(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says it is also “violence to raise walls and barriers to stop those who seek havens of peace. It is violence to reject those who flee from inhumane conditions, with hope of a better future”.
In a letter to the Community of Saint Egidio which is gathered in Tirana for its annual “International Meeting for Peace”, the Pope expressed his support for the event and highlighted the growing need for inter-religious dialogue for a peaceful world.
The theme of the meeting this year is “Peace is always possible”. It sees Saint Egidio Community leaders and members present in the Albanian capital together with leaders of Christian Churches and Communities as well as with leaders of the other Great World Religions.
The meeting will last until Tuesday 8th.
Please find below the full text of Pope Francis’ letter:
Illustrious Representatives of the Christian Churches and Communities, and of the Great World Religions, I offer you all my most respectful greetings and I express my spiritual closeness to the International Meeting for Peace promoted by the Community of Saint Egidio in Tirana.
These meetings follow one another in the path marked by St John Paul II with the first historical Meeting of Assisi in October 1986. Since then a pilgrimage has developed, of men and women of different religions, who year after year stop in various cities of the world. While the scenarios of history change and peoples are called to face profound – and at times dramatic – transformations, it is increasingly necessary that the followers of different religions meet with each other, in dialogue, walking together and collaborating for peace in the very “spirit of Assisi” that recalls the luminous testimony of Saint Francis.
This year you have chosen to stop in Tirana, the capital of a Country that has become a symbol of peaceful coexistence among different religions, after a long history of sufferance. It is a choice I agree with, as I demonstrated with my visit to Tirana in September last year. I chose Albania as the first European Country to visit, in order to encourage the path of peaceful coexistence after the tragic persecutions experienced by Albanian believers in the past century. The long list of their martyrs still brings back memories of that dark time, but it also reminds us of the power of faith, which is unbent by the arrogance of evil. In no other country in the world was the choice to reject God from the life of the people so persistent: a religious sign was enough to be punished with prison, or even death. This saddest of primacies profoundly marked the Albanian people, until the time when freedom was restored, when members of the various religious communities, tested by their shared suffering, found themselves living together in peace.
For this reason, dear friends, I am particularly grateful to you for choosing Albania. Today I wish to reaffirm with you what I said last year in Tirana: “a peaceful and fruitful coexistence between persons and communities of believers of different religions is not only desirable, but possible and realistic” (Meeting with the Civil Authorities, 21st September 2014). This is the spirit of Assisi: to live together in peace, remembering that peace and coexistence have a spiritual foundation. Prayer is always at the root of peace!
Because its foundation lies in God, “peace is always possible”, as the title of your Meeting this year states. It is necessary to reaffirm this truth, especially today, while in some parts of the world violence, persecutions and abuse of religious freedom seem to prevail, together with resignation in front of conflicts that drag themselves on. We must never be resigned to war! And we must not be indifferent in front of people who suffer from war and violence. For this reason I chose as the theme of the next World Day of Peace: “Overcome Indifference and Conquer Peace”.
It is violence also to raise walls and barriers to stop those who seek havens of peace. It is violence to reject those who flee from inhumane conditions, with hope of a better future. It is violence to discard children and elderly people from society and from life itself! It is violence to widen the gap between people who waste what is superfluous and people who lack what is necessary!
In this world of ours, faith in God makes us believe and cry out that peace is possible. As believers we are called to rediscover the universal vocation of peace that lies in the heart of our respective religious traditions, and offer it afresh, bravely, to the men and women of our times. And I reaffirm what I said in this regard in Tirana, speaking to the religious leaders: “Authentic religion is a source of peace and not of violence! No one must use the name of God to commit violence! To kill in the name of God is a grave sacrilege. To discriminate in the name of God is inhuman” (Meeting with Religious Leaders).
Dear friends, to state that peace is always possible is not naivety, it rather expresses our faith that nothing is impossible to God. Of course, we are required to be involved, personally and through our communities, in the great work of peace. May this land of Albania, land of martyrs, be the origin of a new prophecy of peace. I join you all so that, in the variety of our religious traditions, we can continue and live a shared passion for the growth of peaceful coexistence among all the peoples of the earth.
From the Vatican, 29th August 2015
Memory of the Martyrdom of St John the Baptist
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ morning Mass in the chapel of the Santa Marta residence on Monday was an extraordinary occasion: it saw the recently-elected Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians, His Beatitude Gregory Peter XX Ghabroyan, concelebrate the liturgy with the Holy Father, and exchange with the Pope the concrete sign of ecclesial communion par excellence .
A statement from the Armenian Patriarchate describes the scene during the Liturgy: “[At the Rite of Communion], the Holy Father … elevates the paten with the Body of Christ and offers it to the Patriarch. The two hold the Host high with their four hands. The Holy Father then raises the chalice with the Blood of Christ, offers it to the Patriarch, and they with their four hands keep it elevated. After a moment of silence, the Holy Father offers the Body of Christ, and together they communicate. The Holy Father takes the Blood of Christ from the chalice, then offers it to the Patriarch.”
“‘Communion’ is a concept held in great honor in the early Church and also today,” the statement explains. “[I]t does not mean some vague sentiment, but an organic reality, which requires a legal form and that is at the same time animated by charity.
The statement goes on to say, “The Ecclesiastica communio , which the Holy Father Francis granted to His Beatitude Gregory Peter XX with Letter of July 25, now finds expression in the exchange of the Sacred Species, which confirms the Eucharistic communion between the Bishop and the Church of Rome, who presides in charity, and the Patriarchal Church of Cilicia of the Armenians, through its Pater et Caput .
(from Vatican Radio)…
Vatican City – Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, is leaving for a pastoral visit in Asia. From 9 to 13 September he will be in Bangladesh, where he will preside the celebrations for the Jubilee of the Diocese of Rajshashi, and will visit some centers for the sick and handicapped run by the Church, he will meet the Bishops and representatives of the clergy, religious and laity, as well as seminarians. On 14 and 15 September, the Prefect of the Congregation will be in the Archdiocese of Calcutta , where he will meet Bishops, priests, religious and lay people of the region. A meeting will be reserved for formators, seminarians and novices. On the morning of 15 September he will celebrate Mass at the tomb of Blessed Mother Teresa. The last part of the trip, from 15 to 19 September, will be dedicated to Nepal, a country devastated by the earthquake on April 25, where Cardinal Filoni will have an opportunity to take a look at the current situation and meet those who worked to bring assistance, as well as priests, religious, lay and some faithful of some parishes….
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis’ appeal to European parishes and communities to take in a migrant family is a concrete call for solidarity and true Christian preparation for the upcoming Holy Year of Mercy.
In a brief declaration on Sunday afternoon following the Pope’s request to all parishes, religious communities, monasteries and sanctuaries to offer shelter to forced migrants and refugees currently in search of refuge, Father Federico Lombardi SJ, Director of the Vatican Press Office, said the Pope really intends his appeal to reach the “whole of Europe” and not just a few isolated realities.
Father Lombardi points out that Pope Francis is urging catholic communities to take the lead in welcoming our refugee and migrant brothers and sisters in a moment in which the gravity of their situation represents the most urgent question currently to be tackled on the continent.
He highlights how the Pope’s appeal for solidarity and welcome calls for a creative and generous response as we prepare for the Jubilee Year of Mercy, a preparation that must come to life through concrete works of charity; “he is not – Father Lombardi says – referring to organizational or logistic preparations”.
Father Lombardi says that when the Pope speaks to parishes, he is directing his call to entire parish communities which are embedded in local realities, and not only to parish priests and their houses.
Parish communities, he says, will be able to find the best ways to bring this welcome to life.
And when he speaks to “religious communities” Father Lombardi notes that the Pope is using the same strong words he used when visiting the “Centro Astalli” – the Jesuit run refugee Center in Rome – when he spoke of “empty convents”.
These were the Pope’s words in that occasion: “The Lord calls us to live with greater courage and generosity hospitality in communities, in houses and in empty convents. Dear men and women religious, your empty convents are not useful to the Church if they are turned into hotels and earn money. The empty convents do not belong to you, they are for the flesh of Christ which is what refugees are. The Lord calls us to live with greater courage and generosity, and to accept them in communities, houses and empty convents. This of course is not something simple; it requires a criterion and responsibility, but also courage. We do a great deal, but perhaps we are called to do more, firmly accepting and sharing with those whom Providence has given us to serve”. (10 September 2013)
Finally, Father Lombardi explains that the “two parishes” the Pope refers to inside the Vatican are the Parish of Santa Anna and St. Peter’s Basilica. He says they are extremely different realities and each of them will find its own way to respond to the Pope’s call.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Chicago’s new Archbishop, Blase Cupich, was in Rome this week with board members of Catholic Extension – a national fundraising organization committed to supporting and strengthening poor mission dioceses in the United States. Established by Pope St Pius X in 1905 as a “papal society” with a mission to build churches in America’s most rural regions, Catholic Extension remains committed to strengthening and supporting the Catholic Church across the United States.
While in Rome, Archbishop Cupich took time to come to Vatican Radio, where he spoke with Christopher Wells about his meeting with Pope Francis and about the Holy Father’s upcoming visit to the United States.
Listen:
The meeting with Pope Francis, said Archbishop Cupich, “was an opportunity for us to welcome the Holy Father to the United States, not only on behalf of the dioceses he’s going to visit, but [also] the 94 dioceses that Catholic Extension would help throughout the year – 94 in all that mostly are rural and poorer dioceses. So it was an opportunity for us to welcome him to the United States on behalf of that broader community.”
Archbishop Cupich has been a Bishop for seventeen years, the majority of that time being in smaller dioceses. His first assignment as a Bishop was to the Diocese of Rapid City, South Dakota, one of the smallest dioceses (by Catholic population) in the country. Later he served as Bishop of Spokane, Washington. He said, “It is an experience of being a part of mission dioceses that moves me to want to have Catholic Extension succeed.”
During their visit with the Holy Father, Archbishop Cupich, with the representatives of Catholic Extension, also had the opportunity to present Pope Francis with a cross that had belonged to Blessed Junipero Serra, a Spanish Franciscan missionary who evangelized much of the southwestern United States. Junipero Serra carried the cross with him from Spain and was buried with it when he died. ““It was important, I think, as a gesture, to allow the Holy Father to see this cross, to touch it,” Archbishop Cupich said. “And then he took it in a very caressing way and kissed it, and he was very touched by that.”
He connected the visit of Pope Francis to the United States with the missionary labours of Bd Junipero Serra. Now, he said, we have “this new Francis, this new Franciscan, come again to bring the Gospel to the United States, and being in touch with that initial impulse of the Franciscan order in sending Serra, Father Serra, bringing it really to full circle.” Archbishop Cupich said he hopes the cross will be on the altar when Pope Francis celebrates the canonization Mass for Blessed Junipero Serra in Washington on September 23.
Finally, Archbishop Cupich had words of greeting for his flock in Chicago. He said he prayed for all of them at the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul in Rome, with the realization that “as we move forward as a local church, we depend on the support and the unity that we enjoy with the See of Peter.”
(from Vatican Radio)…