Vatican City, 24 September 2014 (VIS) –
Pope Francis devoted today's general audience to recounting last
Sunday's trip to Albania. The Holy Father confirmed that it was
important to encourage this population on the path to the peaceful
co-existence of the different religious components of society.
“Indeed, the various religious expressions have in common a path of
life and the will to do good to one's neighbour, without denying or
diminishing their respective identities”.
Francis recalled his meeting with
priests, consecrated persons, seminarians and lay movements, as well
as a number of elderly people who had experienced, “in their own
flesh, terrible persecutions”. “It is precisely from the intimate
union with Jesus, from the relationship of love with Him, that these
martyrs, like all martyrs, found the strength to face the painful
events that led them to martyrdom … and it is the strength the
Church finds in Christ's love. A strength that supports us in moments
of difficulty and inspires our apostolic action today, to offer
goodness and forgiveness to all, and thereby bearing witness to God's
mercy”.
The Pontiff also mentioned the forty
priests executed during the communist dictatorship, for whom the
cause for beatification is under way. “They take their place among
the hundreds of Christians – and Muslims – assassinated,
tortured, incarcerated and deported simply because they believed in
God. These were dark years, during which religious freedom was razed
to the ground and it was forbidden to believe in God; thousands of
churches and mosques were destroyed, transformed into warehouses and
cinemas for the propagation of Marxist ideology, religious books were
burnt, and parents were forbidden from giving their children the
religious names of their ancestors. … Their blood was not shed in
vain; it was the seed that will bear the fruit of peace and fraternal
collaboration. Today Albania offers an example not only of the
rebirth of the Church, but also of peaceful co-existence between
religions”.
The Pope concluded by thanking the Lord
for the trip, “which enabled me to meet a courageous and strong
population that has not given way to suffering”. He encouraged the
brothers and sisters of Albania to “be brave and good, to build the
present and the future of their country and of Europe … and may the
Virgin continue to guide the path of this population of martyrs”.
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