(Vatican Radio) In the afternoon on Sunday, during his Apostolic Visit to Turin, Pope Francis visited the sick and disabled at the Little House of Divine Providence – known as the “Cottolengo” from its founder, Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo, a canon of the Corpus Domini Church of Turin.
The Holy Father once again decried what he has described as a “culture of waste.” Among the many victims of this culture, the Holy Father spoke especially about the elderly “who are the memory and the wisdom of the people. Sometimes, he said, “Their longevity is not always seen as a gift from God, but sometimes as a difficult weight to bear, especially when health is highly compromised”. We must develop “antibodies” against this attitude, which suggests that some people’s lives are less worthy of being lived. This attitude, Pope Francis said, “is a sin, it is a grave social sin!” On the contrary, he said, the sick are “precious members of the Church… the flesh of Christ crucified which we have the honour to touch and to serve with love.”
Below, please find excerpts from Pope Francis’ remarks to the sick and disabled cared for at the Cottolengo in Turin:
The exclusion of the poor, and the difficulties they face in receiving necessary care and assistance, is a situation that is unfortunately still with us today. Great progress in medicine and social assistance has been made, but it is diffused in a culture of waste, as a consequence of an anthropological crisis that puts consumption and economic interests in first place, rather than man. Among the victims of this culture of waste I want to recall in particular the elderly, who are welcomed in large numbers in this house. Their longevity is not always seen as a gift from God, but sometimes as a difficult weight to bear, especially when health is highly compromised.
Developing “antibodies” and learning to see things differently
This mentality does not bode well for society, and it is our duty to develop “antibodies” against this way of looking at the elderly or people with disabilities – as if their lives were less worthy of being lived. With what tenderness, instead has the Cottolengo loved these people! Here we can learn another way of looking at life and at the human person.
The example of Cottolengo
From it we can learn the concrete reality of evangelical love, so that many poor and sick people can find a home, live as a family, feel that they belong to a community, and not be excluded and supported.
Precious members of the Church
Dear brothers who are sick, you are precious members of the Church, you are the flesh of Christ Crucified, who we have the honour to touch and to serve with love.
The Gospel, the raison d’être of Cottolengo
The raison d’être of this Little House is not welfarism or philanthropy, but the Gospel: the Gospel of the Love of Christ and the strength that bore it and that carries it forward: the special love of Jesus for the most fragile and the most weak.
The charism of Cottolengo is fruitful
It’s charism is fruitful, as Blessed Don Francesco Paleari and Blessed Brother Luigi Bordino, as well as the servant of God, the missionary Maria Carola Cecchin, have shown.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) In the afternoon on Sunday, during his Apostolic Visit to Turin, Pope Francis visited the sick and disabled at the Little House of Divine Providence – known as the “Cottolengo” from its founder, Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo, a canon of the Corpus Domini Church of Turin. The Holy Father once again decried what he…
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(Vatican Radio) Describing his prepared remarks as “a little formal,” Pope Francis laid aside his written text and spoke off-the-cuff for approximately thirty minutes with male and female religious of the Salesian Family.
The Salesians, with their sister order the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, were founded by St John Bosco – known as Don Bosco – Turin’s most famous and well-known saint.
In the Pope’s written discourse to the Salesians and to the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Figlie di Maria Ausiliatrice, FMA) – which he promised to consign to the Rector to distribute to the Salesians –
Pope Francis spoke about three specific aspects of the charism of Don Bosco: his trust in divine Providence; his vocation to be a priest of the young, especially the poorest among them; his loyal and active service to the Church, particularly to the Pope.
Don Bosco’s unwavering confidence in God, the essence of consecrated life
The founder of the Salesian Family, he said, lived out to the end his priestly mission “sustained by an unwavering confidence in God.” This confidence, the Pope said, is also “the essence of the consecrated life, so that the service of the Gospel and of our brothers should not remain a prisoner of our views, of the realities of this passing world, but might continue to rise above ourselves.”
The service to the young, beginning with the most vulnerable
Another important aspect of the life of Don Bosco, Pope Francis continued, is “the service to the young , beginning with the most vulnerable and abandoned: this concerns the “pedagogy of the faith” which is taken up in the Salesian formula “educating to evangelize, and evangelizing to educate.” The Holy Father encouraged the Salesian religious to carry on “with generosity and confidence the multiple activities in favour of the new generations: oratories, youth centres, professional institutes, schools, and colleges. But without forgetting those whom Don Bosco called ‘the young people of the streets’.” These young people, he said, “have great need of hope, of being formed in the joy of the Christian life.”
A Saint always docile and faithful to the Church and to the Pope
Finally, the Pope recalled that Don Bosco was always “ docile and faithful to the Church and to the Pope , by following their suggestions and pastoral indications”; and he invites his spiritual sons and daughters “to always go forward anew to find the children and young people where they live: in the peripheries of the great cities, in areas of physical and moral danger, in social contexts where they lack so many material things, but above all lack love, understanding, tenderness, hope.”
Making “an oratory” of every place, aiming at ever greater apostolic horizons
Concluding his remarks, the Holy Father called on the Salesians “to proclaim to all the mercy of Jesus, making ‘an oratory’ of every place, especially the most inaccessible; bearing in the heart the ‘oratorian’ style of Don Bosco and aiming at ever greater apostolic horizons,” recalling the great many religious institutions living that today are living the charism of Don Bosco “to share the mission of taking the Gospel to the furthest reaches of the peripheries.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Describing his prepared remarks as “a little formal,” Pope Francis laid aside his written text and spoke off-the-cuff for approximately thirty minutes with male and female religious of the Salesian Family. The Salesians, with their sister order the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, were founded by St John Bosco – known as Don…
Read more
(Vatican Radio) Describing his prepared remarks as “a little formal,” Pope Francis laid aside his written text and spoke off-the-cuff for approximately thirty minutes with male and female religious of the Salesian Family. The Salesians, with their sister order the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, were founded by St John Bosco – known as Don…
Read more