Vatican City, 17 June 2014 (VIS) – At
7 p.m. yesterday in the Paul VI Hall the Holy Father met with the
representatives of the diocese of Rome, gathered to participate in
the Diocesan Pastoral Congress on the theme “A people who raise
children. Community and family in the major stages of Christian
initiation”. During his address, Pope Francis spoke on the issue of
the “society of orphans”: of parents who do not spend enough time
playing with their children because of their long working hours, and
because of their fatigue when they arrive home that leads the young
to be deprived of time spent freely with their parents. He emphasised
that nowadays we need this sense of gratuity within the family, in
parishes, in society as a whole, and that the Lord is revealed to us
in gratuity, or rather as Grace: “But if we do not have a sense of
gratuity within the family, at school, in the parish, it will be very
difficult to understand what the grace of God is: that grace that
cannot be bought or sold, that is a gift from God, and is indeed God
Himself”. He also commented on other social aspects that contribute
to the “orphanhood” of the young: “a technological society that
multiplies to infinity the opportunities for pleasure, distraction
and curiosity, but is not able to lead man to true joy”, and added
that only by encountering Jesus can be encounter true joy and
understand that we do not lead our lives in vain, as a task has been
conferred to each one of us”.
The Holy Father went on to describe the
Church as a mother who knows how to raise her children. “The great
challenge faced by the Church is that of being a mother”, he said,
“not a well-organised NGO full of pastoral plans. … The Church
needs to rediscover her maternity. She must be a mother; maternity is
the grace that we must now ask of the Holy Spirit in order to go
ahead in our pastoral and missionary conversion. However, the Church
grows not by proselytism but by maternal attraction, through
tenderness, through the testimony of her many children”. The Pope
remarked that the Mother Church has aged somewhat, to the risk of
becoming “Grandmother Church”, and that she must therefore be
rejuvenated, “but not by taking her to a cosmetic surgeon, no! The
Church becomes younger when she is able to generate more sons; the
more children she has, the younger she becomes”.
The Pontiff added that this means
recovering the memory of the Church. In a world in which there exists
little sense of history and fear of time, a world in which the
present reigns supreme, in which language is increasingly abbreviated
and everything becomes rapid, making us slaves to our situation, we
must recover the memory of God's patience. “God is not hasty during
our history of salvation, and has accompanied us throughout history”.
The Pope therefore urged the priests and clergy present not to close
the doors of their churches, but rather to welcome all with an open
heart, as a family, asking the Lord to make them able to participate
in their difficulties and in the problems that children and the young
frequently encounter in their lives.
“People hope to find Jesus' gaze in
us, often without realising it; they seek a serene and joyful gaze
that enters the heart. But the whole parish must transform into a
welcoming place, not only the priests and catechists”. The Pope
encouraged those present to ask themselves whether their parishes
were truly welcoming, whether their celebrations were scheduled to
favour the participation of the young, if they spoke the language of
youth and if their communities kept their doors open.
Before concluding, the Pope
acknowledged that the work carried out by priests is not easy. “It
is easier to be a bishop”, he affirmed, “because we can always
maintain a distance and hide ourselves behind the title of 'Your
excellency', and defend ourselves in this way. But being a priest,
when the parishioners knock on the door, when they talk to you about
their problems … it is not easy”. He commented that the Church in
Italy is strong because of her priests, and urged them not to forget
the memory of evangelisation and always to stay close to the
faithful. “We want a Church of faith, who believes that the Lord is
able to make her a mother, to give her many children; our Holy Mother
Church”.
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