VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXVI - # 33   
   DATE 17-02-2016   
      
   Summary:   
   - To the clergy in Morelia: do not give in to the temptation of resignation   
   - Young Mexicans, the greatest treasure of this land   
   - Pope's telegram for the death of the UN ex-Secretary General Boutros   
   Boutros-Ghali   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    To the clergy in Morelia: do not give in to the temptation of resignation   
    Vatican City, 17 February 2016 (VIS) - Yesterday, Tuesday 16 February, the   
   Pope   
   arrived at 8.45 a.m. (local time, 3.45 p.m. in Rome) in Morelia, capital of the   
   state of Michoacan, the geographical centre of Mexico and since 1991 a UNESCO   
   World Heritage site on account of its Hispanic historic centre and baroque   
   architecture, notably the Cathedral of the Transfiguration and the Palace of   
   Justice. It is also the seat of an important university, the Universidad   
   Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, founded in 1551 as the Colegio de San   
   Nicolas, and currently attended by 45,000 students.   
    The Pope travelled by popemobile the nine kilometres separating the airport   
   from the Venustiano Carranza stadium, which is able to hold 20,000 people. He   
   was awaited by the priests, men and women religious, consecrated persons and   
   seminarians of the archdiocese. During the Mass, celebrated by the Holy Father,   
   the purhepecha language was used for the prayer of the faithful.   
    The Pope began his homily in a colloquial fashion: "There is a saying among us   
   which goes 'tell me how you pray, and I will tell you how you live; tell me how   
   you live and I will tell you how you pray. Because showing me how you pray, I   
   will learn to find the God for Whom you live, and showing me how you live, I   
   will learn to believe in the God to Whom you pray'. For our life speaks of   
   prayer and prayer speaks of our life; praying is something learned, just as we   
   learn to walk, to speak, to listen. The school of prayer is the school of life   
   and in the school of life we progress in the school of prayer".   
    He commented that Paul said to his favourite disciple Timothy, while teaching   
   or encouraging him to live the faith: "Remember your mother and your   
   grandmother". "And seminarians, when entering seminary often used to tell me:   
   'Father, I would like to have deeper mental prayer'. 'Look, you carry on   
   praying   
   as they taught you to at home and then later, little by little, your prayer   
   will   
   mature, just as you grew up'. Praying is something learned, just like life".   
    "Jesus wished to introduce His companions into the mystery of Life, into the   
   mystery of His life. He showed them by eating, sleeping, healing, preaching and   
   praying, what it means to be Son of God. He invited them to share His life, His   
   interiority, and in His presence among them He allowed them to touch, in His   
   flesh, the life of the Father. He helped them to experience, in His gaze, in   
   His   
   going out in power, the newness of saying 'Our Father'. In Jesus this   
   expression   
   'Our Father' has no trace of routine or mere repetition. On the contrary, it   
   contains a sense of life, of experience, of authenticity. With these two words,   
   'Our Father', He knew how to live praying and to pray living. Jesus invites us   
   to do the same. Our first call is to experience this merciful love of the   
   Father   
   in our lives, in our experiences. His first call is to introduce us into the   
   new   
   dynamic of love, of sonship. Our first calling is to learn to say, 'Our   
   Father',   
   as Paul insists: Abba. 'Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!', says St.   
   Paul, 'Woe to me!'. For to evangelise, he continues, is not a cause for glory   
   but rather a need".   
    "He has invited us to share in His life, His divine life, and woe to us   
   consecrated men and women, seminarians, priests, bishops, woe to us if we do   
   not   
   share it, woe to us if we are not witnesses to what we have seen and heard, woe   
   to us. We do not want to be 'administrators of the divine', we are not and do   
   not want to be employees in God's firm, for we are invited to share in His   
   life,   
   we are invited to enter into His heart, a heart that prays and lives, saying,   
   'Our Father'. What is our mission if not to say with our lives ... 'Our   
   Father'?"   
    He Who is Our Father, it is He to Whom we pray every day with insistence. And   
   what do we tell Him in one of the petitions of that prayer? Lead us not into   
   temptation. Jesus Himself did the same thing. He prayed that His disciples -   
   yesterday's and today's - would not fall into temptation. What could be one of   
   the sins which besets us? What could be one of the temptations which springs up   
   not only in contemplating reality but also in living it? What temptation can   
   come to us from places often dominated by violence, corruption, drug   
   trafficking, disregard for human dignity, and indifference in the face of   
   suffering and vulnerability? What temptation might we suffer over and over   
   again   
   - we who are called to the consecrated life, to the presbyterate, to the   
   episcopate - what temptation could might we endure in the face of all this, in   
   the face of this reality which seems to have become a permanent system?"   
    "I think that we could sum it up in a single word: 'resignation'. And faced   
   with this reality, the devil can overcome us with one of his favourite weapons:   
   resignation. 'And what are you going to do about it? Life is like that'. A   
   resignation which paralyses us and prevents us not only from walking, but also   
   from making the journey; a resignation which not only terrifies us, but which   
   also entrenches us in our 'sacristies' and false securities; a resignation   
   which   
   not only prevents us from proclaiming, but also inhibits our giving praise and   
   takes away the joy, the joy of giving praise. A resignation which not only   
   hinders our looking to the future, but also stifles our desire to take risks   
   and   
   to change. And so, 'Our Father, lead us not into temptation'".   
    "How good it is for us to tap into our memories when we are tempted",   
   exclaimed   
   the Pope. "How much it helps us to look at the 'stuff' of which we are made. It   
   did not all begin with us, nor will it all end with us, and so it does us good   
   to look back at our past experiences which have brought us to the present. And   
   in this remembering, we cannot overlook someone who loved this place so much,   
   who made himself a son of this land", he continued, referring to the Spanish   
   Vasco Vazquez de Quiroga, first bishop of Michoacan. "We cannot overlook that   
   person who could say of himself: 'They took me from the tribunal and put me in   
   charge of the priesthood for my sins. Me, useless and quite unable to carry out   
   such a great undertaking; me, who didn't know how to use an oar, they chose me   
   to be the first Bishop of Michoacan'".   
    "With you, I would like to recall this evangeliser, first known as 'the   
   Spaniard who became an Indian'. The situation of the Purhepechas Indians, whom   
   he described as being 'sold, humiliated, and homeless in marketplaces, picking   
   up scraps of bread from the ground', far from tempting him to listless   
   resignation, succeeded in kindling his faith, strengthening his compassion and   
   inspiring him to carry out plans that were a 'breath of fresh air' in the midst   
   of so much paralysing injustice. The pain and suffering of his brothers and   
   sisters became his prayer, and his prayer led to his response. And among the   
   Indians, he was known as 'Tata Vasco', which in the Purhepechan language means,   
   Father".   
    Father, dad, daddy", invoked the Holy Father at the end of his homily, "Lead   
   us   
   not into the temptation of resignation, lead us not into the temptation of   
   falling into sloth, lead us not into the temptation of losing our memory, lead   
   us not into the temptation of forgetting our elders who taught us by their   
   lives   
   to say, 'Our Father'".   
    After the celebration, the Pope transferred to the archiepiscopal residence of   
   Morelia where he lunched, and from there proceeded to the Cathedral of the   
   Transfiguration (1644-1744), baroque in style with neo-Classical elements and   
   tiled domes, which dominates the Plaza de las Armas. In the sacristy, where   
   alongside sixteenth-century paintings, there is a figure of Christ made using a   
   mix of corn and honey using pre-Hispanic techniques, Francis met and conversed   
   with fourteen rectors of Mexican universities and six leaders of other   
   Christian   
   confessions.   
    The Holy Father was also greeted by around one hundred children, catechumens,   
   whom he thanked for their visit. "I will ask Jesus to let you grow surrounded   
   by   
   love, like He did", he said. "With much love so as to be true Christians, to   
   fulfil the commandment that Jesus gave us: to love God above all else, and our   
   neighbour as Jesus did, as we love ourselves or better, as He loved us. And we   
   will also ask Our Lady to look after us and to bless us. Above all, let all of   
   us think in our hearts of our families and our friends, and even if you are at   
   odds with any of them, ask the Virgin to care for them all the same; in this   
   way   
   we make friends rather than enemies, because life is not good with enemies, and   
   He Whom makes us true friends is God, in our heart".   
    Likewise he congratulated the choir which had dedicated a song to him,   
   commenting that "art and sport enlarge our hearts and make us grow well, with   
   fresh air and without crushing life. Continue to be creative", he added, "in   
   search of beauty, of good things, of that which lasts for ever, and never let   
   anyone trample on this".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Young Mexicans, the greatest treasure of this land   
    Vatican City, 17 February 2016 (VIS) - At 4 p.m. local time (11 p.m. in Rome),   
   Francis arrived at the Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon stadium in the city of   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)