Pope calls on Dominicans to be salt, light amid ‘carnival of worldly curiosity’

January 23, 2017

Pope Francis celebrated Mass on January 21 to conclude the Dominican Order’s jubilee year commeorating the 800th anniversary of its founding.

The Mass took place at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran.

“Paul warns Timothy that he must proclaim the Gospel in the midst of a context where people are always looking for new teachers, myths, different doctrines and ideologies,” the Pope preached. “It is the carnival of worldly curiosity, of seduction.”

In contrast, the Pope continued, Christians are called to be salt and light and to give glory to the Father by their good works.

The Pope concluded by thanking God the Father “for the work that St. Dominic carried out, full of the light and salt of Christ, 800 years ago; a work at the service of the Gospel, preached with the word and with life; a work that, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, has helped so many men and women to not be dispersed in the midst of the ‘carnival’ of worldly curiosity, but who instead savored the taste of healthy doctrine, the taste of the Gospel and became in turn light and salt, craftsmen of good works.”

 

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Further information:

• 2017.01.21 Holy Mass for the 8th Centenary of the Dominican Order (YouTube Vatican)
• Santa Messa a conclusione del Giubileo dei Domenicani, 21.01.2017 (Holy See Press Office)
• Pope to Dominicans: ‘Be Salt and Light in Today’s Worldly Carnival’ (Zenit)