Vatican
City, 8 May 2013
(VIS) – “The men and women of the Church who are careerists and
social climbers, who 'use' people, the Church, their brothers and
sisters—whom they should be serving—as a springboard for their
own personal interests and ambitions … are doing great harm to the
Church.” This is what Pope Francis asserted in his address to the
participants in the plenary assembly of the International Union of
Superiors General (UISG) whom he received in audience this morning.
The
pontiff spoke to the sisters of obedience, poverty, and chastity:
“Obedience as listening to God's will, in the interior motion of
the Holy Spirit authenticated by the Church, accepting that obedience
also passes through human mediations. … Poverty, which teaches
solidarity, sharing, and charity and which is also expressed in a
soberness and joy of the essential, to put us on guard against the
material idols that obscure the true meaning of life. Poverty, which
is learned with the humble, the poor, the sick, and all those who are
at the existential margins of life. Theoretical poverty doesn't do
anything. Poverty is learned by touching the flesh of the poor Christ
in the humble, the poor, the sick, and in children.”
“And
then chastity, as a precious charism, that enlarges the freedom of
your gift to God and others with Christ's tenderness, mercy, and
closeness. Chastity for the Kingdom of Heaven shows how affection has
its place in mature freedom and becomes a sign of the future world,
to make God's primacy shine forever. But, please, [make it] a
'fertile' chastity, which generates spiritual children in the Church.
The consecrated are mothers: they must be mothers and not
'spinsters'! Forgive me if I talk like this but this maternity of
consecrated life, this fruitfulness is important! May this joy of
spiritual fruitfulness animate your existence. Be mothers, like the
images of the Mother Mary and the Mother Church. You cannot
understand Mary without her motherhood; you cannot understand the
Church without her motherhood, and you are icons of Mary and of the
Church.”
Continuing,
Pope Francis spoke to the superiors about service. “We must never
forget that true power, at whatever level, is service, which has its
bright summit upon the Cross. … 'You know that the rulers of the
Gentiles lord it over them ... But it shall not be so among
you.'—This is precisely the motto of your assembly, isn't it? It
shall not be so among you.—'Rather, whoever wishes to be great
among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you
shall be your slave'.”
“Your
vocation is a fundamental charism for the Church's journey and it
isn't possible that a consecrated woman or man might 'feel'
themselves not to be with the Church. A 'feeling' with the Church
that has generated us in Baptism; a 'feeling' with the Church that
finds its filial expression in fidelity to the Magisterium, in
communion with the Bishops and the Successor of Peter, the Bishop of
Rome, a visible sign of that unity,” the pontiff added, citing Paul
VI: “It is an absurd dichotomy to think of living with Jesus but
without the Church, of following Jesus outside of the Church, of
loving Jesus without loving the Church. Feel the responsibility that
you have of caring for the formation of your Institutes in sound
Church doctrine, in love of the Church, and in an ecclesial spirit.”
“The
centrality of Christ and his Gospel, authority as a service of love,
and 'feeling' in and with the Mother Church: [these are] three
suggestions that I wish to leave you, to which I again add my
gratitude for your work, which is not always easy. What would the
Church be without you? She would be missing maternity, affection,
tenderness! A Mother's intuition.”
God bless His Holiness! He is such a humble man! I thank God that the Church has received a great Shepherd!
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