VATICAN - Cardinal Filoni urges the community in Azerbaijan to become "Church-in-Mission"

Tuesday, 12 June 2012

Baku (Agenzia Fides) – The need to pray for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, the need to take good care of the family as a basic unit of society and the Church, the need to generate greater spirit of apostolate not only among the priests and religious, but as well as among the laity, in order to transform the whole community as a "Church-in-mission": are the indications that Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples said to the community in Azerbaijan for the growth and consolidation of the local Catholic Church. He did this during the Mass on Monday, June 11, dedicated to meetings with civil and religious authorities and visits to the major Catholic realities in Azerbaijan, after the celebrations that marked the tenth anniversary of Blessed John Paul II’s visit (see Fides 11/06//2012).
Celebrating the Mass of the Feast of St. Barnabas in the chapel where Blessed John Paul II met the religious authorities ten years ago, the Cardinal emphasized the spiritual legacy of the Apostle: "his decisiveness, his outstanding generosity and his availability for service". Recalling the commitment of the Saint to evangelization, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples told those present: "I fully understand that the work you have here is never easy. Living in an ocean of non-Christians, the culture, the mentality and the ways may not always be to your liking. " However, faced with the difficulty of finding, humanly speaking, consolations and recognition, Cardinal Filoni urged to be "a source of encouragement for others through a contagious sense of cheerfulness, optimism, warmth of character, and most especially through a exemplary life as priests or religious, as consecrated person or simply layperson, as young or adult Christian ." John Paul II came to Azerbaijan as a manifestation of "his deep appreciation and high esteem for the people and culture of Azerbaijan" and of the desire to "open the door of mutual understanding and cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Holy See," recalled Cardinal Filoni in his greeting to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Araz Asimov. In the span of ten ten years a lot of beautiful and encouraging matters had taken place, signifying that the "door" that Blessed John Paul II had opened, said the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, was truly significant and of great implications: it was a door of mutual friendship, real friendship, firm friendship, sincere friendship, exemplary friendship.
The appreciation of the climate of religious tolerance that is breathed in Azerbaijan was also expressed by Cardinal Filoni to the Head of State Committee for the works of religious Organizations, Elshad Iskandarov. "I wish that your country continue to shine as an example in the world community of Nations, as a place where people of diverse faiths and beliefs live together in peace, building hand in hand a society that is harmonious and prosperous, and thus, a protagonist in making this world a lot better."
The Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples visited on Monday 11 June, the community of the Missionaries of Charity, the Salesian Meryam Educational Center, the first home of the Salesians. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 12/6/2012)


Share: