(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis had two major public engagements on Thursday afternoon in Santa Cruz, Bolivia: the first was a meeting with clergy, religious men and women and people in formation for the priesthood and religious life ; the second was with a gathering of representatives of worldwide popular movements – groups of poor, socially marginalized, dispossessed and disenfranchised people.
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In his prepared remarks to the clergy, religious, and people in formation, Pope Francis focused on the figure of Bartimaeus, the blind beggar, the story of whose healing in the Gospel according to St Mark was read during the encounter. “Two things about this story jump out at us and make an impression,” the Holy Father said. “On the one hand,” he continued, “there is the cry of a beggar, and on the other, the different reactions of the disciples.” He went on to say, “It is as if the Evangelist wanted to show us the effect which Bartimaeus’ cry had on people’s lives, on the lives of Jesus’ followers.” Some simply passed Bartimaeus by, while others told him to quit complaining. Jesus, on the other hand, responded with patience, gentleness and solicitude – and the disciples were agents of Our Lord, who summoned the blind beggar to the Lord with words of consolation and encouragement.
“This is the logic of discipleship, it is what the Holy Spirit does with us and in us,” said Pope Francis “We are witnesses of this. One day Jesus saw us on the side of the road, wallowing in our own pain and misery. He did not close his ear to our cries. He stopped, drew near and asked what he could do for us. And thanks to many witnesses, who told us, ‘Take heart; get up,’ gradually we experienced this merciful love, this transforming love, which enabled us to see the light. We are witnesses not of an ideology, of a recipe, of a particular theology. We are witnesses to the healing and merciful love of Jesus. We are witnesses of his working in the lives of our communities.”
In his second major engagement, Pope Francis focused on the power of the Gospel to change and heal hearts, and through the works of the people whose hearts have been thus turned and healed, to change and heal societies and indeed the planet with the stewardship of which we are all charged.
“Working for a just distribution of the fruits of the earth and human labor is not mere philanthropy. It is a moral obligation,” said Pope Francis in his prepared remarks. “For Christians, the responsibility is even greater: it is a commandment. It is about giving to the poor and to peoples what is theirs by right. The universal destination of goods is not a figure of speech found in the Church’s social teaching. It is a reality prior to private property. Property, especially when it affects natural resources, must always serve the needs of peoples. And those needs are not restricted to consumption. It is not enough to let a few drops fall whenever the poor shake a cup which never runs over by itself.
Nevertheless, social programmes are not enough, nor are they on their own capable of ensuring a truly just and humane order of life in society. “Welfare programs geared to certain emergencies can only be considered temporary responses,” Pope Francis said. “They will never be able to replace true inclusion,” which provides dignified, free, creative, participatory work that is genuinely in service to the authentic common good.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met with clergy, religious men and women, and seminarians on Thursday afternoon in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Below, please find the full text of the Holy Father’s prepared remarks, in their official English translation.
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Meeting with Clergy, Religious and Seminarians
Coliseum of Don Bosco College
Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Thursday, 9 July 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am pleased to be able to meet you and to share the joy which fills the heart and the entire life of the missionary disciples of Jesus. This joy was expressed in the words of welcome offered by Bishop Roberto Bordi, and by the testimonies of Father Miguel, Sister Gabriela, and by Damián, our seminarian. I thank each of you for sharing your own experience of vocation.
In the Gospel of Mark we also heard the experience of Bartimaeus, who joined the group of Jesus’ followers. He became a disciple at the last minute. This happened during the Lord’s final journey, from Jericho to Jerusalem, where he was about to be handed over. A blind beggar, Bartimaeus sat on the roadside, pushed aside. When he heard Jesus passing by, he began to cry out.
Walking with Jesus were his apostles, the disciples and the women who were his followers. They were at his side as he journeyed through Palestine, proclaiming the Kingdom of God. There was also a great crowd.
Two things about this story jump out at us and make an impression. On the one hand, there is the cry of a beggar, and on the other, the different reactions of the disciples. It is as if the Evangelist wanted to show us the effect which Bartimaeus’ cry had on people’s lives, on the lives of Jesus’ followers. How did they react when faced with the suffering of that man on the side of the road, wallowing in his misery.
There were three responses to the cry of the blind man. We can describe them with three phrases taken from the Gospel: They passed by, they told him to be quiet, and they told him to take heart and get up.
1. They passed by. Perhaps some of those who passed by did not even hear his shouting. Passing by is the response of indifference, of avoiding other people’s problems because they do not affect us. We do not hear them, we do not recognize them. Here we have the temptation to see suffering as something natural, to take injustice for granted. We say to ourselves, “This is nothing unusual; this is the way things are”. It is the response born of a blind, closed heart, a heart which has lost the ability to be touched and hence the possibility to change. A heart used to passing by without letting itself be touched; a life which passes from one thing to the next, without ever sinking roots in the lives of the people around us.
We could call this “the spirituality of zapping”. It is always on the move, but it has nothing to show for it. There are people who keep up with the latest news, the most recent best sellers, but they never manage to connect with others, to strike up a relationship, to get involved.
You may say to me, “But Father, those people in the Gospel were busy listening to the words of the Master. They were intent on him.” I think that this is one of the most challenging things about Christian spirituality. The Evangelist John tells us, “How can you love God, whom you do not see, if you do not love your brother whom you do see?” (1 Jn 4:20). One of the great temptations we encounter along the way is to separate these two things, which belong together. We need to be aware of this. The way we listen to God the Father is how we should listen to his faithful people.
To pass by, without hearing the pain of our people, without sinking roots in their lives and in their world, is like listening to the word of God without letting it take root and bear fruit in our hearts. Like a tree, a life without roots is a one which withers and dies.
2. They told him to be quiet. This is the second response to Bartimaeus’ cry: keep quiet, don’t bother us, leave us alone. Unlike the first response, this one hears, acknowledges, and makes contact with the cry of another person. It recognizes that he or she is there, but reacts simply by scolding. It is the attitude of some leaders of God’s people; they continually scold others, hurl reproaches at them, tell them to be quiet.
This is the drama of the isolated consciousness, of those who think that the life of Jesus is only for those deserve it. They seem to believe there is only room for the “worthy”, for the “better people”, and little by little they separate themselves from the others. They have made their identity a badge of superiority.
They hear, but they don’t listen. The need to show that they are different has closed their heart. Their need to tell themselves, “I am not like that person, like those people”, not only cuts them off from the cry of their people, from their tears, but most of all from their reasons for rejoicing. Laughing with those who laugh, weeping with those who weep; all this is part of the mystery of a priestly heart.
3. They told him to take heart and get up. Lastly, we come upon the third response. It is not so much a direct response to the cry of Bartimaeus as an echo, or a reflection, of the way Jesus himself responded to the pleading of the blind beggar. In those who told him to take heart and get up, the beggar’s cry issued in a word, an invitation, a new and changed way of responding to God’s holy People.
Unlike those who simply passed by, the Gospel says that Jesus stopped and asked what was happening. He stopped when someone cried out to him. Jesus singled him out from the nameless crowd and got involved in his life. And far from ordering him to keep quiet, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He didn’t have to show that he was different, somehow apart; he didn’t decide whether Bartimaeus was worthy or not before speaking to him. He simply asked him a question, looked at him and sought to come into his life, to share his lot. And by doing this he gradually restored the man’s lost dignity; he included him. Far from looking down on him, Jesus was moved to identify with the man’s problems and thus to show the transforming power of mercy. There can be no compassion without stopping, hearing and showing solidarity with the other. Compassion is not about zapping, it is not about silencing pain, it is about the logic of love. A logic, a way of thinking and feeling, which is not grounded in fear but in the freedom born of love and of desire to put the good of others before all else. A logic born of not being afraid to draw near to the pain of our people. Even if often this means no more than standing at their side and praying with them.
This is the logic of discipleship, it is what the Holy Spirit does with us and in us. We are witnesses of this. One day Jesus saw us on the side of the road, wallowing in our own pain and misery. He did not close his ear to our cries. He stopped, drew near and asked what he could do for us. And thanks to many witnesses, who told us, “Take heart; get up”, gradually we experienced this merciful love, this transforming love, which enabled us to see the light. We are witnesses not of an ideology, of a recipe, of a particular theology. We are witnesses to the healing and merciful love of Jesus. We are witnesses of his working in the lives of our communities.
This is the pedagogy of the Master, this is the pedagogy which God uses with his people. It leads us to passing from distracted zapping to the point where we can say to others: “Take heart; get up. The Master is calling you” ( Mk 10:49). Not so that we can be special, not so that we can be better than others, not so that we can be God’s functionaries, but only because we are grateful witnesses to the mercy which changed us.
On this journey we are not alone. We help one another by our example and by our prayers. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses (cf. Heb 12:1). Let us think of Blessed Nazaria Ignacia de Santa Teresa de Jesús, who dedicated her life to the proclamation of God’s Kingdom through her care for the aged, her “kettle of the poor” for the hungry, her homes for orphaned children, her hospitals for wounded soldiers and her creation of a women’s trade union to promote the welfare of women. Let us also think of Venerable Virginia Blanco Tardío, who was completely dedicated to the evangelization and care of the poor and the sick. These women, and so many other persons like them, are an encouragement to us along our way. May we press forward with the help and cooperation of all. For the Lord wants to use us to make his light reach to every corner of our world.
I ask you please to pray for me, and I bless all of you from my heart.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis left Ecuador on Wednesday evening at the end of his brief visit to the nation, the first stop on his week-long pastoral visit to Latin America. Among those gathered at the airport in the capital, Quito, to bid farewell to the Pope en route for his next destination, Bolivia, was Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa.
Vatican Radio’s French correspondent on this papal journey, Olivier Bonnel spoke to the president following the Pope’s departure to talk about the lasting impact of the visit….
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President Correa says the Pope’s message was very strong, very important for the people of Ecuador, in particular his words in the Church of St Francis where he spoke about gratuity, about giving and receiving freely. He spoke about poverty and those who are excluded from society….certainly this is a message which we will reflect on and try to put into practice, into concrete action.
Asked about the Pope’s words on ‘integral ecology’, the president notes that Ecuador’s constitution was the first in the history of humanity to speak of the rights of nature and the environment, just as the Pope’s encyclical speaks of water as a human right. I think the encyclical will be a very important document for the forthcoming summit on the environment in Paris, he adds.
The Ecuadoran leader also notes he was the only head of state to be invited to an international conference on the environment in the Vatican (organised by the Pontifical Academy of Sciences ahead of the release of ‘Laudato Si’), underlining all the work that his country is doing to protect nature and combat the effects of climate change.
President Correa believes that the moral authority of the Pope will achieve results at the Paris summit, but he says it will require strong action to tackle the political problems.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis travelled from Ecuador to Bolivia on Wednesday afternoon, at the end of the first leg of his three-country visit to Latin America, and the beginning of the second. Arriving at the “El Alto” airport in La Paz, Pope Francis began his Apostolic Voyage to Bolivia by invoking “peace and prosperity upon all the people of this country.”
Listen to Chris Altieri’s report
In his address at the welcome ceremony , the Holy Father said, “As a guest and a pilgrim, I have come to confirm the faith of those who believe in the Risen Christ, so that, during our pilgrimage on earth, we believers may be witnesses of his love, leaven for a better world and co-operators in the building of a more just and fraternal society.”
Pope Francis said that during his Visit he would, “encourage the vocation of Christ’s disciples to share the joy of the Gospel to be salt for the earth and light to the world.”
Following the welcome ceremony, the Holy Father visited privately with Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales, before meeting in La Paz cathedral with Bolivian civil authorities and representatives of culture and civil society. In his prepared remarks , Pope Francis focused once again on the need to work in concert to promote the common good and meet the challenges facing society, especially the crisis of the family, immigration, and integral human development alongside and together with the challenges of stewardship of creation.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis addressed the civil authorities and representatives of culture and civil society in Bolivia on Wednesday afternoon. The meeting took place in the cathedral of La Paz, the Bolivian capital, and followed a courtesy visit with Bolivia’s president, Evo Morales. In his prepared remarks, Pope Francis focused once again on the need to work in concert to promote the common good and meet the challenges facing society, especially the crisis of the family, immigration, and integral human development alongside and together with the challenges of stewardship of creation. Below, please find the full text of the Holy Father’s prepared remarks, in their official English translation
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Meeting with Civil Authorities
La Paz Cathedral
Wednesday, 8 July 2015
Mr President,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to meet you, the political and civil authorities of Bolivia, the members of the Diplomatic Corps and representatives of the nation’s cultural institutions and volunteer organizations. I am grateful to Archbishop Edmundo Abastoflor of La Paz for his kind welcome. With your permission, I would like to offer a few words of encouragement in support of your work.
Each of us here shares a calling to work for the common good. Fifty years ago, the Second Vatican Council defined the common good as “the sum of those conditions of social life which allow social groups and their individual members relatively thorough and ready access to their own fulfillment”. I thank you for striving – in your work and your mission – to enable individuals and society to develop and find fulfillment. I am certain that you seek what is beautiful, true and good in your service of the common good. May your efforts contribute to the growth of greater respect for the human person, endowed with basic and inalienable rights ordered to his or her integral development, and social peace, namely, the stability and security provided by a certain order which cannot be achieved without particular concern for distributive justice (cf. Laudato Si’ , 157).
On the way to this Cathedral I was able to admire the peaks of Hayna Potosí, the “young mountain”, and Illimani, the mountain which shows “the place where the sun rises”. I also saw the ingenious way in which many houses and neighborhoods blend with the hillsides, and was struck by the architecture of some of these structures. The natural environment is closely related to the social, political and economic environment. It is urgent for all of us to lay the foundations of an integral ecology, one capable of respecting all these human dimensions in resolving the grave social and environmental issues of our time. Otherwise, the glaciers of those mountains will continue to recede, and our sense of gratitude and responsibility with regard to these gifts, our concern for the world we want to leave to future generations, for its meaning and values, will melt just like those glaciers (cf. Laudato Si’ 159-160).
Because everything is related, we need one another. If politics is dominated by financial speculation, or if the economy is ruled solely by a technocratic and utilitarian paradigm concerned with maximum production, we will not grasp, much less resolve, the great problems of humanity. Cultural life has an important role to play in this regard, for it has to do not only with the development of the mind through the sciences and the creation of beauty through the arts, but also esteem for the local traditions of a people, which are so expressive of the milieu in which they arose and to which they give meaning. There is also need for an ethical and moral education which can cultivate solidarity and shared responsibility between individuals. We should acknowledge the specific role of the religions in the development of culture and the benefits which can they can bring to society. Christians in particular, as disciples of the Good News, are bearers of a message of salvation which has the ability to ennoble and to inspire great ideals. In this way it leads to ways of acting which transcend individual interest, readiness to make sacrifices for the sake of others, sobriety and other virtues which develop in us the ability to live as one.
It is so easy for us to become accustomed to the atmosphere of inequality all around us, with the result that we take it for granted. Without even being conscious of it, we confuse the “common good” with “prosperity”, especially when we are the ones who enjoy that prosperity. Prosperity understood only in terms of material wealth has a tendency to become selfish, to defend private interests, to be unconcerned about others, and to give free rein to consumerism. Understood in this way, prosperity, instead of helping, breeds conflict and social disintegration; as it becomes more prevalent, it opens the door to the evil of corruption, which brings so much discouragement and damage in its wake. The common good, on the other hand, is much more than the sum of individual interests. It moves from “what is best for me” to “what is best for everyone”. It embraces everything which brings a people together: common purpose, shared values, ideas which help us to look beyond our limited individual horizons.
Different social groups have a responsibility to work for unity and the development of society. Freedom is always the best environment for thinkers, civic associations and the communications media to carry out their activities with passion and creativity in service of the common good. Christians too, are called to be a leaven within society, to bring it their message. The light of Christ’s Gospel is not the property of the Church; the Church is at the service of the Gospel, so that it can reach the ends of the earth. Faith is a light which does not blind or confuse, but one which illuminates and respectfully guides the consciences and history of every person and society. Christianity has played an important role in shaping the identity of the Bolivian people. Religious freedom – a phrase we often encounter in civil discourse – also reminds us that faith cannot be restricted to a purely subjective experience. It also challenges us to help foster the growth of spirituality and Christian commitment in social projects.
Among the various social groups, I would like to mention in particular the family, which is everywhere threatened by domestic violence, alcoholism, sexism, drug addiction, unemployment, urban unrest, the abandonment of the elderly, and children left to the streets. These problems often meet with pseudo-solutions which show the clear effects of an ideological colonization… So many social problems are quietly resolved in the family; the failure to assist families would leave those who are most vulnerable without protection.
A nation which seeks the common good cannot be closed in on itself; societies are strengthened by networks of relationships. The current problem of immigration makes this clear. These days it is essential to improve diplomatic relations between the countries of the region, in order to avoid conflicts between sister peoples and to advance frank and open dialogue about their problems. Instead of raising walls, we need to be building bridges. All these issues, thorny as they may be, can find solutions which are shared, reasonable, equitable and lasting. And in any event, they should never be a cause for aggressiveness, resentment or enmity; these only worsen situations and stand in the way of their resolution.
Bolivia is at an historic crossroads: politics, the world of culture, the religions are all part of this beautiful challenge to grow in unity. In this land whose history has been marred by exploitation, greed and so many forms of selfishness and sectarianism, now is the time for integration. Today Bolivia can “create new forms of cultural synthesis”. How beautiful are those cities which overcome paralyzing mistrust, integrate those who are different and make this very integration a new factor of development! How attractive it is when those cities are full of spaces which connect, relate and favor the recognition of others!” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium , 210). Bolivia in its process of integration and its search for unity, is called to be an example of such “multifaceted and inviting harmony” (ibid., 117).
I thank you for your attention. I pray to the Lord that Bolivia, “this innocent and beautiful land”, may make ever greater progress towards being “the happy homeland whose people enjoy the blessings of good fortune and peace.” May the Blessed Virgin watch over you, and the Lord bless you abundantly. Please remember me in your prayers; I need them.
(from Vatican Radio)…