reaffirming the importance of combating terrorism, the need for interreligious   
   dialogue was underlined.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    "Never fail to listen to those who knock at your door", say the Pope to men   
   and   
   women religious in Rome   
    Vatican City, 16 May 2015 (VIS) - Thousands of men and women religious from   
   Rome - representing the 25 thousand who belong to the Pope's diocese - gathered   
   in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall this morning to meet with the Holy Father, who   
   spoke with them for over an hour, answering all their questions on consecrated   
   life and its difficulties and joys, the relationship between the bearers of   
   different charisms in the Church, and the rapport between cloistered   
   monasteries   
   and the outside world.   
    The first question, asked by a nun, related to the balance between cloistered   
   life and involvement in diocesan life, and between silent prayer and   
   proclamation.   
    "Your vocation is a tension between enclosure and visibility, between God's   
   call to a hidden life and His call to make oneself visible in a certain way, to   
   give a sign", answered the Pope. "One of the things you must never, ever leave   
   behind is time to listen to people. ... It is important to have a connection   
   with   
   the world, to know what is happening, as your vocation is not a refuge: it is   
   about going straight onto the battlefield, it is about fighting, calling to the   
   heart of the Lord for your city. ... Like Moses who lifted his hands up in   
   prayer   
   as his people fought. There are also monasteries that set aside half an hour or   
   an hour a day to give food to those who come to ask for it, and this does not   
   go   
   against enclosure in God. ... It is a service, it is a smile".   
    The second question, again from a religious sister, concerned the similarities   
   between marriage and consecrated virginity in the vocation to love, and the   
   help   
   that consecrated persons can offer Christian spouses and vice versa.   
    "In female consecration there is a spousal element", said Francis. "It is   
   present in male consecration too: we say that a bishop is the spouse of the   
   Church, in Jesus' place. But do not forget that the Church is feminine: she is   
   Jesus' bride. We often forget this, as we forget that the love of nuns is   
   maternal, since the love of the Church is maternal, and the love of Our Lady is   
   maternal. Faithfulness, the expression of the love of the consecrated woman,   
   should - not as a duty but as a natural characteristic - reflect the   
   faithfulness, love and tenderness of the Mother Church and the Mother Mary.   
   ... It   
   is the concrete love ... that we find in the Beatitudes. ... Jesus' plan is   
   concrete. I often think that the Beatitudes are the Church's first encyclical".   
    The third question, from a monk, was dedicated to the concrete collaboration   
   between bearers of different charisms in the local Church, without friction or   
   competition.   
    "The Church is currently thinking of offering and restoring an old document on   
   the relations between consecrated persons and the bishop", the Holy Father   
   explained. "The 1994 Synod called for the document 'Mutuae relationes' (14 May   
   1978). Many years have passed and it has not been done. The relationship   
   between   
   consecrated persons and the bishop, the diocese and priests is not an easy one.   
   However it is necessary to face this task together. In the prefectures, how   
   does   
   one work on the pastoral plan for this quarter, all together? So it should be   
   in   
   the Church too. The bishop should not use consecrated persons as substitutes,   
   and equally the religious should not see the bishop as the head of a company   
   providing work".   
    The last question regarded the accompaniment and spiritual direction of   
   consecrated persons, over 80% of whom are women.   
    "The accompaniment of men and women religious can be a problem", acknowledged   
   the Pope. "In my former diocese, I always said to the nuns who came to ask for   
   advice, 'Tell me, in your community or your congregation, is there not a wise   
   sister, one who lives the charism well, a good sister with experience, who   
   might   
   be your spiritual guide?'. 'But she is a woman! But it is a charism of the   
   laity'. Yes, spiritual direction is not the exclusive charism of presbyters: it   
   is a charism of the laity. In primitive monasticism the laity were the great   
   directors. ... The spiritual director is one thing, the confessor is another. I   
   tell the confessor my sins ... but I tell the spiritual director what is   
   happening   
   in my heart. ... Superiors have the responsibility of finding those in the   
   community, in the congregation, and in the province, who have this charism, of   
   giving them this mission and of forming them and helping them in this. ... I   
   think   
   that in this respect, however, we are still immature".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pontifical Council for the Family presents the initiative "The Great   
   Mystery: the Gospel of the family, school of humanity for our times"   
    Vatican City, 16 May 2015 (VIS) - This morning a press conference was held in   
   the Holy See Press Office for the presentation of the project "The Great   
   Mystery: the Gospel of the Family, school of humanity for our times", promoted   
   by the Pontifical Council for the Family and by Maestro Andrea Bocelli. It is a   
   series of events, in particular light and sound shows, to take place in   
   different European cities during the year dedicated to reflection on the family   
   in view of the upcoming Synod assembly in October. The speakers at the   
   conference were Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for   
   the Family, the tenor Andrea Bocelli, and Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach,   
   archbishop of Barcelona, the first city to host the event in the Basilica of   
   the   
   Sagrada Familia.   
    Cardinal Martinez Sistach recalled the universal dimension of Barcelona's   
   basilica, which is visited by more than three million people every year, and   
   its   
   wealth of biblical, theological and liturgical symbolism. He emphasised that   
   the   
   initiative of the Pontifical Council, which will open during a time dedicated   
   to   
   the holy family, will propose, through beauty, music and thought, to "present   
   the beauty and transcendence of the mystery of the Christian family, which   
   consists of an intimate community of life and love between spouses and between   
   parents, children, brothers and sisters, in the bosom of a much larger family,   
   in society and in the Church. The great virtues and values of today's Christian   
   family are necessary and very urgent. We must not forget that Vatican Council   
   II, speaking of marriage and the family, tells us that the well-being of   
   people,   
   society and the Church are strictly linked to the prosperity of the conjugal   
   and   
   family communities".   
    "The basilica of the Sagrada Familia is a manifestation of the great mystery   
   of   
   God and man", explained the archbishop of Barcelona. "In our time, in which man   
   attempts to build a life without God, as if He had nothing to say to us, this   
   magnificent temple has great meaning. Gaudi, in his masterpiece, shows us that   
   God is the true measure of man. That the secret of his authentic originality   
   resides, as he himself said, in returning to his origins, which are God. The   
   basilica, in the middle of this great city, a space of beauty, faith and hope,   
   leads man to the encounter with He Who is Truth and Beauty itself".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Audiences   
    Vatican City, 16 May 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father received in separate   
   audiences:   
    - Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, Italy, president of the   
   Italian Episcopal Conference;   
    - Archbishop Alberto Bottari de Castello, apostolic nuncio in Hungary;   
    - Archbishop Nicola Girasoli apostolic nuncio in Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua   
   and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Jamaica, Grenada, in the Co-operative   
   Republic of Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, Santa Lucia, St. Vincent and the   
   Grenadines, and Suriname; apostolic delegate in the Antilles;   
    - Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, president of the Supervisory Board of the   
   Institute   
   for the Works of Religion.   
    - Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, penitentiary major, with the regent of the   
   apostolic   
   penitentiary, Msgr. Krzysztof Josef Nykiel.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 16 May 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Rev. Dariusz Buras   
   as apostolic administrator of Atyrau (area 747,600, population 2,395,000,   
   Catholics 2,000, priests 8, religious 4), Kazakhstan. Rev. Buras was born in   
   Skrzyszow, Poland in 1971 and was ordained a priest in 1998. He has served as   
   parish vicar of the Cathedral Church of Oslo and head of continuing formation   
   of   
   the priests of the diocese of Tarnow, Poland in service in Norway.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   For more information and to search for documents refer to the site:   
   www.visnews.org and www.vatican.va   
      
   Copyright (VIS):  the news contained in the services of the Vatican   
   Information Service may be reproduced wholly or partially by quoting   
   the source:  V. I. S. - Vatican Information Service.   
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    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)