Vatican City, 22 November 2014 (VIS) –
This morning in the Paul VI Hall the Pope received in audience the
participants in the 4th Missionary Convention of the Italian
Episcopal Conference, around eight hundred people. “Every
generation is called to be missionary … from the very beginning”,
affirmed the Holy Father. “Remember how the apostles Andrew and
John encountered the Lord and then … set out, enthusiastic. The
first thing they did was become missionaries. They went to their
brothers and said, 'We have found the Lord, we have found the
Messiah'”.
Following these unscripted remarks,
Pope Francis went on to cite his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii
Gaudium, in which he speaks of an outbound Church, and reiterated
that a missionary can only be outbound, without fear of encounters,
of discovering new things, and of speaking about the joy of the
Gospel. “Not to proselytise, but to say what we have and want to
share without imposition, with all and without distinction. … The
particular Churches in Italy have done much. … I would like to
repeat something that a Brazilian cardinal said to me: 'When I go to
Amazonia – because he has the task of visiting dioceses in Amazonia
– I go to the cemetery and see the tombs of missionaries. And there
are many of them. And I think, these people could be canonised now!'
It is the Church; they are the Churches of Italy”.
“Today I thank you for what you do in
many areas … and I ask you to work with passion to keep this spirit
alive. I see many laypeople alongside bishops and priests. The
mission is the task of all Christians, not just the few. … The
Italian Church, I repeat, has given many priests and laypeople fidei
donum, who decide to spend their lives building up the Church in the
peripheral areas of the world, among the poor and those who are far
away. … I urge you, do not let yourselves be robbed of hope and the
dream of changing the world with … the leaven of the Gospel,
starting out from the human and existential peripheries. Reaching out
means overcoming the temptation to talk among ourselves, forgetting
the many who await from us a word of mercy, of consolation, of hope.
Jesus' Gospel is fulfilled in history. Jesus Himself was a man from
the outskirts, from Galilee, far from the centres of power of the
Roman Empire and of Jerusalem. … However, His Word was the
beginning of a transformation in history, the start of a spiritual
and human revolution, the good news of a Lord Who died and rose again
for us”.
The Pope encouraged those present to
intensify their missionary spirit and their enthusiasm for the
mission, without allowing themselves to be discouraged by
difficulties and, above all, “beginning with children, who must
receive a missionary catechesis. At times, even in the Church we are
overcome by pessimism, which risks depriving many men and women of
the announcement of the Gospel. Let us go ahead with hope! The many
missionary martyrs to faith and charity are show us that victory is
only in love and in a life spent for the Lord and for our neighbour,
starting with the poor. The poor are the travelling companions of an
outbound Church, as they are the first She encounters. The poor are
also your evangelisers, as they show you those peripheries where the
Gospel has yet to be proclaimed and lived”.
“Reaching out means not remaining
indifferent to destitution, war, the violence in our cities, the
neglect of the elderly, the anonymity of many people in need and
marginalisation from little ones. Reaching out means not accepting
that in our Christian cities the are many children who do not know
how to make the sign of the Cross. This is reaching out. It means
being builders of peace, of the 'peace' that the Lord gives us every
day and of which the world is so in need. Missionaries never give up
their dream of peace, even when they experience difficulties and
persecution, which make their presence strongly felt today”.
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