On Saturday morning, October 23, 2021, the Holy Father Francis left Casa Santa Marta by car and went to the General Curia of the Salesian Sisters, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, where he met with the participants in the 24th General Chapter of the Institute of Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, held in Rome from September 11 to October 24, 2021, on the theme “Communities Generators of Life in the Heart of the Contemporary World.”
Here is a translation of the Pope’s address to them during the meeting.
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The Pope’s Address
I wish you, Mother, good work, together with the new Council. And we thank the outgoing Superior and Counsellors. I hope Mother will return to Africa . . . And if there is no place in Africa to Patagonia!
Over these days you have focused on the theme “Communities Generators of Life in the Heart of the Contemporary World,” illuminating it with Mary’s words at the Wedding of Cana: ”Do whatever He tells you (John 2:5). This is the Virgin’s loveliest gesture: the Virgin never takes for herself, She always points to Jesus. Think about this: imitate the Virgin and do the same [he does the gesture of pointing out]. Therefore, on one hand keep very present the multicultural social context, marked by tensions and challenges, sometimes even dramatic, as those caused by the pandemic. At the same time, listen to the Lord’s word, His Will, precisely in this very fragile and uncertain time, with the forms of poverty that the present crisis has caused and multiplied. You know it, it’s terrible. Poverty has multiplied, including hidden poverty. Many well-off families, or at least of the middle class, don’t have enough to live. The pandemic has caused so many misfortunes.
Awaken the Institute’s original freshness of vocational fruitfulness: this is the objective you have set for yourselves. It’s a key perspective to respond to the needs of the present world, which needs to discover in consecrated life “the proclamation of what the Father, through the Son in the Spirit, does with His love, His goodness, His beauty” (CIVCSVA, New wineskins for new wine, 6). This doesn’t mean to deny the fragilities and difficulties present in communities, but to believe that this situation can help you to transform today into a kairo, a favourable time to go to the charismatic roots, to work on the essential, rediscovering — you the first ones — the beauty of consecrated life. This challenge invites you to renew your “Yes” to God in this time, as women and communities that let themselves be questioned by the Lord and by the reality. And thus you become prophecy of the Gospel, testimony of Christ and of His way of life.
The Vatican indicated this way to the Church, which is God’s way: Incarnation in history, immersion in the human condition. However, this presupposes firm rootedness in Christ, in order not to be at the mercy of worldliness in its different forms and disguises. Don’t forget that the worst evil that can happen in the Church is spiritual worldliness. I can almost say that it seems worse than a sin, because spiritual worldliness is that very subtle spirit that takes the place of the proclamation, that takes the place of faith, that takes the place of the Holy Spirit. In his book “Meditation on the Church,” Father De Lubac talks about this in the last pages. Go look for them — the four last pages. He says this, which is very strong: spiritual worldliness is the worst evil that can happen to the Church, worse than the scandal at the time of the concubine Popes. It’s strong. The devil enters Religious Houses that way. It helped me to understand how the devil enters among us. And it’s not a sin; it’s not a nun killing another — a scandal! — or who insults another, no, that’s an ugly sin, all are scandalized <and> ask forgiveness . . . No. Jesus shows us how the devil enters here, and He says the following: “When an unclean spirit has been expelled from a person, he goes, wanders in the deserts, gets bored and then says: ‘I’ll return to my house to see how it is — a very clean, nice, ordered house. And he goes and finds seven other worse devils than he is and he enters that house. But he doesn’t enter by force, no, he enters politely: he rings the bell, says good morning. They are polite demons. We don’t realize they are coming in. So they enter slowly and we say: ‘Ah, how nice, how nice, come, come . . . ‘ And, at the end, that man’s condition is worse than it was at the beginning. It happens thus with spiritual worldliness. People who have left it all, have given up marriage, given up children, a family . . . and end up — sorry for the word “old maids,” that is, worldly, concerned about those things . . . And the horizon closes, because they say: ‘She hasn’t even looked at me, she has insulted me, she . . . “ Internal conflicts that close one. Please, flee from spiritual worldliness. And also from the status: ‘I am a religious . . . ‘ Examine this, it’s the worst thing that can happen. It’s like a [. . .] that little by little takes away your strength. And, instead of being women consecrated to God, become ‘well-mannered ladies.’ […]
Where there is missionary service, where there is service, where there is mortification, to tolerate one another mutually. And Saint John Berchmans used to say: “My greatest penance is community life.” And it’s needed! Much penance is needed to tolerate others, [. . .] but watch out for spiritual worldliness. It’s not that to live it’s necessary to change one’s mobile, that I need this or that, go on holiday to the beach . . . I’m talking about real things that happen. However, worldliness is that spirit that leads you not to be in peace or not to have a very lovely peace, but a sophisticated peace.
For you, consecrated women, this requires a creative fidelity to the charism and, therefore, you must always return to the charism. Is the charism a relic? No, it’s a living reality, not an embalmed relic. It’s life that creates and goes forward, not a museum piece. Therefore, the great responsibility is to collaborate with the creativity of the Holy Spirit, to revise the charism and ensure that it expresses its vitality today. It’s from there that true “youth” stems, because the Spirit makes all things new. And we meet older women and men religious who seem younger — like good wine — whom the Spirit helps to find new expressions of the same gift that the charism is. A charism that is the same for all, but different for all. It’s the same, but with the hues of one’s person, and that means that that person is full of that charism, she is also creative in the charism. She doesn’t come out of the charism, no. She is the charism. It is creativity that gives fidelity to the charism. This is the path of the Church that the holy Popes of the Council and of the post-Conciliar period have shown us: John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I — soon to be beatified — and John Paul II, whose memory we celebrate today.
Another aspect I see in the Chapter’s theme is the need for communities to grow interwoven with inter-generational, inter-cultural, fraternal and cordial relations. To effect this, you can take recourse to your family spirit, which characterized the first community in Mornese, and which helps you to see diversity as an opportunity to welcome and to listen, valuing the differences as a richness. In this perspective, I also encourage you to continue your commitment to work in relation with other Congregations, seeking to live relations of reciprocity and co-responsibility. However, this can be done well if in your own Congregation you have a good relation, not fleeing to other Congregations because you are unable to tolerate your own. This is for you a concrete way to live synodality, and here, too, the presupposition is docility to the Holy Spirit, openness to His novelties and surprises.
I’d like to pause here –, on inter-generationality. I remember once a Religious Congregation — not yours — in Argentina, which had had problems, many years ago, forty years ago more or less. The Mother General was a nun who knew how to organize, and she said: “No, no: youth is lacking here,” because at that time there were many vocations. The elderly were all in a residence and the young ones separate. But this is a sin, a sin against the family! To the degree possible, the elderly must live in the community of life. And a duty of the young is to look after the elderly, to learn from them, to talk with the elderly. If this exchange doesn’t exist in a Congregation, it’s a path that leads to death. [He shows an image, which has been handed out, of a young monk carrying an old monk on his shoulders]. I brought this . . . This young monk carrying the old one. This is the young one’s “profession.” To be able to have grandmothers, grandfathers at home. I remember that, in that Congregation, which I mentioned earlier, the elderly died of a broken heart.
“She’s dead . . She’s not well . . .” Her broken heart stemmed from the sadness of being unable to enjoy the new generations. Do an examination of conscience: how do I receive the elderly? It’s true that the elderly sometimes become capricious — we are like that –and, in old age, defects are accentuated; however, it’s also true that the elderly have that wisdom, that great wisdom of life: the wisdom of the fidelity to grow old in their vocation. And thank you for all that you will do. Never isolate the elderly. Yes, there will be residences for elderly people that can’t lead a normal life; they have to stay in bed . . . But go there all the time, visit the elderly, visit them . . . They are history’s treasure! The experience of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus helps me a lot, when she accompanied an elderly nun who could hardly walk. But she was a slightly neurotic nun, something that happens sometimes. And Therese did everything for her . . . And Therese never let her smile die. She would bring her, sit her down, and then cut her bread. The poor old nun who was somewhat neurotic complained about everything, but Therese looked at her affectionately . . . And it happened once that, on the way from the choir to the refectory, noise could be heard outside, dancing music was heard, there was a celebration nearby. And Therese said” “I’ll never change this for that.” She had understood the grandeur of her vocation. Respect for elderly people. Please, include the elderly!
Openness to the Spirit enables you to persevere in your commitment to be communities generators in the service of young people and of the poor. Missionary communities going forth, communities tended to proclaim the Gospel to the peripheries, with the passion of the first Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. That passion is impressive, that of the first Salesians; it truly astonishes boys and girls. In a book I have brought you — I will leave it with the Mother General — a book that talks about a Salesian priest of Lodi who was a missionary in Argentina — Father Enrico Pozzoli. The Introduction to the book shows, interestingly, the number of Salesians that Don Bosco sent to Argentina. So many! And when they arrived in Buenos Aires — this is the beauty of the first Salesians — they didn’t go to the middle-class neighborhoods; no, they went to look for the borders . . . What attracts to a vocation? Holiness, zeal. Seek it, see this missionary spirit … In connection with young people, I want to encourage you , because it’s not easy to accompany adolescent boys and girls . The Fathers know this well and so do you. That’s also why I wanted the Synod for Young People and with Young People, from which the Christus Vivit Exhortation issued. I know that you use it; I encourage you to continue doing so. I’m certain that you will find there various ideas in harmony with your charism and your educational service.
Dear Sisters, I know that you are preparing to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Institute’s foundation. This is also an opportunity for renewal and vocational and missionary revitalization. Don’t forget the grace of the origins, the humility and littleness of the beginning that made God’s action transparent in the life and in the message of those that, full of amazement, began this path. Mary Help of Christians will help you: you are Her daughters! Her words at the Wedding of Cana were and are a beacon of light for your discernment: “Do whatever He tells you.” Mary is the attentive woman, fully incarnated in the present and solicitous, a woman that is concerned. I hope that, like Her, you will listen to the reality, understand needy situations, when the “wine” is lacking, namely, the joy of love, and take Christ not with words but with service, with closeness, with compassion and tenderness. I pause here. Something that is very ugly for me is an angry nun, who seems to have breakfast not with milk but with vinegar. Be mothers, have tenderness, God’s style is always closeness. He said it at the beginning, in Deuteronomy: “Think, what people have gods as close as you are to Me? Closeness, and God’s closeness is always compassionate and tender. Closeness is compassion and tenderness.” In your examination of conscience, ask yourselves every day: Have I been close today? Have I been compassionate? Have I been tender?” Go forward like this, using the word tenderness a lot. It’s important for the way of being. Take the hope that doesn’t disappoint, true hope. Be like Mary, women of hope. You do so from your Salesian identity, with the Salesian style, especially listening, active presence, love of young people, creativity of the moment, as Don Bosco said.
That Gospel’s “the Mother of Jesus was there” (John 2:1) of the Wedding at Cana , in your Constitutions becomes “Mary is actively present in our life and in the Institute’s history” (cf. Const. FMA, 44). Accompanied by Her, go forward with enthusiasm on the path that the Spirit suggests to you. With an open heart to receive the drive of God’s grace, with an attentive gaze to recognize the needs and urgencies of a world in constant change. Look at the change, but with a heart always in love with the Lord, a mother’s heart, a close heart, with compassion and tenderness.
And thank you for this meeting! Thank you for what you are and for what you do. I am close to you in prayer and I bless you and all your Sisters in the world. And I ask you to pray for me. It’s not easy to be Pope!
Translation by Virginia M. Forrester
