2017-08-20 14:30:00

Pope Francis sends message to Rimini meeting of friendship among peoples


(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis on Sunday sent a message to the annual “Rimini Meeting for friendship among peoples”, inviting them to be aware of the need for God”.

Listen to Devin Watkins’ report:

In a message signed by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, Pope Francis greeted the participants in the Rimini Meeting and told them not to be “taken aback by difficulties and suffering”.

The theme of this year’s event, taking place in the Italian city of Rimini, is taken from the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “What you inherit from your father must first be earned before it's yours.”

Pope Francis said this “is the task to which Mother Church calls each generation.”

“We are not allowed either to watch reality from the balcony, nor to sit comfortably on the couch to watch the world pass by on TV. Only by earning the truth, beauty, and goodness given us by our parents can we live the epochal changes in which we are immersed as an opportunity and as an occasion to communicate convincingly with others the joy of the Gospel,” he said.

The Pope invited the organizers of the Rimini meeting “to open their eyes in order to be aware of the many signs – more or less explicit – of the need for God”.

In this way, he said, would they be able “to offer others a living response to the great questions of the human heart.”

Finally, Pope Francis called them “reliable witnesses of that hope which does not disappoint.”








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