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VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - N° 25
DATE 06-02-2014
Summary:
- MESSAGE FOR 29TH WORLD YOUTH DAY
- THE POPE TO THE YOUNG: REJECT LOW-COST HAPPINESS
- POPE FRANCIS DEEPLY SADDENED BY THE FIRE IN BARRACAS, BUENOS AIRES
- ARCHBISHOP TOMASI: THE HOLY SEE WILL RESPOND TO THE CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS
OF THE U.N. COMMITTEE FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
- AUDIENCES
- OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
___________________________________________________________
MESSAGE FOR 29TH WORLD YOUTH DAY
Vatican City, 6 February 2014 (VIS) – We publish below the full text of
the message the Holy Father has sent to the young people preparing for the
29th World Youth Day 2014, which will take as its theme: “Blessed are
the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven”.
“Dear Young Friends,
How vividly I recall the remarkable meeting we had in Rio de Janeiro for the
Twenty-eighth World Youth Day. It was a great celebration of faith and
fellowship! The wonderful people of Brazil welcomed us with open arms, like
the statue of Christ the
Redeemer which looks down from the hill of Corcovado over the magnificent
expanse of Copacabana beach. There, on the seashore, Jesus renewed his call to
each one of us to become his missionary disciples. May we perceive this call
as the most important
thing in our lives and share this gift with others, those near and far, even
to the distant geographical and existential peripheries of our world.
The next stop on our intercontinental youth pilgrimage will be in Krakow in
2016. As a way of accompanying our journey together, for the next three years
I would like to reflect with you on the Beatitudes found in the Gospel of
Saint Matthew. This year
we will begin by reflecting on the first Beatitude: 'Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'. For 2015 I suggest: 'Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they shall see God'. Then, in 2016, our theme will be:
'Blessed are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy'.
1. The revolutionary power of the Beatitudes
It is always a joyful experience for us to read and reflect on the Beatitudes!
Jesus proclaimed them in his first great sermon, preached on the shore of the
sea of Galilee. There was a very large crowd, so Jesus went up on the mountain
to teach his
disciples. That is why it is known as 'the Sermon on the Mount'. In the Bible,
the mountain is regarded as a place where God reveals himself. Jesus, by
preaching on the mount, reveals himself to be a divine teacher, a new Moses.
What does he tell us? He
shows us the way to life, the way that he himself has taken. Jesus himself is
the way, and he proposes this way as the path to true happiness. Throughout
his life, from his birth in the stable in Bethlehem until his death on the
cross and his
resurrection, Jesus embodied the Beatitudes. All the promises of God’s
Kingdom were fulfilled in him.
In proclaiming the Beatitudes, Jesus asks us to follow him and to travel with
him along the path of love, the path that alone leads to eternal life. It is
not an easy journey, yet the Lord promises us his grace and he never abandons
us. We face so many
challenges in life: poverty, distress, humiliation, the struggle for justice,
persecutions, the difficulty of daily conversion, the effort to remain
faithful to our call to holiness, and many others. But if we open the door to
Jesus and allow him to be
part of our lives, if we share our joys and sorrows with him, then we will
experience the peace and joy that only God, who is infinite love, can give.
The Beatitudes of Jesus are new and revolutionary. They present a model of
happiness contrary to what is usually communicated by the media and by the
prevailing wisdom. A worldly way of thinking finds it scandalous that God
became one of us and died on
a cross! According to the logic of this world, those whom Jesus proclaimed
blessed are regarded as useless, 'losers'. What is glorified is success at any
cost, affluence, the arrogance of power and self-affirmation at the expense of
others.
Jesus challenges us, young friends, to take seriously his approach to life and
to decide which path is right for us and leads to true joy. This is the great
challenge of faith. Jesus was not afraid to ask his disciples if they truly
wanted to follow him
or if they preferred to take another path. Simon Peter had the courage to
reply: 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life'. If you
too are able to say 'yes' to Jesus, your lives will become both meaningful and
fruitful.
2. The courage to be happy
What does it mean to be 'blessed' (makarioi in Greek)? To be blessed means to
be happy. Tell me: Do you really want to be happy? In an age when we are
constantly being enticed by vain and empty illusions of happiness, we risk
settling for less and
'thinking small' when it come to the meaning of life. Think big instead! Open
your hearts! As Blessed Piergiorgio Frassati once said, 'To live without
faith, to have no heritage to uphold, to fail to struggle constantly to defend
the truth: this is not
living. It is scraping by. We should never just scrape by, but really live'
(Letter to I. Bonini, 27 February 1925). In his homily on the day of
Piergiorgio Frassati’s beatification (20 May 1990), John Paul II called
him 'a man of the Beatitudes'
(AAS 82 [1990], 1518).
If you are really open to the deepest aspirations of your hearts, you will
realize that you possess an unquenchable thirst for happiness, and this will
allow you to expose and reject the 'low cost' offers and approaches all around
you. When we look only
for success, pleasure and possessions, and we turn these into idols, we may
well have moments of exhilaration, an illusory sense of satisfaction, but
ultimately we become enslaved, never satisfied, always looking for more. It is
a tragic thing to see a
young person who 'has everything', but is weary and weak.
Saint John, writing to young people, told them: 'You are strong, and the word
of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one'. oung people who
choose Christ are strong: they are fed by his word and they do not need to
‘stuff
themselves’ with other things! Have the courage to swim against the
tide. Have the courage to be truly happy! Say no to an ephemeral, superficial
and throwaway culture, a culture that assumes that you are incapable of taking
on responsibility and
facing the great challenges of life!
3. Blessed are the poor in spirit...
The first Beatitude, our theme for the next World Youth Day, says that the
poor in spirit are blessed for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. At a time when
so many people are suffering as a result of the financial crisis, it might
seem strange to link
poverty and happiness. How can we consider poverty a blessing?
First of all, let us try to understand what it means to be 'poor in spirit'.
When the Son of God became man, he chose the path of poverty and
self-emptying. As Saint Paul said in his letter to the Philippians: 'Let the
same mind be in you that was in
Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality
with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a
servant, being born in human likeness'. Jesus is God who strips himself of his
glory. Here we see
God’s choice to be poor: he was rich and yet he became poor in order to
enrich us through his poverty. His is the mystery we contemplate in the crib
when we see the Son of God lying in a manger, and later on the cross, where
his self-emptying
reaches its culmination.
The Greek adjective ptochos (poor) does not have a purely material meaning. It
means 'a beggar', and it should be seen as linked to the Jewish notion of the
anawim, 'God’s poor'. It suggests lowliness, a sense of one’s
limitations and
existential poverty. The anawim trust in the Lord, and they know that they can
count on him.
As Saint Therese of the Child Jesus clearly saw, by his incarnation Jesus came
among us as a poor beggar, asking for our love. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church tells us that 'man is a beggar before God' and that prayer is the
encounter of
God’s thirst and our own thirst.
Saint Francis of Assisi understood perfectly the secret of the Beatitude of
the poor in spirit. Indeed, when Jesus spoke to him through the leper and from
the crucifix, Francis recognized both God’s grandeur and his own
lowliness. In his prayer,
the Poor Man of Assisi would spend hours asking the Lord: 'Who are you?' 'Who
am I?' He renounced an affluent and carefree life in order to marry 'Lady
Poverty', to imitate Jesus and to follow the Gospel to the letter. Francis
lived in imitation of
Christ in his poverty and in love for the poor – for him the two were
inextricably linked – like two sides of one coin.
You might ask me, then: What can we do, specifically, to make poverty in
spirit a way of life, a real part of our own lives? I will reply by saying
three things.
First of all, try to be free with regard to material things. The Lord calls us
to a Gospel lifestyle marked by sobriety, by a refusal to yield to the culture
of consumerism. This means being concerned with the essentials and learning to
do without all
those unneeded extras which hem us in. Let us learn to be detached from
possessiveness and from the idolatry of money and lavish spending. Let us put
Jesus first. He can free us from the kinds of idol-worship which enslave us.
Put your trust in God,
dear young friends! He knows and loves us, and he never forgets us. Just as he
provides for the lilies of the field, so he will make sure that we lack
nothing. If we are to come through the financial crisis, we must be also ready
to change our lifestyle
and avoid so much wastefulness. Just as we need the courage to be happy, we
also need the courage to live simply.
Second, if we are to live by this Beatitude, all of us need to experience a
conversion in the way we see the poor. We have to care for them and be
sensitive to their spiritual and material needs. To you young people I
especially entrust the task of
restoring solidarity to the heart of human culture. Faced with old and new
forms of poverty – unemployment, migration and addictions of various
kinds – we have the duty to be alert and thoughtful, avoiding the
temptation to remain
indifferent. We have to remember all those who feel unloved, who have no hope
for the future and who have given up on life out of discouragement,
disappointment or fear. We have to learn to be on the side of the poor, and
not just indulge in rhetoric
about the poor! Let us go out to meet them, look into their eyes and listen to
them. The poor provide us with a concrete opportunity to encounter Christ
himself, and to touch his suffering flesh.
However – and this is my third point – the poor are not just
people to whom we can give something. They have much to offer us and to teach
us. How much we have to learn from the wisdom of the poor! Think about it:
several hundred years ago a
saint, Benedict Joseph Labre, who lived on the streets of Rome from the alms
he received, became a spiritual guide to all sorts of people, including nobles
and prelates. In a very real way, the poor are our teachers. They show us that
people’s
value is not measured by their possessions or how much money they have in the
bank. A poor person, a person lacking material possessions, always maintains
his or her dignity. The poor can teach us much about humility and trust in
God. In the parable of
the pharisee and the tax-collector, Jesus holds the tax-collector up as a
model because of his humility and his acknowledgement that he is a sinner. The
widow who gave her last two coins to the temple treasury is an example of the
generosity of all those who have next to nothing and yet give away everything
they have.
4. … for theirs is the kingdom of heaven
The central theme of the Gospel is the kingdom of God. Jesus is the kingdom of
God in person; he is Immanuel, God-with-us. And it is in the human heart that
the kingdom, God’s sovereignty, takes root and grows. The kingdom is at
once both gift and
promise. It has already been given to us in Jesus, but it has yet to be
realised in its fullness. That is why we pray to the Father each day: 'Thy
kingdom come'.
There is a close connection between poverty and evangelisation, between the
theme of the last World Youth Day – 'Go therefore, and make disciples of
all nations!' – and the theme for this year: 'Blessed are the poor in
spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven'. The Lord wants a poor Church which evangelises the
poor. When Jesus sent the Twelve out on mission, he said to them: 'Take no
gold, nor silver, nor copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two
tunics, nor sandals, nor a
staff; for the labourers deserve their food'. Evangelical poverty is a basic
condition for spreading the kingdom of God. The most beautiful and spontaneous
expressions of joy which I have seen during my life were by poor people who
had little to hold
onto. Evangelisation in our time will only take place as the result of
contagious joy.
We have seen, then, that the Beatitude of the poor in spirit shapes our
relationship with God, with material goods and with the poor. With the example
and words of Jesus before us, we realize how much we need to be converted, so
that the logic of being
more will prevail over that of having more! The saints can best help us to
understand the profound meaning of the Beatitudes. So the canonization of John
Paul II, to be celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter, will be an event
marked by immense joy.
He will be the great patron of the World Youth Days which he inaugurated and
always supported. In the communion of saints he will continue to be a father
and friend to all of you.
This month of April marks the thirtieth anniversary of the entrustment of the
Jubilee Cross of the Redemption to the young. That symbolic act by John Paul
II was the beginning of the great youth pilgrimage which has since crossed the
five continents.
The Pope’s words on that Easter Sunday in 1984 remain memorable: 'My
dear young people, at the conclusion of the Holy Year, I entrust to you the
sign of this Jubilee Year: the cross of Christ! Carry it throughout the world
as a symbol of the love
of the Lord Jesus for humanity, and proclaim to everyone that it is only in
Christ, who died and rose from the dead, that salvation and redemption are to
be found'.
Dear friends, the Magnificat, the Canticle of Mary, poor in spirit, is also
the song of everyone who lives by the Beatitudes. The joy of the Gospel arises
from a heart which, in its poverty, rejoices and marvels at the works of God,
like the heart of
Our Lady, whom all generations call 'blessed'. May Mary, Mother of the poor
and Star of the new evangelisation help us to live the Gospel, to embody the
Beatitudes in our lives, and to have the courage always to be happy.”
___________________________________________________________
THE POPE TO THE YOUNG: REJECT LOW-COST HAPPINESS
Vatican City, 6 February 2014 (VIS) – The Pontifical Council for the
Laity has issued a press release to explain the content and objectives of the
Holy Father's message for the 29th World Youth Day.
“This is the first annual Message from Pope Francis to the youth of the
world. It follows the tradition begun by Blessed John Paul II and continued by
Benedict XVI on the occasion of each World Youth Day (WYD). Pope Francis is
resuming the
conversation he began with young people at the very successful WYD that took
place in Rio de Janeiro in July 2013. He presents the themes for the next
three WYDs in order to set in motion the three-year path of spiritual
preparation leading to the
international celebration in Krakow in July 2016.
The themes for the next three WYDs are taken from the Beatitudes. The Holy
Father considers this passage from Matthew’s Gospel to be a central
point of reference in a Christian’s life. It should be part of
everyone’s life plan.
In this Message, the Holy Father reminds young people that Jesus himself
showed the way by embodying the Beatitudes in his life. It is a real challenge
for young people today to live according to the Beatitudes by following Jesus.
It means going against
the tide and being witnesses of revolutionary innovation. As you cannot be a
real Christian and “think small” about life, the Pope urges young
people to resist 'low cost' offers of happiness and to have the courage to be
truly happy, a gift
that only God can give.
Pope Francis explains to young people what it means to be 'poor in spirit',
thus entering into the heart of the theme for the next World Youth Day. Jesus
himself chose the way of dispossession and poverty. The Pope addressed a
pressing invitation to
young people to imitate Jesus, and he pointed to the example of Saint Francis
of Assisi. Young Christians are therefore called to conversion, to embrace an
evangelical lifestyle, one of moderation in which we seek the essential and
act in solidarity
with the poor. The Pope explains that the poor are both the 'suffering flesh'
of Christ that we are all called to personally touch, and they are also true
masters of life, often with much to offer on the human and spiritual plane.
The Pope emphasises the close connection between the theme for the Rio WYD
– 'Go and make disciples of all nations!' – and the Beatitude
about the poor in spirit. Pope Francis explains, 'evangelical poverty is a
basic condition for spreading
the kingdom of God'. It is often the most simple of hearts that express true
joy, and evangelisation depends on this joy.
The Holy Father reminds young people that thirty years have passed since the
Cross of the Jubilee of the Redemption was entrusted to young people. The
anniversary is on 22 April. 'That symbolic act by John Paul II was the
beginning of the great youth
pilgrimage which has since crossed the five continents'. Pope Francis tells
young people that after John Paul II’s canonisation, 'an event marked by
immense joy', he will be 'the great patron of the World Youth Days which he
inaugurated and always
supported'”.
___________________________________________________________
POPE FRANCIS DEEPLY SADDENED BY THE FIRE IN BARRACAS, BUENOS AIRES
Vatican City, 6 February 2014 (VIS) – In the wake of yesterday's fire in
the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Barracas, in which nine firefighters were
killed and several people injured, the Holy Father sent a telegram to the
metropolitan archbishop
of Buenos Aires, Mario Aurelio Poli. The Pope writes that he is “deeply
saddened” by the tragic accident, communicates his closeness to all
those affected, and is “united with all those who have suffered or been
killed in this
unfortunate event”.
“In these sad circumstances, in praying for the eternal repose of those
public servants who died in the course of duty, I ask God to grant His comfort
and strength to all those affected by the tragedy, and to inspire feelings of
brotherly
solidarity to help them face this hardship as best they can. I also wish to
offer a word of hope to those families who mourn their loved ones, and also to
those who await the full recovery of the injured”.
Pope Francis concludes by invoking the protection of Our Lady of Lujan, and
imparts “the comfort of my apostolic blessing to the dear people of
Buenos Aires, ever present in my heart”.
___________________________________________________________
ARCHBISHOP TOMASI: THE HOLY SEE WILL RESPOND TO THE CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS OF
THE U.N. COMMITTEE FOR THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
Vatican City, 6 February 2014 (VIS) – Yesterday afternoon Archbishop
Silvano Tomasi, permanent observer for the Holy See at the United Nations in
Geneva commented on the concluding observations of the United Nations
Committee for the Rights of the
Child, which were very critical regarding the issue of the abuse of minors by
members of the clergy and the actions taken by the Vatican and the Holy See on
the matter, and urges revision of the Church's teaching on certain themes such
as contraception
and abortion.
“My first impression: we need to wait, read attentively and analyse in
detail what the members of this Commission have written”, commented the
nuncio. “But my first reaction is of surprise, because of the negative
aspects of the
document they have produced and that it looks almost as if it were already
prepared before the meeting of the Committee with the delegation of the Holy
See, which had given in detail precise responses on various points, which have
not been reported in
this conclusive document or at least have not seemed to be taken into serious
consideration. In fact, the document does not seem to be updated, taking into
account what, over the last few years, has been done by the Holy See, with the
measures taken
directly from the authority of Vatican City State and then in various
countries by the individual Episcopal Conferences. It therefore lacks a
correct and updated perspective, which in reality has seen a series of changes
for the protection o
f
children that, it seems to me, are difficult to find, at the same level of
commitment, in other institutions or even in other States. This is simply a
question of facts, of evidence, which cannot be distorted!”.
With regard to the Holy See's reaction to the document, the archbishop
affirmed that “the Holy See will respond, because it is a member, a
State that is part of the Convention: it has ratified it and intends to
observe it in the spirit and letter
of this Convention, without added ideologies or impositions that lie outside
of the Convention itself. For instance: in its Preamble, the Convention on the
Protection of Children talks about the defence of life and the protection of
children before and
after birth; whereas the recommendation made to the Holy See is that of
changing its position on the question of abortion! Of course, when a child is
killed it no longer has rights! Hence this seems to me to be a real
contradiction of the fundamental
objective of the Convention, which is the protection of children. This
Committee has not done a good service to the United Nations, seeking to
introduce and request the Holy See to change its non-negotiable teaching! So,
it is somewh
at sad
to see that the Committee has not grasped in depth the nature and functions of
the Holy See that, however, has expressed clearly to the Committee its
decision to carry forward the Convention's requests on the rights of the
child, but defining precisely
and protecting first of all those fundamental values that give real and
effective protection to the child”.
The observer for the Holy See also commented on the fact that the United
Nations had said at one time that the Vatican had responded better than other
countries to the protection of minors, and with regard to the change of
opinion expressed in the
document published yesterday, he said, “the introduction to the final
report recognised the clarity of the answers that were given; there was no
attempt to avoid any request made by the Committee, on the basis of the
evidence available, and where
there was no immediate information, we had promised to provide it in the
future, according to the directives of the Holy See, as all countries do. So
it seemed to be a constructive dialogue and I think it should remain as such.
Therefore, given the
impression received through direct dialogue by the delegation of the Holy See
with the Committee and the text of the conclusions and recommendations, it is
tempting to say that probably that text had already been written, and does not
refle
ct the
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