(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis sent a video message to the participants in the gathering of the Together for Europe initiative – an initiative that brings together over 300 Christian Movements and Communities of diverse confessions from every part of the Continent. While preserving their independence, collectively they form a network to pursue shared goals, each bringing a contribution specific to their own charism.
Below, please find the full text of the video message, in English
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Dear Friends in Together for Europe,
I know that you are gathered in Munich, Bavaria, from many Movements and Groups, for your meeting called “Encounter – Reconciliation – Future”.
You are right. It is time to get together, to face the problems of our day with a true European spirit. Apart from some visible walls, other invisible walls are being strengthened which tend to divide our continent. These walls are being built in people’s hearts. They are walls made of fear and aggression, a failure to understand people of different backgrounds or faith. They are walls of political and economic selfishness, without respect for the life and dignity of every person.
Europe finds itself in a complex and highly mobile world, which is ever more globalised and therefore ever less Eurocentric.
If we are aware of these momentous issues, then we must have the courage to say: we need change! Europe is called to reflect and to ask itself whether its immense heritage, so permeated with Christianity, belongs in a museum or is still able to inspire culture and to offer its treasures to the whole of humankind.
You are meeting so as to look together at these challenges facing Europe and to highlight testimonies of life in society which enable networking, so as to welcome and show solidarity towards those who are weak and disadvantaged, to build bridges and overcome conflicts whether they are open or latent.
Europe’s history is an ongoing encounter between Heaven and earth. Heaven indicates openness to the Transcendent, to God, which has always been characteristic of European people. Earth represents their practical and concrete ability to address situations and problems.
You too, Christian communities and movements which began in Europe, are bearers of many charisms, which are gifts of God to be made available to others. “Together for Europe” is a unifying power with the clear aim of translating the basic values of Christianity into concrete responses to the challenges of a continent in crisis.
Your lifestyle is based on mutual love, lived out with Gospel radicalness. A culture of reciprocity means talking things over, esteeming one another, welcoming one another, helping one another. It means appreciating the diversity of charisms so as to move together towards unity and enrich it. The tangible and clear presence of Christ among you is the witness which leads to faith.
Every authentic unity draws on the wealth of diversity which forms it – like a family which grows in unity in so far as its members can fully and fearlessly be themselves. If Europe as a whole wants to be a family of peoples, it should put the human person back at the centre; it should be an open and welcoming continent, and continue to establish ways of working together that are not only economic but also social and cultural.
God always brings newness. You have experienced this so often in your lives! Are we open to surprises today too? You, who have answered the Lord’s call courageously, are called to show his newness in your lives and bring to life the fruits of the Gospel, fruits that have grown from Christian roots, which for the last 2,000 years have nourished Europe. And you will bear even greater fruit! Maintain the freshness of your charisms; continue to be “Together” and extend it further! Make your homes, communities and cities into workshops of communion, friendship and fraternity, which can bring people together and be open to the whole world.
Together for Europe? Today this is more than ever necessary. In a Europe made up of many nations, you bear witness to the fact that we are children of one Father and brothers and sisters to one another. You are a precious seed of hope, so that Europe can rediscover its vocation to contribute to the unity of all.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis had a private meeting in the Vatican on Friday with Rome’s newly elected mayor, Virginia Raggi of the ‘5 Star Movement’.
The 37 year old lawyer is the youngest person ever to head Rome’s City Council, as well as the first female mayor of the Eternal City.
Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report:
Virginia Raggi swept to victory in the run-off election last month, capturing over 67% of the vote for her anti-establishment party. She pledged to tackle the city’s most enduring problems, from traffic congestion, to waste management, from lack of social housing to the endemic corruption that erupted most recently in the Mafia Capitale scandals.
At the meeting with Pope Francis, Raggi was accompanied by her parents and her six year old son Matteo, as well as by members of her staff. She also brought with her a tablet, on which she showed the Pope a collection of video-messages recorded by Roman citizens living in some of the poorest and most run-down parts of the capital.
Voices from Rome’s peripheries
These voices of “forgotten Rome”, as she called them, included messages of encouragement for the Pope’s reform programme, but also requests for an end to tax exemptions for church properties that are involved in commercial activities.
At the end of the half hour meeting, the new mayor told Vatican Radio she was very moved by her first encouter with the Pope.
Virginia Raggi on Vatican Radio
Raggi said the meeting was a “very good” one and that she was particularly struck by the humanity of the Holy Father. She went on to say that after so many years of people focused on their own profits, her goal is to get people working for the common good and to bring those positive values into the heart of her administration.
Raggi is the third mayor of Rome to meet with Pope Francis since his election in March 2013. Later on Friday she was due to attend celebrations at the Apostolic Nunziature to Italy marking the third anniversary of Jorge Bergoglio’s pontificate.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On Thursday, Pope Francis held a Special Jubilee Audience , using the text of Matthew 25:35-36 as a launching point. He said that mercy is not an abstraction or a lifestyle but concrete and practical.
The English language summary of the Holy Father’s catechesis follows:
GENERAL AUDIENCE
(Thursday, 30 June 2016)
CATECHESIS
Works of Mercy ( Mt 25,31-46)
Dear Brothers and Sisters: During this Holy Year of Mercy, we have not only considered the gift of God’s mercy in itself, but also the works of mercy which we are called to practice as part of the Christian life. To paraphrase Saint James, we can say that mercy without works is dead. To be merciful like God our Father demands constant sensitivity to the needs, material and spiritual, of those around us. Jesus himself tells us in no uncertain terms that we will be judged by the mercy we show to the poor: those who hunger and thirst, the naked, the stranger, the sick and those in prison (cf. Mt 25:35-36). Particularly in our prosperous societies, Christians are called to guard against the temptation of indifference to the plea of so many of our brothers and sisters. In our rapidly changing and increasingly globalized world, many new forms of poverty are appearing. In response to them, may we prove creative in developing new and practical forms of charitable outreach as an expression of the way of mercy.
This past weekend I made a Pastoral Visit to Armenia, the first nation to embrace the Christian faith and a people which has remained faithful even in the midst of great trials. I also plan to go to Georgia and Azerbaijan in the near future, to affirm the ancient Christian roots of those countries and to support every effort to encourage peace and reconciliation in a spirit of respect for all. With gratitude for the welcome and fellowship showed me by the Armenian Apostolic Church, I ask the Virgin Mary to strengthen Christians everywhere to remain firm in the faith and to work for a society of ever greater justice and peace.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) T oday the Lord invites us to make a serious examination of conscience, Pope Francis said Thursday at a special Jubilee audience at St Peter’s Square in Rome. It’s one thing to talk mercy but quite another to live it, he said. Mercy is not an abstraction or a lifestyle and, paraphrasing the words of St James the Apostle, mercy without works is dead in itself.
Listen to Alexander MacDonald’s report:
Pope Francis used the text of Matthew 25:31 as a launching point for discussing acts of mercy toward others. What makes mercy come alive is its dynamism to meet the spiritual and material needs of others, he said. Mercy has eyes to see, ears to listen, hands to help lift.
Sometimes we pass by dramatic situations of poverty and it seems that they don’t touch us, the Pope said. We continue as if nothing happened, in an indifference which ultimately makes us hypocrites and without realizing it, leads to a form of spiritual lethargy that numbs the soul and leaves life barren.
Those who have experienced mercy in their own lives, the Pope continued, cannot remain indifferent to the needs of our brothers. The teaching of the Lord Jesus does not allow for escape routes. “I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was naked, displaced, sick, in prison and you visited me.”
Pope Francis concluded his catechesis by reflecting on his recent apostolic journey to Armenia, the first nation, he noted, to have embraced Christianity. He thanked the President of Armenia and the Catholicos Karekin II, the Partriarch, the Catholic bishops and the people of Armenia for welcoming him as a pilgrim in fraternity and peace.
Finally, Pope Francis said, as Christians we are called to strengthen our fraternal communion and bear witness to the Gospel of Christ.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On Wednesday, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica for the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, during which he said prayer is the “way out” when we become closed in on ourselves.
Pope Francis centred his June 29 homily on the day’s Gospel reading, and reflected on the themes of being opened and closed, as demonstrated by the lives of Saints Peter and Paul.
Drawing from examples from the life of Peter, such as when he was imprisoned, the Holy Father said “prayer appears as the main way out. It is a way out for the community, which risks closing in on itself out of persecution and fear.”
“Prayer, as humble entrustment to God and his holy will, is always the way out of our becoming ‘closed’, as individuals and as a community.”
Likewise, this theme of going out in service of the Gospel is seen in the writings of St Paul.
“Paul’s life was utterly projected forward, in bringing Christ to those who did not know him, and then in rushing, as it were, into Christ’s arms, to be “saved for his heavenly kingdom,” the Pope said.
Turning back to Peter, Pope Francis reflected on how he was set free by Christ’s “compassionate gaze” which “pierces the heart and brings tears of repentance.”
The Pope referenced the scene in the Gospels in which Peter encounters Jesus after having denied him three times.
“At that moment, Simon Peter was set free from the prison of his selfish pride and fear, and overcame the temptation of closing his heart to Jesus’s call to follow him along the way of the cross.”
Pope Francis also spoke of the “constant temptation for the Church” of “closing in on herself in the face of danger.”
“Prayer enable grace to open a way out from closure to openness, from fear to courage, from sadness to joy. And we can add: from division to unity.”
During the Mass, the Pope conferred the Pallium to twenty-five prelates from eleven countries who were named metropolitan archbishops over the past year. Included among them were US Archbishop Bernard Anthony Hebda of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, MN, Archbishop Adam Szal of Przemyśl, Poland, and Archbishop Basilio Athaei of Taunggyi, Myanmar.
The pallium is a woolen vestment conferred on a new archbishop by the Pope, traditionally on the solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.
(from Vatican Radio)…