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MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI FOR THE TWENTY-SEVENTH WORLD YOUTH DAY 2012
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE TWENTY-SEVENTH WORLD YOUTH DAY
2012
“Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4)
Dear young friends,
I am happy to address you once more on the occasion of the 27th World Youth Day. The memory of our meeting in Madrid last August remains close to my heart. It was a time of extraordinary grace when God showered his blessings on the young people gathered from all over the world. I give thanks to God for all the fruits which that event bore, fruits which will surely multiply for young people and their communities in the future. Now we are looking forward to our next meeting in Rio de Janeiro in 2013, whose theme will be: “Go and make disciples of all nations!” (cf. Mt 28:19).
This year’s World Youth Day theme comes from Saint Paul’s exhortation in his Letter to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (4:4). Joy is at the heart of Christian experience. At each World Youth Day we experience immense joy, the joy of communion, the joy of being Christian, the joy of faith. This is one of the marks of these gatherings. We can see the great attraction that joy exercises. In a world of sorrow and anxiety, joy is an important witness to the beauty and reliability of the Christian faith.
The Church’s vocation is to bring joy to the world, a joy that is authentic and enduring, the joy proclaimed by the angels to the shepherds on the night Jesus was born (cf. Lk 2:10). Not only did God speak, not only did he accomplish great signs throughout the history of humankind, but he drew so near to us that he became one of us and lived our life completely. In these difficult times, so many young people all around you need to hear that the Christian message is a message of joy and hope! I would like to reflect with you on this joy and on how to find it, so that you can experience it more deeply and bring it to everyone you meet.
1. Our hearts are made for joy
A yearning for joy lurks within the heart of every man and woman. Far more than immediate and fleeting feelings of satisfaction, our hearts seek a perfect, full and lasting joy capable of giving “flavour” to our existence. This is particularly true for you, because youth is a time of continuous discovery of life, of the world, of others and of ourselves. It is a time of openness to the future and of great longing for happiness, friendship, sharing and truth, a time when we are moved by high ideals and make great plans.
Each day is filled with countless simple joys which are the Lord’s gift: the joy of living, the joy of seeing nature’s beauty, the joy of a job well done, the joy of helping others, the joy of sincere and pure love. If we look carefully, we can see many other reasons to rejoice. There are the happy times in family life, shared friendship, the discovery of our talents, our successes, the compliments we receive from others, the ability to express ourselves and to know that we are understood, and the feeling of being of help to others. There is also the excitement of learning new things, seeing new and broader horizons open up through our travels and encounters, and realizing the possibilities we have for charting our future. We might also mention the experience of reading a great work of literature, of admiring a masterpiece of art, of listening to or playing music, or of watching a film. All these things can bring us real joy.
Yet each day we also face any number of difficulties. Deep down we also worry about the future; we begin to wonder if the full and lasting joy for which we long might be an illusion and an escape from reality. Many young people ask themselves: is perfect joy really possible? The quest for joy can follow various paths, and some of these turn out to be mistaken, if not dangerous. How can we distinguish things that give real and lasting joy from immediate and illusory pleasures? How can we find true joy in life, a joy that endures and does not forsake us at moments of difficulty?
2. God is the source of true joy
Whatever brings us true joy, whether the small joys of each day or the greatest joys in life, has its source in God, even if this does not seem immediately obvious. This is because God is a communion of eternal love, he is infinite joy that does not remain closed in on itself, but expands to embrace all whom God loves and who love him. God created us in his image out of love, in order to shower his love upon us and to fill us with his presence and grace. God wants us to share in his own divine and eternal joy, and he helps us to see that the deepest meaning and value of our lives lie in being accepted, welcomed and loved by him. Whereas we sometimes find it hard to accept others, God offers us an unconditional acceptance which enables us to say: “I am loved; I have a place in the world and in history; I am personally loved by God. If God accepts me and loves me and I am sure of this, then I know clearly and with certainty that it is a good thing that I am alive”.
God’s infinite love for each of us is fully seen in Jesus Christ. The joy we are searching for is to be found in him. We see in the Gospel how the events at the beginning of Jesus’ life are marked by joy. When the Archangel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she is to be the mother of the Saviour, his first word is “Rejoice!” (Lk 1:28). When Jesus is born, the angel of the Lord says to the shepherds: “Behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a Saviour has been born for you, who is Messiah and Lord” (Lk 2:10-11). When the Magi came in search of the child, “they were overjoyed at seeing the star” (Mt 2:10). The cause of all this joy is the closeness of God who became one of us. This is what Saint Paul means when he writes to the Philippians: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: rejoice! Your kindness should be known to all. The Lord is near” (Phil 4:4-5). Our first reason for joy is the closeness of the Lord, who welcomes me and loves me.
An encounter with Jesus always gives rise to immense inner joy. We can see this in many of the Gospel stories. We recall when Jesus visited Zacchaeus, a dishonest tax collector and public sinner, he said to him: “Today I must stay at your house”. Then, Saint Luke tells us, Zacchaeus “received him with joy” (Lk 19:5-6). This is the joy of meeting the Lord. It is the joy of feeling God’s love, a love that can transform our whole life and bring salvation. Zacchaeus decides to change his life and to give half of his possessions to the poor.
At the hour of Jesus’ passion, this love can be seen in all its power. At the end of his earthly life, while at supper with his friends, Jesus said: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love... I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:9,11). Jesus wants to lead his disciples and each one of us into the fullness of joy that he shares with the Father, so that the Father’s love for him might abide in us (cf. Jn17:26). Christian joy consists in being open to God’s love and belonging to him.
The Gospels recount that Mary Magdalene and other women went to visit the tomb where Jesus had been laid after his death. An angel told them the astonishing news of Jesus’ resurrection. Then, the Evangelist tells us, they ran from the sepulchre, “fearful yet overjoyed” to share the good news with the disciples. Jesus met them on the way and said: “Peace!” (Mt28:8-9). They were being offered the joy of salvation. Christ is the One who lives and who overcame evil, sin and death. He is present among us as the Risen One and he will remain with us until the end of the world (cf. Mt 28:20). Evil does not have the last word in our lives; rather, faith in Christ the Saviour tells us that God’s love is victorious.
This deep joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit who makes us God’s sons and daughters, capable of experiencing and savouring his goodness, and calling him “Abba”, Father (cf. Rm 8:15). Joy is the sign of God’s presence and action within us.
3. Preserving Christian joy in our hearts
At this point we wonder: “How do we receive and maintain this gift of deep, spiritual joy?”
One of the Psalms tells us: “Find your delight in the Lord who will give you your heart's desire” (Ps 37:4). Jesus told us that “the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Mt 13:44). The discovery and preservation of spiritual joy is the fruit of an encounter with the Lord. Jesus asks us to follow him and to stake our whole life on him. Dear young people, do not be afraid to risk your lives by making space for Jesus Christ and his Gospel. This is the way to find inner peace and true happiness. It is the way to live fully as children of God, created in his image and likeness.
Seek joy in the Lord: for joy is the fruit of faith. It is being aware of his presence and friendship every day: “the Lord is near!” (Phil 4:5). It is putting our trust in God, and growing in his knowledge and love. Shortly we shall begin the “Year of Faith”, and this will help and encourage us. Dear friends, learn to see how God is working in your lives and discover him hidden within the events of daily life. Believe that he is always faithful to the covenant which he made with you on the day of your Baptism. Know that God will never abandon you. Turn your eyes to him often. He gave his life for you on the cross because he loves you. Contemplation of this great love brings a hope and joy to our hearts that nothing can destroy. Christians can never be sad, for they have met Christ, who gave his life for them.
To seek the Lord and find him in our lives also means accepting his word, which is joy for our hearts. The Prophet Jeremiah wrote: “When I found your words, I devoured them; they became my joy and the happiness of my heart” (Jer 15:16). Learn to read and meditate on the sacred Scriptures. There you will find an answer to your deepest questions about truth. God’s word reveals the wonders that he has accomplished throughout human history, it fills us with joy, and it leads us to praise and adoration: “Come, let us sing joyfully to the Lord; let us kneel before the Lord who made us” (Ps 95:1,6).
The liturgy is a special place where the Church expresses the joy which she receives from the Lord and transmits it to the world. Each Sunday at Mass the Christian community celebrates the central mystery of salvation, which is the death and resurrection of Christ. This is a very important moment for all the Lord’s disciples because his sacrifice of love is made present. Sunday is the day when we meet the risen Christ, listen to his word, and are nourished by his body and blood. As we hear in one of the Psalms: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad” (Ps 118:24). At the Easter Vigil, the Church sings the Exultet, a hymn of joy for the victory of Jesus Christ over sin and death: “Sing, choirs of angels! ... Rejoice, O earth, in shining splendour ... Let this place resound with joy, echoing the mighty song of all God’s people!” Christian joy is born of this awareness of being loved by God who became man, gave his life for us and overcame evil and death. It means living a life of love for him. As Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, a young Carmelite, wrote: “Jesus, my joy is loving you” (P 45, 21 January 1897).
4. The joy of love
Dear friends, joy is intimately linked to love. They are inseparable gifts of the Holy Spirit (cf.Gal 5:23). Love gives rise to joy, and joy is a form of love. Blessed Teresa of Calcutta drew on Jesus’ words: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35) when she said: “Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls; God loves a cheerful giver. Whoever gives with joy gives more”. As the Servant of God Paul VI wrote: “In God himself, all is joy because all is giving” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete in Domino, 9 May 1975).
In every area of your life, you should know that to love means to be steadfast, reliable and faithful to commitments. This applies most of all to friendship. Our friends expect us to be sincere, loyal and faithful because true love perseveres even in times of difficulty. The same thing can be said about your work and studies and the services you carry out. Fidelity and perseverance in doing good brings joy, even if not always immediately.
If we are to experience the joy of love, we must also be generous. We cannot be content to give the minimum. We need to be fully committed in life and to pay particular attention to those in need. The world needs men and women who are competent and generous, willing to be at the service of the common good. Make every effort to study conscientiously, to develop your talents and to put them at the service of others even now. Find ways to help make society more just and humane wherever you happen to be. May your entire life be guided by a spirit of service and not by the pursuit of power, material success and money.
Speaking of generosity, I would like to mention one particular joy. It is the joy we feel when we respond to the vocation to give our whole life to the Lord. Dear young people, do not be afraid if Christ is calling you to the religious, monastic or missionary life or to the priesthood. Be assured that he fills with joy all those who respond to his invitation to leave everything to be with him and to devote themselves with undivided heart to the service of others. In the same way, God gives great joy to men and women who give themselves totally to one another in marriage in order to build a family and to be signs of Christ’s love for the Church.
Let me remind you of a third element that will lead you to the joy of love. It is allowing fraternal love to grow in your lives and in those of your communities. There is a close bond between communion and joy. It is not by chance that Saint Paul’s exhortation: “Rejoice in the Lord always” (Phil 4:4) is written in the plural, addressing the community as a whole, rather than its individual members. Only when we are together in the communion of fellowship do we experience this joy. In the Acts of the Apostles, the first Christian community is described in these words: “Breaking bread in their homes, they ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart” (Acts 2:46). I ask you to make every effort to help our Christian communities to be special places of sharing, attention and concern for one another.
5. The joy of conversion
Dear friends, experiencing real joy also means recognizing the temptations that lead us away from it. Our present-day culture often pressures us to seek immediate goals, achievements and pleasures. It fosters fickleness more than perseverance, hard work and fidelity to commitments. The messages it sends push a consumerist mentality and promise false happiness. Experience teaches us that possessions do not ensure happiness. How many people are surrounded by material possessions yet their lives are filled with despair, sadness and emptiness! To have lasting joy we need to live in love and truth. We need to live in God.
God wants us to be happy. That is why he gave us specific directions for the journey of life: the commandments. If we observe them, we will find the path to life and happiness. At first glance, they might seem to be a list of prohibitions and an obstacle to our freedom. But if we study them more closely, we see in the light of Christ’s message that the commandments are a set of essential and valuable rules leading to a happy life in accordance with God’s plan. How often, on the other hand, do we see that choosing to build our lives apart from God and his will brings disappointment, sadness and a sense of failure. The experience of sin, which is the refusal to follow God and an affront to his friendship, brings gloom into our hearts.
At times the path of the Christian life is not easy, and being faithful to the Lord’s love presents obstacles; occasionally we fall. Yet God in his mercy never abandons us; he always offers us the possibility of returning to him, being reconciled with him and experiencing the joy of his love which forgives and welcomes us back.
Dear young people, have frequent recourse to the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation! It is the sacrament of joy rediscovered. Ask the Holy Spirit for the light needed to acknowledge your sinfulness and to ask for God’s forgiveness. Celebrate this sacrament regularly, with serenity and trust. The Lord will always open his arms to you. He will purify you and bring you into his joy: for there is joy in heaven even for one sinner who repents (cf. Lk 15:7).
6. Joy at times of trial
In the end, though, we might still wonder in our hearts whether it is really possible to live joyfully amid all life’s trials, especially those which are most tragic and mysterious. We wonder whether following the Lord and putting our trust in him will always bring happiness.
We can find an answer in some of the experiences of young people like yourselves who have found in Christ the light that can give strength and hope even in difficult situations. Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) experienced many trials during his short life, including a romantic experience that left him deeply hurt. In the midst of this situation he wrote to his sister: “You ask me if I am happy. How could I not be? As long as faith gives me strength, I am happy. A Catholic could not be other than happy... The goal for which we were created involves a path which has its thorns, but it is not a sad path. It is joy, even when it involves pain” (Letter to his sister Luciana, Turin, 14 February 1925). When Blessed John Paul IIpresented Blessed Pier Giorgio as a model for young people, he described him as “a young person with infectious joy, the joy that overcame many difficulties in his life” (Address to Young People, Turin, 13 April 1980).
Closer to us in time is Chiara Badano (1971-1990), who was recently beatified. She experienced how pain could be transfigured by love and mysteriously steeped in joy. At the age of eighteen, while suffering greatly from cancer, Chiara prayed to the Holy Spirit and interceded for the young people of the movement to which she belonged. As well as praying for her own cure, she asked God to enlighten all those young people by his Spirit and to give them wisdom and light. “It was really a moment of God’s presence. I was suffering physically, but my soul was singing” (Letter to Chiara Lubich, Sassello, 20 December 1989). The key to her peace and joy was her complete trust in the Lord and the acceptance of her illness as a mysterious expression of his will for her sake and that of everyone. She often said: “Jesus, if you desire it, then I desire it too”.
These are just two testimonies taken from any number of others which show that authentic Christians are never despairing or sad, not even when faced with difficult trials. They show that Christian joy is not a flight from reality, but a supernatural power that helps us to deal with the challenges of daily life. We know that the crucified and risen Christ is here with us and that he is a faithful friend always. When we share in his sufferings, we also share in his glory. With him and in him, suffering is transformed into love. And there we find joy (cf. Col 1:24).
7. Witnesses of joy
Dear friends, to conclude I would encourage you to be missionaries of joy. We cannot be happy if others are not. Joy has to be shared. Go and tell other young people about your joy at finding the precious treasure which is Jesus himself. We cannot keep the joy of faith to ourselves. If we are to keep it, we must give it away. Saint John said: “What we have seen and heard we proclaim now to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; we are writing this so that our joy may be complete” (1 Jn 1:3-4).
Christianity is sometimes depicted as a way of life that stifles our freedom and goes against our desires for happiness and joy. But this is far from the truth. Christians are men and women who are truly happy because they know that they are not alone. They know that God is always holding them in his hands. It is up to you, young followers of Christ, to show the world that faith brings happiness and a joy which is true, full and enduring. If the way Christians live at times appears dull and boring, you should be the first to show the joyful and happy side of faith. The Gospel is the “good news” that God loves us and that each of us is important to him. Show the world that this is true!
Be enthusiastic witnesses of the new evangelization! Go to those who are suffering and those who are searching, and give them the joy that Jesus wants to bestow. Bring it to your families, your schools and universities, and your workplaces and your friends, wherever you live. You will see how it is contagious. You will receive a hundredfold: the joy of salvation for yourselves, and the joy of seeing God’s mercy at work in the hearts of others. And when you go to meet the Lord on that last day, you will hear him say: “Well done, my good and faithful servant... Come, share your master’s joy” (Mt 25:21).
May the Blessed Virgin Mary accompany you on this journey. She welcomed the Lord within herself and proclaimed this in a song of praise and joy, the Magnificat: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Lk 1:46-47). Mary responded fully to God’s love by devoting her life to him in humble and complete service. She is invoked as “Cause of our Joy” because she gave us Jesus. May she lead you to that joy which no one will ever be able to take away from you!
From the Vatican, 15 March 2012
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
MAY DAY MESSAGE – 2012
MAY DAY MESSAGE – 2012
Pastoral Care of the Migrants in India
Introduction
The History of the universe is a story of migration. From the time of creation all types of living beings, birds, animals and sea creatures, have been migrating from one place to another for various reasons, such as in search of food, in search of habitation and in search of better weather conditions. The migration of human beings is also as old as the creation itself. Open the book Genesis, you will find “And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, to the east of Eden” (Gen 4: 16). Then we have the Patriarch Abraham moving from place to place. “The Lord said to Abram, “Leave your country, your kinsfolk and your father’s house for the land which I will show you” (Gen 12:1). Abram went away as the Lord had commanded him, and Lot went with him (Gen 12:4). Now there was a famine in the land and Abram went down to Egypt where he lived as a stranger” (Gen 12:10) “Abram went up from Egypt to the Negeb, he and his wife and all that belonged to him and Lot with him (Gen 13:1). “Abram moved his tent and came to dwell by the terebinths of Mamre which are at Hebron” (Gen 13:18). Migration continues through Isaac, Jacob and Joseph and his brothers. The Book of Exodus narrates the migration story of Moses and Israelites from Egypt through wilderness to Mount Sinai and to the Promised Land.
The New Testament contains numerous references to traveling and journeys, such as those carried out by Mary and Joseph before the birth of Jesus, their flight to Egypt, return to Nazareth, journey to the Temple of Jerusalem; and the continuous traveling of Christ during his public life and the journeys of the Apostles. The evangelists present the life of Christ a continuous journey. He went through towns and villages proclaiming the Gospel and healing “every disease and sickness” (Mt 9:35).
Migration
Human Migration is one of the most indispensable social phenomena. Moving from place to place is characterized human behaviour since the beginning of history. Mobility and wandering are therefore expressions of human nature and of its cultural development. Therefore migration can be described as “people on the move.” Migration gives meanings of relocation, immigration, passage, exodus, movement, journey, voyage, trek and resettlement. In short it means movement of people from one place to another to lead a better life. Normally migration takes place through the movement of people from rural or least developed areas to the urban centers or relatively more developed areas, based on the criteria, such as nature, distance, time, age, sex, ethnicity, etc. Migration has been classified as national, international, rural-urban, short-distance, long-distance, seasonal and permanent.
Reasons for Migration in India
Migration of human beings could be voluntary, for personal reasons or involuntary, being forced due to certain external factors. Migration in India is largely on account of unemployment. People, young and old, move from villages to cities, from smaller town to bigger cities, and even from cities to cities, in search of jobs, shelter, better living conditions, for improved health facilities and for better education and job opportunities. Migration becomes compulsion for survival for those affected by civil war, political and communal conflicts; for victims of natural calamities such as floods, famine, earthquake; for those forcefully evacuated on account of developmental projects of the Governments. The number of displaced persons (IDP) was estimated to be 500,000 in 2009, according to World Bank Report published in 2010. Sometimes one is compelled to migrate in order to safeguard his/her human dignity and human rights. People of under developed areas, hills and mountains, faced with demographic pressure, leave their villages and settle down in advanced regions of the country. As the population increases there is a natural decrease in availability of food and space. So people are compelled to move out. Uneven distribution of resources as well as socio-economic situation of different States of India results in wide spread intra-State and inter-State migration
In India, as per the census 2001, there were 314.54 million migrants within the country. In some regions of India, three out of four were migrants. (Migration Report 2009). Migrants are not required to register themselves in India either at the place of origin or at the place of destination. As there is no registration of migrants in India, Census and National Sample Survey (NSS) are the two main sources of migration data in India. Census provides data on migrants based on place of birth (POB) and place of last residence (POLR). If the place of birth or place of last residence is different from the place of enumeration, a person is defined as a migrant. On the other hand, if the place of birth and place enumeration is the same, the person is a non-migrant. Migrants defined on the basis of POB or POLR are called the lifetime migrants because the time of their move is not known.
Positive aspects of Migration
The driving forces for human mobility are unavoidably marked by basic human behaviour and instincts including, the search to protect one’s life and lives of loved ones, the desire for a better future for oneself and the endeavor to improve prospects for future generations and for the community one belongs to. It contributes a great deal to the growth of economy of the country of origin as well as the country of destination and to the development of both countries. Moving away from home has allowed millions to get good education, find steady employment, support their families and enjoy greater economic opportunities than might have been available at home. For many millions of migrants, the migration process has given new life and greater success.
Challenges faced by the Migrants
The migrants in India face enormous challenges when they land up in an unknown city or town. As they do not find any shelter, they live under the open sky, in the open fields or near the railway tracks. Here they meet with hostility of the neighbors. They find it difficult to communicate as they do not know the language of the place. They find it hard to get a job and even daily wages. Seeing their helplessness, the contractors, employers, take advantage of the situation. Helpless migrants, especially young girls, are bought and sold by the locals, ill treated and abused. As the migrants do not have any identity in their own country, they are denied ration card, voter’s card, driving licenses, electricity, phone connections etc. The migrants in India are scattered and unorganized which means they do not have any permanent job, no bargaining power, no fixed salary, no future security, no medical benefits, no fixed working hours, no vacation, no weekly holiday. These people on the move easily become victims of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, get infected with T.B., STD, HIV/AIDS and many other diseases. The human dignity and human rights are denied to them. Hence often they become antisocial, and get involved in criminal actions.
The children of the migrants are the worse sufferers. Often they are separated from the parents. If they are with their parents they meet with hostility wherever they go. They do not get proper education, they remain illiterate, they do not get health facilities, and they are mal nourished and live in squalor.
The massive migration causes over population in Indian cities resulting in numerous social, economic problems, administrative difficulties, shortage of food and health facilities, traffic congestion and many other related issues.
Legal Protection
In order to protect the rights and safeguard the interests of migrant workers, the inter state Migrant Workmen Act 1979 was enacted. The Act is intended to regulate the employment of inter-state migrant workmen and to provide their conditions of service. It applies to every establishments and the contractor, who employ five or more inter-state migrant workers. The Act has provision for issue of Pass –Book to every inter-state migrant worker with full details, payment of displacement allowance equivalent to 50% of monthly wage or Rs.75 whichever is higher, payment of journey allowance including payment of wage during the period of journey, suitable residential accommodation, medical facilities and protective clothing, payment of wages, equal pay for equal work irrespective of sex etc. The main responsibility for enforcement of the provision of the Act lies with the Central and State Government/Union Territories in the establishment falling in the Central and State Sphere respectively. But, the worrying factor is about its implementation? Unfortunately the genuine concern for the problems of workers on the part of government officials who are entrusted with the responsibility of safeguarding the rights of workers especially migrant workers is lacking. The disadvantage of this Act is that, it only deals with migrant workers not concerned about their family as such.
Suggestions
Our concerns for migrant workers are to make provision for the rights of workers in the work place which includes improvement in wage, decent working conditions, ensure the social security and welfare measures in respective of worker’s family also. It is important to adopt the way of improvement in collective strength and collective bargaining power including the organizational skills, make secure permanency of decent job and income the methods to check out of the exploitation and harassment etc.
The problem of migration ought to be checked through a multi dimensional course of action through rural development, provision of improved infrastructure facilities, equitable dispersal of resources to remove regional disparities, employment generation, land reforms, increased literacy, financial assistance, social security schemes, effective law enforcement and proper documentation of citizens , e.g. ‘Aadhar’ card.
Initiatives of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI)
In order to strengthen the involvement and activities of the Church in the Labour Movements and Labour Welfare activities a federation is established under the aegis of CBCI Labour Commission. Workers India Federation, (WIF) after due deliberation, has visualized a major initiative for the welfare of unorganized migrant workers in the urban and semi urban areas. We have been actively involved in assisting unorganized migrants through different programs organized for them at different levels such as,
• Mapping and keeping touch with unorganized migrant workers by forming SHGs, Unions and Forums of workers.
• Facilitating workers social security by registering them into social security schemes named ‘MSY’ for pension(Swavalamban) , medical (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna )and education scholarship for their children .
• Providing facilities for registration of migrants through parishes and church institution networks, one can also register by logging intowww.cbcilabour.info.
• Legal assistance at the time of crisis and facilitate the returnees to sustain their life with proper reintegration into society.
While we endeavor to curb unhealthy migration by providing awareness about the local employment opportunities to the rural poor (eg. through National Rural Employment Guarantee Act - NREGA programme), there is a need to continue to cater to the needs of the vulnerable sections of the migrant groups in the cities, work sites and slums. This prompted us to start Workers’ Facilitation Centers (WFC) in these areas in order to help those migrants who require financial, healthcare, children’s education and legal assistance. Of late at the 30th CBCI General body meeting, Bangalore 2012, the Catholic Church in India has recommitted herself to work for the liberation of the weaker sections like tribals, women and dalits, in particular, She wants to reach out more to unorganized groups like fish workers , farmers, migrants, domestic workers, victims of trafficking (Para 8.6)
Conclusion
The Church needs to take pastoral care of long distant truck/lorry/ bus/rail drivers. Each year, an increasing number of women and children fall victims to trafficking for the purpose of sexual or other exploitation. The problem of street children is global and is escalating. It is aggravated by many causes such as poverty, family disintegration, abuse, abandonment, neglect and social unrest. Students, who go to developed countries/Indian states to pursue their studies with great enthusiasm, often find themselves in precarious conditions. Away from home, they find it difficult to narrate their hardships to the strangers. In all these circumstances the Church needs to come out with great dedication and commitment to provide pastoral care.
The Holy Father Benedict XVI, in his Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 2009, wrote that the mission of the Church and of every baptized person today, is to make Jesus known to every person. It is “a mission that, with attentive pastoral solicitude, is also directed to the variegated universe of migrants – students far from home, immigrants, refugees, displaced people, evacuees – including for example, the victims of modern forms of slavery and human trafficking.”
The Constitution of Vatican II Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) says, “There is a growing awareness of the exalted dignity proper to the human person, since he stands above all things, and his rights and duties are universal and inviolable. Therefore, there must be made available to all men everything necessary for leading a life truly human, such as food, clothing and shelter; the right to choose a state of life freely and to found a family, the right to education, to employment, to a good reputation, to respect, to appropriate information, to protection of privacy, and rightful freedom, even in matters of religion” (G.S. 26).
Keeping these exhortations of the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI and of the Vatican Council II, we must take note of the presence of Jesus, based on the well known Biblical passage of the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus: “Jesus came up and walked by their side” (Lk 24:15). The pastoral care of the migrants is indeed “a walk together.”
Bishop-in-Charge
Members
Most Rev. Oswald Lewis Most Rev. Jose Porunnedom
Most Rev. M. Devadas Ambrose
Education Message published by Fr. Jose Vattakuzhy, Secretary and WIF director,
CBCI Office for Labour, CBCI Centre Ashok Place, New Delhi 110001
Tel (O) : +91: 011-23362907, Websites : www.cbcilabour.info, www.jobtech.in,
E-mails : cbcilabour2000@yahoo.co.in,cbcilabour@gmail.com
************************
*Workers India Federation (WIF)-An organization for coordination of CBCI Labour Commission’s Labour Movements and Unions. * Workers’ Facilitation Centers (WFC).-Workers’ Animation Centers * Mazdoor Sureksha Yojana (MSY)- Social Security Programs * www.jobtech ,in-Oline Employment Exchange
20th World Day of the Sick: February 11, 2012
Healing Ministry Week 2012: February 6-12
Theme: Transforming lives!
Theme: The special grace of the Sacraments of healing
“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well” (Lk 17:19)
* Message of His Holiness Benedict XVI for the 20th World Day of the Sick
* Bible Text, Reflections and Prayers for Healing Ministry Week, 2012
Introduction
We continue the tradition of celebrating the Healing Ministry week ecumenically. The Christian Medical Association of India (CMAI), National Council of Churches of India (NCCI) and the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) have selected this year’s Healing Week Theme: “Transforming Lives!”
Healing includes transformation/restoration of our relationship with God and with others. Through health care, we seek to improve people’s health; help them discover God in the midst of suffering and hopelessness; transform their lives and the realities they face. The theme for 2012 Transforming Lives, help focus our attention on, and align our work to, this important aspect. These Bible studies enhance our understanding of what transformation means and how we can be instruments of transformation, how transformation can be simple yet profound.
This booklet is meant for the Catholic Network.
How to Celebrate the Healing Ministry Week?
i. In Healthcare Institutions
Arrangements could be made for everyone in the hospital to join the prayers, but with due discretion and full respect for those sick people of other faiths and those with no religious persuasion. Inform the patient’s relatives of the gathering. Printed materials, with inspirational texts and prayers could be distributed. One or more of the patients, if willing and able to do so, may remain alongside the celebrant during readings and prayer; and a few symbolic gestures may also be planned.
Organize awareness programs and meaningful celebrations for the staff engaged in healthcare.
ii. Community/Parish level
In collaboration with committed volunteers, organize events such as: Paraliturgical Celebrations, Community celebration of the Blessings and Anointing of the Sick, ecumenical bible service, inter-religious prayer service for the sick, health awareness seminar, medical camps, cultural events, charitable events, etc
Your Response
We will be interested to know how you celebrated the Health and Healing Week and the World Day of the Sick. Please write to us. We welcome your suggestions to continue to have meaningful programs in the future.
CBCI Office for Health Care
CBCI Centre , 1, Ashok Place, Gole Dakkhana, New Delhi-110 001
Tel. 011-23340772 / 23340774, Email: info@cbcihealth.org
Acknowledgements
•
Dr Vijay Aruldas, Rev. Job Jayaraj and all others of CMAI team, who contributed to this venture
•
Ms. Celestine Mendonca, Ms. Rose Mary, of CBCI and Mr. George K. Paul, design consultant
•
Members of Catholic Health Care network, especially CHAI, SDFI, CNGI, and CBCI-CARD
We gratefully acknowledge them for their valuable contributions.
Fr Dr Mathew Abraham C.Ss.R
Secretary, Office for Health Care
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India
FOR THE 2012 WORLD DAY OF THE SICK
20th World Day of the Sick: February 11, 2012
MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Theme: The special grace of the Sacraments of healing
“Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well” (Lk 17:19)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On the occasion of the World Day of the Sick, which we will celebrate on 11 February 2012, the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, I wish to renew my spiritual closeness to all sick people who are in places of care or are looked after in their families, expressing to each one of them the solicitude and the affection of the whole Church. In the generous and loving welcoming of every human life, above all of weak and sick life, a Christian expresses an important aspect of his or her Gospel witness, following the example of Christ, who bent down before the material and spiritual sufferings of man in order to heal them.
1. This year, which involves the immediate preparations for the Solemn World Day of the Sick that will be celebrated in Germany on 11 February 2013 and will focus on the emblematic Gospel figure of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:29-37), I would like to place emphasis upon the “sacraments of healing”, that is to say upon the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation and that of the Anointing of the Sick, which have their natural completion in Eucharistic Communion.
The encounter of Jesus with the ten lepers, narrated by the Gospel of Saint Luke (cf. Lk 17:11-19), and in particular the words that the Lord addresses to one of them, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you” (v. 19), help us to become aware of the importance of faith for those who, burdened by suffering and illness, draw near to the Lord. In their encounter with him they can truly experience that he who believes is never alone! God, indeed, in his Son, does not abandon us to our anguish and sufferings, but is close to us, helps us to bear them, and wishes to heal us in the depths of our hearts (cf. Mk 2:1-12).
The faith of the lone leper who, on seeing that he was healed, full of amazement and joy, and unlike the others, immediately went back to Jesus to express his gratitude, enables us to perceive that reacquired health is a sign of something more precious than mere physical healing, it is a sign of the salvation that God gives us through Christ; it finds expression in the words of Jesus: your faith has saved you. He who in suffering and illness prays to the Lord is certain that God’s love will never abandon him, and also that the love of the Church, the extension in time of the Lord’s saving work, will never fail. Physical healing, an outward expression of the deepest salvation, thus reveals the importance that man – in his entirety of soul and body – has for the Lord. Each sacrament, for that matter, expresses and actuates the closeness of God himself, who, in an absolutely freely-given way, “touches us through material things … that he takes up into his service, making them instruments of the encounter between us and himself” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 1 April 2010). “The unity between creation and redemption is made visible. The sacraments are an expression of the physicality of our faith, which embraces the whole person, body and soul” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 21 April 2011).
The principal task of the Church is certainly proclaiming the Kingdom of God, “But this very proclamation must be a process of healing: ‘bind up the broken-hearted’ (Is 61:1)” (ibid.), according to the charge entrusted by Jesus to his disciples (cf. Lk 9:1-2; Mt 10:1,5-14; Mk 6:7-13). The tandem of physical health and renewal after lacerations of the soul thus helps us to understand better the “sacraments of healing”.
2. The sacrament of Penance has often been at the centre of the reflection of the Church’s Pastors, specifically because of its great importance in the journey of Christian life, given that “The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God’s grace, and joining with him in an intimate friendship” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1468). The Church, in continuing to proclaim Jesus’ message of forgiveness and reconciliation, never ceases to invite the whole of humanity to convert and to believe in the Gospel. She makes her own the call of the Apostle Paul: “So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). Jesus, during his life, proclaimed and made present the mercy of the Father. He came not to condemn but to forgive and to save, to give hope in the deepest darkness of suffering and sin, and to give eternal life; thus in the sacrament of Penance, in the “medicine of confession”, the experience of sin does not degenerate into despair but encounters the Love that forgives and transforms (cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 31).
God, “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4), like the father in the Gospel parable (cf. Lk 15:11-32), does not close his heart to any of his children, but waits for them, looks for them, reaches them where their rejection of communion imprisons them in isolation and division, and calls them to gather around his table, in the joy of the feast of forgiveness and reconciliation. A time of suffering, in which one could be tempted to abandon oneself to discouragement and hopelessness, can thus be transformed into a time of grace so as to return to oneself, and like the prodigal son of the parable, to think anew about one’s life, recognizing its errors and failures, longing for the embrace of the Father, and following the pathway to his home. He, in his great love, always and everywhere watches over our lives and awaits us so as to offer to every child that returns to him the gift of full reconciliation and joy.
3. From a reading of the Gospels it emerges clearly that Jesus always showed special concern for sick people. He not only sent out his disciples to tend their wounds (cf. Mt 10:8; Lk 9:2; 10:9) but also instituted for them a specific sacrament: the Anointing of the Sick. The Letter of James attests to the presence of this sacramental act already in the first Christian community (cf. 5:14-16): by the Anointing of the Sick, accompanied by the prayer of the elders, the whole of the Church commends the sick to the suffering and glorified Lord so that he may alleviate their sufferings and save them; indeed she exhorts them to unite themselves spiritually to the passion and death of Christ so as to contribute thereby to the good of the People of God.
This sacrament leads us to contemplate the double mystery of the Mount of Olives, where Jesus found himself dramatically confronted by the path indicated to him by the Father, that of his Passion, the supreme act of love; and he accepted it. In that hour of tribulation, he is the mediator, “bearing in himself, taking upon himself the sufferings and passion of the world, transforming it into a cry to God, bringing it before the eyes and into the hands of God and thus truly bringing it to the moment of redemption” (Lectio Divina, Meeting with the Parish Priests of Rome, 18 February 2010). But “the Garden of Olives is also the place from which he ascended to the Father, and is therefore the place of redemption … This double mystery of the Mount of Olives is also always ‘at work’ within the Church’s sacramental oil … the sign of God’s goodness reaching out to touch us” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 1 April 2010). In the Anointing of the Sick, the sacramental matter of the oil is offered to us, so to speak, “as God’s medicine … which now assures us of his goodness, offering us strength and consolation, yet at the same time points beyond the moment of the illness towards the definitive healing, the resurrection (cf. Jas 5:14)” (ibid.).
This sacrament deserves greater consideration today both in theological reflection and in pastoral ministry among the sick. Through a proper appreciation of the content of the liturgical prayers that are adapted to the various human situations connected with illness, and not only when a person is at the end of his or her life (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1514), the Anointing of the Sick should not be held to be almost “a minor sacrament” when compared to the others. Attention to and pastoral care for sick people, while, on the one hand, a sign of God’s tenderness towards those who are suffering, on the other brings spiritual advantage to priests and the whole Christian community as well, in the awareness that what is done to the least, is done to Jesus himself (cf. Mt 25:40).
4. As regards the “sacraments of healing”, Saint Augustine affirms: “God heals all your infirmities. Do not be afraid, therefore, all your infirmities will be healed … You must only allow him to cure you and you must not reject his hands” (Exposition on Psalm 102, 5; PL 36, 1319-1320). These are precious instruments of God’s grace which help a sick person to conform himself or herself ever more fully to the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ. Together with these two sacraments, I would also like to emphasize the importance of the Eucharist. Received at a time of illness, it contributes in a singular way to working this transformation, associating the person who partakes of the Body and Blood of Christ to the offering that he made of himself to the Father for the salvation of all. The whole ecclesial community, and parish communities in particular, should pay attention to guaranteeing the possibility of frequently receiving Holy Communion, to those people who, for reasons of health or age, cannot go to a place of worship. In this way, these brothers and sisters are offered the possibility of strengthening their relationship with Christ, crucified and risen, participating, through their lives offered up for love of Christ, in the very mission of the Church. From this point of view, it is important that priests who offer their discreet work in hospitals, in nursing homes and in the homes of sick people, feel they are truly “’ministers of the sick’, signs and instruments of Christ's compassion who must reach out to every person marked by suffering” (Message for the XVIII World Day of the Sick, 22 November 2009).
Becoming conformed to the Paschal Mystery of Christ, which can also be achieved through the practice of spiritual Communion, takes on a very particular meaning when the Eucharist is administered and received as Viaticum. At that stage in life, these words of the Lord are even more telling: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (Jn 6:54). The Eucharist, especially as Viaticum, is – according to the definition of Saint Ignatius of Antioch – “medicine of immortality, the antidote for death” (Letter to the Ephesians, 20: PG 5, 661); the sacrament of the passage from death to life, from this world to the Father, who awaits everyone in the celestial Jerusalem.
5. The theme of this Message for the Twentieth World Day of the Sick, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you”, also looks forward to the forthcoming Year of Faith which will begin on 11 October 2012, a propitious and valuable occasion to rediscover the strength and beauty of faith, to examine its contents, and to bear witness to it in daily life (cf. Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, 11 October 2011). I wish to encourage sick people and the suffering always to find a safe anchor in faith, nourished by listening to the Word of God, by personal prayer and by the sacraments, while I invite pastors to be increasingly ready to celebrate them for the sick. Following the example of the Good Shepherd and as guides of the flocks entrusted to them, priests should be full of joy, attentive to the weakest, the simple and sinners, expressing the infinite mercy of God with reassuring words of hope (cf. Saint Augustine, Letter 95, 1: PL 33, 351-352).
To all those who work in the field of health, and to the families who see in their relatives the suffering face of the Lord Jesus, I renew my thanks and that of the Church, because, in their professional expertise and in silence, often without even mentioning the name of Christ, they manifest him in a concrete way (cf. Homily, Chrism Mass, 21 April 2011).
To Mary, Mother of Mercy and Health of the Sick, we raise our trusting gaze and our prayer; may her maternal compassion, manifested as she stood beside her dying Son on the Cross, accompany and sustain the faith and the hope of every sick and suffering person on the journey of healing for the wounds of body and spirit!
I assure you all of a remembrance in my prayers, and I bestow upon each one of you a special Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 20 November 2011, Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King.
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
© Copyright 2011 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/sick/index_en.htm
BIBLE TEXT, REFLECTIONS AND PRAYERS
For Healing Ministry Week, 2012
Day 1: WHAT IS TRANSFORMATION?
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Reading: Romans 12:2
Reflection:
Change, though a part of transformation is not truly transformation. Human tendency is to conform, i.e., to resist transformation. Real transformation is the transformation of the inner-self or the mind of a person. The mind is the seat of all feelings, thinking and character. A renewed or transformed mind will even get manifested in the body. For those who believe, the will of God is the parameter of transformation and good human relationships are its outcome. Transformation can be considered as the outcome of true worship, i.e., offering a living sacrifice, which is holy and acceptable to God. A person becomes holy when he or she is set apart for God. Once the real worship takes place, real transformation will happen as a result of it.
Question for discussion:
1.
What are the factors that hinder me from a genuine transformation?
Prayer:
God, lead me toward transformation and not mere changes, in my day-today life. Amen.
Day 2: TRANSFORMING TODAY’S VALUES IN HEALTH CARE
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
Reading: Matthew 25:31-46
Reflection:
God created us in His own image and likeness. God is love. ‘Caring’ is one of the expressions of love. Health care is a good opportunity to care for others. With growing materialism, money is considered as the highest value, even more valuable than human beings. The attraction of monetary rewards and personal profit seem to be capturing many who are into health care. A patient often becomes a case, whose suffering provides us with job opportunities and monetary benefits. The all pervasive ‘cut system’ for laboratory tests and imaging is making ethical standards drop to an all-time low.
How can this trend be changed? It will be possible if we go back to the original purpose of this noble profession by following God and His commands. When we reflect on Jesus’ healing ministry and his commitment to people, we get a glimpse of the truth about how health care should be. As disciples of Jesus, we must set high ethical standards in the practice of health care, introduce a culture of love and care in every aspect of the healing ministry and thus stand out as a ‘prophetic sign’ in the midst of health care being taken over by profit making industries.
Questions for discussion:
1.
What are the ills in the health care industry?
2.
How can we remain as a prophetic sign in the midst of the above mentioned tendency?
Prayer:
God of compassion and love, help us to express the need to show your compassion and love to others, both in our words and works. Amen.
Day 3: MISSION HOSPITALS AS CHANNELS OF TRANSFORMATION
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit
Reading: John 15:5-8; 1:1, 2, 14
Reflection:
The Gospels are full of stories of people whose lives were radically transformed by coming in contact with Jesus. Jesus transforms lives even today. Mission hospitals are called to be expressions of the Word who became Flesh – visible, palpable signs of the Kingdom of God. People come to us in pain and brokenness, suffering and fearful. God calls us to assist Him in sharing their pain; reduce their suffering wherever possible; and to help them return home as healthier and better people. For example, a child with Malaria leaves the fever and pain behind and goes back to school. This is the Gospel in action.
All hospitals do medical work. But for mission hospitals, it is not just a scientific interaction or a commercial exercise. We are called to be God’s hands, His feet, His love, so that people coming to us for care may experience His love through us and get transformed. This is our worship, our vocation, our calling. However, it is Jesus who transforms, not us. For this to happen, our mission hospitals need to be plugged into Him, like the branches of a vine. The Word must become Flesh and dwell in our hospitals, if people are to behold His glory. Then our mission hospitals will truly become channels of transformation in the lives of people – both within our staff and students and in the community around us.
Question for discussion:
1.
Gandhiji said, “You have to become the change you want to see.” What can this mean for us, our churches and institutions?
Prayer: O Lord, we pray that we may allow you to transform us, so that our churches, schools and hospitals may truly be channels of your love and transformation in our country. Amen.
Day 4: TRANSFORMING SOCIAL BARRIERS TO HEALTH CARE
Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on.
Reading: Mark 2:1-12
Reflection:
The paralyzed man represents people who are suffering and who are forced to live a dependent existence due to physical, mental or social disabilities. The barriers faced by the paralyzed man and his helpers are not very different from the barriers people, especially the poor, face in today’s society. These can be barriers of Availability, Accessibility and Affordability. The response of the four friends of the paralyzed man provides a model for overcoming social barriers. They show concern for their friend who was unable to help himself. They connect their knowledge about the healing power of Jesus being available in their midst to the need of their friend. They take a personal initiative to carry their friend to where healing could occur. Faced with the obstacle of the big crowd, they think creatively, taking personal risk.
Jesus saw their faith. The faith of the paralytic man is not mentioned. Our faith in God and efforts to bring the suffering to the source of healing could bring holistic deliverance from physical debility and could also bring transformation. The four friends are the image of a transformed community who demonstrate love, care, compassion and initiative in responding to the needs of the sick person in their midst. This is the calling that Christ gave his Church. When Christ’s followers become true neighbours to people in need and engage in service through loving relationships in the community, then the Church can contribute greatly in overcoming social barriers to health care.
Questions for discussion:
1.
What are the social barriers that people, especially the poor, around you face in accessing health care?
2.
What can you, individually and collectively do for people in overcoming those barriers?
3.
How do you react to an unconventional / daring suggestion in solving a problem?
Prayer:
Lord we confess that we have been largely apathetic to the needs of others and blocked the way of those in desperate need of your healing power and forgiveness. Forgive us and help us be like the four friends of the paralyzed man. Help us make our church a daring community ready to take risks for helping people in need.
Day 5: TRANSFORMATION AND EMPOWERMENT
“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam”. So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
Reading: John 9:7
Reflection: Aman was once an alcoholic and lost his job on that count. He was also an excellent sportsman. Shortly after he lost his job, and as he was contemplating suicide, he ran into a bunch of teenagers loitering on the streets, directionless and purposeless. Teetering on the edge of suicide, he wondered if the boys would respond to a sports initiative that he could start. Using an empty playground as a base, he began an experiment of engaging the boys in fruitful games and sports that transformed him and has since then changed and empowered the lives of countless teenagers.
Only transformed people can transform and empower others. When the blind man who lived a passively dependant existence on the alms and sufferance of others, was healed by Jesus, he not only gained his sight, but also gained insight. He is transformed and empowered. A man who spent his life on the sidewalks of life gets a new identity and debates with the powerful people of the society. He declares that Jesus is a prophet and still later worships Him as God. Thus transformation is also empowerment.
Question for discussion:
1.
How do we become agents of transformation and empowerment, especially in our work place?
Prayer:
Transformation is an act of Grace. Open our eyes Lord, to see grace at work in our midst.
Day 6: TRANSFORMING OURSELVES FOR HEALING MINISTRY
Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”
Reading: Luke 8:43-48
Reflection:
Jesus, by making public the woman’s healing, helps to remove the social stigma associated with her condition. Jesus’ public acknowledgement of the woman’s faith would have empowered her to overcome all past and future insults about her condition. As ambassadors of the healing mission of Jesus, we can do much more than give medicines and cure. We can also empower people, by the simple act of treating them with dignity and respect. However, to be able to follow Jesus’ example, we must ourselves be transformed in the ways that we think, act and treat each other; in the ways we try to understand, address and remove the social barriers that people experience.
Questions for discussion:
1.
What steps can I take to begin this inner transformation?
2.
What is the first thing that I will do differently, as a symbol of this transformation?
Prayer:
Dear Lord, help us be conscious of where we are lacking, so that we can seek to be transformed. Help us not to be hesitant when we are called to be different.
Published by
Office for Health Care
Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India
E: info@cbcihealth.org
W: www.cbci.in
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For private circulation only
Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the World Communication Day 2012
Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As we draw near to World Communications Day 2012, I would like to share with you some reflections concerning an aspect of the human process of communication which, despite its importance, is often overlooked and which, at the present time, it would seem especially necessary to recall. It concerns the relationship between silence and word: two aspects of communication which need to be kept in balance, to alternate and to be integrated with one another if authentic dialogue and deep closeness between people are to be achieved. When word and silence become mutually exclusive, communication breaks down, either because it gives rise to confusion or because, on the contrary, it creates an atmosphere of coldness; when they complement one another, however, communication acquires value and meaning.
Silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist. In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves. By remaining silent we allow the other person to speak, to express him or herself; and we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested. In this way, space is created for mutual listening, and deeper human relationships become possible. It is often in silence, for example, that we observe the most authentic communication taking place between people who are in love: gestures, facial expressions and body language are signs by which they reveal themselves to each other. Joy, anxiety, and suffering can all be communicated in silence – indeed it provides them with a particularly powerful mode of expression. Silence, then, gives rise to even more active communication, requiring sensitivity and a capacity to listen that often makes manifest the true measure and nature of the relationships involved. When messages and information are plentiful, silence becomes essential if we are to distinguish what is important from what is insignificant or secondary. Deeper reflection helps us to discover the links between events that at first sight seem unconnected, to make evaluations, to analyze messages; this makes it possible to share thoughtful and relevant opinions, giving rise to an authentic body of shared knowledge. For this to happen, it is necessary to develop an appropriate environment, a kind of ‘eco-system’ that maintains a just equilibrium between silence, words, images and sounds.
The process of communication nowadays is largely fuelled by questions in search of answers. Search engines and social networks have become the starting point of communication for many people who are seeking advice, ideas, information and answers. In our time, the internet is becoming ever more a forum for questions and answers – indeed, people today are frequently bombarded with answers to questions they have never asked and to needs of which they were unaware. If we are to recognize and focus upon the truly important questions, then silence is a precious commodity that enables us to exercise proper discernment in the face of the surcharge of stimuli and data that we receive. Amid the complexity and diversity of the world of communications, however, many people find themselves confronted with the ultimate questions of human existence: Who am I? What can I know? What ought I to do? What may I hope? It is important to affirm those who ask these questions, and to open up the possibility of a profound dialogue, by means of words and interchange, but also through the call to silent reflection, something that is often more eloquent than a hasty answer and permits seekers to reach into the depths of their being and open themselves to the path towards knowledge that God has inscribed in human hearts.
Ultimately, this constant flow of questions demonstrates the restlessness of human beings, ceaselessly searching for truths, of greater or lesser import, that can offer meaning and hope to their lives. Men and women cannot rest content with a superficial and unquestioning exchange of skeptical opinions and experiences of life – all of us are in search of truth and we share this profound yearning today more than ever: "When people exchange information, they are already sharing themselves, their view of the world, their hopes, their ideals" (*Message for the 2011 World Day of Communications*).
Attention should be paid to the various types of websites, applications and social networks which can help people today to find time for reflection and authentic questioning, as well as making space for silence and occasions for prayer, meditation or sharing of the word of God. In concise phrases, often no longer than a verse from the Bible, profound thoughts can be communicated, as long as those taking part in the conversation do not neglect to cultivate their own inner lives. It is hardly surprising that different religious traditions consider solitude and silence as privileged states which help people to rediscover themselves and that Truth which gives meaning to all things. The God of biblical revelation speaks also without words: "As the Cross of Christ demonstrates, God also speaks by his silence. The silence of God, the experience of the distance of the almighty Father, is a decisive stage in the earthly journey of the Son of God, the incarnate Word …. God’s silence prolongs his earlier words. In these moments of darkness, he speaks through the mystery of his silence" (*Verbum Domini, *21). The eloquence of God’s love, lived to the point of the supreme gift, speaks in the silence of the Cross. After Christ’s death there is a great silence over the earth, and on Holy Saturday, when "the King sleeps and God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages" (cf. *Office of Readings, Holy Saturday*), God’s voice resounds, filled with love for humanity.
If God speaks to us even in silence, we in turn discover in silence the possibility of speaking with God and about God. "We need that silence which becomes contemplation, which introduces us into God’s silence and brings us to the point where the Word, the redeeming Word, is born" *(Homily, *Eucharistic Celebration with Members of the International Theological Commission, 6 October 2006). In speaking of God’s grandeur, our language will always prove inadequate and must make space for silent contemplation. Out of such contemplation springs forth, with all its inner power, the urgent sense of mission, the compelling obligation "to communicate that which we have seen and heard" so that all may be in communion with God (*1 Jn* 1:3). Silent contemplation immerses us in the source of that Love who directs us towards our neighbours so that we may feel their suffering and offer them the light of Christ, his message of life and his saving gift of the fullness of love.
In silent contemplation, then, the eternal Word, through whom the world was created, becomes ever more powerfully present and we become aware of the plan of salvation that God is accomplishing throughout our history by word and deed. As the Second Vatican Council reminds us, divine revelation is fulfilled by "deeds and words having an inner unity: the deeds wrought by God in the history of salvation manifest and confirm the teaching and realities signified by the words, while the words proclaim the deeds and clarify the mystery contained in them" (*Dei Verbum, *2). This plan of salvation culminates in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the mediator and the fullness of all revelation. He has made known to us the true face of God the Father and by his Cross and Resurrection has brought us from the slavery of sin and death to the freedom of the children of God. The fundamental question of the meaning of human existence finds in the mystery of Christ an answer capable of bringing peace to the restless human heart. The Church’s mission springs from this mystery; and it is this mystery which impels Christians to become heralds of hope and salvation, witnesses of that love which promotes human dignity and builds justice and peace.
Word and silence: learning to communicate is learning to listen and contemplate as well as speak. This is especially important for those engaged in the task of evangelization: both silence and word are essential elements, integral to the Church’s work of communication for the sake of a renewed proclamation of Christ in today’s world. To Mary, whose silence "listens to the Word and causes it to blossom" (*Private Prayer at the Holy House*, Loreto, 1 September 2007), I entrust all the work of evangelization which the Church undertakes through the means of social communication.
From the Vatican, 24 January 2012, Feast of Saint Francis de Sales
BENEDICTUS PP XVI
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Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the 20th World Day of the Sick February 11, 2012
“Stand up and go; your faith has saved you”
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On the occasion of the World Day of the Sick, which we will celebrate on 11 February 2012, the Memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes, I wish to renew my spiritual closeness to all sick people who are in places of care or are looked after in their families, expressing to each one of them the solicitude and the affection of the whole Church. In the generous and loving welcoming of every human life, above all of weak and sick life, a Christian expresses an important aspect of his or her Gospel witness, following the example of Christ, who bent down before the material and spiritual sufferings of man in order to heal them.
1. This year, which involves the immediate preparations for the Solemn World Day of the Sick that will be celebrated in Germany on 11 February 2013 and will focus on the emblematic Gospel figure of the Good Samaritan (cf. Lk 10:29-37), I would like to place emphasis upon the “sacraments of healing”, that is to say upon the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation and that of the Anointing of the Sick, which have their natural completion in Eucharistic Communion.
The encounter of Jesus with the ten lepers, narrated by the Gospel of Saint Luke (cf. Lk 17:11-19), and in particular the words that the Lord addresses to one of them, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you” (v. 19), help us to become aware of the importance of faith for those who, burdened by suffering and illness, draw near to the Lord. In their encounter with him they can truly experience that he who believes is never alone! God, indeed, in his Son, does not abandon us to our anguish and sufferings, but is close to us, helps us to bear them, and wishes to heal us in the depths of our hearts (cf. Mk 2:1-12).
The faith of the lone leper who, on seeing that he was healed, full of amazement and joy, and unlike the others, immediately went back to Jesus to express his gratitude, enables us to perceive that reacquired health is a sign of something more precious than mere physical healing, it is a sign of the salvation that God gives us through Christ; it finds expression in the words of Jesus: your faith has saved you. He who in suffering and illness prays to the Lord is certain that God’s love will never abandon him, and also that the love of the Church, the extension in time of the Lord’s saving work, will never fail.
Physical healing, an outward expression of the deepest salvation, thus reveals the importance that man – in his entirety of soul and body – has for the Lord. Each sacrament, for that matter, expresses and actuates the closeness of God himself, who, in an absolutely freely-given way, “touches us through material things … that he takes up into his service, making them instruments of the encounter between us and himself” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 1 April 2010). “The unity between creation and redemption is made visible. The sacraments are an expression of the physicality of our faith, which embraces the whole person, body and soul” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 21 April 2011).
The principal task of the Church is certainly proclaiming the Kingdom of God, “But this very proclamation must be a process of healing: ‘bind up the broken-hearted’ (Is 61:1)” (ibid.), according to the charge entrusted by Jesus to his disciples (cf. Lk 9:1-2; Mt 10:1,5-14; Mk 6:7-13). The tandem of physical health and renewal after lacerations of the soul thus helps us to understand better the “sacraments of healing”.
2. The sacrament of Penance has often been at the centre of the reflection of the Church’s Pastors, specifically because of its great importance in the journey of Christian life, given that “The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God’s grace, and joining with him in an intimate friendship” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1468). The Church, in continuing to proclaim Jesus’ message of forgiveness and reconciliation, never ceases to invite the whole of humanity to convert and to believe in the Gospel. She makes her own the call of the Apostle Paul: “So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20). Jesus, during his life, proclaimed and made present the mercy of the Father. He came not to condemn but to forgive and to save, to give hope in the deepest darkness of suffering and sin, and to give eternal life; thus in the sacrament of Penance, in the “medicine of confession”, the experience of sin does not degenerate into despair but encounters the Love that forgives and transforms (cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 31).
God, “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4), like the father in the Gospel parable (cf. Lk 15:11-32), does not close his heart to any of his children, but waits for them, looks for them, reaches them where their rejection of communion imprisons them in isolation and division, and calls them to gather around his table, in the joy of the feast of forgiveness and reconciliation. A time of suffering, in which one could be tempted to abandon oneself to discouragement and hopelessness, can thus be transformed into a time of grace so as to return to oneself, and like the prodigal son of the parable, to think anew about one’s life, recognizing its errors and failures, longing for the embrace of the Father, and following the pathway to his home. He, in his great love, always and everywhere watches over our lives and awaits us so as to offer to every child that returns to him the gift of full reconciliation and joy.
3. From a reading of the Gospels it emerges clearly that Jesus always showed special concern for sick people. He not only sent out his disciples to tend their wounds (cf. Mt 10:8; Lk 9:2; 10:9) but also instituted for them a specific sacrament: the Anointing of the Sick. The Letter of James attests to the presence of this sacramental act already in the first Christian community (cf. 5:14-16): by the Anointing of the Sick, accompanied by the prayer of the elders, the whole of the Church commends the sick to the suffering and glorified Lord so that he may alleviate their sufferings and save them; indeed she exhorts them to unite themselves spiritually to the passion and death of Christ so as to contribute thereby to the good of the People of God.
This sacrament leads us to contemplate the double mystery of the Mount of Olives, where Jesus found himself dramatically confronted by the path indicated to him by the Father, that of his Passion, the supreme act of love; and he accepted it. In that hour of tribulation, he is the mediator, “bearing in himself, taking upon himself the sufferings and passion of the world, transforming it into a cry to God, bringing it before the eyes and into the hands of God and thus truly bringing it to the moment of redemption” (Lectio Divina, Meeting with the Parish Priests of Rome, 18 February 2010). But “the Garden of Olives is also the place from which he ascended to the Father, and is therefore the place of redemption … This double mystery of the Mount of Olives is also always ‘at work’ within the Church’s sacramental oil … the sign of God’s goodness reaching out to touch us” (Homily, Chrism Mass, 1 April 2010). In the Anointing of the Sick, the sacramental matter of the oil is offered to us, so to speak, “as God’s medicine … which now assures us of his goodness, offering us strength and consolation, yet at the same time points beyond the moment of the illness towards the definitive healing, the resurrection (cf. Jas 5:14)” (ibid.).
This sacrament deserves greater consideration today both in theological reflection and in pastoral ministry among the sick. Through a proper appreciation of the content of the liturgical prayers that are adapted to the various human situations connected with illness, and not only when a person is at the end of his or her life (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1514), the Anointing of the Sick should not be held to be almost “a minor sacrament” when compared to the others. Attention to and pastoral care for sick people, while, on the one hand, a sign of God’s tenderness towards those who are suffering, on the other brings spiritual advantage to priests and the whole Christian community as well, in the awareness that what is done to the least, is done to Jesus himself (cf. Mt 25:40).
4. As regards the “sacraments of healing”, Saint Augustine affirms: “God heals all your infirmities. Do not be afraid, therefore, all your infirmities will be healed … You must only allow him to cure you and you must not reject his hands” (Exposition on Psalm 102, 5; PL 36, 1319-1320). These are precious instruments of God’s grace which help a sick person to conform himself or herself ever more fully to the mystery of the death and resurrection of Christ. Together with these two sacraments, I would also like to emphasize the importance of the Eucharist. Received at a time of illness, it contributes in a singular way to working this transformation, associating the person who partakes of the Body and Blood of Christ to the offering that he made of himself to the Father for the salvation of all. The whole ecclesial community, and parish communities in particular, should pay attention to guaranteeing the possibility of frequently receiving Holy Communion, to those people who, for reasons of health or age, cannot go to a place of worship. In this way, these brothers and sisters are offered the possibility of strengthening their relationship with Christ, crucified and risen, participating, through their lives offered up for love of Christ, in the very mission of the Church. From this point of view, it is important that priests who offer their discreet work in hospitals, in nursing homes and in the homes of sick people, feel they are truly “’ministers of the sick’, signs and instruments of Christ's compassion who must reach out to every person marked by suffering” (Message for the XVIII World Day of the Sick, 22 November 2009).
Becoming conformed to the Paschal Mystery of Christ, which can also be achieved through the practice of spiritual Communion, takes on a very particular meaning when the Eucharist is administered and received as Viaticum. At that stage in life, these words of the Lord are even more telling: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day” (Jn 6:54). The Eucharist, especially as Viaticum, is – according to the definition of Saint Ignatius of Antioch – “medicine of immortality, the antidote for death” (Letter to the Ephesians, 20: PG 5, 661); the sacrament of the passage from death to life, from this world to the Father, who awaits everyone in the celestial Jerusalem.
5. The theme of this Message for the Twentieth World Day of the Sick, “Stand up and go; your faith has saved you”, also looks forward to the forthcoming Year of Faith which will begin on 11 October 2012, a propitious and valuable occasion to rediscover the strength and beauty of faith, to examine its contents, and to bear witness to it in daily life (cf. Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, 11 October 2011). I wish to encourage sick people and the suffering always to find a safe anchor in faith, nourished by listening to the Word of God, by personal prayer and by the sacraments, while I invite pastors to be increasingly ready to celebrate them for the sick. Following the example of the Good Shepherd and as guides of the flocks entrusted to them, priests should be full of joy, attentive to the weakest, the simple and sinners, expressing the infinite mercy of God with reassuring words of hope (cf. Saint Augustine, Letter 95, 1: PL 33, 351-352).
To all those who work in the field of health, and to the families who see in their relatives the suffering face of the Lord Jesus, I renew my thanks and that of the Church, because, in their professional expertise and in silence, often without even mentioning the name of Christ, they manifest him in a concrete way (cf. Homily, Chrism Mass, 21 April 2011).
To Mary, Mother of Mercy and Health of the Sick, we raise our trusting gaze and our prayer; may her maternal compassion, manifested as she stood beside her dying Son on the Cross, accompany and sustain the faith and the hope of every sick and suffering person on the journey of healing for the wounds of body and spirit!
I assure you all of a remembrance in my prayers, and I bestow upon each one of you a special Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 20 November 2011,
Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King.
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the Celebration of World Peace Day January 1, 2012
Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the Celebration of World Peace Day
January 1, 2012
EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE IN JUSTICE AND PEACE
1. The beginning of a new year, God’s gift to humanity, prompts me to extend to all, with great confidence and affection, my heartfelt good wishes that this time now before us may be marked concretely by justice and peace.
With what attitude should we look to the New Year? We find a very beautiful image in Psalm 130. The Psalmist says that people of faith wait for the Lord “more than those who watch for the morning” (v. 6); they wait for him with firm hope because they know that he will bring light, mercy, salvation. This waiting was born of the experience of the Chosen People, who realized that God taught them to look at the world in its truth and not to be overwhelmed by tribulation. I invite you to look to 2012 with this attitude of confident trust. It is true that the year now ending has been marked by a rising sense of frustration at the crisis looming over society, the world of labour and the economy, a crisis whose roots are primarily cultural and anthropological. It seems as if a shadow has fallen over our time, preventing us from clearly seeing the light of day.
In this shadow, however, human hearts continue to wait for the dawn of which the Psalmist speaks. Because this expectation is particularly powerful and evident in young people, my thoughts turn to them and to the contribution which they can and must make to society. I would like therefore to devote this message for the XLV World Day of Peace to the theme of education: “Educating Young People in Justice and Peace”, in the conviction that the young, with their enthusiasm and idealism, can offer new hope to the world.
My Message is also addressed to parents, families and all those involved in the area of education and formation, as well as to leaders in the various spheres of religious, social, political, economic and cultural life and in the media. Attentiveness to young people and their concerns, the ability to listen to them and appreciate them, is not merely something expedient; it represents a primary duty for society as a whole, for the sake of building a future of justice and peace.
It is a matter of communicating to young people an appreciation for the positive value of life and of awakening in them a desire to spend their lives in the service of the Good. This is a task which engages each of us personally.
The concerns expressed in recent times by many young people around the world demonstrate that they desire to look to the future with solid hope. At the present time, they are experiencing apprehension about many things: they want to receive an education which prepares them more fully to deal with the real world, they see how difficult it is to form a family and to find stable employment; they wonder if they can really contribute to political, cultural and economic life in order to build a society with a more human and fraternal face.
It is important that this unease and its underlying idealism receive due attention at every level of society. The Church looks to young people with hope and confidence; she encourages them to seek truth, to defend the common good, to be open to the world around them and willing to see “new things” (Is 42:9; 48:6).
Educators
2. Education is the most interesting and difficult adventure in life. Educating – from the Latin educere – means leading young people to move beyond themselves and introducing them to reality, towards a fullness that leads to growth. This process is fostered by the encounter of two freedoms, that of adults and that of the young. It calls for responsibility on the part of the learners, who must be open to being led to the knowledge of reality, and on the part of educators, who must be ready to give of themselves. For this reason, today more than ever we need authentic witnesses, and not simply people who parcel out rules and facts; we need witnesses capable of seeing farther than others because their life is so much broader. A witness is someone who first lives the life that he proposes to others.
Where does true education in peace and justice take place? First of all, in the family, since parents are the first educators. The family is the primary cell of society; “it is in the family that children learn the human and Christian values which enable them to have a constructive and peaceful coexistence. It is in the family that they learn solidarity between the generations, respect for rules, forgiveness and how to welcome others.” (1) The family is the first school in which we are trained in justice and peace.
We are living in a world where families, and life itself, are constantly threatened and not infrequently fragmented. Working conditions which are often incompatible with family responsibilities, worries about the future, the frenetic pace of life, the need to move frequently to ensure an adequate livelihood, to say nothing of mere survival – all this makes it hard to ensure that children receive one of the most precious of treasures: the presence of their parents. This presence makes it possible to share more deeply in the journey of life and thus to pass on experiences and convictions gained with the passing of the years, experiences and convictions which can only be communicated by spending time together. I would urge parents not to grow disheartened! May they encourage children by the example of their lives to put their hope before all else in God, the one source of authentic justice and peace.
I would also like to address a word to those in charge of educational institutions: with a great sense of responsibility may they ensure that the dignity of each person is always respected and appreciated. Let them be concerned that every young person be able to discover his or her own vocation and helped to develop his or her God-given gifts. May they reassure families that their children can receive an education that does not conflict with their consciences and their religious principles.
Every educational setting can be a place of openness to the transcendent and to others; a place of dialogue, cohesiveness and attentive listening, where young people feel appreciated for their personal abilities and inner riches, and can learn to esteem their brothers and sisters. May young people be taught to savour the joy which comes from the daily exercise of charity and compassion towards others and from taking an active part in the building of a more humane and fraternal society.
I ask political leaders to offer concrete assistance to families and educational institutions in the exercise of their right and duty to educate. Adequate support should never be lacking to parents in their task. Let them ensure that no one is ever denied access to education and that families are able freely to choose the educational structures they consider most suitable for their children. Let them be committed to reuniting families separated by the need to earn a living. Let them give young people a transparent image of politics as a genuine service to the good of all.
I cannot fail also to appeal to the world of the media to offer its own contribution to education. In today’s society the mass media have a particular role: they not only inform but also form the minds of their audiences, and so they can make a significant contribution to the education of young people. It is important never to forget that the connection between education and communication is extremely close: education takes place through communication, which influences, for better or worse, the formation of the person.
Young people too need to have the courage to live by the same high standards that they set for others. Theirs is a great responsibility: may they find the strength to make good and wise use of their freedom. They too are responsible for their education, including their education in justice and peace!
Educating in truth and freedom
3. Saint Augustine once asked: “Quid enim fortius desiderat anima quam veritatem? – What does man desire more deeply than truth?”(2) The human face of a society depends very much on the contribution of education to keep this irrepressible question alive. Education, indeed, is concerned with the integral formation of the person, including the moral and spiritual dimension, focused upon man’s final end and the good of the society to which he belongs. Therefore, in order to educate in truth, it is necessary first and foremost to know who the human person is, to know human nature. Contemplating the world around him, the Psalmist reflects: “When I see the heavens, the work of your hands, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what is man that you should keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him?” (Ps 8:4-5). This is the fundamental question that must be asked: who is man? Man is a being who bears within his heart a thirst for the infinite, a thirst for truth – a truth which is not partial but capable of explaining life’s meaning – since he was created in the image and likeness of God. The grateful recognition that life is an inestimable gift, then, leads to the discovery of one’s own profound dignity and the inviolability of every single person. Hence the first step in education is learning to recognize the Creator’s image in man, and consequently learning to have a profound respect for every human being and helping others to live a life consonant with this supreme dignity. We must never forget that “authentic human development concerns the whole of the person in every single dimension”(3), including the transcendent dimension, and that the person cannot be sacrificed for the sake of attaining a particular good, whether this be economic or social, individual or collective.
Only in relation to God does man come to understand also the meaning of human freedom. It is the task of education to form people in authentic freedom. This is not the absence of constraint or the supremacy of free will, it is not the absolutism of the self. When man believes himself to be absolute, to depend on nothing and no one, to be able to do anything he wants, he ends up contradicting the truth of his own being and forfeiting his freedom. On the contrary, man is a relational being, who lives in relationship with others and especially with God. Authentic freedom can never be attained independently of God.
Freedom is a precious value, but a fragile one; it can be misunderstood and misused. “Today, a particularly insidious obstacle to the task of educating is the massive presence in our society and culture of that relativism which, recognizing nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate criterion only the self with its desires. And under the semblance of freedom it becomes a prison for each one, for it separates people from one another, locking each person into his or her own self. With such a relativistic horizon, therefore, real education is not possible without the light of the truth; sooner or later, every person is in fact condemned to doubting the goodness of his or her own life and the relationships of which it consists, the validity of his or her commitment to build with others something in common”(4).
In order to exercise his freedom, then, man must move beyond the relativistic horizon and come to know the truth about himself and the truth about good and evil. Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law that he did not lay upon himself, but which he must obey. Its voice calls him to love and to do what is good, to avoid evil and to take responsibility for the good he does and the evil he commits (5). Thus, the exercise of freedom is intimately linked to the natural moral law, which is universal in character, expresses the dignity of every person and forms the basis of fundamental human rights and duties: consequently, in the final analysis, it forms the basis for just and peaceful coexistence.
The right use of freedom, then, is central to the promotion of justice and peace, which require respect for oneself and others, including those whose way of being and living differs greatly from one’s own. This attitude engenders the elements without which peace and justice remain merely words without content: mutual trust, the capacity to hold constructive dialogue, the possibility of forgiveness, which one constantly wishes to receive but finds hard to bestow, mutual charity, compassion towards the weakest, as well as readiness to make sacrifices.
Educating in justice
4. In this world of ours, in which, despite the profession of good intentions, the value of the person, of human dignity and human rights is seriously threatened by the widespread tendency to have recourse exclusively to the criteria of utility, profit and material possessions, it is important not to detach the concept of justice from its transcendent roots. Justice, indeed, is not simply a human convention, since what is just is ultimately determined not by positive law, but by the profound identity of the human being. It is the integral vision of man that saves us from falling into a contractual conception of justice and enables us to locate justice within the horizon of solidarity and love (6).
We cannot ignore the fact that some currents of modern culture, built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and solidarity: “The ‘earthly city’ is promoted not merely by relationships of rights and duties, but to an even greater and more fundamental extent by relationships of gratuitousness, mercy and communion. Charity always manifests God’s love in human relationships as well, it gives theological and salvific value to all commitment for justice in the world” (7).
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied” (Mt 5:6). They shall be satisfied because they hunger and thirst for right relations with God, with themselves, with their brothers and sisters, and with the whole of creation.
Educating in peace
5. “Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity” (8). We Christians believe that Christ is our true peace: in him, by his Cross, God has reconciled the world to himself and has broken down the walls of division that separated us from one another (cf. Eph 2:14-18); in him, there is but one family, reconciled in love.
Peace, however, is not merely a gift to be received: it is also a task to be undertaken. In order to be true peacemakers, we must educate ourselves in compassion, solidarity, working together, fraternity, in being active within the community and concerned to raise awareness about national and international issues and the importance of seeking adequate mechanisms for the redistribution of wealth, the promotion of growth, cooperation for development and conflict resolution. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God”, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:9).
Peace for all is the fruit of justice for all, and no one can shirk this essential task of promoting justice, according to one’s particular areas of competence and responsibility. To the young, who have such a strong attachment to ideals, I extend a particular invitation to be patient and persevering in seeking justice and peace, in cultivating the taste for what is just and true, even when it involves sacrifice and swimming against the tide.
Raising one’s eyes to God
6. Before the difficult challenge of walking the paths of justice and peace, we may be tempted to ask, in the words of the Psalmist: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains: from where shall come my help?” (Ps 121:1).
To all, and to young people in particular, I wish to say emphatically: “It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what is really good and true … an unconditional return to God who is the measure of what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever save us apart from love?”(9) Love takes delight in truth, it is the force that enables us to make a commitment to truth, to justice, to peace, because it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (cf. 1 Cor 13:1-13).
Dear young people, you are a precious gift for society. Do not yield to discouragement in the face of difficulties and do not abandon yourselves to false solutions which often seem the easiest way to overcome problems. Do not be afraid to make a commitment, to face hard work and sacrifice, to choose the paths that demand fidelity and constancy, humility and dedication. Be confident in your youth and its profound desires for happiness, truth, beauty and genuine love! Live fully this time in your life so rich and so full of enthusiasm.
Realize that you yourselves are an example and an inspiration to adults, even more so to the extent that you seek to overcome injustice and corruption and strive to build a better future. Be aware of your potential; never become self-centred but work for a brighter future for all. You are never alone. The Church has confidence in you, follows you, encourages you and wishes to offer you the most precious gift she has: the opportunity to raise your eyes to God, to encounter Jesus Christ, who is himself justice and peace.
All you men and women throughout the world, who take to heart the cause of peace: peace is not a blessing already attained, but rather a goal to which each and all of us must aspire. Let us look with greater hope to the future; let us encourage one another on our journey; let us work together to give our world a more humane and fraternal face; and let us feel a common responsibility towards present and future generations, especially in the task of training them to be people of peace and builders of peace. With these thoughts I offer my reflections and I appeal to everyone: let us pool our spiritual, moral and material resources for the great goal of “educating young people in justice and peace”.
From the Vatican, 8 December 2011
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
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(1) BENEDICT XVI, Address to Administrators of Lazio Region and of the Municipality and Province of Rome (14 January 2011): L’Osservatore Romano, 15 January 2011, p. 7.
(2) Commentary on the Gospel of John, 26, 5.
(3) BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate (29 June 2009), 11: AAS 101 (2009), 648; cf. PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio (26 March 1967), 14: AAS 59 (1967), 264.
(4) BENEDICT XVI, Address for the Opening of the Diocesan Ecclesial Meeting in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran (6 June 2005): AAS 97 (2005), 816.
(5) Cf. SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 16.
(6) Cf. BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Bundestag (Berlin, 22 September 2011): L’Osservatore Romano, 24 September 2011, pp. 6-7.
(7) ID., Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, 6 (29 June 2009), 6: AAS 101 (2009), 644-645.
(8) Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2304.
(9) BENEDICT XVI, Address at Youth Vigil (Cologne, 20 August 2005): AAS 97 (2005), 885-886.
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International Human Rights Day 10 December 2011
International Human Rights Day
10 December 2011
In his message on the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR), Pope John Paul II said that the Declaration had made a decisive contribution to the development of international law, and that it had challenged national legislation and ‘allowed millions of men and women to live with greater dignity.’ But, very pertinent is his following observation: “However, anyone who looks at today’s world cannot but note: these fundamental rights, proclaimed, codified and celebrated are still the object of serious and constant violations.”
That observation of Pope John Paul II is relevant even today, especially in India, which is proud of having produced a lengthy Constitution. The discriminatory paragraph 3 of the Presidential Order 1950 has denied equal status to millions of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims for more than six decades; various mining projects in the country have resulted in massive eviction and displacement of millions of tribal people without adequate recompense or rehabilitation; people of minority religions like Islam and Christianity have been the unfortunate targets of communal violence. The lot of human rights defenders is no better than that of the above mentioned vulnerable groups. In 2011 alone four human rights defenders brutally killed in unexplained circumstances: Jharkhand social activist Niyamat Ansari in March; environmental activist Shehla Masood of Bhopal in August; Nadeem Sayed, a Gujarat-based activist, and Sr. Valsa John, anti-mining, anti-displacement activist in Jharkhand in November.
Even as the government brags about its recent laws like the Right to Education Act, Right to Information Act, Citizens’ Right to Grievance Redress Bill and so on, frequently reported are several cases of intimidation and harassment of human rights activists and whistleblowers. For example, having been acquitted of all ‘framed’ charges, human rights activist Arun Ferriera, who had suffered unjust incarceration for four years and four months, was abducted and illegally detained by none other than the commandoes of the Central Government Offices, in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, immediately after his release on 27 September – and that in front of his own family members who had come to take him home. And, Dr Pugazhenthi, who had published his findings on the various safety issues related to the power plant in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, laments that the police inspector at Puthupattinam station threatened, on 1 December 2011, to book him under National Security Act for whatever works he had been doing (visit
http://www.dianuke.org/pugazhenthi-kalpakkam/
for details).
‘Human rights are simply given by God. They are not to be taken by the State or by any human being without giving offense to God,’ says the Compendium of the Catholic Social Doctrine (No. 153). ‘When the violation of any fundamental human right is accepted without reaction, all other rights are placed at risk,’ said Pope John Paul II in his Message on the World Day of Peace, on 1 January 1999. On this 63rd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, let us rededicate ourselves to the defence and promotion of human rights, reminding ourselves of the felicitous words of Demosthenes: “What we have in us of the image of God is the love of truth and justice.”
- Fr. Charles Irudayam, Secretary, JPD Office – CBCI, New Delhi
Letter of the Chairperson, Dalit Liberation Sunday 11th December 2011
Letter of the Chairperson
Dalit Liberation Sunday
11th December 2011
Theme: Our God with Struggling People
Your Eminence/Grace/Excellency/Father/Sister/Brother in Christ,
Greetings of Peace and Joy to You!
Every year Dalit Liberation Sunday is an occasion for the entire Christian community to renew its commitment towards sisters and brothers of Dalit origin who suffer social economical and educational backwardness arising out of the traditional practice of untouchability.
Indian society is still under the grip of caste culture that perpetuates ethos, attitudes, structures of inequality and dehumanizing untouchable practices. Contrary to the Gospel vision of Christ ‘caste mentality’ prevails within Christian community. “It violates the God-given dignity and equality of human person. Human dignity and respect are due to human person and any denial of this is a sin against God and humans. (
See Statement on Caste by Catholic Bishops Conference of India, Tiruchirappalli, January, 4-14, 1982
).
The cries of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims for Scheduled Caste status are unheard, their non-violent, democratic representations and struggles are ignored by the Indian State and the mainstream media. The Union Government of India is yet to file a reply in the Supreme Court of India to the issues raised in the Writ Petitions filed from 2004 onwards, praying the deletion of paragraph 3 of the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950.
The Christian community as a whole needs to identify helpless groans and assertive struggles of Dalits as a privileged locus of divine revelation. The Spirit of Life with its salvific intervention is actively present in the battered bodies, wounded psyche, dynamic restlessness, unrelenting articulation, creative imagination and aesthetic expressions of the Dalits. (
See The Statement of the Indian Theological Association- 28th Annual Meeting, (Bangalore (April 24-28, 2005).
Jesus of Nazareth who shares the Dalit origin, anointed by the Spirit of God, announces the Good news to the afflicted and to soothe the broken-hearted Dalits. God of compassion clothes Dalits in garments of salvation and wraps them in a cloak of saving justice. Vested interests may deceive Dalits and the Union Government may delay justice to the Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims. But God of justice is wrestling on behalf of them and as the earth sends up its shoots and a garden makes seeds sprout, so God of Life makes saving justice and praise spring up in the sight of all nations.
(Isaiah 61: 1-2, 10-11)
.
Let this Dalit Liberation Sunday instill in us the hope that God leads our struggle to demand equal rights for Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims and our efforts to build inclusive communities of justice, peace and joy.
Suggested Action Plan:
Kindly preach about the struggles of Dalits in general and Dalit Christians in particular and the need for the entire Christian community to involve in the struggle.
Please organize processions, rallies, meetings, seminars to conscientize the parish communities and the public about the Dalit and Dalit Christian, Dalit Muslim issue.
Kindly send a memorandum signed by all the members of Christian community to the Prime Minister and copies to the UPA Chairperson, the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, the Minister for Minority Affairs and Minister for Law and Justice.
Since we need to intensify our lobbying and to strengthen the Supreme Court Case, you are invited to send your contribution in favour of “CBCI Office for SC/BC.” Even a small contribution will be very helpful.
Thanking you for all your prayerful support and collaboration
Yours Sincerely in Christ Jesus,
(Most Rev. A. Neethinathan)
Chairperson
CBCI Office for SC/BC
Reflection on the Theme
(The following reflections are provided by the CBCI Office for SC/BC to assist you in animating the Faithful and creating awareness among them on the importance of the Dalit Liberation Sunday. They may be used a a resource in preaching, talks and other means of animation. Ed.)
During the season of Advent we meditate on God’s intervention in history and immersion into humanity by becoming a human person. God who has been with his people continues to be with them in joys, sorrows, anxieties, anguish, hopes and efforts to realize fullness of life.
God’s special care for the vulnerable people is expressed clearly in the first reading of today: “He has sent me to bring the news to the afflicted, to soothe the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, release those in prison,…” (Is 61: 1-2)
The Nazareth Manifesto of Jesus (Lk 4: 16-19) emphatically defines his mission and his disciples. The community of the disciples is called to continue the mission of Christ by exercising “the gift of prophesy” not stifling the Spirit of God who dwells in us and in the Church to inspire us to “hold on to what is good and shun every form of evil.” (1 Thes 5: 16-17). Hence the Christian community as a whole is called to continue the struggle for justice for Dalits professing Christian Faith with hope amidst the delay and denial of justice by the Union Governments of India.
Dalits professing Christian Faith are denied benefits of affirmative action such as political representation from panchayat level to Parliament, special legal protection, employment, scholarships, loans, access to funds allotted under Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP) since they profess a religion of their own choice. This is blatant violation against the freedom of religion enshrined in the Constitution of India. It is gross violation of fundamental human rights. In short, they are second class citizens of this country. The root cause is paragraph 3 of the Constitution Scheduled Castes Order 1950 which confines the benefits of Scheduled Caste status to Dalits of Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist origin. We are called to oppose this communal paragraph and seek justice through legal remedy and executive action through our collective efforts.
The season of Advent is a time to overcome darkness by bearing witness to the light. John the Baptist bore witness to Christ the Light of the World. As witnesses to Christ, we need to overcome darkness of casteism within the Christian community and crooked caste attitudes and structures operating in the society. Let us recall the message of Blessed Pope John Paul II, addressed to a group of Bishops from India on 17 November, 2003, “They (Christians of SC origin) should never be segregated from other members of society. Any semblance of a caste-based prejudice in relations between Christians is a countersign to authentic human solidarity, a threat to genuine spirituality and a serious hindrance to the Church’s mission of evangelization. Therefore, customs or traditions that perpetuate or reinforce caste division should be sensitively reformed so that they may become an expression of solidarity of the whole Christian community.” We need to supplant structures of caste-arrogance with values of humble service to the sisters and brothers of Dalit community. The Spirit of Jesus urges every Christian to relate to the weak, particularly to Dalits in our society with humility and love them as human persons.
Mr. Velankanni, brother of a priest hailing from Dalit Christian community was buried at the parish cemetery on 22nd January 2011 at Thatchoor, Kancheepuram District, Tamilnadu. It was possible due to the efforts of the diocesan administration supported by the Untouchability Eradication Front and other human rights movements. Thatchoor parish was closed for more than ten years because of the struggle for equality by Dalit Christians and the opposition from non-Dalit Christians. After the burial, the local MLA and the members of the Unotuchability Eradication Front asked the local Sub Inspector of Police to give protection to the parish priest of Thatchoor, the family of deceased person and Dalit families.
It is a call for the entire Christian community to take note of all forms of discrimination and take positive steps to eradicate untouchability within the community. It is a call to follow the footsteps of our Lord Jesus who came to restore human dignity and God’s reign of equality and fellowship.
Let us introspect ourselves: Are we able to overcome darkness of casteism and change our crooked caste attitudes and untouchable practices? Are we humble enough to accept the leadership from Dalit community? Are we ready to include sisters and brothers of Dalit community in decision-making process and accept their skills, talents and wisdom for the growth of the Christian community and development of society? Do we promote inter-ritual and inter-caste marriages and inter-dining? Are we bold enough to take steps to eradicate visible forms of discrimination in the diocese such as separate cemetery, two places in the same worshiping place and so on?
Let us be like John the Baptist in bearing witness to Christ the Light by overcoming darkness of casteism and untouchability. As children of light let us make straight the way of the Lord practicing values of equality, solidarity and fellowship.
Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, 15th January 2012
Message of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for the World Day of
Migrants and Refugees 2012,15th January
Migration and the New Evangelization
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Proclaiming Jesus Christ the one Saviour of the world "constitutes the essential mission of the Church. It is a task and mission which the vast and profound changes of present-day society make all the more urgent"
(Evangelii Nuntiandi, 14)
. Indeed, today we feel the urgent need to give a fresh impetus and new approaches to the work of evangelization in a world in which the breaking down of frontiers and the new processes of globalization are bringing individuals and peoples even closer. This is both because of the development of the means of social communication and because of the frequency and ease with which individuals and groups can move about today. In this new situation we must reawaken in each one of us the enthusiasm and courage that motivated the first Christian communities to be undaunted heralds of the Gospel's newness, making St Paul's words resonate in our hearts: "For if I preach the gospel that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" (2 Cor 9:16).
"Migration and the New Evangelization"
is the theme I have chosen this year for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, and it arises from the aforesaid situation. The present time, in fact, calls upon the Church to embark on a new evangelization also in the vast and complex phenomenon of human mobility. This calls for an intensification of her missionary activity both in the regions where the Gospel is proclaimed for the first time and in countries with a Christian tradition.
Blessed John Paul II invited us to "nourish ourselves with the word in order to be 'servants of the word' in the work of evangelization ... [in] a situation which is becoming increasingly diversified and demanding, in the context of 'globalization' and of the consequent new and uncertain mingling of peoples and cultures" • (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 40). Internal or international migration, in fact, as an opening in search of better living conditions or to flee from the threat of persecution, war, violence, hunger or natural disasters, has led to an unprecedented mingling of individuals and peoples, with new problems not only from the human standpoint but also from ethical, religious and spiritual ones. The current and obvious consequences of secularization, the emergence of new sectarian movements, widespread insensitivity to the Christian faith and a marked tendency to fragmentation are obstacles to focusing on a unifying reference that would encourage the formation of "one family of brothers and sisters in societies that are becoming ever more multiethnic and intercultural, where also people of various religions are urged to take part in dialogue, so that a serene and fruitful coexistence with respect for legitimate differences may be found", as I wrote in my Message last year for this World Day. Our time is marked by endeavours to efface God and the Church's teaching from the horizon of life, while doubt, scepticism and indifference are creeping in, seeking to eliminate all the social and symbolic visibility of the Christian faith.
In these context migrants who have known and welcomed Christ are not infrequently constrained to consider him no longer relevant to their lives, to lose the meaning of their faith, no longer to recognize themselves as members of the Church, and often lead a life no longer marked by Christ and his Gospel. Having grown up among peoples characterized by their Christian faith they often emigrate to countries in which Christians are a minority or where the ancient tradition of faith, no longer a personal conviction or a community religion, has been reduced to a cultural fact. Here the Church is faced with the challenge of helping migrants keep their faith firm even when they are deprived of the cultural support that existed in their country of origin, and of identifying new pastoral approaches, as well as methods and expressions, for an ever vital reception of the Word of God. In some cases this is an opportunity to proclaim that, in Jesus Christ, humanity has been enabled to participate in the mystery of God and in his life of love. Humanity is also opened to a horizon of hope and peace, also through respectful dialogue and a tangible testimony of solidarity. In other cases there is the possibility of reawakening the dormant Christian conscience through a renewed proclamation of the Good News and a more consistent Christian life to enable people to rediscover the beauty of the encounter with Christ who calls Christians to holiness wherever they may be, even in a foreign land.
The phenomenon of migration today is also a providential opportunity for the proclamation of the Gospel in the contemporary world. Men and women from various regions of the earth, who have not yet encountered Jesus Christ or know him only partially, ask to be received in countries with an ancient Christian tradition. It is necessary to find adequate ways for them to meet and to become acquainted with Jesus Christ and to experience the invaluable gift of salvation which, for everyone, is a source of "life in abundance" (cf. Jn 10:10); migrants themselves have a special role in this regard because they in turn can become "heralds of God's word and witnesses to the Risen Jesus, the hope of the world" (Apostolic Exhortation
Verbum Domini
, 105).
Pastoral workers - priests, religious and lay people - play a crucial role in the demanding itinerary of the new evangelization in the context of migration. They work increasingly in a pluralist context: in communion with their Ordinaries, drawing on the Church's Magisterium. I invite them to seek ways of fraternal sharing and respectful proclamation, overcoming opposition and nationalism. For their part, the Churches of origin, of transit and those that welcome the migration flows should find ways to increase their cooperation for the benefit both of those who depart and those who arrive, and, in any case, of those who, on their journey, stand in need of encountering the merciful face of Christ in the welcome given to one's neighbour. To achieve a fruitful pastoral service of communion, it may be useful to update the traditional structures of care for migrants and refugees, by setting beside them models that respond better to the new situations in which different peoples and cultures interact with one another.
Asylum seekers, who fled from persecution, violence and situations that put their life at risk, stand in need of our understanding and welcome, of respect for their human dignity and rights, as well as awareness of their duties. Their suffering pleads with individual states and the international community to adopt attitudes of reciprocal acceptance, overcoming fears and avoiding forms of discrimination, and to make provisions for concrete solidarity also through appropriate structures for hospitality and resettlement programmes. All this entails mutual help between the suffering regions and those which, already for years, have accepted a large number of fleeing people, as well as a greater sharing of responsibilities among States.
The press and the other media have an important role in making known, correctly, objectively and honestly, the situation of those who have been forced to leave their homeland and their loved ones and want to start building a new life.
Christian communities are to pay special attention to migrant workers and their families by accompanying them with prayer, solidarity and Christian charity, by enhancing what is reciprocally enriching, as well as by fostering new political, economic and social planning that promotes respect for the dignity of every human person, the safeguarding of the family, access to dignified housing, to work and to welfare.
Priests, men and women religious, lay people, and most of all young men and women are to be sensitive in offering support to their many sisters and brothers who, having fled from violence, have to face new lifestyles and the difficulty of integration. The proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ will be a source of relief, hope and "full joy" (cf.
Jn 15:11
).
Lastly, I would like to mention the situation of numerous international students who are facing problems of integration, bureaucratic difficulties, hardship in the search for housing and welcoming structures. Christian communities are to be especially sensitive to the many young men and women who, precisely because of their youth, need reference points in addition to cultural growth, and have in their hearts a profound thirst for truth and the desire to encounter God. Universities of Christian inspiration are to be, in a special way, places of witness and of the spread of the new evangelization, seriously committed to contributing to social, cultural and human progress in the academic milieu. They are also to promote intercultural dialogue and enhance the contribution that international students can give. If these students meet authentic Gospel witnesses and examples of Christian life, it will encourage them to become agents of the new evangelization.
Dear friends, let us invoke the intercession of Mary,
"Our Lady of the Way"
, so that the joyful proclamation of salvation in Jesus Christ may bring hope to the hearts of those who are on the move on the roads of the world. To one and all I assure my prayers and impart my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 21 September 2011
BENEDICTUS PP. XV
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