"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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