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Pope Francis’ homily for Christmas 2023

January 8, 2024 by Mission Societies in Latest News

Vatican City, Dec 24, 2023 / 18:00 pm

Below is the full text of Pope Francis’ homily for the solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord, delivered on Dec. 24, 2023, in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“A census of the whole earth” (cf. Lk 2:1). This was the context in which Jesus was born, and the Gospel makes a point of it. The census might have been mentioned in passing, but instead is carefully noted. And in this way, a great contrast emerges. While the emperor numbers the world’s inhabitants, God enters it almost surreptitiously. While those who exercise power seek to take their place with the great ones of history, the King of history chooses the way of littleness. None of the powerful take notice of him: only a few shepherds, relegated to the margins of social life.

The census speaks of something else. In the Scriptures, the taking of a census has negative associations. King David, tempted by large numbers and an unhealthy sense of self-sufficiency, sinned gravely by ordering a census of the people. He wanted to know how powerful he was. After some nine months, he knew how many men could wield a sword (cf. 2 Sam 24:1-9). The Lord was angered and the people suffered. On this night, however, Jesus, the “Son of David,” after nine months in Mary’s womb, is born in Bethlehem, the city of David. He does not impose punishment for the census but humbly allows himself to be registered as one among many. Here we see not a god of wrath and chastisement but the God of mercy, who takes flesh and enters the world in weakness, heralded by the announcement: “on earth peace among those whom he favors” (Lk 2:14). Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world (cf. Lk 2:7).

The census of the whole earth, in a word, manifests the all-too-human thread that runs through history: the quest for worldly power and might, fame and glory, which measures everything in terms of success, results, numbers, and figures, a world obsessed with achievement. Yet the census also manifests the way of Jesus, who comes to seek us through enfleshment. He is not the god of accomplishment, but the God of incarnation. He does not eliminate injustice from above by a show of power but from below, by a show of love. He does not burst on the scene with limitless power, but descends to the narrow confines of our lives. He does not shun our frailties, but makes them his own.

Pope Francis celebrates Christmas Eve Holy Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican, December 24, 2021. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

Brothers and sisters, tonight we might ask ourselves: Which God do we believe in? In the God of incarnation or the god of achievement? Because there is always a risk that we can celebrate Christmas while thinking of God in pagan terms, as a powerful potentate in the sky; a god linked to power, worldly success, and the idolatry of consumerism. With the false image of a distant and petulant deity who treats the good well and the bad poorly; a deity made in our own image and likeness, handy for resolving our problems and removing our ills. God, on the other hand, waves no magic wand; he is no god of commerce who promises “everything all at once.” He does not save us by pushing a button, but draws near us, in order to change our world from within. Yet how deeply ingrained is the worldly notion of a distant, domineering, unbending, and powerful deity who helps his own to prevail against others! So many times this image is ingrained in us. But that is not the case: our God was born for all, during a census of the whole earth.

Let us look, then, to the “living and true God” (1 Thes 1:9). The God who is beyond all human reckoning and yet allows himself to be numbered by our accounting. The God who revolutionizes history by becoming a part of history. The God who so respects us as to allow us to reject him; who takes away sin by taking it upon himself; who does not eliminate pain but transforms it; who does not remove problems from our lives but grants us a hope that is greater than all our problems. God so greatly desires to embrace our lives that, infinite though he is, he becomes finite for our sake. In his greatness, he chooses to become small; in his righteousness, he submits to our injustice. Brothers and sisters, this is the wonder of Christmas: not a mixture of sappy emotions and worldly contentment, but the unprecedented tenderness of a God who saves the world by becoming incarnate. Let us contemplate the Child, let us contemplate the manger, his crib, which the angels call “a sign” for us (cf. Lk 2:12). For it truly is the sign that reveals God’s face, a face of compassion and mercy, whose might is shown always and only in love. He makes himself close, tender, and compassionate. This is God’s way: closeness, compassion, tenderness.

Sisters and brothers, let us marvel at the fact that he “became flesh” (Jn 1:14). Flesh: the very word evokes our human frailty. The Gospel uses this word to show us that God completely assumed our human condition. Why did he go to such lengths? Because he cares for us, because he loves us to the point that he considers us more precious than all else. Dear brother, dear sister, to God, who changed history in the course of a census, you are not a number but a face. Your name is written on his heart. But if you look to your own heart and think of your own inadequacies and this world that is so judgmental and unforgiving, you may feel it difficult to celebrate this Christmas. You may think things are going badly, or feel dissatisfied with your limitations, your failings, your problems, and your sins. Today, though, please, let Jesus take the initiative. He says to you, “For your sake, I became flesh; for your sake, I became just like you.” So why remain caught up in your troubles? Like the shepherds, who left their flocks, leave behind the prison of your sorrows and embrace the tender love of the God who became a child. Put aside your masks and your armor; cast your cares on him and he will care for you (cf. Ps 55:22). He became flesh; he is looking not for your achievements but for your open and trusting heart. In him, you will rediscover who you truly are: a beloved son or daughter of God. Now you can believe it, for tonight the Lord was born to light up your life; his eyes are alight with love for you. We have difficulty believing in this, that God’s eyes shine with love for us.

Christ does not look at numbers but at faces. However, who looks at him amid the many distractions and mad rush of a bustling and indifferent world? Who is watching? In Bethlehem, as crowds of people were caught up in the excitement of the census, coming and going, filling the inns, and engaged in petty conversation, a few were close to Jesus: Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and then the Magi.Let us learn from them. They stood gazing upon Jesus, with their hearts set on him. They did not speak, they worshipped. Tonight, brothers and sisters, is a time of adoration, of worship.

Worship is the way to embrace the Incarnation. For it is in silence that Jesus, the Word of the Father, becomes flesh in our lives. Let us do as they did, in Bethlehem, a town whose name means “House of Bread.” Let us stand before him who is the Bread of Life. Let us rediscover worship, for to worship is not to waste time, but to make our time a dwelling place for God. It is to let the seed of the Incarnation bloom within us; it is to cooperate in the work of the Lord, who, like leaven, changes the world. To worship is to intercede, to make reparation, to allow God to realign history. As a great teller of epic tales once wrote to his son, “I put before you the one great thing to love on earth: the Blessed Sacrament … There you will find romance, glory, honor, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth” (J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 43, March 1941).

Brothers and sisters, tonight love changes history. Make us believe, Lord, in the power of your love, so different from the power of the world. Lord, make us, like Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the Magi, gather around you and worship you. As you conform us ever more to yourself, we shall bear witness before the world to the beauty of your countenance.

VATICAN – Missionaries and pastoral care workers killed in 2023

January 8, 2024 by Mission Societies in Featured Post / Latest News / Uncategorized

Dossier edited by Stefano Lodigiani
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – According to information gathered by Agenzia Fides, 20 missionaries were killed in the world in 2023: 1 Bishop, 8 priests, 2 non-religious men, 1 seminarian, 1 novice and 7 laypersons.
Although the lists compiled by Fides are always open to updates and corrections, there were 2 more missionaries killed compared to the previous year. This year the highest number of missionaries killed is again registered in Africa, where 9 missionaries were killed: 5 priests, 2 religious men, 1 seminarian, 1 novice. In America, 6 missionaries were murdered: 1 Bishop, 3 priests, 2 lay women. In Asia, 4 lay men and women died, killed by violence. Finally, a layman was killed in Europe.

As it has been for some time, Fides uses the term “missionary” for all the baptized, aware that “in virtue of their Baptism, all the members of the People of God have become missionary disciples. All the baptized, whatever their position in the Church or their level of instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelization” (Pope Francis, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium, 120). Moreover, the annual list of Fides does not look only to Missionaries ad gentes in the strict sense, but tries to record all baptized engaged in the life of the Church who died in a violent way, not only “in hatred of the faith”. For this reason, we prefer not to use the term “martyrs”, if not in its etymological meaning of “witness”, in order not to enter into the question of the judgment that the Church might eventually deliver upon some of them, after careful consideration, for beatification or canonization.

One of the distinctive traits that most of the pastoral workers murdered in 2023 have in common is undoubtedly their normal life: that is, they did not carry out any sensational actions or out-of-the-ordinary deeds that could have attracted attention and put them in someone’s crosshairs. Scrolling through the few notes on the circumstances of their violent deaths, we find priests who were on their way to celebrate Mass or to carry out pastoral activities in some distant community; armed assaults perpetrated along busy roads; assaults on rectories and convents where they were engaged in evangelization, charity, human promotion. They found themselves, through no fault of their own, victims of kidnappings, acts of terrorism, involved in shootings or violence of various kinds.

In this ‘normal’ life lived in contexts of economic and cultural poverty, moral and environmental degradation, where there is no respect for life and human rights, but often only oppression and violence is the norm, they were also united by another ‘normality’, that of living the faith by offering their simple evangelical witness as pastors, catechists, health workers, animators of the liturgy, of charity…. They could have gone elsewhere, moved to safer places, or desisted from their Christian commitments, perhaps reducing them, but they did not do so, even though they were aware of the situation and the dangers they faced every day. Naive, in the eyes of the world. But the Church, and ultimately the world itself, moves forward thanks to them, who “are not flowers sprouting in a desert”, and to the many who, like them, testify their gratitude for the love of Christ by translating it into daily acts of fraternity and hope.

During the Angelus on the feast of Saint Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian community, Pope Francis recalled: “There are still those – and there are many of them – who suffer and die to bear witness to Jesus, just as there are those who are penalized at various levels for the fact of acting in a way consistent with the Gospel, and those who strive every day to be faithful, without ado, to their good duties, while the world jeers and preaches otherwise. These brothers and sisters may also seem to be failures, but today we see that it is not the case. Now as then, in fact, the seed of their sacrifices, which seems to die, germinates and bears fruit, because God, through them, continues to work miracles (cf. Acts 18:9-10), changing hearts and saving men and women” (Angelus, December 26, 2023).

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The contribution of the PMS to the universal mission of the Church is precious to the Pope

June 3, 2020 by Mission Societies in Latest News

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “The heart of the Pontifical Mission Societies beats where the heart of the Church beats”: with this expression Archbishop Giampietro Dal Toso, President of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) and Adjunct Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, comment the message that Pope Francis wanted to deliver to the Pontifical Mission Societies (see Fides 22/5/2020), in an interview with Agenzia Fides. The message was received by the PMS “with amazement and gratitude”, as an appeal that “wants to help the Societies to renew themselves, rediscovering the original lifeblood”. “The Pope invites the PMS to live the originality of their charism, for a truly missionary Church “, observes Mgsr. Dal Toso.

Here is the full text of the interview to Fides:

How did the PMS welcome the Pope’s message?

With amazement and gratitude. I was happy when I learned of the Pope’s intention to send a message to the Pontifical Mission Societies. Moreover, as he himself wrote, his desire was to visit us during our General Assembly, which was to be held in these days, but unfortunately, it was suspended due to the pandemic in progress. I read all of this first of all as a sign of special attention to this institution which has nearly 200 years of history and which has done so much good to the Church: without the PMS the evangelizing mission of the Church, especially in the last hundred years, would not have brought the fruits that we now see. For me, therefore, the Pope’s Message is a reason for gratitude and, at the same time, for reflection on the challenges that we face and that the Pope has appropriately indicated. Let’s not forget that the PMS is a universal network, with approx. 120 national directions and those in charge in each diocese.

The Message touches the identity and nature of the Societies: how can it help to renew the mission?

Pope Francis often says that without roots there are no fruits. The purpose of the Message is exactly to help the Societies to renew themselves, rediscovering the original lifeblood. In his speeches to the PMS in 2017 and 2018, the Pope spoke of the need for this renewal. Why? Because the world and the Church of today are no longer those of 50 years ago and therefore this also poses us in front of the question: how to speak to the Christian of today and how to decline the mission in today’s world? We all know that the missionary paradigm is no longer necessary that from north to south, but rather that of a Church communion that mutually supports itself in the mission, sharing what we have. The problem is not – and the Pope says it precisely in reference to the charism – that of changing identity, but rather of responding, with the charism, to the needs of the Church and of today’s world. I have repeatedly said in my meetings that, if Pope Francis asks for a missionary Church, then we too must ask ourselves how our charism, which is a missionary charism, can help the Church in missionary conversion.

In your opinion, what are the qualifying points of the text?

I believe the question of faith is central: I am very heartened and encouraged by the fact that the Pope has placed the charism in the context of the mission, and the mission in its reference to Christ, and therefore to faith. Mission exists because of faith as personal adherence to Christ, both of the missionary and of the person who receives the proclamation of faith. In this sense, the institution makes sense in favoring this fundamental movement from Christ to man and vice versa. The Pope starts from this consideration and therefore I consider this the fulcrum of the Message. Then of course there are many other aspects of inspiration for us: the action of the Holy Spirit, the rediscovery of the original charism with an emphasis on prayer and charity; support for the local Church; the characteristic of this charism of being lived by the simple faithful and therefore the participation of the baptized in the mission of the Church; the specific link with the Petrine ministry, of which we are an instrument.

How do you think the “pitfalls” mentioned can be avoided?

There will always be pitfalls and the Pope encourages us to face them, like any good father with a son. Unfortunately, I must also recognize that the PMS is only often considered for its financial aspect. But the Pope recalls that the charism and the institution belong to each other mutually, and there is always a need to resume the freshness of the charism for the institution to maintain its fundamental function of protecting it and making its missionary fruitfulness permanent. The ongoing renewal, for which Pope Francis gives us valuable advice, expresses exactly our desire not to lose the originality of the charism itself and to live it today. To be more concrete, the PMS has been going through a reflection at different levels, international, national, and diocesan, for a year now, just to understand where to place the renewal and how to apply it. I believe that the path indicated by Pope Francis, that is, on the one hand, attention to pitfalls, and on the other, the advice for the journey, are the paths on which renewal can proceed safely.

What path will the PMS follow in the future?

The aim of the PMS has always been to help everyone live a missionary and universal faith. In 2022 we will be 200 years old and these days we have received the good news that the miracle of the foundress of the first Society, Pauline Jaricot, has been recognized, which has given a founding structure to all our activity. So there is already a path outlined. Let us just think about what the celebration of World Mission Day means, which, since 1926, wants to involve all the parishes in the world in missionary animation. I think of the many sick people who offer their suffering for the mission in those countries where the PMS works with the sick. Let’s think about the financial help that we continue to offer, thanks to the sharing of many, and for which I give some examples referring to 2019: for each of the almost 25,000 major seminarians of mission countries (Asia, Africa, Oceania and, in part, Latin America) we make a contribution of 450 US dollars, which in some countries covers almost the entire annual cost of formation; each ecclesiastical district of the mission Countries receive a contribution for ordinary expenses for a total amount of more than 27 million US dollars; we funded school education projects for about 7 million US dollars. I also think about the fact that every year we contribute with more than 11 million dollars to the formation and sustenance of lay catechists, who in mission territories are fundamental animators of the Christian communities. At the moment we are helping many dioceses left without support because of Covid-19. This commitment, material and spiritual, must continue, also because it is the local Churches who ask us, but in that spirit that the Pope has emphasized: the heart of the mission is to awaken faith in the communion of charity. And I would like to add that this cannot be an effort carried out by the PMS alone. This is a criterion on which we are called to measure all our ecclesial action. And the heart of the PMS beats where the heart of the Church beats.(Agenzia Fides, 28/5/2020)

Pope Francis recognizes miracle attributed to Pauline Jaricot

June 3, 2020 by Mission Societies in Latest News

On May 26, 2020. Pope Francis received in audience the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, and authorized the same Congregation to enact Decrees concerning the recognition of miracles, martyrdom and heroic virtues.

On Wednesday, May 27, 2020, Archbishop Giampietro Dal Toso, President of the Pontifical Mission Societies, sent a statement announcing the recognition of the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Pauline Maria Jaricot, founder of the works of Propagation of the Faith.

Even though we do not yet have a date for a possible Beatification, all of us, Pontifical Mission Societies, are happy, because in this way we also recognize the charism of prayer and charity that has guided all our activity. Pauline Maria Jaricot was born on July 22, 1799 in Lyon and died on January 9, 1862.

She marks the beginning of that great missionary cooperation movement which was to gradually involve the whole Church. Passionate for the spread of the kingdom of God, she was firmly convinced that missionary work did not derive its effectiveness from human resources, but exclusively from God. In 1826, she founded the movement of the Living Rosary. She was declared Venerable by Pope John XXIII on February 25, 1963.