Dreamers of a new humanity

Transcription

1 Price 1,00. Back issues 2,00 L O S S E RVATOR E ROMANO WEEKLY EDITION Unicuique suum IN ENGLISH Non praevalebunt Forty-ninth year, number 31 (2458) Vatican City Friday, 5 August 2016 Pope Francis concludes his visit in Poland for World Youth Day and announces the next appointment in Panama 2019 Dreamers of a new humanity And during the return flight he reminds us not to identify Islam with violence Restless are the young GI O VA N N I MARIA VIAN Return flight interview Our brothers and sisters PAGES 4 AND 5 General Audience catechesis A mosaic of fraternity PAGE 3 FOR COVERAGE OF THE POPE S PA R T I C I PAT I O N IN WORLD YOUTH DA Y, SEE PA G E S 6 TO 18 The Pope speaks to Dominicans and visits the Portiuncula A Jesuit among the Friars He would spend this day as a Jesuit among the Friars, Pope Francis said, as he began a very full schedule on Thursday, 4 August. At the Vatican in the morning, he received the participants in the General Chapter of Dominicans and in the afternoon he went to Assisi to pray with Franciscans at the Portiuncula. This year both religious families are celebrating the eighth centenary of two events that were fundamental to their origins: the approval by Honorius III of the Order of St Dominic and the decision by the same Pontiff to concede the Indulgence of the Portiuncula, also known as the Pa rd o n of Assisi. During the audience with the Dominican Friars held in the Clementine Hall, the Pontiff was greeted by Bruno Cadoré, Master of the Order, on behalf of the chapters gathered in Bologna at the Sepulchre of their Founder. Meanwhile at the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels in Assisi, Benozzo Gozzoli, The meeting of St Dominic and St Francis (1452) everything was ready for the Pontiff s visit, where after personal prayer at the Portiuncula, he went on to give a catechesis on the Gospel and to visit the infirm among the Friars of Assisi. For coverage, see next s weeks edition. It has been observed that the spontaneity and authenticity of Pope Francis gestures and words largely explain the attention and concordance that he inspires in widely diverse environments. The phenomenon is particularly notable in his international travels, which for over half a century have become an increasingly important feature of papal service. All this was also observed throughout the entire visit in Poland, which the Pontiff quickly outlined in the interview with journalists during the return flight from Krakow. From a nation and among people whom Pope Bergoglio used four adjectives to describe: beautiful, enthusiastic, noble, good. The Pope s words were received in a strikingly positive way, not only by the media, from the meditations during celebrations to the dialogues partly improvised but remarkably lively with the young people gathered for the World Day, and up to the in-flight interview, which covered pressing and timely topics, from which stood out of course the clear rejection of a tendency to associate terroristic barbarities with a religion, a negative and obviously unfounded interpretation. I do not think it is right to identify Islam with violence, the Pontiff said once again, in keeping with his Predecessors and with the Conciliar renewal which laid sound bases for interreligious dialogue. And with reason Pope Francis also recalled that, despite the danger of fundamentalism, the will of many Muslim believers is to seek peace and encounter, especially in certain African countries. But the contrast with violent extremism, exercised and promoted by the so-called Islamic State, must be accompanied by an overcoming of ignorance and by an urgent examination of conscience regarding the values that in societies of opulence and unbridled consumption, despite the crisis, are presented to the young. For this reason it is undoubtedly positive that in France and again in Italy, the Islamic faithful are invited into churches. And this is why it is important to carefully read the Pontiff s interview with the press. It is no coincidence that CONTINUED ON PA G E 17

2 page 2 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 August 2016, number 31 Study commission on female deacons It was announced on 2 August that, after intense prayer and mature reflection, the Pontiff decided to establish a commission on the diaconate of women. This possibility had been discussed briefly during during a meeting with participants in the Plenary Assembly of Superiors General on 12 May. As president of the Commission, the Holy Father appointed Archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S J, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In addition, the commission is composed of six women and six men from academic institutions around the world: Sr Nuria Calduch Benages, MHSFN, member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission; Francesca Cocchini, faculty member at La Sapienza University and the Patristic Institute Augustinianum, Rome; Msgr Piero Coda, President of the Sophia University Institute, Rome, and member of the International Theological Commission; Fr Robert Dodaro, OSA, President of the Patristic Institute Augustinianum, Rome; Fr Santiago Madrigal Terrazas, S J, Professor of Ecclesiology at the Pontifical University Comillas, Madrid; Sr Mary Melone, S FA, Rector of the Pontifical University Antonianum, Rome; Fr Karl Heinz Menke, Professor emeritus of Dogmatic Theology at the University of Bonn and member of the International Theological Commission; Fr Aimable Musoni, SDB, Professor of Ecclesiology at the Pontifical University Salesianum, Rome; Fr Bernard Pottier, S J, Professor at l'institut d'etudes Théologiques, Brussels, and member of the International Theological Commission; Marianne Schlosser, Professor of Spiritual Theology at the University of Vienna and member of the International Theological Commission; Michelina Tenace, Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Pontifical University G re g o r i a n - um, Rome; Phyllis Zagano, Professor at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York. EASTERN CHURCHES After a steady increase in Indian immigrants to Great Britain and to Europe, the Holy Father has established the Eparchy of Great Britain for Syro-Malabars resident in Preston. He appointed Fr Joseph (Benny Mathew) Srampickal from the clergy of the Eparchy of Palai, India, as its first Bishop. Until now he has been vice rector of the Pontifical De Propaganda Fide College in Rome (28 July). Bishop-elect Srampickal, 49, was born in Poovarany, Palai, India. He holds a licence in biblical theology. He was ordained a priest on 12 August He has served in parish ministry and as: professor at the Minor Seminary and at the Mar Ephrem Formation Centre; director of the Mar Sleeva Nursing College; director of the Evangelization Programme; Secretary to the Bishop. The Holy Father appointed Fr Stephen Chirappanath from the clergy of the Eparchy of Irinjalakuda, India, as Apostolic Visitator for the Syro-Malabar faithful resident in Europe, raising him to the rank of bishop and assigning him the titular episcopal See of Slebte (28 July). Bishop-elect Chirappanath, 54, was born in Puthenchira, India. He holds a doctorate in moral theology. He was ordained a priest on 26 December He has served in parish ministry and as: tribunal judge; director of Drug Rehabilitation Centers; rector of St Paul s Minor Seminary, Irinjalakuda; professor, and then Vice Rector of St Thomas Apostolic Seminary in Vadavathoor. Since 2011 he has been procurator to the Major Archbishop in Rome and the coordinator for the VAT I C A N BULLETIN Syro-Malabar faithful in Italy, a post that he will continue to hold. CHANGES IN EP I S C O PAT E The Holy Father accepted the resignation of Bishop Martin Drennan of Galway and Kilmacduagh, Ireland. It was presented in accord with can of the Code of Canon Law (29 July). The Holy Father accepted the resignation of Bishop Séamus Freeman, SAC, of Ossory, Ireland. It was presented in accord with can of the Code of Canon Law (29 July). The Holy Father appointed Fr Fintan Monahan from the clergy of the Archdiocese of Tuam, as Bishop of Killaloe, Ireland. Until now he has been diocesan secretary (29 July). Bishop-elect Monahan, 49, was born in Tullamore, County Offaly, Ireland. He holds a licence in theology. He was ordained a priest on 16 June He has served in parish ministry and as: teacher of religion, and chaplain at St Jarlath s College; assistant to the diocesan secretary; secretary of the diocesan finance commission; director of the vocations apostolate; head of the office for the protection of minors in the Archdio cese. The Holy Father appointed Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, titular Archbishop of Nebbio, as Apostolic Nuncio in Yemen. Until now he has been Apostolic Nuncio in Kuwait, in Bahrein and in the United Arib Emirates, and Apostolic Delegate in the Arabian Peninsula (30 July). Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, Archbishop emeritus of Krakow, dies Pope Francis expressed deep sorrow at the death of Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, Archbishop emeritus of Krakow, who died on Tuesday morning, 2 August, at the age of 89. In a telegram to his successor, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz, the Pope recalled the episcopal motto of the deceased prelate: Jesus, I trust in you! In the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Francis wrote, those words are an eloquent invocation which proclaims the fulfillment of the work that the Lord had entrusted to him in Baptism, introducing him into the ranks of those sealed with His Redeeming Blood, and later together with the gift of priesthood, when he sent him forth with the task of sanctifying the People with the word and with the grace of the sacraments. See next week s edition for the Cardinal s biography. The Holy Father appointed Fr Janez Mihelčič, S J, as Apostolic Administrator ad nutum Sanctae Sedis of the Apostolic Administration of Kyrgyzstan. Until now he has served as Superior of the Residence of the Society of Jesus in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (31 July). Fr Mihelčič, 74, was born in Radovljica, Slovenia. He entered the Society of Jesus on 7 September He was ordained a priest on 23 March 1975 and then studied linguistics. He has served in parish ministry and as: missionary in Japan; professor of Russian language and culture at the Sophia University of Tokyo; language professor at the State University in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The Holy Father accepted the resignation of Archbishop Paul Dahdah, O CD, from his office as Vicar Apostolic of Beirut, Lebanon. It was presented in accord with can of the Code of Canon Law (2 Aug.). The Holy Father appointed Fr Cesar Essayan, OFM Conv., Provincial Custodian of Lebanon, as Vicar Apostolic of Beirut, Lebanon, assigning him the titular episcopal See of Mareotes (2 Aug.). Bishop-elect Essayan, 54, was born in Saïda, Lebanon. He studied engineering before entering the Order in 1986, and then continued his studies in philosophy and theology. He professed his final vows on 21 September 1993 and was ordained a priest on 17 April He has served in parish ministry and as: custodian; treasurer; provincial custodian of the Friars Minor Conventual. He worked at the Latin Ecclesiastical Tribunal. He also opened a second fraternity in Zahle, building a convent and church while promoting charitable work and pastoral p ro j e c t s. ROMAN CURIA Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin appointed Fr Federico Lombardi, S J, as President of the Board of Directors of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Va t i c a n Foundation (1 Aug.). NECROLO GY Archbishop Dominik Hrušovský, titular Archbishop of Tubia, Apostolic Nuncio in Belarus, at age 90 (27 July) L OSSERVATORE ROMANO WEEKLY EDITION Unicuique suum IN ENGLISH Non praevalebunt Vatican City e d. e n g l i s o s s ro m.v a w w w. o s s e r v a t o re ro m a n o.v a GI O VA N N I MARIA VIAN Editor-in-Chief Giuseppe Fiorentino Assistant Editor Mary M. Nolan Editor Editorial office via del Pellegrino, Vatican City telephone , fax TIPO GRAFIA VAT I C A N A EDITRICE L OS S E R VAT O R E ROMANO don Sergio Pellini S.D.B. Director General Photo Service photo@ossrom.va w w w. p h o t o.v a Advertising Agency Il Sole 24 Ore S.p.A. System Comunicazione Pubblicitaria Via Monte Rosa 91, Milano s e g re t e r i a d i re z i o n e s y s t e i l s o l e 2 4 o re. c o m Subscription rates: Italy - Vatican: 58.00; Europe: US$ ; Latin America, Africa, Asia: US$ ; Oceania, North America: US$ Management Office: phone ; fax ; subscriptions@ossrom.va. 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3 number 31, Friday, 5 August 2016 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 3 At the General Audience on Wednesday, 3 August, Pope Francis recounted to the faithful in the Paul VI Hall his journey for World Youth Day in Poland from 27 to 31 July. The following is a translation of the address that the Holy Father gave in Italian. Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning! Today I should like to reflect briefly on the Apostolic Journey to Poland that I made in recent days. The occasion for the Journey was World Youth Day, 25 years after the historic Day celebrated in Chęstochowa shortly after the fall of the Iron Curtain. In these 25 years Poland has changed, Europe has changed and the world has changed, and this WYD has become a prophetic sign for Poland, for Europe and for the world. The new generation of young people, the heirs and successors continuing the pilgrimage begun by St John Paul II, have given a response to today s challenge, they have given the sign of hope, and this sign is called f ra t e r n i t y. Because, precisely in this world at war, fraternity is needed, closeness is needed, dialogue is needed, friendship is needed. This is the sign of hope: when there is fraternity. Let us begin precisely with the young people, who were the primary reason for the Journey. Once again they have answered the call: they came from all over the world some of them are even here! [indicating pilgrims in the Hall]. A celebration of colours, of different faces, of languages, of diverse histories. I don t know how they do it: they speak different languages, but they manage to understand one another! Why? Because they have this willingness to go together, to build bridges, of fraternity. They also came with their wounds, with their questions, but above all with the joy of encountering one another; and once again they formed a mosaic of At the General Audience the Pope recalls his journey for WYD in Poland A mosaic of fraternity fraternity. One can speak of a mosaic of fraternity. An emblematic image of World Youth Day is the expanse of multicoloured flags waved by the young people: in effect, at WYD the flags of the nations become more beautiful, as though they are purified, and even the flags of nations at war with each other wave near each other. This is beautiful! Here too there are their flags... let them be seen! In this way, in this great Jubilee meeting of theirs, the young people of the world heard the Message of Mercy, in order to carry it everywhere in spiritual and corporal works. I thank all the young people who came to Krakow! And I thank those who joined us from every part of the Earth! Because in so many countries, small World Youth Days were held in conjunction with the one in Krakow. May the gift that you have received become a daily response to the Lord s call. A recollection full of affection goes to Susanna, the girl from this Diocese of Rome, who died right after participating in WYD, in Vienna. May the Lord, who has certainly welcomed Best wishes for the games set to open in Rio de Janeiro Olympiad of solidarity The true Olympic prize is not a medal but is the achievement of a civilization in which solidarity reigns. Pope Francis expressed this hope at We d n e s d a y s General Audience, 3 August, in view of the games about to open in Rio de Janeiro. The following is a translation of the Holy Fa t h e r s salute for the Olympiad which he expressed in Italian after his greeting to the Portuguese faithful. I would now like to address a warm greeting to the people of Brazil, in particular to the city of Rio de Janeiro, which is hosting the athletes and fans from throughout the world for the occasion of the Olympiad. In a world which thirsts for peace, tolerance and reconciliation, I hope that the spirit of the Olympic Games may inspire all, participants and spectators, to fight the good fight and to finish the race together (cf. 2 Tim 4:7-8), hoping to obtain as a prize not a medal but something far more precious: the achievement of a civilization in which solidarity reigns, based on the recognition that we are all members of a single human family, independent of differences in culture, skin colour or religion. For the Brazilian people who, with characteristic joy and hospitality, have organized the Celebration of Sports, I hope that this may be an opportunity to overcome difficult times and to give your all to work as a team in order to build a safer and more just country, betting on a future full of her into Heaven, comfort her family and friends. During this Journey I also visited the Shrine of Chęstochowa. Before the icon of Our Lady, I received the gift of the gaze of the Mother who, in a particular way, is the Mother of the people of Poland, of that noble nation that has suffered so much, and with the strength of faith and her maternal hand, has always raised itself again. I greeted several Poles here [in the Hall]. You are good, you are good people! There, under that gaze, one understands the spiritual sense of the journey of this people, whose history is linked indissolubly to the Cross of Christ. There one touches by hand the faith of the holy faithful People of God, who safeguards hope through trials; and also safeguards the wisdom which is a balance between tradition and innovation, between memory and future. Poland today reminds all of Europe that there can be no future for the continent without its founding values, which in their turn have the Christian vision of mankind at the centre. Among these values is m e rc y, of which two great children of Poland s soil were special apostles: St Faustina Kowalska and St John Paul II. Lastly, this Journey also had the horizon of the world, a world called to respond to the challenge of a piecemeal war that is threatening it. Here the profound silence of my visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau was more eloquent than any words. In that silence I listened, I felt, the presence of all the souls that passed by there; I felt the compassion, the mercy of God, that some holy souls were able to take even into that abyss. In that deep silence I prayed for all the victims of violence and of war. And there, in that place, I understood more than ever before the value of remembrance, not only as the recollection of past events, but as monition and responsibility for today and tomorrow, so that the seeds of hatred and of violence do not take root in the furrows of history. Thus in recalling the wars and the many wounds, so much pain that was experienced, there are also many of to day s men and women who are suffering due to war, so many of our brothers and sisters. Seeing that cruelty, in that concentration camp, I immediately thought of the cruelty that is similar today: not as concentrated as in that place, but everywhere throughout the world; this world that is ill with cruelty, with pain, with war, with hatred, with sadness. And for this reason I continually ask you to pray: that the Lord give us peace! For all this I thank the Lord and the Virgin Mary. And once again I express my gratitude to the President of Poland and to the other Authorities, to the Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow and to the entire Polish Episcopate, and to all those who, in a thousand ways, made this event possible, who offered a sign of fraternity and of peace to Poland, to Europe and to the world. I would also like to thank the young volunteers, who worked for over a year to prepare for this event; and also the media, those who work in the media: thank you very much for enabling this Day to be seen throughout the world. And I cannot forget Anna Maria Jacobini, an Italian journalist who lost her life there unexpectedly. Let us also pray for her: she passed away carrying out her service. Thank you! SPECIAL GREETINGS Tomorrow I shall go to the Papal Basilica of St Mary of the Angels, at the Portiuncula, on the eighth centenary of the Pardon of Assisi, which occurred yesterday. It will be a very simple pilgrimage but highly significant in this Holy Year of Mercy. I ask you all to accompany me with your prayers, invoking the light and the strength of the Holy Spirit and the heavenly intercession of St Francis. I greet the English-speaking pil- hope and joy. May God bless you all! CONTINUED ON PA G E 4

4 page 4 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 August 2016, number 31 With journalists on the return flight from Krakow the Holy Father repeats that Islam is not to be identified with violence Our brothers and sisters On the return flight after the visit to Poland, on Sunday evening, 31 July, Pope Francis traditional press conference was introduced by the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Fr Federico Lombardi, on his last papal trip in this role. The Pope greeted the journalists before taking questions in Italian and Spanish. The following is a translation of the transcript. Good evening everyone, and thank you for your work and your company on this trip. Since you are all colleagues, I would first like to express my condolences on the death of Anna Maria Jacobini. Today I met with her sister, nephew, and niece, who were all very saddened by her passing. It will be a sad memory from this trip. Secondly, I would like to thank Fr Lombardi and Mauro, because this is the last flight they will share with us. Father Lombardi has been with Vatican Radio for more than 25 years, and on these flights for ten. And Mauro for 37 years; 37 years of handling baggage on these flights! I wish to thank Mauro and Father Lombardi from the bottom of my heart. Later, we will thank them with a nice cake Now I am all yours. The flight is a short one so we will do it in a hurry this time. CONTINUED FROM PA G E 3 A mosaic of fraternity [Magdalena Wolinska - TVP] In your first speech at Wawel, right after your arrival in Krakow, you said that you were happy to begin your experience of getting to know Central-Eastern Europe by visiting Poland. On behalf of the people of my country, I would like to ask you how this initial visit went for you? What did you think of Poland? Poland was very special, because it was o ccupied once more, but this time by young people! Krakow, from what I saw, is a very beautiful city. The Polish people were so enthusiastic Take this evening, for example: even with the rain, along the way there were not only a lot of young people, but older people to o t h e re s a goodness about them, a certain dignity. I had had some experience with Polish people when I was young: where my father worked, there were a lot of Polish immigrants who came after the war. They were good people and this has always remained with me. I rediscovered this goodness this week in you and your fellow citizens. It s really beautiful, and I thank you! [Urzula Rzepczak - Polsat] The youth of our country were very moved by your words, which really struck home for them and addressed their struggles directly. In your speeches, you also used words and expressions young people typically use in their own way of speaking. How did you prepare for this? How were you able to give so many examples that resonate with them and their problems, even using their own w o rd s? I enjoy talking with young people, and I enjoy listening to them. It s always a challenge, because they tell me things I ve never thought of, or things I ve only half thought through. Young people are restless, creative I like this, and I take my cues on how to speak to them from this. Often I have to ask myself, What does that mean? and they explain it to me. I enjoy speaking with them. They are our future, so we have to be in constant dialogue with them. This dialogue between the past and the future is important. That is why I have emphasized so often the relationship between young people and the elderly, and when I say the elderly, I mean both the old and the not-soold I m with the first group! so that we can hand on to them our own experience and they can listen to the past, our history, in order to grims and visitors taking part in to day s Audience, particularly those from Ireland, Sweden, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Aruba, Canada and the United States of America. In a special way, I greet the many groups of young people returning from our celebration of World Youth Day. With prayerful good wishes that the present Jubilee of Mercy will be a moment of grace and spiritual renewal for you and your families, I invoke upon all of you joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ. I address a special greeting to young people, to the sick and to newlyweds. Tomorrow we shall celebrate the memory of St John Vianney, patron saint of priests, particularly of parish priests. May his deep humility be an example to you, dear young people, to live life as a gift from God; may his trusting abandonment in Christ the Saviour sustain you, dear sick people, in your hour of suffering; and may his Christian witness give you courage, dear newlyweds, to profess your faith without shame. take it up and carry it on with the courage of the present, as I said this evening. This is really important! I don t like it when I hear people say, But young people say such ridiculous things! We adults also say a lot of ridiculous things! Young people say a lot of ridiculous things, but they also say a lot of good things, just like us, like anyone. We need to listen to them, to speak with them, because we need to learn from them and they need to learn from us. That s the way it is. That is precisely the way history is made, and this is exactly the way to grow without closing ourselves off, without criticizing. So it is. And that s how I learned to speak to them. [Marco Ansaldo - La Repubblica ] Your Holiness, the political repression going on in Turkey right now and the crackdown we ve seen last 15 days have been, according to nearly all international observers, worse than the coup itself. Entire categories of people have been targeted: soldiers, magistrates, public officials, diplomats, and journalists. I will cite data given by the Turkish government: there have been more than 13,000 arrests and 50,000 people who have been dismissed from office. This is a purge. The day before yesterday the President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, responding to criticisms from abroad, said, Mind your own business! We would like to ask you: why haven t you intervened yourself, why haven t you spoken about this? Are you perhaps afraid that there would be repercussions on the Catholic minority in Tu rk e y? Whenever I have had to say something displeasing to Turkey, but something I was convinced about, I have said it, and all of you know the result. I spoke out I was sure. In this case, I have not spoken out yet, because, from the information I have received, I am still not certain what is happening there. I review the information from the Secretariat of State and from some other important political analysts. I am studying the situation carefully with my staff at the Secretariat of State and the matter is still not clear. It is true that we always want to avoid harm to the Catholic community we are concerned about this but not at the price of truth. There is the virtue of prudence one has to say certain things at certain times in certain ways but in my case, you can testify that when I have had something to say about Turkey, I have said it. [Frances D Emilio - Associated Press] Good evening. My question is one on the minds of many these days, because it has come to light in Australia that the Australian police are about to open an investigation into new accusations against Cardinal Pell, and that this time the accusations involve alleged abuse against minors, which is very different from previous accusations. I am wondering, as many others are wondering: in your opinion, what would be the right thing to do in regard to Cardinal Pell, given the gravity of the situation, given the importance of his position and the trust Your Holiness has placed in him? Thank you for your question. The initial reports have been confusing. They were about allegations from 40 years ago and not even the police had been aware of them at first. Confusing. All these accusations were then presented to the justice system and remain there. We cannot judge until the justice system passes judgment. It would not be good for me to pass judgment for or against Cardinal Pell, for I would then be passing judgment prematurely. Clearly, doubt exists, and there is a clear principle of law: in dubio pro re o (doubt favours the accused). We have to wait for the justice system to do its job and not pass judgment in the media, because this is not helpful. Judgment by gossip, and then what? We don t know how it will turn out. See what the justice system decides. Once it has spoken, then I will speak. Thank you. [Hernán Reyes - Télam] Your Holiness, how are you doing after your fall? You seem to be doing well That is the first question. The second is this: Last week, the Secretary General of UNASUR (Union of South American Nations), Ernesto Samper, alluded to a possible mediation by the Vatican in Venezuela. Is there a concrete dialogue going on? Is this a real possibility? And how do you think that such mediation, given the mission of the Church, could help stabilize the country? First I ll speak about the fall. I was looking at the image of Our Lady and I forgot about the steps I had the thurible in my hand When I felt myself falling, I simply let myself fall and that actually saved me, because if I had tried to break my fall, it could have been worse. But it was nothing, really. I m just fine. Your other question was about Venezuela. Two years ago I had a meeting with President Maduro, and it was very, very positive. Then last year he asked for an audience with me: it was a Sunday, the day after I returned from Sarajevo. But then he cancelled that meeting due to an ear infection that prevented him from coming. After that, I let some time pass and then wrote him a letter. There were contacts you men-

5 number 31, Friday, 5 August 2016 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 5 tioned one of them to try to arrange a meeting, under the proper conditions, of course. There is presently some thought but I am not sure, and I cannot confirm this. I am not sure whether someone in the group of mediators or perhaps also from the government but I m not sure wants a representative of the Holy See. That was the latest news I heard when I left Rome. That s where things stand. The group includes Zapatero from Spain, Torrijos, someone else, and a fourth presumably from the Holy See. But I am not certain about this [Antoine-Marie Izoard - I.Media] Catholics are in a state of shock and not only in France in the wake of the barbaric assassination of Father Jacques Hamel in his church while he was celebrating Holy Mass. Four days ago, on board the flight, you told us once again that all religions want peace. But this holy priest, at 86 years of age, was clearly killed in the name of Islam. So I have two brief questions, Holy Father. When you speak of these violent acts, why do you do so in terms of t e r ro r i s t s and not Islam? You never use the word Islam. And then, beyond prayer and dialogue, which are obviously very important, what concrete initiative can you launch or perhaps suggest in order to combat Islamic violence? I don t like to speak of Islamic violence because every day when I open the newspapers I see acts of violence, here in Italy: someone kills his girlfriend, someone else his mother-in-law And these violent people are baptized Catholics! They are violent Catholics If I spoke about Islamic violence, I would also have to speak about Catholic violence. Not all Muslims are violent; not all Catholics are violent. It s like a fruitcake, there s a little bit of everything, there are violent people in these religions. One thing is true: I believe that in almost all religions there is always a small fundamentalist group. Fundamentalist. We have some ourselves. And when fundamentalism gets to the point of killing and one can kill with the tongue (these are words of the Apostle James, not mine) as well as with a knife. I believe that it is not right to identify Islam with violence. It is not right and it is not true. I had a long talk with the Grand Im- In the footsteps of two Popes As his service as Director of the Holy See Press Office came to an end, Fr Federico Lombardi sent a farewell letter to accredited journalists and to all his colleagues and co-workers, who have kept him company all along this decadelong journey. In his letter, he writes, t o g e t h e r, we followed the ministry of two great Popes, we lived through very significant moments in the history of the Church and, let us say it, of the human family, as well trying to make sense of those moments and to help others understand their significance. In particular, Fr Lombardi expressed his gratitude to Pope Benedict and Pope Francis, who had called him to serve them so closely. Theirs was a beautiful, challenging call, he stated, akin to that of Jesus to his disciples: when you have done all that is commanded you, say: We are unworthy servants; we have done only what was our duty (Lk 17:10). From this perspective, Fr Lombardi added, I shall be listening for new indications from the one who represents the Lord to me. In conclusion, Fr Lombardi again expressed his esteem for the communications field and the work done in it, for the great opportunities for service to others and thus for the great responsibilities it entails. He also expressed a special word to offer best wishes to Greg Burke and Paloma García Ovej e ro, respectively the newly appointed Director and Vice Director of the Press Office, who certainly will do a fine job with the task to which they are called. am at the University of al-azhar, and I know what they are thinking: they are looking for peace, for encounter. A Nuncio in an African nation told me that in the capital city there is constantly a line of people a long line! before the Holy Door for the Jubilee: some go to confession, others pray in the pews. But the majority of them go straight to the altar of Our Lady to pray: these are Muslims who want to participate in the Jubilee. They are our brothers and sisters. When I was in Central Africa I went to see them, and the Imam even came aboard the Popemobile. We can live together in harmony. But there are little fundamentalist groups. But I also ask myself how many young people how many young people! have we Europeans left without ideals, without jobs, and then they turn to drugs, alcohol they turn to these things and they enlist in fundamentalist groups. Yes, we can say that the so-called ISIS is an Islamic state that acknowledges itself as violent, because when they lay their cards on the table, they slit the throats of Egyptians on the Libyan coast and do similar things. But this is a little fundamentalist group called I S I S. But you cannot say I believe it is false and unjust that Islam is terro r i s t. Terrorism is everywhere! Think of tribal terrorism in some African One cake for two On 31 July, during the return flight from Krakow to Rome, the Pope wanted to personally thank Fr Federico Lombardi, on his last day as Director of the Holy See Press Office succeeded on 1 August by Greg Burke, and Deputy Commissioner of the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps Mauro De Horatis, who oversees baggage security during international journeys. The photo of Francis looking on as his two coworkers cut the cake will be for both of them part of an album of beautiful memories. The two were visibly moved as they received the applause of the 75 media workers on board the Boeing. Antoine-Marie Izoard, a representative of A I G AV, the international association of journalists accredited to the Holy See, spoke on behalf of the colleagues present, to recall Fr L o m b a rd i s 10 years in the press office: with Pope Benedict, then the unprecedented interregnum, he said, and then with your election, Holy Father, and the subsequent surprises. The French journalist emphasized Fr Lombardi s constant willingness, commitment and dedication, particularly his incredible ability whether or not to respond to questions that are often unusual, which, Izoard said, is an art. Then too, his somewhat British sense of humour: in all situations, even the worst. The journalist then added: in addition to being a journalist he was and still is a priest and also a Jesuit, for which he wished Fr Lombardi a happy Feast of St Ignatius. The following day, with the letter of Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Fr Lombardi was appointed President of the Board of Directors of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation. With colleagues of the Gendarmerie Corps, the farewell celebration for De Horatis was more reserved. I will retire on 31 December, he said, but this has been my last countries Terrorism I don t know if I should say it because it s a bit risky increases whenever there is no other option, when the global economy is centred on the god of money and not the human person, men and women. This is already a first form of terrorism. You ve driven out the marvel of creation, man and woman, and put money in their place. This is a basic act of terrorism against all humanity. We should think about it. [Javier Martínez Brocal] You told us earlier during the meeting with volunteers that you might not be there in Panama. But you can t let that happen, because we are waiting for you in Panama! If I don t go, Peter will be there! We think that you ll be there! So I m giving you two things on the part of the Panamanian people: a jersey with the number 17, because that is your birthday, and a sombrero worn by the campesinos in Panama. To all Panamanians, thank you for this. I encourage that you prepare well, with the same strength, the same spirituality, and the same depth with which the people of Poland the residents of Krakow and all the Polish people prepared for this World Youth Day. flight in charge of security with regard to baggage and equipment. With 37 years in the Vatican the Deputy Commissioner, who is also a Knight of the Order of St Gregory the Great, has served three Pontiffs. He took part in journeys to Cuba (1998) and in Azerbaijan and Bulgaria (2009) with John Paul II. With Benedict XVI, after serving him in the visit to Valencia for the World Meeting of Families (2006), De Horatis took charge of the baggage and accoutrements of the Papal entourage during WYD in Sydney Pope Francis with Deputy Commissioner Mauro De Horatis and Fr Federico Lombardi (2008) at the behest of Commandant Domenico Giani. Thereafter, for the remainder of Pope Ratzinger s pontificate and that of Pope Francis, ending with Krakow in 2016, he was in charge of baggage security during during international travels.

6 page 6 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 August 2016, number 31 To the young people of Cuba a call to look at others with mercy Succumb to love On Thursday evening, 28 July, Pope Francis sent a video message to Cuban youth who had gathered in Havana to join spiritually with their peers in Krakow in celebrating World Youth Day. Succumb to love, he told them, in this way you will learn to always look at others with mercy. The following is a translation of the Spanish message. Dear young people in Havana, With great hope I join you at this time in which you enter in harmony with the universal Church whose youthful heart will be in Krakow. I trust that these days will be for everyone a special occasion to promote the culture of encounter, the culture of respect, the culture of understanding and of mutual forgiveness. This is to create a din, this is to dream. And young people must create a din. I recommend that you live the experience of carefully listening to the Gospel and then taking it and making it authentic in your own life, and in that of your family and of your friends. You know that the Gospel transforms the heart: let yourselves be transformed by its words which are spirit and life. His words are concrete, as concrete as life, because at your age you have already realized that life is concrete, it is no dream, life is concrete, either you take it as it actually is, or you fail. When you recite the Via Crucis remember that we cannot love God if we do not love our brothers and sisters, and this is simply because the Cross is the assurance of God s steadfast love for us. This means that the Cross is a concrete love for a concrete life, a love so great that it is actually capable of entering our sin, our misery, of forgiving sin, of healing misery. The Cross is a love that enters our suffering and gives us the strength to bear it; and it also enters death in order to overcome it and save us. When you pass through the Holy Door, succumb to this love if a doctor hears me he will scold me be infected, be infected by love, this way you will learn to always look at others with mercy, with closeness, with kindness, especially those who suffer and who are in need of help. You will be before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament: accompany him, because in him, and in him alone, you will find the strength to continue the most beautiful and constructive project of of love in our life; because you know, right? love is constructive, love does not even destroy enemies, love is always constructive. And, when you are sent by the bishops as Witnesses of Mercy, remember that the Master s most beautiful wish is that you fear nothing. Boys and girls, fear nothing, be free from the fetters of this world and proclaim to all, to the sick, to the elderly, to sad people, that the Church is weeping alongside them, and that Jesus is capable of giving them new life, of bringing them back to life. Perhaps what the venerable Fr Félix Varela left us will help you: you are the sweet hope for our homeland. Father [Félix ] was brave! But he is telling you this, he isn t saying it to me, you are the sweet hope for our homeland. In order to be bearers of hope, it is important that you not lose the ability to dream. Remember that in the reality of life there must be this ability to dream and that those who are not able to dream are closed within themselves (cf. Address to Students at the Fr Félix Varela Cultural Center, Havana, 20 September 2015). Allow me to add: those who are not able to dream have already gone into retirement. Young people who do not have this ability to dream and to go forth have already gone into retirement and are not even as useful as confetti at Carnival. Young Cubans: Be open to great things! Do not be afraid, do not be hard to please. Dream that with you the world can be different! Dream that with you Cuba can be different and each day better! Do not give up! In this task, it is important, it is imperative to open your hearts and minds to the hope that Jesus gives. Never forget that this hope is painful; hope involves suffering in According to a traditional saying, if one wishes to understand how the heart of Poland beats one must visit Częstochowa. For this reason Pope Francis began his 15th international journey with a prayerful visit to the Jasna Góra Shrine, where Polish hearts beat in unison with the heart of Our Lady. Częstochowa is the nation s sanctuary. It is the altar, the confessional, the place of spiritual transformation, of conversion, and the point of reference that unites the whole people, as John Paul II loved to say. It was with this spirit that Pope Francis arrived as a pilgrim on Thursday morning, 28 July, spending more than three hours in the Marian citadel where the Black Madonna is venerated. After praying in the Chapel of the miraculous image, he presided order to complete a project, but likewise do not forget that it gives life, it is fruitful. And with this hope you will not be barren, but rather you will give life to others, you will build the homeland, you will build the Church, you will do great things. Why? Because hope invites us to build social friendship, even if we think about it differently. It is not necessary for everyone to think in the same way; no, no. You must unite in social friendship, even if someone thinks about it in a different way or has another conviction. You all have something in common: the desire to dream and love for your homeland. The important thing, while equal and different, is to build so cial friendship with everyone; build bridges, work together. Build bridges? Some of you might say: how can I build a bridge if I am neither a builder nor an engineer? All of us can build bridges, with words, with wishes, with the heart. Thursday in Częstochowa Where the heart of Poland beats at the solemn Mass on the occasion of the 1,050th anniversary of Poland s baptism. The participation of a pope in this Polish celebration was postponed for half a century, due to the fact that the communist regime had prevented Paul VI f ro m participating in the millennium celebrations of Therefore, during that rite celebrated by Cardinal Wy s z y ński and the then Archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyła, in the presence of half a million faithful, a portrait of the absent Pope was displayed and a bouquet of white and yellow roses was laid on his empty Chair. Now, half a century later, the Argentine Pope has arrived to join the more than four million pilgrims who come here every year to invoke Our Lady. After arriving by car, Pope Francis blessed a group of Young Cubans with the WYD cross in Havana Now however, I call you to be builders of a human bridge, of the first bridge to be built in history: join hands, reach out and join hands. Do it! Like this, now, all of us together, holding hands, are witnessing that we want to build bridges and work together. Boys and girls, gathered in Havana, but with your heart in Krakow: do not isolate yourselves, walk together! Build bridges, always hold hands. May the Virgin Mary of Charity encourage you on this journey. For over 400 years she has accompanied the faith, hope and encounter among all Cubans. Lay at her feet all the beautiful things that her Son will give you in these days. And remember her words at Cana: Do whatever he tells you (Jn 2:5). I assure you of my closeness and of my prayers for you and for all the beloved people of Cuba, and at the same time I bless you with particular affection. As always I ask you: pray for me. An embrace and a bridge. elderly and sick people, and then entered the Basilica where he made his way down the central aisle to the Chapel above the main altar. After being greeted by Fr Arnold Chrapkowski, Superior General of the Paulines, the officiants of the Shrine, the Pontiff watched as the gold and silver cover was slowly raised to unveil the icon of the Madonna and Child. Before reciting a Hail Mary and giving his blessing, Pope Francis laid a golden rose before the image, the third to be received by the Virgin of Jasna Góra. Years ago, Pope Montini had hoped to offer her a rose before the infamous veto of his journey. Then in 1979 John Paul II offered his golden rose to her during his visit, and 10 years ago, Pope Benedict XVI made the same offering in the footsteps of his predecessor when he visited the country from 25 to 28 May. On 1 April 2005, the day before his death, John Paul II had blessed the golden crown of the image. It was before this image that, on 4 June 1979, he had entrusted his Pontificate to Mary and where, in 1982, he gave her a golden heart with the inscription Totus Tuus. Since 2004, the Polish Pope s cassock has been located here, the blood-stained cassock which he had worn the day of the attack in St Peter s Square. During his visit, Pope Francis also left the gift of a chalice, and received a copy of the Black Madonna as a gift from the community. (Gianluca Biccini)

7 number 31, Friday, 5 August 2016 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 7 On Thursday morning, 28 July, the Pope celebrated a Mass in Częstochowa, outside the Shrine of Jasna Góra, for the occasion of the 1,050th anniversary of the Baptism of Poland. The following is the English text of the Holy Father s homily, which he gave in Italian. From the readings of this Liturgy a divine thread emerges, one that passes through human history and weaves the history of salvation. The apostle Paul tells us of God s great plan: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman (Gal 4:4). But history tells us that when this fullness of time came, when God became man, humanity was not especially welldisp osed, nor was there even a period of stability and peace: there was no Golden Age. The scenario of this world did not merit the coming of God; indeed, his own received him not (Jn 1:11). The fullness of time was thus a gift of grace: God filled our time out of the abundance of his mercy. Out of sheer love, he inaugurated the fullness of time. It is particularly striking how the coming of God into history came about: he was born of a woman. There was no triumphal entrance or striking epiphany of the Almighty. He did not reveal himself as a brilliantly rising sun, but entered the world in the simplest of ways, as a child from his mother, with that style that Scripture tells us is like a rainfall upon the land (cf. Is 55:10), like the smallest of seeds which sprouts and grows (cf. Mk 4:31-32). Thus, contrary to our expectations and perhaps even our desires, the kingdom of God, now as then, does not come in a way that attracts attention (Lk 17:20), but rather in littleness, in humility. To day s Gospel takes up this divine thread delicately passing through history: from the fullness of time we come to the third day of Jesus ministry (cf. Jn 2:1) and the proclamation of the hour of salvation (cf. v. 4). Time shortens, God always shows himself in littleness. And so we come to the first of the signs that Jesus did (v. 11), in Cana of Galilee. There is no amazing deed done before the crowd, or even a word to settle a heated political question like that of the subjection of the people to the power of Rome. Instead, in a small village, a simple miracle takes place and brings joy to the wedding of a young and completely anonymous family. At the same time, the water that became wine at the wedding banquet is a great sign, for it reveals to us the spousal face of God, a God who sits at table with us, who dreams and holds communion with us. It tells us that the Lord does not keep his distance, but is near and re a l. He is in our midst and he takes care of us, without making decisions in our place and without troubling himself with issues of power. He prefers to let himself be contained in little things, unlike The Pope asks the faithful to create communion with all and not yield to the temptation of isolation Leave behind past wrongs and wounds ourselves, who always want to possess something greater. To be attracted by power, by grandeur, by appearances, is tragically human. It is a great temptation that tries to insinuate itself everywhere. But to give oneself to others, eliminating distances, dwelling in littleness and living the reality of one s everyday life: this is exquisitely divine. God saves us, then by making himself little, near and re a l. First God makes himself little. The Lord, who is meek and humble of heart (Mt 11:29), especially loves the little ones, to whom the kingdom of God is revealed (Mt 11:25); they are great in his eyes and he looks to them (cf. Is 66:2). He especially loves them because they are opposed to the pride of life that belongs to the world (cf. 1 Jn 2:16). The little ones speak his own language, that of the humble love that brings freedom. So he calls the simple and receptive to be his spokespersons; he entrusts to them the revelation of his name and the secrets of his heart. Our minds turn to so many sons and daughters of your own people, like the martyrs made the defenseless power of the Gospel shine forth, like those ordinary yet remarkable people who bore witness to the Lord s love amid great trials, and those meek and powerful heralds of mercy who were St John Paul II and St Faustina. Through these channels of his love, the Lord has granted priceless gifts to the whole Church and to all mankind. It is significant that this anniversary of the baptism of your people exactly coincides with the Jubilee of mercy. Then too, God is n e a r, his kingdom is at hand (cf. Mk 1:15). The Lord does not want to be feared like a powerful and aloof sovereign. He does not want to remain on his throne in heaven or in history books, but loves to come down to our everyday affairs, to walk with us. As we think of the gift of a millennium so filled with faith, we do well before all else to thank God for having walked with your people, having taken you by the hand, as a father takes the hand of his child, and accompanied you in so many situations. That is what we too, in the Church, are constantly called to do: to listen, to get involved and be neighbours, sharing in people s joys and struggles, so that the Gospel can spread ever more consistently and fruitfully: radiating goodness through the transparency of our lives. Finally, God is real. Today s readings make it clear that everything about God s way of acting is real and concrete. Divine wisdom is like a master worker and plays (cf. Prov 8:30). The Word becomes flesh, is born of a mother, is born under the law (cf. Gal 4:4), has friends and goes to a party. The eternal is communicated by spending time with people and in concrete situations. Your own history, shaped by the Gospel, the Cross and fidelity to the Church, has seen the contagious power of a genuine faith, passed down from family to family, from fathers to sons and above all from mothers and grandmothers, whom we need so much to thank. In particular, you have been able to touch with your hand the real and provident tenderness of the Mother of all, whom I have come here as a pilgrim to venerate and whom we have acclaimed in the Psalm as the great pride of our nation (Judg 15:9). It is to Mary, then that we, who have gathered here, now look. In her, we find complete conformity to the Lord. Throughout history, interwoven with the divine thread, is also a Marian thread. If there is any human glory, any merit of our own in the fullness of time, it is she. Mary is that space, preserved free from sin, where God chose to mirror himself. She is the stairway God took to descend and draw near to us. She is the clearest sign of the fullness of time. In the life of Mary we admire that littleness that God loves, for he looked upon the humility of his servant, and lifted up the lowly (Lk 1:48, 52). He was so pleased with her that he let his flesh be woven from hers, so that the Virgin became the Mother of God, as an ancient hymn, sung for centuries, proclaims. To you who uninterruptedly come to her, converging upon this, the spiritual capital of the country, may she continue to point the way. May she help you to weave in your own lives the humble and simple thread of the Gospel. At Cana, as here in Jasna Góra, Mary offers us her nearness and helps us to discover what we need to live life to the full. Now as then, she does this with a mother s love, by her presence and counsel, teaching us to avoid hasty decisions and grumbling in our communities. As the Mother of a family, she wants to keep us t o g e t h e r. Through unity, the journey of your people has surmounted any number of harsh experiences. May the Mother, who stood steadfast at the foot of the Cross and persevered in prayer with the disciples in awaiting the Holy Spirit, obtain for you the desire to leave behind all past wrongs and wounds, and to build fellowship with all, without ever yielding to the temptation to withdraw or to domine e r. At Cana, Our Lady showed great re a l i s m. She is a Mother who takes p eople s problems to heart and acts. She recognizes moments of difficulty and handles them discreetly, efficiently and decisively. She is neither imperious nor intrusive, but a Mother and a handmaid. Let us ask for the grace to imitate her sensitivity and her creativity in serving those in need, and to know how beautiful it is to spend our lives in the service of others, without favourites or distinctions. May Mary, Cause of our Joy, who brings peace amid the profusion of sin and the turmoil of history, obtain for us the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and enable us to be good and faithful servants Through her intercession, may the fullness of time come about also for us. The transition from before to after Christ means little if it remains a date in the annals of history. May each one of us be able to make an interior passage, a Passover of the heart, towards the divine style incarnated by Mary. May we do everything in littleness, and accompany others at close hand, with a simple and open heart.

8 page 8 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 August 2016, number 31 Young people gathered at Jordan Park in Krakow s Błonia on Thursday afternoon, 28 July, to give a lively welcome to the Pope. The following is the English text of the speech which he addressed to them in Italian. Dear Young Friends, good evening! At last we are together! Thank you for your warm welcome! I thank Cardinal Dziwisz, the bishops, priests, men and women religious, the seminarians, lay faithful, and those who have accompanied you. I am also grateful to all those who made it possible for us to be here today, who went the extra mile so People of peace In a difficult world challenged by conflicts and violence, the young people of the world, who had gathered in Krakow, affirmed before Pope Francis their commitment to be people of p eace and witnesses of God s m e rc y. Voicing this sentiment was Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz in his greeting during the ceremony on Krakow s Błonia. We want, he said, to be merciful like the Father. We want to build with Jesus a more human and solidary world. In addressing Pope Francis, the Peter of our time, the Cardinal recalled that in John Paul II s project, the presence of the Bishop of Rome constitutes an essential element of this great and extraordinarily happy pastoral initiative, tailored to the Church of the third millennium of the Christian faith. The cardinal then presented to the Pope the multitude; young and not-soyoung. All of us are young in spirit, because the Gospel, he said, is always young. that we could celebrate our faith. Today, all of us together, are celebrating our faith! In this, the land of his birth, I especially want to thank St John Paul II [loud applause] louder, louder who first came up with the idea of these meetings and gave them such momentum. From his place in heaven, he is with us and he sees all of you: so many young people from such a variety of nations, cultures and languages but with one aim, that of celebrating Jesus who is living in our midst. Do you understand this? To celebrate Jesus who is Francis challenges young people gathered in Jordan Park to set out on an adventure of mercy Never give up living in our midst! To say that Jesus is alive means to rekindle our enthusiasm in following him, to renew our passionate desire to be his disciples. What better opportunity to renew our friendship with Jesus than by building friendships among yourselves! What better way to build our friendship with Jesus than by sharing him with others! What better way to experience the contagious joy of the Gospel than by striving to bring the Good News to all kinds of painful and difficult situations! And it is Jesus who has called us to this 31st World Youth Day. Jesus tells us: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall find mercy (Mt 5:7). Blessed indeed are they who can forgive, who show heartfelt compassion, who are capable of offering the very best to others; the best, not what is left over: the best! Dear young people, in these days Poland, this noble land, is in a festive mood; in these days Poland wants to be the ever-youthful face of mercy. From this land, with you and all those young people who cannot be present today yet join us through the various communications media, we are going to make this World Youth Day an authentic Jubilee celebration, in this Jubilee of M e rc y. In my years as a bishop, I have learned one thing, well, I have learned many, but I want to share one with you now: nothing is more beautiful than seeing the enthusiasm, dedication, zeal and energy with which so many young people live their lives. This is beautiful! And where does this beauty come from? When Jesus touches a young person s heart, he or she becomes capable of truly great things. It is exciting to listen to you share your dreams, your questions and your impatience with those who say that things cannot change. Those whom I call quietists : nothing can change. No, young people have the strength to challenge them! But... maybe some are not so sure about this... I ask you, and you respond: can things change? [Yes!] I cannot hear you! [Yes!] That s good. For me, it is a gift of God to see so many of you, with all your questions, trying to make a difference. It is beautiful and heart-warming to see all that restlessness! Today the Church looks to you, and I would add, the world looks to you, and wants to learn from you, to be reassured that the Fa t h e r s Mercy has an ever-youthful face, and constantly invites us to be part of his Kingdom, it is a Kingdom of joy, a Kingdom always joyful, always driving us forward, a Kingdom able to give us the strength to change things. I have forgotten and so I repeat my question to you: can things change? [Yes!] Agreed. Knowing your enthusiasm for mission, I repeat: mercy always has a youthful face! Because a merciful heart is motivated to move beyond its comfort zone. A merciful heart can go out and meet others; it is ready to embrace everyone. A merciful heart is able to be a place of refuge for those who are without a home or have lost their home; it is able to build a home and a family for those forced to emigrate; it knows the meaning of tenderness and compassion. A merciful heart can share its bread with the hungry and welcome refugees and migrants. To say the word m e rc y along with you is to speak of opportunity, future, commitment, trust, openness, hospitality, compassion and dreams. But are you able to dream? [Yes!] When the heart is open and able to dream, there is room for mercy, there is room to caress those who suffer, there is room to draw close to those who have no peace of heart or who do not have the bare necessities to live, or who do not have the most beautiful thing of all: the faith. Mercy. Let us together repeat this word: mercy. All of you! [Mercy!] Again! [Mercy!] And once more, so the whole world can hear you! [ M e rc y!]. Let me tell you another thing I have learned over these years. I do not want to offend anyone, but it pains me to meet young people who seem to have opted for early retirement. This pains me. Young people who seem to retire at 23, 24, 25 years of age. This pains me. I worry when I see young people who have thrown in the towel before the game has even begun, who are defeated even before they begin to play. I am saddened to see young people who walk around glumly as if life had no meaning. Deep down, young people like this are bored... and boring, who bore others, and this upsets me. But it is also hard, and troubling, to see young people who waste their lives looking for thrills or a feeling of being alive by taking dark paths and in the end having to pay for it... and pay dearly. Think of so many young people you know, who have chosen this path. It is disturbing to see young people squandering some of the best years of their lives, wasting their energies running after peddlers of false illusions, and they do exist, (where I come from, we call them vendors of smoke ), who rob you of what is best in you. This pains me. I am sure that among you there are no such persons, but I want to tell you: there are young people that have gone into retirement, who have thrown in the towel before the game has even begun, there are young people who are enthralled by false illusions and end up in nothingness. We are gathered here to help one another, because we do not want to be robbed of the best of ourselves. We don t want to be robbed of our energy, our joy, our dreams by false hop es. So I ask you: are you looking for empty thrills in life, or do you want to feel a power that can give you a lasting sense of life and fulfilment? Empty thrills or the power of grace? What do you want: deadening thrills or the power of fullness? What do you want? [The power of fullness!] I cannot hear you very well. [The power of fullness!] To find fulfilment, to gain new life, there is a way, a way that is not for sale, that cannot be purchased, a way that is not a thing or an object, but a person. His name is Jesus Christ. I ask you: can you buy Jesus Christ? [No!] Can Jesus Christ be bought at the shops? [No!] Jesus Christ is a gift, a gift from the Father, the gift from our Father. Who is Jesus Christ? All together! Jesus Christ is a gift! All together! [He is a gift!] He is the Father s gift. Jesus can give you true passion for life. Jesus can inspire us not to settle for less, but to give the very best of ourselves. Jesus challenges us, spurs us on and helps us keep trying whenever we are tempted to give up. Jesus pushes us to keep our sights high and to dream of great things. You might say to me, but Father, it is so difficult to dream of great things, it is so difficult to rise up, to be always moving forwards and upwards. Father, I am weak, I fall, and I try but so many times I fall down. Mountaineers, as they climb mountains, sing a very beautiful song whose words go like this: in the art of climbing, it is not important that you do not fall down, but that you do not stay down. If you are weak, if you fall, look up a little for there is Jesus hand extended to you as he says: Rise up, come with me. And what if I fall CONTINUED ON PA G E 9

9 number 31, Friday, 5 August 2016 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 9 From the window of the archbishop s residence on Thursday evening Those who have courage In Krakow on Thursday evening, 28 July, from the window of the a rc h b i s h o p s residence, the Pontiff greeted the numerous young people who gathered below to bid him good night. The following is the English text of the brief address given by the Holy Father in Spanish. People tell me that many of you understand Castilian, and so I ll talk in Castilian. They tell me too that today there is quite a group here, on this square, of newlyweds and young spouses. When I meet someone who is getting married, a young man getting married, a young woman getting married, I say to them: Yo u are the ones who have courage! Because it is not easy to form a family, not easy to commit one s life for ever; it takes courage. And I am proud that you are courageous. Sometimes people ask me what to do so that our families can go on and overcome difficulties. I suggest to them to use three phrases, three phrases which express three attitudes over there more couples are arriving! three phrases which can help you to live out your married life, because in married life there are difficulties. Marriage is something so beautiful, so wonderful that we have to look after it, because it is for ever. And the three phrases are: May I?, Thank you, I m sorry. May I?. Always ask your spouse, the wife to CONTINUED FROM PA G E 8 again? Rise again. And what if I fall yet again? Rise yet again. Peter once asked the Lord: Lord, how many times? And the reply came: seventy times seven. The hand of Jesus is always extended, ready to lift us up again when we fall. Do you understand? [Yes!] In the Gospel, we heard how Jesus, on his way to Jerusalem, stopped at a home the home of Martha, Mary and Lazarus and was welcomed. He stopped, went in and spent time with them. The two women welcomed him because they knew he was open and attentive. Our many jobs and responsibilities can make us a bit like Martha: busy, scattered, constantly running from place to place... but we can also be like Mary: whenever we see a beautiful landscape, or look at a video from a friend on our mobile phone, we can stop and think, stop and listen... In these days, Jesus wants to stop and enter our home: your home, my home, enter into our hearts; Jesus will look at us hurrying about with all our concerns, as he did with Martha... and he will wait for us to listen to him, like Mary, to make space for him amid the bustle. her husband, the husband to his wife: What do you think? What shall we do? Never trample on the other. May I?. The second phrase: be appreciative. How many times the husband needs to say to his wife: Thank you. And how many times the wife must say to her husband: Thank you. Thank one another in turn, because the sacrament of marriage is conferred by the two spouses, one to the other. And this sacramental rela- Never give up May these be days given over to Jesus and to listening to one another. May they help us welcome Jesus in all those with whom we share our homes, our neighbourhoods, our groups and our schools. Whoever welcomes Jesus, learns to love as Jesus does. So he asks us if we want a full life. And in his name, I ask you: do you want a full life? Start right this moment by letting yourself be open and attentive! Because happiness is sown and blossoms in mercy. That is his answer, his offer, his challenge, his adventure: mercy. Mercy always has a youthful face. Like that of Mary of Bethany, who sat as a disciple at the feet of Jesus and joyfully listened to his words, since she knew that there she would find peace. Like that of Mary of Nazareth, whose daring Ye s launched her on the adventure of mercy. All generations would call her blessed; to all of us she is the Mother of Mercy. Let us call upon her together: Mary, Mother of Mercy. All of us: Mary, Mother of M e rc y. All together, let us ask the Lord, each repeating in the silence of his or her heart: Lord, launch us on the adventure of mercy! Launch us on the adventure of building bridges tionship is maintained by feeling grateful. Thank you! The third phrase is: I m sorry. They are very difficult words to say. In marriage there is always some misunderstanding between husband and wife. Knowing how to recognize that, how to say one is sorry, to ask forgiveness, this does a lot of good. There are young families [here], newlyweds, many of you are married, others are about to get married; remember these three words, which have helped so much in married life: May I?, Thank you and I m sorry. Let s repeat them together: May I?, Thank you and I m sorry. Right, all together! May I?, Thank you and I m sorry. Good, all of this is very good! And it is very good to say this in married life. There are always problems and disagreements in married life. It is normal, it happens that husband and wife argue, they raise their voices, they squabble, and even plates go flying! So don t be afraid of this when it happens. Allow me to give you a piece of advice: never end the day without making peace. And do you know why? Because the cold war the next day is very dangerous. And how can I do this, Father, how can I make peace?, one of you may ask. You don t need speeches, just a gesture is enough, and it is all over, and peace is established. When there is love, one gesture puts everything right. I invite you now, before the blessing, to pray for all the families present here, for all new spouses, for all who have already been married for some time, and who know what I am saying to you, and for those will get married. Let us pray a Hail Mary together, each of us in their own language. Hail Mary [Blessing]. And pray for me! Please, pray for me! Good night and have a good rest! and tearing down walls, be they barriers or barbed wire. Launch us on the adventure of helping the poor, those who feel lonely and abandoned, or no longer find meaning in their lives. Launch us on the journey of accompanying those who do not know you, and telling them carefully and respectfully your Name, the reason for our faith. Send us, like Mary of Bethany, to listen attentively to those we do not understand, those of other cultures and peoples, even those we are afraid of because we consider them a threat. Make us attentive to our elders, to our grandparents, as Mary of Nazareth was to Elizabeth, in order to learn from their wisdom. I ask you: do you speak to your grandparents? [Yes!] That is good! Seek your grandparents, they have the wisdom of life and can tell you things that will stir your hearts. Here we are, Lord! Send us to share your merciful love. We want to welcome you in our midst during this World Youth Day. We want to affirm that our lives are fulfilled when they are shaped by mercy, that this is the better part, the sweetest part, and that it will never be taken from us. The Pope in Auschwitz The burning lamp GI O VA N N I MARIA VIAN Pope Francis silent visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau, his encounter with a group of survivors of the extermination camps, his meeting with a group of The Righteous Among the Nations who stood against the radical evil of the Shoah, the flame lit in these places to commemorate the tragedy: these will remain among the most eloquent gestures made by the current Pontiff. There was need for no words other than the ancient verses of the Psalmist crying out to God, inscribed in Jewish and in Polish at the front of the monument dedicated to the victims: sacred words that pierced the deafening darkness of evil, mitigated only by the candles the Pope left in these places where the anguish is still palpable. After his visit with the Polish people, on the anniversary of the country s baptism, which just happens to occur in this Jubilee of Mercy, and before the concluding ceremonies of World Youth Day, the visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau was a pivotal moment of this papal journey. There had been visits in 1979 and 2006 by his two Predecessors, sons of the two peoples most closely connected to the unleashing and the suffering of the tragedy that was World War II: Pope John Paul came here as a son of that people which, along with the Jewish people, suffered most in this place and, in general, throughout the war, said Benedict, adding, I come here today as a son of the German people. For this very reason, I can and must echo his words: I could not fail to come here. I had to come. It is a duty before the truth and the just due of all who suffered here, a duty before God. Today, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Successor to Karol Wojtyła and Joseph Ratzinger, the two European Popes who symbolically brought to a close the era of the Second World War, years indelibly marked by the Shoah, this Pope from the end of the world returned in silence to the place where evil had been unleashed with all its force. To implore the CONTINUED ON PA G E 10

10 page 10 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 August 2016, number 31 The Holy Father in Auschwitz and Birkenau The place of warning GIANLUCA BICCINI on assignment in Krakow Lord have mercy on your people! Lord, forgiveness for so much c ru e l t y!. The few words that Pope Francis wrote in Spanish in the guest book of the concentration camp at Auschwitz were worth more than a thousand speeches. In the visit to Poland, this was a fundamental stop for Francis who, in the great and infamous extermination camp which sprung up in the heart of Europe, delivered no speech: he prayed a long while in silence and embraced and kissed a group of survivors and another group of Righteous Among the Nations. John Paul II came here on 7 June 1979: on his second journey outside of Italy. But even before becoming Pope, he had prayed many times in the death cell of Fr Maximilian Kolbe, his compatriot whom John Paul himself declared a saint. In 2006 it was the turn of the German Pope, Benedict XVI, who said: I could not fail to come here. I had to come. And the bright and sunny morning of Friday, 29 July 2016, marked the third visit by a Pontiff. After celebrating Mass in private in the chapel of the residence of the Archbishop of Krakow, Francis was taken by helicopter to the city of Oświęcim. In this corner of eastern The burning lamp CONTINUED FROM PA G E 9 L o rd s mercy and forgiveness for so much cruelty, as Francis wrote in Auschwitz after praying in silence at the deathplace of Maximilian Kolbe, the holy Franciscan who in this devastating storm (the meaning of Shoah ) resisted to the point of giving his own life in place of that of his prison mate condemned to death. And after having embraced and kissed the faces of the group of survivors, the most moving moment of the visit, the Pope placed a burning lamp in front of the Death Wall, as a reminder and admonition that evil will never have the last word. G.M.V Poland, he was welcomed by the Bishop of Bielsko-Żywiec and the city s mayor. The Pope then went by car to Auschwitz, along with his entourage, joined by Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, of the the Commission for Relations with the Jews. From the outside one gets the impression that the tourism industry has swallowed up the idea of mass extermination: suffice it to note the number of hotels and fast-food restaurants, among which is even the unexpected Pop e s Restaurant, attracting countless visitors with their signs aglow. But as soon as you cast your gaze toward the glum red brick housing blocks, the concentration camp appears in all its monstrosity: the smokestacks of the crematoria, the wooden barracks and hightension cables, the dirt roads that ooze with mud when it rains, the watchtowers for the Nazi sentries, who were able to shelter themselves from the cold while the prisoners were consigned to forced labour or sent to their death, their striped uniforms in tatters. Welcomed by the director of this immense open-air museum, Francis passed through the entry gate on foot, under the ignoble sign that reads Arbeit macht f re i, meaning Work sets you free. Then, in an electric car, he travelled along the very streets that for countless men and women signified death. Atrocious crimes were committed among these blo cks. Indeed, Auschwitz was the largest camp built by the Nazis during World War II and one of the most pro ductive when the deranged project of the final solution was implemented. The symbolic site was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in Francis paused at the site where exactly 75 years before, Fr Kolbe was condemned to death by starvation, after offering his life in place of another prisoner. Seated in the shade of the trees, the Pope spent time in silent, heartfelt prayer, with folded hands, bowed head and closed eyes. Behind him the barbed-wire fences were a reminder of the cold, hard reality of these places. He then stood up to kiss the wood of one of the many gallows where executions were carried out. Francis was welcomed by the Prime Minister in the yard of the infamous block 11, one of Auschwitz s most sadly notorious buildings. One by one, the Pope then greeted survivors, two of them centenarians and even a 101-year-old woman, Helena Dunicsz, the renowned Polish violinist born in Vienna. She is the only living survivor of the camp orchestra, and offered her home to host several youth who had come to Krakow for W Y D. The emotional yet still perceptive witnesses stood up to greet the guest; one asked the Pope to sign a photo album, another kissed his hands, as if to reciprocate the Pop e s gesture at the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The last of them gave him a candle, with which Francis then turned toward the Death Wall, where people were executed by a gunshot to the head. The Pope touched the wall, spending time with his head bowed in contemplation before lighting the lamp which was left as a gift: a gilded silver sphere set upon a wooden base, reminiscent of the Auschwitz fence, now corroded by the passage of time. The next stop was the cell where the Franciscan Fr Kolbe died a martyr s death. Welcomed by the General of the Order, Marco Tasca, and by the Provincial, Marian Gol ab, Francis descended alone to the cramped basement space designated with the number 18 and lit only by a small barred window. Apart from a bed and a sink, the walls bear some graffiti, a commemorative plaque and the candle left by Pope Wojtyła. There too, Francis prayed in silence, completely immersed in the somber atmosphere that dwells there, and he signed the guest book. The third and final stop of this pilgrimage was at the horrific site that was Birkenau, three kilometres away. There the Pope went slowly, contemplating what remains of this mass extermination camp. In the gas chambers men and women, elderly and children, were brought by deception: tricked into thinking they could take a hot shower, while instead the lethal Zyklon B was released from a hole in the ceiling. The Pope entered the camp, also known as Brzezinka or Auschwitz II, through the main gate. Once again aboard an electric car he approached the railway, the tracks of death. A rusted old railway car is still there, a perpetual reminder of the mass deportations of men, women and children, packed into cattle cars like animals taken to slaughter. At the international monument, where he was awaited by a thousand people, the Pope walked among the dark stones that commemorate what happened there. For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity is inscribed on 23 metal plates, each atop a marble slab, in the language of each of the peoples who fell victim here to the atrocities of Nazism. The Pope paid his respects at each of them, and placed a lit candle in front of the last. Then, with his head still bowed he prayed once again while behind him the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, sang Psalm 130 in Hebrew; the De Profundis was then translated into Polish by Fr Stanisław Ruszała of the Catholic parish of Markowa, in southeast Poland. With his presence he recalled the heroic sacrifice of Józef and Wiktoria Ulma and their six children, a seventh still in the womb, slain by the SS for having given refuge to several Jews. In 1995 Mr and Mrs Ulma were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations, and in 2003 the process for the cause of their canonization was begun in the Diocese of Przemyśl.

11 number 31, Friday, 5 August 2016 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 11 During the Via Crucis the Pope speaks of the mystery of pain Where God is Visit to the Prokocim children s hospital Close to every sick child Pope Francis met the young patients of the Prokocim children s hospital in Krakow on Friday afternoon, 29 July. The following is the English text of the Holy Father s address. Dear brothers and sisters, A special part of my visit to Krakow is this meeting with the little patients of this hospital. I greet all of you and I thank the Prime Minister for his kind words. I would like to draw near to all children who are sick, to stand at their bedside, and embrace them. I would like to listen to everyone here, even if for only a moment, and to be still before questions that have no easy answers. And to pray. The Gospel often shows us the Lord Jesus meeting the sick, embracing them and seeking them out. Jesus is always attentive to them. He looks at them in the same way that a mother looks at her sick child, and he is moved by compassion for them. How I would wish that we Christians could be as close to the sick as Jesus was, in silence, with a caress, with prayer. Sadly, our society is tainted by the culture of waste, which is the opposite of the culture of acceptance. And the victims of the culture of waste are those who are weakest and most frail; and this is indeed cruel. How beautiful it is instead to see that in this hospital the smallest and most needy are welcomed and cared for. Thank you for this sign of love that you offer us! This is the sign of true civility, human and Christian: to make those who are most disadvantaged the centre of social and political concern. Sometimes families feel alone in providing this With young people at Jordan Park in K ra k o w s Błonia, Pope Francis presided at the Via Crucis of World Youth Day on Friday afternoon, 29 July. The following is the English text of the meditation the Pontiff shared with them at the conclusion of the rite. I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me (Mt 25:35-36). These words of Jesus answer the question that arises so often in our minds and hearts: Where is God? Where is God, if evil is present in our world, if there are men and women who are hungry and thirsty, homeless, exiles and refugees? Where is God, when innocent persons die as a result of violence, terrorism and war? Where is God, when cruel diseases break the bonds of life and affection? Or when children are exploited and demeaned, and they too suffer from grave illness? Where is God, amid the anguish of those who doubt and are troubled in spirit? These are questions that humanly speaking have no answer. We can only look to Jesus and ask him. And Jesus answer is this: God is in them. Jesus is in them; he suffers in them and deeply identifies with each of them. He is so closely united to them as to form with them, as it were, one body. care. What can be done? From this place, so full of concrete signs of love, I would like to say: Let us multiply the works of the culture of acceptance, works inspired by Christian love, love for Jesus crucified, for the flesh of Christ. To serve with love and tenderness persons who need our help makes all of us grow in humanity. It opens before us the way to eternal life. Those who engage in works of mercy have no fear of death. I encourage all those who have made the Gospel call to visit the sick a personal life decision: physicians, nurses, healthcare workers, chaplains and volunteers. May the Lord help you to do your work well, here as in every other hospital in the world. I cannot fail to mention, here, the work of so many sisters who offer their lives in hospitals. May the Lord reward you by giving you inner peace and a heart always capable of tenderness. Thank you for this encounter! I carry you with me in affection and prayer. And please, do not forget to pray for me. Jesus himself chose to identify with these our brothers and sisters enduring pain and anguish by agreeing to tread the way of sorrows that led to Calvary. By dying on the cross, he surrendered himself into to the hands of the Father, taking upon himself and in himself, with self-sacrificing love, the physical, moral and spiritual wounds of all humanity. By embracing the wood of the cross, Jesus embraced the nakedness, the hunger and thirst, the loneliness, pain and death of men and women of all times. Tonight Jesus, and we with him, embrace with particular love our brothers and sisters from Syria who have fled from the war. We greet them and we welcome them with fraternal affection and friendship. By following Jesus along the Wa y of the Cross, we have once again realized the importance of imitating him through the 14 works of mercy. These help us to be open to God s mercy, to implore the grace to appreciate that without mercy we can do nothing; without mercy, neither I nor you nor any of us can do a thing. Let us first consider the seven corporal works of mercy: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and those in prison, and burying the dead. Freely we have received, so freely let us give. We are called to serve the crucified Jesus in all those who are marginalized, to touch his sacred flesh in those who are disadvantaged, in those who hunger and thirst, in the naked and imprisoned, the sick and unemployed, in those who are persecuted, refugees and migrants. There we find our God; there we touch the Lord. Jesus himself told us this when he explained the criterion on which we will be judged: whenever we do these things to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do them to him (cf. Mt 25:31-46). After the corporal works of mercy come the spiritual works: counselling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, admonishing sinners, consoling the afflicted, pardoning offences, bearing wrongs patiently, praying for the living and the dead. In welcoming the outcast who suffer physically and in welcoming sinners who suffer spiritually, our credibility as Christians is at stake. In welcoming the outcast who suffer physically and in welcoming sinners who suffer spiritually, our credibility as Christians is at stake. Not in ideas, but in our actions. Humanity today needs men and women, and especially young people like yourselves, who do not wish to live their lives halfway, young people ready to spend their lives freely in service to those of their brothers and sisters who are poorest and most vulnerable, in imitation of Christ who gave himself completely for our salvation. In the face of evil, suffering and sin, the only response possible for a disciple of Jesus is the gift of self, even of one s own life, in imitation of Christ; it is the attitude of service. Unless those who call themselves Christians live to serve, their lives serve no good purpose. By their lives, they deny Jesus Christ. This evening, dear friends, the Lord once more asks you to be in the forefront of serving others. He wants to make of you a concrete response to the needs and sufferings of humanity. He wants you to be signs of his merciful love for our time! To enable you to carry out this mission, he shows you the way of personal commitment and self-sacrifice. It is the Way of the Cross. The Way of the Cross is the way of fidelity in following Jesus to the end, in the often dramatic situations of everyday life. It is a way that fears no lack of success, ostracism or solitude, because it fills ours hearts with the fullness of Jesus. The Way of the Cross is the way of God s own life, his style, which Jesus brings even to the pathways of a society at times divided, unjust and corrupt. The Way of the Cross is not an exercise in sadomasochism; the Way of the Cross alone defeats sin, evil and death, for it leads to the radiant light of Christ s resurrection and opens the horizons of a new and fuller life. It is the way of hope, the way of the future. Those who take up this way with generosity and faith give hope to the future and to humanity. Those who take up this way with generosity and faith sow seeds of hope. I want you to be sowers of hope. Dear young people, on that Good Friday many disciples went back crestfallen to their homes. Others chose to go out to the country to forget the cross. I ask you: but I want each of you to answer in silence in the depths of your heart. How do you want to go back this evening to your own homes, to the places where you are staying, to your tents? How do you want to go back this evening to be alone with your thoughts? The world is watching us. Each of you has to answer the challenge that this question sets before you.

12 page 12 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 August 2016, number 31 The Book of Mercy From the window of the archbishop s residence Cruelty did not end with Auschwitz On Friday evening, 29 July, Pope Francis greeted young people from the window of the residence Archbishop of Krakow. The following are the words the Holy Father addressed in Italian to the youth who had gathered to wish him good night. Dobry wieczór! [Good evening!] Today has been a special day, a painful day. Friday is the day on which we remember the death of Jesus, and together with the youth we ended the day by reciting the Way of the Cross. We prayed the Way of the Cross: the pain and death of Jesus for all of us. We united ourselves to the suffering Jesus. But not only suffering two thousand years ago, suffering today too. So many people who suffer: the sick, those in wars, the homeless, the starving, those who are uncertain about life, who do not experience happiness, salvation, or who feel the weight of their own sin. This afternoon I went to the C h i l d re n s Hospital. There too Jesus suffers in so many sick children. And always the question comes to me: Why do children suffer? It is a mystery. There are no answers to these questions. This morning there was another painful thing: I went to Auschwitz, to Birkenau, to remember the suffering of seventy years ago Such pain, such cruelty! Is it possible that we men, created in the image and likeness of God, are capable of such things? These things were done. I don t want to make you sad, but I must speak the truth. Cruelty did not end at Auschwitz, at Birkenau: today too, people are tortured; many prisoners are tortured at once, to make them sp eak It is terrible! Today there are men and women in overcrowded prisons; they live I m sorry like animals. Today there is this cruelty. We say: yes, we saw the cruelty of seventy years ago, how people were put to death by being shot, or hanged, or with gas. But today in many places in the world, where there is war, the same thing is happ ening. Jesus came into this reality to carry it on his shoulders. And he asks us to pray. Let us pray for all the Jesuses today in the world: the hungry, the thirsty, the doubtful, the sick, those who are alone, those who feel the weight of many doubts and crimes. They suffer so much Let us pray for the many children who are sick, who are innocent, who carry a child s cross. And let us pray for the many men and women being tortured today in various countries of the world; for the prisoners all piled together, as if they were animals. What I am saying to you is a little sad, but it is the truth. But it is also true that Jesus carried all these things upon himself. Our sin too. All of us here are sinners, all of us bear the weight of our sins. I don t know if anyone believes he is free of sin If anyone thinks he is not a sinner, let him raise his hand We are all sinners. But he loves us, he loves us! And so let us as sinners, but as sons of God, sons of our Father let us all together offer a prayer for these people who suffer so many terrible things today in the world, so much evil. And when there are tears, the child looks for its mother; we too, sinners, we are children, we look for our Mother, so let us pray all together, each in his own language. Hail Mary [Blessing] I wish you a good night, a good rest. Pray for me! And tomorrow we shall continue this beautiful World Youth Day. Thank you so much! During these days in Poland, the simple words and gestures of Pope Francis won the hearts not only of those gathered for World Youth Day in Krakow, but of millions of people across the globe. The Polish media made this clear by highlighting the positive tone and new conciliatory spirit with which this papal visit, Francis first to East-Central Europe, was received. As was the case during his journey to the United States on the heels of a visit to Cuba, the affectionate welcome the Pontiff received and his positive message dispelled any doubts proliferated by a pessimistic media with its own interests. The anniversary of the Baptism of Poland, the commemoration of the Shoah, and the world gathering of youth were interconnected by a crystal clear theme that stood at the centre of this papal journey: mercy. Mercy, the heart of the Gospel and the bedrock of Pope Bergoglio s preaching, is the common thread that connected the reflections at the solemn celebration of the Way of the Cross, in which an enormous crowd of nearly 600,000 young people took part, as well as in visits to places where two great 20th-century witnesses of mercy are venerated: Faustina Kowalska e Karol Wo j t y ła. At the newly dedicated shrine to his predecessor, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for priests and religious men and women, meditating on the episode of Jesus appearance to the Apostle Thomas. There the pontiff highlighted the setting of the event as narrated by John the Evangelist, a disciple in dialogue with the Lord and with the Gospel itself. Once Good morning to you all! Today the Lord wants us to feel ever more deeply his great mercy. Let us never distance ourselves from Jesus! Even if we think that we are the least because of our sins and our failings, this is how he prefers us; this is how his mercy At the Shrine of Divine Mercy Seize the day upon a time the Archbishop of Milan future Pope Paul VI in a 1957 message to those separated from the Church, defined this Gospel simply and effectively as the great book. The disciples were gathered behind closed doors, but Jesus wants his followers to go forth. Pope Francis hears in this interpretation of the passage an echo of the first words pronounced by John Paul II upon his election to the papacy: Open wide the doors to Christ!. Furthermore, the invitation to escape that stifling, self-centred, and sterile place coincides with the joyful mission of announcing the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium), the central and undeniable task of Christians, according to Francis. The continual search for Christ and the education of the heart are fundamental to this task, as shown in the life of the Apostle Thomas. Finally, recalling that the g re a t b o ok, as the Evangelist tells us, does not contain all the signs that Jesus worked, Francis offers us an important lesson: the Gospel, the living book of God s mercy that must be continually read and reread, still has many blank pages left. They are the pages of an open book that we are called to write in with the same style, by the works of mercy we practise. Those works, both corp oral and spiritual, which in the Christian tradition are synthesized in fourteen points, were creatively articulated in the reflections given during the Way of the Cross in Krakow. G.M.V. On Saturday morning, 30 July, before going to the Shrine of St John Paul II to celebrate Mass, the Holy Father stopped in the Divine Mercy Shrine. After passing through the Door of Divine Mercy, the Pope heard five confessions and then paused to pray before Blessed Sacrament. Outside the Shrine, he addressed a few words of greeting in Spanish to the crowd, the following of which is the English translation. spreads. Let us seize the day that we may all receive the mercy of Jesus. Let us pray together to the Mother of Mercy. Hail Mary... [Blessing] And, please, I ask you to pray for me.

13 number 31, Friday, 5 August 2016 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 13 The Pope asks priests and religious to go forth from themselves On the blank pages of the Gospel Saturday, 30 July, the fourth day of the papal journey in Poland, opened with a stop at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Łagiewniki, where the Pontiff heard the confessions of several young people. Afterwards he visited the Shrine of St John Paul II, where he presided at Mass with priests, men and women religious and seminarians. The following is the English text of the Holy Fa t h e r s homily for the occasion. The words of the Gospel we have just heard (cf. Jn 20:19-31) speak to us of a place, a disciple and a book. The place is where the disciples gathered on the evening of Easter; we read only that its doors were closed (cf. v. 19). Eight days later, the disciples were once more gathered there, and the doors were still shut (cf. v. 26). Jesus enters, stands in their midst and brings them his peace, the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins: in a word, God s mercy. Behind those closed doors there resounds Jesus call to his followers: As the Father has sent me, so I send you (v. 21). Jesus sends. From the beginning, he wants his to be a Church on the move, a Church that goes out into the world. And he wants her to do this just as he did. He was not sent into the world by the Father to wield power, but to take the form of a slave (cf. Phil 2:7); he came not to be served, but to serve (Mk 10:45) and to bring the Good News (cf. Lk 4:18). In the same way, his followers are sent forth in every age. The contrast is striking: whereas the disciples had closed the doors out of fear, Jesus sends them out on mission. He wants them to open the doors and go out to spread God s pardon and peace, with the power of the Holy Spirit. This call is also addressed to us. How can we fail to hear its echo in the great appeal of St John Paul II: Open the doors? Yet, in our lives as priests and consecrated persons, we can often be tempted to remain enclosed, out of fear or convenience, within ourselves and in our surroundings. But Jesus directs us to a one-way street: that of going forth from ourselves. It is a one-way trip, with no return ticket. It involves making an exodus from ourselves, losing our lives for his sake (cf. Mk 8:35) and setting out on the path of self-gift. Nor does Jesus like journeys made halfway, doors halfclosed, lives lived on two tracks. He asks us to pack lightly for the journey, to set out renouncing our own security, with him alone as our s t re n g t h. In other words, the life of Jesus closest disciples, which is what we are called to be, is shaped by c o n c re t e love, a love, in other words, marked by service and a v a i l a b i l i t y. It is a life that has no closed spaces or private property for our own use, or at least there shouldn t be. Those who choose to model their entire life on Jesus no longer choose their own places; they go where they are sent, in ready response to the one who calls. They do not even choose their own times. The house where they live does not belong to them, because the Church and the world are the open spaces of their mission. Their wealth is to put the Lord in the midst of their lives and to seek nothing else for themselves. So they flee the satisfaction of being at the centre of things; they do not build on the shaky foundations of worldly power, or settle into the comforts that compromise evangelization. They do not waste time planning a secure future, lest they risk becoming isolated and gloomy, enclosed within the narrow walls of a joyless and desperate self-centredness. Finding their happiness in the Lord, they are not content with a life of mediocrity, but burn with the desire to bear witness and reach out to others. They love to take risks and to set out, not limited to trails already blazed, but open and faithful to the paths pointed out by the Spirit. Rather than just getting by, they rejoice to evangelize. Secondly, today s Gospel presents us with the one disciple who is named: Thomas. In his hesitation and his efforts to understand, this disciple, albeit somewhat stubborn, is a bit like us and we find him likeable. Without knowing it, he gives us a great gift: he brings us closer to God, because God does not hide from those who seek him. Jesus shows Thomas his glorious wounds; he makes him touch with his hand the infinite tenderness of God, the vivid signs of how much he suffered out of love for humanity. For us who are disciples, it is important to put our humanity in contact with the flesh of the Lord, to bring to him, with complete trust and utter sincerity, our whole being. As Jesus told St Faustina, he is happy when we tell him everything: he is not bored with our lives, which he already knows; he waits for us to tell him even about the events of our day (cf. D i a r y, 6 September 1937). That is the way to seek God: through prayer that is transparent and unafraid to hand over to him our troubles, our struggles and our resistance. Jesus heart is won over by sincere openness, by hearts capable of acknowledging and grieving over their weakness, yet trusting that precisely there God s mercy will be active. What does Jesus ask of us? He desires hearts that are truly consecrated, hearts that draw life from his forgiveness in order to pour it out with compassion on our brothers and sisters. Jesus wants hearts that are open and tender towards the weak, never hearts that are hardened. He wants docile and transparent hearts that do not dissimulate before those whom the Church appoints as our guides. Disciples do not hesitate to ask questions, they have the courage to face their misgivings and bring them to the Lord, to their formators and superiors, without calculations or reticence. A faithful disciple engages in constant watchful discernment, knowing that the heart must be trained daily, beginning with the affections, to flee every form of duplicity in attitudes and in life. The Apostle Thomas, at the conclusion of his impassioned quest, not only came to believe in the resurrection, but found in Jesus his life s greatest treasure, his Lord. He says to Jesus: My Lord and my God! (v. 28). We would do well, today, and every day, to pray these magnificent words, and to say to the Lord: You are my one treasure, the path I must follow, the core of my life, my all. The final verse of today s Gospel speaks of a book: it is the Gospel that, we are told, does not contain all the many other signs that Jesus worked (v. 30). After the great sign of his mercy, we could say that there is no longer a need to add another. Yet one challenge does remain. There is room left for the signs needing to be worked by us, who have received the Spirit of love and are called to spread mercy. It might be said that the Gospel, the living book of God s mercy that must be continually read and reread, still has many blank pages left. It remains an open book that we are called to write in the same style, by the works of mercy we practise. Let me ask you this, dear brothers and sisters: What are the pages of your books like? Are they blank? May the Mother of God help us in this. May she, who fully welcomed the word of God into her life (cf. Lk 8:20-21), give us the grace to be living writers of the Gospel. May our Mother of Mercy teach us how to take concrete care of the wounds of Jesus in our brothers and sisters in need, those close at hand and those far away, the sick and the migrant, because by serving those who suffer we honour the flesh of Christ. May the Virgin Mary help us to spend ourselves completely for the good of the faithful entrusted to us, and to show concern for one another as true brothers and sisters in the communion of the Church, our holy Mothe r. Dear brothers and sisters, each of us holds in his or her heart a very personal page of the book of God s mercy. It is the story of our own calling, the voice of the love that attracted us and transformed our life, leading us to leave everything at his word and to follow him (cf. Lk 5:11). Today let us gratefully rekindle the memory of his call, which is stronger than any resistance and weariness on our part. As we continue this celebration of the Eucharist, the centre of our lives, let us thank the Lord for having entered through our closed doors with his mercy, for calling us, like Thomas, by name, and for giving us the grace to continue writing his Gospel of love.

14 page 14 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 August 2016, number 31 During the prayer vigil the Pope asks young people to conquer hate and fear with brotherhood Nothing justifies a brother s blood On Saturday evening, 30 July, Pope Francis presided at a prayer vigil at the Campus Misericordiae with the youth of WYD. After listening to testimonies, the Pontiff responded in Italian to their questions. The following is the English text of his discourse. The Holy Father s prayer in the Basilica of St Francis in Krakow Touch the hearts of terrorists On his way from the Archbishopric of Krakow to the Campus Misericordiae for the Vigil on Saturday afternoon, 30 July, the Holy Father paid a brief visit to the Church of St Francis, near the archbishop s residence, where it is possible to venerate the relics of two Franciscan martyrs, Zbigniew Strzałkowski and Michael Tomaszek, killed in Peru (in Pariacoto on 9 August 1991) by Shining Path guerrillas, and beatified on 5 December 2015 in Pariacoto, along with Italian priest Don Alessandro Dordi of the diocese of Bergamo. In the presence of the Franciscan community and relatives of the martyrs, the Pope recited the Prayer for peace and protection from violence and from terrorism, the full English text of which is published below: O almighty and merciful God, Lord of the universe and of history. All that You have created is good and your compassion for the mistakes of mankind knows no limits. We come to You today to ask You to keep in peace the world and its people, to keep far away from it the devastating wave of terrorism, to restore friendship and instil in the hearts of Your creatures the gift of trust and of readiness to forgive. O Giver of life, we pray to You also for all those who have died as victims of brutal terrorist attacks. Grant them their eternal reward. May they intercede for the world that is torn apart by conflicts and disa g re e m e n t s. O Jesus, Prince of Peace, we pray to You for the ones who have been wounded in these acts of inhuman violence: children and young people, old people and innocent people accidentally involved in evil. Heal their bodies and hearts; console them with Your strength and, at the same time, take away any hatred and a desire for revenge. Dear Young Friends, good evening! It is good to be here with you at this Prayer Vigil! At the end of her powerful and moving witness, Rand asked something of us. She said: I earnestly ask you to pray for my beloved country. Her story, involving war, grief and loss, ended with a request for prayers. Is there a better way for us to begin our vigil than by praying? We have come here from different parts of the world, from different continents, countries, languages, cultures and peoples. Some of us are sons and daughters of nations that may be at odds and engaged in various conflicts or even open war. Others of us come from countries that may be at p eace, free of war and conflict, where most of the terrible things occurring in our world are simply a story on the evening news. But think about it. For us, here, today, coming from different parts of the world, the suffering and the wars that many young people experience are no longer anonymous, something we read about in the papers. They have a name, they have a face, they have a story, they are close at hand. Today the war in Syria has caused pain and suffering for so many people, for so many young people like our brave friend Rand, who has come here and asked us to pray for her beloved country. Some situations seem distant until in some way we touch them. We don t appreciate certain things because we only see them on the screen of a cell phone or a computer. But when we come into con- tact with life, with people s lives, not just images on a screen, something powerful happens. We all feel the need to get involved. To see that there are no more forgotten cities, to use Rand s words, or brothers and sisters of ours surrounded by death and killing, completely helpless. Dear friends, I ask that we join in prayer for the sufferings of all the victims of war, of this war today in the world. Once and for all, may we realize that nothing justifies shedding the blood of a brother or sister; that nothing is more precious than the person next to us. In asking you to pray for this, I would also like to thank Natalia and Miguel for sharing their own battles and inner conflicts. You told us about your struggles, and about how you succeeded in overcoming them. Both of you are a living sign of what God s mercy wants to accomplish in us. This is no time for denouncing anyone or fighting. We do not want to tear down, we do not want to give insult. We have no desire to conquer hatred with more hatred, violence with more violence, terror with more terror. We are here today because the Lord has called us together. Our response to a world at war has a name: its name is fraternity, its name is brotherhood, its name is communion, its name is family. We celebrate the fact that coming from different cultures, we Holy Spirit Consoler, visit the families of the victims of terrorism, families that suffer through no fault of their own. Wrap them in the mantle of Your divine mercy. Make them find again in You and in themselves the strength and courage to continue to be brothers and sisters for others, above all for immigrants, giving witness to Your love by their lives. Touch the hearts of terrorists so that they may recognise the evil of their actions and may turn to the way of peace and goodness, of respect for the life and for the dignity of every human being, regardless of religion, origin, wealth or poverty. O God, Eternal Father, in Your mercy hear our prayer which we raise up to You amidst the deafening noise and desperation of the world. We turn to You with great hope, full of trust in Your infinite Mercy. Made strong by the examples of the blessed martyrs of Peru, Zbigniew and Michael, who have rendered courageous testimony to the Gospel, to the point of offering their blood, we entrust ourselves to the intercession of Your Most Holy Mother. We ask for the gift of peace and of the elimination from our midst of the sore of terrorism. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. have come together to pray. Let our best word, our best argument, be our unity in prayer. Let us take a moment of silence and pray. Let us place before the Lord these testimonies of our friends, and let us identify with those for whom the family is a meaningless concept, the home only a place to sleep and eat, and with those who live with the fear that their mistakes and sins have made them outcasts. Let us also place before the Lord your own battles, our battles, the interior struggles that each carries in his or her heart. And so, to live as a family, in fraternity, I invite all of you together to stand, to take each other s hand and to pray in silence. All of us. [Silence] As we were praying, I thought of the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. Picturing them can help us come to appreciate all that God dreams of accomplishing in our lives, in us and with us. That day, the disciples were together behind locked doors, out of fear. They felt threatened, surrounded by an atmosphere of persecution that had cornered them in a little room and left them silent and paralyzed. Fear had taken hold of them. Then, in that situation, something spectacular, something grandiose, occurred. The Holy Spirit and tongues as of fire came to rest upon each of them, propelling them towards an undreamt-of adventure. This brings about a total change! We have heard three testimonies. Our hearts were touched by their stories, their lives. We have seen how, like the disciples, they experienced similar moments, living through times of great fear, when it seemed like everything was falling apart. The fear and anguish born of knowing that leaving home might mean never again seeing their loved ones, the fear of not feeling appreciated or loved, the fear of having no choices. They shared with us the same experience the disciples had; they felt the kind of fear that only leads to one thing. Where does fear lead us? The feeling of being closed in on oneself, trapped. Once we feel that way, our fear starts to fester and is inevitably joined by its twin sister, paralysis: the feeling of being paralyzed. Thinking that in this world, in our cities and our communities, there is no longer any room to grow, to dream, to create, to gaze at new horizons in a word to live is one of the worst things that can happen to us in life, and especially at a younger age. When we are paralyzed, we miss the magic of encountering others, making friends, sharing dreams, walking at the side of others. This paralysis distances us from others, it prevents us from taking each other s hand, as we saw [on the stage], all closed within the small rooms of glass. But in life there is another, even more dangerous, kind of paralysis. It is not easy to put our finger on it. I like to describe it as the paralysis that comes from confusing happi-

15 number 31, Friday, 5 August 2016 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 15 ness with a sofa. In other words, to think that in order to be happy all we need is a good sofa. A sofa that makes us feel comfortable, calm, safe. A sofa like one of those we have nowadays with a built-in massage unit to put us to sleep. A sofa that promises us hours of comfort so we can escape to the world of videogames and spend all kinds of time in front of a computer screen. A sofa that keeps us safe from any kind of pain and fear. A sofa that allows us to stay home without needing to work at, or worry about, anything. Sofa-happiness! That is probably the most harmful and insidious form of paralysis, which can cause the greatest harm to young people. And why does this happen, Father? Because, little by little, without even realizing it, we start to nod off, to grow drowsy and dull. The other day, I spoke about young people whogointoretirement attheageof 20; today I speak about young persons who nod off, grow drowsy and dull, while others perhaps more alert than we are, but not necessarily better decide our future for us. For many people in fact, it is much easier and better to have drowsy and dull kids who confuse happiness with a sofa. For many people, that is more convenient than having young people who are alert and searching, trying to respond to God s dream and to all the restlessness present in the human heart. I ask you: do you want to be young people who nod off, who are drowsy and dull? [No!] Do you want others to decide your future for you? [No!] Do you want to be free? [Yes!] Do you want to be alert? [Yes!] Do you want to work hard for your future? [Yes!] You don t seem very convinced Do you want to work hard for your future? [Yes!] The truth, though, is something else. Dear young people, we didn t come into this work to vegetate, to take it easy, to make our lives a comfortable sofa to fall asleep on. No, we came for another reason: to leave a mark. It is very sad to pass through life without leaving a mark. But when we opt for ease and convenience, for confusing happiness with consumption, then we end up paying a high price indeed: we lose our freedom. We are not free to leave a mark. We lose our freedom. This is the high price we pay. There are so many people who do not want the young to be free; there are so many people who do not wish you well, who want you to be drowsy and dull, and never free! No, this must not be so! We must defend our freedom! This is itself a great form of paralysis, whenever we start thinking that happiness is the same as comfort and convenience, that being happy means going through life asleep or on tranquillizers, that the only way to be happy is to live in a haze. Certainly, drugs are bad, but there are plenty of other socially acceptable drugs, that can end up enslaving us just the same. One way or the other, they rob us of our greatest treasure: our freedom. They strip us of our freedom. My friends, Jesus is the Lord of risk, he is the Lord of the eternal m o re. Jesus is not the Lord of comfort, security and ease. Following Jesus demands a good dose of courage, a readiness to trade in the sofa for a pair of walking shoes and to set out on new and uncharted paths. To blaze trails that open up new horizons capable of spreading joy, the joy that is born of God s love and Born to Change the World The toll of a half-ton bell announced the arrival of Pope Francis at the Campus Misericordiae yesterday. Situated in the outskirts of Krakow but part of the territory of Weiliczka, the area where the 31st World Youth Day was hosted can accommodate more than a million people. Two places will remain here as a tangible sign of the mercy that presided in these days: a day care centre for the elderly, named Campus Misericordiae, and a Caritas centre, entitled The bread of m e rc y, a food bank to serve those most in need in various parishes. The Holy Father arrived at the Campus shortly after 6.30 pm and toured the area extensively by popemobile before stopping at the Holy Door, which he passed on foot accompanied by five young people representing the five continents. The theme of the vigil was Jesus, source of mercy, and was divided into five key points faith to those who doubt, hope to the disillusioned, love to the indifferent, forgiveness to those who have done harm, and joy to the sorrowful illustrated with testimonies from young men and women from, among other places Poland, Syria and Paraguay. The first witness spoke about her return to faith after years of drifting away from it, when one day she felt an imperative need to confess. The fear that the priest would tell her that her sins were very grave faded when instead he told her that she had made a beautiful confession. This coincided with Divine Mercy Sunday, at 3 pm (the hour of mercy) in the cathedral in Lodz where St Faustina Kowalska prayed every day. Your sins are forgiven. They are no more, think of them no more, remove them from your mind, he told her. I left the church as if returning from a battlefield: tremendously tired but at the same time extremely happy, with a feeling of victory and the conviction that Jesus was coming home with me. She went on to collaborate in the preparations for World Youth Day so that others might have the same experience. Go d s mercy is living and continues to act today too, without interruption. The second, Rand, explained that in Aleppo we live lives that are surrounded by death, and that at times one asks Is it possible that we were born to die in pain? Or are we born to live, and to live life to the fullest? Rand serves at the Don Bosco Centre in Aleppo which receives more than 700 young men and women who come hoping to see a smile and hear a word of encouragement. They are also seeking something that is otherwise lacking in their lives: genuine humanitarian treatment. But it is very difficult for me to give joy and faith to others while I myself am bankrupt of these things in my life. However, she added, Through my meagre life experience, I have learned that faith in Christ supersedes the circumstances of life. This truth is not conditioned on living a life of peace that is free of hardship. More and more, I believe that God exists wells up in your hearts with every act of mercy. To take the path of the craziness of our God, who teaches us to encounter him in the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the friend in trouble, the prisoner, the refugee and the migrant, and our neighbours who feel abandoned. To take the path of our God, who encourages us to be politicians, thinkers, social activists. The God who encourages us to devise an economy marked by greater solidarity than our own. In all the settings in which you find yourselves, God s love invites you bring the Good News, making of your own lives a gift to him and to others. This means being courageous, this means being free! You might say to me: Fa t h e r, that is not for everybody, but just for a chosen few. True, and those chosen are all who are ready to share their lives with others. Just as the Holy Spirit transformed the hearts of the disciples on the day of Pentecost, and they were paralyzed, so he did with our friends who shared their testimonies. I will use your own words, Miguel. You told us that in the Fa z e n d a on the day they entrusted you with the responsibility for helping make the house run better, you began to understand that God was asking something of you. That is when things began to change. That is the secret, dear friends, and all of us are called to share in it. God expects something from you. Do you understand this? God expects something from you, God wants something from you. God hopes in you. God comes to break down all our fences. He comes to open the doors of our lives, our dreams, our ways of seeing things. God comes to break open everything that keeps you closed in. He is encouraging you to dream. He wants to make you see that, with you, the world can be different. For the fact is, unless you offer the best of yourselves, the world will never be different. This is the challenge. The times we live in do not call for young couch potatoes, but for young people with shoes or better, boots laced. The times we live in require only active players on the field, and there is no room for those who sit on the bench. Today s world demands that you be a protagonist of history because life is always beautiful when we choose to live it fully, when we choose to leave a mark. History today calls us to defend our dignity and not to let others decide our future. No! We must decide our future, you must decide your future! As he did on Pentecost, CONTINUED ON PA G E 16 despite all of our pain. I believe that sometimes through out pain, He teaches us the true meaning of love. Finally, Miguel, a young Paraguayan, is a former drug addict who served six years in prison and was rehabilitated thanks to a priest a friend of the family who introduced him to the Fazenda da Esperança, a community whose method of healing consists of living the Word of God. After overcoming initial difficulties of integration, Miguel learned to relate with others and to forgive, and is now responsible for the Quo Vadis? House of the Fazenda da Esperança in Cherro Chato. God truly transforms us, he affirmed. God renews us.

16 page 16 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 August 2016, number 31 Once again in the Campus Misericordiae, the Pontiff celebrated the concluding Mass of the 23rd WYD on Sunday morning, 31 July. The following is the English text of the homily that Pope Francis gave in Italian. Dear young people, you have come to Krakow to meet Jesus. Today s Gospel speaks to us of just such a meeting between Jesus and a man named Zacchaeus, in Jericho (cf. Lk 19:1-10). There Jesus does not simply preach or greet people; as the Evangelist tells us, he passed through the city (v. 1). In other words, Jesus wants to draw near to us personally, to accompany our journey to its end, so that his life and our life can truly meet. An amazing encounter then takes place, with Zacchaeus, the chief publican or tax collector. Zacchaeus was thus a wealthy collaborator of the hated Roman occupiers, someone who exploited his own people, someone who, because of his ill repute, could not even approach the Master. His encounter with Jesus changed his life, just as it has CONTINUED FROM PA G E 15 the Lord wants to work one of the greatest miracles we can experience; he wants to turn your hands, my hands, our hands, into signs of reconciliation, of communion, of creation. He wants your hands to continue building the world of today. And he wants to build that world with you. And what is your response? Yes or no? [Yes!] You might say to me: Fa t h e r, but I have my limits, I am a sinner, what can I do? When the Lord calls us, he doesn t worry about what we are, what we have been, or what we have done or not done. Quite the opposite. When he calls us, he is thinking about everything we have to give, all the love we are capable of spreading. His bets are on the future, on tomorrow. Jesus is pointing you to the future, and never to the museum. So today, my friends, Jesus is inviting you, calling you, to leave your mark on life, to leave a mark on history, your own and that of many others as well. Life nowadays tells us that it is much easier to concentrate on what In the concluding Mass of WYD a call not to let the soul grow numb Dreamers of a new humanity changed, and can daily still change, each of our lives. But Zacchaeus had to face a number of obstacles in order to meet Jesus. It was not easy for him; he had to face a number of obstacles. At least three of these can also say something to us. The first obstacle is smallness of s t a t u re. Zacchaeus couldn t see the Master because he was little. Even today we can risk not getting close to Jesus because we don t feel big enough, because we don t think ourselves worthy. This is a great temptation; it has to do not only with self-esteem, but with faith itself. For faith tells us that we are children of God; that is what we are (1 Jn 3:1). We have been created in Go d s own image; Jesus has taken upon himself our humanity and his heart will never be separated from us; the Holy Spirit wants to dwell within us. We have been called to be happy for ever with God! That is our real s t a t u re, our spiritual identity: we are God s beloved children, always. So you can see that not to accept ourselves, to live glumly, to be negative, means Nothing justifies a brother s blood divides us, what keeps us apart. People try to make us believe that being closed in on ourselves is the best way to keep safe from harm. Today, we adults need you to teach us, as you are doing today, how to live in diversity, in dialogue, to experience multiculturalism not as a threat but an opportunity. You are an opportunity for the future. Have the courage to teach us, have the courage to show us that it is easier to build bridges than walls! We need to learn this. Together we ask that you challenge us to take the path of fraternity. May you point the finger at us, if we choose the path of walls, the path of enmity, the path of war. To build bridges Do you know the first bridge that has to be built? It is a bridge that we can build here and now by reaching out and taking each other s hand. Come on, build it now. Build this human bridge, take each other s hand, all of you: it is the first of bridges, it is the human bridge, it is the first, it is the model. There is always a risk, as I said the other day, of offering your hand and no one taking it. But in life we need to take a risk, for the person not to recognize our deepest identity. It is like walking away when God wants to look at me, trying to spoil his dream for me. God loves us the way we are, and no sin, fault or mistake of ours makes him change his mind. As far as Jesus is concerned as the Gospel shows no one is unworthy of, or far from, his thoughts. No one is insignificant. He loves all of us with a special love; for him all of us are important: you are important! God counts on you for what you are, not for what you possess. In his eyes the clothes you wear or the kind of cell phone you use are of absolutely no concern. He doesn t care whether you are stylish or not; he cares about you, just as you are! In his eyes, you are precious, and your value is inestimable. At times in our lives, we aim lower rather than higher. At those times, it is good to realize that God remains faithful, even obstinate, in his love for us. The fact is, he loves us even more than we love ourselves. He believes in us even more than we believe in ourselves. He is always cheering us on ; he is our biggest fan. He is there for us, waiting with patience and hope, even when we turn in on ourselves and brood over our troubles and past injuries. But such brooding is unworthy of our spiritual stature! It is a kind of virus infecting and blocking everything; it closes doors and prevents us from getting up and starting over. God, on the other hand, is hopelessly hopeful! He believes that we can always get up, and he hates to see us glum and gloomy. It is sad to see young people who are glum. Because we are always his beloved sons who does not take a risk never wins. With this bridge we can move forwards. Here, this is the primordial bridge: take each other s hand. Thank you. This is a great bridge of brotherhood, and would that the powers of this world might learn to build it not for pictures and ulterior motives, but for building ever bigger bridges. May this human bridge be the beginning of many, many others; in that way, it will leave a mark. Today Jesus, who is the way, the truth and the life, is calling you, you, and you to leave your mark on history. He, who is life, is asking each of you to leave a mark that brings life to your own history and that of many others. He, who is truth, is asking you to abandon the paths of rejection, division and emptiness. Are you up to this? [Yes!] Are you up to this? [Yes!] What answer will you give, and I d like to see it, with your hands and with your feet, to the Lord, who is the way, the truth and the life? Are you up to this? [Yes!] May the Lord bless your dreams. Thank you! and daughters. Let us be mindful of this at the dawn of each new day. It will do us good to pray every morning: Lord, I thank you for loving me; I am sure that you love me; help me to be in love with my own life! Not with my faults, that need to be corrected, but with life itself, which is a great gift, for it is a time to love and to be loved. Zacchaeus faced a second obstacle in meeting Jesus: the paralysis of shame. We spoke a little about this yesterday. We can imagine what was going on in his heart before he climbed that sycamore. It must have been quite a struggle on one hand, a healthy curiosity and desire to know Jesus; on the other, the risk of appearing completely ridiculous. Zacchaeus was public figure, a man of power, but deeply hated. He knew that, in trying to climb that tree, he would have become a laughingstock to all. Yet he mastered his shame, because the attraction of Jesus was more powerful. You know what happens when someone is so attractive that we fall in love with them: we end up ready to do things we would never have even thought of doing. Something similar took place in the heart of Zacchaeus, when he realized that Jesus was so important that he would do anything for him, since Jesus alone could pull him out of the mire of sin and discontent. The paralysis of shame did not have the upper hand. The Gospel tells us that Zacchaeus ran ahead, climb ed the tree, and then, when Jesus called him, he hurried down (vv. 4, 6). He took a risk, he put his life on the line. For us too, this is the secret of joy: not to stifle a healthy curiosity, but to take a risk, because life is not meant to be tucked away. When it comes to Jesus, we cannot sit around waiting with arms folded; he offers us life we can t respond by thinking about it or texting a few words! Dear young friends, don t be ashamed to bring everything to the Lord in confession, especially your weaknesses, your struggles and your sins. He will surprise you with his forgiveness and his peace. Don t be afraid to say yes to him with all your heart, to respond generously and to follow him! Don t let your soul grow numb, but aim for the goal of a beautiful love which also demands sacrifice. Say a firm no to the narcotic of success at any cost and the sedative of worrying only about yourself and your own comfort. After his small stature, after the paralysis of shame, there was a t h i rd obstacle that Zacchaeus had to face. It was no longer an interior one, but was all around him. It was the grumbling of the crowd, who first blocked him and then criticized him: How could Jesus have entered his house, the house of a sinner! How truly hard it is to welcome Jesus, how hard it is to accept a Go d who is rich in mercy (Eph 2:4)! People will try to block you, to make you think that God is distant, rigid and insensitive, good to the

17 number 31, Friday, 5 August 2016 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 17 Restless are the young CONTINUED FROM PA G E 1 good and bad to the bad. Instead, our heavenly Father makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good (Mt 5:45). He demands of us real courage: the courage to be m o re powerful than evil by loving everyone, even our enemies. People may laugh at you because you believe in the gentle and unassuming power of mercy. But do not be afraid. Think of the motto of these days: Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive m e rc y (Mt 5:7). People may judge you to be dreamers, because you believe in a new humanity, one that rejects hatred between peoples, one that refuses to see borders as barriers and can cherish its own traditions without being self-centred or smallminded. Don t be discouraged: with a smile and open arms, you proclaim hope and you are a blessing for our one human family, which here you represent so beautifully! That day the crowd judged Zacchaeus; they looked him over, up and down. But Jesus did otherwise: he gazed up at him (v. 5). Jesus looks beyond the faults and sees the person. He does not halt before bygone evil, but sees future good. His gaze remains constant, even when it is not met; it seeks the way of unity and communion. In no case does it halt at appearances, but looks to the heart. Jesus looks to our hearts, your heart, my heart. With this gaze of Jesus, you can help bring about another humanity, without looking for acknowledgement but seeking goodness for its own sake, content to maintain a pure heart and to fight peaceably for honesty and justice. D on t stop at the surface of things; distrust the worldly cult of appearances, cosmetic attempts to improve our looks. Instead, download the best link of all, that of a heart which sees and transmits goodness without growing weary. The joy that you have freely received from God, please, freely give away (cf. Mt 10:8): so many people are waiting for it! So many are waiting for it from you. Finally let us listen to the words that Jesus spoke to Zacchaeus, which to be seem meant for us today, for each one of us: Come down, for I must stay at your house to day (v. 5). Come down, for I must stay with you today. Open to me the door of your heart. Jesus extends the same invitation to you: I must stay at your house today. We can say that World Youth Day begins today and continues tomorrow, in your homes, since that is where Jesus wants to meet you from now on. The Lord doesn t want to remain in this beautiful city, or in cherished memories alone. He wants to enter your homes, to dwell in your daily lives: in your studies, your first years of work, your friendships and affections, your hopes and dreams. How greatly he desires that you bring all this to him in prayer! How much he hopes that, in all the contacts and chats of each day, pride of place be given to the golden thread of prayer! How much he wants his word to be able to speak to you day after day, so that you can make his Gospel your own, so that it can serve as a compass for you on the highways of life! In asking to come to your house, Jesus calls you, as he did Zacchaeus, by name. All of us, Jesus calls by name. Your name is precious to him. The name Zacchaeus would have made people back the think of the remembrance of God. Trust the memory of God: his memory is not a hard disk that saves and a rc h i v e s all our data, his memory is a heart filled with tender compassion, one that finds joy in erasing in us every trace of evil. May we too now try to imitate the faithful memory of God and treasure the good things we have received in these days. In silence, let us remember this encounter, let us preserve the memory of the presence of God and his word, and let us listen once more to the voice of Jesus as he calls us by name. So let us now pray silently, remembering and thanking the Lord who wanted us to be here and has come here to meet us. Announcement at the Angelus after Mass To Panama in 2019 for the next WYD The next World Youth Day will be celebrated in Panama in The announcement was made by Pope Francis at the Angelus at the end of Mass on Sunday morning, 31 July, at the Campus Misericordiae on the outskirts of Krakow. The following is the English text of the Pontiff s introduction to the Marian prayer. Dear Brothers and Sisters, At the conclusion of this celebration, I join all of you in thanking God, the Father of infinite mercy, for allowing us to experience this World Youth Day. I thank Cardinal Dziwisz and Cardinal Ryłko, who have been indefatigable in their efforts to make this Day possible, as too, for the prayers which have accompanied the preparations for this event; I also thank all those who have contributed to its successful outcome. A big word of thanks goes to you, dear young people! You filled Krakow with the contagious enthusiasm of your faith. St John Paul II has rejoiced from heaven, and he will help you spread the joy of the Gospel everywhere. In these days, we have experienced the beauty of our universal fraternity in Christ, the centre and hope of our lives. We have heard his voice, the voice of the Good Shepherd who dwells in our midst. He has spoken to each of you in your heart. He has renewed you by his love and he has shown you the light of his forgiveness, the power of his grace. He has made you experience the reality of prayer. These days have given you a spiritual breath of fresh air that will help you live lives of mercy once you return to your own countries and communities. Here, beside the altar, is the image of the Virgin Mary venerated by St John Paul II in the shrine of Kalwaria. Mary, our Mother, teaches us how we can make our experience here in Poland be productive. She tells us to do what she did: not to squander Pope Francis, who, extemporaneously, had just held an impassioned dialogue with World Youth Day volunteers, in fact commended the young people who had thronged the streets of Krakow by the hundreds of thousands, who listened to and prayed with him in impressive silence. I enjoy speaking with young people. And I enjoy listening to young people, he said, then specifying: restless young people, creative young people. Because they too, like us, like everyone, he added. speak nonsense and say good things. The extremely lively dialogues with the young men and young ladies who had come to Krakow explain the Pontiff s concern and his praise for the restlessness of the young. Existential and spiritual restlessness which Pope Bergoglio experienced firsthand, as he has described many times. And which the young Argentine Jesuit must have rediscovered in A Pilgrim s Journey, the brief and inspiring autobiography dictated to several companions by Ignatius of Loyola. the gift you have received, but to treasure it in your heart so it can grow and bear fruit, with the help of the Holy Spirit. In this way, each of you, for all your limitations and failings, can be a witness to Christ wherever you live: at home, in your parishes, in your associations and groups, and your places of study, work, service, entertainment... wherever God s providence will lead you. Go d s providence is always one step ahead of us. Think: it has already determined the next stop in this great pilgrimage begun in 1985 by St John Paul II! So now I am happy to announce that the next World Youth Day after the two that will be held on the diocesan level will take place in 2019 in Panama. I invite the Bishops of Panama to approach, and to join me in giving the blessing. Trusting in the intercession of Mary, let us ask the Holy Spirit to enlighten and sustain the journey of young people in the Church and in the world, and make you disciples and witnesses to God s mercy. And now let us recite together the Angelus prayer.

18 page 18 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 August 2016, number 31 The Pope thanks volunteers Two conditions On Sunday afternoon, 31 July, the Pope s final event in Krakow was the meeting with the volunteers, organizing committee and benefactors of WYD. Francis met with them in the Tauron Arena, a large sports facility on the way to the Balice- Krakow airport, where he later boarded a Polish aircraft for his return flight to Rome. In response to the testimonies of two young people, the Pontiff set aside his prepared text and spoke off-the-cuff. The following is the English text of his extemporaneous address. Before returning to Rome, I wanted to meet you and, before all else, to thank each of you for the effort, generosity and dedication you showed in guiding, helping and serving the thousands of young pilgrims. Thank you too for your witness of faith, which, together with that of so many young people from every part of the world, is a great sign of hope for the Church and the world. By giving of yourselves for love of Christ, you have experienced the beauty of commitment to a noble cause. I wrote a talk for you five pages I don t know if it is good or bad. A little boring I ll give it to you. But they tell me I can speak to you in any language, since there are translators. Shall I speak in Spanish? [ Ye s!] Preparing a Youth Day is an adventure. It is about taking a risk and seeing it pay off. It is about service, hard work, accomplishment and then leaving it behind. First, adventure and generosity. I would like to thank you, the volunteers and the backers, for everything you have done. I would like to thank you for the hours you spent in prayer, because I know that this day took shape as a result of much work but also many prayers. Thanks to the volunteers who devoted significant time to prayer, so that we could make this happen. Thanks also to the priests who accompanied you. Thanks to the religious women who accompanied you, to the consecrated persons, and to all of you who set out on this adventure with hope of making it happen. The bishop who just spoke paid you a compliment. He said you are the hope of future, and that is true. But with two conditions. Do you want to be the hope for the future or not? [Yes!] Two conditions that cost nothing. The first condition is to re m e m b e r. Trying to understand where I come from: the memory of my people, my family, my whole history. The witness of the second volunteer was full of memories. Memory of the path I have taken, memory of everything I have received from those who have gone before me. A young person who cannot remember is no hope for the future. Is that clear? [Yes!] So, Father, how do I go about rememb ering? First, talk to your grandparents. Because if you want to be hope for the future, you have to receive the torch from your grandfather and your grandmother. Will you promise me that in preparing for Panama, you will talk more with your grandparents? [Yes!] If your grandparents are already in heaven, will you talk to with the elderly? [Yes!] Are you going to ask them questions? [Yes!] Ask them. They are the wisdom of a people. So, in order to be hope, the first condition is to remember. You are the hope of the future, the Bishop told you. Second condition. If I am hope for the future and I have memory of the past, then what about the present? What must I do in the present? Have courage. Have courage! Be brave, be strong, don t be afraid. Let us heed the witness, the final witness given by our young friend who died of cancer. He wanted to be here and didn t make it, but he had the courage to face things and the courage to keep fighting even in the worst of conditions. Today he is not here, but that young man sowed hope for the future. So, for the present? Courage. Bravery, courage. Is that clear? [ Ye s! ] And then, if you have... What was the first thing? [Memory!] And then? [Courage!] You are going to be the hope [of the future!] Is all this clear? [Yes!] Good. I don t know if I m going to be in Panama, but I can tell you one thing: that Peter will be in Panama. And Peter is going to ask you if you talked with your grandparents if you talked with the elderly in order to remember, and if you had the courage and bravery to meet situations head-on and in that way to sow seeds for the future. And you are going to have to answer to Peter. Right? God bless you all. Thank you, thank you for everything. And now let us all pray, each in his or her own language, to Our Lady. [Hail Mary...] I ask you also to pray for me. D on t forget! I give you my blessing. [Blessing] Oh, and I forgot... What were those three things? [Memory, courage, future!] Below is the English text of the prepared speech which was consigned to the volunteers of WYD in Krakow. Before returning to Rome, I wanted to meet you and to thank each of you for your commitment, generosity and dedication in guiding, helping and serving the thousands of young pilgrims. Thank you too for your witness of faith that, together with that of so many young people from every part of the world, is a great sign of hope for the Church and the world. By giving of yourselves for love of Christ, you have experienced the beauty of commitment to a noble cause. You have also seen how enriching it is to join with so many friends of both sexes in a project that, while tiring, repays your efforts with joy and a wealth of new knowledge and openness to Jesus, to our neighbours, and to important life decisions. As an expression of my gratitude, I would like to share with you a gift offered us by the Virgin Mary, who has today come to visit us in the miraculous image of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, so dear to the heart of Saint John Paul II. In the Gospel mystery of the Visitation (cf. Lk 1:39-45), we can see an icon of all Christian volunteer work. I would take three attitudes shown by Mary and leave them to you as an aid to interpreting the experience of these days and an inspiration for your future commitment to service. These three attitudes are listening, deciding and acti n g. First, listening. Mary sets out after hearing the word of the angel: Yo u r relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son (Lk 1:36). Mary knows how to listen to God. It is not simply about hearing, but about listening attentively and receptively, and being ready to help. Think of how many times we come before the Lord or other people, but fail to really listen. Mary also listens to events, to things that happen in life. She is attentive to practical realities; she does not stop at the surface, but seeks to grasp their meaning. Mary knew that Elizabeth, now elderly, was expecting a child. She saw in this the hand of God, a sign of his mercy. The same thing also happens in our own lives. The Lord stands at the door and knocks in any number of ways; he posts signs along our path and he calls us to read them in the light of the Gosp el. The second attitude we see in Mary is deciding. Mary listens and reflects, but she also knows how to take a step forward: she is decisive. This was the case with the fundamental decision of her life: H e re am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word (Lk 1:38). So too, at the wedding feast of Cana, when Mary sees the problem, she decides to speak to Jesus and ask him to do something: They have no wine (Jn 2:3). In life, it is often hard to make decisions. We tend to postpone them, even allowing others decide in our place, or else we let ourselves be dragged along by the course of events and to follow the t re n d of the moment. At times, we know well what we have to do, but we lack the courage to do it, since we think it is too difficult to go against the grain... Mary is not afraid to go against the grain. With a steadfast heart she listens and decides, accepting the risks, never on her own, but with God! Finally, acting. Mary set out on her journey and went with haste (Lk 1:39). Despite the hardships and the criticisms she may have heard, she didn t hesitate or delay, but went with haste, because she had the strength of God s Word within her. Her way of acting was full of charity, full of love: this is the mark of God. Mary went to Elizabeth not to have other people praise her, but to be helpful, useful, in her service. And in setting out from her home, from herself, with love, she brought along the most precious thing she possessed: Jesus, the Son of God, the Lord. Elizabeth realizes this immediately: Why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? (Lk 1:43). The Holy Spirit awakens faith and joy within her: For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy (Lk 1:44). In volunteer work too, every act of service we provide, even the most simple, is important. Ultimately, it is an expression of openness to the presence of Jesus. It makes us experience the love from on high that set us on our way and fills us with joy. World Youth Day volunteers are not only workers, but evangelizers, because the Church exists and serves to evangelize. Once Mary had finished assisting Elizabeth, she went back home to Nazareth. Quietly and with no fuss, she left in the same way that she came. You too, dear volunteers, will not see all the fruits of your work here in Krakow or during the twinnings. Your brothers and sisters whom you served will see them in their lives and rejoice in them. That is the gratuitousness of love! Yet God knows your dedication, your commitment and your generosity. You can be sure that he will not fail to repay you for everything you have done for this Church of the young assembled in these days in Krakow with the Successor of Peter. I commendyoutogod andtotheword of his grace (cf. Acts 20:32). I entrust you to Mary, our Mother, model of all Christian volunteer service. And I ask you, please, to remember to pray for me.

19 number 31, Friday, 5 August 2016 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 19 Sacrament of nonviolence at the heart of the life of the martyred Polish priest Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko THOMAS M. ROSICA, CSB Thousands of young pilgrims en route to Krakow spent time in Warsaw in recent days and visited the grave and museum of the young Polish priest, Jerzy Popiełuszko ( ), who was beatified as a martyr on the feast of Corpus Christi, 6 June 2010, in Warsaw s Pilsudski Square. His tomb is one of the many holy sites that pilgrims visited during World Youth Day. Jerzy Popiełuszko was born on 14 September 1947, in the village of Okopy in Eastern Poland. He was from a strong Roman Catholic family. After secondary school, Jerzy entered the seminary in Warsaw, rather than the local seminary in Białystok. His training was interrupted by two years of military service, during which he was beaten several times for living his Christian faith. After ordination, the young priest, who had never really enjoyed good health, held several positions before his final appointment to the parish of St Stanisław Kostka in Warsaw. He worked part-time in the parish, which enabled him to work as well with medical personnel. As a result of his close collaboration with health care workers, he was asked to organize the medical teams during two of Pope John Paul II s nine visits to Poland in 1979 and Warsaw in August 1980 saw the beginning of the Solidarity trade union in Poland. Workers from the Warsaw steel plant, who were on strike in support of the shipyards on the Baltic Sea, requested a priest to say Mass for them. The lot fell to Fr Jerzy. He stayed with the workers night and day. Solidarity represented for him a vision that he had first learnt from St Maximilian Kolbe: that of spiritual freedom amidst physical enslavement. It was this vision of the truth about the vocation of every man and woman that Fr Jerzy promoted amongst the workers by his p re s e n c e. On 13 December 1981, the communist authorities imposed martial law, arresting many Solidarity activists and launching a program of harassment and retaliation against others. Many who had been on strike lost their jobs, and therefore their ability to support their families; others were beaten in the streets and left for dead. Fr Popiełuszko became focused on an important welfare program to support families affected by martial law. He regularly attended the trials of Solidarity activists, sitting prominently in court with their families so that the prisoners could see that they were not forgotten. It was in the courtroom that he devised the idea for a monthly Mass for the Country, to be celebrated for all the imprisoned and their families. It was not a political demonstration Fr Popiełuszko specifically asked his congregation not to display banners or chant slogans. His Masses for the Fatherland became well known not only in Warsaw but throughout Poland, often attracting 15,000 to 20,000 people. Fr Jerzy insisted that change should be brought about peacefully; the sign of peace was one of the most poignant moments of each Mass for the Country. Fr Popiełuszko was neither a social nor a political activist, but a Catholic priest faithful to the Gospel. He wasn t a forceful speaker, but a man of deep conviction and integrity. His sanctity lay in fundamental righteousness that gave people hope even in horrendous situations. He knew that all totalitarian systems are based on terror and intimidation. The Communists saw him as an enemy because he freed people from fear of the system. He exposed the hypocrisy of the Communist regime and he taught believers how to confront totalitarianism. In his preaching Jerzy often made St Paul s words his own: Fight evil with good. His message was not just for Poland but for all time: when any government tries to impose untruths, when it distorts history, when it crushes attempts to live by ordinary moral values, then we must speak out. We must conquer hatred with love, lies with truth, anger and fear with courage and hope. This applied in Poland under Communism, but it applies anywhere, at any time. And this applies when such untruths are imposed on children in schools, when public figures are bullied into silence on the subject, or when the Church is so bullied. Fr Jerzy never suggested that f re e d o m in the abstract is an absolute. What matters most is truth. We are not free to kill, maim, or steal. Any civilization or culture worthy of the name imposes all sorts of restraints on its citizens. But truth is absolute and does not need to be imposed, because it imposes itself. A government that tries to impose an untruth finds that it needs, with increasing pressure, to continue finding ways to prevent the truth from emerging, from pouring out through the cracks in the blocks it keeps trying to push into place. On 19 October 1984, the young priest was kidnapped by security agents on his way back to Warsaw after a visit to a parish in the neighbouring town of Bydgoszcz. He was savagely beaten until he lost consciousness, and his body was tied up in such a way that he would strangle himself by moving. His weighted body was then thrown into a deep reservoir. His killers carried out their task with unprecedented brutality, which showed their hatred of the faith that the priest embodied. Jerzy s driver, who managed to escape, told the press what had happened. On 30 October, Popiełuszko s bound and gagged body was found in the freezing waters of a reservoir near Wło cławek. Fr Jerzy s brutal murder was widely believed to have hastened the collapse of communist rule in Poland. Over 500,000 people attended Fr Jerzy s funeral. Some say the number was really more like one million. Official delegations of Solidarity appeared from throughout the whole country for the first time since the imposition of martial law. He was buried in the front yard of his parish church of St Stanisław Kostka, and since that day, 20 million people have visited his tomb. More than 80 streets and squares in Poland are named after Fr Jerzy. Hundreds of statues and memorial plaques have been unveiled to him; some 18,000 schools, charities, youth groups and discussion clubs have been named after him. This martyr s life was broken and shared with the multitudes. The blood of his martyrdom has become the seed of faith for his homeland and for the Church. At a time when the priesthood and the Church have suffered much because of the past sins of the fathers, the life and death of Bl. Jerzy Popiełuszko remind us what the priesthood and the Church are all about. Jerzy s death serves as testimony to the struggle for freedom, basic rights, and human dignity. In one of the earliest addresses after his election to the See of Rome, Pope John Paul II said: The truth we owe to man is, first and foremost, a truth about man. As witnesses of Jesus Christ we are heralds, spokesmen and servants of this truth... We cannot forget it or betray it. Stained glass window of Bl. Jerzy in the Chapel of the Newman Centre at the University of Toronto; Courtesy of Salt and Light Television Relics in Krakow Mary Magdalene at WYD Mary Magdalene was among the Patron Saints of the youth who participated in WYD in Krakow. In fact, organizers decided to include the name of the apostle of the Ap ostles whose liturgical feast was celebrated on Friday, 22 July, as recently established by Pope Francis among those to whom young people were able to turn in prayer during their time in Poland. For the occasion, the Saint s relics were escorted by Dominican volunteers from the Diocese of Fréjus- Toulon in the South of France to the historical centre of the Polish city, where they were kept in the Church of St Casimir under the care of Franciscan Friars. Mary Magdalene, regarded as a witness to mercy, was not the only Saint whose relics were exposed for veneration by the youth in Krakow. Indeed, they were accompanied by those of the official patrons of the 31st WYD, Faustina Kowalska and John Paul II, along with those of St Maximilian Kolbe, who was martyred at Auschwitz. As in the past, the relics of Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati were also brought from Italy for the event. They were received in the Dominican monastery on Stolarskiej Road near the WYD site on Saturday, 23 July, by way of a pilgrimage which began in mid-july, travelling through various dioceses. Pier Giorgio was a young man, Pope Francis wrote in September in the traditional Message for World Youth Day, who understood what it means to have a merciful heart that responds to those most in need. He gave them far more than material goods. He gave himself by giving his time, his words and his capacity to listen. He served the poor very quietly and unassumingly. The young man who died at only 24 years of age was offered as a model for young people from all over the world who travelled to Poland from all the continents.

20 page 20 L OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 5 August 2016, number 31 The Mosaics of the Shrines of St John Paul II in Krakow and Washington A portrait not a photograph SI LV I A GUIDI A work of art, Father and artist Marko Rupnik has often stated, can instill wonder and admiration, but works of art designed for liturgical spaces should be conducive to veneration instead of expressing the artist s subjectivity: the kind of veneration the simple faithful perform whenever they make the sign of the cross or genuflect or utter a simple prayer. Collaborative work is an effective way of avoiding the cult of personality a tendency still present in the Western, romantic idea of the artist as a solitary, heroic figure formed in the 18th century and is a great way of acquiring the community spirit that alone is able to implement the teaching of the Gospel in concrete reality. Hence it is no accident that the mosaics at the Shrine of St John Paul II in Krakow were made by an international group of artists from the Centro Aletti under the direction of Father Marko in a multi-faceted or symphonic way. This is not just another piece of trivial news, but an important, decisive statement about methodology. The Centro Studi Ezio Aletti at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome was founded by John Paul II in 1993 as a laboratory of lived unity and a place of theological and artistic exchange between the Eastern and Western traditions. To live together, Pope Wojtyła noted, to know one another, to deepen common themes is a privileged way of journeying toward a profound communion between the Churches. This experience of communion and a shared vision of the Christian life have given birth to a remarkable flourishing of intellectual, pastoral, and artistic activities. This unique way of creating mosaics, for which the Centro Aletti has made a worldwide name for itself, began with the decoration in 1999 of Deposition of the Cross in the side baptismal chapel the Redemptoris Mater Chapel in the Vatican Apostolic Palace. The group has since executed mosaics in more than 140 churches and places of pilgrimage across the world, two of which are dedicated to St John Paul II: the Shrines of St John Paul II in Washington and in Krakow. In the American shrine, Karol Wojtyła is presented in a theological way. Instead of portraying him in a biographical or didactical way, the artists have chosen to represent his life using biblical scenes that allude to the Word having taken root in his life, showing how much his existence made the mystery of God transparent to others. The way of picturing his face is not so simple, as we read in the text prepared by the Centro Aletti to help the public understand the criteria used in planning and executing the work. Following closely what we know from the Gospels, the artists explain, in which we read that Christ, after his resurrection, was not recognizable by his individual traits, we induce that liturgical art should not strive to capture faces p h o t o g r a p h i c a l l y. However, this creates difficulties in representing contemporary saints whose facial features are very familiar to us from modern-day photography, unlike the saints of long ago. In fact, the iconographic tradition has tended to have the pictures of saints resemble not themselves, but Christ, or other saints. In this case, the high forehead and facial shape of Karol Wojtyła connect him to Gregory Nazianzen, the great theologian, poet, and pastor. In order to avoid painting idiosyncratic traits only, the artists made use of an artistic-liturgical language already known in the Church of the first millennium, when the symbolic representation of glory was found in the face of the person. The eyes are large to express a gaze that is absolutely personal: a space for encounter, in which communion is created. The elongated nose, highlighting the vertical dimension of the person, together with the small mouth, reducing the passionate aspect to a minimum, are to show the passage from the terrestrial to the celestial through a spiritual transfiguration. The cross is pictured in a simple and heart-wrenching way in the side baptismal chapel. In a position similar to that of one giving birth, Mary accepts Christ to allow him to rest once more in her lap, the The Chapel of the Liberation of the Polish Nation Adoration of the Magi in the side baptismal chapel place where the infant Jesus laid so often, but now he sleeps the sleep of death. Equally simple and effective is the meditation on evil represented in the mosaic as an exorcism of n a t u re (Mk 4:35-41 and 6:45-61). John Paul II has a profound theological vision of the stewardship of creation, denouncing the disastrous consequences of an egotistical predominance over the goods of the earth. In the interpretation offered by the apprentices of Father Rupnik, evil is like a whirlwind: in itself it is of no substance, but it becomes powerful when it material gets engulfed in its swirling vortex. In the chapel of the Liberation of the Polish Nation, on the other hand, the allegory of evil is created from scenes in the Book of Revelation. The central scene, the Centro Aletti artists explain, re p re s e n t s Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and Father Jerzy Popiełuszko in dèesis, an attitude of intercession, in front of the throne of the Apocalypse (with the book/word and the dove/spirit present). These indicate that true liberation will only occur at the èschaton in the heavenly Kingdom. Next to this we see another apocalyptic scene, the lake of fire and sulphur, into which the beast with seven heads and ten horns, the false prophet and the devil, is finally cast. In this dramatic Easter Passover, evil is conquered, just as the young men pass unharmed through the blazing furnace. But here, in place of the three young men, we see a Polish family enwrapped in their national flag. In place of the angel we see St John Paul II in his priestly garments, indicating defence through the Magisterium, the care of a pastor for his flock in liturgical prayer.