Vatican City, 8 May
2013 (VIS) – “The men and women of the Church who are careerists and social
climbers, who 'use' people, the Church, their brothers and sisters—whom they
should be serving—as a springboard for their own personal interests and
ambitions … are doing great harm to the Church.” This is what Pope Francis asserted
in his address to the participants in the plenary assembly of the International
Union of Superiors General (UISG) whom he received in audience this morning.
The pontiff spoke to
the sisters of obedience, poverty, and chastity: “Obedience as listening to
God's will, in the interior motion of the Holy Spirit authenticated by the
Church, accepting that obedience also passes through human mediations. …
Poverty, which teaches solidarity, sharing, and charity and which is also
expressed in a soberness and joy of the essential, to put us on guard against
the material idols that obscure the true meaning of life. Poverty, which is
learned with the humble, the poor, the sick, and all those who are at the
existential margins of life. Theoretical poverty doesn't do anything. Poverty
is learned by touching the flesh of the poor Christ in the humble, the poor,
the sick, and in children.”
“And then chastity, as a precious charism, that enlarges the
freedom of your gift to God and others with Christ's tenderness, mercy, and
closeness. Chastity for the Kingdom of Heaven shows how affection has its place
in mature freedom and becomes a sign of the future world, to make God's primacy
shine forever. But, please, [make it] a 'fertile' chastity, which generates
spiritual children in the Church. The consecrated are mothers: they must be
mothers and not 'spinsters'! Forgive me if I talk like this but this maternity
of consecrated life, this fruitfulness is important! May this joy of spiritual
fruitfulness animate your existence. Be mothers, like the images of the Mother
Mary and the Mother Church. You cannot understand Mary without her motherhood;
you cannot understand the Church without her motherhood, and you are icons of
Mary and of the Church.”
Continuing, Pope
Francis spoke to the superiors about service. “We must never forget that true
power, at whatever level, is service, which has its bright summit upon the
Cross. … 'You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them ... But it
shall not be so among you.'—This is precisely the motto of your assembly, isn't
it? It shall not be so among you.—'Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you
shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your
slave'.”
“Your vocation is a fundamental charism for the Church's journey
and it isn't possible that a consecrated woman or man might 'feel' themselves
not to be with the Church. A 'feeling' with the Church that has generated us in
Baptism; a 'feeling' with the Church that finds its filial expression in fidelity
to the Magisterium, in communion with the Bishops and the Successor of Peter,
the Bishop of Rome, a visible sign of that unity,” the pontiff added, citing
Paul VI: “It is an absurd dichotomy to think of living with Jesus but without
the Church, of following Jesus outside of the Church, of loving Jesus without
loving the Church. Feel the responsibility that you have of caring for the
formation of your Institutes in sound Church doctrine, in love of the Church,
and in an ecclesial spirit.”
“The centrality of Christ and his Gospel, authority as a service of
love, and 'feeling' in and with the Mother Church: [these are] three
suggestions that I wish to leave you, to which I again add my gratitude for
your work, which is not always easy. What would the Church be without you? She
would be missing maternity, affection, tenderness! A Mother's intuition.”
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