Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “We come from different countries but we are one family. Many bear the wounds of every country, wars, hunger, social problems, and we are here not to complain but to prepare to be missionaries: men and women of culture but also filled with the Lord, to announce the Lord ”. With these words Cardinal Ivan Dias prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples and Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Urban University began his homily during the Mass De Spiritu Sancto celebrated in the Chapel of the Pontifical Urban College on the occasion of the inauguration of the academic year 2007-2008 della Pontifical Urban University this morning 8 October at 9am.
Commenting the Gospel Luke (10, 25-37) Cardinal said: “faced with the question ‘Who is my neighbour?’ We must not be too sure above all in a world filled with doubts. The Gospel does not say if the man assaulted by brigands was rich or poor: he was like someone we may find on our streets today. The “religious” pass by they have no time to help him, the Samaritan passes, feels compassion and stops. Therefore, compassion makes the difference. In the synoptic Gospel compassion is proper to Jesus. The distance from the poor has become abyss and compassion is the way to reach others. The disciple is one who draws near. … Without God's compassion and love, all science is useless. … This helps us give direction to our studies. Today when everything is questioned, we must become missionaries of God's love.”
Among the concelebrants at the Mass, the Rector of Urban University, Mgr. Ambrogio Spreafico; Archbishop Robert Sarah Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples; Fr Massimo Cenci, PIME Under Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples; the Rector of Urban College and another 150 teachers, priests and students. After the Mass an address by Mgr. Ambrogio Spreafico was followed by the prolusion on the part of Bishop Velasio De Paolis, Secretary of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Segnatura, on the theme “Mission, universal and particular”. (C.E.) (Agenzia Fides 8/10/2007; righe 27, parole 368)
