During his brief visit to Ajaccio, on the French island of Corsica, Pope Francis held a meeting on 15 December with bishops, priests, seminarians and members of the consecrated life.
Below is the full speech of Pope Francis:
I am here in your beautiful land for only one day, but I wanted to have at least a brief moment to meet you and greet you. This gives me the opportunity, first of all, to say thank you. Thank you for being here, with your dedicated life; thank you for your work, for your daily commitment; thank you for being a sign of God’s merciful love and witnesses to the Gospel. I was happy when I was able to greet one of you: he is 95 years old and has been a priest for 70 years! This means carrying forward this beautiful vocation. Thank you, brother, for your witness! Thank you very much!
And from the “thank you” I move on to the grace of God, which is the foundation of the Christian faith and of every form of consecration in the Church. In the European context in which we find ourselves, there is no shortage of problems and challenges related to the transmission of the faith, and you experience them every day, discovering yourselves small and fragile; you are not many, you do not have powerful means; the environments in which you work are not always favourable to welcoming the proclamation of the Gospel. Sometimes a film comes to mind, because some are ready to welcome the Gospel, but not the “spokesperson”. That film had this phrase: “The music yes, but the musician no”. Think for a moment, fidelity to the transmission of the Gospel. This will help us. And yet, this priestly poverty is a blessing. Why? Because it strips us of the pretension of wanting to go it alone, it teaches us to consider the Christian mission as something that does not depend on human strength, but above all on the work of the Lord, who always works and acts with the little that we can offer him.
Let us not forget this: the Lord is at the centre. It is not I who am at the centre, but God. Among us, when there is a presumptuous priest who puts himself at the centre, we say: this is a priest who is me, myself, with me, for me. No, the Lord is at the centre. This is something that perhaps every morning, when the sun rises, every pastor, every consecrated person should repeat in prayer: today too, in my service, may I not be at the centre, but God, the Lord. And I say this because there is a danger in worldliness, a danger which is vanity. Playing the role of the “peacock.” Looking at oneself too much. Vanity is an ugly vice, with a bad smell.
But the primacy of divine grace does not mean that we can rest easy, without assuming our responsibilities. On the contrary, we must consider ourselves “collaborators of the grace of God” (cf. 1 Cor 3:9). And so, walking with the Lord, each day we are faced with an essential question: how am I living my priesthood, my consecration, my discipleship? Am I close to Jesus?
When I was making pastoral visits in the other diocese, I met some good priests who worked hard. “Tell me, what do you do at night?” — “I’m tired, I eat a snack and then I go to bed to rest a bit, to watch television.” — “But don’t you stop by the chapel to greet your boss?” — “Oh no…” — “And you, before you go to sleep, do you say a Hail Mary? At least be polite, stop by the chapel to say, thank you very much and see you tomorrow.” Don’t forget the Lord! The Lord: at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the day. He is our boss! And he is a boss who works harder than we do! Don’t forget this.
I ask you: how do I live discipleship?
Engrave this question in your hearts, do not underestimate the need for discernment, for looking within, so that the pace and external activities do not “crush” us, making us lose our inner consistency. For my part, I would like to leave you with a double invitation: to take care of yourselves and to take care of others.
First: Take care of yourself, because priestly or religious life is not a “yes” that we have pronounced once and for all. We do not live off our profits with the Lord. On the contrary, the joy of the encounter with Him must be renewed every day; at every moment we must listen to His voice again and decide to follow Him, even in moments of failure. Get up, look at the Lord and say to Him: “Forgive me and help me to go on.” This fraternal and filial closeness is very important in our life.
Let us remember this: our life is expressed in the offering of ourselves; but the more a priest, a religious man or a woman gives himself, wears himself out, works for the Kingdom of God, the more it is necessary for him or her to take care of himself or herself. A priest, a religious woman or a deacon who neglects himself or herself will also end up neglecting those entrusted to him or her. For this reason, a small “rule of life” is necessary – religious people already have it – which includes the daily appointment with prayer and the Eucharist, dialogue with the Lord, each one according to his or her own spirituality and his or her own style. And I would also like to add: to keep some time for solitude; to have a brother or a sister with whom to freely share what is in our hearts – once a spiritual director was called a spiritual director – to cultivate something that we are passionate about, not to pass the free time, but to rest in a healthy way from the fatigue of the ministry. The ministry is tiring! We must be afraid of those people who are always active, always in the middle, who perhaps because of too much zeal never rest, never take a break for themselves. Brothers, that is not good; we need spaces and moments in which each priest and each consecrated person can take care of themselves. And not to get a facelift to look more handsome. On the contrary, to talk with the Friend, with the Lord, and above all with the Mother — please do not stop going to Our Lady — to talk about your own life and how things are going. Also have a confessor and a friend who knows you and with whom you can talk and make a good discernment. “Presbyteral mushrooms” are not good!
And this care includes something else: fraternity among you. Let us learn to share not only the tiredness and the challenges, but also the joy and friendship among us. Your bishop says something that I like very much, he says that it is important to go from the “Book of Lamentations” to the “Song of Songs”. We do this very little. We like laments! And if the poor bishop that morning forgot his skullcap, we say: “But look at the bishop…”. There is always something to say badly about the bishop. It is true, the bishop is a sinner like each one of us. We are brothers! It would be better to change from the “Book of Lamentations” to the “Book of the Song of Songs”. This is important, it is also said in a psalm: “You turned my lament into joy” (Ps 30:12). Let us share the joy of being apostles and disciples of the Lord! Joy must be shared. Otherwise, the place that joy should take is taken by vinegar. It is unfortunate to find a priest with a bitter heart. “But why are you like this?” —”Eh, because the bishop doesn’t like me… Why did they name that other one bishop and not me… Because… Because…” — Please, stop complaining and being jealous. Envy is a “yellow” vice. Let us ask the Lord to change our lament into dancing, to give us a sense of humor and evangelical simplicity.
Secondly, to care for others. The mission that each of you has received always has one goal: to bring Jesus to others, to give the consolation of the Gospel to their hearts. I would like to recall here the moment when the Apostle Paul was about to return to Corinth and, writing to the community, he said to them: “I will gladly give up what I have, and even my very self, for your sake” (2 Cor 12:15). To give oneself for souls, to give oneself as an offering for those who have been entrusted to us. And I am reminded of a young, holy priest who recently died of cancer. He lived in a neighbourhood with the poorest people. He said: “Sometimes I feel like bricking up the window, because people come at any moment and if I do not answer the door, they knock at the window.” The priest with an open heart to all, without making distinctions.
Listening and being close to people is also an invitation to find, in today’s context, the most effective pastoral paths for evangelization. Do not be afraid to change, to review old patterns, to renew the language of faith, learning at the same time that the mission is not a matter of human strategies, it is primarily a matter of faith. Care for others: for those who await the Word of Jesus, for those who have distanced themselves from Him, for those who need guidance and comfort for their suffering. Care for everyone, in formation and above all in encounters. Going out to meet people where they live and work, this is important.
Also, one thing that is very important to me: please, always forgive and forgive everything. Forgive everything and always. I tell priests, in the sacrament of Reconciliation, do not ask too many questions. Listen and forgive. A cardinal—who is a bit conservative, a bit square, but he is a great priest—said in a conference to priests: “If someone [in Confession] begins to stammer because he is ashamed, I tell him: it is fine, I understand, move on to something else. In reality, I have not understood anything, but he [the Lord] has understood.” Please, do not torture people in the confessional: where, how, when, with whom… Always forgive! There is a good Capuchin friar in Buenos Aires, whom I made a cardinal at the age of 96. He has a long line of people in his confessional, because he is a good confessor, I also went to see him. This confessor once told me: “Look, sometimes I have the scruple of forgiving too much” – “And what do you do?” – “I go to pray and I say, Lord, forgive me, I have forgiven too much. But immediately I think of saying: But it was you who gave me the bad example!” Always forgive. Forgive everything. And I also say this to religious men and women: forgive, forget, when something bad is done to us, the ambitious struggles of community… Forgive. The Lord has given us the example: forgive everything and always! Everything, everything, everything. And I will tell you something, I have been a priest for 55 years. Yes, the day before yesterday I turned 55, and I have never refused an absolution. And I like to confess a lot. I have always sought the way to forgive. This is my testimony.
Dear sisters and brothers, I thank you from my heart and wish you a ministry full of hope and joy. Even in moments of weariness and discouragement, do not give up. Present your hearts to the Lord. Do not forget to weep before the Lord! He reveals himself and lets himself be found if you take care of yourselves and of others. In this way, he offers comfort to those he has called and sent. Go forward with courage, he will fill you with joy.
Now let us pray to the Virgin Mary. In this Cathedral, dedicated to her, Assumed into Heaven, the faithful people venerate her as Patroness, as Mother of Mercy, the “Madunnuccia”. From this island in the Mediterranean, let us raise to her the supplication for peace: peace for all the lands that surround this sea, especially for the Holy Land, where Mary gave birth to Jesus. Peace for Palestine, for Israel, for Lebanon, for Syria, for the whole Middle East. Peace in martyred Myanmar. And may the Holy Mother of God obtain the longed-for peace for the Ukrainian people and the Russian people. They are brothers — “No, Father, they are cousins!” — They are cousins, brothers, I don’t know, but let them understand each other! Peace! Brothers, sisters, war is always a defeat. And war in religious communities, war in parishes is always a defeat, always! May the Lord give us peace to all.
We pray for the victims of the cyclone that recently hit the archipelago of Mayotte. I am spiritually close to all those who have been affected by this tragedy.
Now, all together, we pray the Angelus
Angelus Domini…