General audience, 3 April: women - wìtnesses of Resurrection

03 April, 2013 - Pope Francis who was elected the head of the Catholic Church on March 13, held his second general audience on Wednesday this week, after his first on 27 March. General audiences are public meetings where pilgrims and visitors have a chance of seeing and hearing the Pope speak, and also receive his blessing. The general audience of April 3, held in the open in St. Peter’s Square, began with aides reading a passage from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians in several languages.
Pope Francis delivered his main discourse in Italian. Various aides then presented the language groups present at the audience, and greeted the Pope on their behalf. The aides then read a summary of the Pope’s catechesis in various languages. Here is the summary of the Pope’s catechesis in English:

Listen:
Taking up the series of Catecheses on the Creed, we now turn to the article: “He rose again on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures”. Our belief in Christ’s Resurrection is the very heart of our faith, the basis of our hope in God’s promises and our trust in his victory over sin and death. The first witnesses of the Resurrection were women: moved by love to go to the tomb, they accept with joy the message of the Resurrection and then tell the good news to the Apostles. So it must be with us; we need to share the joy born of our faith in the Resurrection! In Church’s history, women have had a special role in opening doors to faith in Christ, for faith is always a response to love. With the eyes of faith, we too encounter the risen Lord in the many signs of his presence: the Scriptures, the Eucharist and the other sacraments, and the acts of charity, goodness, forgiveness and mercy which bring a ray of his Resurrection into our world. May our faith in the risen Christ enable us to be living signs in our world of the triumph of life and hope over evil, sin and death.