VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXV - # 199   
   DATE 11-11-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - Conviviality, a thermometer for measuring the health of family relationships   
   - The Pope meets with President Dragan Covic of Bosnia and Herzegovina   
   - A humanism with the face of charity, says the Pope at Mass in Florence   
   - The Holy See at UNESCO: the importance of education on climate change   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Conviviality, a thermometer for measuring the health of family relationships   
    Vatican City, 11 November 2015 (VIS) - This morning's Wednesday general   
   audience was held in St. Peter's Square, attended by thousands of faithful.   
   Before beginning, the Holy Father invited those present to recite a Hail Mary   
   for the cardinals, bishops, consecrated persons and laypeople who are currently   
   meeting in Florence for the National Congress of the Italian Church.   
    He dedicated today's catechesis to conviviality, a typical characteristic of   
   family life. This attitude of sharing the goods of life and of being happy to   
   do   
   so is, he said, "a precious virtue". He continued, "Its symbol, its icon, is   
   the   
   family gathered around the table, partaking of a meal together - and therefore   
   not merely food, but also sentiments, stories, and events. It is a fundamental   
   experience. When there is a celebration - a birthday, an anniversary - the   
   family gathers around the table. In some cultures it is customary to do so also   
   following bereavement, to stay close to those who suffer for the loss of a   
   family member".   
    "Conviviality is a sure thermometer for measuring the health of relations: if   
   in the family there is a problem or a hidden trouble, you understand   
   immediately   
   at the table. A family that almost never eats together, or in does not talk at   
   the table but instead watches the television, or smartphones, is not a close   
   family. Christianity has a special vocation to conviviality, as we all know.   
   The   
   Lord Jesus taught at the table, and represented the Kingdom of God as a festive   
   banquet. Jesus also chose to consign to the disciples His spiritual testament   
   at   
   the table, condensed in the memorial gesture of His Sacrifice".   
    Francis explained that the family brings to the Eucharist its own experience   
   of   
   conviviality, and opens it to the grace of a universal conviviality, of God's   
   love for the world. "Participating in the Eucharist, the family is purified of   
   the temptation to close up in itself, fortified in love and in faith, and   
   broadens the boundaries of its own fraternity according to Christ's heart. In   
   our time, marked by closed minds and too many walls, the conviviality generated   
   by the family and extended in the Eucharist becomes a crucial opportunity. The   
   Eucharist and families it nourishes are able to overcome such limitations and   
   to   
   build bridges of acceptance and charity".   
    "Nowadays many social contexts impede family conviviality. We must find a way   
   to recover it, if adapting it to the times. Conviviality seems to have become   
   something to buy and sell, but in that way it becomes something else.   
   Nourishment is not always the symbol of a just sharing of goods, able to reach   
   those who have neither bread nor affection. In rich countries we are induced to   
   spend first on excessive consumption, and then again to remedy the excess. This   
   senseless behaviour diverts our attention from the true hunger of the body and   
   the mind".   
    "The living and vital alliance of Christian families, which support and   
   embracesin the dynamism of their hospitality the burdens and joys of everyday   
   life, cooperates with the grace of the Eucharist, which is able to create ever   
   new communities with its strength that includes and saves". The Pope concluded,   
   "the Christian family thus shows the true extent of its horizon, which is the   
   horizon of the Mother Church and all humanity, the abandoned and excluded among   
   all peoples".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pope meets with President Dragan Covic of Bosnia and Herzegovina   
    Vatican City, 11 November 2015 (VIS) - Before today's general audience, in the   
   study of the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father received Dragan Covic, the incumbent   
   chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, accompanied by the   
   representatives of the Organising Committee of the State and the Church for his   
   pastoral visit on 6 June this year.   
    "I would like to thank you for your visit", he said. "I still hold in my heart   
   that many great and beautiful things I have learned from you: your capacity for   
   suffering, your capacity for forgiveness or at least to seek to forgive, your   
   capacity to join and work together, your capacity for dialogue. Many thanks for   
   the examples you give to humanity. I ask you to greet, on my behalf, your   
   people, all the people, the two other presidents, and the communities that have   
   a different religion but which meet, speak, and dialogue for the good of the   
   country. May they speak between themselves and help your homeland to go ahead.   
   And greet your good young people! I remember the questions they asked me. They   
   are the promise of your homeland".   
    The Holy Father thanked those present, asking them for their prayers. He gave   
   his blessing to Bosnia-Herzegovina and its families, children and future,   
   encouraging them to continue on their path.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    A humanism with the face of charity, says the Pope at Mass in Florence   
    Vatican City, 11 November 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis concluded his brief   
   pastoral visit to Florence yesterday with Mass celebrated before fifty thousand   
   people in the "Artemio Franchi" stadium. Even the detainees in the Florentine   
   prison participated in a way, as the altar at which the Holy Father consecrated   
   the Eucharist was produced by them, for which he warmly thanked them.   
    In his homily, the Holy Father began from Christ's question to His disciples:   
   "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?". "Jesus is interested in what   
   people   
   think, not to keep them happy, but to be able to communicate with them", he   
   explained. "Without knowing what people think, the disciple isolates himself   
   and   
   begins to judge people according to his own thoughts and convictions.   
   Maintaining a healthy contact with reality, with what people experience, their   
   tears and their joys, is the only way of being able to help them ... to open   
   their   
   hearts to God. In reality, when God wanted to speak with us He incarnated   
   Himself. Jesus' disciples must never forget where they were chosen from - that   
   is, among the people - and must never give in to the temptation to assume   
   detached attitudes, as if what the people think and live did not affect them or   
   as if it were of little importance to them. ... This also applies to us. The   
   fact   
   that we are gathered today to celebrate Holy Mass in a sports stadium is a   
   reminder of this. The Church, like Jesus, lives amid the people and for the   
   people. For this reason the Church, throughout her history, has always carried   
   within her the same question: who is Jesus for the men and women of today?".   
    "Safeguarding and announcing the true faith in Jesus Christ is at the heart of   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)