VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 161   
   DATE 22-09-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - Pope Francis gives thanks to the Virgin for his trip to Albania   
   - Interreligious meeting in Tirana: "God's name must not be used to commit   
   violence"   
   - In the Cathedral of Tirana: "Today we have touched martyrs"   
   - Visit to the Bethany Centre: "Here faith becomes concrete charity"   
   - Pope Francis recounts his emotional trip to Albania   
   - The Holy Father receives the president of Latvia   
   - The Church needs pastors able to kneel before others   
   - The Church must be a sign of closeness to God's mercy   
   - Special Commission to study marriage annulment reform   
   - Cardinal Scola special envoy to Cologne   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Pope Francis gives thanks to the Virgin for his trip to Albania   
    Vatican City, 22 September 2014 (VIS) - At around midday today the Holy   
   Father visited the Basilica of St. Mary Major to give thanks to the Virgin for   
   her protection following the completion of his trip to Albania.   
    As usual, he prayed in silence in the Salus Populi Romani Chapel, where he   
   left a large floral tribute he had received yesterday evening in Albania   
   during his final encounter at the Bethany Centre.   
    The faithful present in the Basilica joined in singing the Salve Regina, and   
   the Pope returned to the Vatican at around 12.30.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Interreligious meeting in Tirana: "God's name must not be used to commit   
   violence"   
    Vatican City, 21 September 2014 (VIS) - At 4 p.m. yesterday, after lunch in   
   the apostolic nunciature with the Albanian bishops, Pope Francis proceeded to   
   the Catholic University "Our Lady of Good Counsel" - instituted in 2004 and   
   administrated by a foundation linked to the Religious Congregation of the Sons   
   of the Immaculate Conception of Tirana - to meet with the heads of other   
   religions and Christian denominations.   
    The event was attended by representatives of the six largest religious   
   communities in the country: Muslim, Bektashi (an Islamic Sufi order),   
   Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical and Jewish. The Pope expressed his joy at   
   meeting with them as their presence together was a sign of dialogue and   
   collaboration for the good of society as a whole.   
    Pope Francis began his discourse by remarking that Albania had sadly   
   "witnessed the violence and tragedy that can be caused by a forced exclusion   
   of God from personal and communal life". He continued, "When, in the name of   
   an ideology, there is an attempt to remove God from society, it ends up   
   adoring idols, and very soon men and women lose their way, their dignity is   
   trampled and their rights violated. You know well how much pain comes from the   
   denial of freedom of conscience and of religious freedom, and how from such a   
   wound comes a humanity that is impoverished because it lacks hope and ideals".   
    However, the changes that have taken place since the 1990s have had, as a   
   positive effect, the creation of the conditions for authentic religious   
   freedom, making it possible for communities "to renew traditions that were   
   never really extinguished, despite fierce persecution". This religious freedom   
   has enabled everyone to offer, according to his or her own religious   
   convictions, "a positive contribution to the moral, and subsequently the   
   economic, reconstruction of the country".   
    However, he added, quoting the words of St. John Paul II, "True religious   
   freedom shuns the temptation to intolerance and sectarianism, and promotes   
   attitudes of respect and constructive dialogue. We cannot deny that   
   intolerance towards those with different religious convictions is a   
   particularly insidious enemy, one which today is being witnessed in various   
   areas around the world. All believers must be particularly vigilant so that,   
   in living out with conviction our religious and ethical code, we may always   
   express the mystery we intend to honour. This means that all those forms which   
   present a distorted use of religion, must be firmly refuted as false since   
   they are unworthy of God or humanity. Authentic religion is a source of peace   
   and not of violence. No one must use the name of God to commit violence. To   
   kill in the name of God is a grave sacrilege. To discriminate in the name of   
   God is inhuman".   
    "From this point of view, religious freedom is not a right which can be   
   guaranteed solely by existing legislation, although laws are necessary", he   
   remarked. "Rather, religious freedom is a shared space, an atmosphere of   
   respect and cooperation that must be built with the participation of all, even   
   those who have no religious convictions". He went on to outline two attitudes   
   that may be especially useful in promoting this fundamental freedom.   
    "The first is that of regarding every man and woman, even those of different   
   religious traditions, not as rivals, less still enemies, but rather as   
   brothers and sisters. When a person is secure in his or her own beliefs, there   
   is no need to impose or put pressure on others: there is a conviction that   
   truth has its own power of attraction. ... Each religious tradition, from   
   within, must be able to take account of the existence of others".   
    The second is "commitment to the common good. Whenever belonging to a   
   specific religious tradition gives rise to service with conviction, generosity   
   and concern for the whole of society without making distinctions, then there   
   too exists an authentic and mature development of religious freedom, which   
   appears not only as a space in which to legitimately defend one's autonomy,   
   but also as a potential that enriches the human family as it advances".   
    "Let us look around us: there are so many poor and needy people, so many   
   societies that try to find a more inclusive way of social justice and path of   
   economic development!" exclaimed the Holy Father. "How great is the need for   
   the human heart to be firmly fixed on the deepest meaning of experiences in   
   life and rooted in a rediscovery of hope! Men and women, inspired in these   
   areas by the values of their respective religious traditions, can offer an   
   important, and even unique, contribution. This is truly a fertile land   
   offering much fruit, also in the field of interreligious dialogue".   
    "But I would also like to mention an ever-present spectre, that of   
   relativism: "it is all relative". In this respect, we must keep a basic   
   principle clear in our minds: it is not possible to enter into dialogue other   
   than from the standpoint of one's own identity. Without identity dialogue   
   cannot exist. It would be the spectre of a dialogue, a dialogue on air:   
   without purpose. Each one of us has his or her own religious identity and is   
   faithful to it. But the Lord knows how to lead history on. Each one of us   
   starts from his or her own identity, without pretending to have another,   
   because it is not useful ... and this is relativism. What we have in common is   
   the path of life, and the good will to start out from one's own identity for   
   the good of our brothers and sisters. Each one of us offers the witness of his   
   or her own identity to the other, and dialogues with the other. After this,   
   dialogue may proceed on theological questions, but the most important and most   
   beautiful thing is to walk together without betraying one's own identity,   
   without masking it, without hypocrisy".   
    Pope Francis concluded his address by encouraging religious leaders to   
   maintain and develop "the tradition of good relations among the various   
   religious communities in Albania, and to be united in serving your beloved   
   homeland. With a touch of humour, it may be said that this is like a football   
   team: Catholics 'in competition' alongside all the others but all united   
   together for the good of the country and for humanity. Continue to be a sign,   
   for your country and beyond, that good relations and fruitful cooperation are   
   truly possible among men and women of different religions".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    In the Cathedral of Tirana: "Today we have touched martyrs"   
    Vatican City, 21 September 2014 (VIS) - Following the interreligious meeting   
   at the Catholic University, Pope Francis transferred to the Cathedral of St.   
   Paul in the centre of Tirana to celebrate vespers with priests, religious,   
   seminarians and lay movements. The church, consecrated in 2002, is able to   
   hold up to 700 persons and a large stained glass window depicting the   
   encounter between St. John Paul II and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.   
    The Holy Father had prepared a discourse to deliver there, but after hearing   
   the testimony of an 83 year-old priest and an 85 year-old nun who had both   
   survived persecution under the communist regime, he was moved to tears,   
   embraced them, and setting aside the official text which he handed to the   
   Archbishop of Tirana, Rrok Mirdita, he addressed those present with some   
   off-the-cuff comments, published in full below:   
    "I had prepared a few words to say to you, and I will give them to the   
   Archbishop, who will make them available for you later. The translation is   
   already done. He will see that you get them.   
    But right now I would like to tell you something else. In the reading we   
   heard these words: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,   
   the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all   
   our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any   
   affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God'.   
   This is the text which the Church invites us to reflect upon at this evening's   
   Vespers. Over the past two months I have been preparing for this Visit by   
   reading the history of the persecution in Albania. For me it was surprising: I   
   did not know that your people had suffered so greatly! Then today, on the road   
   from the airport to the square, there were all those pictures of the martyrs.   
   It is clear that this people today continues to remember their martyrs, those   
   who suffered so dearly! A people of martyrs. And today at the beginning of the   
   celebration, I touched two of them.   
    "What I can say to you is what they themselves have said, by their lives, by   
   their plain words. They told their stories simply, yet they spoke of so much   
   pain. We can ask them: 'How did you manage to survive such trials?'. And they   
   will tell us what we heard in this passage from the Second Letter to the   
   Corinthians: 'God is the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation. He   
   is the one who consoled us'. They have told us so, and in a straightforward   
   way. They suffered greatly. They suffered physically, mentally, with the   
   anguish of uncertainty: they did not know whether they would be shot or not,   
   and so they lived with this anguish. And the Lord consoled them.   
    "I think of Peter, imprisoned and in chains, while the whole Church prayed   
   for him. And the Lord consoled Peter. And the martyrs, including those whom we   
   heard today: the Lord consoled them because there were people in the Church,   
   the People of God - devout and good old women, so many cloistered nuns - who   
   were praying for them.   
    "This is the mystery of the Church: when the Church asks the Lord to console   
   his people, the Lord consoles them, quietly, even secretly. He consoles them   
   in the depths of the heart and he comforts them with strength. I am certain   
   that they [the martyrs] do not boast of what they have experienced, because   
   they know that it was the Lord who sustained them.   
    "But they have something to tell us! They tell us that we, who have been   
   called by the Lord to follow him closely, must find our consolation in him   
   alone. Woe to us if we seek consolation elsewhere! Woe to priests and   
   religious, sisters and novices, consecrated men and women, when they seek   
   consolation far from the Lord! Today I don't want to be harsh and severe with   
   you, but I want you to realise very clearly that if you look for consolation   
   anywhere else, you will not be happy! Even more, you will be unable to comfort   
   others, for your own heart is closed to the Lord's consolation. You will end   
   up, as the great Elijah said to the people of Israel, 'limping with both legs'.   
    "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of   
   mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction,   
   so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the   
   consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.   
    "That is what these two [the martyrs] have done, today. Humbly, without   
   pretence or boasting, they have done a service for us: they have consoled us.   
   They also tell us this: 'We are sinners, but the Lord was with us. This is the   
   path. Do not be discouraged!' Excuse me, if I use you as an example, but all   
   of us have to be examples for one another. Let us go home reflecting on this:   
   today we have touched martyrs".   
    The following is the full text of the discourse prepared for the Albanian   
   clergy:   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)