Pope calls Focolare members to creative evangelization

September 29, 2014

Pope Francis called upon participants in the general assembly of the Focolare Movement to be creative as they undertook the task of evangelization.

In a September 26 audience that took place in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace, the Pontiff reflected upon Focolare’s charism of promoting unity and offered three themes for reflection: “to contemplate, to go out, and to school.”

Distinguishing authentic contemplation from narcissism, Pope Francis called upon members of Focolare “to persevere in the search for unity with God and in mutual love with brothers and sisters, drawing from the riches of the Word of God and of the Tradition of the Church the breath of communion and unity that the Holy Spirit has called forth in our time.”

Comparing the Church to a field hospital, the Pope then asked the movement’s members to attend to the wounded of our time. God “awaits us in the trials and groaning of our brothers, in the wounds of society and in the questions of the culture of our time,” the Pope said. “One is sick at heart when, in face of a Church, of a humanity with so many wounds, moral wounds, existential wounds, war wounds, which we all feel every day, to see Christians beginning to engage in philosophical, theological and spiritual ‘Byzantinisms.’”

Recalling that St. John Paul II referred to the Church as a “house and school of communion,” Pope Francis said that it is important to educate the young in the school of Christ’s humanity. “He is the new Man whom young people can look to at all times, with whom they can fall in love, whose way they can follow to address the challenges that are before them.”

 

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Further information:

• Udienza ai partecipanti all’Assemblea generale del Movimento dei Focolari (Holy See Press Office)
• Pope's Address to Focolare Movement (Zenit)
• Focolare Movement