Reaffirm for all the need to take part in Sunday
EucharistOn Friday, 30 January, in his Private
Library at the Vatican, the Holy Father spoke to the fifth group of French
Bishops making their ad limina visit to Rome. They came from the
Ecclesiastical Provinces of Dijon and Tours and the Prelature of the
Mission of France. The following is a translation of the Pope's Address,
which was given in French.
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
1. At the end of your ad limina visit, a time of grace in your
episcopal ministry, I joyfully welcome you who are in charge of the
pastoral care of the Catholic Church in the Ecclesiastical Provinces of
Dijon and Tours and the Prelature of the Mission of France. I am
affectionately thinking of Archbishop Michel Coloni of Dijon, who is
unable to be here this morning. By coming on pilgrimage to the tombs of
the Apostles Peter and Paul you develop within you the apostolic
enthusiasm that inspired them. Meeting the Bishop of Rome and his
collaborators enables you to experience communion with the Successor of
Peter, and through him with the universal Church. Sustained by the prayer
of the saints who left their mark on the history and spirituality of your
regions, especially St Martin and Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, may
you find the strength to guide the People of God entrusted to you on the
paths of holiness and brotherhood with ever greater pastoral wisdom! I
thank Archbishop Andre Vingt-Trois of Tours for his cordial greetings and
for sharing your hopes and concerns with me. May the new relations between
Dioceses created on the occasion of the sub-division of the Ecclesiastical
Provinces contribute to developing your bonds of unity so that together
you may face the challenges of the new evangelization!
Hope despite dwindling numbers
2. Your quinquennial reports reveal your attention to the vocation and
mission of lay people in the current circumstances of the Church. Many
lay persons serve the Church generously, despite their ever shrinking
numbers. Christian communities are gradually aging: the age group
between 25 and 45 is barely represented in the communities; the difficulty
in assuring the replacement of dependable Christians to exercise
responsibility in the Church is already very real. Yet you note some
signs of hope. These include the demand for lay people eager to
acquire a sound philosophical, theological, spiritual or pastoral training
to serve the Church and the world better; the search for ever greater
consistency between the faith and its expression in daily life; the
concern for a Christian witness that is rooted in an authentic spiritual
life; the recovery of the desire for studying Scripture and meditating on
the Word; the growing sense of responsibility and commitment to justice
and solidarity in order to meet new perplexing situations. I ask all
Pastors to base any new initiatives on the aspirations of the People of
God, even if at the start they involve only a few persons, in the
certainty that the faithful who have rediscovered Christ will present the
Gospel in a credible way to our contemporaries, inviting them to join them
as the Apostle Philip invited Nathaniel: "Come and see" (Jn 1:46).
You mention the fruits that the Great Jubilee of the Incarnation has
borne in the Dioceses and parish communities, calling Christians to
draw on the grace of their Baptism, the starting point of every believer's
mission. "We need to 'set out anew from Christ', with the zeal of
Pentecost, with renewed enthusiasm. To set out from him above all in a
daily commitment to holiness, with an attitude of prayer and of listening
to his Word. To set out from him in order to testify to his Love by living
a Christian life marked by communion, charity and witness before the
world" (Homily, 6 January 2001, n. 8; L'Osservatore Romano
English edition [ORE], 10 January 2001, p. 2). It is your task to
implement this programme fully so that the Christian community may put out
into the deep, allowing itself to be evangelized and questioning the
quality and visibility of its witness.
Laity need good spiritual support
3. To adapt pastoral structures to the needs of the mission, your
Dioceses have been effectually remodelled. The perspective of the
ecclesiology of communion, whose purpose is to build up the Church as a
house and school of communion, has partly dictated your pastoral plans.
The fall in the number of priests is not the only reason for the pastoral
"re-dimensioning" that has proven necessary. In carrying it out, you have
taken account of the reduced numbers in the communities. This has had a
positive effect: it has enabled lay people to take an active part in the
dynamics of their community and to become aware of the prophetic, royal
and priestly dimensions of their Baptism. Many have willingly agreed to
engage in parish life under the leadership of their Pastor and with
respect for the ordained ministry, and they have put themselves at the
service of evangelization as well as prayer and charity. I know of the
apostolic courage that motivates them, and that they must come to grips
with the pervading atmosphere of indifference and scepticism. Give them
the affectionate greetings of the Successor of Peter who accompanies them
in his daily prayers.
Take care to see that a fruitful interaction links their commitments
as lay people in Christian communities to the prophetic dimension of their
witness in the world, recalling that they have an important
responsibility "for evangelizing culture, making the power of the Gospel
part of the life of the family, the workplace, the mass media, sports and
leisure, and for promoting Christian values in society and pubic life,
both national and international" (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Pastores Gregis, n. 51). If this witness is to be productive, it is
important that it meet with spiritual support in the parishes and
associations of the faithful. May everyone, therefore, in the legitimate
diversity of ecclesial sensibilities, be constantly concerned to play a
full part in the life of the Diocese and parish and to live in communion
with the diocesan Bishop. In this way
— and
it is the Bishop's task to see to it
— it
will be possible to achieve communion around the Successors of the
Apostles. Please convey my fervent greetings to all the committed lay
faithful working in movements and who serve the Church, and especially to
those who work in the contexts of solidarity and the promotion of justice.
Their presence in society's wounded areas is a sign of the Church's
closeness and involvement with people who are sick, marginalized, lonely
or in a precarious situation. By coordinating their activities better and
better, they will ceaselessly remind Christian communities of their common
need for a continuous active presence beside every suffering person (cf.
Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Christifideles Laici, n. 53).
Participation in Sunday Eucharist
4. I give thanks with you for the young people and adults who are
discovering or rediscovering Christ and who knock at the Church's door
because they are asking themselves about faith and about the meaning of
their life or have encountered witnesses. Take great care to accompany
these people and help them on their way. You should also take pains to
accustom Christian communities to accepting catechumens or those who have
regained their faith, and support them after their Baptism. They are a
stimulating invitation to the Church, whose traditions, experience and
practices they must assimilate. Through you, I thank the teams of
catechists for their important service. This catechumenal zeal and
likewise the requests presented by people on the occasion of an important
milestone in their family life
— a
baptism, a marriage or a funeral
—
call Christian communities to develop a suitable pastoral programme for
Christian initiation. The quality of acceptance and brotherhood to be
found in the Church is an evangelizing potential for today's men and
women. In this spirit, it is important that parish groups do not cloud the
Church's visibility in small towns, those basic social units, especially
in rural areas. They should offer people the possibility of joyful
celebrations of the Eucharist that edify the community and provide the
apostolic enthusiasm that it needs.
It is evident in the communities that even for committed Christians,
Sunday Mass is not given sufficient importance. Pastors, therefore,
should make a point of forcefully and clearly reminding the faithful,
especially those responsible for catechesis, youth service or
chaplaincies, of the meaning of the Sunday obligation and the need to
take part in the Sunday Eucharist, which can never be a mere option
amid many others. Indeed, to truly follow Christ, to evangelize, to serve
the Lord, it is right to lead a consistent and responsible life in
conformity with the precepts of the Church and to be convinced of the
crucial importance of participating in the Eucharistic banquet with the
whole community (cf. Apostolic Letter Dies Domini, nn. 46-49).
Youth need daily Christian witness
5. Your quinquennial reports show your concern to present to lay people
the means to acquiring an ever deeper spiritual and theological
formation, especially by setting up theological and spiritual
formation centres in several Dioceses or the region. These places help
them to deepen their faith and acquire a pastoral training that will equip
them to assume responsibility in the Church. This formation must likewise
lead the faithful to a more intense sacramental practice and prayer life.
In the religious context, the modern world and scientific breakthroughs
require that Pastors and faithful receive a formation which enables them
to account for the Christian mystery and the life that Christ proposes to
those who want to follow him. With a view to integrating the teaching they
receive, it is important to ensure that the intellectual preparation leads
each one to a personal relationship with Christ.
From this point of view, it would be correct to give permanent
formation to philosophers and theologians who can offer Christians the
intellectual foundations they need for their faith and their specific
mission as committed lay people in the world. The Church also educates
many young people, respecting their cultures and religious denominations,
with the intention of providing high-quality teaching as she has the noble
task of passing on the human, moral and spiritual values of the Gospel. I
acknowledge the work carried out by individuals and educational
communities deeply involved in the school and university context:
teaching, catechesis or chaplaincies. Never let them forget that the most
important witness for young people is a life lived daily in conformity
with the Christian principles that they desire to communicate. It is up to
Pastors to recall constantly this criterion of consistency.
Fostering the family for society
6. The concern to promote and guide families is at the heart of
your concerns as Pastors. The family is not one model of a relationship
among others, but a type of relationship indispensable to the future of
society. In fact, a society cannot be healthy if it does not foster the
family ideal in order to build stable conjugal and family relationships
and for a proper relationship between the generations. How should families
be helped? Your Dioceses are always ready to offer the practical means to
further their growth, enabling them to bear a credible witness in the
Church and in society. As some of your reports suggest, you are especially
eager to offer guidance to newly-weds, enabling them to acquire the human
and spiritual maturity they need for the harmonious development of their
family. I am also thinking of the new generations of young people whom the
Church has difficulty in reaching and who come to ask the Church to
prepare them for marriage. I encourage the priests, deacons and
faithful involved in this fine task to help them discover the profound
meaning of this sacrament, as well as the tasks to which it commits them.
In this way, they will present a positive view of emotional
relationships and sexuality that will contribute to the growth of the
couple and the family. As I previously asked at Sainte-Anne-d'Auray during
my Pastoral Visit to France, I ask you once again to support families in
their vocation to express the beauty of parenthood and nurture the culture
of life (cf. Address at Meeting with Families, 20 September 1996,
n. 7; ORE, 2 October 1996, p. 4).
I also recognize the important work carried out under your
supervision by the services and movements for the family apostolate.
The initiatives they promote are indispensable in helping young families
to grow in human and spiritual vitality in their homes, as well as being a
practical response to the phenomenon of the break-up of families. One
cannot helplessly watch the family institution disintegrate. In this
context, the Church wishes to bring about a real change of mindset and
behaviour, so that the positive values linked to married and family life
may prevail and relationships may not be seen merely from the perspective
of individualism and personal pleasure which distorts the deep meaning of
human life that is primarily altruism and the gift of self. The commitment
to marriage entails a certain number of tasks and responsibilities. These
include maintaining and deepening the conjugal bond and caring for the
children. In this spirit, it is right to offer help to parents who are the
first educators of their children. Thus, they will be able, on the one
hand, to deal with and solve marital crises that they may experience, and
on the other, to bear witness to the young of the greatness of faithful,
unique love and of the elements of a human, emotional and sexual
education, challenged by the frequently destructive messages of
contemporary society that give the impression that all forms of emotional
conduct are acceptable, denying to human acts any moral qualification.
Such an attitude is particularly harmful for young people since it
involves them, at times in imprudent ways, in erroneous forms of behaviour.
As we often see, these leave deep scars on their psyche, mortgaging their
future outlook and commitments.
A fine example for today's laity
7. Dear Brothers in the Episcopate, at the end of our meeting I would
like to recall the wonderful figure of Madeleine Delbrêl,
the centenary of whose birth we are celebrating. She took part in the
missionary adventure of the Church in France during the 20th century, in
particular in the foundation of the Mission of France and its seminary at
Lisieux. May her shining witness help all the faithful, united with their
Pastors, to put down roots in ordinary life and in the different cultures
and to make the newness and power of the Gospel penetrate them through a
life that is increasingly fraternal! In keeping alive in their hearts and
lives their ecclesial consciousness, which is "ever mindful of what it
means to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ, participants in her
mystery of communion and in her dynamism in mission and the apostolate" (Christifideles
Laici, n. 64), the faithful will be able to devote themselves to
serving their brethren. I entrust you to Our Lady and I impart to you
yourselves, to the priests, deacons, men and women religious and all the
lay people of your Dioceses, an affectionate Apostolic Blessing.
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