Vatican City, Oct 1, 2016 / 08:54 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis was treated to a special presentation Saturday when young people, including several disabled youth in wheelchairs, performed traditional dances for him during his papal visit to Georgia Saturday. The performance took place during a meeting held outside one of the buildings of the Assistance Center of the Camillian Order in Tbilisi, and included several typical dances with traditional Georgian dress. Around 700 people, including the sick, disabled, and volunteers and workers of the various charity organizations of the Catholic Church in Georgia were all present at the Oct. 1 meeting. Immediately before the performance, Pope Francis spoke to those present saying he was happy to be with them, even if was just for a little while, and offered his encouragement. “God never turns away,” the Pope said. “He is always close to you, ready to listen, to give you his strength in times of difficulty.” “You are the beloved of Jesus, who wished to identify himself with all who suffer, he himself having suffered in his passion,” he said, and thanked those who assist the sick and disabled for their service. Welcomed by the Director of the Assistance Center of the Camillian Order and the Director of Caritas Georgia, the meeting was part of the Pope's Sept. 30-Oct. 2 visit to Georgia and Azerbaijan. The trip is seen as a conclusion of his Caucasus tour, following his visit to Armenia in June. So far, the Pope's speeches have largely focused on the need for peace and unity between people. Greeting the elderly, sick, suffering and those assisting them at the meeting, Pope Francis compared charitable initiatives to the “ripe fruit of a Church that serves, offers hope and shows forth God's mercy.” “I encourage you to pursue this demanding yet fruitful path,” he continued. “The poor and weak are the 'flesh of Christ' who call upon Christians of every confession, urging them to act without personal interests, following only the prompting of the Holy Spirit.” The meeting, he said, “is a witness to communion and a means of fostering the way of unity.” <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A first-hand glimpse of the human tower made for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PopeinGeorgia?src=hash">#PopeinGeorgia</a> today via our <a href="https://twitter.com/AlanHoldren">@AlanHoldren</a> traveling with the Pope <a href="https://t.co/GHXZ5GNDmp">pic.twitter.com/GHXZ5GNDmp</a></p>&mdash; Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) <a href="https://twitter.com/cnalive/status/782225582755082240">October 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Fr. Pawel Dyl, a Polish Camillian brother who works at the Assistance Center, told CNA that the dances and singing were thought of “as a moment of rest for the Holy Father” amid his busy schedule. The chair Pope Francis sat on during the brief encounter was the same one used by St. John Paul II during his trip to Georgia in 1999. Located in a poor area of the city, the Assistance Center itself is an unfinished structure, constructed from two other buildings put together. Since March 1998, it has welcomed patients from all over Tbilisi, particularly the poor, guaranteeing medical care with modern procedures.With all the typical wards of a medical clinic, the center has the latest equipment for procedures such as blood analysis, and has many family physicians. The clinic is not only a place where one can go to get a good level of care at a reasonable price, but is also a refuge for the poor. According to Fr. Dyl, when it was built “Georgia was a country after a war. It looked like a cemetery, because every house lit candles, since there was no electricity.” Many came to the clinic “only to get warm, because the house had no heat.”   The center also provides support for poor families by distributing essential goods and food. Many of the poor are refugees who came from South Ossetia during the 2008 war involving Georgia, Russia and the Russian-backed, self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Since 2002, there is also a center for disabled called “San Camillo,” which holds 50 people that are treated alternately in shifts of 25 per day. It will soon be turned into a night center as well. When the Camillian Order first thought of building the center, they faced challenges in obtaining the necessary permission due to the many difficulties involved in the construction. However, as a response a group of Missionaries of Charity sisters living in Georgia prayed and put medals of the Virgin Mary in the ground where the center would later be built. Eventually, benefactors appeared and they were able to cover the costs. The structure is more than 430,000 square feet – double the size they were expecting. “I sometimes jokingly say to the sisters they have overdone the medals,” Fr. Dyl jested. In the Oct. 1 meeting with Pope Francis, many disabled were present to meet the Pope, who, in keeping with his unique tenderness toward them, stopped to greet and bless many of them individually on his way in. Speaking to the workers and volunteers present, Francis said that “through your care, you express in an eloquent way love of neighbor which is the hallmark of Christ’s disciples.” “Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, your mission is a great one! Continue to live out charity in the Church, and to manifest this charity in all areas of society with the zealous love that comes from God.”  Andrea Gagliarducci contributed to this story. Read more

Vatican City, Oct 1, 2016 / 07:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a lengthy, off-the-cuff speech in Georgia, Pope Francis said the world today is at war with marriage, and urged couples to fight against modern threats to the sacrament such as gender theory. Speaking to Irina, a Georgian wife and mother who gave her testimony in front of Pope Francis and hundreds of priests, seminarians and religious Oct. 1, the Pope said “you mentioned a great enemy of marriage today: gender theory.” “Today the whole world is at war trying to destroy marriage,” he said, noting that this war isn’t being fought with arms “but with ideas.” There are “certain ideologies that destroy marriage,” he said. “So we need to defend ourselves from ideological colonization.” Pope Francis spoke to priests, seminarians, religious and pastoral workers inside Tbilisi’s Church of the Assumption after celebrating Mass for the country’s tiny Catholic population on the second of his three-day visit to Georgia and Azerbaijan. The Pope’s Sept. 30-Oct. 2 visit to the two countries, expected to largely focus on the topics of peace and interreligious dialogue, is seen as a conclusion of his Caucasus tour, following his visit to Armenia in June. In her testimony, Irina told Francis about the challenges of family life in Georgia, such as finding good Christian education, the fear of becoming parents in situations of poverty and the fact that separation is often seen as a way of resolving family difficulties. Separations, she said, are much easier in the Orthodox Church, and this has an impact on Catholic families. She also pointed to the growing pressures to accept homosexuality and gender ideology, as well as the “marginalization” of the Christian vision of the family. Turning to the Pope's post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Irina said she is happy that the Pope decided to use the word “joy” when referring to the concept of family, and voiced her desire to “rediscover marriage as a sacrament for evangelization, as a force of witness for the Church.” In addition to her testimony, Pope Francis also heard the testimony of three others, including an Armenian priest serving the Armenian Catholic community in Georgia, a Georgian seminarian and a young man representing the youth. Rather than giving a prepped speech for the occasion, Francis opted to go without a text, studiously taking notes while each of the four spoke. He then delivered lengthy, off-the-cuff remarks In his off-the-cuff speech, the Pope repeated much of what he has said before, telling Irina that the recipe for a happy marriage can be found in three words: “May I,” “thank you” and “I’m sorry.” “Matrimony is the most beautiful thing God created,” he said, explaining that since man and woman have been created in God’s image, “it is when the two become one that his image is reflected.” “I understood the line when you spoke about the difficulties that come in the family, the temptations, so we resolve things on the road of divorce,” he said, explaining that when a divorce happens, “two people pay.” “God pays, because God is the one who made them one, and when they divorce, they dirty what God has made,” he said, adding that the children also pay the price of the separation. “You don’t know, you don’t know how much children suffer when they see parents fight and separate,” the Pope said, explaining that while certain “complex situations” exist, “you must do everything to save a marriage.” If the devil enters and tempts the couple, trying to distract the husband by drawing him to a woman who seems more attractive or to distract the wife with a man who might seem better than her husband, “ask for help immediately,” Francis said. “Ask for help right away when these temptations come.” Pope Francis also spoke of the important role that mothers and grandmothers play in passing on the faith and keeping it “solid.” Responding to the seminarian, named Kote, the Pope said that a vocation always begins at home, typically with “the mother or grandmother.” He stressed the importance of remembering the faith that has been passed onto us, but also the moment of the Lord’s call, when he said “come, come.” This memory is especially needed in the moments of darkness that can arise in the life of a priest or religious, whether it be due to difficulties in community life, with the diocese or whether it seems like things just aren’t moving forward, he said. When this happens, it’s important not to look backwards, he said, explaining that “if you want to look back, remember that moment. As in this way the faith remains solid, the vocation remains solid.” Francis also pointed to the essential role Mary and the Church play as a mother, saying that as a mother, the Church remains open and doesn’t “close in on itself.” “There are two women that Jesus wanted for all of us: his mother and his bride. Both of them are similar. The Mother of Jesus he left as our mother. The Church is the spouse of Jesus, and she is also our mother,” he said. With Mary and the Church we have a sure way of going forward, Francis continued, adding that “here we again find the woman. It seems like the Lord has a preference, and his preference is to bring the faith forward through women.” On a final point, the Pope spoke about ecumenism, stressing the need for Catholics to defend themselves against worldliness, and to “never fight” with the Orthodox, who are the religious majority in the country. “Let’s leave that to theologians,” he said, calling proselytism “a great sin against ecumenism. We are never to proselytize the Orthodox. Instead, ecumenism is achieved through friendship, accompaniment, mutual prayer and common works of charity when possible. Pope Francis closed his remarks by praying that God would “make us men and women of the Church, solid in the faith that we have received from our mother and grandmother, solid in the faith which is sure under the mantle of the Holy Mother of God,” and leading attendees in praying the Hail Mary. The encounter concluded with the recitation of the Our Father in Georgian and the Pope's blessing. From the parish, the Pope went on to visit a health and rehabilitation center run by the Order of St. Camillus. Read more

Vatican City, Oct 1, 2016 / 01:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- It’s important to follow the example of St. Therese's “little way,” trusting in God and his consolation with the faith a small child, Pope Francis said Saturday, which marked the feast of the young saint and Doctor of the Church. Quoting from her autobiography, he said St. Therese “shows her 'little way' to God, the trust of a little child who falls asleep without fear in his Father’s arms, because 'Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude.'” “To receive God’s love we need this littleness of heart: only little ones can be held in their mothers’ arms,” the Pope said during his homily at M. Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi, Georgia Oct. 1. “Here in Georgia there are a great number of grandmothers and mothers who unceasingly defend and pass on the faith,” he said, adding that they “bring the fresh water of God’s consolation to countless situations of barrenness and conflict.” Tbilisi is the Pope’s first stop during his Sept. 30-Oct. 2 visit to Georgia and Azerbaijan. Expected to largely focus on the topics of peace, ecumenism, and interreligious dialogue, the trip is seen as a conclusion of his Caucasus tour, following his visit to Armenia in June. In Georgia, Eastern Orthodox make up 84 percent of the population, Muslims 10 percent, Apostolic Armenians close to three, and Catholics less than one percent. The Pope's homily at the public Mass centered on the comfort of God as being like the comfort of a father to his children. “As he looks at us, he is always moved and becomes tender-hearted, with a love from the depths of his being, for beyond any evil we are capable of, we always remain his children; he wants to take us in his arms, protect us, and free us from harm and evil,” he said. It is God's presence that frees us and gives us joy, even amid conflict or turmoil in our lives, Francis said. “For this reason, if we want to experience his consolation, we must give way to the Lord in our lives.” “There are doors of consolation which must always be open, because Jesus especially loves to enter through them: the Gospel we read every day and carry around with us, our silent prayer in adoration, confession, the Eucharist. It is through these doors that the Lord enters and gives new flavor to reality.” “When the door of our heart is closed, however, his light cannot enter in and everything remains dark,” he added. Pope Francis noted also the importance of community, saying that “in the Church we find consolation, the Church is the house of consolation: here God wishes to console us.” “It is when we are united, in communion, that God’s consolation works in us,” he said, explaining that we must ask ourselves if we who are in the Church truly bring God’s consolation to others and welcome them, consoling the tired and disillusioned. “Dear brothers and sisters, let us take up this call: to not bury ourselves in what is going wrong around us or be saddened by the lack of harmony between us.” “It is not good for us to become accustomed to a closed ecclesial micro-environment,” but rather “to share wide horizons open to hope, having the courage to humbly open our doors and go beyond ourselves,” Francis said. The Pope also stressed the need to always trust and hope in the surprises of God. Doing this, he said, “will help us to remember that we are constantly and primarily his children.” We are “not masters of our lives, but children of the Father; not autonomous and self-sufficient adults, but children who always need to be lifted up and embraced, who need love and forgiveness,” the Pope continued. “Blessed are those Christian communities who live this authentic gospel simplicity!” he said. “Blessed are the Shepherds who do not ride the logic of worldly success, but follow the law of love: welcoming, listening, serving.” “Blessed is the Church who does not entrust herself to the criteria of functionalism and organizational efficiency, nor worries about her image,” he added. Pope Francis offered encouragement to the “little and beloved flock of Georgia,” telling them to receive the encouragement of the Good Shepherd who “takes you on his shoulders and consoles you.” “The true greatness of man consists in making himself small before God,” he said, adding that God is not known through “grand ideas and extensive study, but rather through the littleness of a humble and trusting heart.” “To be great before the Most High does not require the accumulation of honor and prestige or earthly goods and success, but rather a complete self-emptying.” Read more

Vatican City, Oct 1, 2016 / 01:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- It’s important to follow the example of St. Therese's “little way,” trusting in God and his consolation with the faith a small child, Pope Francis said Saturday, which marked the feast of the young saint and Doctor of the Church. Quoting from her autobiography, he said St. Therese “shows her 'little way' to God, the trust of a little child who falls asleep without fear in his Father’s arms, because 'Jesus does not demand great actions from us, but simply surrender and gratitude.'” “To receive God’s love we need this littleness of heart: only little ones can be held in their mothers’ arms,” the Pope said during his homily at M. Meskhi Stadium in Tbilisi, Georgia Oct. 1. “Here in Georgia there are a great number of grandmothers and mothers who unceasingly defend and pass on the faith,” he said, adding that they “bring the fresh water of God’s consolation to countless situations of barrenness and conflict.” Tbilisi is the Pope’s first stop during his Sept. 30-Oct. 2 visit to Georgia and Azerbaijan. Expected to largely focus on the topics of peace, ecumenism, and interreligious dialogue, the trip is seen as a conclusion of his Caucasus tour, following his visit to Armenia in June. In Georgia, Eastern Orthodox make up 84 percent of the population, Muslims 10 percent, Apostolic Armenians close to three, and Catholics less than one percent. The Pope's homily at the public Mass centered on the comfort of God as being like the comfort of a father to his children. “As he looks at us, he is always moved and becomes tender-hearted, with a love from the depths of his being, for beyond any evil we are capable of, we always remain his children; he wants to take us in his arms, protect us, and free us from harm and evil,” he said. It is God's presence that frees us and gives us joy, even amid conflict or turmoil in our lives, Francis said. “For this reason, if we want to experience his consolation, we must give way to the Lord in our lives.” “There are doors of consolation which must always be open, because Jesus especially loves to enter through them: the Gospel we read every day and carry around with us, our silent prayer in adoration, confession, the Eucharist. It is through these doors that the Lord enters and gives new flavor to reality.” “When the door of our heart is closed, however, his light cannot enter in and everything remains dark,” he added. Pope Francis noted also the importance of community, saying that “in the Church we find consolation, the Church is the house of consolation: here God wishes to console us.” “It is when we are united, in communion, that God’s consolation works in us,” he said, explaining that we must ask ourselves if we who are in the Church truly bring God’s consolation to others and welcome them, consoling the tired and disillusioned. “Dear brothers and sisters, let us take up this call: to not bury ourselves in what is going wrong around us or be saddened by the lack of harmony between us.” “It is not good for us to become accustomed to a closed ecclesial micro-environment,” but rather “to share wide horizons open to hope, having the courage to humbly open our doors and go beyond ourselves,” Francis said. The Pope also stressed the need to always trust and hope in the surprises of God. Doing this, he said, “will help us to remember that we are constantly and primarily his children.” We are “not masters of our lives, but children of the Father; not autonomous and self-sufficient adults, but children who always need to be lifted up and embraced, who need love and forgiveness,” the Pope continued. “Blessed are those Christian communities who live this authentic gospel simplicity!” he said. “Blessed are the Shepherds who do not ride the logic of worldly success, but follow the law of love: welcoming, listening, serving.” “Blessed is the Church who does not entrust herself to the criteria of functionalism and organizational efficiency, nor worries about her image,” he added. Pope Francis offered encouragement to the “little and beloved flock of Georgia,” telling them to receive the encouragement of the Good Shepherd who “takes you on his shoulders and consoles you.” “The true greatness of man consists in making himself small before God,” he said, adding that God is not known through “grand ideas and extensive study, but rather through the littleness of a humble and trusting heart.” “To be great before the Most High does not require the accumulation of honor and prestige or earthly goods and success, but rather a complete self-emptying.” Read more