VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 166   
   DATE 29-09-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - Audience with the president of Malta: commitment of Church and state in the   
   phenomenon of migration   
   - To the members of the United Bible Societies: "Ignorance of Scripture is   
   ignorance of Christ"   
   - The young and the elderly: without balance between generations, the freedom   
   of society becomes authoritarianism   
   - Francis praises the example of Blessed Alvaro del Portillo and asks for   
   prayers for the upcoming Synod   
   - The Pope presides at liturgy commemorating the 200th anniversary of the   
   reconstitution of the Society of Jesus   
   - The Pope's message for the beatification of the Opus Dei prelate Alvaro del   
   Portillo: in the simplicity of everyday life we can find the way to holiness   
   - Francis: the encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist is a source of hope for   
   the world   
   - Communicating the family: a privileged place of encounter with the gift of   
   love   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Audience with the president of Malta: commitment of Church and state in the   
   phenomenon of migration   
    Vatican City, 29 September 2014 (VIS) - Today, in the Vatican Apostolic   
   Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the president of Malta,   
   Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, who subsequently met with Archbishop Dominique   
   Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.   
    The cordial discussions focused on the good relations between the Holy See   
   and Malta and highlighted the significant contribution made by the Catholic   
   Church in the fields of education and welfare, especially in favour of the   
   poor. The conversation then turned to various themes of mutual interest, with   
   special reference to the role of Christian values in the edification of   
   Maltese society and the strengthening of the institution of the family.   
    Finally, the Parties discussed Malta's contribution within the European   
   Union, along with a number of questions of an international nature, such as   
   the situations of conflict in the Mediterranean region, expressing hope for a   
   prompt solution via dialogue, as well as the phenomenon of migration towards   
   Europe, which involves commitment on the part of the Church and the Government.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    To the members of the United Bible Societies: "Ignorance of Scripture is   
   ignorance of Christ"   
    Vatican City, 29 September 2014 (VIS) - "Yours is the fruit of a patient,   
   careful, fraternal, competent and, above all, faithful work. If you do not   
   believe, you do not understand; if you do not believe, you cannot stand firm",   
   said the Holy Father to the members of the United Bible Societies, whom he   
   received this morning in the Consistory Hall for the presentation of the   
   Italian language Bible, "Parola del Signore - La Bibbia Interconfessionale in   
   lingua corrente" ("The Word of the Lord - The Interconfessional Bible in   
   current language"). "I hope that this text, which is presented with the   
   blessing of the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Federation of Evangelical   
   Churches in Italy, will encourage all Italian-speaking Christians to meditate   
   on, life, bear witness to and celebrate God's message".   
    "I would very much like all Christians to be able to learn 'the sublime   
   science of Jesus Christ' through frequent reading of the Word of God, as the   
   sacred text offers nourishment for the soul and is the pure and perennial   
   source of the spiritual life of us all", he added. "We must make every effort   
   so that each believer may read God's Word, because as Saint Jerome says,   
   'ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ'". The Pope offered his   
   heartfelt thanks to those present for their valuable work, encouraging them to   
   "continue on the journey you have undertaken, so as to allow for the better   
   and deeper comprehension of the Word of the living God".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The young and the elderly: without balance between generations, the freedom   
   of society becomes authoritarianism   
    Vatican City, 28 September 2014 (VIS) - Today in St. Peter's Square a meeting   
   was held to celebrate old age, organised by the Pontifical Council for the   
   Family, entitled "The blessing of long life". The meeting, which brought   
   together thousands of elderly and grandparents accompanied by their relatives   
   from all over the world, began at 8.30 a.m. with a "tour of old age through   
   five Biblical episodes". An hour later, the Holy Father arrived in the Square   
   to join the elderly, with whom he had spoken before Mass at 10.30 a.m. The   
   Pope emeritus Benedict XVI was personally invited by Pope Francis and   
   participated in the meeting.   
    The Pope explained that the first reading "echoes in various ways the Fourth   
   Commandment: 'Honour your father and your mother, so that your days may be   
   long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you'. A people has no future   
   without such an encounter between generations, without children being able to   
   accept with gratitude the witness of life from the hands of their parents. And   
   part of this gratitude for those who gave you life is also gratitude for our   
   heavenly Father. There are times when generations of young people, for complex   
   historical and cultural reasons, feel a deeper need to be independent from   
   their parents, 'breaking free', as it were, from the legacy of the older   
   generation. It is a kind of adolescent rebellion. But unless the encounter,   
   the meeting of generations, is re-established, unless a new and fruitful   
   intergenerational equilibrium is restored, what results is a serious   
   impoverishment for all, and the freedom which prevails in society is actually   
   a false freedom, which almost always becomes a form of authoritarianism".   
    Francis emphasised that "Jesus did not abolish the law of the family and the   
   passing of generations, but brought it to fulfilment. The Lord formed a new   
   family, in which bonds of kinship are less important than our relationship   
   with him and our doing the will of God the Father. Yet the love of Jesus and   
   the Father completes and fulfils our love of parents, brothers and sisters,   
   and grandparents; it renews family relationships with the lymph of the Gospel   
   and of the Holy Spirit". He remarked that Mary, when she visited her relatives   
   Elizabeth and Zechariah, "was able to listen to those elderly and amazed   
   parents; she treasured their wisdom, and it proved precious for her in her   
   journey as a woman, as a wife and as a mother", and added, "the Virgin Mary   
   likewise shows us the way: the way of encounter between the young and the   
   elderly. The future of a people necessarily supposes this encounter: the young   
   give the strength which enable a people to move forward, while the elderly   
   consolidate this strength by their memory and their traditional wisdom".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Francis praises the example of Blessed Alvaro del Portillo and asks for   
   prayers for the upcoming Synod   
    Vatican City, 28 September 2014 (VIS) - At the end of today's Holy Mass, the   
   Pope prayed the Angelus with the faithful present in St. Peter's Square, after   
   greeting elderly pilgrims from various countries, the participants in the   
   congress-pilgrimage "Singing faith", organised to commemorate the thirtieth   
   anniversary of the choir of the diocese of Roma, and after mentioning the   
   beatification of Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, celebrated in Madrid, Spain on   
   Saturday. "May his exemplary Christian and priestly witness awaken in many   
   people the wish to join with Jesus and the Gospel". Pope Francis went on to   
   remind those present that the Assembly of the Synod on the Family begins next   
   Sunday, and encouraged all the faithful to pray for this important event, that   
   he entrusts to the intercession of Mary "Salus Populi Romani".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pope presides at liturgy commemorating the 200th anniversary of the   
   reconstitution of the Society of Jesus   
    Vatican City, 28 September 2014 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, in the Basilica   
   of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, the Pope presided at a liturgy of thanksgiving   
   to mark the 200th anniversary of the reconstitution of the Society of Jesus in   
   the universal Church, sanctioned by Pope Pius VII with the Bull "Sollicitudo   
   Omnium ecclesiarum" of 7 August 1814. During the liturgy, which included the   
   Vespers prayer and the Te Deum, following the Gospel reading and before the   
   renewal of vows by some of the Jesuits present, the Holy Father gave a homily,   
   extensive extracts of which are published below:   
    "The Society under the name of Jesus has lived difficult times of   
   persecution. During the leadership of Fr. Lorenzo Ricci, 'enemies of the   
   Church succeeded in obtaining the suppression of the Society' by my   
   predecessor Clement XIV. Today, remembering its restoration, we are called to   
   recover our memory, calling to mind the benefits received and the particular   
   gifts. Today, I want to do that here with you.   
    "In times of trial and tribulation, dust clouds of doubt and suffering are   
   always raised and it is not easy to move forward, to continue the journey.   
   Many temptations come, especially in difficult times and in crises: to stop to   
   discuss ideas, to allow oneself to be carried away by the desolation, to focus   
   on the fact of being persecuted, and not to see the other. Reading the letters   
   of Fr. Ricci, one thing struck me: his ability to avoid being harnessed by   
   these temptations and to propose to the Jesuits, in a time of trouble, a   
   vision of the things that rooted them even more in the spirituality of the   
   Society".   
    "The Society ... lived the conflict to the end, without minimising it. It   
   lived humiliation along with the humiliated Christ; it obeyed. You never save   
   yourself from conflict with cunning and with strategies of resistance. In the   
   confusion and humiliation, the Society preferred to live the discernment of   
   God's will, without seeking a way out of the conflict in a seemingly quiet   
   manner. It is never apparent tranquillity that satisfies our hearts, but true   
   peace that is a gift from God. One should never seek the easy 'compromise'.   
   ... Only discernment saves us from real uprooting, from true 'suppression' of   
   the heart, which is selfishness, worldliness, the loss of our horizon. Our   
   hope, is Jesus; it is only Jesus. Thus Fr. Ricci and the Society during the   
   suppression privileged history rather than a grey 'little tale', knowing that   
   love judges history and that hope - even in darkness - is greater than our   
   expectations. ... We can review briefly this process of discernment and   
   service. When in 1759, the decrees of Pombal destroyed the Portuguese   
   provinces of the Society, Fr. Ricci lived the conflict, not complaining and   
   letting himself fall into desolation, but inviting prayers to ask for the good   
   spirit, the true supernatural spirit of vocation, the perfect docility to   
   God's grace. When in 1761, the storm advanced in France ... he asked that all   
   trust be placed in God. ... In 1760, after the expulsion of the Spanish   
   Jesuits, he continued to call for prayer. And finally, on February 21, 1773,   
   just six months before the signing of the Brief Dominus ac Redemptor, with the   
   utter lack of human help, he sees the hand of God's mercy, which invites   
   those, who submit to the test, not to confide in anyone but God. ... The   
   important thing for Fr. Ricci that the Society, until the last, is true to the   
   spirit of its vocation, which is for the greater glory of God and the   
   salvation of souls.   
    "The Society, even faced with its own demise, remained true to the purpose   
   for which it was founded. To this, Ricci concludes with an exhortation to keep   
   alive the spirit of charity, unity, obedience, patience, evangelical   
   simplicity, true friendship with God. Everything else is worldliness.   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)