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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