Pope urges Latin American
priests to create communion and be close to their people
 |
| Pope Francis meeting the community of college Pio Latino Americano.(Vatican Media) |
Pope Francis on November 15 spoke to the some 100 student
priests and staff of the Collegio Pio Latino, or the Latin American College of
Rome, on the occasion of its 160th anniversary.
By Robin Gomes
Pope Francis on Thursday urged Latin American priests to
create bonds of friendship and fraternity among themselves and be close to the
life of their people with the love of Christ.
He was speaking to some 100 student priests and staff of the
Collegio Pio Latino, or the Latin American College of Rome, on the occasion of
its 160th anniversary this year.
A pontifical college in Rome is a hostel for student priests
who pursue higher ecclesiastical studies in various Church universities and
institutes.
Cultural fragmentation
The Pope noted that the Latin American culture was being
fragmented by confrontations, divisive discourses, hatred towards those who are
“not our own” and by importing cultural models that are alien to its identity.
The Church that is not alien to these tendencies and “ideological
colonizations ”, the Pope warned, risks being disoriented and uprooted if its
vocation to be a land of encounter is forgotten.
Noting that their continent is marked by old and new wounds,
the Holy Father urged the Latin American student priests to use their time in
Rome and in the College to be artisans of communion by creating bonds and
alliances of friendship and fraternity, making their own the joys and hopes,
the sadness and anguish of their brothers, and by giving a name and face to the
concrete situations of their peoples.
Communion and solidarity
The Holy Fathers urged them to create a priestly community
and communion that is born of concrete solidarity among them, transcending a
“parochial” mentality and opening themselves to others in order "to weave
and heal hope".
On the contrary, without a sense of belonging and working
side by side, they will disperse and weaken themselves, and little by little,
and almost without realizing it, they will end up offering America a "God
without a Church, a Church without Christ, a Christ without a people", in
other words, “a God without Christ, a Christ without a Church, a Church without
a people... a pure rehashed gnosticism .
Close to the people
The love for Christ and of Christ, the Pope pointed out
cannot be manifested except in the passion for life and for the destiny of our
peoples and in special solidarity with the poorest, suffering and needy.
Hence the need to develop the taste of always being close to the life of
the people; never to isolate oneself from them.
Never curl up in personal or community sheds that separate
them from the “knots” where history is written, the Pope urged. This is
why he said it is providential that the 160 years of Collegio Pio Latino was
taking place in the year of the canonization of the St. Oscar Romero, a former
student of their College and a living sign of the fruitfulness and sanctity of
the Latin American Church.
In conclusion, the Pope told the student priests to avoid
being “state priests”, never to be afraid of holiness and to spend their lives
for their people.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét