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Coat of Arms of Alma Collegio Capranica
Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Almo Collegio Capranica in Rome
Clementine Hall – Monday, 20 January 2025
“The holy faithful people of God are “infallible in their beliefs”.
Dear seminarians, deacons, priests, students of the Almo Collegio Capranica,
Dear formators,
You are a community of young people and adults, motivated by faith in Jesus Christ and the desire to respond to his call.
Your bishops have sent you to Rome to prepare you for the ordained ministry or to complete your formation in its early years.
I have learned that you come from thirty-nine different dioceses: twenty-six Italian, fourteen non-Italian, including an eparchy of the Syro-Malabar Church.
This variety of origins and affiliations reflects something of the one and manifold face of the holy and faithful People of God.
Do not forget this: the holy faithful people of God, which is us, the Church.
And do not forget what theology says: the holy faithful people of God are “infallible in their beliefs“.
Don’t forget that
Centuries ago, one of my predecessors gave the name “Almo” to the College of Capranica.
This name can be translated into Italian as “that which nourishes” or “that which gives and sustains life”.
In this regard, a verse from Dante Alighieri’s Comedy came to mind.
It is the one in which the soul of St. Thomas Aquinas refers to the Order of Preachers as an environment “u’ ben s’impingua se non si vaneggia” (Paradiso X, 96): “one becomes fat if one doesn’t go crazy”
This does not only apply to a religious order. For many communities, including Almo Collegio, it is useful to remember this verse.
In a context like yours you can “eat well” if you don’t lose your way, be careful about this!
When do you end up “losing your way”?
When the fundamental relationships are neglected, the “closeness” that I have had the opportunity to recall on several times when speaking to seminarians and ordained ministers.
The three closenesses are: closeness to God, closeness to the bishop and closeness to the people.
The are the three closenesses of a priest.
And there is a fourth: the closeness between you.
Don’t forget these closenesses!
Carry out the mission to which Jesus calls the Church today, in complex times but always with divine mercy. Live this mission with the style that we appropriately call “synodal”.
I am sure you are familiar with the Final Document of the XVI Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which states that “synodality is a path of spiritual renewal and structural reform to make the Church more participatory and missionary, that is, to make her more capable of walking with every man and woman, radiating the light of Christ” (n. 28).
I cordially invite you to feel part of this journey and to promote it from now on: in the College, in the Pontifical Universities where you study, in the parishes of Rome, in the Rebibbia Prison, at the Bambin Gesù Hospital, places where you are present for the pastoral experience envisaged by the formation process.
It was the courage of St. Paul VI that put synodality at the end of the Council and opened the synodal path.
For more than a century, the College of Capranica has also been entrusted with the liturgical service in some celebrations in the Papal Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
From time to time you also participate in the liturgies that we celebrate in St. Peter’s.
I thank you for this and, at the same time, I urge you to have the same care for the “closenesses” to which I referred just now that you place in the liturgy.
There is no Christian liturgyif the gestures we make do not correspond to a life of faith, hope, charity.
In your College charity is expressed in a concrete way, not with only words, but also through a small but precious service of assistance to people in need who know that they can find in you a support to face the burden of life with less effort.
May this service also help you not to “rave”, as happens when you lose contact with those who find themselves in situations of marginalization and hardship.
When I hear confessions, I ask, when the opportunity arises: “Do you give alms?” – The answer: “Yes, yes, I do” – I ask: “And when you give alms, do you look at the person’s eyes and touch the hand, or do you throw the coin and go ahead without looking?”
It is not so much the alms that is important, but therelationship with the poor.
Jesus is present in the poor. It is important to look into their eyes and touch their hands.
Thank you for coming! I bless all of you, the alumni, those who support the College in so many ways, your families, your Bishops and your local Churches.
And please, pray for me too, when you entrust yourselves to the intercession of Mary Salus Populi Romani and the young virgin martyr Agnes. Thank you very much!
