It is my prayerful hope that this Lent will prove spiritually fruitful for   
   each believer and every ecclesial community. I ask all of you to pray for me.   
   May the Lord bless you and Our Lady keep you".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Indifference, key theme of the Pope's Message for Lent 2015   
    Vatican City, 27 January 2015 (VIS) - A press conference was held in the Holy   
   See Press Office his morning, during which Msgr. Giampietro Dal Toso,   
   secretary of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum", presented the Pope's Message   
   for Lent 2015, explaining that its central theme is indifference, an issue   
   that the Holy Father has touched upon on a number of occasions. In addition,   
   in his speech to the UN last September Cardinal Secretary of State Parolin   
   emphasised "widespread indifference", which he equated with an "apathy" that   
   is at times even "synonymous with irresponsibility".   
    Indifference is, therefore, "an important concept to explain the different   
   phenomena of the modern world. In this way, we can understand this same   
   concept, including it in what is surely a partial interpretation of a certain   
   culture. Indifference comes from a lack of difference, from a lack of   
   attention to the difference. This can be applied at least on three levels".   
    "At the interpersonal level, the play on words between difference and   
   indifference is perhaps more easily understood. On the one hand, the   
   difference is stressed in order to provoke a separation. On the other hand, a   
   lack of attention to the difference between the other and myself conforms the   
   other to one's own parameters and thus annihilates him".   
    "At the cultural level, that is, in the everyday environment that helps shape   
   our thoughts and judgement, I seem to notice an indifference to values. This   
   is not only related to a lack of awareness of values or an incomplete   
   observance of values; it is above all a lack of judgement on values. In this   
   way, every choice becomes interchangeable, every option becomes viable, any   
   assessment on good and evil, truth and falsity becomes useless. If there is no   
   difference, everything is the same and is therefore not permissible for anyone   
   to propose something that is more or less appropriate to a person's nature. In   
   my opinion, global uniformity, the lowering of the standards of values that   
   comes from the lack of difference is linked to the experience of many of our   
   contemporaries of a lack of meaning. If everything is the same, if nothing is   
   different and everything is therefore more or less valid, in what can one   
   invest one's life? If everything is the same, it means that nothing really has   
   value and therefore it means nothing fully deserves our gift".   
    "We then come to a third level, that more specifically regards metaphysical   
   principles. Here lies the greatest indifference, the largest and most   
   consequential form of the lack of attention to difference, that is:   
   indifference towards God and as a result, a lack of attention to the   
   difference between the Creator and creature, which causes so much harm to   
   modern man as it leads him to believe that he is God, while he must   
   continually push against his own limitations".   
    Msgr. Dal Toso went on to consider the globalisation of indifference not   
   merely as a geographical phenomenon, but also a cultural one. As it spreads, a   
   Western concept of the world, or Weltanschauung, prevails, linked not only to   
   relationships but also as an existential attitude. The Church does not   
   denounce certain situations simply in order to censure them but instead to   
   offer paths towards healing. For this reason, the Lenten season is always a   
   time of conversion, change and renewal. It is a time for overcoming this   
   globalisation of indifference and entering into a new phase in which we   
   recognise the difference between the self and the other, between one lifestyle   
   and another, between oneself and God. This year's Lenten Message presents   
   three areas in which indifference must be overcome: the Church, the community   
   and the individual".   
    He continued, "Pope Francis speaks about the necessary conversion and the new   
   heart that can beat within us. The key step in all social reconstruction and   
   cultural renewal is change in the individual. The Gospel provides the keys for   
   achieving this change in the person, which then affects the whole social   
   fabric". However, he warns, "conversion does not have its purpose in a better   
   society, but in the knowledge of Christ and in becoming like Him. Therefore,   
   as we can see in Pope Francis' Magisterium, he calls us to go beyond a faith   
   that serves only to care for oneself and one's own well being. Indifference   
   stems from an attitude to life in which otherness does not make a difference   
   and so each person withdraws into himself. Faith also can become instrumental   
   in this search for self". Our path, he explained, is must therefore take us   
   further, "beyond ourselves", so that we "live our faith by looking at Christ   
   and in Him we find the Father and brothers and sisters who await us".   
    Indifference must also be overcome in Christian communities, which are   
   required to be "islands of mercy in a world dominated by the globalisation of   
   indifference. There is a distinction between the Church and the world, between   
   the heavenly city and the earthly city, a distinction which become   
   increasingly evident. Our Christian places - parishes, communities and groups   
   - must be transformed into places that manifest God's mercy. Faced with this   
   globalisation of indifference, some might be discouraged as it seems as if   
   nothing can be changed, since we are part of a great social and economic   
   process that is is beyond us. Instead, this is not the case. The Christian   
   community can already overcome this indifference, it can show the world that   
   one can live differently and that it can become the city on the mount   
   mentioned in the Gospel. Beginning with this Lent season, Christian community   
   life, where one lives for the other, can be not merely a chimera but instead a   
   living reality; rather than a distant dream, a living sign of the presence of   
   God's mercy in Christ".   
    Finally, the third level is the Church in her global reality. "   
   nfortunately", remarked Msgr. Del Toso, "we tend to see the Church only as an   
   institution and a structure. Instead, she is the living body of those who   
   believe in Christ. It is the Church in her entirety that needs to be renewed.   
   As a body, she shows that she is really alive because she changes, grows and   
   develops. In this body, the members take care of each other".   
    Finally, the prelate recalled that "Cor Unum" has always acted as an   
   "instrument of the Pope's proximity to the least of our brothers and sisters",   
   offering three examples. First, he mentioned the recent joint meeting with the   
   Pontifical Commission for Latin America and the various other entities   
   involved in the reconstruction of Haiti, during which the balance of the   
   financial aid raised by the Catholic Church's for the island during the five   
   years since the earthquake, estimated at 21.5 million dollars, was presented.   
   He also referred to the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East, especially in   
   Syria and Iraq, "where the great victims of these wars are the people,   
   especially the most vulnerable minorities such as Christians who again have   
   become the 'cards' with which those in power play". Finally, he remarked on   
   the Pope's recent trip to the Philippines, where it could be seen what it   
   means to "'make hearts firm' where there is nothing left to hope for". In   
   Tacloban, the area visited by the Pope, "Cor Unum" has built large community   
   centre named after Pope Francis, to care for the young and the elderly. He   
   concluded, "Our Dicastery wishes to be a great global expression of what it   
   means for the Church to be a body in which each member can experience the love   
   of the other".   
      
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    Holy Father's calendar for February to April 2015   
    Vatican City, 27 January 2015 (VIS) - The Office of Liturgical Celebrations   
   of the Supreme Pontiff has published the following calendar of liturgical   
   celebrations at which the Holy Father will preside from February to April:   
    FEBRUARY   
    Monday 2: Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, 19th World Day of   
   Consecrated Life. At 5.30 p.m. in the Vatican Basilica, Mass with the members   
   of the Institutes of Consecrated Life and the Societies of Apostolic Life.   
    Sunday 8: Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time. At 4 p.m., pastoral visit to the   
   Roman parish of "St. Michael the Archangel in Pietralata".   
    Saturday 14: At 11 a.m. in the Vatican Basilica, Ordinary Public Consistory   
   for the creation of new cardinals and for several causes of canonisation.   
    Sunday 15: Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time. At 10 a.m. in the Vatican Basilica,   
   Mass with newly-created cardinals.   
    Wednesday 18: Ash Wednesday. At 4.30 p.m., Basilica of St. Anselm, "Statio"   
   and penitential procession. At 5 p.m. at the Basilica of St. Sabina, blessing   
   and imposition of the ashes.   
    Sunday 22, First Sunday of Lent. Ariccia, beginning of spiritual exercises   
   for the Roman Curia.   
    Friday 27: Conclusion of spiritual exercises for the Roman Curia.   
    MARCH   
    Sunday 8: Third Sunday of Lent. At 4 p.m., pastoral visit to the Roman parish   
   of "Holy Mary Mother of the Redeemer".   
    Friday 13: At 5 p.m. in the Vatican Basilica, penitential liturgy.   
    Saturday 21: pastoral visit to Naples-Pompeii.   
    Sunday 29: Palm Sunday and the Passion of the Lord. At 9.30 a.m. in St.   
   Peter's Square, blessing of the palms, procession and Mass.   
    APRIL   
    Thursday 2: Holy Thursday. At 9.30 a.m. in the Vatican Basilica, Chrism Mass.   
    Friday 3: Good Friday. At 5 p.m. in the Vatican Basilica, celebration of the   
   Passion of the Lord.   
    Friday 3: Good Friday. At 9.15 p.m., at the Colosseum, Via Crucis.   
    Saturday 4: Holy Saturday. At 8.30 p.m. in the Vatican Basilica, Easter Vigil.   
    Sunday 5: Easter Sunday. At 12 p.m., central balcony of the Vatican Basilica,   
   "Urbi et Orbi" blessing.   
    Sunday 12: Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday. At 10 a.m. at the   
   Vatican Basilica, Mass for the faithful of Armenian rite.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
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