Tuesday, June 7, 2011

POPE ENTRUSTS CROATIAN FAMILIES TO MARY

VATICAN CITY, 5 JUN 2011 (VIS) - After Holy Mass had ended, Benedict XVI prayed the Regina Coeli with the faithful gathered in Zagreb's Hippodrome.

  "I have come here today to confirm you in your faith", the Pope said. "This is the gift I bring you: the faith of Peter, the faith of the Church! But at the same time you give me this same faith, enriched with your experience, your joys and sufferings. In a special way you give me your faith lived in the family, so that I may keep it in the patrimony of the whole Church. I know that you find great strength in Mary, the Mother of Christ and our Mother. So we now turn to her, spiritually oriented towards her Shrine at Marija Bistrica, and we entrust to her all Croatian families: parents, children, grandparents; the journey of husband and wife, the task of education, professional activities and home-making. We invoke her intercession that public institutions may always sustain the family, the basic cell of the social fabric".

  The Holy Father also entrusted the celebration of the VII World Day of Families, which will be celebrated in Milan, Italy next year to the Virgin. He then noted that the Cathedral of Burgo de Osma, Spain was today celebrating the beatification of Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, "an outstanding bishop of seventeenth-century Mexico and Spain.  He was a man of vast culture and profound spirituality and a great reformer, a tireless pastor and defender of the Indians. May the Lord grant to his Church many holy pastors like Blessed Juan".

  At the end of the Regina Coeli, the Pope returned by Popemobile to the apostolic nunciature, where he had lunch.
PV-CROATIA/                            VIS 20110604 (280)

No comments:

Post a Comment