VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 158   
   DATE 17-09-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - Audience with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg: assistance to refugees and   
   displaced persons   
   - To young consecrated persons: prophecy, closeness, memory and adoration   
   - The Church cannot remain silent as women and children live on the streets   
   - The Pope: no-one can remain oblivious to the atrocities and human rights   
   violations in Syria and Iraq   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Audience with the Prime Minister of Luxembourg: assistance to refugees and   
   displaced persons   
    Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican Apostolic   
   Palace the Holy Father Francis received in audience the Prime Minister of the   
   Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, who subsequently met with Cardinal   
   Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Archbishop Paul Richard   
   Gallagher, secretary for Relations with States.   
    The cordial discussions offered the opportunity to reaffirm the wish to   
   consolidate the existing good relations between the Holy See and the Grand   
   Duchy   
   of Luxembourg and to consider issues of common interest, with special attention   
   to the relationship between Church and State, underlining the relevance of   
   religious freedom and spiritual values for social cohesion.   
    Within the context of Luxembourg's term of presidency of the European Union,   
   attention then turned to various matters of a European and international   
   nature,   
   with particular reference to current conflicts, the issue of migration and the   
   need to provide assistance to refugees and displaced persons, as well as the   
   situation of persecuted religious minorities.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    To young consecrated persons: prophecy, closeness, memory and adoration   
    Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received   
   in audience the participants in the World Meeting of Young Consecrated Men and   
   Women, which took place within the context of the Year of Consecrated Life.   
   During the audience, and after special greetings for those from Syria and Iraq   
   in which he recalled the martyrs of these countries, the Pope answered three   
   questions posed to him by those present.   
    The first question, asked by a woman religious, related to the problem of   
   instability and mediocrity in the vocational path. Francis recalled that,   
   according to St. Teresa of Jesus, strict observance removed freedom. "The Lord   
   calls you - and calls all of us - to the 'prophetic way' of freedom, that is   
   the   
   freedom that is to be united with witness and fidelity. A mother who raises her   
   children in a strict fashion ... and does not let them dream ... annuls their   
   creative future, rendering them barren. Consecrated life, too, can be barren,   
   when it is not truly prophetic, when dreaming is not permitted. ... Prophecy,   
   the   
   capacity to dream, is the opposite of rigidity. And observance must not be   
   rigid: if it is, it is personal egoism. ... Always keep your heart open to what   
   the Lord says to you and bring it into your dialogue with the superior, the   
   teacher or your spiritual guide, the Church, the bishop. Openness, an open   
   heart, dialogue, and also community dialogue. ... I tell you sincerely, one of   
   the   
   sins I most frequently encounter in community life is the incapacity for   
   forgiveness between brothers and sisters. ... Gossip in a community obstructs   
   forgiveness and puts distance between people. ... It is the scourge of   
   community   
   life. ... It is a bomb that destroys the reputation of others who are unable to   
   defend themselves as gossip takes place in obscurity, not in the light of day".   
    The Pope went on to affirm that ever since the beginning of consecrated life   
   there have been moments of instability. "There will always be temptations ...   
   and   
   returning to St. Teresa of Jesus, she said that one must pray for those who are   
   about to die, as this is the moment of greatest instability, in which the   
   temptations arise with force. Culturally it is true, we live in a very unstable   
   time ... we live in a culture of the provisional. ... And this culture has also   
   entered into the Church, into religious communities, into the family and   
   marriage. ... Instead there is the culture of the definitive - God sent His Son   
   for ever, not in a temporary way, to one generation or country, but rather to   
   all and forever. And this is a criterion of spiritual discernment ... taking on   
   definitive commitments so as not to disintegrate".   
    In response to another question on evangelisation, the Pope emphasised that   
   apostolic zeal comes from a wish to evangelise that inflames the heart.   
   "Evangelising is not the same as proselytism", he remarked. "We are not a   
   football team seeking members and supporters. ... Evangelisation is not about   
   simply convincing, it is about bearing witness that Jesus lives. ... And this   
   witness is given with the flesh, with one's own life. And here - forgive me if   
   I   
   am a bit of a feminist - I would like to give thanks for the witness of   
   consecrated women. You always have the wish to go to the front line, as you are   
   mothers, you have the maternity of the Church, that brings you close to people.   
   ... You are the icons of the Church's tenderness and love, of the maternity of   
   the   
   Church and of Our Lady".   
    "Another key word in consecrated life is memory. I do not think that James and   
   John ever forgot their first encounter with Jesus, and nor did the other   
   apostles. ... The memory of one's own vocation. In the darkest moments, the   
   moments of temptation, in the difficult moments of our consecrated life, return   
   to the source, treasure the memory and wonder of when the Lord looked upon us".   
    The Pope was asked to share his memory of the first calling he received. "I   
   don't know how it was. I entered the Church by chance, I saw a confessional and   
   I left changed, I left in a different way. My life changed then. And what   
   attracted me to Jesus and the Gospel? I don't know ... their closeness to me.   
   The   
   Lord has never left me alone, not even in dark and difficult moments, nor in   
   moments of sin ... because the Lord always meets us definitively. He is not   
   part   
   of the culture of the provisional: He loves us for ever and He accompanies us   
   always".   
    "So, proximity to the people, prophecy in our witness, with an ardour, with   
   the   
   apostolic zeal that warms the hearts of others, even without words ... and   
   memory,   
   always returning to the source".   
    "I would like to end with two words", Francis concluded. "One is ... among the   
   worst attitudes of the religious: gazing upon one's own reflection in the   
   mirror, narcissism. Be on your guard against this. ... And yes, instead, to the   
   contrary, to what despoils us of all narcissism, yes to adoration. I think this   
   is one of the central themes. We all pray and give thanks to the Lord, we ask   
   favours, we praise the Lord ... but do we adore the Lord? The prayer of silent   
   adoration: 'You are the Lord', is the opposite of narcissism. I would like to   
   finish with this word, adoration. Be men and women of adoration".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Church cannot remain silent as women and children live on the streets   
    Vatican City, 17 September 2015 (VIS) - This morning in the Clementine Hall   
   the   
   Holy Father received the participants in the International Symposium on the   
   Pastoral Care of the Street, organised by the Pontifical Council for Migrants   
   and Itinerant Peoples. The aim of the meeting was to draw up a plan of action   
   to   
   respond to the phenomenon of women and children - and their families - who live   
   mainly on the streets.   
    Among the often sad causes of the phenomenon, the Pope lists indifference,   
   poverty, family and social violence, and human trafficking. "They involve the   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)