01101993 Pope JPII tomb St Francis of Assisi
There are so many things to think about in Assisi, next to the tomb of Saint Francis! Certainly, his life in the thirteenth century is wonderful. But we can say that life after the thirteenth century is even more wonderful, until today. We can also say that precisely in our time, the 20th century, the Second Vatican Council, the new commitments of the Church, ecumenical commitments, for peace, for justice, write a new chapter in the history of Saint Francis: not in the life, but in the communio sanctorum, "the communion of saints," in the Church which, ultimately, is always communio sanctorum. It is not a separate communio sanctorum, uprooted from the world. Through the figure of Saint Francis it is seen that this communio sanctorum is rooted in the world. And the Church is rooted in the contemporary world through its communio sanctorum.
In this truth, in this reality, Francis plays a very special role, a wonderful role. The history of the Church, at the end of the second millennium, rewrites the history of Francis. Francis is necessary for the Church and the world to write new chapters of their history.
I congratulate you, dear children of Saint Francis; I congratulate you, Father Minister General; I congratulate the entire Franciscan family in the world for this phenomenon that everyone perceives: everyone comes on pilgrimage to Assisi with this new awareness. Today has been one more day to acquire and deepen this awareness.
What should I say to all of you, dear brothers and sisters? I congratulate you for being the children of Saint Francis. I congratulate you for these new commitments, for this new mission that your religious community is always carrying out in the Church and in the world.
I thank you for this new journey in favor of peace, this time in Europe, in the Balkan Peninsula, so close to you. Finally, I commend myself to your prayers. You are here, next to this treasure, in this privileged place: I entrust myself as Bishop of Rome and, at the same time, I also entrust to you all my collaborators here present, and I entrust you to the entire Roman Church and the entire Catholic Church in the world.
I also entrust to you this great ecumenical cause that has once again become a cause of our contemporary Church. And finally I entrust to you the great problem, the great reality of peace, so fragile, in the world, in Europe, everywhere. I finally entrust my person to you. It must be said that Francis treated the Popes well, thank God. Therefore, we can hope that you too will be like him.
.jpg)
Comments
Post a Comment