Pope Francis Welcomes Pastoral Team that Accompanies those who have Lost a Child in Miscarriage "Project Hope"
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Pope Francis welcomes the team from the pastoral program of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), which for 25 years has been accompanying men and women who have lost a child, especially through the miscarriage of a pregnancy: "Thank you for your service to people whose suffering is indescribable. Evil does not have the last word."
“Thank you” is the first word that Pope Francis addresses to the members of the Project Hope Group , active in the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), received today, October 30, in an audience at the Vatican on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his birth. It is a pastoral program that seeks to accompany women or men who have lost a child before birth, especially due to a miscarriage.
GREETING OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE "PROJECT HOPE" TEAM
OF THE LATIN AMERICAN EPISCOPAL COUNCIL (C.E.L.AM.)
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
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Dear brothers and sisters:
Thank you for coming! I am happy to welcome you to this house of the entire Church, in the happy celebration of 25 years of service to people whose suffering is indescribable.
The arrival of each newborn is often synonymous with a joy that overwhelms us in a mysterious way, and that renews hope. It is as if we perceived, without knowing how to explain it, that each child is an announcement of the Birth of Bethlehem.
Perhaps for this reason, in the pedagogy of his Gospel, the Lord wanted us to share in a pain that, because it is the antithesis of that joy, shocks us in a brutal way: “There is a cry in Ramah, groans and bitter weeping: Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are gone” (Jer 31:15).
An ancient author quoted by St. Thomas interpreted this text by saying that the first groan referred to the children, the holy innocents, and their pain ceased with death, while the bitter weeping was the lament of the mothers “which is always renewed with memory” (Catena Aurea Mt 2:17-18).
The text of St. Matthew continues with the flight to Egypt, almost as if to say that such a great evil drives Jesus away from us, prevents him from entering our home, from having a place in our inn. But we must not lose hope, evil does not have the last word, it is never definitive. Like the angel in St. Joseph's dream, God announces to us that, after this desert, the Lord will return to take possession of his house.
For many people you are like that angel and I truly thank you. Trust in the firm hand of St. Joseph so that these sisters of ours can find Jesus in their desolation. With him they will reach the warm and safe home of Nazareth.
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