Vatican City, 19 May 2014 (VIS) –
This morning Pope Francis received the bishops of the Mexican
Episcopal Conference, in Rome in these days for their five-yearly “ad
limina” visit. At the end of the meeting, the Holy Father handed
them the text of his planned address, extensive extracts of which are
published below, in which he emphasised that fidelity to Jesus Christ
must be lived as committed solidarity with the people and their
needs.
Before delivering the text, the bishop
of Rome emphasised that, despite the serious problems it faces, the
Church in Mexico is “consolidated on strong pillars”, and he
urged the bishops always to be faithful to the “dual
transcendence”: the first in prayer with the Lord, and the second
with closeness to the people.
“In recent years, the celebration of
the bicentennial of Mexican independence and the centenary of the
Mexican Revolution have offered a useful occasion for joining forces
in favour of social peace and just, free and democratic co-existence.
My predecessor Benedict XVI urged you 'not to let yourselves be
intimidated by the powers of evil, but to be valiant and to work to
ensure that the sap of your Christian roots may nourish your present
and your future'. At the present moment, the many forms of violence
that afflict Mexican society, especially the young, call for a
renewed appeal to promote this spirit of harmony through the culture
of encounter, dialogue and peace. … It is certainly not for pastors
to offer technical solutions or to adopt policy measures that are
outside the scope of their pastoral ministry; however, they must be
tireless in their proclamation, to all, of the Good News: that God,
in his mercy, made Himself a man and made Himself poor, that he
wanted to suffer with those who suffer in order to save them.
Fidelity to Jesus Christ must be lived as committed solidarity and
closeness to the people and their needs, offering Gospel values from
within”.
“I am aware of your work for those
most in need … for those who work in subhuman conditions, …
migrants in search of better living conditions, farmers. … I know
of your concern for the victims of drug trafficking and for the most
vulnerable social groups, and your commitment to the defence of human
rights and the full development of the individual. All this, which is
an expression of the 'intimate connection' between the Gospel and the
search for the good of others contributes, without doubt, to the
credibility of the Church and gives relevance to the voice of her
pastors”.
He went on to emphasise that “the
mission of the Church can not do without with the laity. ... I
encourage you to promote their secular responsibility and provide
them with adequate training to make visible the public dimension of
faith. In order to achieve this, the social doctrine of the Church is
a valuable tool that can help Christians in their daily struggle to
build a more just and united world. ... In this way, the difficulties
that may arise in the transmission of Christian faith between
generations can also be overcome. The young see with their own eyes
the living witnesses of faith, that truly embody in their life what
they profess with their lips. Furthermore, they then spontaneously
generate new processes of the evangelisation of culture. ... In this
regard, the potential of popular piety constitutes an 'indispensable
starting point in deepening the faith of the people and in bringing
it to maturity'.”
The family is the “basic cell of
society and the first centre for evangelisation. ... I urge you to
intensify your pastoral care of the family – certainly, the value
that is dearest to your people – so that, faced with the
dehumanising culture of death, it may become a promoter of the
culture of respect for life in all its phases, from conception to
natural death”.
After reminding the prelates of the
importance of their proximity to priests and consecrated persons, and
the care that must be offered to their formation and to future
vocations, the bishop of Rome fondly recalled that in their pastoral
plans they had taken on board the Aparecida guidelines, the seventh
anniversary of which falls in these days, emphasising the importance
of the permanent continental mission, “placing all the pastoral
mission of the Church in a missionary mode, and calling upon all of
us to grow in parrhesia. ... In this way”, he concluded, “we can
bear witness to Christ in life even among the most distant, and reach
out of ourselves to work with enthusiasm in the task that has been
entrusted to us, keeping our arms lifted in prayer”.
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