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| Pope Francis holds a dove before his weekly audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican May 15. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters) |
Monday, May 20, 2013
Vatican City, 18 May 2013 (VIS) – Today
and yesterday, events for ecclesial movements of new lay communities and
associations to reflect on the theme “I Believe! Increase our Faith!” were held
in Rome as part of the Year of Faith. Over 120,000 people were gathered in St.
Peter's Square this afternoon when the Pope arrived at 5:30pm and, after
greeting the pilgrims, initiated the Pentecost Vigil.
After the opening welcome by Archbishop
Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New
Evangelization, the image of the Virgin Mary Salus Populi Romani was brought in
a procession to the centre of the square and then enthroned. After a series of
readings, songs, and testimonials, Pope Francis answered four questions asked by
representatives of the movements. Following are the questions with a summary of
the Holy Father's answers.
Q: “How were you able to achieve
certainty of faith in your life, and what path can you indicate to us so that
each one of us can overcome our fragility of faith?”
A: “I have had the good fortune to grow
up in a family where the faith was lived in a simple and concrete manner ... The
first proclamation is in the home, within the family, right? And this makes me
think of the love of so many mothers and so many grandmothers in the
transmission of the faith. … We do not find our faith in the abstract, no! It is
always a person who preaches it to us, who tells us who Jesus is, who gives us
the faith, who gives us the first announcement. … But there is a very important
day for me: September 21, 1953. I was almost 17. It was the 'Students' Day'....
Before going to the festival, I went to my parish and met a priest I did not
know, but I felt the need to confess. … After confession I felt that something
had changed. I was not the same. I felt a voice call me: I was convinced that I
had to become a priest. This experience of faith is important. We say that we
must seek God, go to him to ask for forgiveness ... but when we go, He is
already waiting for us. He is the first one there! ... And this creates wonder
in the hearts of those who do not believe, and this is how faith grows! With an
encounter with a Person, with an encounter with the Lord.”
Regarding fragility: “Fragility’s biggest
enemy curiously enough, is fear. But do not be afraid! We are weak, we know it
but He is stronger! If you are with him, then there is no problem! A child is
fragile—I see many today—but they are with their fathers and their mothers so
they are safe! We too are safe with the Lord; we are secure. Faith grows with
the Lord, out of the very hands of the Lord.”
Q: The second question concerned the
challenge of evangelization and what the movements should do to put the task
have been called to into practice.
A: “I will say just three words. First:
Jesus. … If we move forward with planning and other things, beautiful things
indeed, but without Jesus, then something is wrong. Jesus is the most important
thing. … The second word is prayer. Look at the face of God, but above all ...
know that you are being looked at in return. … And third, 'witness'. … the faith
can only be communicated through witness and that is through love. Not with our
ideas, but by living the Gospel in our own lives, which the Holy Spirit brings
to life within us. … Not so much speaking, but speaking through the way you
live: the consistency of your life … which means living Christianity as an
encounter with Jesus that leads me towards others and not as a social fact.
Socially this how we are. Are we Christians? Wrapped up in ourselves? No, not
that. Witness!”
Q: The third question was how to live as
“a poor Church, for the poor”.
A: “First of all, the main contribution
we can make is to live the Gospel. The Church is not a political movement or a
well-organized structure: That is not her. … The Church is the 'salt of the
earth, the light of the world’. She is called to make the leaven of the Kingdom
of God present in society and do it first by witness, her witness of fraternal
love, solidarity … When you hear some say that solidarity is not a value, that
it's a 'basic attitude' that needs to disappear ... this is wrong! … Moments of
crisis, such as the one we are experiencing ... are not only an economic crisis,
not a cultural crisis. It is a crisis of humanity: it is humanity that is in
crisis. And what can be destroyed is mankind! But mankind is the image of God!”
“In this time of crisis we can't just
worry about ourselves, can't get wrapped up in loneliness or discouragement …
Please do not get locked away in yourselves! That is a danger: locking ourselves
away inside our parish, among our friends, in our movement, with people who
think the same way we do ... But you know what is happening? When the Church
becomes closed up in itself it gets sick. ,,, The Church must go out from
herself. Where? Towards the boundaries of existence, whatever those might be,
but get out. Faith is an encounter with Jesus and we must do the same as Jesus,
meet others. .… We have to bring about encounter. We have to make our faith a
'culture of encounter' and of friendship, a culture wherein we find brothers and
sisters, where we can talk even with those who do not think like us, even with
those with which have a different faith … Everyone has something in common with
us: they are made in the image of God! … We must go out to meet with everyone
without negotiating about the faith we belong to.”
“And another important point: we must go
out to meet the poor. … Today, imagine, all the children who don't have
something to eat is not news. This is serious. We cannot stay calm! We cannot
become starch-pressed Christians, those Christians who are too highly educated,
who speak of theological issues over tea, calmly. No! We must become courageous
Christians and go out in search of those who are the flesh of Christ. … Poverty,
for us Christians, is not a sociological or philosophical or cultural category.
No. It is a theological category. I would say, perhaps, the first category,
because God, the Son of God, humbled himself, became poor to walk along the road
with us. This is our poverty: the poverty of the flesh of Christ; the poverty
that has brought us the Son of God with his Incarnation.”
Q: The fourth question was: How can we
help our brothers and sisters if there is little we can do to change the
socio-political climate they are living under?
A: “Two virtues are needed to proclaim
the Gospel: courage and patience. They are in the Church of patience. They
suffer and there are more martyrs today than in the early centuries of the
Church. … It should be noted that many times these conflicts do not have a
religious origin. Often there are other causes of a social and political nature
and unfortunately, religious affiliations are used like fuel to the fire. A
Christian must always know how to respond to evil with good, although it is
often difficult. We must try to make them feel—these brothers and sisters of
ours—that we are deeply united ... to their situation, that we know that they
are Christians who have 'entered a state of patience'. … they experience the
limits, the very limits, between life and death. And for us, this experience
should lead us to promote religious freedom for all: for everyone! Every man and
woman should be free in their religious confession, whatever it may be. Why?
Because that man and that woman are children of God.“
The vigil ended with the profession of
faith, prayer intentions, and the singing of the Regina Coeli.
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