(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis greeted a group of pilgrims from the Diocese of Brescia,
who had just celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark the 50th anniversary
of the election of Pope Paul VI, who was from the area.
In his address, Pope
Francis spoke of his predecessor’s love for Christ, love for the Church, and love
for mankind.
Pope Francis began his tribute to Paul VI by recalling his witness,
“in difficult years”, to faith in Jesus Christ. He said this “deep love” was not
possessive, but compelled him to announce it, recalling his words in Manila during
his apostolic journey to the Philippines: “Convinced of Christ: yes, I feel the need
to proclaim him, I cannot keep silent,” Pope Paul VI had said. “He reveals the invisible
God, he is the firstborn of all creation, the foundation of everything created. He
is the Teacher of mankind, and its Redeemer... He is the centre of history and of
the world; he is the one who knows us and who loves us; he is the companion and the
friend of our life. He is the man of sorrows and of hope. It is he who will come and
who one day will be our judge and - we hope -the everlasting fullness of our existence,
our happiness.”
“Dear friends,” asked Pope Francis. “Do we have the same love
for Christ? Is He the center of our lives? Do we witness this in our everyday actions?”
Turning
to Pope Paul VI’s love of the Church, Pope Francis said his predecessor had a “clear
vision that the Church is a Mother who carries Christ and leads to Christ.”
He
quoted the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi:
“After the Council and
thanks to the Council, which was a time given her by God, at this turning-point of
history, does the Church or does she not find herself better equipped to proclaim
the Gospel and to put it into people's hearts with conviction, freedom of spirit and
effectiveness?... Is she firmly established in the midst of the world and yet free
and independent enough to call for the world's attention? Does she testify to solidarity
with people and at the same time to the divine Absolute? Is she more ardent in contemplation
and adoration and more zealous in missionary, charitable and liberating action? Is
she ever more committed to the effort to search for the restoration of the complete
unity of Christians, a unity that makes more effective the common witness?”
Pope
Francis said these questions are also the ones which confront today’s Church.
“All
of us, we are all responsible for the answers; and we should ask ourselves: Are we
really a Church united to Christ, prepared to go out and announce Him to everyone,
even, and especially, in what I call the ‘existential suburbs,’ or do we close in
on ourselves, in our groups?” Pope Francis asked.
Finally, looking at Pope
Paul VI’s love of mankind, Pope Francis said this is also linked with Christ.
“It
is the same passion of God that compels us to meet the man, to respect him, to recognize
him, to serve him,” Pope Francis said.
He then quoted extensively from his
predecessor’s address at the close of the Second Vatican Council:
“Secular
humanism, revealing itself in its horrible anti-clerical reality has, in a certain
sense, defied the council. The religion of the God who became man has met the religion
(for such it is) of man who makes himself God. And what happened? Was there a clash,
a battle, a condemnation? There could have been, but there was none. The old story
of the Samaritan has been the model of the spirituality of the council. A feeling
of boundless sympathy has permeated the whole of it. The attention of our council
has been absorbed by the discovery of human needs … But we call upon those who term
themselves modern humanists, and who have renounced the transcendent value of the
highest realities, to give the council credit at least for one quality and to recognize
our own new type of humanism: we, too, in fact, we more than any others, honor mankind.”
Pope
Francis concluded his address by saying the testimony of Paul VI “feeds us the flame
of love for Christ, love for the Church, and gives us the momentum to announce the
Gospel to the people of today, with mercy, patience, courage, and joy.”