(Vatican Radio) At the conclusion of the Extraordinary Synod on the
Family, Pope Francis addressed the assembled Fathers, thanking them for
their efforts and encouraging them to continue to journey.
Below, please find Vatican Radio's provisional translation of Pope Francis' address to the Synod Fathers:
Dear Eminences, Beatitudes, Excellencies, Brothers and Sisters,
With
a heart full of appreciation and gratitude I want to thank, along with
you, the Lord who has accompanied and guided us in the past days, with
the light of the Holy Spirit.
From the heart I thank Cardinal
Lorenzo Baldisseri, Secretary General of the Synod, Bishop Fabio Fabene,
under-secretary, and with them I thank the Relators, Cardinal Peter
Erdo, who has worked so much in these days of family mourning, and the
Special Secretary Bishop Bruno Forte, the three President delegates, the
transcribers, the consultors, the translators and the unknown workers,
all those who have worked with true fidelity and total dedication behind
the scenes and without rest. Thank you so much from the heart.
I
thank all of you as well, dear Synod fathers, Fraternal Delegates,
Auditors, and Assessors, for your active and fruitful participation. I
will keep you in prayer asking the Lord to reward you with the abundance
of His gifts of grace!
I can happily say that – with a spirit of
collegiality and of synodality – we have truly lived the experience of
“Synod,” a path of solidarity, a “journey together.”
And it has
been “a journey” – and like every journey there were moments of running
fast, as if wanting to conquer time and reach the goal as soon as
possible; other moments of fatigue, as if wanting to say “enough”; other
moments of enthusiasm and ardour. There were moments of profound
consolation listening to the testimony of true pastors, who wisely carry
in their hearts the joys and the tears of their faithful people.
Moments of consolation and grace and comfort hearing the testimonies of
the families who have participated in the Synod and have shared with us
the beauty and the joy of their married life. A journey where the
stronger feel compelled to help the less strong, where the more
experienced are led to serve others, even through confrontations. And
since it is a journey of human beings, with the consolations there were
also moments of desolation, of tensions and temptations, of which a few
possibilities could be mentioned:
- One, a temptation to hostile
inflexibility, that is, wanting to close oneself within the written
word, (the letter) and not allowing oneself to be surprised by God, by
the God of surprises, (the spirit); within the law, within the certitude
of what we know and not of what we still need to learn and to achieve.
From the time of Christ, it is the temptation of the zealous, of the
scrupulous, of the solicitous and of the so-called – today –
“traditionalists” and also of the intellectuals.
- The temptation
to a destructive tendency to goodness [it. buonismo], that in the name
of a deceptive mercy binds the wounds without first curing them and
treating them; that treats the symptoms and not the causes and the
roots. It is the temptation of the “do-gooders,” of the fearful, and
also of the so-called “progressives and liberals.”
- The
temptation to transform stones into bread to break the long, heavy, and
painful fast (cf. Lk 4:1-4); and also to transform the bread into a
stone and cast it against the sinners, the weak, and the sick (cf Jn
8:7), that is, to transform it into unbearable burdens (Lk 11:46).
-
The temptation to come down off the Cross, to please the people, and
not stay there, in order to fulfil the will of the Father; to bow down
to a worldly spirit instead of purifying it and bending it to the Spirit
of God.
- The temptation to neglect the “
depositum fidei”
[the deposit of faith], not thinking of themselves as guardians but as
owners or masters [of it]; or, on the other hand, the temptation to
neglect reality, making use of meticulous language and a language of
smoothing to say so many things and to say nothing! They call them
“byzantinisms,” I think, these things…
Dear brothers and sisters,
the temptations must not frighten or disconcert us, or even discourage
us, because no disciple is greater than his master; so if Jesus Himself
was tempted – and even called Beelzebul (cf. Mt 12:24) – His disciples
should not expect better treatment.
Personally I would be very
worried and saddened if it were not for these temptations and these
animated discussions; this movement of the spirits, as St Ignatius
called it (Spiritual Exercises, 6), if all were in a state of agreement,
or silent in a false and quietist peace. Instead, I have seen and I
have heard – with joy and appreciation – speeches and interventions full
of faith, of pastoral and doctrinal zeal, of wisdom, of frankness and
of courage: and of
parresia. And I have felt that what was set
before our eyes was the good of the Church, of families, and the
“supreme law,” the “good of souls” (cf. Can. 1752). And this always – we
have said it here, in the Hall – without ever putting into question the
fundamental truths of the Sacrament of marriage: the indissolubility,
the unity, the faithfulness, the fruitfulness, that openness to life
(cf. Cann. 1055, 1056; and
Gaudium et spes, 48).
And this
is the Church, the vineyard of the Lord, the fertile Mother and the
caring Teacher, who is not afraid to roll up her sleeves to pour oil and
wine on people’s wound; who doesn’t see humanity as a house of glass to
judge or categorize people. This is the Church, One, Holy, Catholic,
Apostolic and composed of sinners, needful of God’s mercy. This is the
Church, the true bride of Christ, who seeks to be faithful to her spouse
and to her doctrine. It is the Church that is not afraid to eat and
drink with prostitutes and publicans. The Church that has the doors wide
open to receive the needy, the penitent, and not only the just or those
who believe they are perfect! The Church that is not ashamed of the
fallen brother and pretends not to see him, but on the contrary feels
involved and almost obliged to lift him up and to encourage him to take
up the journey again and accompany him toward a definitive encounter
with her Spouse, in the heavenly Jerusalem.
The is the Church, our
Mother! And when the Church, in the variety of her charisms, expresses
herself in communion, she cannot err: it is the beauty and the strength
of the
sensus fidei, of that supernatural sense of the faith
which is bestowed by the Holy Spirit so that, together, we can all enter
into the heart of the Gospel and learn to follow Jesus in our life. And
this should never be seen as a source of confusion and discord.
Many
commentators, or people who talk, have imagined that they see a
disputatious Church where one part is against the other, doubting even
the Holy Spirit, the true promoter and guarantor of the unity and
harmony of the Church – the Holy Spirit who throughout history has
always guided the barque, through her Ministers, even when the sea was
rough and choppy, and the ministers unfaithful and sinners.
And,
as I have dared to tell you , [as] I told you from the beginning of the
Synod, it was necessary to live through all this with tranquillity, and
with interior peace, so that the Synod would take place
cum Petro and
sub Petro (with Peter and under Peter), and the presence of the Pope is the guarantee of it all.
We
will speak a little bit about the Pope, now, in relation to the Bishops
[laughing]. So, the duty of the Pope is that of guaranteeing the unity
of the Church; it is that of reminding the faithful of their duty to
faithfully follow the Gospel of Christ; it is that of reminding the
pastors that their first duty is to nourish the flock – to nourish the
flock – that the Lord has entrusted to them, and to seek to welcome –
with fatherly care and mercy, and without false fears – the lost sheep. I
made a mistake here. I said welcome: [rather] to go out and find them.
His
duty is to remind everyone that authority in the Church is a service,
as Pope Benedict XVI clearly explained, with words I cite verbatim: “The
Church is called and commits herself to exercise this kind of authority
which is service and exercises it not in her own name, but in the name
of Jesus Christ… through the Pastors of the Church, in fact: it is he
who guides, protects and corrects them, because he loves them deeply.
But the Lord Jesus, the supreme Shepherd of our souls, has willed that
the Apostolic College, today the Bishops, in communion with the
Successor of Peter… to participate in his mission of taking care of
God's People, of educating them in the faith and of guiding, inspiring
and sustaining the Christian community, or, as the Council puts it, ‘to
see to it... that each member of the faithful shall be led in the Holy
Spirit to the full development of his own vocation in accordance with
Gospel preaching, and to sincere and active charity’ and to exercise
that liberty with which Christ has set us free (cf. Presbyterorum
Ordinis, 6)… and it is through us,” Pope Benedict continues, “that the
Lord reaches souls, instructs, guards and guides them. St Augustine, in
his Commentary on the Gospel of St John, says: ‘let it therefore be a
commitment of love to feed the flock of the Lord’ (cf. 123, 5); this is
the supreme rule of conduct for the ministers of God, an unconditional
love, like that of the Good Shepherd, full of joy, given to all,
attentive to those close to us and solicitous for those who are distant
(cf. St Augustine, Discourse 340, 1; Discourse 46, 15), gentle towards
the weakest, the little ones, the simple, the sinners, to manifest the
infinite mercy of God with the reassuring words of hope (cf. ibid.,
Epistle, 95, 1).”
So, the Church is Christ’s – she is His bride –
and all the bishops, in communion with the Successor of Peter, have the
task and the duty of guarding her and serving her, not as masters but as
servants. The Pope, in this context, is not the supreme lord but rather
the supreme servant – the “servant of the servants of God”; the
guarantor of the obedience and the conformity of the Church to the will
of God, to the Gospel of Christ, and to the Tradition of the Church,
putting aside every personal whim, despite being – by the will of Christ
Himself – the “supreme Pastor and Teacher of all the faithful” (Can.
749) and despite enjoying “supreme, full, immediate, and universal
ordinary power in the Church” (cf. Cann. 331-334).
Dear brothers
and sisters, now we still have one year to mature, with true spiritual
discernment, the proposed ideas and to find concrete solutions to so
many difficulties and innumerable challenges that families must
confront; to give answers to the many discouragements that surround and
suffocate families.
One year to work on the “Synodal Relatio”
which is the faithful and clear summary of everything that has been said
and discussed in this hall and in the small groups. It is presented to
the Episcopal Conferences as “lineamenta” [guidelines].
May the
Lord accompany us, and guide us in this journey for the glory of His
Name, with the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of Saint
Joseph. And please, do not forget to pray for me! Thank you!
[
The hymn Te Deum was sung, and Benediction given.]
Thank you, and rest well, eh?
(from Vatican Radio)
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