VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 163   
   DATE 24-09-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - The Pope at the White House: as the son of migrants, happy to be a guest in a   
   country largely built by such families   
   - Meeting with United States bishops: never repeat the crimes of the past   
   - The canonisation of Blessed Junipero Serra: Jesus has no 'shortlist' of   
   people   
   worthy of His message   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pope at the White House: as the son of migrants, happy to be a guest in a   
   country largely built by such families   
    Vatican City, 24 September 2015 (VIS) - Yesterday more than two hundred   
   thousand people awaited Pope Francis outside the White House, where shortly   
   after 9 a.m. local time (3 p.m. in Rome) he was welcomed by President Barack   
   Obama and the First Lady, Michelle Obama. They accompanied him to the podium   
   erected in the grounds of the presidential residence, where before two thousand   
   people the Holy Father gave his first address in the United States.   
    In his discourse he affirmed that, "as the son of an immigrant family, I am   
   happy to be a guest in this country, which was largely built by such families",   
   and highlighted the commitment of American Catholics, along with their fellow   
   citizens, to constructing a tolerant and inclusive society and to rejecting   
   every form of unjust discrimination. The Pope also mentioned the importance of   
   the right to religious freedom and the duty of defending it from anything that   
   might threaten or compromise it.   
    Francis praised Barack Obama's initiative for reducing air pollution.   
   "Accepting the urgency, it seems clear to me also that climate change is a   
   problem which can no longer be left to a future generation", he said. "When it   
   comes to the care of our 'common home', we are living at a critical moment of   
   history. We still have time to make the changes needed to bring about 'a   
   sustainable and integral development, for we know that things can change'. Such   
   change demands on our part a serious and responsible recognition not only of   
   the   
   kind of world we may be leaving to our children, but also to the millions of   
   people living under a system which has overlooked them. Our common home has   
   been   
   part of this group of the excluded which cries out to heaven and which today   
   powerfully strikes our homes, our cities and our societies. To use a telling   
   phrase of the Reverend Martin Luther King, we can say that we have defaulted on   
   a promissory note and now is the time to honour it. ... Humanity still has the   
   ability to work together in building our common home. As Christians inspired by   
   this certainty, we wish to commit ourselves to the conscious and responsible   
   care of our common home".   
    The Holy Father also mentioned recent efforts "to mend broken relationships   
   and   
   to open new doors to cooperation within our human family" which "represent   
   positive steps along the path of reconciliation, justice and freedom. I would   
   like all men and women of good will in this great nation to support the efforts   
   of the international community to protect the vulnerable in our world and to   
   stimulate integral and inclusive models of development, so that our brothers   
   and   
   sisters everywhere may know the blessings of peace and prosperity which God   
   wills for all his children".   
    "Mr. President", he concluded, "once again I thank you for your welcome, and I   
   look forward to these days in your country. God bless America!".   
    At the end of the welcome ceremony, the Pope and the president retired to the   
   Oval Office where an exchange of gifts and a private discussion took place,   
   attended by members of President Obama's family. The Pope's gift was a bronze   
   medallion commemorating the Eighth World Meeting of Families, to be celebrated   
   on 27 September in Philadelphia.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Meeting with United States bishops: never repeat the crimes of the past   
    Vatican City, 24 September 2015 (VIS) - The challenges of a nation whose vast   
   resources require not insignificant moral responsibility in a world seeking new   
   equilibria of peace, prosperity and integration, the importance of never again   
   repeating past "crimes" against victims of abuse, the need for dialogue instead   
   of hard and bellicose language, and the defence of the excluded, migrants and   
   the environment were some of the themes that Pope Francis considered yesterday   
   in the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington D.C., during his   
   meeting with the episcopate of the United States. The following are extensive   
   extracts from his address.   
    "My first word to you is one of thanksgiving to God for the power of the   
   Gospel   
   which has brought about remarkable growth of Christ's Church in these lands and   
   enabled its generous contribution, past and present, to American society and to   
   the world. ... I appreciate the unfailing commitment of the Church in America   
   to   
   the cause of life and that of the family, which is the primary reason for my   
   present visit. I am well aware of the immense efforts you have made to welcome   
   and integrate those immigrants who continue to look to America, like so many   
   others before them, in the hope of enjoying its blessings of freedom and   
   prosperity. I also appreciate the efforts which you are making to fulfil the   
   Church's mission of education in schools at every level and in the charitable   
   services offered by your numerous institutions. These works are often carried   
   out without appreciation or support, often with heroic sacrifice, out of   
   obedience to a divine mandate which we may not disobey. I am also conscious of   
   the courage with which you have faced difficult moments in the recent history   
   of   
   the Church in this country without fear of self-criticism and at the cost of   
   mortification and great sacrifice. Nor have you been afraid to divest whatever   
   is unessential in order to regain the authority and trust which is demanded of   
   ministers of Christ and rightly expected by the faithful. I realise how much   
   the   
   pain of recent years has weighed upon you and I have supported your generous   
   commitment to bring healing to victims - in the knowledge that in healing we   
   too   
   are healed - and to work to ensure that such crimes will never be repeated.   
    "I speak to you as the Bishop of Rome, called by God in old age, and from a   
   land which is also American, to watch over the unity of the universal Church   
   and   
   to encourage in charity the journey of all the particular Churches toward ever   
   greater knowledge, faith and love of Christ. ... I too know how hard it is to   
   sow   
   the Gospel among people from different worlds, with hearts often hardened by   
   the   
   trials of a lengthy journey. Nor am I unaware of the efforts made over the   
   years   
   to build up the Church amid the prairies, mountains, cities and suburbs of a   
   frequently inhospitable land, where frontiers are always provisional and easy   
   answers do not always work. What does work is the combination of the epic   
   struggle of the pioneers and the homely wisdom and endurance of the settlers".   
    "It is not my intention to offer a plan or to devise a strategy. ... I have no   
   wish to tell you what to do, because we all know what it is that the Lord asks   
   of us. Instead, I would turn once again to the demanding task - ancient yet   
   never new - of seeking out the paths we need to take and the spirit with which   
   we need to work. ... We are bishops of the Church, shepherds appointed by God   
   to   
   feed his flock. Our greatest joy is to be shepherds, and only shepherds,   
   pastors   
   with undivided hearts and selfless devotion. ... The heart of our identity is   
   to   
   be sought in constant prayer, in preaching and in shepherding the flock   
   entrusted to our care".   
    "Ours must not be just any kind of prayer, but familiar union with Christ, in   
   which we daily encounter His gaze and sense that He is asking us the question:   
   'Who is My mother? Who are My brothers?'. One in which we can calmly reply:   
   'Lord, here is Your mother, here are Your brothers! I hand them over to You;   
   they are the ones whom You entrusted to me'".   
    "Such trusting union with Christ is what nourishes the life of a pastor. It is   
   not about preaching complicated doctrines, but joyfully proclaiming Christ Who   
   died and rose for our sake. The 'style' of our mission should make our hearers   
   feel that the message we preach is meant 'for us'. ... May the closeness of the   
   shepherd make them them long once again for the Father's embrace. Be vigilant   
   that the flock may always encounter in the heart of their pastor that 'taste of   
   eternity' which they seek in vain in the things of this world".   
    "Shepherds who do not pasture themselves but are able to step back, away from   
   the centre, to 'decrease', in order to feed God's family with Christ. Who keep   
   constant watch, standing on the heights to look out with God's eyes on the   
   flock   
   which is His alone. ... Shepherds who do not lower our gaze, concerned only   
   with   
   our concerns, but raise it constantly toward the horizons which God opens   
   before   
   us and which surpass all that we ourselves can foresee or plan. Who also watch   
   over ourselves, so as to flee the temptation of narcissism, which blinds the   
   eyes of the shepherd, makes his voice unrecognisable and his actions   
   fruitless".   
    "Certainly it is helpful for a bishop to have the farsightedness of a leader   
   and the shrewdness of an administrator, but we fall into hopeless decline   
   whenever we confuse the power of strength with the strength of that   
   powerlessness with which God has redeemed us. Bishops need to be lucidly aware   
   of the battle between light and darkness being fought in this world. Woe to us,   
   however, if we make of the cross a banner of worldly struggles and fail to   
   realise that the price of lasting victory is allowing ourselves to be wounded   
   and consumed. ... I know that you face many challenges, and that the field in   
   which you sow is unyielding and that there is always the temptation to give in   
   to fear, to lick one's wounds, to think back on bygone times and to devise   
   harsh   
   responses to fierce opposition. And yet we are promoters of the culture of   
   encounter. We are living sacraments of the embrace between God's riches and our   
   poverty. We are witnesses of the abasement and the condescension of God Who   
   anticipates in love our every response".   
    "Dialogue is our method, not as a shrewd strategy but out of fidelity to the   
   One Who never wearies of visiting the marketplace. ... I cannot ever tire of   
   encouraging you to dialogue fearlessly. ... Do not be afraid to set out on that   
   'exodus' which is necessary for all authentic dialogue. Otherwise, we fail to   
   understand the thinking of others, or to realise deep down that the brother or   
   sister we wish to reach and redeem, with the power and the closeness of love,   
   counts more than their positions, distant as they may be from what we hold as   
   true and certain. Harsh and divisive language does not befit the tongue of a   
   pastor, it has no place in his heart; although it may momentarily seem to win   
   the day, only the enduring allure of goodness and love remains truly   
   convincing.   
   ... We need to ... remember that Jesus' Church is kept whole not by 'consuming   
   fire   
   from heaven', but by the secret warmth of the Spirit, Who 'heals what is   
   wounded, bends what is rigid, straightens what is crooked'".   
    "The great mission which the Lord gives us is one which we carry out in   
   communion, collegially. The world is already so torn and divided, brokenness is   
   now everywhere. Consequently, the Church, 'the seamless garment of the Lord'   
   cannot allow herself to be rent, broken or fought over. ... It is imperative,   
   therefore, to watch over that unity, to safeguard it, to promote it and to bear   
   witness to it as a sign and instrument which, beyond every barrier, unites   
   nations, races, classes and generations. ... This service to unity is   
   particularly   
   important for this nation, whose vast material and spiritual, cultural and   
   political, historical and human, scientific and technological resources impose   
   significant moral responsibilities in a world which is seeking, confusedly and   
   laboriously, new balances of peace, prosperity and integration. ... I encourage   
   you, then, my brothers, to confront the challenging issues of our time. Ever   
   present within each of them is life as gift and responsibility. The future   
   freedom and dignity of our societies depends on how we face these challenges".   
    "The innocent victims of abortion, children who die of hunger or from   
   bombings,   
   immigrants who drown in the search for a better tomorrow, the elderly or the   
   sick who are considered a burden, the victims of terrorism, wars, violence and   
   drug trafficking, the environment devastated by man's predatory relationship   
   with nature - at stake in all of this is the gift of God, of which we are noble   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)