"I offer my heartfelt thanks to each of you for your gracious
welcome, and, like Saint John Paul II in April 1993, I invoke upon Albania
the protection of Mary, Mother of Good Counsel, entrusting to her the hopes
of the entire Albanian people. May God abundantly pour out his grace and
blessing upon Albania".
 Following his address the Pope continued to Mother Teresa Square where he
celebrated Holy Mass.

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 The living Church in the Land of the Eagles: thank you for your fidelity
 Vatican City, 21 September 2014 (VIS) - Thousands of faithful participated
in the Holy Mass celebrated by Pope Francis in Latin and Albanian at 11
a.m. in Mother Teresa Square. The liturgical readings reflected aspects of
Albania's history. The first, from the Book of Exodus, told how "I
bore you on eagle's wings", whereas the epistle was St. Paul's letter
to the Romans in which the apostle tells how he preached in Illyria, which
at that time included the current territory of Albania.
 However, in his homily the Holy Father commented on the passage from the
Gospel of St. Luke, which includes the phrase "Peace be to this
house" and which narrates how Jesus, after naming the twelve apostles,
convokes another seventy-two disciples and sends them to proclaim the
Kingdom of God to peoples and cities.
 "He comes to bring the love of God to the world and he wishes to
share it by means of communion and fraternity", said Pope Francis.
"To this end he immediately forms a community of disciples, a
missionary community, and he trains them how to 'go out' on mission. The
method is both clear and simple: the disciples visit homes and their
preaching begins with a greeting which is charged with meaning: 'Peace be
to this house!'. It is not only a greeting, but also a gift: the gift of
peace. Being here with you today, dear brothers and sisters of Albania, in
this square dedicated to a humble and great daughter of this land, Blessed
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, I wish to repeat to you this greeting: May peace
be in your homes. May peace reign in your hearts. Peace in your country.
Peace".
 "In the mission of the seventy-two disciples we see a reflection of
the Christian community's missionary experience in every age: the risen and
living Lord sends not only the Twelve, but the entire Church; he sends each
of the baptised to announce the Gospel to all peoples. Through the ages,
the message of peace brought by Jesus' messengers has not always been
accepted; at times, the doors have been closed to them. In the recent past,
the doors of your country were also closed, locked by the chains of
prohibitions and prescriptions of a system which denied God and impeded
religious freedom. Those who were afraid of the truth did everything they
could to banish God from the hearts of men and women and to exclude Christ
and the Church from the history of your country, even though it was one of
the first to receive the light of the Gospel".
 Pope Francis went on to recall the "decades of atrocious suffering
and harsh persecutions against Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims",
affirming that "Albania was a land of martyrs: many bishops, priests,
men and women religious, lay faithful, and ministers of worship of other
religions paid for their fidelity with their lives. Demonstrations of great
courage and constancy in the profession of the faith are not lacking. How
many Christians did not succumb when threatened, but persevered without
wavering on the path they had undertaken! I stand spiritually at that wall
of the cemetery of Scutari, a symbolic place of the martyrdom of Catholics
before the firing squads, and with profound emotion I place the flower of
my prayer and of my grateful and undying remembrance. The Lord was close to
you, dear brothers and sisters, to sustain you; he led you and consoled you
and in the end he has raised you up on eagle's wings as he did for the
ancient people of Israel. The eagle, depicted on your nation's flag, calls
to mind hope, and the need to always place your trust in God, who does not
lead us astray and who is ever at our side, especially in moments of
difficulty.
 "The doors of Albania have now been reopened and a season of new
missionary vitality is growing for all of the members of the people of God:
each baptised person has his or her role to fulfil in the Church and in
society. Each one must experience the call to dedicate themselves
generously to the announcing of the Gospel and to the witness of charity;
called to strengthen the bonds of solidarity so as to create more just and
fraternal living conditions for all".
 Today, the Pontiff exclaimed, "I have come to give thanks to you for
your witness and to encourage you to cultivate hope among yourselves and
within your hearts. Do not forget the eagle. The eagle does not forget the
nest, but flies high. It flies high! I have come to encourage you to
involve the young generations; to nourish yourselves assiduously on the
Word of God, opening your hearts to Christ: to the Gospel, to the encounter
with God and the encounter among you, which is already taking place.
Through this encounter of yours, you offer an example to all Europe".
 "To the living Church in this land of Albania, I say 'thank you' for
your example of fidelity", he concluded. "Do not forget the nest,
your distant history; do not forget the wounds inflicted, but do not seek
to avenge them. Go ahead, working with hope for a great future. So many of
your sons and daughters have suffered for Christ, even to the point of
sacrificing their lives. May their witness sustain your steps today and
tomorrow as you journey along the path of love, the path of freedom, and
above all, the path of justice and of peace".

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 To the young: yes to acceptance and solidarity
 Vatican City, 21 September 2014 (VIS) - Before the end of this Sunday's
liturgy, Francis greeted those present from Albania and other neighbouring
countries to thank them for their presence and for their witness of faith,
and addressed the young in particular. "They say that Albania is the
youngest country in Europe", he commented, smiling, and invited them
to "confirm [their] existence in Jesus Christ".
 "He who builds on Christ builds on rock, because He is always
faithful, even if we sometimes lack faith", continued the Holy Father.
"Jesus knows us better than anyone else; when we sin, He does not
condemn us but rather says to us, 'Go and sin no more'. Dear young people,
you are the new generation of Albania, the future of your homeland. With
the power of the Gospel and the example of your antecedents and the
martyrs, know how to say 'No' to the idolatry of money, 'No' to the false
freedom of individualism, 'No' to addiction and to violence; say 'Yes' to a
culture of encounter and of solidarity, 'Yes' to the beauty that is
inseparable from the good and the true; 'Yes' to a life lived with great
enthusiasm and at the same time faithful in little things. In this way, you
will build a better Albania and a better world".
 Before the Angelus prayer, the Pope invoked the Virgin Mary, venerated in
Albania above all as "Our Lady of Good Counsel". "I stand
before her, spiritually, at her Shrine in Scutari, so dear to you, and to
her I entrust the entire Church in Albania and all the people of this
country, especially families, children and the elderly, who are the living
memory of the people. May Our Lady guide you to walk together with God
towards the hope that never disappoints".

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