(Vatican Radio) 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.”
In his address at the Welcoming 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.”
Below please find the full text of Pope Francis’ prepared remarks:
Welcome Ceremony
International Airport “El Alto”, La Paz
Wednesday, 8 July 2015
Mr President,
Distinguished Authorities,
Brother Bishops,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As I begin my Pastoral Visit, I invoke peace and prosperity upon all the people of this country. I thank the President of the Plurinational State of Bolivia for his warm reception and his kind words of welcome. I also thank the government ministers and the authorities of the state, the armed forces and the national police, for their presence. I greet my brother bishops, the priests, men and women religious, lay faithful, and the whole pilgrim Church in Bolivia, in a spirit of fraternal communion in the Lord. I think in a special way of the sons and daughters of this land who for a variety of reasons have had to seek “another land” to shelter them; another place where this earth can allow them to be fruitful and find possibilities in life.
I am pleased to be here, in this country of singular beauty, blessed by God in its various regions: its altiplano and valleys, its Amazon region, its deserts and the incomparable lakes. The preamble of your Constitution gives poetic expression to this natural beauty: “In ancient times the mountains arose, rivers changed course and lakes were formed. Our Amazonia, our wetlands and our highlands, and our plains and valleys were decked with greenery and flowers”. It makes me realize once again that “rather than a problem to be solved, the world is a joyful mystery to be contemplated with gladness and praise” ( Laudato Si’ , 12). But above all, Bolivia is a land blessed in its people. It is home to a great cultural and ethnic variety, which is at once a great source of enrichment and a constant summons to mutual respect and dialogue. There are the ancient aboriginal peoples and the more recent native peoples. The Spanish language brought to this land now happily exists with thirty-six native languages, which come together – like the red and yellow in the national flowers of Kantuta and Patujú – to create beauty and unity in diversity. In this land and people the proclamation of the Gospel took deep root, and through the years it has continued to shed its light upon society, contributing to the development of the nation and shaping its culture.
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.
Bolivia is making important steps towards including broad sectors in the country’s economic, social and political life. Your constitution recognizes the rights of individuals, minorities and the natural environment, and provides for institutions to promote them. To achieve these goals a spirit of civic cooperation and dialogue is required, as well as the participation of individuals and social groups in issues of interest to everyone. The integral advancement of a nation demands an ever greater appreciation of values by individuals and their growing convergence with regard to common ideals to which all can work together, no one being excluded or overlooked. A growth which is merely material will always run the risk of creating new divisions, of the wealth of some being built on the poverty of others. Hence, in addition to institutional transparency, social unity requires efforts to promote the education of citizens.
In days to come, I would like to 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. The voice of the bishops, which must be prophetic, speaks to society in the name of the Church, our Mother, from her preferential, evangelical option for the poor. Fraternal charity, the living expression of the new commandment of Jesus, is expressed in programs, works and institutions which work for the integral development of the person, as well as for the care and protection of those who are most vulnerable. We cannot believe in God the Father without seeing a brother or sister in every person, and we cannot follow Jesus without giving our lives for those for whom he died on the cross.
In an age when basic values are often neglected or distorted, the family merits special attention on the part of those responsible for the common good, since it is the basic cell of society. Families foster the solid bonds of unity on which human coexistence is based, and, through the bearing and education of children, they ensure the renewal of society.
The Church also feels a special concern for young people who, committed to their faith and cherishing great ideals, are the promise of the future, “watchmen to proclaim the light of dawn and the new springtime of the Gospel” (John Paul II, Message for the 18th World Youth Day , 6). To care for children, and to help young people to embrace noble ideals, is a guarantee of the future of society. A society discovers renewed strength when it values, respects and cares for its elderly, when it chooses to foster a “culture of remembrance” capable of ensuring that the elderly not only enjoy quality of life in their final years but also affection, as your Constitution puts it so well.
Mr President, dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for your presence. In these days we can look forward to moments of encounter, dialogue and the celebration of faith. I am pleased to be here, in a country which calls itself pacifist, a country which promotes the culture of peace and the right to peace .
I entrust this visit to the protection of the Blessed Virgin of Copacabana, Queen of Bolivia, and I ask her to protect all her children. Thank you. May the Lord bless you! Jallalla Bolivia.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis told priests, religious, and seminarians on Wednesday that gratitude and service were the most important aspects of their vocation.
The Holy Father held his prepared speech in the air, and announced to cheers that he “didn’t feel like reading.”
He then began an off-the-cuff speech to those gathered at Ecuador’s national shrine, which is dedicated to the Virgin of Quinche .
“Please do not forget – do not cover – the grace of gratitude,” Pope Francis said. “It is a gift from Jesus, the most beautiful of our lives as priests and religious.”
The Pope told them to “not lose the memory” of who they were and the places they came from; to not feel like they have been “given a promotion.”
“Do not feel superior to the Faith you received from your mother and father,” he said.
Pope Francis spoke of those who enter the seminary and no longer wish to speak their local language – of which Ecuador has many.
“The desire to increase is human, but it is to service that we are called,” he said. “Gratitude is a grace, and when a priest enters into a career, he stops this spiritual path.”
“Service mixed with gratitude,” Pope Francis continued. “What you have received freely, give freely. Please do not charge for this grace. Please! May our ministry be gratuitous; it is so ugly when one begins to lose this sense of gratitude.”
The Pope also asked them to pray for him because he himself “too often” forgets this gratitude.
“The shepherds not only walk in front, but also in the middle and behind their flock,” he said.
The Holy Father also called on them to live their vocations with a sense of joy, sustained by “two pillars” made up of gratitude and a “sense of memory” which reminds them of what the Lord has accomplished in their lives.
Their vocation, he stressed, is a gift from Christ that will help sustain those “two pillars of our priestly and religious life.”
“May the Lord give you this grace,” Pope Francis concluded. “May he continue to bless the people of Ecuador to whom you are called to serve.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) At the National Marian Shrine of El Quinche, Pope Francis met with clergy, men and women religious, and seminarians, for the final event in his trip to Ecuador.
The Holy Father did not deliver his prepared remarks, choosing instead to speak off-the-cuff – and from the heart – to those who had gathered at the Shrine. His prepared text focused on their call and their mission; on perseverance in that mission; an on joyful evangelization. The Pope also called on the clergy, religious, and seminarians to care for, encourage, and guide popular devotions.
The Santuary of El Quinche was built in 1928, and proclaimed the National Marian Sanctuary in 1985. The liturgical celebration of the Patron of Ecuador is celebrated on 21 November. Within the Shrine is the miraculous statue of The Virgin of El Quinche, a cedar-wood statue carved in 1586 by the famous sculptor Diego de Robles.
Below, please find the complete text of Pope Francis’ prepared remarks for the meeting with clergy, religious, and seminarians:
Meeting with Clergy, Religious and Seminarians
National Marian Shrine of “El Quinche”, Quito
Wednesday, 8 July 2015
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I place at the feet of Our Lady of Quinche the vivid experiences of my visit. I entrust to her heart the elderly and the sick whom I visited in the house of the Sisters of Charity, as well as the other meetings I have had. I entrust all of them to Mary’s heart; but at the same time I commend them to the hearts of each you, the priests, men and women religious, and seminarians. As those called to labor in the vineyard of the Lord, may you be protectors of all the experiences, the joys and sorrows of the Ecuadorian people.
I thank Bishop Lazzari, Father Mina and Sister Sandoval for their words, which lead me to share some thoughts on our common concern for God’s People.
In the Gospel, the Lord invites us to accept our mission without placing conditions. It is an important message which we must never forget. Here, in this Sanctuary dedicated to Our Lady of the Presentation, it resounds in a special way. Mary is an example of discipleship for us who, like her, have received a vocation. Her trusting response, “Be it done unto me according to your word”, reminds us of her words at the wedding feast of Cana: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). Her example is an invitation to serve as she served.
In the Presentation of the Virgin we find some suggestions for our own call. The child Mary was a gift from God to her parents and to all her people who were looking for liberation. This is something we see over and over again in the Scriptures. God responds to the cry of his people, sending a little child to bring salvation and to restore hope to elderly parents. The word of God tells us that, in the history of Israel, judges, prophets and kings are God’s gifts to his people, bringing them his tenderness and mercy. They are signs of God’s gratuitousness. It is he has chose them, who personally chose them and sent them. Realizing this helps us to move beyond our self-centeredness and to understand that we no longer belong to ourselves, that our vocation calls us to let go of all selfishness, all seeking of material gain or emotional rewards, as the Gospel has told us. We are not hired workers, but servants. We have not come to be served, but to serve, and we do so with complete detachment, without walking stick or bag.
Some traditions about devotion to Our Lady of Quinche relate that Diego de Robles made the image after being commissioned by the indigenous Lumbicí people. Diego did not so this out of piety, but for economic benefit. Since the Lumbicí were unable to pay him, he brought the image to Oyacachi and exchanged it for cedar planks. But Diego ignored their earnest plea that he also make an altar for the image, until, after falling from his horse and in danger of death, he felt the protection of the Virgin Mary. So he went back to the town and built the foot of the image. All of us have had the experience of a God who brings us to the cross, who calls us in the midst of our faults and failings. May pride and worldliness not make us forget what God has rescued us from! May the Our Lady of Quinche make us leave behind ambition, selfish interests, and excessive concern about ourselves!
The “authority” which the Apostles receive from Jesus is not for their own benefit: our gifts are meant to be used to renew and build up the Church. Do not refuse to share, do not hesitate to give, do not be caught up in your own comforts, but be like a spring which spills over and refreshes others, especially those burdened by sin, disappointment and resentment (cf. Evangelii Gaudium , 272).
Something else that Our Lady’s Presentation makes me think of is perseverance. In the evocative iconography associated with this feast, the Child Mary is shown moving away from her parents as she climbs the steps of the Temple. Mary does not look back and, in a clear reference to the evangelical admonition, she moves forward with determination. We, like the disciples in the Gospel, also need to move forward as we bring to all peoples and places the Good News of Jesus. Perseverance in mission is not about going from house to house, looking for a place where we will be more comfortably welcomed. It means casting our lot with Jesus to the end. Some stories of the apparition of Our Lady of Quinche speak of “a woman with a child in her arms” who appeared on several successive evenings to the natives of Oyacachi when they were fleeing from attacks by bears. Mary kept appearing to her children, but they didn’t believe her, they didn’t trust this woman, even though they admired her perseverance in coming each evening at sunset. To persevere even though we are rejected, despite the darkness and growing uncertainty and dangers – this is what we are called to do, in the knowledge that we are not alone, that God’s Holy People walks with us.
In some sense, the image of the child Mary ascending the steps of the Temple reminds us of the Church, which accompanies and supports every missionary disciple. Mary is with her parents, who handed on to her the memory of the faith and now generously offer her to the Lord so that she can follow in his way. She is part of a community, represented by the “maiden companions” who escort her with lamps alight (cf. Ps 44:15); in those companions the Fathers of the Church saw a foreshadowing of all those who, in imitation of Mary, seek wholeheartedly to become friends of God. Finally, she is received by the waiting priests, who remind us that the Church’s pastors must welcome everyone with tender love and help to discern every spirit and every calling.
So let us walk together, helping one another, as we humbly implore the gift of perseverance in God’s service.
The apparition of Our Lady of Quinche was a moment of encounter, of communion, so that this place which from Incan times has been a place where people of various ethnicities have settled. How beautiful it is when the Church perseveres in her efforts to be a house and a school of communion, when we cultivate what I like to call “the culture of encounter”!
The image of Our Lady’s Presentation tells us that, after being blessed by the priests, the child Mary began to dance at the foot of the altar. I think of the joy expressed in the imagery of the wedding feast, of the friend of the bridegroom, of the bride bedecked with her jewels. It is the happiness of all those who have discovered a treasure and left everything behind in order to gain it. To find the Lord, to dwell in his house, to share in his life, commits us to proclaiming his Kingdom and bringing his salvation to all. Crossing the threshold of the Temple means becoming, like Mary, temples of the Lord and setting out to bring the good news to our brothers and sisters. Our Lady, as the first missionary disciple, once she had received the message of the angel, left with haste to a town of Judah to share this incredible joy, which led Saint John the Baptist to leap in his mother’s womb. The one who hears the Lord’s voice “leaps with joy” and becomes for his or her own time a herald of his joy. The joy of evangelization leads the Church to go forth, like Mary.
There are many reasons offered for the translation of the shrine from Oyacachi to this place. There is one which I find particularly convincing: “for many people, this place has always been easier to reach”. That was the idea of the Archbishop of Quito, Fray Luis López de Solís, when he ordered the building of a shrine capable of attracting and embracing everyone. A Church on the move is a Church which is close to people, overcoming obstacles, leaving its own comfort behind and daring to reach out to the peripheries which need the light of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium, 20).
Let us now turn to the tasks which await us, urged on by the holy people which God has entrusted to our care. Among those tasks, let us not neglect to care for, encourage and guide the popular devotions which are so powerfully felt in this holy place and which are widespread in the countries of Latin America. The faithful express the faith in their own language, and they show their deepest feelings of sadness, uncertainty, joy, failure, and thanksgiving in various devotions: processions, votive lights, flowers, and hymns. All of these are beautiful expressions of their faith in the Lord and their love for his Mother, who is also our Mother.
Here in Quinche, the story of God and man converge in the life of one woman, Mary. They come together in one home, our common home, our sister, mother earth. The traditions of this devotion speak of cedar trees, bears, the crevasse in the rock which here became the first home of the Mother of God. They speak to us of a “yesterday” when birds surrounded this place, and of a “today” of flowers which adorn its surroundings. The origins of this devotion bring us back to a time of simple and “serene harmony with creation”, when one could contemplate “the Creator who lives among us and surrounds us, whose presence ‘must not be contrived but found, uncovered’” (Laudato Si, 225). God’s presence is revealed in the created world, in his beloved Son, and in the Eucharist which enables each Christian to know him or her self as living members of the Church and an active participant in her mission (cf. Aparecida Document, 264). And it is present in Our Lady of Quinche, who from the first proclamation of the faith until our own day has accompanied the indigenous peoples. To her we entrust our vocation; may she make us a gift to our people; may she grant us perseverance in our commitment and in the joy of going forth to bring the Gospel of her Son Jesus, together with our shepherds, to the fringes, the peripheries of our beloved Ecuador.
(from Vatican Radio)…
The family is a place
where human relations are not based on waste-producing competition but on
gratitude, solidarity and subsidiarity. This is the path which Pope Francis
pointed to at his meeting with civil society in Ecuador — political
authorities, artisans, trade unionists, representatives of ethnic groups and
social movements — on Tuesday evening, 7
July, at the conclusion of the third day in the country. The Pope addressed a
sweeping address to them, centered on the need to redefine the face of society
and of human relationships “beginning with family life”, where, according to
Francis, we are educated in the fundamental values of love, fraternity and mutual
respect which translate into essential values for society. Homily from Mass in Quito Address to educators Address to political, economic and civic leaders …
The independence
movement of Latin America was a “cry” for freedom from the peoples of the
continent who were exploited and deprived of liberties. Pope Francis’ third day in Ecuador began in
Quito’s Bicentennial Park, where he celebrated the 200 years of Latin America’s
emancipation from the yoke of “the powers that be”. On Tuesday morning, 7 July, the Pope
had previously met with the 50 bishops of the country in the Convention Centre
for approximately an hour. In an informal and familiar setting, he responded to
their questions privately and received a statue of St Francis with wings. Immediately after the Pontiff celebrated the
Mass “for the evangelization of peoples” in the presence of many faithful and
of the President of the Republic. The park, known as “the lung of Quito”, was
opened just two years ago in 2013, on that land that was once the city’s
international airport. The same airport which welcomed John Paul II in
1985. Constructed according to the
principles of environmental sustainability, the park is a green space popular
with Quiteños ….