I apologize for straying from the chronological order but I did not see this AP story on the Pope's encounter with the new ecclesial movements and communities yesterday. Vatican Radio did not have an account of the Q&A with the Pope which was the bulk of the event. Unlike the similar gathering in 2006 with Benedict XVI, which was Vespers and a prayer vigil, this was not a liturgical event, but more of a 'pep rally' as the AP describes it.
This morning, I read the transcript of the Q&A on the Italian service of Vatican Radio online - and it is quite impressive. So impressive I am surprised not more has been made of it so far. It's one that deserves translation - and that I would like to translate - because it appears to be very typically Francis, and as he was speaking at a public event, he avoided many of the informal asides he has been making during the morning homilies at Santa Marta. Other than something that I am surprised the AP report omits. Among other things, the Pope said that he would prefer the crowd not to shout out his name but rather the name of Jesus.
I would like to make a slight reproach, but fraternally, just between us. All of you shout in the piazza, "Francesco, Francesco, Papa Francesco!" But where is Jesus? I would prefer that you shout "Jesus! Jesus is the Lord, and he is among us!" So from now on, no more "Francesco!", but "Jesus!"
We get the message, of course, but this one I believe he did not think through sufficiently. For the faithful to be crying out "Jesus, Jesus!" when he passes by in the Popemobile would be absurd, as it would seem like they were addressing him as Jesus. In any case, that is a sort of demagoguery - a playing to the crowd - that no Pope before him has indulged in. Human nature being what it is, the faithful will shout out the name of the Pope, not primarily because he is John Paul II or Benedict XVI or Francis, but because he is the Vicar of Christ, and therefore represents Christ. I am sure no Pope before him - or he himself, for that matter - ever thought that the acclamation was primarily for him as an individual, but rather that it is for whom he represents. So, file that suggestion away along with the sweeping statement that "we must sell the churches if we must in order to feed the poor!"
Pope leads pep rally at Vatican,
meets with German chancellor
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
VATICAN CITY, May 18, 2013 (AP) - Pope Francis lamented that investment losses by banks trigger more alarm about the economic crisis than the struggle of people to feed their families, as he led a huge rally Saturday to invigorate the Church's moral conscience, hours after he held talks at the Vatican about the economic crisis with Germany's leader.
Some 200,000 people, from Europe, Asia and the pope's native South America, filled St. Peter's Square and nearby streets to join Francis in hours of prayer, music and speeches aimed at encouraging Catholics to strengthen their faith and making morality play a greater role in everyday life.
"If investments, the banks plunge, this is a tragedy, if families are hurting, if they have nothing to eat, well, this is nothing - this is our crisis today," Francis told the crowd, insisting that the true crisis is one of moral values.
Francis said his Church "opposes this mentality" and pledged that it will be dedicated to "the poor people."
[He never once used any term that can be paraphrased to 'his Church' - he always said 'the Church' or 'a Church that...', even if he did avoid a direct answer to the question "How can we live as 'a poor Church that is for the poor, as you said when you were elected", since he premised his entire answer to that question by saying the Church was not political nor a well-structured organization, nothing like an NGO, but that her primary task was to live the Gospel and bear witness to it. No more "let us sell the churches if we must to help the poor" as in his remarks to the Caritas executives earlier in the week.]
Earlier in the day, the Pope met privately with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who made a brief visit to Rome, mindful of the importance of Christian voters back home ahead of an election she faces in September. She joined the Pope in expressing concern about the many victims of Europe's economic crisis.
Francis, who is Argentine, has picked up on campaigns by the two previous popes, the Polish John Paul II and German Benedict XVI, to reinvigorate what the Catholic Church sees as flagging religious enthusiasm on a continent with Christian roots, including a dwindling number of churchgoers in much of Western Europe, and a decline in morality.
"I see continuity in the missionary aspect, in becoming aware of the importance of Christianity for our Christian roots," said Merkel, adding that the `'simple and touching words" of Francis, who was elected Pontiff two months ago, are already reaching people.
[Does that mean she thinks Benedict's words did not??? Sorry to be testy about this, even if it appears that no one, no matter how intelligent, has been exempt from Benedict-amnesia since March 13. And he's very much alive. Obviously, part of B16's new crucifixion is this living death by the willful oblivion of others.]
The vast cobblestone square outside St. Peter's Basilica is traditionally the boundary for pontiffs greeting the faithful at outdoor Vatican gatherings.
[Benedict did it more than once, and I am positive John Paul II did!] But Francis kept going in his pope-mobile past the edge of the square as he waved cheerfully and sometimes blew kisses to the enthusiastic crowd, which the Vatican said numbered some 200,000.
[One would think AP would have looked back at its own report of a similar event in 2006 with Benedict XVI, at which it reported a figure of 350,000 from Rome police estimates (VIS said 400,000) and published photos of Benedict XVI in the Popemobile in Via della Conciliazione with St. Peter's Square and the Basilica in the far background! I am so glad I posted that report and have those photos from 2006 to illustrate the point.]
He was driven halfway down the Rome boulevard that leads from the square to the Tiber River before turning back.
Merkel's Christian Democrat party depends heavily on support from Protestant and Catholic voters in Germany, and the 45-minute chat and photo opportunity in the Apostolic Palace could be a welcome campaign boost for a leader largely identified by Europe's economically suffering citizens as a champion of debt reduction, including painful austerity across much of the continent.
For its part, the Vatican is eager for allies in its campaign to anchor European societies more solidly in their heritage of Christian roots. The Church also seeks support on behalf of Christians who face persecution in the world.
During the rally, Francis embraced one of the speakers, Paul Bhatti, whose brother Shahbaz, a Pakistani government minister, was assassinated in 2011 after urging reform of a blasphemy law in Pakistan that had targeted Christians.
But the suffering of Europeans caught in the continent's grip of joblessness and other economic woes also dominated the Pope's concerns. On Thursday, Francis blasted what he called a `'cult of money" in a global financial system that ends up tyrannizing, not helping, the world's poor.
`'It's not just an economic crisis," but an existential problem depressing morale," Francis told the rally Saturday. `"It's a deep crisis. We just cannot worry about ourselves ... close ourselves in a sense of helplessness." The Pontiff urged people to help the needy, especially those on the margins of societies.
Merkel, asked by reporters about the Pope's scathing criticism of the global financial system, said they had spoken about regulation of financial markets.
"The regulation of the financial markets is our central problem, our central task," Merkel said. "We are moving ahead, but we are not yet where we want to be, where we could say that a derailment of the guard rails of social market won't happen again."
Merkel added: "It ought to be like this: The economy is there to serve the people. In the last few years, this hasn't been the case at all everywhere."
Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and especially Greece have seen governments concentrate on debt reduction while slashing state spending. With growth stymied, unemployment, especially among young people, has soared. Businesses, many of them family-run in southern Europe, have failed as bank lending dried up.
The chancellor said the Pope had stressed that the world needs a strong and just Europe.
Merkel is campaigning for re-election in September's general election. Half of Germany's population is Catholic. In Bavaria there is a strong conservative and Catholic tradition.
According to a Vatican statement, Francis and Merkel also discussed safeguarding human rights, the persecutions faced by Christians and religious freedom.
Q&A with Pope Francis
Translated from the Italian service of
May 19, 2013
To have the courage of faith without being stiff and starchy, to construct a culture of encounter, to help one's neighbor, especially those in need, whose fate is more important than that of banks - In synthesis, this is what Pope Francis said in his remarks yesterday to a crowd of some 200,000 persons who were in St. Peter's Square to take part in a Pentecost vigil dedicated to movements, new communities, associations and lay groups, on the occasion of the Year of Faith.
[After opening remarks by Mons. Salvatore Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for New Evangelization, and testimonials by the Irish journalist John Waters and Paul Bhatti, brother of the late Pakistani Minister for Religious Minorities Shahbaz Bhatti, who was assassinated by Muslim extremists in 2010, the Pope answered four questions presented by selected representatives. The Vatican said he knew the questions in advance, but his responses were all off the cuff.] [I have become habituated to the deficiencies of RV reporting, but failing to give the context of the transcript it provides is just unforgivable sloppiness!]
(Apparently, the questions were read out first, and then the Pope answered them serially; I will place the corresponding answer after the question)..]
"Christian truth is attractive and persuasive because it responds to the profound needs of human existence, announcing in a convincing way that Christ is the only Savior of the whole man and of all men". Holy Father, these words of yours have struck us profoundly - they express in a direct and radical way the experience that each of us wishes to live, especially in the Year of Faith and the pilgrimage which brought us here today. We are before you to renew our faith, to confirm it, to strengthen it. We know that faith is not something we have once and for all. As Benedict XVI said in Porta fidei, "Faith is not an obvious assumption". This statement does not have to do only with the world, other people, the traditions from which we come. It concerns each of us, above all. Too many times we act as if faith were a seedling of novelty, the beginning of change, but it is difficult to invest all our life into it. It does not become the source of all our knowledge and action. Holiness, how did you arrive at the certainty of faith in your life? And what way can you show us so that we can each conquer the weakness of our faith? [Why must a questioner have to give a speech saying obvious things to the Pope before asking the question??? It makes the occasion nothing but an ego trip.]
THE POPE: Good evening to everyone. I am happy to be meeting you and that we are all together in this piazza to pray, to be united and to await the gift of the Spirit.
I was told about your questions, and I have thought about them - therefore, I am not speaking unknowingly. First, truth! I have it here, written down. The first question - "How did you arrive at the certainty of faith in your life? And what way can you show us so that we can each conquer the weakness of our faith?"
That's a historical question because it has to do with my story, the story of my life. I had the grace of growing up in a family in which the faith was lived simply and concretely. But it was, above all, my grandmother, my father's mother, who marked out my path of faith. She was a woman who explained, who spoke to us of Jesus, she taught us the .
I remember that on Good Friday, she would bring us, in the evening, to the procession of candles, and at the end of the procession came the 'dead Jesus'. Grandma made us children kneel down and told us, "Look, he is dead, but tomorrow, he will rise again".
So I received the first announcement of Christ from this woman, from my grandmother! This is a most beautiful thing. The first announcement, in the home, with the family, This makes me think of the love of so many mothers and so many grandmothers in transmitting the faith. It is they who transmit the faith. This was from the earliest times, since even St. Paul said to Timothy: "I remember the faith of your mother and your grandmother"
(cfr 2Tm 1,5).
All the mothers who are here, all grandmothers - think of this! Transmit the faith. That God may place us next to persons who can help us in our way to faith. We do not find faith in the abstract - no! It is always from someone who preaches, who tells us who Jesus is, who gives us the first announcement. That was the first experience of faith I had.
But there is a day that was very important for me: September 21, 1953. I was almost 17. It was the Day for Students - for us the first day of spring, for you, the first day of autumn. Before going to the festivities, I passed by my parish church, I found a priest I did not know, and I felt I needed to confess.
It was, for me, an experience of encounter: I found someone who was
waiting for me. I do not know what happened, I do not remember, I do not know why the priest was there, someone I did not know, or why I felt the need to go to confession. The truth is - someone was waiting for me. And had been waiting for some time.
After confession, I felt that something had changed. I was not the same person. I had heard something like a voice, a call - and I was convinced that I must become a priest.
This experience of faith is important. We say that we must seek God, to go to him and seek forgiveness, but when we go to him, he is already waiting for us. He first of all. We, in Spanish have an expression that says this well, "The Lord is always one step ahead of us". He first - he is already awaiting us. And this is a tremendous grace: to find someone who is awaiting you.
You go to him as a sinner, but he is already waiting for you in order to forgive. This is the experience that the Prophets of Israel described when they said that the Lord is like the almond flower, the first flower of spring
(cfr Jer 1,11-12). Before the other flowers bloom, there he is, awaiting us. The Lord awaits.
And when we seek him, we find this reality: It is he who is waiting for us in order to welcome us, to give us his love. And this brings a wonder to your heart that you can hardly believe - and thus your faith grows. Through the encounter with a person, the encounter with the Lord.
Someone may say, "No, I prefer to learn the faith in books". It is important to study it, but, attention, this alone does not suffice. The important thing is the encounter with Jesus, the encounter with him, because this is what gives you faith, it is he himself who gives it to you.
You yourself have spoken of the weakness of faith, what is to be done to overcome that weakness. The greatest enemy of weakness - and it is curious - is fear. But do not be afraid. We are weak, and we know it. But he is stronger. If you go with him, there is no problem. A baby is most fragile - and I have seen so many today - but it is with the father or the mother, and so it is secure. With the Lord, we are secure.
Faith grows with the Lord, in the hands of the Lord himself. This makes us grow in the faith and strengthens us. But not if we think we can do it all by ourselves... Think what happened to St. Peter. "Lord, I will never deny you"
(cfr Mt 26,33-35); then, the cock crowed and he denied him three times
(cfr vv. 69-75).
Think about it: when we have too much confidence in ourselves, we become weaker, yes, weaker. We must always be with the Lord. To be with the Lord means with the Eucharist, with the Bible, with prayer, but even with the family, with Mamma, because it is she who brings us to the Lord. She is the mother, she knows everything. And so, pray to Our Lady as well and ask her to "make me strong, as Mamma is".
This is what I think about the weakness of faith, at least from my personal experience. One thing that makes me strong every day is praying the Rosary to the Madonna. I feel great strength just by going to her.
Holy Father, mine is an experience of daily life much like others. I seek to live the faith at work and in my contact with others in sincere witness to the good that I have received from my encounter with the Lord. I am - we all are - 'thoughts of God', invested by a mysterious love that has given us life. I teach at a school, and this awareness is a reason for me to be passionate about my schoolchildren and even about my colleagues. And I have often seen how many seek happiness in various individual itineraries, in which life and its great questions are reduced to the materialism of those who want everything and are always dissatisfied, or a nihilism in which nothing has any meaning. I wonder how the proposal of faith - as a personal encounter, interaction with a community, with people - can reach the hearts of men and women in our time.
We were created for the infinite = "Play your life for great stakes", you said recently - and yet, everything around us and around our children seems to say we must be content with mediocre and immediate answers, and that man should adapt himself to the finite, without seeking anything else. At times, we are intimidated, like the Apostles before Pentecost. The Church is inviting us to take part in the New Evangelization. I think all of us who are here tonight feel this challenge most strongly = it is at the heart of our experiences.
So I would like to ask you, Holy Father, to help me and all of us to understand how we should meet this challenge in our time. What do you consider the most important thing for all of us movements, associations and communities in order to carry out the mission we are called to do? How can we communicate the faith effectively today?
Let us go to your question.
[He repeats it, reading.] I will answer with three words.
The first: Jesus. What is the most important thing? Jesus. If we make progress with organization, with other things, even beautiful things, but without Jesus, we are not moving ahead. Nothing will work. Jesus is more important.
Now, I would like to make a slight reproach, but fraternally, just between us. All of you shout in the piazza, "Francesco, Francesco, Papa Francesco!" But where is Jesus? I would prefer that you shout "Jesus! Jesus is the Lord, and he is among us!" So from now on, no more "Francesco!", but "Jesus!"
The second word: prayer. To look at the face of God, but above all - and this is linked to what I said earlier - to feel that he is looking at us. The Lord is looking at us - he does so first. It is what I experience in front of the Tabernacle when I pray before the Lord at night.
Sometimes, I nod off, it is true, because the efforts of the day can make you doze off. But I feel such comfort just knowing that he is looking at me. We think that we must pray and that this means talk, talk, talk. No! Let the Lord look at you. When he looks at us, he gives us strength and he helps us bear witness to him - and the question was about witnessing to the faith, right?
First, Jesus, then prayer. And we will feel that God is holding us by the hand. I will underscore the importance of this - let us allow ourselves to be led by him. This is more important than any calculation. We are true evangelizers if we let ourselves be led by him.
Let us think again of Peter. Perhaps he was having a siesta, after lunch, and he had a vision - that of a tablecloth with all the animals of the earth. He heard Jesus telling him something he did not understand. Just then, some non-Jewish people arrived asking him to go to a house. And he saw that the Holy Spirit was there. Peter allowed himself to be led by Jesus to work his first evangelization with the Gentiles - something unimaginable in those times
(cfr Acts 10,9-33). [Biblical illiterate that I am, I had never heard or read this anecdote before - it deserves to be read. It is much more than the sketchy summary given by the Pope, who assumes that his listeners are familiar with the story.]
And all of history is just so. All of history. Let us be led by Jesus. He is the leader, Our leader is Jesus.
The third word: Witness. Jesus, prayer - which is allowing ourselves to be led by him; then witness. But I would like to add something else. Allowing ourselves to be led by Jesus leads you to his surprises. One might think that evangelization must be programmed by committee, thinking of strategies, making plans. But these are just instruments, small instruments. The important thing is Jesus and letting ourselves be led by him. Then we can strategize, but this is secondary.
Finally, giving witness. Communicating the faith can only be done through witness, which is love. Not with our ideas, but with the Gospel lived in our own existence and which the Holy Spirit causes to dwell within us. It is like a synergy between us and the Holy Spirit, and this leads to witness.
The Church is brought forward by the saints, who are precisely those who have given witness. As John Paul II and Benedict XVI said, the world today is in great need of witnesses. Not so much of teachers but of witnesses.
[Actually, Benedict XVI liked to quote Paul VI who said that the best teachers are those who are first credible witnesses to the faith.]
Do not speak so much, but speak with your whole life. It is important to be consistent in your life. A consistency which means living your
Christianity as an encounter with Jesus who brings us to others, not
christianity as a social fact - that sociologically, we are Christians, closed in on ourselves. No. Not that. Witness [is important]!
Holy Father, I listened with great emotion to the words you said at your audience with newsmen after your election: "How I would like a church that is poor and that is for the poor!" Many of us are engaged in works of charity and justice - we are an active part of that presence of the Church rooted among those who suffer. I am an employee, I have a family, and as much as I can, I am personally committed to be close to the poor and to help them. But that is not why I feel I am doing right. I would like to say with Mother Teresa that everything is for Christ. A great help in living this experience are the brothers and sisters of my community who are engaged in the same work, in which we are sustained by faith and prayer.
The need is great. You have reminded us, "How many poor persons there still are in the world, and how much suffering they must undergo!" And the economic crisis has aggravated everything. I think of the poverty that afflicts so many countries, and which has now turned up even in the world of the well-off, in the lack of work, in mass migrations, in new slaveries, in the abandonment and solitude of so many families, so many old people, so many persons who are homeless and unemployed.
I would like to ask you, Holy Father, how I and all of us can live as a poor Church that is for the poor? What is it that people who suffer demand from our faith? We all, as movements and lay associations - what concrete and effective contribution can we give to the Church and society in order to face a crisis that also involves public ethics, the right models of development, politics - in sort, a new way of being men and women? [Wow! Typical bleeding heart liberal who deludes himself that he can take on singlehanded all the problems of the world. Please wake up and be more humble. Charity begins at home. Each of us, following Christ, can do what we can, as best as we can. God does not ask more. All together, our little personal contributions can help. Jesus did not say that his way would solve all the problems of the world, if only because there will always be evil in the world. ]
As to this question - let me go back to the importance of witness. First of all, the principal contribution we can give is to live the Gospel. The Church is not a political movement, nor a well-organized structure. It is not that. We are not an NGO, because when the Church becomes an NGO, it loses salt, it becomes tasteless, it is nothing but a hollow organization. You must be clever about this, because the devil can deceive you, because there is the danger of 'efficientism'. It is one thing to preach Jesus. Efficiency is something else. That is a different value.
The fundamental value of the Church is to live the Gospel and to bear witness to our faith. The Church is the salt of the earth, the light of the world, she is called on to make present in society the yeast of the Kingdom of God, and she does this primarily through her witness, of fraternal love, of solidarity, of sharing.
When one hears it said that solidarity is not a value but a 'primary attitude' that must disappear, that is wrong. Then one is only thinking of worldly efficiency. This time of crisis, such as that we are living - but you did say that we live in a world of lies [????] - we must be aware that it is not just an economic crisis. It is not a cultural crisis.
It is a crisis of man - it is man who is in crisis. It is man who can be destroyed. But man is supposed to be an image of God. That is why it is a profound crisis. At this time, we cannot solely be concerned with ourselves, to be closed inside our own loneliness, in discouragement, in a sense of impotence in the face of problems. Do not close yourself off, please! It is a danger - to be enclosed in our parishes, in our circle of friends, in the movement, with those who think like we do. Do you know what happens then? When the Church stays closed, she becomes sick. She becomes sick.
Think of a room that has been closed for more than a year. When you enter it, it smells of humidity, many things are not right within. A Church closed in on itself is the same thing - it is a sick Church.
The Church must get out of herself.
[But is that not the essence of mission and evangelization? "Go forth and make disciples of all peoples" Or, on another level, a happy Christian naturally wants to share the source of his joy with others. How can he remain closed in on himself? I've never quite understood Cardinal Bergoglio's obsession with this 'closed Church', unless he means all those elements = episcopal, clergy and lay - who focus on diocesan, parish and their associated circles of petty power and self-importance to the exclusion of actually 'being Christian'! ]
But where to? Towards the peripheries of existence, whatever they are. but get out!
[These existential peripheries can be right in my neighborhood, in my parish. If I try to act as a good Christian in my circle of existence, does it not include 'working' in these peripheries? Are not the priests, the religious, the various organizations who do work with these peripheral or marginalized lives already outside themselves, giving themselves?]
Jesus tells us, "Go forth and preach. Bear witness to the Gospel".
(cfr Mk 16,15). But what happens when we get out of ourselves? It could be like leaving your house and going out to the street - where an accident can happen. But I tell you, I would prefer a thousand times a Church in which accidents happen than a Church that is sick from being closed off.
So get out, get out! Think of what it says in the Apocalypse. It says a beautiful thing: that Jesus is at the door and knocks, he is knocking to enter our hearts
(cfr Ap 3,20). This is the meaning of the Apocalypse.
But ask yourself this question: How many times is Jesus in our hearts and asks to be let out, but we don 't let him out, for our own security, because so often, we are enclosed within decaying structures, which only serve to enslave us when we should be free children of God.
[Another concept of the Pope that I cannot grasp. Am I dense? How can any Christian keep Jesus to himself, even if he wanted to? Jesus cannot be imprisoned by anyone in anything, least of all in anyone's heart - it would be tantamount to not having Jesus at all, because selfishness keeps Jesus out! But this is all part of Cardinal Begoglio's pre-Conclave manifesto that I have many problems with, problems which I have yet to fully articulate, because my problems with it may be idiopathic to myself alone and do not bother anyone else.]
In getting out, it is important to set out to meet others. For me, this is very important - to meet others.
[Why else would a Christian go forth? Just to take a walk?]
And why is it important? Because faith is an encounter with Jesus, and we must do as Jesus did - meet others. We live in a culture of confrontation, a culture of fragmentation, a culture in which we throw out whatever is not useful, a culture of the disposable.
But I ask you to think - because this is part of the crisis - of the older people, who represent the wisdom of a people, of babies, in this culture of the disposable.
So we must go out to meet others, and we must create with our faith a culture of encounter, a culture of friendship, a culture in which we find brothers, where we can speak even with those who do not think as we do, even with those of other faiths, who do not have our faith. Everyone has something in common with us: they are images of God, they are children of God. We must go forth to meet others, without negotiating our own identity.
One other thing is important: go out to be with the poor. If we get out of ourselves, we will encounter poverty.
Today - and it makes my heart ache to say so - today, to find a homeless man who has died of the cold is not news. Today news is, perhaps, a scandal. A scandal, oh yes!, now, that is news!
Today, the thought that so many babies are dying of hunger is not news. But this is serious. This is serious! We cannot remain calm about these things. But... that's the way it is!
We cannot be stiff and starchy Christians, those who are too educated, who talk of theology while having tea, in all tranquility. No. We must be courageous Christians and go forth to seek out those who are the very flesh of Christ, the poor who are the very flesh of Christ.
When I go out to give confession - now I cannot, because to go out for confession... I can't get out of here, but that's another problem - when I would give confession in my earlier dioceses, there were always those whom I would ask, "Do you give alms?" "Yes, Father". "Good! That's good!" But I would ask two more questions: "Tell me, when you give alms, do you look into the eyes of the person you are giving to?" "I don't know... I have not thought about it". And my next question: "When you give alms, do you touch the hand of the person, or do you just drop the coin into his hand?"
This is the problem: to touch the flesh of Christ, to take upon ourselves the pain of the poor. For us Christians, poverty is not a sociological or philosophical or cultural category - it is theological. I would even say, perhaps that is the first category, because God, the Son of God, lowered himself, made himself poor in order to be able to walk with us.
This is our poverty - the poverty of the flesh of Christ, the poverty that brought us the Son of God in his Incarnation.
[Dear Pope, you lost me there! I feel I am being drawn into the labyrinth of some theological improvisation.] A poor Church that is for the poor begins with going forth to touch the flesh of Christ. If we do this, then we shall begin to understand something, to understand what is poverty, the poverty of the Lord.
[But Jesus was never destitute, he never suffered because of 'poverty'! Other than his voluntary 40 days in the desert, he was never materially deprived. He identified with the poor. That's something else. His suffering was bearing the burden of the sins of mankind.]
This is not easy. And there is a problem that is harmful to Christians: the spirit of the world, the worldly spirit, spiritual worldliness. It leads us to a self-sufficiency, living according to the spirit of the world rather than that of Jesus.
The question you had - how must we live in order to face the crisis that involves public ethics, models of development, and politics - inasmuch as this is a human crisis, a crisis that destroys man, it is also a crisis that strips man of ethics. In the public life, in politics, without ethics, an ethical reference point, everything is possible, everything can be done.
But we see, when we read the newspapers, that the lack of ethics in public life has caused so much evil to all mankind. I would like to tell you a story. I already told it twice this week, but I will do it a third time with you.
It is about a Biblical midrash
[a homiletic story told by Jewish rabbis to illustrate passages from the Bible Careful, Pope Francis! Benedict XVI never used a term he did not explain] of a 12th century rabbi. He recounts the construction of the Tower of Babel, and says that in order to build it, bricks had to be manufactured. What did this mean? to go out, make dough out of mud, add the straw to the mud, etc - then bake everything in an oven. When the bricks were done, they had to be brought up to continue building the tower.
A brick was a treasure, for all the work that went into making it. When a brick fell, it was a national tragedy and the guilty laborer was punished. A brick was so precious that when one fell and broke, it was a tragedy. But if a laborer fell and died, nothing happened. It was something else altogether.
That is happening today. If bank investments fall a little, "It's a tragedy: What shall we do?" But if people who have nothing to eat are dying of hunger, or because they are sick, nothing is done. This is our crisis today. But the witness of a poor Church that is for the poor contradicts this mentality.
[But what is the Pope's definition of 'a poor Church'? He has never defined that (it certainly cannot be reduced to the token symbol of wearing plain new chasubles instead of the chasubles in all varieties worn by previous Popes that are available in the sacristy of St. Peter's), and the secular left has interpreted it that Francis intends to have the Church - the Vatican as well as all local churches - sell off her patrimony and anything valuable that she has in order to help the poor. Which he did articulate in his remarks to Caritas last week, though he avoided saying it today. An obviously improbable scenario, because even if it could happen, the resources raised would be finite and would hardly scratch the surface of the global poverty phenomenon, much less erase it from the face of the earth.
To walk, to construct, to profess. ('Camminare, costruire, confessare'). This 'program' of yours for a Church as movement - or so I understood it when I heard your first homily as Pope - has comforted and urged us on. Comforted, because we have found ourselves in profound unity once more with the Christian community and with the entire universal Church. Urged on, because in a way, you have made us get rid of the dust of time and superficiality from our adherence to the Church. [EXCUSE ME???? I should think Pope Francis has no need of all this fawning - and it is fawning, even if, the speaker genuinely means it. But then if the most reputable cardinals have fawned even worse, why should we expect any better of a layman who is theoretically less spiritually fit than a cardinal?]
But I must say that I cannot overcome a sense of unease that one of these three words provokes in me: to confess (or profess), meaning to bear witness to the faith. We can think of so many of our brothers who are suffering because of it, as we just heard [Paul Bhatti spoke about religious persecution in Pakistan] Of those who have to think twice before going to Sunday Mass because it would mean risking their life. Of those who are targeted and discriminated against because of their Christian faith in too many parts of the world. I think that in the face of all this, our witness of faith is timid and clumsy. We would like to do more, but what? How can we aid these brothers? How can we alleviate their suffering since we cannot do anything, or very little, to change their political and social circumstances?
To announce the Gospel, two virtues are necessary: courage and patience. The Christians who are being persecuted are in the Church of patience. They are suffering, and there are more martyrs today than in the first centuries of the Church. More martyrs! Who are our brothers and sisters. They are suffering, And they will carry their faith to martyrdom. But martyrdom is never a defeat - it is the highest degree of witness that we can give.
We are all on the way to martyrdom, little martyrdoms - renouncing this, not doing that - but we are on the way. But they, poor ones, will give their lives, but they will give it as they do in Pakistan - out of love for Jesus, bearing witness to Jesus.
A Christian should always have this attitude of meekness, of humility - that's exactly what the martyrs have - trusting in Jesus, entrusting themselves to Jesus.
It must be pointed out that many times, these conflicts do not have a religious origin: often, there are other causes, social or political, but unfortunately, religious membership is utilized to pour gasoline on a fire.
A Christian must always know how to respond to evil with goodness, even if this is often difficult. Meanwhile, we can seek to let our persecuted brothers and sisters feel that we are profoundly united to them - profoundly united to their situation, that we know they are Christians who have 'entered into patience'.
When Jesus went towards his Passion, he entered into patience. These Christians too have entered into patience. Let them know it, and let the Lord know.
[???Doesn't the Lord know everything?]
I ask you: Are you praying for these brothers and sisters? Do you pray for them? In your everyday prayers? I will not ask you now to raise your hands if you do. I will not ask it now. But think of it. In our prayers every day, let us say to Jesus: "Lord, look at this brother, look at this sister who is suffering so much!" They are experiencing the limits between life and death.
[I wish he had started his answer with this, which is the most obvious answer to the question that is almost outrageous in its sanctimony! Isn't that what every Catholic is taught - If there is nothing else you can do, PRAY! They also serve who 'only' sit (or kneel) and pray. As many saints did, as contemplatives do, as Benedict XVI does.]
Their experience should make us promote religious freedom for all. For all. Every man and every woman should be free to profess their own religion, whatever it is. Why? Because each man and each woman is a child of God.
I think I have said something about your questions. Excuse me if I went on too long. Thank you very much. Thank you to everyone, and do not forget: no closed Church, but a Church that goes out, that goes to the peripheries of existence. May the Lord lead us there. Thank you.
[Dear Pope Francis, I do not know what the missionaries through the centuries have been doing, if not going to the peripheries of existence. What all the country priests in the back of nowhere have been doing. What the Magisterium of the Popes. especially its social doctrine of the Church since the 19th century, has been doing (best exemplified by the life and work of Don Bosco and the other remarkable 'social saints' of Turin at that time).
P.S. I must admit sheepishly that after translating the Q&A, I find it less impressive than I originally thought it was. The Pope is an excellent communicator when it comes to traditional concepts, but not about his pet concepts which I find rather murky, such as a closed Church that must get out of herself to in order go the 'peripheries of existence', or people keeping Jesus in their hearts and not allowing him to leave, or 'a poor Church'.
And I must add this rejoinder: It's not exactly true that nothing is being done for the poorest and neediest of society today. The Church herself (and her associated agencies) is the largest ongoing charitable organization worldwide that does not just provide food for the needy wherever and whenever she can, but also provides healthcare and educational services, as part of her missionary work.
True, her work is limited by available resources, but somehow, Catholic charities have survived, even despite the economic crisis. And there is no lack of charitable or philanthropic agencies, both secular and religious - regardless of what prompts their philanthropy - who do what they can to help fill in what governments cannot do. The Western world generally responds to help victims of natural calamities, refugees and other victims of war. In many countries of the Third World, programs are in place to help the poor to help themselves, like mini-credit banks, agricultural cooperatives, job training and educational opportunities. The Church certainly does not plan to constitute herself into universal nanny, or worse, a surrogate for the welfare state and its culture of dependency - that is not her mission.
Of course, any and all available aid is never enough. But Jesus did not say "You will always have the poor among you" as a throwaway line (unless I continue to miss the true theological sense of that statement by taking it literally). But he did say it in reply to Judas who decried the waste of expensive perfume used to anoint the Master's feet, when it could have been sold and the money raised given to the poor - that's quite explicit!
And as much as we lament the lack of ethics that led to all the financial problems of recent years, banks and financial institutions have to restabilize themselves because they are an integral part of a globalized economy. And no recovery will be possible if they continue to be shaky. We can only hope they have learned their lessons about ethical practices, and that the governments of the world can better regulate them.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/05/2013 23:22]