consecrated life, so that service to the Gospel and to our brothers does not   
   remain a prisoner of our viewpoints, of the transient realities of this world,   
   but rather a continual surpassing of ourselves, anchoring us in external   
   realities and submerging ourselves in the Lord, our strength and our hope. And   
   this will also be our fruitfulness".   
    "The other important aspect of the life of Don Bosco is service to the young.   
   He achieved this with steadfastness and constancy, notwithstanding obstacles   
   and   
   hardships, with the sensibility of a generous heart. ... The charism of Don   
   Bosco   
   leads us to be educators of the young, implementing that pedagogy of the faith   
   that may be summarised thus: 'evangelise by educating and educate by   
   evangelising'. To evangelise the young, to educate the young full-time,   
   starting   
   from the most fragile and abandoned, proposing an educational style made of   
   reason, religion and affection, universally appreciated as a 'preventive   
   system'. I encourage you to continue with generosity and trust your many   
   activities in support of the new generations: oratories, youth centres,   
   professional institutes, schools and colleges. But without forgetting what Don   
   Bosco called the 'street children': they are greatly in need of hope, of being   
   formed in the joy of Christian life".   
    "Don Bosco was always obedient and faithful the Church and the Pope, following   
   suggestions and pastoral indications. Today the Church turns to you, spiritual   
   sons and daughters of this great Saint, and in a concrete way invites you to   
   reach out, to go out anew to find the children and young people where they are:   
   in the peripheries of the metropolises, in the areas of physical and moral   
   danger, in social contexts where many material things are missing, but where   
   above all there is a lack of love, understanding, tenderness and hope. Go   
   towards them with the overflowing paternity of Don Bosco. The oratory of Don   
   Bosco was born of the encounter with street children and for a certain time he   
   lived an itinerant life in the quarters of Turin. May you be able to announce   
   Jesus' mercy to all, making every place an 'oratory', especially those that   
   seem   
   most impervious; carrying in your hearts Don Bosco's oratory style and looking   
   to ever-broader apostolic horizons. From the solid root that he laid down two   
   hundred years ago in the terrain of the Church and in society, many branches   
   have grown: thirty religious institutions that live the charism to share the   
   mission of carrying the Gospel to the outer reaches of the peripheries. The   
   Lord   
   has blessed this service, inspiring among you, throughout these two centuries,   
   a   
   great number of people whom the Church has proclaimed saints and blesseds. I   
   encourage you to continue on this path, imitating the faith of your   
   predecessors".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Francis visits the Cottolengo: the poor continue to be excluded from necessary   
   care   
    Vatican City, 21 June 2015 (VIS) - "I could not visit Turin without stopping   
   in   
   this house: the Little House of Divine Providence [Cottolengo], founded almost   
   two centuries ago by St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo. Inspired by the merciful   
   love of God the Father and trusting fully in His Providence, he welcomed the   
   poor, abandoned and sick who could not be received in hospitals at that time",   
   said the Pope to the patients and differently-abled persons who awaited him at   
   the Cottolengo in Turin following his meeting with the Salesians.   
    After blessing and personally greeting each person present, the Pope gave a   
   brief address in which he remarked that "the exclusion of the poor and their   
   difficulty in receiving the necessary assistance and treatment is a situation   
   that unfortunately still exists today. Great progress has been made in medicine   
   and in social assistance, but a culture of waste remains widespread as a   
   consequence of an anthropological crisis that instead of placing man at the   
   centre, favours consumption and economic interests".   
    He continued, "among the victims of this culture of waste, I would like to   
   mention the elderly in particular ... they are the memory and wisdom of the   
   people. Their longevity is not always considered as a gift from God, but at   
   times instead as a difficult burden to bear, especially when their health is   
   compromised. This mentality is not good for society, and our task is to develop   
   'antibodies' against this way of looking at the elderly or persons with   
   disabilities, as if theirs were lives no longer worth living. It is a sin, a   
   grave social sin! Instead, Cottolengo loved these people with great tenderness.   
   Here we can learn another outlook on life and on the person. ... From him we   
   can   
   learn the reality of evangelical love, so that many poor and sick people may   
   find a home, live as if they were in a family, and feel that they belong to a   
   community rather than being excluded and tolerated".   
    "Dear patients, brothers and sisters: you are valuable members of the Church!"   
   exclaimed the Pope. "You are the flesh of Christ crucified, whom we have the   
   honour of touching and serving with love. With the grace of Jesus we can be   
   witnesses and apostles of the divine mercy that saves the world. Looking upon   
   the crucified Christ, full of love for me, and also with the help of those who   
   care for you, you will find the strength and the consolation to bear your cross   
   each day".   
    "The reason for the existence of this little house is not mere assistance, or   
   philanthropy, but the Gospel: ... Jesus' predilection for the frailest and   
   weakest. And therefore work like this cannot be carried out without prayer ...   
   as   
   shown by the six monasteries of nuns of contemplative life linked to it",   
   concluded the Holy Father, who went on to thank the priests and men and women   
   religious of Turin, in the Cottolengo and throughout the world. "Along with   
   many   
   lay workers, volunteers and 'Friends of the Cottolengo', you are called upon to   
   continue, with creative fidelity, the mission of this great saint of charity".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Meeting with the young: go against the grain   
    Vatican City, 22 June 2015 (VIS) - The first day of the Pope's apostolic trip   
   to Turin concluded with his encounter with the young in Piazza Vittorio.   
   Francis   
   answered to questions from three of them regarding the meaning of love, trust   
   in   
   life and the importance of sharing ideals, setting aside the discourse he had   
   prepared. The following is a summary of the Holy Father's answers:   
    "Love, life, friends: ... these three words are important for life, and they   
   share a common root: the desire to live. ... Love moves on two axes: first of   
   all,   
   love is found in actions more than in words: love is concrete. ... God began to   
   talk about love when he was involved with His people ... when He made a   
   covenant   
   with His people, He saved His people, He made gestures of love, acts of love.   
   And the second dimension, the second axis on which love turns, is that love   
   always communicates itself, that is, love listens and responds, love is found   
   in   
   dialogue and communion. Love is neither deaf nor mute, it communicates itself.   
   ...   
   Love is very respectful to others, it does not use them, and therefore love is   
   chaste. ... It considers the life of the other person to be sacred: I respect   
   you,   
   I do not want to use you. ... Forgive me if I say something you did not expect,   
   but I ask you: make the effort to live love chastely. And a consequence derives   
   from this: ... love sacrifices itself for others. Love is service. When Jesus,   
   after the washing of the feet, explains this gesture to the apostles, He   
   teaches   
   them that we are made to serve one another".   
    "Very often we breathe an air of distrust in life. There are situations that   
   make us think, 'But is it worth living like this?'. I think of the wars in this   
   world. At times I have said that we are living a third world war, but in   
   pieces.   
   There is war in Europe, there is war in Africa, there is war in the Middle   
   East,   
   there is war in other countries ... But can I trust in a life like this? Can I   
   trust world leaders? When I go to vote for a candidate, can I trust that he or   
   she will not take my country to war? If you trust only in men, you have lost!   
   Think of the people, leaders, entrepreneurs, who say they are Christians and   
   then produce weapons! They say one thing and do another. Hypocrisy ... But we   
   see   
   what happened during the last century: in 1914, or rather in 1915 precisely.   
   There was the great tragedy in Armenia. Many people died. I do not know how   
   many, but certainly more than a million. Where were the great powers of the   
   time? They looked away. Why? Because they were interested in war: their war!   
   And   
   those who died, they were second class people, human beings. Then, in the 1930s   
   and 1940s, the tragedy of the Shoah. The great powers had photographed the   
   railway lines that carried the trains to the concentration camps, such as   
   Auschwitz, to kill Jews, and also Christians, Roma, homosexuals, to kill them   
   there. But tell me, why did they not bomb them? Interests! And soon after,   
   almost at the same time, there were the lagers in Russia: Stalin ... how many   
   Christians suffered and were killed. The great powers divided Europe like a   
   cake. Many years had to pass before reaching a certain 'freedom'. There is the   
   hypocrisy of speaking about peace and producing arms, and even selling weapons   
   to this one, who is at war with that one, and to that one who is at war with   
   this!"   
    "I understand what you say about distrust in life: today, too, we are living a   
   culture of waste. All that is not of economic use is discarded. ... And so,   
   with   
   this culture of waste, is it possible to trust in life? ... A young person who   
   cannot study, who does not have a job, who suffers the shame of not feeling   
   worthy because he does not have a job, does not earn life. ... How often do   
   young   
   people commit suicide? ... Or how often do they go to fight with terrorists, at   
   least to do something, for an ideal? ... And this is why Jesus told us not to   
   place our security in wealth, in worldly powers. How can I live a life that   
   does   
   n destroy, that is not a life of destruction, a life that does not discard   
   people? How can a live a life that does not disappoint me?".   
    "We must go ahead with our plans to build, and this life does not disappoint.   
   If you are involved in a plan for construction, to help ... that sense of   
   distrust   
   in life goes away. Be active, and go against the grain. For you, young people,   
   who experience this economic and also cultural, hedonistic, consumerist   
   situation with its soap bubble values, with these values it is not possible to   
   go ahead. Do constructive things, even if they are small, that bring us   
   together   
   again, that unite us together, with our ideals: this is the best antidote to   
   this distrust of life, against this culture that offers you only pleasure. ...   
   The   
   secret is clearly understanding where you live. In this land ... at the end of   
   the   
   nineteenth century there were the worst possible conditions for the growth of   
   the young: Freemasonry prevailed, even the Church could do nothing; there was   
   anti-clericalism, there was Satanism. ... It was one of the worst times and   
   one of   
   the worst places in the history of Italy. But in that period, many saints were   
   born. Why? Because they realised that they had to swim against the tide of that   
   culture, that way of life. Live in reality, and if that reality is glass and   
   not   
   diamond, I find an alternative reality and make it my own, a reality that is of   
   service to others".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    To the Waldensian Church: God is not resigned to human sin   
    Vatican City, 22 June 2015 (VIS) - At 9 a.m. today the Holy Father visited the   
   Waldensian Temple where he was received by the pastor Eugenio Bernardini,   
   moderator of the Waldensian Mass, the president of the Consistory of the   
   Evangelical Waldensian Church of Turin, Sergio Velluto, and the pastor Paolo   
   Ribet, titular of the Evangelical Waldensian Church of Turin. The moderator of   
   the Evangelical Waldensian Church of Uruguay, pastor Oscar Oudri, was also   
   present. The welcome reminded the Pope "of the meetings with friends in the   
   Waldensian Evangelical Church of Rio de la Plata, where I could appreciate the   
   spirituality and faith and learn many good things".   
    "One of the main fruits that the ecumenical movement has enabled us to gather   
   in recent years is the rediscovery of the fraternity that unites all those who   
   believe in Jesus Christ and have been baptised in His name", remarked Francis.   
   "This bond is not based simply on human criteria, such as the radical sharing   
   of   
   the experience on which Christian life is based: the encounter with God's love   
   that is revealed to us in Jesus Christ and the transforming action of the Holy   
   Spirit that helps us on our path in life. The rediscovery of this fraternity   
   enables us to grasp that deep bond that already unites us, despite our   
   differences".   
    "Unity, which is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, does not mean uniformity", he   
   emphasised. "Brothers, effectively, are united by a common origin, but they are   
   not identical to each other. This is clear in the New Testament where, despite   
   calling brothers all those who share the same faith in Jesus Christ, it can be   
   intuited that not all Christian communities had the same style or an identical   
   internal organisation ... and even in the announcement of the Gospel itself   
   there   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)