POPE FRANCIS: THE STRENGTH OF THE CHURCH IS CONCEALED IN THE DEEP WATERS OF GOD

Vatican City, 3 January 2014 (VIS) – This morning, Pope Francis celebrated the Mass of the Feast of the Most Holy Name of Jesus in the Church of Jesus, to give thanks for the new Jesuit saint Pierre Favre. Concelebrating with the Holy Father were Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints; Cardinal Agostino Vallini, vicar general of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome; Bishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Bishop Yves Boivineau of Annecy, France, in whose diocese Favre was born, and the vicar general Alain Fournier-Bidoz; the superior general Fr. Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., and seven young Jesuit priests.

Canonised by Pope Francis on 17 December, Pierre Favre, was the first companion of St. Ignatius of Loyola – for this reason he is known as “the second Jesuit” – and one of the founders of the Society of Jesus, of which he was also the first priest. The tombs of St. Ignatius and St. Pierre Favre are located in the Church of the Most Holy Name of Jesus.

Pope Francis dedicated his homily to the new saint, and said that he was a “restless” man of “lofty desires”: “it is necessary to search for God to find Him, and to find him in order to seek him again, and for ever. Only this restlessness brings peace to the heart of a Jesuit, a restlessness that is also apostolic, so that we never tire of proclaiming the kerygma, of evangelising with courage. And it is restlessness that prepares us to receive the gift of apostolic fruitfulness. Without restlessness, we are sterile”.

“And this was the restlessness of Pierre Favre”, continued the Pope, “a man of lofty desires, another Daniel. Favre was a 'modest, sensitive man with a profound inner life. He was endowed with the gift of making friends with people from every walk of life'. However, his was a restless, indecisive spirit, never satisfied. Under the guidance of St. Ignatius he learned to unite his restless but gentle – indeed exquisite – sensibility with a capacity to make decisions. He was a man of lofty desires; he took charge of his desires, he recognised them. Rather, for Favre, it was precisely when faced with difficult tasks that he demonstrated the true spirit that sets into action”.

“An authentic faith always implies a deep desire to change the world. And this is the question we should pose ourselves: do we too have great visions and zeal? Are we bold too? Do our dreams fly high? Are we consumed by zeal? Or are we mediocre and satisfied with our theoretical apostolic plans? Let us always remember that the strength of the Church does not reside in herself or in her organisational capacity, but is instead concealed in the deep waters of God. And these waters agitate our desires, and our desires expand our hearts. It is as St. Augustine said: pray to desire and desire to expand your heart. It was precisely in his desires that Favre was able to discern the voice of God. Without desires, one cannot go forth, and this is why we must offer our desires to the Lord. In the Constitutions it is said that we help our neighbours with the wishes presented to the Lord God”.

Favre, affirmed Pope Francis, “had the true and deep desire to open up in God”: he was completely centred in God, and for this reason he was able to go everywhere in Europe, in a spirit of obedience and often on foot, to enter into dialogue with everyone, with gentleness, and to proclaim the Gospel. I think of the temptation that perhaps we experience, to which many people succumb, to link the proclamation of the Gospel with inquisitionary bludgeoning and condemnation. No, the Gospel must be proclaimed with gentleness, in a fraternal spirit, with love. His familiarity with God led him to understand that inner experience and apostolic life always go together. He writes in his Memorial that the first movement of the heart must be that of desiring that which is essential and originary, or rather that priority must be reserved for seeking God, our Lord. Favre experienced the desire to let the centre of his heart be occupied by Christ. Only when centred in God is it possible to go out towards the peripheries of the world! And Favre journeyed without respite even to geographical frontiers; indeed, it was said of him that he appeared to have been born never to stay still in any one place. Favre was consumed by the intense desire to communicate the Lord. If we do not have the same desire, then we need to pause a while in prayer and, with silent fervour, ask the Lord, through the intercession of our brother Pierre, that we might again experience the fascination of the Lord who led Pierre in his 'apostolic follies'”, concluded Pope Francis.

OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 3 January 2014 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father appointed Rev. Felicien Mwanama Galumbulula as bishop of Luiza (area 33,524, population 3,000,000, Catholics 1,570,000, priests 157, religious 430), Democratic Republic of Congo. The bishop-elect was born in Tshibala, Democratic Republic of Congo in 1960 and was ordained a priest in 1987. He holds a doctorate in missiology from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, and a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome. He has served in the following pastoral and academic roles: spiritual director and teacher at the St. Leon minor seminary in Luiza and in the Jean Paul II major seminary in Tschilomba; visiting professor at the Catholic University of the Congo; professor and subsequently rector of the major seminary of Malole-Kananga; professor at the African Institute of Missionary Science, Kinshasa; and secretary of the Episcopal Commission for legal affairs of the Episcopal Conference of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since 2008 he has served as secretary general of the Episcopal Conference. He succeeds Bishop Leonard Kasanda Lumembo, C.I.C.M., whose resignation from the pastoral governance of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.

MORE THAN SIX MILLION, SIX HUNDRED THOUSAND FAITHFUL WITH POPE FRANCIS

Vatican City, 2 January 2014 (VIS) – The Prefecture of the Papal Household today published a communique in which it reported that during 2013, since his election on 13 March, more than 6,600,000 faithful participated in the various encounters with Pope Francis: general audiences (1,548,500), private audiences (87,400), liturgical celebrations in the Vatican Basilica and in St. Peter's Square (2,282,000), Angelus and Regina Coeli (2,706,000). These data refer exclusively to activities which took place within the Vatican, and do not include other events in which hundreds of thousands of faithful have gathered around the Holy Father, such as the apostolic visit to Brazil in July for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, and visits within Italy, to Lampedusa, Cagliari and Assisi, as well as visits within the diocese of Rome. The total number of faithful who have participated in these events is estimated at 6,623,000.

The Prefecture of the Papal Household emphasises that these are approximate data calculated on the basis of requests to participate in events and invitations issued by the Prefecture. Additionally, an estimate has been given for the number of attendees at the Angelus and the major celebrations in St. Peter's Square.

MARY, SOURCE OF HOPE AND TRUE JOY

Vatican City, 1 January 2014 (VIS) – This Wednesday, Solemnity of Holy Mary Mother of God, and Octave of Christmas, the Holy Father presided at the Holy Mass in the Vatican Basilica, concelebrated by Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council “Justice and Peace”; Archbishop Pietro Parolin, secretary of State; Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, substitute secretary of State; and Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States. Today is also 47th World Day of Peace, the theme of which is “Fraternity, the foundation and pathway to peace”.

The full text of Pope Francis' homily is published below:

“In the first reading we find the ancient prayer of blessing which God gave to Moses to hand on to Aaron and his sons: 'The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace'. There is no more meaningful time than the beginning of a new year to hear these words of blessing: they will accompany our journey through the year opening up before us. They are words of strength, courage and hope. Not an illusory hope, based on frail human promises, or a naive hope which presumes that the future will be better simply because it is the future. Rather, it is a hope that has its foundation precisely in God’s blessing, a blessing which contains the greatest message of good wishes there can be; and this is the message which the Church brings to each of us, filled with the Lord’s loving care and providential help.

“The message of hope contained in this blessing was fully realized in a woman, Mary, who was destined to become the Mother of God, and it was fulfilled in her before all creatures.

The Mother of God. This is the first and most important title of Our Lady. It refers to a quality, a role which the faith of the Christian people, in its tender and genuine devotion to our heavenly Mother, has understood from the beginning. We recall that great moment in the history of the ancient Church, the Council of Ephesus, in which the divine motherhood of the Virgin Mary was authoritatively defined. The truth of her divine maternity found an echo in Rome where, a little later, the Basilica of Saint Mary Major was built, the first Marian shrine in Rome and in the entire West, in which the image of the Mother of God – the Theotokos – is venerated under the title of Salus Populi Romani. It is said that the residents of Ephesus used to gather at the gates of the basilica where the bishops were meeting and shout, 'Mother of God!'. The faithful, by asking them to officially define this title of Our Lady, showed that they acknowledged her divine motherhood. Theirs was the spontaneous and sincere reaction of children who know their Mother well, for they love her with immense tenderness. But it is more: it is the sensus fidei of the holy People of God which, in its unity, never errs.

“Mary has always been present in the hearts, the piety and above all the pilgrimage of faith of the Christian people. 'The Church journeys through time… and on this journey she proceeds along the path already trodden by the Virgin Mary'. Our journey of faith is the same as that of Mary, and so we feel that she is particularly close to us. As far as faith, the hinge of the Christian life, is concerned, the Mother of God shared our condition. She had to take the same path as ourselves, a path which is sometimes difficult and obscure. She had to advance in the 'pilgrimage of faith'.

“Our pilgrimage of faith has been inseparably linked to Mary ever since Jesus, dying on the Cross, gave her to us as our Mother, saying: 'Behold your Mother!'. These words serve as a testament, bequeathing to the world a Mother. From that moment on, the Mother of God also became our Mother! When the faith of the disciples was most tested by difficulties and uncertainties, Jesus entrusted them to Mary, who was the first to believe, and whose faith would never fail. The 'woman' became our Mother when she lost her divine Son. Her sorrowing heart was enlarged to make room for all men and women, all, whether good or bad, and she loves them as she loved Jesus. The woman who at the wedding at Cana in Galilee gave her faith-filled cooperation so that the wonders of God could be displayed in the world, at Calvary kept alive the flame of faith in the resurrection of her Son, and she communicates this with maternal affection to each and every person. Mary becomes in this way a source of hope and true joy!

“The Mother of the Redeemer goes before us and continually strengthens us in faith, in our vocation and in our mission. By her example of humility and openness to God’s will she helps us to transmit our faith in a joyful proclamation of the Gospel to all, without reservation. In this way our mission will be fruitful, because it is modelled on the motherhood of Mary. To her let us entrust our journey of faith, the desires of our heart, our needs and the needs of the whole world, especially of those who hunger and thirst for justice and peace, and for God. Let us then together invoke her, and I invite you to invoke her three times, following the example of those brothers and sisters of Ephesus: Mother of God! Mother of God! Mother of God! Amen”.

POPE FRANCIS: PEACE REQUIRES THE STRENGTH OF MEEKNESS

Vatican City, 1 January 2014 (VIS) – Following the celebration of Holy Mass on the Solemnity of the Holy Mother of God, and on the 47th World Day of Peace, Pope Francis appeared at the window of his study to pray the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square. Before the Marian prayer, the Pontiff made some comments on the theme of peace.

“Following in the footsteps of my predecessors, beginning with Paul VI, I have developed this theme in a message, which today I convey to all. It is based on the conviction that we are all children of one Heavenly Father, we are part of the same human family, and we share a common destiny. Thus we all have the shared responsibility to work to make the world into a community of brothers and sisters who respect each other, accept diversity and take care of each other. We are also called to be aware of the violence and injustice that exist in many parts of the world and to which we should remain indifferent and immobile: the commitment of all is necessary to build a more just and caring society. From every corner of the earth, today believers raise prayers to the Lord for the gift of peace and the ability to bring it to every place."

“On this, the first day of the year”, added the Holy Father, “may the Lord help us to set out more decisively on the path of justice and peace; may the Holy Spirit act in our hearts, loosening bonds and warming hardened hearts so that they open up to the tenderness and weakness of the Child Jesus. Peace requires the force of meekness, the non-violent strength of the truth and of love.

Similarly, Pope Francis encouraged the faithful to place their hopes with filial trust in the hands of Mary. "May she, who extends her maternal love to all mankind, hear the cry for peace of those people oppressed by war and violence, so that the courage of dialogue and reconciliation might prevail over the temptation for revenge, arrogance and corruption. We pray to her that the Gospel of fraternity announced and witnessed by the Church speak to every conscience and break down the walls that prevent enemies from recognising each other as brothers".

After the Marian prayer, Pope Francis wished a happy new year, full of peace, to all the pilgrims and faithful. He thanked the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, for the words addressed to the him during the president's message to the Italian nation on the night of 31 December, and sent his best wishes to the Italian people so that they "may look to the future with confidence and hope". He also thanked the various groups that have arranged prayer initiatives dedicated to peace, in particular the national March which began on 31 December in Campobasso, Italy, organised by the Italian Episcopal Conference, Caritas and Pax Christi; the Sant'Egidio Community; and the families of the Movement of Family Love, who spent the night praying in St. Peter's Square,and the volunteers of Fraterna Domus. Before concluding, he addressed a special greeting to the "Star Singers" (“Sternsinger”), the children and young people in Germany and Austria who bring the blessing of Jesus to homes and collect donations for children in need.