VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 210   
   DATE 27-11-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - Serve new wine in new wineskins says the Pope to representatives of   
   consecrated life   
   - Migrants and the poor, dual challenge of urban pastoral ministry   
   - To the Pauline family: take the breath of the Gospel to the most diverse   
   cultures and social contexts   
   - Holy Father's calendar for December 2014 and January 2015   
   - Christians and Muslims condemn extremism and violence committed in the name   
   of religion   
   - Audiences   
      
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    Serve new wine in new wineskins says the Pope to representatives of   
   consecrated life   
    Vatican City, 27 November 2014 (VIS) - The Congregration for the Institutes   
   of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life celebrated their   
   plenary assembly reflecting on the current state of consecrated life in the   
   Church, fifty years after the Conciliar documents "Lumen gentium" and   
   "Perfectae caritatis". The theme chosen was "New wine in new wineskins", and   
   Pope Francis, who received eighty participants in audience this morning, based   
   his discourse on the multiple meanings of this phrase.   
    "In the part of the Lord's vineyard selected by those who have chosen to   
   imitate Christ more closely through the profession of evangelical counsels,   
   new grapes are matured and new wine is obtained", said the Holy Father. "In   
   these days you have been offered the chance to discern the quality and ageing   
   of the 'new wine' that has been produced during the long season of renewal,   
   and at the same time to evaluate whether the wineskins that contain it,   
   represented by the institutional forms present today in consecrated life, are   
   adequate to contain this 'new wine' and to favour its full maturation. As I   
   have recalled many times, we must not be afraid of setting aside the 'old   
   wineskins': of renewing those habits and those structures that, in the life of   
   the Church and therefore also in consecrated life, we realise no longer   
   respond to what God asks of us today to further His Kingdom in the world: the   
   structures that give us false protection and that condition the dynamism of   
   charity; the habits that distance us from the flock to which we are sent and   
   prevent us from hearing the cry of those who await the Good News of Jesus   
   Christ".   
    "You do not hide those areas of weakness that it is possible to find today in   
   consecrated life (such as the resistance to change of certain sectors, the   
   diminished power of attraction, the not insignificant number of those who   
   abandon the vocation, the fragility of certain formative itineraries, concern   
   for institutional and ministerial tasks at the expense of spiritual life, the   
   difficult integration of cultural and generational diversity, and a   
   problematic balance in the exercise of authority and the use of goods), but   
   you wish to continue to listen for signals from the Spirit, that opens up new   
   horizons and leads to new paths, always starting out from the supreme rule of   
   the Gospel and inspired by the bold creativity of your founders".   
    The Pope went on to list the criteria to follow for guidance in the "arduous   
   task of evaluating the new wine and testing the quality of the wineskins": the   
   evangelical originality of the choices, charismatic fidelity, the primary of   
   service, attention to the least and most fragile, and respect for the dignity   
   of every person.   
    He encouraged those present to "continue to work with generosity and   
   resourcefulness in the Lord's vineyard", to obtain "that generous wine that   
   will be able to reinvigorate the life of the Church and to bring cheer to the   
   heart of the many brothers and sisters in need of your care", and he   
   underlined that "even the substitution of old for new wineskins ... does not   
   take place automatically, but requires commitment and ability, to offer the   
   suitable space for welcoming and bringing to fruition the new gifts with which   
   the Spirit continues to embellish the Church, His spouse". He concluded, "do   
   not forget ... to carry on the process of renewal that has been initiated and   
   to a great extent accomplished in these fifty years, examining every novelty   
   in the light of the Word of God and in listening to the needs of the Church   
   and of the contemporary world".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Migrants and the poor, dual challenge of urban pastoral ministry   
    Vatican City, 27 November 2014 (VIS) - This morning, in the Consistory Hall   
   of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Francis received in audience the participants in   
   the second phase of the International Pastoral Congress on the World's Big   
   Cities, held in Barcelona, Spain from 24 to 26 November. The Holy Father took   
   the opportunity to explore in depth four challenges and possible prospects for   
   urban pastoral ministry. "The places where God is calling us to ... and the   
   aspects to which we should pay special attention".   
    Firstly, he mentioned the need to "implement a change in our pastoral   
   mentality". We are no longer in the era "in which the Church was the sole   
   point of reference for culture". Previously, "as an authentic teacher, she was   
   aware of her responsibility to outline and to impose not only cultural forms   
   but also values". He continued, "Today we are no longer the only ones who   
   produce culture, nor are we the first or the most listened to. We are   
   therefore in need of a change in pastoral mentality, but not a 'relativist   
   pastoral'", that in its wish to be part of the cultural mix, "loses its   
   evangelical perspective, leaving humanity to its own devices and freed from   
   God's hand. No, this is the path of relativism, the easy route. This cannot be   
   considered as pastoral ministry! He who acts in this way is not truly   
   interested in man, but instead leaves him to the mercy of two equally grave   
   dangers: concealing both Jesus, and the truth of man himself, from him - a way   
   that leads humanity to solitude and death". Therefore, the Pope added, "we   
   need to have the courage to carry out an evangelising pastoral ministry, bold   
   and without fear, as men, women, families and the various groups that inhabit   
   the city expect from us, and need for their lives, the Good News that is Jesus   
   and His Gospel".   
    As a second challenge, he emphasised "dialogue with multiculturality" and the   
   need for pastoral dialogue without relativism, that does not negotiate its own   
   Christian identity, but that instead seeks to reach the heart of others, of   
   those different to ourselves, and to sow the Gospel there. We need a   
   contemplative attitude, that without denying the contribution of the different   
   sciences in understanding the urban phenomenon - these contributions are   
   important - seeks to discover the foundation of cultures, that in their   
   deepest core are always open to and thirst for God". To face this challenge,   
   Francis underlined that it would help us greatly to know the "invisible   
   cities, the groups or human territories that are identified by their symbols,   
   languages, rites and ways of narrating life".   
    "The religiosity of the people" was the third point he focused on. "We must   
   discover, in the religiosity of our populations, the authentic religious   
   substratum, that in many cases is Christian and Catholic. We must not fail to   
   recognise, or regard with disdain, this experience of God that, although at   
   times dispersed or mixed with other things, needs to be discovered and not   
   constructed. He we find the semina Verbi sown by the Spirit of the Lord". The   
   Pope also commented on the many migrants and poor people who fill our cities,   
   "pilgrims of life, in search of salvation", who pose a "dual challenge": that   
   of "being hospitable to the poor and migrants, not generally the case in the   
   city, which pushes them away, and of recognising the value of their faith".   
   "The urban poor", who constitute the fourth point with which the Holy Father   
   concluded his discourse, are "excluded and discarded. The Church cannot ignore   
   their cry, nor can she enter into the game of unjust, mean and self-serving   
   systems that seek to render them invisible".   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)