Cardinal Parolin: Pope
travels to Thailand, Japan to promote life and peace
 |
| Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin |
In the run-up to Pope Francis’ Apostolic Journey to Thailand
and Japan, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin says the Pope will
highlight the themes of mission, environmental protection, and peace.
By Devin Watkins
Pope Francis travels to Thailand from 19-23 November, and to
Japan from 23-26th, as part of his 32nd Apostolic
Journey.
In an interview with Vatican News’ Massimiliano Menichetti
on Monday, the Vatican Secretary of State gave some indication about the Pope’s
hopes and the themes he intends to highlight.
Centered on the human person
Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the world has undergone vast
changes since Pope St John Paul II visited Thailand in May 1984 and Japan in
February 1981.
Globalization, he said, has made it much smaller, allowing
people to speak face-to-face despite stunning physical distances.
But, he added, Pope Francis wants to travel to far-flung
places in order to encounter people in the flesh, because “the human person
lies at the heart of the Church’s attention.” The Church must proclaim the
Gospel to each and every person, the Cardinal said, to help them answer life’s
difficult questions and to help them find meaning.
Thailand: Missionary disciples
Asked about the visit to Thailand, Cardinal Parolin said
Pope Francis is following in the footsteps of the Jesuit missionaries who first
proclaimed the Gospel there 350 years ago.
So, he said, an important part of the Pope’s message will
regard the Christian call to be missionary disciples.
Cardinal Parolin said the Pope will likely encourage the
400,000-odd Catholics in Thailand to open themselves to the Holy Spirit, “the
true protagonist” of the mission.
Mission, he said, “is fulfilled in a fullness that
transforms itself into attraction and witness.”
Japan: Denuclearization and peace
Cardinal Parolin then turned to the second part of the
Pope’s visit.
“The Japan leg of the journey will be particularly
important,” he said, adding that the Pope will likely encourage efforts toward
denuclearization.
The Cardinal called Japan “a complex nation” that has
“suffered greatly” due to the two nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,
though it has made a magnificent recovery.
He said the nation finds itself “between tradition and
innovation”, as it searches for responses to global problems.
While in Japan, he said, the Pope will touch on “care for
our common home, the pursuit of peace, and disarmament as a requisite for
peace.”
Pope hopes to share people’s lives
Finally, the Cardinal Secretary of State said Pope Francis
travels to Asia to be “close the people entrusted to him, desiring to share
their joys, expectations, and hopes, as well as their sorrows, sufferings, and
contradictions.”
As the Pope meets with the local Catholic communities,
Cardinal Parolin said, he will also proclaim several messages that are “valid
for the whole world and the entire Church.”
These, he concluded, include the message of the mission as
an foundational element of the Christian experience, the protection of
Creation, and the promotion of peace in a fragmented and conflictual world.
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