VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 166
DATE 29-09-2014

Summary:
- Audience with the president of Malta: commitment of Church and state in
the phenomenon of migration
- To the members of the United Bible Societies: "Ignorance of
Scripture is ignorance of Christ"
- The young and the elderly: without balance between generations, the
freedom of society becomes authoritarianism
- Francis praises the example of Blessed Alvaro del Portillo and asks for
prayers for the upcoming Synod
- The Pope presides at liturgy commemorating the 200th anniversary of the
reconstitution of the Society of Jesus
- The Pope's message for the beatification of the Opus Dei prelate Alvaro
del Portillo: in the simplicity of everyday life we can find the way to
holiness
- Francis: the encounter with Jesus in the Eucharist is a source of hope
for the world
- Communicating the family: a privileged place of encounter with the gift of love
- Audiences
- Other Pontifical Acts

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 Audience with the president of Malta: commitment of Church and state in
the phenomenon of migration
 Vatican City, 29 September 2014 (VIS) - Today, in the Vatican Apostolic
Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the president of
Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, who subsequently met with Archbishop
Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.
 The cordial discussions focused on the good relations between the Holy See
and Malta and highlighted the significant contribution made by the Catholic
Church in the fields of education and welfare, especially in favour of the
poor. The conversation then turned to various themes of mutual interest,
with special reference to the role of Christian values in the edification
of Maltese society and the strengthening of the institution of the family.
 Finally, the Parties discussed Malta's contribution within the European
Union, along with a number of questions of an international nature, such as
the situations of conflict in the Mediterranean region, expressing hope for
a prompt solution via dialogue, as well as the phenomenon of migration
towards Europe, which involves commitment on the part of the Church and the
Government.

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 To the members of the United Bible Societies: "Ignorance of Scripture
is ignorance of Christ"
 Vatican City, 29 September 2014 (VIS) - "Yours is the fruit of a
patient, careful, fraternal, competent and, above all, faithful work. If
you do not believe, you do not understand; if you do not believe, you
cannot stand firm", said the Holy Father to the members of the United
Bible Societies, whom he received this morning in the Consistory Hall for
the presentation of the Italian language Bible, "Parola del Signore -
La Bibbia Interconfessionale in lingua corrente" ("The Word of
the Lord - The Interconfessional Bible in current language"). "I
hope that this text, which is presented with the blessing of the Italian
Episcopal Conference and the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy,
will encourage all Italian-speaking Christians to meditate on, life, bear
witness to and celebrate God's message".
 "I would very much like all Christians to be able to learn 'the
sublime science of Jesus Christ' through frequent reading of the Word of
God, as the sacred text offers nourishment for the soul and is the pure and
perennial source of the spiritual life of us all", he added. "We
must make every effort so that each believer may read God's Word, because
as Saint Jerome says, 'ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of
Christ'". The Pope offered his heartfelt thanks to those present for
their valuable work, encouraging them to "continue on the journey you
have undertaken, so as to allow for the better and deeper comprehension of
the Word of the living God".

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 The young and the elderly: without balance between generations, the
freedom of society becomes authoritarianism
 Vatican City, 28 September 2014 (VIS) - Today in St. Peter's Square a
meeting was held to celebrate old age, organised by the Pontifical Council
for the Family, entitled "The blessing of long life". The
meeting, which brought together thousands of elderly and grandparents
accompanied by their relatives from all over the world, began at 8.30 a.m.
with a "tour of old age through five Biblical episodes". An hour
later, the Holy Father arrived in the Square to join the elderly, with whom
he had spoken before Mass at 10.30 a.m. The Pope emeritus Benedict XVI was
personally invited by Pope Francis and participated in the meeting.
 The Pope explained that the first reading "echoes in various ways the
Fourth Commandment: 'Honour your father and your mother, so that your days
may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you'. A people has
no future without such an encounter between generations, without children
being able to accept with gratitude the witness of life from the hands of
their parents. And part of this gratitude for those who gave you life is
also gratitude for our heavenly Father. There are times when generations of
young people, for complex historical and cultural reasons, feel a deeper
need to be independent from their parents, 'breaking free', as it were,
from the legacy of the older generation. It is a kind of adolescent
rebellion. But unless the encounter, the meeting of generations, is
re-established, unless a new and fruitful intergenerational equilibrium is
restored, what results is a serious impoverishment for all, and the freedom
which prevails in society is actually a false freedom, which almost always
becomes a form of authoritarianism".
 Francis emphasised that "Jesus did not abolish the law of the family
and the passing of generations, but brought it to fulfilment. The Lord
formed a new family, in which bonds of kinship are less important than our
relationship with him and our doing the will of God the Father. Yet the
love of Jesus and the Father completes and fulfils our love of parents,
brothers and sisters, and grandparents; it renews family relationships with
the lymph of the Gospel and of the Holy Spirit". He remarked that
Mary, when she visited her relatives Elizabeth and Zechariah, "was
able to listen to those elderly and amazed parents; she treasured their
wisdom, and it proved precious for her in her journey as a woman, as a wife
and as a mother", and added, "the Virgin Mary likewise shows us
the way: the way of encounter between the young and the elderly. The future
of a people necessarily supposes this encounter: the young give the
strength which enable a people to move forward, while the elderly
consolidate this strength by their memory and their traditional
wisdom".

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 Francis praises the example of Blessed Alvaro del Portillo and asks for
prayers for the upcoming Synod
 Vatican City, 28 September 2014 (VIS) - At the end of today's Holy Mass,
the Pope prayed the Angelus with the faithful present in St. Peter's
Square, after greeting elderly pilgrims from various countries, the
participants in the congress-pilgrimage "Singing faith",
organised to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the choir of the
diocese of Roma, and after mentioning the beatification of Bishop Alvaro
del Portillo, celebrated in Madrid, Spain on Saturday. "May his
exemplary Christian and priestly witness awaken in many people the wish to
join with Jesus and the Gospel". Pope Francis went on to remind those
present that the Assembly of the Synod on the Family begins next Sunday,
and encouraged all the faithful to pray for this important event, that he
entrusts to the intercession of Mary "Salus Populi Romani".

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 The Pope presides at liturgy commemorating the 200th anniversary of the
reconstitution of the Society of Jesus
 Vatican City, 28 September 2014 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, in the
Basilica of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, the Pope presided at a liturgy of
thanksgiving to mark the 200th anniversary of the reconstitution of the
Society of Jesus in the universal Church, sanctioned by Pope Pius VII with
the Bull "Sollicitudo Omnium ecclesiarum" of 7 August 1814.
During the liturgy, which included the Vespers prayer and the Te Deum,
following the Gospel reading and before the renewal of vows by some of the
Jesuits present, the Holy Father gave a homily, extensive extracts of which
are published below:
 "The Society under the name of Jesus has lived difficult times of
persecution. During the leadership of Fr. Lorenzo Ricci, 'enemies of the
Church succeeded in obtaining the suppression of the Society' by my
predecessor Clement XIV. Today, remembering its restoration, we are called
to recover our memory, calling to mind the benefits received and the
particular gifts. Today, I want to do that here with you.
 "In times of trial and tribulation, dust clouds of doubt and
suffering are always raised and it is not easy to move forward, to continue
the journey. Many temptations come, especially in difficult times and in
crises: to stop to discuss ideas, to allow oneself to be carried away by
the desolation, to focus on the fact of being persecuted, and not to see
the other. Reading the letters of Fr. Ricci, one thing struck me: his
ability to avoid being harnessed by these temptations and to propose to the
Jesuits, in a time of trouble, a vision of the things that rooted them even
more in the spirituality of the Society".
 "The Society ... lived the conflict to the end, without minimising
it. It lived humiliation along with the humiliated Christ; it obeyed. You
never save yourself from conflict with cunning and with strategies of
resistance. In the confusion and humiliation, the Society preferred to live
the discernment of God's will, without seeking a way out of the conflict in
a seemingly quiet manner. It is never apparent tranquillity that satisfies
our hearts, but true peace that is a gift from God. One should never seek
the easy 'compromise'. ... Only discernment saves us from real uprooting,
from true 'suppression' of the heart, which is selfishness, worldliness,
the loss of our horizon. Our hope, is Jesus; it is only Jesus. Thus Fr.
Ricci and the Society during the suppression privileged history rather than
a grey 'little tale', knowing that love judges history and that hope - even
in darkness - is greater than our expectations. ... We can review briefly
this process of discernment and service. When in 1759, the decrees of
Pombal destroyed the Portuguese provinces of the Society, Fr. Ricci lived
the conflict, not complaining and letting himself fall into desolation, but
inviting prayers to ask for the good spirit, the true supernatural spirit
of vocation, the perfect docility to God's grace. When in 1761, the storm
advanced in France ... he asked that all trust be placed in God. ... In
1760, after the expulsion of the Spanish Jesuits, he continued to call for
prayer. And finally, on February 21, 1773, just six months before the
signing of the Brief Dominus ac Redemptor, with the utter lack of human
help, he sees the hand of God's mercy, which invites those, who submit to
the test, not to confide in anyone but God. ... The important thing for Fr.
Ricci that the Society, until the last, is true to the spirit of its
vocation, which is for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls.
 "The Society, even faced with its own demise, remained true to the
purpose for which it was founded. To this, Ricci concludes with an
exhortation to keep alive the spirit of charity, unity, obedience,
patience, evangelical simplicity, true friendship with God. Everything else
is worldliness.

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