Pope Francis Tells Religious "Always forgive!" and Prays for Peace "especially for the Holy Land where Mary gave birth to Jesus" FULL TEXT Angelus in Corsica
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Pope Francis met with bishops, priests, religious consecrated men and women and seminarians in Corsica, and highlighted the importance of forgiveness. Corsica's bishops, priests, deacons, religious and seminarians gathered in the island's Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption on Sunday the 15th of December to join Pope Francis in the recitation of the Angelus Prayer. Addressing the group of religious in what was the second event of his one-day Apostolic Journey to the French island, Pope Francis thanked those present for their daily efforts, despite challenges. Upon his arrival, the Pope was welcomed at the main entrance of the Cathedral by the Bishop of Ajaccio, His Eminence Card. François-Xavier Bustillo, O.F.M. Conv., by the President of the French Episcopal Conference, H.E. Mons. Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, Archbishop of Reims, and by the Parish Priest. Two children gave him a floral tribute while a choir sang a song in the square in front of the Cathedral. Two canons gave the Holy Father the cross and the holy water for sprinkling. Then Pope Francis crossed the central nave and reached the altar. After the welcome greeting from the President of the French Episcopal Conference, before reciting the Angelus, the Pope gave his speech. After the blessing, the gift to the Holy Father and the final song and, after greeting some people before taking his leave, Pope Francis moved by car to the Bishopric of Ajaccio where, upon his arrival, he was welcomed by the staff of the Bishop's residence. (FULL TEXT Below the VIDEO)
FULL TEXT TRANSLATION of the ADDRESS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta - Ajaccio
Sunday, 15 December 2024
_________________________________
Dear brother Bishops,
dear consecrated women, dear priests, deacons, consecrated men and seminarians!
I am in this beautiful land for only one day, but I wanted there to be at least a brief moment to meet you and greet you. This gives me the opportunity first of all to say thank you: thank you for being here, with your life given; thank you for your work, for your daily commitment; thank you because you are a sign of God's merciful love and witnesses of the Gospel. I was happy when I was able to greet one of you: he is 95 years old and has been a priest for 70 years! And this is carrying forward that beautiful vocation. Thank you, brother, for your testimony! Thank you so much!
And from the "thank you" I immediately move on to the grace of God, which is the foundation of the Christian faith and of every form of consecration in the Church. In the European context in which we find ourselves, there is no shortage of problems and challenges that concern the transmission of the faith, and every day you deal with this, discovering yourselves to be small and fragile: you are not very numerous, you do not have powerful means, the environments in which you operate are not always favorable to welcoming the announcement of the Gospel. And sometimes a film comes to mind, because some are willing to welcome the Gospel, but not the "spokesman". That film had this phrase: "Music yes, but the musician no". Think about it, faithfulness to the transmission of the Gospel. This will help us. And yet this priestly poverty, I would like to say, is a blessing! Why? It strips us of the pretense of making it alone, it teaches us to consider the Christian mission as something that does not depend on human strength, but above all on the work of the Lord, who always works and acts with the little that we can offer him.
Let us not forget this: at the center is the Lord. Not me at the center, but God. Here, for some presumptuous priest who puts himself at the center, we say: this is a priest yo, me, mí, conmigo, para mí. Me, me, with me, for me. No, the Lord is at the center. And this is something that perhaps every morning, at sunrise, every pastor, every consecrated person should repeat in prayer: even today, in my service, not me at the center, but God, the Lord. And I say this because there is a danger in worldliness, a danger that is vanity. Being a “peacock”. Looking too much at ourselves. Vanity. And vanity is a bad habit, with a bad smell. Being a peacock.
The primacy of divine grace does not mean, however, that we can sleep soundly without assuming our responsibilities. On the contrary, we must think of ourselves as “collaborators of the grace of God” (see 1 Cor 3:9). And so, walking with the Lord, every day we are brought back to an essential question: how am I living my priesthood, my consecration, my discipleship? Am I close to Jesus?
When, in the other diocese, I made pastoral visits, I met some good priests who worked very, very hard. “Tell me, and how do you do it in the evening?” – “I’m tired, I’ll have a bite to eat and then go to bed to rest a bit, to watch television” – “But don’t you stop by the chapel to greet your Boss?” – “Oh no…” – “And you, before falling asleep, do you do this, do you pray a Hail Mary? At least be polite: stop by the chapel and say: Hello, thank you very much, see you tomorrow”. Don’t forget the Lord! The Lord at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the day. He is our Boss. And he is a Boss who works more than we do! Don’t forget this.
And I ask you this question: how do I live discipleship? Fix it in your heart, don’t underestimate it, and don’t underestimate the need for this discernment, for this looking inside ourselves, so that we don’t get “ground up” in external rhythms and activities and lose our inner consistency. For my part, I would like to leave you with a twofold invitation: take care of yourselves and take care of others.
The first: take care of yourselves. Because priestly or religious life is not a “yes” that we have pronounced once and for all. We don’t live off the Lord! On the contrary, every day we must renew the joy of meeting Him, in every moment we must listen to His voice again and decide to follow Him, even in moments of failure. Get up, look at the Lord: “Excuse me, help me to move forward”. This fraternal and filial closeness.
Let us remember this: our life is expressed in the offering of ourselves, but the more a priest, a nun, a religious man donates himself, spends himself, works for the Kingdom of God, the more necessary it becomes for him to take care of himself. A priest, a nun, a deacon who neglects himself will also end up neglecting those entrusted to him. For this reason, a small “rule of life” is needed – religious men already have one – which includes a daily appointment with prayer and the Eucharist, dialogue with the Lord, each according to his own spirituality and style. And I would also like to add: keeping some moments of solitude; having a brother or sister with whom we can freely share what we carry in our hearts – once upon a time it was called a spiritual director –; cultivating something we are passionate about, and not to pass the time, but to rest in a healthy way from the tiredness of the ministry. The ministry is tiring! We should be afraid of those people who are always active, always at the center, who perhaps because of too much zeal never rest, never take a break for themselves. Brothers, this is not good, there is a need for spaces and moments in which every priest and every consecrated person takes care of himself. And not to have a facelift to appear more beautiful, no, to talk to the Friend, to the Lord, and above all to the Mother - do not abandon the Madonna, please -, to talk about your life, how things are going. And always have both the confessor and some friend who knows you well and with whom you can talk and make a good discernment. "Presbyterian mushrooms" are not good!
And in this care there is another thing: the fraternity among you. Let us learn to share not only the hardships and challenges, but also the joy and friendship among us: your Bishop says something that I like very much, and that is that it is important to move from the “Book of Lamentations” to the “Book of the Song of Songs”. We do this very little. We like laments! And if the poor Bishop forgot his skullcap that morning: “But look at the Bishop…”. Something is taken to speak ill of the Bishop. It is true, the Bishop is a sinner like each of us. We are brothers! To move from the “Book of Lamentations” to the “Book of the Song of Songs”. This is important, a Psalm also says it: “You have changed my mourning into dancing” (Ps 30:12). Let us share the joy of being apostles and disciples of the Lord! A joy must be shared. Otherwise, the place that joy should take is taken by vinegar. It is a bad thing to find a priest with a bitter heart. It is bad. “But why are you like this?” – “Eh, because the Bishop doesn’t love me… Because they appointed that other one as Bishop and not me… Because… Because…”. Complaints. Please, stop before complaints, envy. Envy is a “yellow” vice. Let us ask the Lord to change our complaint into dance, to give us a sense of humor, evangelical simplicity.
The second thing: taking care of others. The mission that each of you has received always has only one purpose: to bring Jesus to others, to give hearts the consolation of the Gospel. I like to remember the moment when the apostle Paul is about to return to Corinth and writing to the community says: “For my part, I will most gladly spend myself, indeed I will be consumed for your souls” (2 Cor 12:15). Consuming oneself for souls, consuming oneself in the offering of oneself for those who have been entrusted to us. And a holy young priest comes to mind who later died of cancer not long ago. He lived in a shanty town with the poorest people. He said: “Sometimes I want to close the window with bricks, because people come at any hour and if I don’t answer the door, they knock on the window”. The priest with a heart open to everyone, without making distinctions.
Listening, being close to people, is also an invitation to find, in today’s context, the most effective pastoral ways for evangelization. Do not be afraid to change, to review old patterns, to renew the languages of faith, learning that the mission is not a matter of human strategies: it is first and foremost a matter of faith. Taking care of others: those who await the Word of Jesus, those who have distanced themselves from Him, those who need guidance or consolation for their suffering. Taking care of everyone, in training and above all in meeting. Meeting people, where they live and work, this is important.
And then, something that is very dear to me: please, always forgive. And forgive everything. Forgive everything and always. I say to priests, in the sacrament of Reconciliation, not to ask too many questions. Listen and forgive. A Cardinal – who is a bit conservative, a bit square, but a great priest – said while speaking at a conference for priests: “If someone [in Confession] begins to stammer because he is ashamed, I tell him: okay, I understand, move on to something else. In reality I have not understood anything, but He [the Lord] has understood”. Please, do not torture people in the confessional: where, how, when, with whom… Always forgive, always forgive! There is a good Capuchin friar in Buenos Aires, whom I made a cardinal at the age of 96. He always has a long line of people, because he is a good confessor, I also went to him. This confessor once told me: “Listen, sometimes I have the scruple of forgiving too much” – “And what do you do?” – “I go to pray and say: Lord, I’m sorry, I’ve forgiven too much. But right away I feel like saying to him: But it was You who gave me a bad example!” Always forgive. Forgive everything. And I also say this to religious men and women: forgive, forget, when they do something bad to us, the ambitious struggles of community… Forgive. The Lord has given us the example: forgive everything and always! Everyone, everyone, everyone. And I’ll tell you a secret: I’ve already been a priest for 55 years, yes, the day before yesterday I turned 55, and I’ve never denied absolution. And I like to confess, a lot. I’ve always looked for a way to forgive. I don’t know if it’s beautiful, if the Lord will give it to me… But this is my testimony.
Dear sisters and brothers and sisters, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I wish you a ministry full of hope and joy. Even in moments of tiredness and discouragement, do not let yourselves go. Bring your heart back to the Lord. Do not forget to cry before the Lord! He manifests himself and lets himself be found if you take care of yourselves and others. In this way He offers consolation to those He has called and sent. Go forward with courage: He will fill you with joy!
Now we turn in prayer to the Virgin Mary. In this Cathedral, dedicated to her Assumed into Heaven, the faithful people venerate her as Patron as the Mother of Mercy, the “Madunnuccia”. From this Island of the Mediterranean, we raise to her the supplication for peace: peace for all the lands that overlook this Sea, especially for the Holy Land where Mary gave birth to Jesus. Peace for Palestine, for Israel, for Lebanon, for Syria, for the entire Middle East! Peace in tormented Myanmar. And may the Holy Mother of God obtain the longed-for peace for the Ukrainian people and the Russian people. They are brothers – “No, Father, they are cousins!” – They are cousins, brothers, I don’t know, but let them understand each other! Peace! Brothers, sisters, war is always a defeat. And war in religious communities, war in parishes is always a defeat, always! May the Lord give us all peace.
And let us pray for the victims of the cyclone that, in the last few hours, hit the Mayotte Archipelago. I am spiritually close to those who have been affected by this tragedy.
And now all together, let us pray the Angelus
Angelus Domini…
Sunday, 15 December 2024
_________________________________
Dear brother Bishops,
dear consecrated women, dear priests, deacons, consecrated men and seminarians!
I am in this beautiful land for only one day, but I wanted there to be at least a brief moment to meet you and greet you. This gives me the opportunity first of all to say thank you: thank you for being here, with your life given; thank you for your work, for your daily commitment; thank you because you are a sign of God's merciful love and witnesses of the Gospel. I was happy when I was able to greet one of you: he is 95 years old and has been a priest for 70 years! And this is carrying forward that beautiful vocation. Thank you, brother, for your testimony! Thank you so much!
And from the "thank you" I immediately move on to the grace of God, which is the foundation of the Christian faith and of every form of consecration in the Church. In the European context in which we find ourselves, there is no shortage of problems and challenges that concern the transmission of the faith, and every day you deal with this, discovering yourselves to be small and fragile: you are not very numerous, you do not have powerful means, the environments in which you operate are not always favorable to welcoming the announcement of the Gospel. And sometimes a film comes to mind, because some are willing to welcome the Gospel, but not the "spokesman". That film had this phrase: "Music yes, but the musician no". Think about it, faithfulness to the transmission of the Gospel. This will help us. And yet this priestly poverty, I would like to say, is a blessing! Why? It strips us of the pretense of making it alone, it teaches us to consider the Christian mission as something that does not depend on human strength, but above all on the work of the Lord, who always works and acts with the little that we can offer him.
Let us not forget this: at the center is the Lord. Not me at the center, but God. Here, for some presumptuous priest who puts himself at the center, we say: this is a priest yo, me, mí, conmigo, para mí. Me, me, with me, for me. No, the Lord is at the center. And this is something that perhaps every morning, at sunrise, every pastor, every consecrated person should repeat in prayer: even today, in my service, not me at the center, but God, the Lord. And I say this because there is a danger in worldliness, a danger that is vanity. Being a “peacock”. Looking too much at ourselves. Vanity. And vanity is a bad habit, with a bad smell. Being a peacock.
The primacy of divine grace does not mean, however, that we can sleep soundly without assuming our responsibilities. On the contrary, we must think of ourselves as “collaborators of the grace of God” (see 1 Cor 3:9). And so, walking with the Lord, every day we are brought back to an essential question: how am I living my priesthood, my consecration, my discipleship? Am I close to Jesus?
When, in the other diocese, I made pastoral visits, I met some good priests who worked very, very hard. “Tell me, and how do you do it in the evening?” – “I’m tired, I’ll have a bite to eat and then go to bed to rest a bit, to watch television” – “But don’t you stop by the chapel to greet your Boss?” – “Oh no…” – “And you, before falling asleep, do you do this, do you pray a Hail Mary? At least be polite: stop by the chapel and say: Hello, thank you very much, see you tomorrow”. Don’t forget the Lord! The Lord at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the day. He is our Boss. And he is a Boss who works more than we do! Don’t forget this.
And I ask you this question: how do I live discipleship? Fix it in your heart, don’t underestimate it, and don’t underestimate the need for this discernment, for this looking inside ourselves, so that we don’t get “ground up” in external rhythms and activities and lose our inner consistency. For my part, I would like to leave you with a twofold invitation: take care of yourselves and take care of others.
The first: take care of yourselves. Because priestly or religious life is not a “yes” that we have pronounced once and for all. We don’t live off the Lord! On the contrary, every day we must renew the joy of meeting Him, in every moment we must listen to His voice again and decide to follow Him, even in moments of failure. Get up, look at the Lord: “Excuse me, help me to move forward”. This fraternal and filial closeness.
Let us remember this: our life is expressed in the offering of ourselves, but the more a priest, a nun, a religious man donates himself, spends himself, works for the Kingdom of God, the more necessary it becomes for him to take care of himself. A priest, a nun, a deacon who neglects himself will also end up neglecting those entrusted to him. For this reason, a small “rule of life” is needed – religious men already have one – which includes a daily appointment with prayer and the Eucharist, dialogue with the Lord, each according to his own spirituality and style. And I would also like to add: keeping some moments of solitude; having a brother or sister with whom we can freely share what we carry in our hearts – once upon a time it was called a spiritual director –; cultivating something we are passionate about, and not to pass the time, but to rest in a healthy way from the tiredness of the ministry. The ministry is tiring! We should be afraid of those people who are always active, always at the center, who perhaps because of too much zeal never rest, never take a break for themselves. Brothers, this is not good, there is a need for spaces and moments in which every priest and every consecrated person takes care of himself. And not to have a facelift to appear more beautiful, no, to talk to the Friend, to the Lord, and above all to the Mother - do not abandon the Madonna, please -, to talk about your life, how things are going. And always have both the confessor and some friend who knows you well and with whom you can talk and make a good discernment. "Presbyterian mushrooms" are not good!
And in this care there is another thing: the fraternity among you. Let us learn to share not only the hardships and challenges, but also the joy and friendship among us: your Bishop says something that I like very much, and that is that it is important to move from the “Book of Lamentations” to the “Book of the Song of Songs”. We do this very little. We like laments! And if the poor Bishop forgot his skullcap that morning: “But look at the Bishop…”. Something is taken to speak ill of the Bishop. It is true, the Bishop is a sinner like each of us. We are brothers! To move from the “Book of Lamentations” to the “Book of the Song of Songs”. This is important, a Psalm also says it: “You have changed my mourning into dancing” (Ps 30:12). Let us share the joy of being apostles and disciples of the Lord! A joy must be shared. Otherwise, the place that joy should take is taken by vinegar. It is a bad thing to find a priest with a bitter heart. It is bad. “But why are you like this?” – “Eh, because the Bishop doesn’t love me… Because they appointed that other one as Bishop and not me… Because… Because…”. Complaints. Please, stop before complaints, envy. Envy is a “yellow” vice. Let us ask the Lord to change our complaint into dance, to give us a sense of humor, evangelical simplicity.
The second thing: taking care of others. The mission that each of you has received always has only one purpose: to bring Jesus to others, to give hearts the consolation of the Gospel. I like to remember the moment when the apostle Paul is about to return to Corinth and writing to the community says: “For my part, I will most gladly spend myself, indeed I will be consumed for your souls” (2 Cor 12:15). Consuming oneself for souls, consuming oneself in the offering of oneself for those who have been entrusted to us. And a holy young priest comes to mind who later died of cancer not long ago. He lived in a shanty town with the poorest people. He said: “Sometimes I want to close the window with bricks, because people come at any hour and if I don’t answer the door, they knock on the window”. The priest with a heart open to everyone, without making distinctions.
Listening, being close to people, is also an invitation to find, in today’s context, the most effective pastoral ways for evangelization. Do not be afraid to change, to review old patterns, to renew the languages of faith, learning that the mission is not a matter of human strategies: it is first and foremost a matter of faith. Taking care of others: those who await the Word of Jesus, those who have distanced themselves from Him, those who need guidance or consolation for their suffering. Taking care of everyone, in training and above all in meeting. Meeting people, where they live and work, this is important.
And then, something that is very dear to me: please, always forgive. And forgive everything. Forgive everything and always. I say to priests, in the sacrament of Reconciliation, not to ask too many questions. Listen and forgive. A Cardinal – who is a bit conservative, a bit square, but a great priest – said while speaking at a conference for priests: “If someone [in Confession] begins to stammer because he is ashamed, I tell him: okay, I understand, move on to something else. In reality I have not understood anything, but He [the Lord] has understood”. Please, do not torture people in the confessional: where, how, when, with whom… Always forgive, always forgive! There is a good Capuchin friar in Buenos Aires, whom I made a cardinal at the age of 96. He always has a long line of people, because he is a good confessor, I also went to him. This confessor once told me: “Listen, sometimes I have the scruple of forgiving too much” – “And what do you do?” – “I go to pray and say: Lord, I’m sorry, I’ve forgiven too much. But right away I feel like saying to him: But it was You who gave me a bad example!” Always forgive. Forgive everything. And I also say this to religious men and women: forgive, forget, when they do something bad to us, the ambitious struggles of community… Forgive. The Lord has given us the example: forgive everything and always! Everyone, everyone, everyone. And I’ll tell you a secret: I’ve already been a priest for 55 years, yes, the day before yesterday I turned 55, and I’ve never denied absolution. And I like to confess, a lot. I’ve always looked for a way to forgive. I don’t know if it’s beautiful, if the Lord will give it to me… But this is my testimony.
Dear sisters and brothers and sisters, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I wish you a ministry full of hope and joy. Even in moments of tiredness and discouragement, do not let yourselves go. Bring your heart back to the Lord. Do not forget to cry before the Lord! He manifests himself and lets himself be found if you take care of yourselves and others. In this way He offers consolation to those He has called and sent. Go forward with courage: He will fill you with joy!
Now we turn in prayer to the Virgin Mary. In this Cathedral, dedicated to her Assumed into Heaven, the faithful people venerate her as Patron as the Mother of Mercy, the “Madunnuccia”. From this Island of the Mediterranean, we raise to her the supplication for peace: peace for all the lands that overlook this Sea, especially for the Holy Land where Mary gave birth to Jesus. Peace for Palestine, for Israel, for Lebanon, for Syria, for the entire Middle East! Peace in tormented Myanmar. And may the Holy Mother of God obtain the longed-for peace for the Ukrainian people and the Russian people. They are brothers – “No, Father, they are cousins!” – They are cousins, brothers, I don’t know, but let them understand each other! Peace! Brothers, sisters, war is always a defeat. And war in religious communities, war in parishes is always a defeat, always! May the Lord give us all peace.
And let us pray for the victims of the cyclone that, in the last few hours, hit the Mayotte Archipelago. I am spiritually close to those who have been affected by this tragedy.
And now all together, let us pray the Angelus
Angelus Domini…
Translated from Source: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2024/12/15/1008/02011.html with Vatican Media Screenshot
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