didnot welcome it”. It is a light, he ad-ded, that should not be hidden, butthat serves “to illuminate”.

Here then, is “one of the featuresof a Christian, who has received thelight in Baptism and must give it”.A Christian, the Pope said, “is a wit-ness”. Indeed, a Christian can’t butshow the light he bears within. If aChristian “prefers his own darknessto God’s light”, then “something ismissing”. Darkness “enters his heart,because he is afraid of the light”. AChristian “is a witness”, a witness“to Jesus Christ, the light of God.And he must place that light in thecandlestick of his life”.

The Gospel passage proposed forthe day’s liturgy also speaks of“m e a s u re ”. It reads: “the measureyou give will be the measure youget, and still more will be givenyou”. This, Francis said, is “the oth-er particularity, the other approach”typical of a Christian. It refers tomagnanimity: “another Christiantrait is magnanimity, because he isthe child of a magnanimous father,with a great spirit”.

So too when he says, “give andyou shall be given”, the measurethat Jesus speaks of, the Pope ex-plained, is “full, good, overflowing”.Similarly, “the Christian heart ismagnanimous. It is open, always”. Itis not, therefore, “a heart that with-draws into its own selfishness”. Noris it a heart that sets limits, that“counts: up to here, up to there”.Francis explained further: “Whenyou enter into this light of Jesus,when you enter into Jesus’ friend-ship, when you let the Holy Spiritguide you, your heart becomesopen, magnanimous”. At that pointa particular dynamic is triggered. AChristian “do esn’t gain: he loses”.But in reality, the Pontiff concluded,“he loses in order to gain somethingelse, and with this ‘defeat’ of in-terests, he gains Jesus”. A Christian’sgain is in “becoming a witness to Je-sus”.

Applying his reflection to the hereand now, Francis addressed a groupof priests who were celebrating thegolden jubilee of their ordination:“50 years on the path of light andwitness”, and “trying to be better,trying to carry the light on the can-dlestick”. As everyone experiences,that light “sometimes falls”, but it is

said, “the devil makes us feel secure:‘I can do it’”. But “the Lord reallyloved David, so much” that theLord “sent the prophet Nathan toreflect his soul”, and David “rep en-ted and cried: ‘I have sinned’”.

“I would like to stress only this”,Francis stated: “there is a momentwhen the tendency to sin or a mo-ment when our situation is really se-cure and we seem to be blessed; wehave a lot of power, money, I don’tknow, a lot of ‘things’”. It can hap-pen even “to us priests: sin stops be-ing sin and becomes corruption. TheLord always forgives. But one of theworst things about corruption is thata corrupt person doesn’t need to askforgiveness, he doesn’t feel theneed”.

The Pope then asked for prayer“for the Church, beginning with us,the Pope, bishops, priests, consec-rated people, lay faithful: ‘Lord, saveus, save us from corruption. Sinnersyes, Lord, we all are, but never cor-rupt! Let us ask the Lord for thisgrace’”, Francis concluded.

Monday, 1 February

There is no humilitywithout humiliation

There can be neither humility norholiness without walking the path ofhumiliation. Francis spoke of thistruth as he recalled the story of Dav-id during Mass at Santa Marta onMonday morning.

“In the First Reading, the story ofKing David continues”, the Popebegan, referring to the Second Bookof Samuel (15:13-14, 30; 16:5-13). Thestory, he explained, “began whenSamuel went to the house of [Dav-id’s] father, and David was anointedking”, even though he was still aboy. Then “he grew up, he had hisproblems, but he was always a manrespectful of the king who did notlike him”. In fact the king “knewthat he would be his successor”.And “in the end David managed tounite the kingdom of Israel: every-one together with him”. However,“he was feeling insecure and his zealfor the house of the Lord began toweaken”.

“At that moment — we heard theother day — David was one step awayfrom becoming corrupt”, Francis con-tinued. Thus “the holy King David, asinner but a saint, became corrupt”.But then “the Prophet Nathan, sentby God” helped him “understandwhat a bad thing he had done, anevil thing: because a corrupt persondo esn’t realize it. It takes a specialgrace to change the heart of a cor-rupt person”. Thus, “David, who stillhad a noble heart”, recognized hissin, “he recognized his fault”. Whatdid Nathan say to him? These werehis words: “The Lord has forgivenyour sin, but the corruption you havesown will grow. You killed an inno-cent man to hide adultery. The swordshall never depart from your house”.Thus, the Pope explained, “God for-gives sin, David converts but thewounds of corruption are difficult toheal. We see this in so many parts ofthe world”.

always good to try and put it backin its place, “generously, that is, witha magnanimous heart”. The Popethanked the priests for all they havedone “in the Church, for the Churchand for Jesus”, and he wished themthe “great joy of having sown seedswell, of having illuminated well andof having opened their arms to wel-come everyone with magnanimity”.Lastly he said to them: “Only Godand your memory know how manypeople you have welcomed withmagnanimity, with fatherly andbrotherly goodness” and “to howmany people whose hearts weresomewhat dark, you have givenlight, Jesus’ light”. Because, PopeFrancis concluded, “in people’smemory” what always remains is“the seed, the light of witness, andthe magnanimity of a welcominglove”.

Friday, 29 January

From sin into corruptionMay the Church never fall from sininto corruption. Pope Francis prayedfor this during Mass on Fridaymorning in the chapel of Casa SantaMarta.

Referring to the first reading,taken from the Second Book ofSamuel (11:1-4, 5-10, 13-17), Francisbegan saying: “We heard aboutD avid’s sin, the grave sin of the holyKing David. Because David is holy,but a sinner too, he was a sinner”.In fact, “there is something thatchanges in this man’s story”. It sohappens that “at the time of battle,David sent Joab and his servantswith him to fight, while David re-mained in the palace”. Normally,“he would be at the front of thearmy”, but this time he did other-wise. The biblical account, the Popeexplained, “shows us David some-what comfortable, somewhat calm,but not in the good sense of thew o rd ”. Then, “late one afternoon,after siesta, while he was walkingupon the roof of the palace, he sawa woman and felt passion, thetemptation of lust, and he fell intosin”. The woman was Bathsheba, thewife of Uriah the Hittite. Thus, itamounted to “a sin”. And, Francisobserved, “God really loved David”.

Thereafter, “things got complic-ated because, after some time, thewoman told David that she was withchild”. Her husband, the Pope re-called, “was fighting for the peopleof Israel, for the glory of the Peopleof God”. Meanwhile, “David be-trayed that soldier’s loyalty to hiscountry, he betrayed that woman’sfidelity to her husband, and he hitb ottom”.

Then, “when he received the newsthat the woman was expecting, whatdid he do?”, the Pope asked. “D idhe go to pray, to ask forgiveness?”.No, he stayed “calm” and said tohimself: “I can do it”. Thus, hesummoned the woman’s husband“and made him feel important”. Thepassage reads that David “askedhow Joab was doing, and how thepeople fared, and how the warprosp ered”. In other words, it was “abrush stroke of vanity, to make himfeel a little important”. Then, tothank him, he gave him “a fine gift”

by telling him to go home to rest.This is how David “tried to cover upthe adultery: that child would be thechild of Bathsheba’s husband”.

This man, however, “was a personof noble spirit, he had great loveand did not go home. He thoughtabout his companions, he thoughtof the ark of God under the tent,because they were carrying the ark,and he spent the night with hiscompanions, with his servants, anddid not go immediately to his wife”.Thus, “they advised David” — b e-cause everyone knew the story, gos-sip was going around — just ima-gine!”.

Therefore, “David invited him toeat and drink with him — and herethe text is somewhat abridged —‘Why did you not go down to yourhouse?’”, David asked. And thenoble man answered: “my compan-ions are in tents, the ark of God isin a tent, battling the enemy”; so, heasked: “how could I allow myself togo to my house, to eat and to drink,and to lie with my wife? No! I can-not do this”. And thus, “David hadhim come back, invited him onceagain to eat and drink, and madehim drunk”. But again, “Uriah didnot go back to his house, he spentthe second night with his compan-ions”.

Troubled, David “wrote a letter, aswe heard: ‘Set Uriah in the forefrontof the hardest fighting, and thendraw back from him, that he may bestruck down, and die’”. It was, thePope said, “a death sentence: thisloyal man — loyal to the law, loyal tohis people, loyal to his king — wascondemned to death”.

Francis confided: “in reading thispassage, I ask myself: where is Dav-id, that brave youth who confrontedthe Philistine with his sling and fivestones and told him: ‘The Lord ismy strength’?”. This, the Pope re-marked, “is another David”. Indeed,“where is that David who, knowingthat Saul wanted to kill him and,twice having the opportunity to killKing Saul, said: ‘No, I cannot touchthe Lord’s anointed one’?”.

The reality is, Francis explained,that “this man changed, this mansoftened”. And, he added, “it bringsto mind a passage of the prophetEzekiel (16:15) when God speaks tohis people as a groom to his bride,saying: after I gave all of this toyou, you besot with your beauty,took advantage with your renown,and played the harlot. You felt se-cure and you forgot me’”.

This is precisely “what happenedwith David at that moment”, Francissaid. “The great, noble David feltsure of himself, because the king-dom was strong, and thus he sinned:he sinned in lust, he committedadultery, and he also unjustly killeda noble man, in order to cover uphis sin”.

“This is a moment in the life ofD avid”, the Pontiff noted, “that wecan apply to our own: it is thepassing from sin into corruption”.Here “David begins, he takes thefirst step toward corruption: he ob-tains power, strength”. For this reas-on “corruption is an easier sin for allof us who have certain power, be itecclesiastical, religious, economic orpolitical power”. And, Pope Francis CONTINUED ON PA G E 14

page 14 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 February 2016, number 5

At the Domus Sanctae Marthae

This is the point in David’s story,Francis affirmed, that “we arrive atin today’s passage: David’s sonbattles against his father. He wantspower: his son is already corrupt”.But “what does David do? Withthe nobility that he had won backafter his sin — and also the penancehe had done to save the son whohad died, the child of adultery — herejoins his own: ‘Let us flee the citylest Absalom — his son — shouldovertake us, then visit disaster uponus and put the city to the sword’,as was customary in those times”.

The Pontiff recalled that “Go dcastigates David harshly: ‘Thesword shall never depart from yourhouse’”. But, Francis continued,“he defends the house and flees, heleaves”. Is he perhaps “a coward?No, he is a father”. And “he allowsthe ark to return”, he does not “useGod to defend himself”. In otherwords, David “leaves in order tosave his people: this is the path ofholiness that David begins to fol-low, after the moment in which hebecame corrupt”.

The passage, the Pope contin-ued, presents David weeping as heclimbs the steep Mount of Olives.“His head was covered”, a sign ofmourning, and he was walkingbarefoot. He was doing penance.“And all those who were with himalso had their heads covered andthey were weeping as they went:

weeping and penance”. Scripturealso tells us that “some, who didnot like him, began to follow andcurse him”. Among them wasShimei, who called him “m u rd e re r ”,reminding him of “the crime hehad committed against Uriah theHittite in order to cover up hisadultery”. Abishai, one of thepeople closest to David, “wanted todefend him” and wanted to take offShimei’s head in order to silencehim. But David goes “a step fur-ther: ‘If he is cursing it is becausethe Lord has said to him, ‘CurseD avid!’”. He then “says to his ser-vants: ‘My own son, who cameforth form my loins, is seeking mylife’”. He is referring to his son Ab-salom. This is why he turns againto his servants saying: “Let thisBenjaminite curse, for the Lord hastold him to”.

The question, Francis explained,is that “David can see the signs: itis the moment of his humiliation, itis the moment in which he is pay-ing for his fault”. Therefore, hesays: “Perhaps the Lord will lookupon my affliction and make it upto me with benefits for the curseshe is uttering this day”. Basically,“he entrusts himself to the Lord’shands: this is David’s path, fromthe moment of corruption to thisentrustment to the hands of theLord. This is holiness. This is hu-mility”.

The Pope continued. “I think”,he said, “that each one of us,

should someone say something badabout us”, would react by saying“No, I didn’t do it, this isn’t true,no!”. In fact, we “immediately tryto say that it isn’t true”. Or else“we do as Shimei did: we saysomething even worse in response”.But humility, Francis stated, “canreach a heart only through humili-ation: there is no humility withouthumiliation”. And, he said, “if youare not able to bear some humili-ation in your life, you are nothumble. That’s how it is: I wouldsay it’s that mathematical, it’s thatsimple!”.

For this reason, the Pope contin-ued, “the only path to humility ishumiliation”. Therefore, “D avid’sgoal, which is holiness, is reachedthrough humiliation”. Also, “thegoal of holiness that God gives tohis children, gives to the Church,comes through the humiliation ofhis Son who lets himself be cursed,who lets himself be borne on theCross, unjustly”. Francis clarifiedthat “this Son of God who humbleshimself, is the path of holiness:with his attitude, David prophesiesthe humiliation of Jesus”.

Before ending his homily Francisasked of “the Lord, for each of us,for all the Church, the grace of hu-mility, but also the grace of under-standing that it is impossible to behumble without humiliation”.

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The Holy Father cautions priests against the temptations of duplicity and worldliness

Be proclaimers of ChristNot preachers of complex doctrine, butproclaimers of the Christ. This is thecomposite of true priests outlined by thePope on Monday morning, 25 January,as he spoke to the community of thePontifical Seminary of Lombardy inRome. The audience took place in theClementine Hall. The following is atranslation of the Pontiff’s remarks,which were delivered in Italian.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,I greet you affectionately and Ithank Cardinal Scola for his kindwords. I am pleased to meet withyou on the occasion of the 50th an-niversary of this institution. Duringthe Holy Year of Mercy you are thusalso celebrating a Jubilee of thanks-giving to God, the foundationalrock of life, because “his faithfulnessendures for ever” (cf. Ps 118[117]:2).Do not forget this: God is the Faith-ful One.

Bl. Paul VI blessed the Seminaryof Lombardy on 11 November 1965,in order that this new house wouldbe inhabited at the culmination ofthe Second Vatican Council, inwhich the Fathers strongly perceivedthat “the walls which for too longhad made the Church a kind of fort-ress were torn down and the timehad come to proclaim the Gospel ina new way” (Misericordiae Vultus, n.4). Hence, in your “Roman years”,which were not only characterizedby study but by genuine priestly

formation, you too are preparing tofollow that impulse of the Spirit, soas to be the “future of the Church”according to the heart of God; notaccording to each person’s prefer-ences or to passing fads, but as theproclamation of the Gospel requires.In order to be well prepared, in-depth work is necessary, but aboveall an inner conversion, which everyday ingrains the minister in the firstcall of Jesus and rekindles him inthe personal relationship with Him,as did the Apostle Paul, whose veryconversion we recall today.

In this regard I would like todraw your attention toward a modelwhom you already know well: StCharles Borromeo. Fr De Certeaupresented his life as a constant“movement of conversion”, tendingto reflect on the image of the Pastor:“He identified with this image,nourished it with his life, knowingthat the subject becomes real at thecost of blood: sanguinis ministri, theywere for him the true priests. Hethus realized this image by losinghimself. He set his entire ‘passion’ toreproducing it” (Dizionario biograficodegli italiani, XX, 1977, p. 263).Therefore, the great work of thetheologians of the time, which cul-minated in the celebration of theCouncil of Trent, was implementedby holy Pastors like Borromeo. Dearfriends, you are heirs and witnessesto a great history of holiness, whichis rooted in your patrons, Bishops

merely a normal person, he will be amediocre priest, or worse.

St Charles wanted pastors to beservants of God and fathers for thepeople, especially for the poor. But— it is always good for us to remem-ber — only one who makes of hisown life a constant dialogue withthe Word of God, or better yet withGod who speaks to us, can proclaimthe word of life. In these years youhave been entrusted with the mis-sion to train in this dialogue of life:the knowledge of the various discip-lines that you study is not an end initself, but is made concrete in the col-

loquy of prayer and in the real en-counter with people. Formation “instagnant compartments” is of nouse; prayer, culture and pastoral careare the major cornerstones of an un-paralleled edifice: they must alwaysbe firmly united in order to supportone another, well cemented betweenthem, so that today and tomorrow’spriests may be spiritual men andmerciful pastors, unified within by thelove of the Lord and capable ofspreading the joy of the Gospel inthe simplicity of life. Today, evangel-ization seems again to be called tothe duty to truly travel the path ofs i m p l i c i t y.

Genuine communion with theLord and with brothers is enoughfor that simplicity of life whichavoids all forms of duplicity andworldliness; simplicity of language:not preachers of complex doctrine,but proclaimers of the Christ whodied and rose for us.

Another essential aspect that Iwould like to emphasize, in order tobe a good priest, is the necessity ofcontact and closeness with the Bishop.The features of a diocesan priest isprecisely the diocesan nature, andthe cornerstone of the diocesannature is set in frequently relatingwith the Bishop, in dialogue anddiscernment with him. A priestwithout an assiduous relationshipwith his Bishop slowly becomes isol-ated from the diocesan body and hisfruitfulness diminishes, precisely be-cause he does not engage in dia-logue with the Father of the Dio-cese.

Lastly, I would like to tell youthat I am pleased not only with yourgainful commitment to your studies,but also for the global dimension ofyour community: you come fromvarious regions of Italy, Africa, LatinAmerica, Asia and other Europeancountries. I hope that you cultivatethe beauty of friendship and the artof establishing relationships, in or-der to create a priestly fraternitymade stronger by its particular di-versity. In this way you will makethis house ever more welcoming andrich! From now on, when I come tothe Basilica of St Mary Major, I willthink of this meeting and I will re-member you before the VirginMother. But I ask you too, pleasedo the same for me! Thank you.

Ambrose and Charles, and inmore recent times has seen,even among the students,three Blesseds and three Ser-vants of God. This is the goalto aim for!

Often, however, there ap-pears on the path a tempta-tion to reject: that of the “nor-malcy”, of a Pastor for whom a“normal” life is enough. Thispriest then begins to contenthimself with the attention hereceives, he judges his min-istry on the basis of successesand he settles on seeking outwhat he enjoys, becominglukewarm and lacking true in-terest in others. “Normalcy”for us, however, is pastoralholiness, the gift of one’s life.If a priest chooses to be

Carlo Saraceni, “St Charles Borromeo bringscommunion to a leper” (1618-1619)

number 5, Friday, 5 February 2016 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 15

VAT I C A N BULLETIN

the regional tribunal of Toronto;episcopal vicar and counselor forspiritual subjects.

The Holy Father appointed FrChristudas Rajappan as AuxiliaryBishop of the Archdiocese ofTrivandrum for Latins, India, as-signing him the titular episcopalSee of Avitta Bibba. Until now hehas been Rector of St Vincent’sSeminary in Menamkulam (2 Feb.).

Bishop-elect Rajappan, 44, wasborn in Adimalathura, India. Heholds a doctorate in missiology. Hewas ordained a priest on 25November 1998. He has served inparish ministry and as: secretary tothe Bishop and chaplain of JubileeMemorial Hospital and CatholicHostel; director of the Kerala Cath-olic Youth Movement in Trivan-drum; chaplain to the CatholicHostel; spiritual director and pro-fessor at St Joseph’s Pontifical sem-inary in Alwaye; head of the Board

of Clergy and Religious in Kochu-thura.

EASTERN CHURCHES

The Holy Father accepted theresignation of Bishop Dimitrios Sa-lachas, of the Apostolic Exarchatefor Catholics of Byzantine Rite inGreece. It was presented in accordwith can. 210 § 1 of the Code ofCanons of the Eastern Churches (2Fe b . ) .The Holy Father appointed Archi-mandrite Fr Manuel Nin, OSB, asApostolic Exarch for Catholics ofByzantine Rite in Greece, at thesame time, raising him to the dig-nity of bishop and assigning himthe titular episcopal See of Carca-bia. Until now he has been Rectorof the Pontifical Greek College inRome.

Bishop-elect Nin, 59, was born inSpain. He entered the BenedictineMonastery of Monsserrat where he

made his solemn monastic profes-sion on 18 October 1980 and wasordained a priest on 18 April 1998.He holds a doctorate in theologywith a specialization in Patristics.He has taught at various universit-ies and institutes of higher learningin Rome. In 1999 he was appointedArchimandrite of the Dioceses ofAkko, Haifa Nazareth and All Ga-lilee. He has served as: spiritualfather and rector of the PontificalGreek College; first assistant to theAbbot president of the BenedictineCongregation of Subiaco; consultorto the office for liturgical celebra-tions of the Holy Father; memberof the liturgical commission of theCongregation for Eastern Churches.

NECROLO GY

Bishop Emile Destombes, M E P, titu-lar Bishop of Altava, formerApostolic Vicar of the Vicariate ofPhnom-Penh, Cambodia, at age 80(28 Jan.).

CONTINUED FROM PA G E 2

Foreign clergy welcomed by the French episcopate

A most welcome giftGI O VA N N I ZAVAT TA

Today in France more than 10 per-cent of priests, approximately 1,700out of almost 16,000, are from for-eign countries. The most numerousare African, followed by Vietnameseand Polish. In certain dioceses theycomprise more than 40 percent ofactive priests. Many of these p r ê t re svenus d’a i l l e u rs , foreign priests, arefidei donum, to whom the FrenchEpiscopal Conference has for sometime dedicated a specific work grouppresided by Archbishop DominiqueLebrun of Rouen.

Last year’s plenary assembly inLourdes provided an occasion tohighlight the situation, especially tohear from Bishop Bernard-Em-manuel Kasanda Mulenga ofMbujimayi who, from out of a totalof 225 priests in the Democratic Re-

public of the Congo, sends aboutfive dozen priests to Europe eachyear. Twelve from this group are cur-rently in France. They are the mis-sionary face of the Catholic, andtherefore universal, Church. “Inthose who depart there is an enthu-siasm of openness to the world, ofmoral and psychological enrich-ment”, said Bishop Kasanda Mu-lenga, yet there are also “lacerations”and “disillusions” in finding them-selves in a secular world. BishopLebrun defines it as “culture shock”.There is much work to be done inwelcoming priests to the communit-ies in the first year of their sojourn,including courses on the reality theywill find. The archbishop is prepar-ing specific recommendations in thisregard, in order that a Church poorin vocations, such as that in France(half of whose priests are over age

75), may best benefit from these giftsof faith from Africa.

“Sending priests for a pastoralre a s o n ”, the Bishop of Mbujimayistated, “is a normal missionary re-sponsibility for the African Churchestoward another Church which has ashortage of priests, like France, sincea particular Church becomes barrenif she gives nothing to her sisterChurches. A Church that isolatesherself dies. It would go against hervery nature. The crisis of priestly vo-cations in France creates anxiety.Practicing Christians ask themselveshow the People of God will benourished in the decades to come”.In this context, “the fidei donumpriest is both a temporary and per-manent a response to the anguishpassing through a large part of theFrench faithful. Even if a Churchthat today is affected by a shortageof presbyters should one day havemany, she will always have the needfor this foreignness which reveals thecatholicity of our Church”.However, according to Bishop Kas-anda Mulenga, in order for this “ex-change” to be accomplished in thebest way possible, certain conditionsare necessary. First and foremost isthe quality of the reception, onwhich the efficacy of the experienceof faith and its complete realizationdepend, taking for granted the au-thentic missionary spirit of thechosen candidate. “The sendingbishop expects that his priest will bewell received, that the reception willthen allow him to pursue his person-al, human and intellectual develop-ment; in this way a priest who re-turns to his diocese will possess thegreat experience of having liveda b ro a d ”. However successful integra-tion depends on many factors: theattitude and feelings of those on thereceiving end (there is always a cer-tain risk of skepticism, of a superior-

ity complex, of the belief of belong-ing to a group more sociologicallydominant), and also apprehensionon the part of the emissary regard-ing the unknown and the unpredict-able. In Lourdes the African bishopproposed that there be an initialperiod during which a priest of thereceiving diocese accompanies thefidei donum priest as a guide and tu-tor, while at the same time, a teamof religious periodically informs himon the social and pastoral life of thediocese and parish of destination.He also proposed a second phase inwhich a genuine formation coursewould be organized on all subjectsrelated to the state, society, theChurch in France, history, the Ma-gisterium and the Liturgy. Beforeand after “the bishop should meetthe priests entrusted to him andclearly define the mission”. For sometime, however, the national servicefor the Church’s universal missionhas dedicated one of its initiatives,Session Welcome, to presbyters andreligious who come in pastoral ser-vice from abroad, precisely to famili-arize them with the reality ofFr a n c e .

There are also those, such as FrFrédéric Hounkponou, 33, from theArchdiocese of Cotonou, Benin,who chose to visit France last sum-mer and to discover the localChurch, particularly that of Dijon. Apersonal initiative supported by hisbishop to come to know new pastor-al opportunities. A “visitation” ofone Church by another.

For their part the French prelatesrevealed, during the plenary as-sembly, both light and dark points.Bishop Michel Pansard of Chartresis delighted to see the foreign priestsof his diocese meet every twomonths. “They have a real capacityto help each other when problemsarise”, he said. Bishop MichelDubost of Evry-Corbeil-Essonnes,however, laments of cases of priestswithout social protection in theircountries of origin. He indicatedthat “some arrive sick and do not re-port it”. He also hopes to find asolution to the issue of the moneywhich many try to send to their fam-ilies or dioceses. Bishop NicolasSouchu, Auxiliary of Rennes, admit-ted that “before the authority, whenthey are asked how things are going,they always answer ‘well’, even whenwe know this is not the case. I amalways uneasy because I don’t knowwhat to do”. There are also situ-ations in which there is no commu-nication with the prêtre venu d’ail-l e u rs or with the bishop who senthim, and, in the current wave of mi-gration, there are even cases ofpriests without papers. ArchbishopLebrun and his working group willprovide responses and preciseguidelines at the end of the term.

Twenty new priests in Seoul

South Korea a land of vocationsBearing witness to the wealth ofvocations which characterizes theCatholic Church in South Korea,on Friday, 5 February, Cardinal An-drew Yeom Soo-jung, Archbishopof Seoul, will ordain 20 priests.Given the large number of pilgrimsexpected to attend, the ceremony isset to take place in a large hall atthe capital city’s Olympic Park. Ac-cording to a Fides News Agencyreport on 27 January, the Arch-diocese of Seoul celebrates an or-dination mass for an average of 20to 30 new priests every year. Therewere 21 in 2013, 36 in 2014, and 25in 2015.

The rite of ordination will takeits theme from Cardinal Yeom’s re-

cently-published pastoral letter en-titled “Teachings of the Church:the compass of the new evangeliza-tion”, while the verse referencechosen is “How beautiful is yourlove”.

The wealth of vocations in thelocal Church is also demonstratedby another event: the day beforethe priestly ordination, the Cardin-al will ordain 30 deacons, includ-ing a student of the Missionary So-ciety of St Columban, who will be-gin their service in the local com-munity church.

Both events will be broadcast bythe Pyeonghwa Broadcasting Cor-poration, the radio and televisionstation owned by the archdiocese.

page 16 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 February 2016, number 5

Video message at the end of the International Eucharistic Congress in Cebu

A school of serviceThe typhoon brought devastation but also solidarity to the Philippines

reaching out to others, in a spirit ofrespect and openness, in order toshare with them the gift weourselves have received.

In Asia, where the Church is com-mitted to respectful dialogue withthe followers of other religions, thisprophetic witness most often takesplace, as we know, through the dia-logue of life. Through the testimonyof lives transformed by God’s love,we best proclaim the Kingdom’spromise of reconciliation, justice andunity for the human family. Our ex-ample can open hearts to the graceof the Holy Spirit, who leads themto Christ the Saviour.

The other image which the Lordoffers us at the Last Supper is the

washing of feet. On the eve of hispassion, Jesus washed the feet of hisdisciples as a sign of humble service,of the unconditional love with whichhe gave his life on the Cross for thesalvation of the world. The Euchar-ist is a school of humble service. Itteaches us readiness to be there forothers. This too is at the heart ofmissionary discipleship.

Here I think of the aftermath ofthe typhoon. It brought immensedevastation to the Philippines, yet italso brought in its wake an immenseoutpouring of solidarity, generosityand goodness. People set about re-building not just homes, but lives.The Eucharist speaks to us of thatpower, which flows from the Crossand constantly brings new life. Itchanges hearts. It enables us to becaring, to protect the poor and thevulnerable, and to be sensitive to thecry of our brothers and sisters inneed. It teaches us to act with integ-rity and to reject the injustice andcorruption which poison the roots ofso ciety.

Dear friends, may this EucharisticCongress strengthen you in yourlove of Christ present in the Euchar-ist. May it enable you, as missionarydisciples, to bring this great experi-ence of ecclesial communion andmissionary outreach to your families,your parishes and communities, andyour local Churches. May it be aleaven of reconciliation and peacefor the entire world.

Now, at the end of the Congress,I am happy to announce that thenext International Eucharistic Con-gress will take place in 2020 in Bud-apest, Hungary. I ask all of you tojoin me in praying for its spiritualfruitfulness and for an outpouring ofthe Holy Spirit upon all engaged inits preparation. As you return toyour homes renewed in faith, Igladly impart my Apostolic Blessingto you and your families as a pledgeof abiding joy and peace in theL o rd .

With a Mass presided by the Papalenvoy, Salesian Cardinal CharlesMaung Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, the51st International Eucharistic Congressin Cebu, the Philippines, came to aclose on Sunday, 31 January. Thetheme of the conference was “Christ inYou, Our Hope of Glory”. At the endof the celebration Pope Francis’ videomessage was broadcast. The followingis the English text of the Pope’smessage.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,I greet all of you gathered in Cebufor the 51st International EucharisticCongress. I thank Cardinal Bo, whois my representative among you, andI offer a special greeting to CardinalVidal, Archbishop Palma and thebishops, priests and faithful in Cebuand all the Philippines. I also greetCardinal Tagle and all the Catholicsof the Philippines. I am particularlyhappy that this Congress hasbrought together so many peoplefrom the vast continent of Asia andfrom throughout the world.

Just one year ago, I visited thePhilippines in the wake of TyphoonYolanda. I was able to witness first-hand the deep faith and resilience ofits people. Under the protection ofthe Santo Niño, the Filipino peoplereceived the Gospel of Jesus Christsome 500 years ago. Ever since, theyhave given the world an example offidelity and deep devotion to theLord and his Church. They havealso been a people of missionaries,spreading the light of the Gospel inAsia and to the ends of the earth.

The theme of the EucharisticCongress — Christ in You, Our Hopeof Glory — is very timely. It remindsus that the risen Jesus is always aliveand present in his Church, above allin the Eucharist, the sacrament ofhis Body and Blood. Christ’s pres-ence among us is not only a consol-ation, but also a promise and a sum-mons. It is a promise that everlast-ing joy and peace will one day beours in the fullness of his Kingdom.But it is also a summons to go forth,as missionaries, to bring the messageof the Father’s tenderness, forgive-ness and mercy to every man, wo-man and child.

How much our world needs thismessage! When we think of the con-flicts, the injustices and the urgenthumanitarian crises which mark ourtime, we realize how important it isfor every Christian to be a true mis-sionary disciple, bringing the goodnews of Christ’s redemptive love toa world in such need of reconcili-ation, justice and peace.

So it is fitting that this Congresshas been celebrated in the Year ofMercy, in which the whole Church isinvited to concentrate on the heartof the Gospel. We are called tobring the balm of God’s mercifullove to the whole human family,binding up wounds, bringing hopewhere despair so often seems to havethe upper hand.

Two Filipino nuns in front of a mural near Plaza Independencia in Cebu (ANSA)

As you now prepare to “go forth”at the end of this Eucharistic Con-gress, there are two gestures of Jesusat the Last Supper which I wouldask you to reflect on. Both have todo with the missionary dimension ofthe Eucharist. They are table fellow-ship and the washing of feet.

We know how important it wasfor Jesus to share meals with his dis-ciples, but also, and especially, withsinners and the outcast. Sitting attable, Jesus was able to listen to oth-ers, to hear their stories, to appreci-ate their hopes and aspirations, andto speak to them of the Father’slove. At each Eucharist, the table ofthe Lord’s Supper, we should be in-spired to follow his example, by

After a long round of applause atthe closing Mass of the Interna-tional Eucharistic Congress (IEC)in Cebu, the faithful welcomedPope Francis’ announcement thatthe next congress will be held inBudapest in 2020. After the an-nouncement, several Hungarianflags began to wave and CardinalE rd ő stood up to greet thecrowd. As with the Philippines —which had previously hosted thestatio orbis in 1937 in Manila —this will be the second time thatHungary hosts the event; the lastcongress was held there in 1938.

Presided by papal envoy Car-dinal Bo — who imparted theblessing with the plenary indul-gence — the concluding Mass sawthe presence of thousands offaithful from the Philippines andother countries around Asia. Inhis homily, the Cardinal calledthe congress participants to be“apostles of the smile”. Among

those concelebrating were Cardin-al Vidal and Cardinal Tagle,Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu,as well as numerous bishops andpriests. The day before, Saturday,30 January, Archbishop Palmaread the concluding declarationof the 51st IEC which comparedthe gathering to when the firstdisciples met the Risen Christ.

The declaration which is di-vided into four chapters — “B re a dof life”, “Bread of the poor”,“Bread of dialogue” and “B re a dof mission” — was read in French,Spanish, English and Chinese.Also on Saturday Cardinal Vidalpresided at a ceremony at which5,000 Filipino children receivedtheir First Communion. “I under-stand how they are feeling”, theCardinal said, “I was one of thosechildren who received their FirstCommunion at Luneta Park inManila in 1937”.

Next congressset for 2020 in Budapest