Today we celebrate the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, which this year has as its theme "Towards an ever wider we". It is necessary to walk together, without prejudice and without fear, placing ourselves next to those who are most vulnerable: migrants, refugees, displaced persons, victims of trafficking and abandoned. We are called to build an increasingly inclusive world, which excludes no one.

I join all those in the various parts of the world who are celebrating this Day; I greet the faithful gathered in Loreto for the initiative of the Italian Episcopal Conference in favour of migrants and refugees. I greet and thank the various ethnic communities present here in the square with their flags; I greet the representatives of the "APRI" project of The Italian Caritas; as well as the Migrants Office of the Diocese of Rome and the Astalli Center. Thank you all for your generous commitment!

And before leaving the square, I invite you to approach that monument there – where Cardinal Czerny is there – the boat with migrants, and to pause on the gaze of those people and to grasp in that gaze the hope that every migrant has today to start living again. Go there, see that monument. Let us not close the doors to their hope.

I express my closeness and solidarity to those who have been affected by the eruption of the volcano on La Palma Island, in the Canary Islands. I am thinking especially of those who have been forced to leave their homes. For these people so tried and for the rescuers we pray to Our Lady, venerated on that island as Nuestra Señora de las Nieves.

Today, in Bologna, Don Giovanni Fornasini, priest and martyr, will be beatified. A zealous parish priest in charity, he did not abandon the flock in the tragic period of the Second World War, but defended it to the point of shedding blood. May his heroic witness help us to face with strength the trials of life. A round of applause for the new Blessed!

I wish you all a good Sunday. And please, please do not forget to pray for me. Have a nice lunch and arrivederci!

26.09.21

Pope Francis Message for the 107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2021

Excerpt below, for the full transcript click on the picture link above

TOWARDS AN EVER WIDER “WE”

In the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, I expressed a concern and a hope that remain uppermost in my thoughts: “Once this health crisis passes, our worst response would be to plunge even more deeply into feverish consumerism and new forms of egotistic self-preservation. God willing, after all this, we will think no longer in terms of ‘them’ and ‘those’, but only ‘us’” (No. 35).

For this reason, I have wished to devote the Message for this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees to the theme, Towards An Ever Wider “We”, in order to indicate a clear horizon for our common journey in this world.

03.05.21 and 26.09.21

Pope Francis – September 2021

An Environmentally Sustainable Lifestyle

Pope Francis Holy Mass 23.09.21

with the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Europe

Excerpt below, for the full transcript click on the picture link above

Today, in Europe, we Christians can be tempted to remain comfortably ensconced in our structures, our homes and our churches, in the security provided by our traditions, content with a certain degree of consensus, while all around us churches are emptying and Jesus is increasingly forgotten.

Consider how many people no longer hunger and thirst for God! Not because they are evil, but because there is no one to awaken in them a hunger for faith and to satisfy that thirst in the human heart, which the dictatorship of consumerism gently but insistently tries to suppress. So many people are induced to feel only material needs, and not a need for God. Do we feel concern and compassion for those who have not had the joy of encountering Jesus or who have lost that joy? Are we comfortable because deep down our lives go on as usual, or are we troubled.

Lack of charity causes unhappiness, because love alone satisfies the human heart.

This can also be our own problem: concentrating on various positions in the Church, on discussions, agendas and strategies. The solution to problems and self-absorption is always that of gratuitous gift.

For the Church, the house of God. To make her beautiful and welcoming, we need, together, to look to the future, not to restore the past. We need to rebuild from her foundations the Church of every time and place, from worship of God and love of neighbour.

The Lord is calling us to a splendid work, the work of making his house ever more welcoming, so that everyone can enter and dwell there, so that the Church can have doors open to all and that no one will be tempted to think only of guarding the doors and changing the locks.

So many people in Europe see the faith as déja vu, a relic of the past.

Why? Because they have not seen Jesus at work in their own lives. Often this is because we, by our lives, have not sufficiently shown him to them. God makes himself seen in the faces and actions of men and women transformed by his presence. . Jesus does not ask us to make arguments for God, he asks us to show him, in the same way the saints did, not by words but by our lives. He calls us to prayer and poverty, creativity and gratuity. Let us help today’s Europe to rediscover the ever youthful face of Jesus.

23.09.21 e

Season of Creation 2021

1 September - 4 October

Care for Our Common Home - Laudato Si'

Pope Francis - Christ is Alive!

How do we receive the Word of God? The response is clear: As one receives Jesus Christ. The Church tells us that Jesus is present in the Scripture, in His Word.

Always carry a small Gospel with you in your purse, in your pocket, and read a passage from the Gospel during the day. Not so much to learn something, but mostly to find Jesus, because Jesus actually is in His Word, in His Gospel. Every time I read the Gospel, I find Jesus. - Pope Francis 01.09.14

Daily Readings - read the entire New Testament over a 2 year period (reading plan courtesy of Gideon International)

The Bible Online

Pope Francis Angelus 19.09.21

There is more joy in giving than in receiving

Excerpt below, for the full transcript click on the picture link above

The Gospel of today’s Liturgy (Mk 9:30-37) narrates that, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus’ disciples were discussing “with one another who was the greatest” (v. 34). So, Jesus directed harsh words toward them that are still valid today: “If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (v. 35). If you want to be first, you need to get in line, be last, and serve everyone. Through this shocking phrase, the Lord inaugurates a reversal: he overturns the criteria about what truly matters. The value of a person does not depend any more on the role they have, the work they do, the money they have in the bank. No, no, no, it does not depend on this. Greatness and success in God’s eyes are measured differently: they are measured by service. Not on what someone has, but on what someone gives. Do you want to be first? Serve. This is the way.

Today, the word “service” appears a bit hackneyed, worn out by use. But it has a precise and concrete meaning in the Gospel. To serve is not a courteous expression: it means to act like Jesus, who, summing up his life in a few words, said he had come “not to be served, but to serve” (Mk 10:45). This is what the Lord said. Therefore, if we want to follow Jesus, we must follow the path he himself traced out, the path of service. Our fidelity to the Lord depends on our willingness to serve. And we know this often costs, because “it tastes like a cross”. But, as our care and availability toward others grows, we become freer inside, more like Jesus. The more we serve, the more we are aware of God’s presence. Above all, when we serve those who cannot give anything in return, the poor, embracing their difficulties and needs with tender compassion: and we in turn discover God’s love and embrace there.

After having spoken of the primacy of service, Jesus does something precisely to illustrate this. We have seen that Jesus’ actions are stronger than the words he uses. And what is that action? He takes a child and puts him in the midst of the disciples, at the center, in the most important place (cf. v. 36). In the Gospel, the child does not symbolize innocence so much as littleness. For like children, the little ones depend on others, on adults, they need to receive. Jesus embraces those children and says that those who welcome a little one, a child, welcome him (cf. v. 37). The ones who are to be served above all are: those in need of receiving who cannot give anything in return. In welcoming those on the margins, the neglected, we welcome Jesus because He is there. And in the little one, in the poor person we serve, we also receive God’s tender embrace.

Dear brothers and sisters, challenged by the Gospel, let us ask ourselves: Am I, who follow Jesus, interested in the one who is neglected? Or am I rather seeking personal gratification, like the disciples that day? Do I understand life in terms of competing to make room for myself at others’ expense, or do I believe that being first means serving? And, concretely: do I dedicate time to a “little one”, to a person who has no means to pay me back? Am I concerned about someone who cannot give me anything in return, or only with my relatives and friends? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves.

May the Virgin Mary, the humble servant of the Lord, help us understand that to serve does not belittle us, but helps us grow. And that there is more joy in giving than in receiving (cf. Acts 20:35).

19.09.21 e

Pope Francis Holy Mass and Angelus 12.09.21 Heroes' Square in Budapest