Vatican City, 9 April 2015 (VIS) – This morning Pope Francis received in audience twenty bishops of the Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church, who will attend next Sunday’s Holy Mass to be celebrated for faithful of Armenian rite in St. Peter’s Basilica, during which St. Gregory of Narek will be proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. In the discourse he addressed to the bishops, the Holy Father remarked that on Sunday they will “raise a prayer of Christian intercession for the sons and daughters of your beloved people, who were made victims a hundred years ago”, and invoked Divine Mercy “so that it might help all, in the love for truth and justice, to heal every wound and to expedite concrete gestures of reconciliation and peace between the nations that still have not managed to reach a reasonable consensus on the interpretation of these sad events”. Francis greeted all the clergy and lay faithful of the Armenian Catholic Church, many of whom have accompanied the bishops to Rome in these days, as well as “those who live in the countries of the diaspora, such as the United States, Latin America, Europe, Russia, Ukraine, up to the Motherland”. He added, “I think with particular sadness of those areas, such as that of Aleppo, that a hundred years ago were a safe haven for the few survivors. In such regions the stability of Christians, not only Armenians, has latterly been placed in danger”. “Your people, whom tradition recognises as the first to convert to Christianity in 301, has a two thousand-year history and preserves an admirable patrimony of spirituality and culture, united with a capacity for recovery amid the many persecutions and trials to which it has been subjected. I invite you always to cultivate a sentiment of acknowledgement of the Lord, for having been capable of maintaining fidelity to Him even during the most difficult periods. It is important, furthermore, to ask of God the gift of wisdom of the heart: the commemoration of the victims of a hundred years ago indeed places us before the darkness of the mysterium iniquitatis”. “As the Gospel tells us, from the depths of the human heart there may emerge the darkest powers, capable of planning the systematic annihilation of one’s brother, of considering him an enemy, an adversary, or even without the same human dignity”, he observed. “But for believers the issue of the evil committed by man also introduces the mystery of participation in the redemptive Passion: a number of sons and daughters of the Armenian nation were capable of pronouncing Christ’s name to the point of shedding their blood or of death by starvation during the interminable exodus they were forced to undertake”. “The painful pages in the history of your people continue, in a certain sense, the Passion of Christ, but in each one of these there is also the germ of the Resurrection. There is no lack of commitment among you, Pastors, to the education of the lay faithful to enable them to interpret reality with new eyes, in order to be able to say every day: my people consists not only of those who suffer for Christ, but above all of those who are risen in Him. Therefore it is important to remember the past, in order to draw from it the new lymph needed to nurture the present with the glorious announcement of the Gospel and with the witness of charity. I encourage you to support the path of continuing formation of priests and consecrated persons. They are your first collaborators; the communion between them and you will be strengthened by the exemplary fraternity they may observe in the Synod and with the Patriarch”. The Pope expressed his gratitude to those who made efforts to alleviate the sufferings of their ancestors, making special reference to Pope Benedict XV “who intervened before the Sultan Mehmet V to bring an end to the massacre of the Armenians”, and who was “a great friend of the Christian Orient: he established the Congregation for the Oriental Churches and the Pontifical Oriental Institute, and in 1920 he inscribed St. Ephrem the Syrian among the Doctors of the Universal Church”. Francis continued, “I am pleased that our meeting takes place on the eve of the same gesture I will have the pleasure of performing on Sunday regarding the great figure of St. Gregory of Narek”. “To his intercession, I entrust in particular the ecumenical dialogue between the Catholic Armenian Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church, aware of the fact that the ‘ecumenism of blood’ has already been achieved through the martyrdom and persecution that took place one hundred years ago”, he concluded. “I now invoke the Lord’s blessing upon you and your faithful, and I ask you not to forget to pray for me”….
Vatican City, 9 April 2015 (VIS) – This morning Pope Francis received in audience twenty bishops of the Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church, who will attend next Sunday’s Holy Mass to be celebrated for faithful of Armenian rite in St. Peter’s Basilica, during which St. Gregory of Narek will be proclaimed a Doctor of…
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Vatican City, 9 April 2015 (VIS) – This morning Pope Francis received in audience twenty bishops of the Synod of the Armenian Catholic Church, who will attend next Sunday’s Holy Mass to be celebrated for faithful of Armenian rite in St. Peter’s Basilica, during which St. Gregory of Narek will be proclaimed a Doctor of…
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(Vatican Radio) An international Congress for instructors for Consecrated Life kicked off Wednesday in Rome following a prayer vigil Tuesday for the success of the initiative. The April 7-11 Congress has as its theme “To live in Christ according to the Form of Life of the Gospel – Formed to consecrated life in the heart of the Church and of the world.”
Listen to Tracey McClure’s report:
In remarks at the opening of the Congress, the Prefect for the Congregation for Consecrated Life, Cardinal João Braz de Aviz recalled that over the next few days, religious – including hermits, monks, brothers and sisters – of institutes of consecrated life would be reflecting on the basic identity of their calling in the Church and the world, and on formational needs to meet today’s challenges.
He recalled Pope Francis’ invitation “to look to the past with gratitude” and to “look at the signs of the times through the eyes of faith and to respond creatively to the needs of the Church.” He noted new geographical and cultural challenges which can disorient one today but invited those present to “live the present with passion,” putting the Gospel message into action in their daily lives.
Living the present with passion means becoming “experts in communion, witnesses and artisans” of communion, he said.
In a conflict-torn society where different cultures struggle to find balance amidst inequalities and injustices, Cardinal de Aviz said we are called to offer “a concrete model” of fraternal community where the dignity and gifts inherent in each person are recognized and appreciated.
Calling for the consecrated to “embrace the future with hope,” Cardinal de Aviz acknowledged the difficulties surrounding various forms of consecrated life, including aging and fewer vocations, economic problems, the challenges of globalization, the “insidiousness of relativism, marginalization and social irrelevance.” Despite these, the Cardinal encouraged those present to look with hope to the Lord for whom “nothing is impossible” so that they can continue to contribute in great ways to the Church’s mission.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) An international Congress for instructors for Consecrated Life kicked off Wednesday in Rome following a prayer vigil Tuesday for the success of the initiative. The April 7-11 Congress has as its theme “To live in Christ according to the Form of Life of the Gospel – Formed to consecrated life in the heart…
Read more