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| Pope Francis: Photo from Life Site News |
Below, please find the complete text of Pope
Francis’ remarks to the Bishops of South Africa, Botswana, and Swaziland:
Dear Brother Bishops,
I offer you a warm welcome as you make this
pilgrimage ad Limina Apostolorum, in which you have come to pray at the tombs
of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and to reflect with me on the joys and
challenges of the Church in Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland. Your presence
expresses your unity with the Successor of Peter, and provides an opportunity
to be refreshed in the faith and in your ministry of shepherding God’s people.
I thank Cardinal Napier for his warm words of greeting, offered on behalf of
Catholics in your dioceses – priests, religious and lay faithful. I assure them
through you of my love and prayerful solidarity.
Our meeting today allows us to give thanks
to God the Father for the growth of the Church in your countries, thanks to the
labours of missionaries from many lands, who along with indigenous men and
women of South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland, sowed the seeds of your people’s
faith so deeply. For generations they have gone out to meet them wherever they
are to be found, in villages, towns and cities, and especially in
ever-expanding urban townships. They built the churches and schools and clinics
that have served your countries for nearly two centuries; this heritage shines
forth even now in the heart of every believer and in the continuing works of
the apostolate. The Gospel teaches that the seed of the Word, once sown, grows
by itself even as the farmer sleeps, accomplishing “what it wills in ways that
surpass our calculations and ways of thinking” (Evangelii Gaudium, 22).
Despite many challenges, your countries are
blessed by flourishing parishes, thriving often against very great odds: far
distances between communities, a dearth of material resources and limited
access to the sacraments. I know you are training permanent deacons in some
dioceses, to assist the clergy where priests are fewer. There is a concerted
effort to renew and deepen the formation of lay catechists who assist mothers
and fathers in preparing the coming generations in the faith. Priests and
religious brothers and sisters are of one mind and heart in their service of
God’s most vulnerable sons and daughters: widows, single mothers, the divorced,
children at risk and especially the several million AIDS orphans, many of whom
head households in rural areas. Truly the richness and joy of the Gospel is
being lived and shared by Catholics with others around them. A Catholic
minority in countries of mixed religions, the faithful are having to rely more
and more on their own support, with diminished aid from the countries who first
sent missionaries. Many of them work with great generosity in numerous projects
of charity, manifesting the loving face of Christ to those who need him most.
Each is a sign of hope for the whole Church! I pray that they will continue to
persevere in building up the Lord’s Kingdom with their lives that testify to
the truth, and with the work of their hands that ease the sufferings of so
many.
You have spoken to me of some of the serious
pastoral challenges facing your communities. Catholic families have fewer
children, with repercussions on the number of vocations to the priesthood and
religious life. Some Catholics turn away from the Church to other groups who
seem to promise something better. Abortion compounds the grief of many women
who now carry with them deep physical and spiritual wounds after succumbing to
the pressures of a secular culture which devalues God’s gift of sexuality and
the right to life of the unborn. In addition, the rate of separation and
divorce is high, even in many Christian families, and children frequently do
not grow up in a stable home environment. We also observe with great concern,
and can only deplore, an increase in violence against women and children. All
these realities threaten the sanctity of marriage, the stability of life in the
home and consequently the life of society as a whole. In this sea of
difficulties, we bishops and priests must give a consistent witness to the
moral teaching of the Gospel. I am confident that you will not weaken in your
resolve to teach the truth “in season and out of season” (2 Tim 4:2), sustained
by prayer and discernment, and always with great compassion.
I appreciate the fact that you, the bishops
of Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland, are united to your people where they
live and work and study, in solidarity with the vast numbers of unemployed in
your countries. Most of your people can identify at once with Jesus who was
poor and marginalized, who had no place to lay his head. In addressing these
pastoral needs, I ask you to offer, in addition to the material support which
you provide, the greater support of spiritual assistance and sound moral
guidance, remembering that the absence of Christ is the greatest poverty of
all. Here too we need to find new and creative ways of helping people encounter
Christ through a deeper understanding of the faith.
Another significant challenge I have already
touched on is the reduced number of priests – your first co-workers in the task
of evangelization – as well as a significant decline in seminarians. What is
required is a new impetus: fresh and authentic promotion of vocations in every
territory, a prudent selection of candidates for seminary studies, fatherly
encouragement of those men in formation, and attentive accompaniment in the years
after ordination.
Together with priests, religious and lay
catechists have played and continue to play a vital role in the growth of your
communities. It is essential that they receive your encouragement and support,
especially through the development of programmes of ongoing formation grounded
firmly in the inspired word of God, and introducing children and adults to the
life of prayer and the fruitful reception of the sacraments. The sacrament of
reconciliation, in particular, must be rediscovered as a fundamental dimension
of the life of grace. The holiness and indissolubility of Christian matrimony,
often disintegrating under tremendous pressure from the secular world, must be
deepened by clear doctrine and supported by the witness of committed married
couples. Christian matrimony is a lifelong covenant of love between one man and
one woman; it entails real sacrifices in order to turn away from illusory
notions of sexual freedom and in order to foster conjugal fidelity. Your
programmes of preparation for the sacrament of matrimony, enriched by Pope John
Paul’s teaching on marriage and the family, are proving to be promising and
indeed indispensable means of communicating the liberating truth about
Christian marriage and are inspiring young people with new hope for themselves
and for their future as husbands and wives, fathers and mothers.
I have also noted the concern which you
expressed about the breakdown of Christian morals, including a growing
temptation to collude with dishonesty. This is an issue which you prophetically
addressed in your pastoral statement on corruption. As you pointed out,
“corruption is theft from the poor… hurts the most vulnerable… harms the whole
community… destroys our trust”. The Christian community is called to be consistent
in its witness to the virtues of honesty and integrity, so that we may stand
before the Lord, and our neighbours, with clean hands and a pure heart (cf. Ps
24:4) as a leaven of the Gospel in the life of society. With this moral
imperative in mind, I know that you will continue to address this and other
grave social concerns, such as the plight of refugees and migrants. May these
men and women always be welcomed by our Catholic com-munities, finding in them
open hearts and homes as they seek to begin a new life.
Dear Brother Bishops, in my Apostolic
Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, issued at the end of the Year of Faith which
marked the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, I
expressed my hope that all Christians will embark upon a new chapter of
evangelization marked by Gospel joy, seeking “new paths for the Church’s
journey in years to come” (cf. No. 1). Now is the time to rekindle the precious
gift of faith so as to renew your dedicated service to God’s people! May the saints
of Africa sustain you by their intercession. May Our Lady of Africa be always
at your side, and may she guide you as you share in the teaching, sanctifying
and governing mission of Christ.
With these sentiments and with great
affection, I impart my Apostolic Blessing to you, and to all the beloved
priests, religious and lay faithful of your countries.
From the Vatican, 25 April 2014
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