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| VISITA "AD
LIMINA APOSTOLORUM" DEI PRESULI DELLA CONFERENZA EPISCOPALE
DELLE FILIPPINE, 25.09.2003 |
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Pubblichiamo di seguito il discorso
che il Santo Padre Giovanni Paolo II ha rivolto agli Ecc.mi Presuli
della Conferenza Episcopale delle Filippine, incontrati questa mattina
e ricevuti nei giorni scorsi, in separate udienze, in occasione
della Visita "ad Limina Apostolorum":
DISCORSO DEL SANTO PADRE
My Dear Brothers in the Episcopacy,
1. It is with immense joy that I greet you, the Filipino Bishops
from the Provinces of Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato, Davao, Lipa, Ozamis
and Zamboanga, on the occasion of your visit ad Limina Apostolorum.
You are the first of three groups of Filipino Bishops who, over
the course of the next two months, will be coming to Rome to "see
Cephas" (cf. Gal 1:18), to share with him "the joys and
the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties" (Gaudium et Spes,
1) of your local communities. These days are a time of grace for
you as you pray at the tombs of the Apostles and seek to be strengthened
in preaching "the unsearchable riches of Christ", making
known "the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created
all things" (Eph 3:8-9).
My words to you today, and those that I shall address to your fellow
Bishops when the next two groups arrive, are meant for all of you
in the Philippines whose task it is to "tend the flock of God
that is your charge" (1 Pet 5:2).
2. At the beginning of this new millennium, shortly after the close
of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, the Filipino Bishops convoked
the National Pastoral Consultation on Church Renewal, taking up
once more the theme that, ten years earlier, had been the inspiration
for one of the most significant events in the ecclesial life of
your local Church: the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines.
In fact, the National Consultation focused its attention squarely
on the results of the Council, taking a careful and realistic look
at the continuing implementation of the decrees arising from it.
As I share my thoughts with you, I too would like to place my reflections
in the context of this Council and the recommendations that came
from it. Three key pastoral priorities emerged from the plenary
council: the need to be a Church of the poor, the pledge to become
a true community of the Lord’s disciples, and the commitment
to engage in renewed integral evangelization. Since the Filipino
Bishops will be making their ad Limina visits to Rome in three groups,
I shall use each of these points as a broad backdrop for my comments
to each group. For you, I shall start with the first priority: the
Church of the poor.
3. In the Vision-Mission Statement for the Church in the Philippines,
we read the simple and incisive declaration: "Following the
way of our Lord, we opt to be a Church of the poor". The plenary
council dealt extensively with what it means to be a Church of the
poor (cf. Acts and Decrees of the Second Plenary Council of the
Philippines, 122-136). It gave a succinct description of the Church
of the poor as a community of faith that "embraces and practices
the evangelical spirit of poverty, which combines detachment from
possessions with a profound trust in the Lord as the sole source
of salvation" (ibid., 125). This echoes the first Beatitude
— "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5:3).
We do well to note that this preference for the poor is in no way
exclusive but embraces all people regardless of economic class or
social standing. It is a Church, however, that gives preferential
attention to the poor, seeking to share time and resources in order
to alleviate suffering. It is a Church that works with all sectors
of society, including the poor themselves, in search of solutions
to the problems of poverty, in order to free people from lives of
misery and want. It is a Church moreover that makes use of the talents
and gifts of the poor, relying on them in the mission of evangelization.
The Church of the poor is a Church in which the poor are welcomed,
listened to and actively involved.
4. In a very real way, then, a true Church of the poor contributes
much to the needed transformation of society, to social renewal
based on the vision and values of the Gospel. This renewal is an
undertaking that has the lay faithful as its principal and essential
agents: therefore, the laity must be given the necessary tools to
carry out this role successfully. This entails a thorough formation
in the Church’s social doctrine, and constant dialogue with
clergy and religious concerning social and cultural issues. As Pastors
and spiritual leaders, your careful attention to these tasks will
do much to serve the Church’s mission ad gentes: for "by
the grace and call of Baptism and Confirmation, all lay people are
missionaries; and the arena of their missionary work is the vast
and complex worlds of politics, economics, industry, education,
the media, science, technology, the arts and sport" (Ecclesia
in Asia, 45).
5. Of course, we must not lose sight of the fact that the immediate
and perhaps most important arena of lay witness to Christian faith
is marriage and the family. When family life is healthy and flourishing,
there is likewise a strong sense of community and solidarity —
two essential elements for the Church of the poor. Not only is the
family an object of the Church’s pastoral care but it is also
one of the most effective agents of evangelization. In fact, "Christian
families are today called to witness to the Gospel in difficult
times and circumstances, when the family itself is threatened by
an array of forces" (ibid., 46). You and your priests, therefore,
should be ever ready to help couples to relate their family life
in concrete ways to the life and mission of the Church (cf. Familiaris
Consortio, 49), nourishing the spiritual life of parents and children
through prayer, the word of God, the sacraments, examples of holiness
of life and charity.
The witness borne by being a Church of the poor will also be of
inestimable value to the family in its Christian and social vocation.
Indeed, without ignoring the deleterious effects of secularism or
of legislation that corrupts the meaning of family, marriage and
even human life itself, we may note that poverty is certainly among
the major factors exposing Filipino families to the risk of instability
and fragmentation. How many children have been left to live without
mother or father because one or both parents have had to seek work
abroad? Moreover, the many different types of exploitation that
can undermine family life — child labor, pornography, prostitution
— are often linked to dire economic conditions. A Church of
the poor can do much to strengthen the family and to combat human
exploitation.
Before moving on from the topic of the family, I must add a word
of praise for the Filipino Bishops and all who worked with you to
make the Fourth World Meeting of Families, held in Manila at the
beginning of this year, such a success.
6. Dear Brothers, the sharing of my thoughts with you today would
be incomplete if I failed to mention the unsettling presence of
terrorist activity in the Philippines and the abhorrent episodes
of violence erupting there. These are indeed a cause of grave concern,
and I wish you to know that I share your preoccupations and am close
to you and your people in these painful and distressing circumstances.
With you, I cannot condemn such acts strongly enough. I call on
the parties involved to lay down the weapons of death and destruction,
rejecting the despair and hatred which these entail, and to take
up the arms of mutual understanding, commitment and hope. These
are the sure foundations for building a future of authentic peace
and justice for all.
In the campaign against terrorism and violence, religious leaders
have a vital role to play. "The various Christian confessions,
as well as the world’s great religions, need to work together
to eliminate the social and cultural causes of terrorism. They can
do this by teaching the greatness and dignity of the human person,
and by spreading a clearer sense of the oneness of the human family"
(Message for the 2002 World Day of Peace, 12). This, my Brothers,
is an explicit call for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and
cooperation, which are themselves further components of a true Church
of the poor. I encourage your efforts in this regard and urge you
to increase the opportunities for yourselves and your communities
to engage in fruitful exchanges with other believers in Christ and
with your Muslim brothers and sisters.
In a special way I recommend that the Bishops-Ulama Forum emphasize
at the local level the joint "Commitment to Peace" presented
at the Day of Prayer for Peace held in Assisi on January 24, 2002.
Two hundred religious leaders joined me at that time in condemning
terrorism, and together we committed ourselves "to proclaiming
our firm conviction that violence and terrorism are incompatible
with the authentic spirit of religion, and . . . to doing everything
possible to eliminate the root causes of terrorism" (Commitment
1). This, my Brothers, must be the clear pledge of the religious
leaders in Mindanao and throughout the Philippines.
7. These then are some of the reflections that I wish to share with
you. With full support for your ongoing special commitment to the
poor, I commend you and your priests, religious and lay faithful
to Mary, the humble and obedient handmaid of the Lord. As a pledge
of grace and strength in her Son, I cordially impart my Apostolic
Blessing. |
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