The Pope Speaks - The Pope Speaks

Pope Francis’ Day Trop to Verona
Saturday, 18 May 2024

6.30	Departure from the Vatican heliport
8.00	Arrival in the square adjacent to the Bentegodi Stadium. ransfer by car to the Basilica of San Zeno
8.30	Meeting with Priests and Consecrated Persons Address of the Holy Father Dear priests, dear men and women religious, good morning! I wanted to begin by greeting these women, who are the cloistered nuns. Did you see how they all looked like that [he makes a gesture expressing joy]? Because in the cloister you don’t lose joy, there is joy. And they’re good! They never gossip, never, they’re good. Thank you, sisters! Thank you for being here. I thank the Bishop for his welcome and for all the work he carries out with you. It is nice to be in this Romanesque Basilica, one of the most beautiful in Italy, which has also inspired poets such as Dante and Carducci. And to be here together, the bishop, priests, men and women religious, and to look at this splendid hull ceiling makes us feel as if we are in a great boat and makes us think of the mystery of the Church, the boat of the Lord who sails in the sea of history to bring the joy of the Gospel to all. This Gospel image reminds us of at least two things on which I would like to dwell with you: the first is the call, the call received and always to be welcomed; and the second is the mission, to be carried out with boldness. *First of all,* to accept the call received: the first point of our reflection. At the beginning of his ministry in Galilee, Jesus passes along the shore of the lake and looks at a boat and two pairs of fishermen brothers, the first casting their nets and the others mending them. He draws near and calls them to follow him (cf. Mt 4:18-22; Mk 1:16-20). Let us not forget this: at the origin of the Christian life is the experience of the encounter with the Lord, which does not depend on our merits or our commitment, but on the love with which he comes to seek us, knocking at the door of our heart and inviting us to a relationship with him. I ask myself and I ask you: have I met the Lord? Do I allow myself to be met by the Lord? Even more, at the origin of consecrated life and priestly life, there are not us, our gifts or any special merit, but there is the surprising call of the Lord, his merciful gaze that has bent over us and has chosen us for this ministry, although we are not better than others, we are sinners like others. This, sisters and brothers, is pure grace, pure grace. I like what St. Augustine said: look this way and that, look for merit, and you will find nothing, only grace. It is pure grace, pure gratuitousness, an unexpected gift that opens our hearts to amazement at God’s condescension. Grace causes this: amazement. “But I never imagined such a thing….” Amazement when we are open to grace and let the Lord work in us. Dear brother priests, dear religious brothers and sisters: let us never lose the wonder of the call! Remember the day the Lord called me. Perhaps each of us remembers well what the call was like, or at least the time of the call: remembering it, this brings us joy; also cry with joy at the moment of the call. “You, come!” – “Who? That other one?” – “No, you!” – “Yes, no… that other?” – “No, you, you!” – “But, Lord, that other one is better than me…” – “You! Wretched, sinner, as you are, but you!” Let’s not forget the time of the call. This astonishment, what a beautiful thing! And this is nourished by the memory of the gift received by grace: we must always have this memory in us. This is the first foundation of our consecration and our ministry: to accept the call we have received, to accept the gift with which God has surprised us. If we lose this awareness and this memory, we risk putting ourselves at the center instead of the Lord; without this remembrance, we risk becoming agitated around projects and activities that serve our causes more than that of the Kingdom; we also risk living the apostolate in the logic of self-promotion and the search for consensus, trying to make a career, and this is very bad, instead of spending our lives for the Gospel and for a free service to the Church. It is he who has chosen us (cf. Jn 15:16), it is he, he is at the center. If we remember this, that He chose me, even when we feel the weight of tiredness and some disappointment, we remain serene and confident, certain that He will not leave us empty-handed. Never. It will keep us waiting, that’s true, but it won’t leave us empty-handed. Like fishermen, trained to be patient, we too, in the midst of the complex challenges of our time, are called to cultivate the inner attitude of waiting. Patience: waiting and patience, as well as the ability to face the unexpected, face changes, face the risks associated with our mission; with openness but with an open heart, and ask the Holy Spirit for that ability to discern the signs of the times: this no, this yes, this is wrong. And we can do all this because at the origin of our ministry there is the Lord’s call, and He will not leave us alone. We can cast the net and wait with confidence. This saves us, even in the most difficult moments; so let us remember the call, let us accept it every day, and let us remain with the Lord. We all know that there are difficult moments, there are. Moments of darkness, moments of desolation… In these dark moments, remember the call, the first call and take strength from there. When this experience of remembering the first call is well ingrained in us, then we can be bold in the mission ahead. And I think again of the Sea of Galilee, this time after the resurrection of Jesus. On the shore of that same lake, he meets the disciples again and finds them disappointed, embittered by a sense of defeat, because they had gone out fishing “but that night they had caught nothing” (cf. Jn 21:3) – and how often does this happen to us, in religious life, in apostolic life – then the Lord shakes them out of that resignation, he spurs them on to try again, to cast the net again; and they “threw it away, and could no longer pull it up because of the great quantity of fish” (v. 6). In moments of disappointment, don’t stop, resist. Resist. So many times we forget this: when we began this journey, the Lord did not tell any of us that everything would be beautiful, comforting. No. Life is made up of moments of joy, but also of dark moments. Resist. The ability, the courage to move forward and the courage to resist. Boldness – apostolic boldness – is a gift that this Church knows well. In fact, if there is one characteristic of the priests and religious of Verona, it is precisely that of being enterprising, creative, capable of embodying the prophecy of the Gospel. Thank you, thank you for this. And this evangelical initiative is a seal – let us put it this way – that has marked your history: it is enough to think of the imprint left by so many priests, religious and lay people in the nineteenth century, whom today we can venerate as Saints and Blesseds. Witnesses of the faith who have been able to unite the proclamation of the Word with the generous and compassionate service of the needy, with a “social creativity” that has led to the birth of formation schools, hospitals, nursing homes, shelters and places of spirituality. This boldness to be creative for God’s people. Many of these saints of the nineteenth century were contemporaries and, immersed in the turbulent history of their time, through the imagination of charity animated by the Holy Spirit, they succeeded in creating a kind of “holy brotherhood”, capable of meeting the needs of the most marginalized and the poorest and of caring for their wounds. Do not forget this: the wounds of the Church, the wounds of the poor. Don’t forget the Good Samaritan, who stops and goes there to heal wounds. A faith that has been translated into the boldness of the mission. This is what we need today too: the boldness of witness and proclamation, the joy of an active faith in charity, the initiative of a Church that knows how to grasp the signs of our time and respond to the needs of those who struggle most. Boldness, courage, the ability to start, the ability to take risks. To all, I repeat, to all we must bring the caress of God’s mercy. And on this, dear brother priests, I will dwell on one thing – I turn to priests, who are ministers of the Sacrament of Penance. Please forgive everything, forgive everything. And when people come to confession, don’t go there and ask “but, how?…”, nothing. And if you are not able to understand at that moment, go ahead, the Lord has understood. But please, don’t torture penitents. A great Cardinal used to tell me, who was a penitentiary, he was quite conservative, but in front of penance, I heard him say: “When a person comes to me and I feel that he has difficulty saying things, I say: ‘I understand, go ahead’. I didn’t understand, but God understood.” This, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Please don’t let it be a torture session. Please forgive everything. All. And to forgive without making others suffer, to forgive by opening the heart to hope. This is what I ask of you priests. The Church needs forgiveness and you are the instruments for forgiving. To everyone. We must bring the caress of God’s mercy to everyone, especially to those who thirst for hope, to those who find themselves forced to live on the margins, wounded by life, or by some mistake committed, or by the injustices of society, which always come to the detriment of the most fragile. Understood? Forgive everyone. You have inherited the boldness of an active faith in charity from your history. And so I would like to say to you with Saint Paul: “Do not be discouraged from doing good” (2 Thess 3:13). Do not give in to discouragement: be bold in your mission, may you know how to be a Church that draws near, that draws near to the crossroads, that heals wounds, that bears witness to God’s mercy. It is in this way that the boat of the Lord, in the midst of the storms of the world, can bring to safety so many who otherwise risk being shipwrecked. Storms, as we know, are not lacking in our days, there are many, there is no shortage of them. Many of them have their roots in avarice, greed, the unbridled search to satisfy one’s ego, and are nourished by an individualistic, indifferent and violent culture. Storms, for the most part, come from here. And in this sense, the words of St. Zeno are so timely, when he says: “It is not an isolated sin – dear brothers – to allow oneself to be captivated by the fetters of greed. […] But since the whole world has been scorched by the burning of this inextinguishable plague, avarice, it is believed, has ceased to be a fault, for it has left no one reproaching it. Everyone is throwing themselves headlong into filthy gains, and no one has been found to impose the bite of justice on them. […] That is why it happens that all nations fall moment by moment as a result of each other’s wounds” (Discourse 5 [I, 9], On Avarice). The risk is this, even for us: that evil becomes “normal” – “This is normal, this is normal…”. No. This is a risk. Evil is not normal, it does not have to be normal. In hell, yes, but not here. Evil cannot be normal. And that we get used to bad things: “The whole world does it, so do I.” So we become accomplices! On the other hand, speaking to the Veronese, St. Zeno says: “Your houses are open to all travelers, below you no one, neither alive nor dead, was seen naked for a long time. By now our poor do not know what it is to beg for food” (Discourse 14 [I, 10], On Avarice). May these words be true for you today! Brothers and sisters, thank you! Thank you for giving your life to the Lord and for your commitment to the apostolate. A few days ago I was gathered with priests who are already “retired”, from 40 years of priesthood upwards, and I saw those priests who have given their lives to the Lord and have that wisdom of heart, I said to them the same: thank you for your commitment to the apostolate. Go forward with courage. Better: let’s go forward with courage, everyone! We have the grace and joy of being together on the ship of the Church, amidst wonderful horizons and alarming storms, but without fear, because the Lord is always with us, and it is he who has the helm, who guides us, who sustains us. And I say this not only to priests, but also to you men and women religious. Forward, courage! It is up to us to accept the call and to be bold in our mission. As one of your great saints, Daniel Comboni, said: “Holy and capable. […] One without the other is of little value to those who beat the apostolic career. The missionary cannot go to heaven alone. Alone they will go to hell. The missionary must go to heaven accompanied by the saved souls. So, first: saints, […] but it is not enough: charity is needed” (Writings, 6655), both of these things. This is what I wish for you and your communities: a “capable holiness”, a living faith that with daring charity sows the Kingdom of God in every situation of daily life. And if Shakespeare’s genius was inspired by the beauty of this place to tell us the tormented stories of two lovers, hindered by the hatred of their respective families, we Christians, inspired by the Gospel, commit ourselves to sowing love everywhere: where there is hatred, let me put love, where there is hatred, let me be able to sow love. A love stronger than hatred – there is so much hatred in the world today – to sow a love stronger than hatred and stronger than death. Dream of it like this, Verona, as the city of love, not only in literature, but in life. And may God’s love accompany and bless you. And please, I ask you to pray for me. But pray for it, not against it! Thank you! _____________________________________________________________
9.15	PIAZZA SAN ZENO: Meeting with children and young people *Pope Francis: Now let’s start talking… Your friends will ask questions… Question 1: In the Gospel, Jesus calls his disciples to follow him even if they are not perfect. How do we hear his call? Pope Francis: This question is a very important one. How do I hear Jesus’ call? Why do we see that in the Gospel Jesus calls the disciples who were not perfect, they were ordinary people, and I, who am a little girl, an ordinary boy, how can I hear Jesus’ call? Tell me one thing: when you are with dad, mom, grandparents, do you feel good? [Answer: Yes!] And you feel there that you have love: the love of Daddy, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma. When you do a good work, for example, if you have two pieces of candy you give one to the other, or if you see a needy person and give him alms, do you feel good? [They answer: Yes! A lot!] Muy bien… And when you, for example, tell a lie, do you feel good? [Answer: No!] Well done, well done… And when you quarrel with your brother and sister, do you feel good? [Answer: No!] You have seen that you are capable of “feeling”: feeling good, feeling bad if one listens or does something. When Jesus speaks – listen carefully to this – when Jesus speaks, he makes us feel good, he makes us feel a joy in our hearts. Do you understand? Yes! Now I ask: when Jesus speaks, how do we feel? [They answer: Good!] What?… [They answer: Good!] Good! And so we are able to hear Jesus’ call, that Jesus makes us feel good. And if you get a person who doesn’t love you and slaps you twice, how do you feel? [They answer: Bad!]. And if the devil comes to tell you something, how do you feel? [Answer: Bad!] In this way, you have understood well what we feel when Jesus comes and what we feel when something bad is done. Did you get it right? [Answer: Yes!]. When Jesus comes, how do we feel? [They answer: Good!]; And if we see or do a bad thing, how do we feel? [Answer: bad!] Ah, well done! Courage! Congratulations! Question 2: Jesus sends his disciples all over the world, how can we children be a sign of peace in the world? Pope Francis’ Answer* Jesus sends his disciples all over the world, this is true. Because Jesus said to the Apostles: “Go into all the world to preach the Gospel”. Jesus sends the disciples, the Apostles and all of us to preach in the world, of course… But the question is: how can we now be a sign of peace in the world? You know that in this world, at this moment, the world is at war. Do you know this? There are so many wars, so many wars, both in Ukraine and in the Holy Land, in Africa, in Myanmar… Many, many wars… And does Jesus preach war or peace? [They answer: Peace!] And what do we want to do, war or peace? [They answer: peace!] That is, that we must be a sign of peace, right? [Answer: Yes] But if you quarrel with your classmate, will you be a sign of peace? [They answer: No.] He doesn’t feel well… [They answer: No!]. We must be a sign of peace, share, sow good, listen to others, play with others, but not quarrel with others… Let us say it together: We must be a sign of peace! Together! [They answer: We must be a sign of peace!] You’re good, you’re good! Congratulations! . . Now the last question… Question 3: How can we eighth-graders, who are celebrating the “Feast of Passage,” keep faith in times of difficulty and not be afraid to make choices against the tide? *Pope Francis’ Answer* Good! A difficult question… How can we keep the faith in times of darkness and difficulty. For example, how can we keep faith in the face of the death of a loved one, grandparents, aunts and uncles, or even sometimes father, mother? In these difficulties, how can we keep the faith? Indeed, how can we go against the tide, because they tell us: “But you go on? Steal this…” Can you steal? [Answer: No!] No? Not convinced… Can you steal? [Answer: No!] And you, in order not to do bad things, you have to go against the tide, have you understood this? [Answer: Yes!] Do the things that maybe someone else doesn’t. How can you overcome the fear of going against the tide? I’m going to ask you this question. A few brave people to answer… How can you go against the tide? [Someone answers: Listen to your heart!] Good! Another… [Someone replies: Have courage!] Well, okay, stronger… [They answer: Have courage!] Well done, well done! So I like it… Listen to one thing: don’t be afraid to go against the tide if you want to do a good thing, do you understand? [Answer: Yes!] Should we be afraid of going against the tide? [Answer: No!] Ah, you’re good! Thank you dears, thank you! Now let’s pray together, let’s pray together. “Our Father…” Now, in silence, we receive the blessing. [Blessing]. In our lives, should we bless or curse? [They answer: Bless!] Bless the devil too? [Answer: No!] Ah, that’s fine… You’re good! Come in! Thank you! _____________________________________________________________
10.15	ARENA: The Holy Father will chair the meeting “Arena of Peace: Justice and Peace embrace” The Holy Father will answer questions 1. PEACE MUST BE ORGANIZED* (Democracy Rights Table) *Question* Pope Francis, I am Mahbouba Seraj, I came here, to the 2024 Arena, from Kabul, Afghanistan. I have always believed in you, Holy Father: you are a man of peace and you can do a lot. What I recommend is that, in order for you to be more successful, you will have to prepare institutions of peace, you will have to put all your efforts into the establishment of institutions of peace. In my country, Afghanistan, we had the illusion of democracy, the illusion of peace. For 44 years now, my country has been at war and I would like to know what can be done: What do you recommend, Father? But not only for Afghanistan: His enlightened counsel applies to the whole world. How can we make the work of peace work? And we are all at your side in this endeavour. Translation of the verses that were spoken by Mahbouba Seraj: “The mosque, Mecca, the Temple, are all excuses. God’s life is in your house.” *Pope Francis’ Answer* The question is what kind of leadership can carry out this task that you have expressed so profoundly. A culture strongly marked by individualism – not by a community – always risks making the dimension of the community disappear: where there is strong individualism, the community disappears. And this, if we turn to political and demographic terms, is perhaps the root of dictatorships. So it goes. The dimension of community, the dimension of the vital bonds that sustain us and make us move forward, disappears. And it inevitably has consequences for the way authority is understood. Those who hold a position of responsibility in a political institution, or in a company or in a reality of social commitment, risk feeling invested with the task of saving others as if they were heroes. And this hurts so much, this poisons authority. And this is one of the causes of the loneliness that so many people in positions of responsibility confess to experiencing, as well as one of the reasons why we are witnessing a growing disengagement. If the idea we have of the leader is that of a loner, above all others, called to decide and act on their behalf and on their behalf, then we are making our own an impoverished and impoverished vision, which ends up draining the creative energies of those who are leaders and making the whole community and society sterile. Psychiatrists say that one of the most subtle aggressions is idealization: it is a way of aggression. This is a far cry from the one expressed by the Bantu saying: “I am because we are.” The wisdom of this saying lies in the fact that the emphasis is on the bond between the members of a community: “We are, I am.” No one exists without others, no one can do everything alone. So the authority we need is the one that is first of all able to recognize its own strengths and limitations, and therefore to understand who to turn to for help and collaboration. Authority is essentially collaborative; otherwise it will be authoritarianism and many diseases that arise from it. In fact, the authority to build solid peace processes knows how to value what is good in everyone, knows how to trust, and thus allows people to feel capable of making a significant contribution. This type of authority fosters participation, which is often recognized as insufficient in both quantity and quality. Participation: Don’t forget this word. We all work, we all participate in the work we carry out. A good participation that you describe as follows: “Expression of questions and proposal of collective responses to critical issues and aspirations, producer of culture and new visions of the world, civil energy that makes individuals and communities protagonists of their own future” (Democracy Document). In a society or in a country or in a city, even in a small business, if there is no participation, things don’t work, because we are communities, we are not solitary. Don’t forget this word: participation. It’s important. And a great challenge today is to awaken in young people the passion for participation. There is a little word that we forget when we say: “I’ll do it”, “I’ll go”… What is the little word? Together. This is the strength of the whole, participation. We need to invest in young people, in their formation, to convey the message that the road to the future cannot pass only through the commitment of an individual, even if animated by the best intentions and with the necessary preparation, but passes through the action of a people – the people are protagonists, let us not forget this – in which everyone plays their part, each according to their tasks and abilities. And I would ask you a question: in a people, is the work of the whole the sum of the work of each one? Is that all? No, it’s more! It’s more than that. One plus one equals three: this is the miracle of working together. 2. PEACE MUST BE PROMOTED (Migration Table) *Question* João Pedro Stédile: Pope Francis, I bring you a strong embrace of all the “sem Terra” people of Brazil: we are united and we pray for you. I also bring words from our bishop of the Landless, Bishop Pedro Casaldáliga Plá, who unfortunately is no longer with us. He told us: “Cursed be all the fences, cursed be all the private property that prevents us from living and loving. Thank you. Pope Francis, I am Elda Baggio, humanitarian worker of “Médecins Sans Frontières” and I am here with João Pedro Stédile, who has joined us from Brazil and brings with him all the wisdom and experience of the Landless Movement. Obviously, we too care about peace and peacebuilding, and we have experienced that the first step is to take the side of migrants, of the victims, to listen to them, to let them tell their stories and make their voices heard. Experiencing all this, however, disarms our hearts, our gazes, our minds and makes evident the injustices that exist. But it is not an easy step to take: how can we live this conversion of perspective, this change of perspective? What can help us to do this? *Pope Francis’ Answer* It is precisely the Gospel that tells us to put ourselves on the side of the little ones, on the side of the weak, on the side of the forgotten. The Gospel tells us this. And Jesus, with the gesture of the washing of the feet that subverts conventional hierarchies, tells us the same. It is always he who calls the little ones and the excluded and places them at the centre, invites them to be in the midst of others, presents them to all as witnesses of a necessary and possible change. With his actions, Jesus breaks conventions and prejudices, makes visible the people that the society of his time hid or despised. This is very important: don’t hide the limitations. There are people who are very limited, physically, spiritually, socially, economically… Don’t hide limitations. Jesus did not hide them. And Jesus does so without wanting to replace them, without exploiting them, without depriving them of their voice, their history, their experiences. I like it when I see people with physical limitations participating in meetings, as in this case, because Jesus did not hide them, this is the truth. Everyone has their own voice, whether they speak with their language or with their own existence. Each of us has our own voice. And many times we don’t know how to listen to it because we all think about our own things or, even worse, we go all day with our mobile phones and this prevents us from seeing reality: many times, right? As you wrote in the document of one of your working groups, in order to put an end to all forms of war and violence, it is necessary to stand by the little ones, respect their dignity, listen to them and ensure that their voice can be heard without being filtered. Always close to the little ones, so that their voice can be heard. Meeting the little ones and sharing their pain. And to take a stand alongside them against the violence of which they are victims, leaving behind this culture of indifference that is so justified. A question – I know that you know this – have we thought today about how many boys and girls are forced to work, slave labor, to earn a living? The little ones… That child who perhaps has never had a toy because he has to go here, there, there to earn his bread, perhaps in the landfills looking for things to sell… There are so many children like this who don’t know how to play because life has forced them to live like this. The little ones: the little ones suffer. And do they suffer from bad weather? No, it’s not our fault. We are the ones responsible. “No, Father, I don’t, because I am…” We are all responsible, we are all responsible for everyone. But today I believe that the “Nobel Prize” that we can give to so many, to so many of us, is the “Nobel Prize” of Pontius Pilate, because we are masters at washing our hands of it. This is the conversion that changes our lives, the conversion that changes the world. A conversion that concerns all of us individually, but also as members of the communities, movements, associations to which we belong, and as citizens. And it also concerns institutions, which are not external or extraneous to this process of conversion. The first step is to recognize that we are not at the center… [sees an old man walking in the middle of the Arena]… At the center is this elderly: he is as important as each one of us. The focus is not on our visions, our ideas. And then accept that our lifestyle will inevitably be affected and modified. When we are at the side of the little ones, we are “uncomfortable”. The little ones make us uncomfortable, because they touch, they touch the heart. Walking with the little ones forces us to change pace, to review what we carry in our backpack, to lighten ourselves of many weights and ballasts and make room for new things. So it is important to live all this not as a loss, but as an enrichment, a wise pruning, which removes what is lifeless and enhances what is promising. Pruning is not a loss: it is painful, yes, at the moment it takes something away from you, but it is something that gives you life. We must experience closeness with the little ones like pruning. Let’s look at the list of the little ones, of the many “little ones” that we have. And let’s think of a category that we all have in the family, small in the sense, let’s say, of diminished by age: let’s think of grandparents. I am reminded of a very beautiful story that is not something that happened historically, it is a story. There is a beautiful family – father, mother, children – and their grandfather lived with them: an old man, yes, and he ate with them. But Grandpa, as he got older, would take the soup like that [he gestures with his trembling hand] and get all dirty. At a certain point the father said, one day: “Grandpa tomorrow will start eating in the kitchen, because he eats badly, and then we can invite people with us”. The next day, Grandpa began to eat in the kitchen. The following week, the father comes home, and there is the five-year-old boy playing, and playing with wood, pieces of wood… “What are you doing?” – “Ah, a coffee table, Dad!” – “A coffee table? Why?” – “For you, when you’re old.” Let us be careful with the old: the old are wisdom. Let us not forget this. I say this with sorrow: this society often hides the old, abandons the old. Thank you. 3. PEACE MUST BE CARED FOR (Environment/Creation Table) *Question* My name is Vanessa Nakate, I’m a Ugandan activist, a climate activist. The first time I saw the Pope was when he came to visit my country. I saw him on his Popemobile, I said: I’m happy, even if we are separated by a window, but at least I saw him. I never imagined that nine years later I would be on the same stage where he is… It is truly an honor, an infinite honor! It is not necessary to prevail as individuals, but as humanity, as a collective; A livable planet is an optimal solution for everyone, not a few. Annamaria Panarotto: Here I reread to you the verse that Vanessa said just now: We don’t need to win as individuals, we have to win together as humanity! A healthy and livable planet is a win-win for everyone, not just a few! Well, dear Pope Francis, I am one of the No-Pfas mothers in Veneto. Moms make themselves heard, always! A group that has been committed for many years against the pollution of the water here in the Veneto region that has made our children sick, and I am here with Vanessa Nakate, a young and courageous guardian of our common home who came from Uganda. Peace is made together. There can be no peace among human beings if men and women do not make peace with Creation. Building relationships of justice among all living beings takes time. How can we find it in this era marked by speed and immediacy? Afterwards, dear Pope Francis, I wanted to say that today there are many, many of us here and we are all artisans of peace, we are representatives of groups, movements, associations, Churches, but we are and we want to be, to remain artisans of peace. But we also feel the urgency almost to force politics to have different visions, to give more immediate answers. So I wanted to ask you if you can help us and figure out what steps to take… *Pope Francis’ Answer* Thank you! I liked… Above all, I liked that “but” of yours. Thank you! I’m looking at that sign: “Let’s demilitarize mind and territories.” We are talking about peace, but do you know that the actions that are most profitable in some countries are those of arms factories? This is bad, it’s ugly. And so we can’t demilitarize, because it’s a very big deal. You look at the list of countries that manufacture weapons, and you see what a good deal that is. Prepare for death. What an ugly thing! And your “but” is pointing with your finger at this situation of contradiction. In our society we experience this tension: on the one hand, everything pushes us to act quickly, we are used to having an immediate response to our requests and we become impatient if there is a delay. For example, the digital revolution of recent years has allowed us to be constantly connected, to be able to communicate easily with people who are very far away, to be able to carry out our work remotely. We should have more time on our hands and instead we realize that we are always in a hurry, chasing the urgency of the last minute. On the other hand, we feel that all this is not natural. This is “belligerent”, this is war, it is not natural. In our society we breathe a tired air, there is tiredness in the air, many do not find reasons to carry on with their daily activities, weighed down by the feeling of always being out of time, as if trapped in the repetition of what we do, because we do not have the strength or time to seek harmony. Peace is not invented overnight. Peace must be nurtured. If we don’t take care of peace, there will be war, small wars, big wars. Peace must be cared for, and today in the world there is this grave sin: not caring for peace! The world is in a hurry, we should sometimes know how to slow down and not let ourselves be overwhelmed by activities and make room within ourselves for the action of God, for the action of our brothers and sisters, for the action of society that seeks the common good. “Slow down” may sound like a misplaced word, but it’s actually an invitation to recalibrate our expectations and actions. It is a question of making a “revolution” in the astronomical sense: going in search of peace, and how do you do this? Always with dialogue: peace is made in dialogue. Recognize others, respect them wisely. The enormous challenge we face is to go against the tide to rediscover and preserve contexts in which it is possible to live all this with others. And we don’t have to invent everything from scratch, we have to take charge of the story. Many times wars come from the impatience to get things done quickly and not have the patience to build peace, slowly, through dialogue. Patience is the word we must repeat over and over again: patience to make peace. And if someone – we see it in natural life – if someone insults you, you immediately feel like saying twice as much and then four times as much, and so the aggression multiplies, the aggressions multiply. We have to stop, stop the aggression. One time – it was a very funny scene – there was a person who went to buy something, and you can see that they didn’t give her the right price and then he shouted everything, he shouted everything. And the gentleman of the shop listened to him, and when he finished shouting, he said, “Sir, are you done?” – “Yes, I’m done!” – “Go for a walk.” He didn’t say it with these words, with stronger words, but he sent him for a walk. When we see that things are starting to get hot, let’s stop, take a walk, or say a word, and things will get better. Stop in time, stop in time! 4. PEACE MUST BE EXPERIENCED (Disarmament) *Question* [Sergio Paronetto] A few verses by a person who was very active in our previous Arenas: Giulio Girardello, missionary priest, poet, love of Giulio Battistella, another witness and promoter of the Arenas. However, I would like to preface in 30 seconds, Pope Francis, one thing. I would like to say to you, on behalf of so many, our thanks for your courage. I would like to tell you that we are close to you, that we want to help you because by helping you we help ourselves, we help the world to become human, and we are co-responsible by walking beside you. Julius said: “Only from hands planted in the sentiment of the world is peace born. I have just two hands and the feeling of the world to make peace.” [Andrea Riccardi] I would like to say that being here seems like a dream: a people, with Pope Francis, who believe in peace. However, the world is different, the world is very different because there are wars, and we know it: open wars, and we have put ourselves on the side of the victims, who are many. But even in this world there is an absence of thoughts and plans for peace that frustrate the hopes of so many peoples for an end to war. You see, Pope Francis, peace is banished as naivety, indeed, as you say: peace has become a dirty word, and this is extremely sad because peace is everyone’s life, peace is a great blessing. But there is an alternative: we must confess that many, ordinary men and women, feel powerless, they do not know what to do, and powerlessness generates indifference, and indifference then becomes, in the end, also consensus, complicity in wrong decisions, in paths of war, which is truly dramatic. So, what we wanted to ask you is: how can we be, in this complex moment, artisans of peace, mediators even in the face of conflicts near and far? Thank you. *Pope Francis’ Answer* Thank you. Thank you for your thoughts. If there is life, if there is an active community, if there is a positive dynamism in society, then there are also conflicts and tensions. It is a fact: the absence of conflict does not mean that there is peace, but that one has ceased to live, to think, to spend oneself for what one believes in. There is a Spanish saying that goes: “Still water is the first to rot, to decompose”. People who are stationary are the first to get sick. In our lives, in our realities, in our territories we will always be called to deal with tensions and conflicts. You can’t stand still in the face of this: you have to make an option, you have to be creative. A conflict is a challenge to creativity. You can never get out of a conflict, first of all, alone: you will never get out of a conflict alone, you need community, you need the help of both family and friends, but you can never get out of a conflict alone. And, secondly, one can only get out of a conflict “from above”. Otherwise you’ll go down. The conflict has something labyrinthine about it: you can’t get out of a labyrinth alone, you need at least the thread, Ariadne’s, which will then help you get out. And you come out of a conflict to be better, “from above”. You can’t get out of a conflict with anesthesia, no, you need to get out of a conflict with realism: I’m in the labyrinth; We must be able to give a name to conflicts, take them in hand and go out, come out from above and come out accompanied, at least with the thread. In our lives we will always be called to make progress with conflicts, to dialogue with conflicts. We are often tempted to think that the solution to overcome conflicts and tensions is to remove them. No! I ignore them, I hide them, I marginalize them. No. This is a ticking time bomb. In doing so, I amputate the reality of an uncomfortable but also important piece. We know that the final outcome of this way of experiencing conflicts is to increase injustices and generate reactions of malaise and frustration, which can also translate into violent gestures. And we also see this in politics, in society. When conflicts are hidden in politics, any politics, they break out later, and they break out badly. There is no harmony. Conflicts cannot be hidden either in the family or in society. For this reason, when there are problems in the family, we need to talk about them in order to clarify them. And when there are problems in society, we have to share them in order to solve them. But you can’t go out alone. Another short-sighted response is to try to resolve tensions by making one of the poles at stake prevail, and this is suicide, because it reduces the plurality of positions to a single perspective. Today the Bishop showed me the birth certificate of a great man, Romano Guardini, who was born here in Verona. He used to say that conflicts are always resolved on a higher level, because in this way conflicts are transformed into the leaven of new culture, of new things to move forward. Uniformity is a dead end: instead of moving forward, we go under; Uniformity is not needed, unity is needed, and to achieve unity one must work with conflicts. When we are afraid of plurality, we can say that that family, that society psychologically and culturally commits suicide. The first step to take in order to live tensions and conflicts in a healthy way is to recognize that they are part of our lives, they are physiological, when they do not cross the threshold of violence. So don’t be afraid of them: welcome, to solve them. Don’t be afraid of it. Don’t be afraid if there are different ideas that confront and perhaps clash. In these situations, we are called to a different exercise. To allow ourselves to be challenged by conflict, to allow ourselves to be provoked by tensions, to set out in search: how to resolve, how to go in search of harmony. This is a job that we are not accustomed to doing: yet it is wealth, it is social wealth, this, both of the family and of society. Are there any conflicts? Let’s go, let’s talk about conflicts, let’s confront each other to resolve them. Please, don’t be afraid of conflicts, be they family or social conflicts. And it is clear that if I am not afraid of conflict, I am inclined to dialogue. And dialogue helps us to resolve conflicts, always. But dialogue is not about achieving equality, no, because everyone has their own idea; but it makes us share plurality. The sin of political regimes that have ended up in dictatorships is that they do not allow plurality; And plurality is as much in the larger society as it is in the family: the daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law – a nice thing to solve, isn’t it? – but that family conflict must be resolved as a world conflict must be resolved. We must learn to live with conflicts: when adolescent children begin to ask for things that we are not used to giving them, there is a family conflict: listening to them, dialogue. A father who dialogues with his children, a mother who dialogues with her children, citizens who dialogue with each other… Dialogue. And conflicts move you forward. A society without conflict is a dead society; A society where conflicts are hidden is a suicidal society; A society where conflicts are taken by the hand and dialogue is a society of the future. 5. PEACE MUST BE PREPARED (Labour and Economy Table) *Question* It is a great honour Pope Francis to be here. You are a peace leader. We are here with 12,000 peacemakers. We bring you words of peace from the Holy Land. Roberto Romano: I will try to make what has been said effective, because in Italian it is not the same thing: “I raise my eyes with hope, not through the sight of my rifles, sing a song for love, not for war! Don’t say the day will come, bring that day because it’s a dream inside you; And in all the squares of the city, in all of them I think, they are only rooting for peace!” This was the first poem, a song, a praise of hope. Now there is a second representation of what we can see step by step: “Tomorrow the lemons will bloom, your eyes will dance, and your children will play again, and fathers and sons will meet. My city, yes, my very city, the city of peace is the city of olive trees.” Pope Francis, my name is Maoz Inon, I am from Israel and my parents were killed by Hamas. Pope Francis, my name is Aziz Sarah, I come from Palestine and this war and the Israeli soldiers have taken my brother away from me. Our pain, our suffering have brought us closer together, they have led us to dialogue to create a better future. We are entrepreneurs and we believe that peace is the greatest undertaking to be accomplished. We are here with Roberto Romano who shares our ideas. There can be no peace without an economy of peace. An economy that does not kill, that does not produce war, an economy based on justice; And we ask: How can young people be entrepreneurs of peace when places of formation are often influenced by technocratic paradigms and the culture of profit at any cost? *Pope Francis’ Answer* I believe that in the face of the suffering of these two brothers, which is the suffering of two peoples, nothing can be said…, nothing can be said. They had the courage to hug each other. And this is not only courage and testimony of wanting peace, but it is also a project for the future. Hug each other. Both have lost their relatives, their families have been broken by this war. What is the point of war? Please, let’s have a little moment of silence, because you can’t talk too much about this, but “feel”. And looking at the embrace of these two, each one from his or her own heart may pray to the Lord for peace, and make an inner decision to do something to put an end to wars. In silence, for a moment… And let us think of the children in this war, in so many wars… What future will they have? I am reminded of the Ukrainian children who come to Rome: they don’t know how to smile. Children in war lose their smiles. And let’s think of the old people who have worked all their lives to carry these two countries forward, and now… A defeat, a historic defeat and a defeat for all of us. Let us pray for peace, and let us tell these two brothers that they may bring our desire and the will to work for peace to their people. Thank you brothers! *Concluding remarks by His Holiness Pope Francis* We listened to the women. And the world needs to look to women to find peace. It’s the moms. The testimonies of these courageous bridge-builders between Israelis and Palestinians confirm this. I am increasingly convinced that “the future of humanity is not only in the hands of great leaders, great powers and elites. Above all, it is in the hands of the peoples – the peoples! –; in their ability to organize themselves and also in their hands that irrigate, with humility and conviction, this process of change” (Address to the Second World Meeting of Popular Movements, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, 9 July 2015). The people must be aware of themselves and act as a people, acting with this will to make peace. You, however, weavers of dialogue in the Holy Land, please ask world leaders to listen to your voice, to involve yourselves in the negotiation processes, so that agreements may be born of reality and not of ideologies. Let us remember that ideologies do not have feet to walk, they do not have hands to heal wounds, they do not have eyes to see the sufferings of others. Peace is made with the feet, hands and eyes of the peoples involved, all together. Peace will never be the result of mistrust, the result of walls, of weapons pointed at each other. Saint Paul says: “Everyone will reap what he sows” (Gal 6:7). Brothers and sisters, our civilizations at this moment are sowing destruction, fear. Let us sow, brothers and sisters, hope! Let us be sowers of hope! Everyone should look for a way to do it, but always sower hope. This is what you too are doing in this Arena of Peace: sowing hope. Don’t stop. Don’t be discouraged. Do not become spectators of the so-called “inevitable” war. No, spectators of a so-called inevitable war, no. As Bishop Tonino Bello used to say: “Everyone on your feet, builders of peace!” All together. Thank you. _____________________________________________________________
11.45	Following the meeting in the Arena, the Holy Father will transfer by car to the Montorio Prison Montorio. In the prison, Pope Francis greets Prison Officers, detainees and volunteers Address of the Holy Father Dear Sisters and Brothers,* I thank the Director for her welcome, and her sense of humour! A smile is so good for you. I thank all of you for the warmth, the celebration and the affection you show me. A greeting also goes to all those who work in this institute: custodial officers, educators, health workers, administrative staff, volunteers. I also want to greet all those who are watching from the windows: greetings to all of you! I really wanted to meet you, all together. For me, entering a prison is always an important moment, because prison is a place of great humanity. Yes, it is a place of great humanity. Of tried humanity, sometimes fatigued by difficulties, feelings of guilt, judgments, misunderstandings, sufferings, but at the same time full of strength, of the desire for forgiveness, of the desire for redemption, as Duarte said in his speech. And in this humanity, here, in all of you, in all of us, the face of Christ is present today, the face of the God of mercy and forgiveness. Do not forget this: God forgives everything and always forgives, in this humanity, here, in all of you. This sense of looking at the God of mercy. We are aware of the situation in prisons, which are often overcrowded – in my land, too – with the consequent tensions and hardships. For this reason, I want to tell you that I am close to you, and I renew my appeal, especially to those who can act in this area, to continue to work for the improvement of prison life. Once, a lady who worked in prisons and had a good relationship with the inmates – but it was a women’s prison – a mother of a family, the lady was very human, told me that she was devoted to a saint. “But which saint?” – “Holy Door” – “Why?” – “It is the door of hope”. And all of you must look to this door of hope. There is no human life without horizons. Please do not lose the horizons, which will be seen through that door of hope. Following the chronicles of your institute, I learned with sorrow that unfortunately here, recently, some people, in an extreme gesture, have given up living. This is a sad act that only unbearable despair and pain can lead to. Therefore, as I join in prayer with the families and with all of you, I want to invite you not to give in to discouragement, to look at the door as the door of hope. Life is always worth living, always!, and there is always hope for the future, even when everything seems to be extinguished. Our existence, that of each one of us, is important – we are not waste material, existence is important – it is a unique gift for us and for others, for everyone, and above all for God, who never abandons us, and who indeed knows how to listen, rejoice and weep with us and always forgive. With Him at our side, with the Lord at our side, we can overcome despair. And, as the director said, God is one: our cultures have taught us to call him by one name, by another, and to find him in different ways, but he is the same father of us all. It’s one. And all religions, all cultures, look at the one God in different ways. He never abandons us. With Him at our side, we can overcome despair and live every moment as the opportune time to begin again. Recommence. There is a beautiful Piedmontese song that I will try to translate into Italian that goes like this – the Alpini sing it – “In the art of ascending, what matters is not not to fall, but not to remain fallen”. And to all of us who work in this prison, even as volunteers, to the families, to all of us, I say one thing: it is permissible to look down on a person only once: to help him or her rise up. Therefore, in the worst moments, let us not close in on ourselves: let us speak to God about our pain and let us help each other to bear it, among our companions on the journey and with the good people who are at our side. It is not weakness to ask for help, no: let us do it with humility and trust and humanity. We all need each other, and we all have the right to hope, beyond any history and any mistake or failure. Hope is a right, and it never disappoints. Never. In a few months the Holy Year will begin: a year of conversion, renewal and liberation for the whole Church; a year of mercy, in which to lay down the ballast of the past and renew the impetus towards the future; in which to celebrate the possibility of change, to be and, where necessary, return to being truly ourselves, giving the best. May this also be a sign that helps us to get up and take up again, with confidence, every day of our lives. Dear friends, thank you for this meeting. I’ll tell you the truth: it’s good for me. You are doing me good, thank you. Let us continue to walk together, because love unites us beyond any kind of distance. I remember you in prayer and I ask you, please, to pray for me: for, not against! Pray for me. And don’t forget: “In the art of climbing, what matters is not not not to fall, but not to remain fallen.” Thank you.
13.00	Lunch with detainees
14.30	The Holy Father will leave Montorio Prison and transfer by car to Bentegodi Stadium for Eucharistic Service

Pope Francis’ Homily
Once, the apostle Paul went to a Christian community and asked, “Have you received the Holy Spirit?”
And what did they say? “What is the Holy Spirit?” (cf Acts 19:1-2). They didn’t know what the Holy Spirit was. I think that today, if I ask in many Christian communities what the Holy Spirit is, they will not know how to answer.

Once, at a Children’s Mass – a day like this at Pentecost, there were two hundred children, more or less – I asked, “Who is the Holy Spirit?” and the children, “Me! I! Me!”;
They all wanted to answer. I said, “You” – “It’s the paralytic!”
He had heard “Paraclete” and he had said paralytic.
And many times, if I were to ask, I don’t say that the answer will be “the paralytic,” but we don’t know who the Holy Spirit is.

Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit is the protagonist of our lives!
It is what leads us forward, what helps us to move forward, what makes us develop the Christian life.
The Holy Spirit is within us.
Be careful: we have all received, with Baptism, the Holy Spirit, and also with Confirmation, more!
But do I listen to the Holy Spirit within me?
Do I listen to the Spirit who moves my heart and says to me: “Don’t do this, yes this”?
Or is there no Holy Spirit for me?

Today we celebrate the feast of the day the Holy Spirit came.
But just think: the Apostles were all shut up in the Upper Room.
They were afraid, the doors were closed…
The Holy Spirit came, changed their hearts, and they went out to preach boldly.
Courage:
The Holy Spirit gives us the courage to live the Christian life.
And for this reason, with this courage, it changes our lives.

Sometimes we go [to Confession] with the same sins:
“But Father, I would like to change my life, I don’t know how to do it…” – “But listen to the Spirit!
Pray to the Spirit, and He will change your life.
Entrust yourself to the Spirit” – “Eh, father, I’m 90 years old, I can’t change anymore…” –
“But how many days of life do you have left?” – “Eh, I don’t know” –
“With just one day, the Spirit can change your life. It can change your heart!”

The Spirit is first and foremost the One who changes our lives.
Do you understand this?
Let us repeat together: “The Spirit changes our lives”.
[All: “The Spirit Changes Our Lives.”] And that’s nice.

Second.
The Apostles who were so afraid, when they received the Holy Spirit, went forward with courage to preach the Gospel.
The Holy Spirit gives us courage to live a Christian life.
Sometimes we find Christians who are like lukewarm water: neither hot nor cold. He lacks courage.
“And Father, where can you take a course to have courage?” – “No, pray to the Spirit. Rely on the Spirit.”
The Spirit gives us the courage to live a Christian life.
Do you understand this?
All together: “The Spirit gives us courage” [All: “The Spirit gives us courage”].
Here! And this is what we ask: the Spirit to help us to move forward.

And then, a very beautiful thing the Spirit did that day of Pentecost.
There were people of all nations, of all languages, of all cultures, and the Spirit, with those people, builds up the Church.
The Spirit builds up the Church.
What do you mean?
What makes everyone the same?
No! All different, but with one heart, with the love that unites us.
The Spirit is the One who saves us from the danger of making us all equal. We are all redeemed, all loved by the Father, all taught by Jesus Christ.
And what does the Spirit do? It does that thing: the whole of everyone.
There is a word that explains this well: the Spirit creates harmony!
The harmony of the Church.
Each one different from the other, but in an atmosphere of harmony.
Together we say: the Spirit makes us harmony. [All: “The Spirit Makes Us Harmony.”]

Dear brothers and sisters, this is the miracle of today: to take cowardly, frightened men and make them courageous; to take men and women of all cultures and make them a unity of all, to make the Church.
To take these people without making them the same.
What does the Spirit do? Harmony. Together: the Spirit creates harmony.

Now each of us thinks about our own lives.
We all need harmony.
We all need the Spirit to give us harmony in our souls, in our families, in our cities, in our society, in our workplaces.
The opposite of harmony is war, it is fighting against each other.
And when you make war, when you fight against each other, does it the Spirit, yes or no? [All: “No.”] Stronger! [All: “No!”]. No, no.
The Spirit creates harmony.
And with the Apostles, on the day he came, there was Our Lady, the Virgin Mary.
Let us ask her to give us the grace to receive the Holy Spirit; may she, as Mother, teach us to receive the Holy Spirit. Thank you.

Departure from the Vatican heliport