Vatican
City, 6 June 2013
(VIS) – “You are preparing for a particular ministry of
commitment … a task that requires … great inner freedom,” Pope
Francis said this morning to the 45 members of the Pontifical
Ecclesiastical Academy whom he received this morning in the
Clementine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, with their
president, Archbishop Beniamino Stella. It is the institution that
trains candidates for the Holy See's diplomatic service.
In
his address to the group, the Holy Father urged the current students
to: “live these years of your preparation with commitment,
generosity, and greatness of soul, so that this freedom can truly
take shape in you!” The Pope explained that, first of all, this
freedom “means being free from personal projects: from some of the
concrete ways that, perhaps one day, you imagined living your
priesthood, from planning the future; from the perspective of staying
a long time in 'your' place of pastoral action. It means making
yourselves free, in some way, even from the culture and the mentality
that you came from, not to forget it and even less to deny it, but to
open yourselves, in charity, to understanding diverse cultures and
meeting persons belonging to worlds that are even very far removed
from your own.”
“Above
all, it means being vigilant in order to be free from personal
ambitions or aims, which can cause so much harm to the Church, taking
care to always put, not your own fulfilment or the recognition that
you could receive within and outside of the ecclesial community, but
the greater good of the Gospel cause and the fulfilment of the
mission that you will be entrusted with. … The ministry that you
are preparing for asks you to go out of yourselves, a self-detachment
that can only be achieved through an intense spiritual journey and a
serious unification of the life around you to the mystery of God's
love and to the inscrutable plan of his call.”
“We
can live the freedom from our plans and our will not as a reason for
frustration or emptiness, but as an openness to God's superabundant
gift, which makes our priesthood fruitful. In this way, the Holy
Father asked them to take great care of their spiritual lives, the
source of that inner freedom, by “cultivating a life of prayer and
by making your daily work the gym of your sanctification”.
Francis
reminded those present of the words of Blessed John XXIII: “The
more mature I grow in years and experience, the more I recognize that
the surest way to make myself holy and to succeed in the service of
the Holy See lies in the constant effort to reduce everything … to
the utmost simplicity and tranquillity … and concentrate on what is
truth, justice, and charity, above all charity. Any other way of
behaving is nothing but affectation and self-assertion; it soon shows
itself in its true colours and becomes a hindrance and a mockery.”
In
his own words, the Pope then mentioned the sisters who carry out
their service amongst the Academy's students. “They are good
Mothers who accompany you with prayer, with their simple and
essential words, and above all by their example of loyalty,
dedication, and love.” He also thanked the lay personnel that work
at the house “with their hidden yet important presence that allows
you to live your time at the Academy serenely and committedly.” On
concluding the audience, the Holy Father invited them to undertake
their service to the Holy See with the same spirit as Blessed John
XXIII, asked them to pray for him, and entrusted them to the Virgin
Mary and their patron, St. Anthony Abbot.
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