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Pope Francis’ Message for the Rimini Meeting 2024
for the XLV Meeting for Friendship among Peoples
“If we are not looking for the essential. Then what are we looking for?”
We publish the message sent by Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Corolin — on behalf of the Holy Father — to the Bishop of Rimini, Monsignor Nicolò Anselmi, on the occasion of the XLV Meeting for Friendship among Peoples which is taking place from 20 to 25 August on the theme: “If we are not in search of the essential, So what are we looking for?”
Your Excellency, on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of the Meeting for Friendship between Peoples, the Holy Father wishes to join the participants in sending a message of good wishes, greeting the organizers, the volunteers and all those who will take part in this event, whose title is a heartfelt appeal to responsibility: “If we are not looking for the essential, then what are we looking for?”.
It is precisely in these complex times that the search for what constitutes the center of the mystery of life and reality is of crucial importance.
Indeed, our time is marked by various problems and considerable challenges, in the face of which we sometimes feel a sense of powerlessness, a renouncing and passive attitude that can lead to “dragging life” and to being overwhelmed by the numbness of the ephemeral, to the point of losing the meaning of existence. In this scenario, therefore, the choice to follow the path of the essential is more relevant than ever.
Pope Francis therefore encourages the attempt to seek, with passion and enthusiasm, what brings out the beauty of life, echoing the question posed by Fr. Luigi Giussani when he courageously stated: “The heart is being eaten away by sclerosis, that is, by the loss of passion and the enthusiasm for life. […] Old age at twenty and even earlier, old age at fifteen, this is the characteristic of today’s world” (Il senso religioso, Milan 2013, 116-117).
While the icy winds of war are blowing, adding to the recurring phenomena of injustice, violence and inequality, as well as the serious climate emergency and an unprecedented anthropological mutation, it is essential to pause and ask ourselves: is there anything worth living and hoping for?
Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has been inviting us to read the resistances, hardships and falls of today’s men and women as a call to reflection, so that the heart may be open to the encounter with God and and so that each one may become aware of himself, of his neighbor and of reality.
His constant invitation is to become beggars for what is essential, for what gives meaning to our lives, first of all by stripping ourselves of what weighs down the daily life, llike a climber who, having reached the point of attack on the rock face, must get rid of the superfluous in order to be able to climb more quickly.
In this way we discover that the value of human existence does not consist in things, in the successes achieved, in the race of competition, but above all in that relationship of love which sustains us, and roots our journey in trust and hope: it is friendship with God, which is then reflected in all other human relationships, to found the joy that will never fail.
We are loved, this is the essential truth, that Fr. Giussani himself proclaimed to the young university students: “You are loved.
This is the message that comes into your life […].
This is Jesus Christ in human history, the constant beginning of this message: “You are loved!”. What is life?
To be loved.
And the being we have on our backs? To be loved.
And the destiny? To be loved” (Litterae Communionis Tracce, 1996, n. 1).
On the same wavelength, Pope Francis recalls that “what is essential, most beautiful, most attractive and at the same time most necessary for us is faith in Christ Jesus”
Only the Lord, in fact, saves our fragile humanity and, makes us experience in the midst of adversity, a joy that would otherwise be impossible.
Without this anchor point, the boat of our life would be at the mercy of the waves and in danger of sinking.
Returning to what is essential, to Jesus, is not an escape from reality; on the contrary, it is the condition for being truly immersed in history, for facing it without fleeing from its challenges, for finding the courage to take risks and to love even when it does not seem worth it, for living in the world without fear.
As the then Archbishop Montini wrote: “You are necessary for us, O Christ, O Lord, O God-with-us, to learn true love and to walk in the joy and strength of your charity, along the path of our laborious life” (Omnia nobis est Christus. Pastoral Letter to the Archdiocese of Milan for Lent 1955).
It is in this spirit that the Holy Father appreciates and shares the purpose of the next meeting, because the focus on the essential helps us to take our life into our own hands and make it an instrument of love, mercy and compassion, becoming a sign of blessing for our neighbor.
In the face of the temptation to discouragement, the complexity of the current crisis and, above all, the challenge of a peace that seems impossible, the Holy Father urges everyone to become protagonists responsible for change, to participate actively in the Church’s mission, to give life together to places where the presence of Christ can be seen and touched.
This choral commitment can create a new world in which love, manifested in Christ, finally triumphs and the whole planet becomes a temple of fraternity.
Pope Francis hopes that the rich program of the meeting, in its variety of proposals and languages, will arouse in many the desire to become seekers of the essential and that the passion for the proclamation of the Gospel, a source of liberation from all slavery and a force that heals and transforms humanity, will flourish in hearts.
He sends his heartfelt blessing to all, organisers, volunteers and participants, and asks them to pray for him.
In adding my personal good wishes, I take advantage of the occasion to affirm myself with feelings of profound respect.
Pietro Cardinal Parolin Secretary of State
