VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXVI - # 22   
   DATE 03-02-2016   
      
   Summary:   
   - General audience: God's justice is mercy   
   - Interview with the Pope: seeking the richness of faith in Mexico   
   - Francis closes the Year of Consecrated Life   
   - Presentation to the Pope of the book on the Papal fleet in the Dardanelles,   
   1657   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    General audience: God's justice is mercy   
    Vatican City, 3 February 2016 (VIS) - The relationship between mercy and   
   justice, in the light of the Sacred Scriptures, was the theme of Pope Francis'   
   catechesis in this Wednesday's general audience, which took place in St.   
   Peter's   
   Square and was attended by more than ten thousand people.   
    "The Sacred Scripture presents God as infinite mercy, but also as perfect   
   justice", he said. "How can the two be reconciled? They may appear to be   
   contradictory, but this is not the case, as it is precisely God's mercy that   
   leads us to achieve true justice. In the legal administration of justice, we   
   see   
   that those who consider themselves to have been victims of abuse consult a   
   judge   
   in court and ask that justice be done. It is a retributive justice, inflicting   
   punishment on the guilty, according to the principle that each person receives   
   what he deserves. ... But this route does not lead to true justice, as in   
   reality   
   it does not conquer evil, it simply limits it. Instead, only by responding with   
   good can evil truly be conquered".   
    The Bible, he explained, proposes a different form of justice, in which the   
   victim invites the guilty party to convert, helping him to understand the harm   
   he has done and appealing to his conscience. "In this way, recognising his   
   blame, he can open up to the forgiveness that the injured party offers. ...   
   This   
   is the way of resolving conflicts within families, in relations between spouses   
   and between parents and children, in which the injured party loves the guilty   
   and does not wish to lose the bond between them. It is certainly a difficult   
   path: it demands that the victim be disposed to forgive and wishes for the   
   salvation and the good of the perpetrator of the damage. But only in this way   
   can justice triumph, as if the guilty party acknowledges the harm he has done   
   and ceases to do so, the evil no longer exists and the unjust becomes just, as   
   he has been forgiven and helped to find the way of good".   
    "God treats us sinners, in the same way. He continually offers us His   
   forgiveness, He helps us to welcome Him and to be aware of our evil so as to   
   free ourselves of it. God does not seek our condemnation, only our salvation.   
   God does not wish to condemn anyone! ... The Lord of Mercy wishes to save   
   everyone. ... The problem is letting Him enter into our heart. All the words of   
   the prophets are an impassioned and love-filled plea for our conversion".   
    God's heart is "the heart of a Father Who loves all His children and wants   
   them   
   to live in goodness and justice, and therefore to live in fullness and   
   happiness. A Father's heart that goes beyond our meagre concept of justice so   
   as   
   to open up to us the immense horizons of His mercy. A Father's heart that does   
   not treat us or repay us according to our sins, as the Psalm says".   
    "It is precisely a Father's heart that we encounter when we go to the   
   confessional", Francis emphasised. "Perhaps it will tell us something to better   
   understand our evil, but at the confessional we all go in search of a father   
   who   
   will help us change our life; a father who gives us the strength to go on; a   
   father who forgives us in God's name. Therefore, to be a confessor is a great   
   responsibility, as the son or daughter who comes to you seeks only to encounter   
   a father. And you, the priest there in the confessional, are the place where   
   the   
   Father does justice with His mercy", he concluded.   
      
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    Interview with the Pope: seeking the richness of faith in Mexico   
    Vatican City, 3 February 2016 (VIS) - Next week Pope Francis will begin his   
   apostolic trip to Mexico. From 12 to 17 February he will visit Mexico City,   
   Ecatepec, Tuxtla Gutierrez, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Morelia and Ciudad   
   Juarez, and will pray before Our Lady of Guadalupe. For the occasion, the   
   agency   
   Notimex recorded a series of brief questions and expressions of hope for the   
   Mexican people in four videos, presented to the Holy Father. The Pope responded   
   with a video that will be broadcast today on the Notimex website. The following   
   is a summary of the questions and answers. The images can be obtained from the   
   Vatican Television Centre.   
    Question: Why are you coming to Mexico? What brings you to Mexico?   
    Pope Francis: "What moves me most is this: what are coming to look for in   
   Mexico? I will come to Mexico not like a Wise Man loaded with things to bring,   
   messages, ideas, solutions to problems ... I come to Mexico as a pilgrim, to   
   look   
   for something among the Mexican people. ... I come to seek the wealth of faith   
   you   
   have, I come for that infectious wealth of faith. You have an idiosyncrasy, a   
   way of being that is the fruit of a very long road, a history that has been   
   forged slowly, with pain, with success, with failures, with searching, but with   
   a common thread. You have great richness in your heart and, above all, you are   
   not an orphaned people, as you are proud to have a Mother, and when a man or a   
   woman or a people do not forget their Mother, this provides a wealth that   
   cannot   
   be described; it is received and transmitted. So, I will go in search of some   
   of   
   this in you. A people that does not forget its Mother, the Mother who forged   
   her   
   people in hope".   
    Question: What does Our Lady of Guadalupe represent for the Pope?   
    Pope Francis: "Security, tenderness. Sometimes I am afraid of certain problems   
   or something unpleasant happens and I do not know how to react, and I pray to   
   her. I like to repeat to myself, 'Do not be afraid, am I not here, your   
   Mother?'. They are her words: 'Do not be afraid'. ... I feel this, that she is   
   our   
   Mother, who cares, protects and leads a people, who leads a family, who gives   
   the warmth of home, who caresses with tenderness and who banishes fear. ... It   
   is   
   an eloquent image, that of a Mother like a blanket who covers and cares, in the   
   midst of her people. ... This is what I feel before Her. ... What I would ask   
   you,   
   as a favour, is that this time, the third time I will be on Mexican soil, that   
   you will let me spend a moment before the image. That is the favour I ask of   
   you".   
    Question: How would you help us to face the violence here?   
    Pope Francis: "Violence, corruption, war, children who cannot go to school   
   because their country is at war, trafficking, arms manufacturers who sell   
   weapons so that the wars of the world can continue ... this is more or less the   
   climate that we live in the world, and you are experiencing a part of it, a   
   part   
   of this 'war', this part of suffering, of violence, of organised trafficking.   
   If   
   I come to you, it is to receive the best of you and to pray with you, so that   
   the problems ... that you know exist may be resolved, because the Mexico of   
   violence, the Mexico of corruption, the Mexico of drug trafficking, the Mexico   
   of the cartels, is not the Mexico that our Mother loves, and of course I do not   
   wish to cover up any of that; on the contrary, I would urge you to fight, day   
   by   
   day, against corruption, against trafficking, against war, against disunity,   
   against organised crime, against human trafficking".   
    "'May you bring us a little peace', one of you said. Peace is something that   
   must be worked on every day, and - to use a phrase that sounds like a   
   contradiction - it must be fought for, every day. It is necessary to combat   
   every day for peace, not for war. It is necessary to sow gentleness,   
   understanding, peace. St. Francis prayed, 'Lord, make me an instrument of your   
   peace'. I would like to be an instrument of peace in Mexico, but with all of   
   you. ... And how is peace formed? Peace is a craft, it is formed by hand. From   
   the   
   education of a child to the care for an elderly person: they are all seeds of   
   peace. Peace is born of tenderness, peace is born of understanding, peace is   
   born or is made in dialogue, not in rupture, and this is the key word:   
   dialogue.   
   Dialogue between leaders, dialogue with the people, and dialogue among all   
   people. ... Do not be afraid of listening to others, to seeing their   
   motivations.   
   And please, do not enter into any traps to make money; it enslaves life in an   
   inner war and takes away freedom, because peace brings freedom. I come to ask   
   the Virgin, along with you, to give us this peace, so that Our Lady of   
   Guadalupe   
   may give us peace in our heart, in the family, in the city, and in all the   
   country".   
    Question: What do you wish for from us, and what are your hopes for us?   
    Pope Francis: "I come to serve, to be a servant of the faith for you ...   
   because   
   I felt this vocation ... to serve the faith of the people. But this faith must   
   grow and go out into daily life; it must be a public faith. And faith becomes   
   strong when it is public, above all ... in moments of crisis. ... It is true   
   that   
   there is a crisis of faith in the world. But it is also true that there is a   
   great blessing and a desire ... for faith to come forth, for faith to be   
   missionary, for faith not to be closed up in a tin. Our faith is not a museum   
   faith, and the Church is not a museum. Our faith is born of contact, of   
   dialogue   
   with Jesus Christ, our Saviour, with the Lord. ... If faith does not go out   
   into   
   the street, it is no use; and taking faith out into the street does not mean   
   merely a procession. That faith goes out into the street means that we show   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)