(Vatican Radio) On the 22nd of September Pope Francis in his homily at the National Shrine of the ‘Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre’ invited the faithful present at this popular pilgrimage site for all Cubans and not just Catholics, not to dwell in their homes.
L iste n to Veronica Scarisbrick’s report:
On the contrary he stressed how God demands of us that we go out and embrace a culture of encounter. “We are visited so that we can visit others; we are encountered so as to encounter others, we are loved so we can return that love”.
These lands, he continued, as he spoke in the Basilica of this Marian Shrine have been visited by Mary’s maternal presence. Quoting the bishops of Cuba, he said: “In a special and unique way she has molded the Cuban soul, inspiring in the hearts of its people the highest ideals of love of God, within the family and the nation.
Touching on the shrine’s history he mentioned how Pope Benedict XV to declare Our Lady of Charity the Patroness of Cuba. How the Cubans of the time had written that: “neither disgrace nor poverty were ever able to crush the faith and the love which our Catholic people profess for the Virgin of Charity, for whom, in all their trials, when death was imminent or desperation was at the door, there arose, like a light scattering the darkness of every peril, like a comforting dew…, the vision of that Blessed Virgin, utterly Cuban and loved as such..”
Whenever we look to Mary Mother of Charity, Pope Francis said we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness. We too are asked to live that revolution of tenderness through the joy which always becomes closeness and compassion, and leads us to get involved in, and to serve, the life of others, share their joys, their hopes and their frustrations, visit the sick, the prisoner and to those who mourn. And on a more joyful note, the Pope added how, by leaving our homes we are also able to laugh with those who laugh, and rejoice with our neighbors who rejoice.
Like Mary, he stressed, we want to be a Church which serves, which goes forth from its chapels, its sacristies, in order to accompany life, to sustain hope, to be a sign of unity, we want to be a Church which goes forth to build bridges, to break down walls, to sow seeds of reconciliation. Like Mary, we want to be a Church which can accompany all those “pregnant” situations of our people, committed to life, to culture, to society.
This Pope Francis concluded, is our most valuable treasure, our greatest wealth and our most precious legacy. We must learn like Mary to leave our homes and set out on the path of ‘visitation’.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has been presiding over Mass at the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Tuesday in Santiago. In his Homily, the Holy Father returned to the theme of “serving others” recalling the exemplary model of Our Lady, who the Pope said, “left her house and went out to serve.”
He also underlined how this land of Cuba has been “visited by her maternal presence. The Cuban homeland was born and grew, warmed by devotion to Our Lady of Charity.”
The Pope said the greatest legacy and treasure the Church can give is “to learn like Mary to leave home and set out on the path of visitation.”
Find below Pope the Homily of Pope Francis at Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, Santiago.
The Gospel we have just heard tells us about something the Lord does every time he visits us: he calls us out of our house. These are images which we are asked to contemplate over and over again. God’s presence in our lives never leaves us tranquil: it always pushes to do something. When God comes, he always calls us out of our house. We are visited so that we can visit others; we are encountered so as to encounter others; we receive love in order to give love.
In the Gospel we see Mary, the first disciple. A young woman of perhaps between fifteen and seventeen years of age who, in a small village of Palestine, was visited by the Lord, who told her that she was to be the mother of the Savior. Mary was far from “thinking it was all about her”, or thinking that everyone had to come and wait upon her; she left her house and went out to serve. First she goes to help her cousin Elizabeth. The joy which blossoms when we know that God is with us, with our people, gets our heart beating, gets our legs moving and “draws us out of ourselves”. It leads us to take the joy we have received and to share it in service, in those “pregnant” situations which our neighbors or families may be experiencing. The Gospel tells us that Mary went in haste, slowly but surely, with a steady pace, neither too fast nor so slow as never to get there. Neither anxious nor distracted, Mary goes with haste to accompany her cousin who conceived in her old age. Henceforth this was always to be her way. She has always been the woman who visits men and women, children, the elderly and the young. She has visited and accompanied many of our peoples in the drama of their birth; she has watched over the struggles of those who fought to defend the rights of their children. And now, she continues to bring us the Word of Life, her Son, our Lord.
These lands have also been visited by her maternal presence. The Cuban homeland was born and grew, warmed by devotion to Our Lady of Charity. As the bishops of this country have written: “In a special and unique way she has molded the Cuban soul, inspiring the highest ideals of love of God, the family and the nation in the heart of the Cuban people”.
This was what your fellow citizens also stated a hundred years ago, when they asked Pope Benedict XV to declare Our Lady of Charity the Patroness of Cuba. They wrote that “neither disgrace nor poverty were ever able to crush the faith and the love which our Catholic people profess for the Virgin of Charity, for whom, in all their trials, when death was imminent or desperation was at the door, there arose, like a light scattering the darkness of every peril, like a comforting dew…, the vision of that Blessed Virgin, utterly Cuban and loved as such by our cherished mothers, blessed as such by our wives.”
In this shrine, which keeps alive the memory of God’s holy and faithful pilgrim people in Cuba, Mary is venerated as the Mother of Charity. From here she protects our roots, our identity, so that we may never stray to paths of despair. The soul of the Cuban people, as we have just heard, was forged amid suffering and privation which could not suppress the faith, that faith which was kept alive thanks to all those grandmothers who fostered, in the daily life of their homes, the living presence of God, the presence of the Father who liberates, strengthens, heals, grants courage and serves as a sure refuge and the sign of a new resurrection. Grandmothers, mothers, and so many others who with tenderness and love were signs of visitation, valor and faith for their grandchildren, in their families. They kept open a tiny space, small as a mustard seed, through which the Holy Spirit continued to accompany the heartbeat of this people.
“Whenever we look to Mary, we come to believe once again in the revolutionary nature of love and tenderness” (Evangelii Gaudium, 288).
Generation after generation, day after day, we are asked to renew our faith. We are asked to live the revolution of tenderness as Mary, our Mother of Charity, did. We are invited to “leave home” and to open our eyes and hearts to others. Our revolution comes about through tenderness, through the joy which always becomes closeness and compassion, and leads us to get involved in, and to serve, the life of others. Our faith makes us leave our homes and go forth to encounter others, to share their joys, their hopes and their frustrations. Our faith, “calls us out of our house”, to visit the sick, the prisoner and to those who mourn. It makes us able to laugh with those who laugh, and rejoice with our neighbors who rejoice. Like Mary, we want to be a Church which serves, which leaves home and goes forth, which goes forth from its chapels, its sacristies, in order to accompany life, to sustain hope, to be a sign of unity. Like Mary, Mother of Charity, we want to be a Church which goes forth to build bridges, to break down walls, to sow seeds of reconciliation. Like Mary, we want to be a Church which can accompany all those “pregnant” situations of our people, committed to life, to culture, to society, not washing our hands but rather walking with our brothers and sisters.
This is our most valuable treasure (cobre), this is our greatest wealth and the best legacy we can give: to learn like Mary to leave home and set out on the path of visitation. And to learn to pray with Mary, for her prayer is one of remembrance and gratitude; it is the canticle of the People of God on their pilgrimage through history. It is the living reminder that God passes through our midst; the perennial memory that God has looked upon the lowliness of his people, he has come the aid of his servant, even as promised to our forebears and their children for ever.
(from Vatican Radio)…
The fourth and final day
of Pope Francis’ visit in Cuba, Tuesday, 22 September, began in the Marian
capital of the country, known for its shrine of the Virgin of Charity of El
Cobre.
In Santiago de Cuba, the Pontiff — who will soon leave the island and
travel to the United States of America — celebrated Mass in the basilica
dedicated to Our Lady. There he recalled how the spirit of the people has been
forged by pain and deprivation, however their faith has not burned out. The
people’s faith, he said, has endured thanks to many women, including mothers
and grandmothers, who continued to keep God’s presence alive. The Holy Father
expressed his desire for a “revolution of tenderness” which always becomes closeness and
compassion. A necessary revolution — he
said on Monday in Holguín — to overcome prejudice and resistance to change. On
the Feast of St Matthew, the Pontiff celebrated Mass with great participation
from the Cuban people.
From Holguín Francis travelled to El Cobre, where he had
a private meeting with the Bishops’ Conference of Cuba and then invited them to
accompany him to the minor basilica dedicated to the Patroness of Cuba.
Renewing the prayer of John Paul II from 1998, he implored the Virgin of
Charity to reunite and reconcile the people of Cuba, making their island into a
home of brothers and sisters.
The Pope’s addresses in Cuba
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday visited a monument to St. John Paul II, which is located in the atrium of the Cathedral of San Isidoro de Holguín.
The statue commemorates the visit St. John Paul II made to Cuba in 1998, the first ever papal visit to the country.
The statue, weighing about three tons, was made by Cuban artists, and it shows the Pope standing, holding his pastoral staff against his chest and with his right arm blessing the people of Cuba.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) While Pope Francis continues his Apostolic visit to Cuba, last minute preparations are underway in the United States for the next stage of his journey, which will see the Holy Father address the US Congress in Washington, speak to the United Nations in New York, canonize a saint, and lead the culminating celebrations of the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia which opens on Tuesday (22nd September). Vatican Radio’s Chris Altieri is awaiting the Pope in the U.S and reports on expectations ahead of his arrival.
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Pope Francis is coming to the United States of America. The visit will be rife with historical firsts: the first time a Pope will address a joint meeting of the US Congress (not a joint session – a technical precision perhaps significant only to parliamentarians, but one that is there nonetheless); the first time a Pope will speak to the United Nations during the annual general session of the General Assembly; the first time a Pope will canonize a saint on US soil.
Everyone is on tenterhooks, waiting to hear just what the Pope will say: from climate change, to immigration, to religious liberty, to the right order of society with respect to marriage and the family – this last being the almost forgotten keystone and centrepiece of the Holy Father’s visit, which on September 26th and 27th will see him in the US city of Philadelphia to lead the culminating celebrations of the World Meeting of Families.
The issues are the same ones everyone – including the Pope – has been talking about for months and years and even decades: so, do we really expect him to say anything new?
This reporter has no crystal ball, nor – as of this filing – has he seen the advance copies of the prepared speeches. There is, however, something perhaps to be gained from paying attention to the register in which the Holy Father has been talking, and comparing it to the register in which pundits and commentators have been talking in their turns.
Pundits talk about policy: Pope Francis talks about people – real, flesh-and-blood human beings, whose lives and livelihoods are the object of and the reason for whatever policy political leaders may choose to advance. Whatever he shall say, it is to real people he shall address himself, even and especially when he addresses himself to political leaders on the US national stage and on the global level at the United Nations.
“A moral leader” and a “voice of great moral authority” are some of the turns-of-phrase by which the Holy Father has been described by several of the principal actors in world politics, including the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, in an exclusive interview with Vatican Radio ahead of the Holy Father’s arrival.
First, and finally, however, Pope Francis is a pastor: his concern as a shepherd of souls who happens also to be a global citizen is rather with making us sensible of and sensitive to the need to take better care of the created order over which we have been set as stewards. As the Vicar of Christ, the Good Shepherd, he has been, and we may fairly expect he will be at pains to remind us of the duty we have to welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, care for the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead; the duty we have to teach the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, comfort the afflicted, to bear wrongs patiently, to forgive offences willingly, to pray for the living and the dead – especially our enemies, and – yes – to admonish the sinner – for it is no slight to mercy to remind people they are in need of it; expect that in these regards he will remind us that from those to whom much has been given, much is required – and that there will be a heavy reckoning to make before the judgment seat of the just and living God.
So, whoever you are, and whatever your political leanings, your convictions in religion, your estimation of the content and contours of a just and rightly ordered society: pay attention, and be prepared to be uncomfortable.
(from Vatican Radio)…