bearings; able to listen to people’s dreams without being seduced and to share their disappointments without losing hope and becoming bitter; able to sympathize with the brokenness of others without losing their own strength and identity. What is
needed is a solid human, cultural, effective, spiritual and doctrinal formation. Dear brother bishops, courage is needed to undertake a profound review of the structures in place for the formation and preparation of the clergy and the laity of the
Church in Brazil. It is not enough that formation be considered a vague priority, either in documents or at meetings. ... You cannot delegate this task, but must embrace it as something fundamental for the journey of your Churches.</p>
<p>Collegiality and solidarity in the Episcopal Conference</p>
<p>It is important to remember Aparecida, the method of gathering diversity together. Not so much a diversity of ideas in order to produce a document, but a variety of experiences of God, in order to set a vital process in motion. ...
Central
bureaucracy is not sufficient; there is also a need for increased collegiality and solidarity. This will be a source of true enrichment for all. </p> <p>Permanent state of mission and pastoral conversion</p>
<p>Concerning mission, we need to remember that its urgency derives from its inner motivation; in other words, it is about handing on a legacy. As for method, it is essential to realize that a legacy is about witness, it is like the baton in a relay
race: you don’t throw it up in the air for whoever is able to catch it, so that anyone who doesn’t catch it has to manage without. In order to transmit a legacy, one needs to hand it over
Subject: VISnews130728
From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt <
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personally, to touch the one to whom one wants to
give, to relay, this inheritance. Concerning pastoral conversion, I would like to recall that “pastoral care” is nothing other than the exercise of the Church’s motherhood. … So we need a Church capable of rediscovering the
maternal womb of mercy. Without mercy we have little chance nowadays of becoming part of a world of “wounded” persons in need of understanding, forgiveness, love. In mission, also on a continental level, it is very important to
reaffirm the family, which remains the essential cell of society and the Church; young people, who are the face of the Church’s future; women, who
play a fundamental role in passing on the faith. Let us not reduce the involvement of women in the
Church, but instead promote their active role in the ecclesial community. By losing women, the Church risks becoming sterile. Aparecida also underlines the vocation and mission of men in the family, the Church and in societies, as fathers, workers and
citizens. Take this into consideration!</p>
<p>The task of the Church in society</p>
<p>In the context of society, there is only one thing which the Church quite clearly demands: the freedom to proclaim the Gospel in its entirety, even when it runs counter to the world, even when it goes against the tide. In so doing, she defends
treasures of which she is merely the custodian, and values which she does not create but rather receives, to which she must remain faithful. The Church claims the right to serve man in his wholeness, and to speak of what God has revealed about human
beings and their fulfilment. The Church wants to make present that spiritual patrimony without which society falls apart. … The Church has the right and the duty to keep alive the flame of human freedom and unity. Education, health, social
harmony are pressing concerns in Brazil. The Church has a word to say on these issues, because any adequate response to these challenges calls for more than merely technical solutions; there has to be an underlying view of man, his freedom, his
value, his openness to the transcendent.</p>
<p>The Amazon Basin as a litmus test for Church and society in Brazil</p> <p>… The Church’s presence in the Amazon Basin is not that of someone with bags packed and ready to leave after having exploited everything possible. The Church has been present in the Amazon Basin from the beginning, in her missionaries
and religious congregations, and she is still present and critical to the area’s future. … I would like to invite everyone to reflect on what Aparecida said about the Amazon Basin, its forceful appeal for respect and
protection of the
entire creation which God has entrusted to man, not so that it be indiscriminately exploited, but rather made into a garden. </p>
<p>Dear brother Bishops, I have attempted to offer you in a fraternal spirit some reflections and approaches for a Church like that of Brazil, which is a great mosaic made up of different tesserae, images, forms, problems and challenges, but which for
this very reason is an enormous treasure. The Church is never uniformity, but diversities harmonized in unity, and this is true for every ecclesial reality”.</p>
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<p>POPE FRANCIS: “BUILD UP A SWEAT” LIKE TRUE ATHLETES OF CHRIST</p>
<p>Vatican City, 28 July 2013 (VIS) – Yesterday evening the Pope celebrated a prayer vigil with almost two million young people at Copacabana. The Liturgy of the Word began with various testimonies and questions posed to the Holy Father.</p>
<p>At the end the Pope addressed the young, recalling how the Lord asked St. Francis of Assisi to do “his part for the life of the Church. … being at the service of the Church, loving her and working to make the countenance of Christ shine
ever more brightly in her. Today too, as always, the Lord needs you, young people, for his Church. Dear young people, the Lord needs this. Today too, he is calling each of you to follow him in his Church and to be missionaries”.</p>
<p>Due to bad weather, this vigil, which should have celebrated at the “Campus Fidei” in Guaratiba, was transferred to Copacabana. Francis
encouraged the participants to consider this situation. “Perhaps the Lord
wishes to tell us that
the true field of faith, the true Campus Fidei, is not a geographical location,
but rather, it is us?”, he said. The Holy Father introduced three images of the field, to “help us understand better what it means to be a disciple and a
missionary”.</p>
<p>“First, a field is a place for sowing seeds”. Here the Pope mentioned the parable of the “sower who went out to sow seeds in the field; some seed fell on the path, some on rocky ground, some among thorns, and
could not grow; other
seed fell on good soil and brought forth much fruit. Jesus himself explains the
meaning of the parable: the seed is the word of God sown in our hearts. Today, every day”, said the Pope, “but especially today, Jesus sows. When we welcome the
Word of God, then we become the Campus Fidei, the field of faith. Please, let Christ and His Word enter into your life, let the seed of the Word of God be sown, let it germinate, let it grow. God will do everything but you must let Him in, you must let
Him work and grow”.</p>
<p>“I think that we have to ask ourselves honestly: what kind of ground are we? Maybe sometimes we are like the path: we hear the Lord’s word but
it changes nothing in our lives because we let ourselves be numbed by all the superficial
voices competing for our attention; or we are like the rocky ground: we receive
Jesus with enthusiasm, but we falter and, faced with difficulties, we don’t have the courage to swim against the tide; or we are like the thorny ground: negativity,
negative feelings choke the Lord’s word in us. Do I have two attitudes in
my heart: with one I am happy with God, and with the other I am happy with the devil? One which receives the seed of Jesus and at the same time waters the weeds? What is
born in my heart?”</p>
<p>“But today I am sure that the seed is falling on good soil, that you want to be good soil, not part-time Christians, not “starchy” and superficial, but real. Seek out a patch of good land and let the seeds fall there; you will see
that they will bear good fruit. I know that you want to become good ground, good Christians, not part-time Christians, those who seem to be Christians but in reality are not. Be authentic Christians. I am sure that you don’t want to be duped by a
false freedom, always at the beck and call of momentary fashions and fads. I know that you are aiming high, at long-lasting decisions which will make your lives meaningful. In silence, we must welcome the seed of Jesus. Everyone knows
the name of the
seed that enters: let it grow, and God will take care of it”.</p> <p>“Jesus asks us to follow him for life, he asks us to be his disciples,
to 'play on his team'. I think that most of you love sports! … Now, what
do players do when they are asked to join a team? They have to train, and to train a lot! The
same is true of our lives as the Lord’s disciples. ... Jesus offers us something bigger than the World Cup! He offers us the possibility of a fulfilled and fruitful life; He also offers us a future with Him, an endless future, eternal life. But He
asks us to buy a ticket to this future, and the ticket is training, 'getting in
shape', bearing witness to our faith. By talking with Him in prayer”.</p> <p>Francis asked the young people various questions, to which he asked them to respond in silence, in their hearts. “Do I pray?”, he said. “Do I let the Holy Spirit speak to my heart? Do I ask Jesus what he wants
me to do? This is
training. Putting questions to Jesus, talking with Jesus. And if you make mistakes in life, if you do something wrong, do not be afraid. … Always talk to Jesus, in good times and bad. That is prayer. This is how we enter into
dialogue with Jesus
and as a missionary disciple. And by the sacraments, which make His life grow within us and conform us to Christ. By loving one another, learning to listen, to understand, to forgive, to be accepting and to help others, everybody, without exclusion or
ostracism. This is the training we have to do to follow Jesus: prayer, sacraments and helping others, serving others”.</p>
<p>Finally, the Holy Father spoke about the field as a construction site. “When our heart is good soil which receives the word of God, when we 'build up a sweat' in trying to live as Christians, we experience something tremendous: we are never
alone, we are part of a family of brothers and sisters, all journeying on the same path: we are part of the Church; indeed, we are building up the Church and
we are making history. Please, don't become footnotes to history. Be agents of history, go out
and build a better world”.</p>
<p>Pope Francis remarked that “in the Church of Jesus, we ourselves are the living stones. Jesus is asking us to build up His Church; each one of us is
a living stone, a little building block. Each living stone contributes to the unity and the
security of the Church. But he does not want us to build a little chapel which holds only a small group of persons. He asks us to make his living Church so large that it can hold all of humanity, that it can be a home for everyone”.</p>
<p>“Please”, he continued, “do not leave it to others to be the agents of change. You hold the future … continue to work against apathy and offer a Christian response to the social and political problems that
arise all over the
world. I ask you to be builders of the future, to set to work for a better world. Dear young people, please, do not live your lives as observers, watching
the world go by. Go into the fray, as Jesus did – He did not sit back and
watch. But where
do we start? Once, Mother Teresa was asked what should be the first thing to change in the Church, and she replied: 'You and I'. Today I too repeat the words of Mother Teresa and I say to you: you and I must be the first to change.”</p>
<p>“Dear friends, never forget that you are the field of faith! You are Christ’s athletes! You are called to build a more beautiful Church and a better world. Let us lift our gaze to Our Lady. Mary helps us to follow Jesus, she gives us the
example by her own 'yes' to God: 'I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me as you say'. All together, let us join Mary in saying to God: let it be done to me as you say”.</p>
<p>Following Pope Francis' address, the deacons brought the Holy Sacrament in procession. After the Eucharistic adoration and prayers of the young people in several languages, the recitation of the “Salve Regina” concluded the
celebration.</p>
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