Vatican
City, 13 February 2013
(VIS) – The Holy Father sent a message to the faithful in Brazil
for the Fraternity Campaign that takes place in that country every
year during Lent, and that has the theme of "Fraternity and
Youth" this year.
"The
path of Lent opens before us permeated with prayer, penitence, and
charity, to prepare us to experience and to participate more deeply
in Jesus Christ's passion, death, and resurrection," the Pope
writes. "In Brazil, this preparation has found valuable support
and encouragement in the Fraternity Campaign, which this year
celebrates its 50th anniversary and which is coloured by the
spiritual overtones of the 27th World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro
this July."
"I
gladly join in this Lenten initiative of the Church in Brazil and I
send each and every one of you my cordial greetings in the Lord, to
whom I entrust the efforts of those who are committed to helping the
youth become … 'protagonists of a more just and more fraternal
society inspired by the Gospel'. The 'signs of the times' in society
and in the Church also arise through the youth. Disregarding these
signs, or not discerning them, means losing opportunities for
renewal. If they are part of the present then they will also be part
of the future. We want the youth to be protagonists and to be
integrated into the community that welcomes them, which demonstrates
the confidence that the Church has in each of them. This requires
guides―priests,
consecrated persons, or lay persons―who
remain young at heart even if they are not young in age, who are
capable of walking without imposing a march, capable of solidarity
and empathy, capable of giving the witness of salvation, which is
nourished by faith and the following of Christ every day."
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