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Home , Alexandru Rusu, Antonio Spadaro, Anton Durcovici, Dicastery, Golden Rose, Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak

Papal Journeys by Antonio Spadaro

Antonio Spadaro SJ The Editor-in-Chief of La Civilta Cattolica, the highly respected and oldest journal published from . This PDF Book/e-Book carries selected articles from the English edition of La Civilta Cattolica, a publication produced and maintained by Union of Catholic Asian News Ltd.

www.ucanews.com www.laciviltacattolica.com

Copyright©2021 Union of Catholic Asian News Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the written permission of the publisher. TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Apostolic Journey of Francis to Thailand and Japan...... 1

A People Who Weave Together Their Future: journeys to ...... 21

‘Let us throw ourselves into history’: Francis in Bulgaria and North Macedonia...... 38

‘Sentinels of Fraternity in the Night’ The apostolic visit of Pope Francis to Abu Dhabi...... 55

“Today the Church needs to grow in discernment:” Pope Francis meets with Polish Jesuits...... 68

The Whole World, a Big Family: Pope Francis in Ireland...... 74

Diplomacy and Prophecy: Pope Francis in Myanmar and Bangladesh...... 86

At the Crossroads of History: Pope Francis’ Conversations with the Jesuits in Myanmar and Bangladesh...... 103

Peace in Colombia: Not an Objective but a Condition. Pope Francis in Colombia...... 119

Grace is not an ideology: Pope Francis’ private conversation with some Colombian Jesuits...... 136

Egypt, Land of Civilizations and Alliances: Francis’ dramatic, therapeutic and prophetic journey...... 145 The Apostolic Journey of Pope Francis to Thailand and Japan

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

9 December 2019 The trip to Thailand and Japan was the 32nd of Francis’ pontificate and the seventh in 2019. He has now visited 51 countries, 11 in 2019 alone. This trip follows previous Asian journeys to Korea in August 2014 for the Asian Youth Day, to Sri Lanka and the Philippines in January 2015, and to Myanmar and Bangladesh at the end of 2017, exactly two years ago.

A culture of compassion, fraternity and encounter The papal flight took off from Fiumicino airport on November 19 at around 7 p.m. and after 11 and a half hours landed the following day at 12:30 p.m. in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. The visit follows the invitation made during the private audience between Francis and then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in Rome on September 12, 2013. The motto was significantly: “Christ’s Disciples, Missionary Disciples.” The occasion for the visit of Pope Francis to Bangkok was the 350th anniversary of the apostolate of the Les Missions Étrangères de (Paris Foreign Missions Society) in the Kingdom of Siam. Today, there are about 380,000 Catholics in Thailand, 0.59 percent of the population, out of approximately 69 million inhabitants. They are heirs to this evangelizing tradition and the Church here is structured in 12 dioceses and 436 parishes. At 9 a.m. on November 21, the pontiff went to Government House, the office of the prime minister. The palace, of Italian design, is a harmonious combination

1 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ of Venetian , with reminiscences of Byzantine and Thai styles. Francis was welcomed by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, with whom he had a private conversation. Then there was a meeting with authorities, civil society and the diplomatic corps. The prime minister greeted the pope, referring to his “leading role” in the world, “which inspires everyone, beyond their faith and social context of belonging,” on issues of global importance such as social equity, poverty, the environment and peace. In his speech the pope paid homage to Thailand as a country that is a “splendid guardian of age-old spiritual and cultural traditions,” capable of “building harmony and peaceful coexistence between its numerous ethnic groups” and between “different cultures, religious groups, and ideas.” This reference to the country was projected onto a global dimension: “Our age is marked by a globalization that is all too often viewed in narrowly economic terms, tending to erase the distinguishing features that shape the beauty and soul of our peoples. Yet the experience of a unity that respects and makes room for diversity serves as an inspiration and incentive for all those concerned about the kind of world we wish to leave to our children.”1 Francis then spoke extensively about the phenomenon of migration, “one of the defining signs of our time.” Finally, he referred, as on other occasions during the trip, to “ those women and children of our time, especially those who are wounded, violated and exposed to all forms of exploitation, enslavement, violence and abuse,” urging action to “protect the welfare of our children.” Next, Francis went to the temple Wat Ratchabophit Sathit Maha Simaram, the historic home of the Thai and their Supreme , built by King Rama V in 1869. Inside, traditional Thai architecture meets that

1. The italics within the quotations of the pope’s speeches are ours.

2 THE APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE FRANCIS TO THAILAND AND JAPAN of the great European Gothic cathedrals, which the king had seen during his travels in Europe. In the middle of a circular courtyard is the Chedi, a 43-metre-high Buddhist monument covered in gold and surmounted by a relic of the Buddha. Patriarch Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong, who has the task of leading the Supreme Council of the Buddhist community, addressed a very warm greeting to the pontiff, saying, among other things: “Your Holiness’ visit today is not that of a new friend but that of a true and confirmed friend of the Thai people.” This was followed by the greeting of the pope, who placed this meeting within the “path of esteem and mutual recognition begun by our predecessors.” He then recalled that, “when we have the opportunity to recognize and esteem one another in spite of our differences, we offer the world a word of hope capable of encouraging and supporting those who increasingly suffer the harmful effects of conflict.” Thanks to academic exchanges and the exercise of “contemplation, mercy and discernment so common to our traditions,” continued the pope, “we will contribute to the formation of a culture of compassion, fraternity and encounter, both here and in other parts of the world.” A private conversation between the pope and the patriarch was planned. It was held in public as an extension of greetings and was accompanied by an exchange of gifts. It should be pointed out that the pope gave the patriarch a copy of the Document on Human Fraternity, signed in Abu Dhabi on February 4, 2018, accompanied by the words: “We must work together so that our humanity may be more fraternal.” From the monastery, at 11:15 a.m., the pope moved to St. Louis Hospital, a private non-profit institution founded 120 years ago by the then Louis Vey, Apostolic Vicar of the Catholic Mission in Siam. In the Auditorium of the hospital there were about 700 people, including doctors, nurses and service staff of the hospital, but also

3 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ of other Church care centers. The greeting of the director of the facility was followed by the greeting of the Holy Father, who asked the health workers to open themselves to “a mystical fraternity, a contemplative fraternity, capable of seeing the sacred grandeur of our neighbor.” He affirmed also that a “healing process should rightly be seen as a powerful anointing, capable of restoring human dignity in every situation, a gaze that grants dignity and provides support.” Then Francis went to meet about 40 patients, some of whom came from other care centers. In the afternoon, the pope went to the Amphorn Royal Palace (“Royal See in Heaven”), the main residence of the King of Thailand. Here took place the private visit to King Maha Vajiralongkorn (Rama X), who was officially crowned on May 4, 2019.2 The pope was received by His Majesty and Queen Suthida Tidjai. From the royal palace, the pope then moved to the Rajamangala National Stadium around 5:30 p.m. Here at 6 p.m. he celebrated . In his homily he presented the as a text “interwoven with questions that attempt to unsettle and stir the heart of the disciples, inviting them to set out.” The first missionaries who arrived in Thailand set out on their way in an attempt to respond to the demands of the Gospel. “Without that encounter between the culture of the country and those missionaries,” continued the pope, “Christianity today would have lacked your face; it would have lacked the songs and dances that portray the Thai smile, so typical in these lands.” In his homily, Francis felt the need to remind the Thai Church that the missionary knows that evangelization is “opening doors to live and share the merciful and healing embrace of God the Father, which makes us one family.” And this in particular with the weakest, with “those children, girls and women exposed

2. Cf. M. Kelly, “Thailand” in Civ. Catt. 2019 IV 269-276.

4 THE APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE FRANCIS TO THAILAND AND JAPAN to prostitution and trafficking, disfigured in their most authentic dignity; I think of young people enslaved by drug addiction and a lack of meaning that makes them depressed and destroys their dreams. I think of migrants, deprived of their homes and families, and so many others, who, like them, can feel orphaned, abandoned.”

The essential path of and roots On November 22nd at 9 a.m., Francis went to the of Blessed Nicolas Bunkerd Kitbamrung, the first Thai martyr . Between 1930 and 1937 he carried out an important missionary activity in the north of the country, in a distant and partly unexplored area. For this purpose he settled in Chiang Mai, city of the “people of the mountains,” on the border with Laos, Myanmar, and close to southern China. In the area there have been successive waves of migration. The construction of the Shrine of Blessed Nicolas was completed in May 2003. The octagonal shaped building is a modern design, located in front of the of St. Peter, where the meeting with , religious, seminarians and catechists was held. After songs and the testimony of a who came from a Buddhist family, the pope gave his speech. First of all, he grafted the ideally fertile life of priests and consecrated men and women on to the roots of the past. The call was to be one which inspired the first missionaries to be generative and “fierce fighters for the things that the Lord loves and for which He gave His life.” How? By inculturation. You have to “let the gospel be stripped of its foreign garb.” The pope urged them “not to be afraid to look for new symbols and images, for the particular music that can awaken in Thai people the wonder that the Lord wants to give us. Let us not be afraid to continue inculturating the Gospel.” The purpose of inculturation of the Gospel is to transmit the Word in such a way that it is “capable of stirring and awakening the desire to know the Lord.”

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Instead, he had to recognize “with some pain” that for many the Christian faith “is a foreign faith, a religion for foreigners.” We must courageously seek “ways to confess faith ‘in dialect,’ in the way a mother sings a lullaby to her child and give the faith a Thai face and Thai flesh, which involves much more than making translations,” continued Francis, thus taking up his leitmotif, that the language of evangelization is always the mother tongue. Then the pope went to the Shrine, where he met the members of the ’ Conference of Thailand (CBCT) and the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC).3 In a wide-ranging speech, he framed the bishops as pastors who carry the concerns of their people on their shoulders. It is the memory of the first missionaries that will allow us to evaluate how to act. There are ecclesial structures and mentalities, the pope said, “that can go so far as to negatively condition an evangelizing dynamism.” Instead, it is the Holy Spirit “who goes before us and gathers us together. The Holy Spirit is the first to invite the Church to go forth to all those places where new narratives and paradigms are being formed, bringing the word of Jesus to the inmost soul of our cities and cultures. Let us not forget that the Holy Spirit arrives in advance of missionaries and remains with them.” We want to underline these words. They are an appeal to the conversion of the Church to the Holy Spirit who never abandons the world. The missionary is not a conqueror: he humbly follows the passage of the Spirit with pastoral discernment.

3. The CBCT is composed of the bishops of the two archdioceses and nine suffragan dioceses of the country. Its current president is Cardinal Kriengsak Kovithavanij, Archbishop of Bangkok. The Thai Bishops’ Conference is a member of the Federation of Bishops’ Conferences of Asia, which brings together the ordinaries of the Bishops’ Conferences of South, South-East, East and Central Asia, based in Hong Kong. It has 19 members. Its current president is Cardinal Charles Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, Myanmar.

6 THE APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE FRANCIS TO THAILAND AND JAPAN

The missionaries did not look for lands capable of giving guarantees of success, but on the contrary, they were convinced that “no person and culture was a priori incapable of receiving the seed of life, of happiness and especially of the friendship that the Lord wants to sow in them.” There are no lands that are refractory to the Gospel, which is a gift to “spread among all: doctors of the law, sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, all sinners of yesterday as well as today.” Subsequently, at 11:50 a.m., a private meeting with the Jesuits of Thailand took place, which lasted about 30 minutes.4 Then in the afternoon, at 3:10 p.m., the pope moved to Chulalongkorn University, the oldest university in Thailand and also the most prestigious, founded in the early 20th century by King Rama VI. In the Auditorium, the pope met with leaders of Christian denominations and other religions. There were 18 of them, all personally greeted by the Holy Father. The greetings were followed by the pope’s speech. “Long gone are the days when an insular mode of thought could determine an approach to time and space and appear to offer a valid way of resolving conflicts,” he said. The global crisis requires a global and multilateral approach, to which the great religious traditions with their spiritual heritage can make a solid contribution. On the other hand, globalization undermines local culture and its values. “With the growing tendency to discredit local values and cultures, by imposing a unitary model,” we are witnessing a sort of homogenization that dissolves differences and transforms especially young people “into a new line of malleable goods.” Francis called it a real cultural destruction. Hence the call to discover the living richness of the past, to meet with one’s roots.

4. The text of the conversation is published here: https://www. laciviltacattolica.com/our-little-path-pope-francis-with-the-jesuits-in- thailand-and-japan/

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At the end, around 4:20 p.m., the pope headed for the Cathedral of the Assumption, a neo-Romanesque building in red brick. Here he celebrated Mass in English in the memory of St. Cecilia with Thai youth. Francis advised them to be “rooted in the faith of our elders: fathers, grandparents, teachers, not to be stuck in the past, but to learn to have the courage that can help us respond to ever new situations.” The next day, November 23, at 8:45 a.m., Francis transferred to Bangkok’s Military Air Terminal 2 for the farewell ceremony before flying to . There were also 11 Thai children to farewell him.

Japan: the parrhesia of testimony The papal plane landed at Tokyo-Haneda airport at 5:40 p.m.5 The pope went to the nunciature, where in the refectory he met the members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan (CBCJ), which brings together the bishops of the three metropolitan archdioceses and the 13 suffragan dioceses of Japan. After the welcome speech of its president, Archbishop Mitsuaki Takami of Nagasaki, the pope gave his speech, recalling the 470th anniversary of the arrival of St. Francis Xavier in Japan, which marked the beginning of the spread of Christianity in the country. He also recalled the figures of the martyrs , Justus Takayama Ukon and the so- called “hidden Christians.”6

5. The pope was invited to visit Japan by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in June 2014. On January 23, 2019, Pope Francis announced his trip to Japan on the flight to Panama for the celebration of the 34th . This was the second trip of a pope to Japan, after that of John Paul II in February 1981. 6. Cf. T. Witwer, “Justus Takayama Ukon. The Great Japanese Missionary of the Sixteenth Century” in La Civiltà Cattolica English Edition laciviltacattolica.com/justus-takayama-ukon-great-japanese-missionary- sixteenth-century/; R. De Luca, “The discovery of the “hidden Christians” of Japan” in La Civiltà Cattolica English Edition laciviltacattolica.com/the- discovery-of-the-hidden-christians-of-japan.

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Francis highlighted the specific features of the missionary commitment in Japan, a country of 126 million inhabitants, which counts 540,000 Catholics, that is, 0.42 percent of the population: “Faithful sowing, the witness of martyrs and patient expectation of the fruits that the Lord gives in his time, have characterized your apostolic approach to Japanese culture. As a result, over the years you have developed a form of ecclesial presence that is for the most part much appreciated by Japanese society.” Trust, patience and rhythms not linked to results distinguish an ancient commitment marked “by a powerful search for inculturation and dialogue, which allowed the formation of new models, independent of those developed in Europe.” In particular, Francis noted that, from the beginning, in evangelization “writings, theater, music and all kinds of instruments were used, for the most part in the Japanese language.” This reveals “the love that those first missionaries felt for these lands,” and how indispensable it is to bring the Gospel, because “only that which is loved can be saved. Only that which is embraced can be transformed.” A love that has often resulted in martyrdom in this land. But it is precisely “a martyr Church that can speak with greater freedom, especially in addressing pressing questions of peace and justice in our world.”

Hiroshima and Nagasaki: raising your voice On Sunday the 24th, at 7:20 a.m., Francis went to the airport to fly to Nagasaki.7 At 10:15 am, in heavy rain, he arrived at the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter, the place of the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped on August 9, 1945, which is located inside Peace Park, whose emblem is the Statue of Prayer for Peace, the work of sculptor Seibo

7. On May 2, 2018, Tomihisa Taue, mayor of Nagasaki, sent a letter to Pope Francis signed by him and the mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, inviting him to their two cities, which were the target of the atomic bombs in August 1945.

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Kitamura. In this context, Francis was able to strongly reaffirm his commitment against the proliferation of nuclear weapons, which our magazine has already amply reported.8 At the hypocenter of the atomic bomb explosion, the pope was welcomed by the governor and the mayor of Nagasaki. Near the podium, two victims offered flowers to the Holy Father, who placed them at the foot of the monument. Then Francis lit a candle and spent some time in prayer. He delivered a strong message. His starting point was “one of the deepest longings of the human heart,” which is “the desire for peace and stability.” But what is the best answer to this desire? The answer was clear: it is not possible to guarantee peace and stability on the basis of “a false sense of security sustained by a mentality of fear and mistrust, one that ends up poisoning relationships between peoples and obstructing any form of dialogue.” Peace and international stability, said the pope, “can be achieved only on the basis of a global ethic of solidarity and cooperation in the service of a future shaped by interdependence and shared responsibility among the whole human family of today and tomorrow.” And so we must “speak out against the arms race.” And in his support Francis also brought the voice of his predecessors: Pacem in Terris of John XXIII and Populorum Progressio of Saint Paul VI. The “climate of distrust” risks jeopardizing the “dismantling of the international arms control framework.” Added to this is “an erosion of multilateralism,” a very serious matter in a time of strong development of new weapons technologies. For this reason the pontiff expressed his support for the “principal international

8. Cf. D. Christiansen, “The Church’s “no” to nuclear weapons. Moral and pastoral implications” in La Civ. Catt. English Edition laciviltacattolica. com/the-church-says-no-to-nuclear-weapons-pastoral-and-moral- implications/ Id., “Time for the Abolition of Nuclear Arms” in ibid. 2019 IV 156-162.

10 THE APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE FRANCIS TO THAILAND AND JAPAN legal instruments for nuclear disarmament and non- proliferation, including the Treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons.” And he recalled that “last July the bishops of Japan launched an appeal for the abolition of nuclear arms.”9 At 10:35 a.m. the pope went to Nishizaka Hill, the place where, on February 5, 1597, St. Paul Miki – a Jesuit and the first Japanese Catholic religious – and 25 companions were executed, by order of Shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi. They were canonized by Pius IX in 1862. Their death marks the beginning of a long period of two centuries of harsh anti-Christian persecution in Japan. A red brick monument was erected on the same site in 1962, which displays the life-size bronze statues of the 26 martyrs set in a . The place, which overlooks the Oura Cathedral, which is also dedicated to the martyrs, has been designated the Japanese National Sanctuary. Behind the monument is the Museum of Martyrs, which houses the in Nagasaki. The pope went there. A family offered him flowers, which he then laid in front of the memorial. Then he lit a candle that had been given to him by a descendant of persecuted Christians and paused in silent prayer. He then incensed the relics and said a greeting, in which he defined the place as a “monument to Easter,” because “it proclaims that the last word belongs not to death but to life.” He also made a personal reference, almost a confession: “I have come to this monument of the martyrs to pay homage to these holy men and women. But I also come in humility, as one who himself, as a young Jesuit from ‘the ends of the earth,’ found powerful inspiration in the story

9. Cf. www.cbcj.catholic.jp/2019/07/18/19260/ It is worth remembering that in January 2018 Francis released a heartbreaking photograph, taken in 1945 in Nagasaki, depicting a young Japanese boy with his dead in his arms. While the final song was being sung, the pope greeted the son of the photographer who took that photograph, asymbol of the atomic explosion.

11 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ of the early missionaries and the Japanese martyrs.” It must be remembered that Pope Francis was always very impressed by the experience of the “hidden Christians”10 of which he spoke shortly after his election, on April 17, 2013, at Casa Santa Marta.11 The message that Francis wanted to give from here is very clear and requires – once again – that we “raise our voices.” And the message is as follows: “Religious freedom must be guaranteed for everyone in every part of our world.” He added: “Let us also condemn the manipulation of religions ‘through policies of extremism and division, by systems of unrestrained profit or by hateful ideological tendencies that manipulate the actions and the future of men and women’ (Document on Human Fraternity, Abu Dhabi, February 4, 2019).” It is very significant that the pope quoted here the Abu Dhabi document, because it confirms the desire to open the discourse on human fraternity in the East. He had already done so by giving the Buddhist Patriarch of Bangkok a copy of the document, and he would do so again at the end of the journey. After his greeting, the pope recited the Angelus. After lunch at the residence of the archbishop,12 at 1:20 the pope moved to the stadium. Here he celebrated

10. Cf. R. De Luca, “The discovery of the ‘hidden Christians’ of Japan” op. cit. 11. On that occasion Francis expressed his admiration for the testimony offered by the Japanese Church, which remained alive despite the persecution suffered between the 16th and 17th centuries. He also recalled that testimony in the General Audience of January 15, 2014, and then met the Japanese bishops in 2015. 12. Before getting into the car to go to the archbishop’s residence, the pope was offered an image of Blessed Julian Nakamura (1568- 1633), who in 1858 took part, along with three other young people, at the behest of some feudal lords who had converted to Christianity, in a historic diplomatic mission to Rome. He later became a priest of the , and during the persecution of Christians Julian died a martyr. He was beatified in Nagasaki on November 23, 2008, together with 187 other Japanese martyrs.

12 THE APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE FRANCIS TO THAILAND AND JAPAN the Mass of the Solemnity of Christ the King. His homily was another occasion to ask us to “raise our voices”: “Nagasaki bears in its soul a wound difficult to heal, a scar born of the incomprehensible suffering endured by so many innocent victims of wars past and those of the present, when a third World War is being waged piecemeal. Let us lift our voices here and pray together for all those who even now are suffering in their flesh from this sin that cries out to heaven.” At the end of the Mass, he went to Nagasaki airport to fly to Hiroshima, where he landed at 5:45 p.m. From here he went to the Memorial Park of Peace, which stands in the place where the atomic bomb exploded on August 6, 1945, built in 1954 to a design by architect Kenzo Tange. It is a large area of over 120,000 square meters with green spaces, various monuments and commemorative structures. The symbol of the Park is the Genbaku Dome. The building with a characteristic dome, located on the bank of the River Motoyasu, heavily damaged by the explosion but not totally destroyed, has never been restored, to recall the damage left by the bomb. Since 1996 it has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site. At the Memorial, a Meeting for Peace was held in the presence of about 1,300 people. In the dark, in an atmosphere of silence, with the Genbaku Dome in the background, the pope, after signing the Book of Honor, greeted 20 religious leaders and, subsequently, the victims present. Two of them offered him flowers, which he laid before the Memorial. Following this, the “ambassador of peace” offered a candle, and a bell rang out, followed by a silent prayer, shared by all the participants in the form of Mokutò, a minute of reflection and meditation in which everyone – believers of various faiths and non-believers – can share. Twenty-two survivors of the bombing were invited to participate: all are members of the Hibakushya association. Two testimonials were given.

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Then the pope addressed his message, beginning: “God of mercy and Lord of history, to you we lift up our eyes from this place, where death and life have met, loss and rebirth, suffering and compassion. Here, in an incandescent burst of lightning and fire, so many men and women, so many dreams and hopes, disappeared, leaving behind only shadows and silence. In barely an instant, everything was devoured by a black hole of destruction and death. From that abyss of silence, we continue even today to hear the cries of those who are no longer.” The pontiff did not fail to point out that the victims “came from different places, had different names, some spoke different languages.” It was not just a Japanese tragedy. That bomb, as one of the testimonial witnesses said, was dropped on the whole of humanity. Francis went on: “With deep conviction I wish once more to declare that the use of atomic energy for purposes of war is today, more than ever, a crime not only against the dignity of human beings but against any possible future for our common home. The use of atomic energy for purposes of war is immoral, just as the possessing of nuclear weapons is immoral, as I already said two years ago. We will be judged on this. Future generations will rise to condemn our failure if we spoke of peace but did not act to bring it about among the peoples of the earth. How can we speak of peace even as we build terrifying new weapons of war? How can we speak about peace even as we justify illegitimate actions by speeches filled with discrimination and hate?” The decision to condemn the possession and not only the use of nuclear weapons follows what Francis had already said on November 10, 2017.13 The context of the

13. This is the speech that the pope gave to the participants in the Conference, entitled “Perspectives for a world free of nuclear weapons and for integral disarmament.” On that occasion Francis said: “We cannot help but feel a lively sense of unease if we consider the catastrophic humanitarian and environmental consequences that derive from any use

14 THE APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE FRANCIS TO THAILAND AND JAPAN appeal, however, has now made the message stronger and more direct, defining the “immorality” of possession. “How can we propose peace if we constantly invoke the threat of nuclear war as a legitimate recourse for the resolution of conflicts?” After the ceremony, the pope headed to Hiroshima airport to return to Tokyo.

From the ‘triple disaster’ to the call for the future On Monday November 25th, at 9:50 a.m., the pope moved to the Bellesalle Hanzomon, an important conference center. Here he met the victims of the magnitude 9 earthquake that generated the tsunami and the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011. According to Caritas Japan, there were 19,689 victims and 2,563 missing. In addition to these deaths, 3,723 people have lost their lives in the last eight years due to the poor living conditions of refugees. Some people have committed suicide because of depression, loss of hope and loneliness. Let us remember that at that time Benedict XVI, in his speech to the diplomatic corps in 2012, said that we cannot forget the serious natural disasters that have affected various areas of Southeast Asia, and environmental disasters such as that of the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the Japanese bishops had asked the government to eliminate nuclear power stations and to look for new sources of renewable energy.14 Environmental protection and the synergy between the fight against poverty and the fight against climate change are important areas for of nuclear devices. Therefore, even considering the risk of accidental detonation of such weapons by mistake of any kind, the threat of their use and their very possession must be strongly condemned, precisely because their existence is related to a logic of fear, which concerns not only the parties to the conflict, but the entire human race.” 14. Cf. www.cbcy.catholic.jp/2011/11/08/10367

15 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ the promotion of integral human development. Francis continues on this path of reflection. The link with the general theme of the journey and the connection between the meeting with the victims of Fukushima and the message of the Laudato Si’ is very clear. The pope was received at the Bellesalle Hanzomon by the Archbishop of Tokyo and the of Sendai, the diocese most affected by the threefold disaster. There were 300 victims present. Francis greeted 10 of them personally. Three witnesses told of their experiences. In his speech the pontiff made a broad appeal to seek shared and global solutions: “We need to work together to foster awareness that if one member of our family suffers, we all suffer. Real interconnectedness will not come about unless we cultivate the wisdom of togetherness, the only wisdom capable of facing problems (and solutions) in a global way. We are part of one another.” Francis also clearly understood that the disasters brought with them a sense of stigma and rejection of the victims as if they were people to be discarded, to be removed because they were contaminated by the disaster: “Until social bonds in local communities are re-established, and people can once more enjoy safe and stable lives, the Fukushima accident will not be fully resolved.” To this appeal was added the support of the bishops of Japan, who “have asked for the abolition of nuclear power plants.” There was a strong appeal to think about the future, to be responsible for the legacy that “we want to leave to those who will come after us.” At 10:50 a.m. the pope went to the Imperial Palace, located near the Central Station, on the same area where the Castle of Edo once stood, home of the Shogun of the Tokugawa family, who ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867. Naruhito welcomed the pontiff at the entrance to the Palace. His accession to the took place on May 1, 2019. On October 22, 2019, the day of the official coronation ceremony, he was proclaimed 126th Emperor

16 THE APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE FRANCIS TO THAILAND AND JAPAN of the Rising Sun. The encounter with the Emperor was the encounter with the heart and soul of the Nation. The Japanese people love the Emperor, feel him close especially in the most difficult moments, consider him the symbol of their land.15 After this meeting, the pope moved to the Cathedral of Santa Maria, dedicated to the . Designed by architect Kenzo Tange and inaugurated in 1964, it has a modern structure consisting of eight curved walls with a dynamic shape. Inside the cathedral Francis met the young people, who welcomed him with great enthusiasm. Young people of all social and religious backgrounds were gathered together. Among them were migrants. After the testimonies of three young people – a Catholic, a Buddhist and a migrant – and a song, the Holy Father delivered a speech. “As I look out at you, I can see the cultural and religious diversity of the young people living in Japan today, and also something of the beauty that your generation holds for the future. Your friendship with one another and your presence here remind everyone that the future is not monochrome; if we are courageous, we can contemplate it in all the variety and diversity of what each individual person has to offer.” In his speech the pope kept Japanese society well in mind. Secular traditions are intertwined with technological modernity. One has the impression of a country that lives at a frenetic pace and without frequent opportunities for interaction. The phenomenon of bullying emerges, a sign of the weakness and fragility of those who inflict it. And it is also a clear sign of the growth, within society, of fear: just as it shapes international relations, it also shapes communal living. On the other hand, the phenomenon of young hikomores, who lock themselves up at home for years, is well known. Relationships are based on the

15. Cf. G. Sale, “Japan in the New Imperial Era ‘Reiwa’” in Civ. Catt.

17 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ computer and the mobile phone: “We have invented all sorts of gadgets, but we still can’t take selfies of the soul. Thank God! Because to be happy, we need to ask others to help us, to have the photo taken by someone else. We need to go out of ourselves toward others, especially those most in need,” said Francis. The growing inner emptiness, especially in the younger generations, is an appeal to the Church’s commitment: “More and more we see that a person, a community or even a whole society can be highly developed on the outside, but have an interior life that is impoverished and underdeveloped, lacking real life and vitality; they seem like ready-made dolls that have nothing inside. Everything bores them; there are young people who do not dream.” We need to rebuild a living social fabric and family life that do not succumb to the excessive competitiveness of the economic and social system. And it is necessary to maintain a sense of research, of inner vitality: “A wise teacher once said that the key to growing in wisdom is not so much finding the right answers but discovering the right questions to ask.” In the afternoon, at 3:20 p.m., the pope moved to the Tokyo Dome, a multi-purpose stadium that was able to hold only 50,000 of the people who had requested to participate in the Eucharist. Here he celebrated Mass. In his homily, he took up the themes of the previous meeting, indicating decisively a perspective of faith: “In Jesus, we encounter the summit of what it means to be human; he shows us the way that leads to a fulfillment exceeding all our hopes and expectations.” And the Church itself must be “a field hospital, prepared to heal the wounds” that are found in society. After Mass, Francis went to the Sōri-daijin Kantei, a complex within which are located the offices of the Cabinet of Government. Here he met Prime Minister Shinzō Abe privately. The meeting with the authorities and the diplomatic corps followed. After the prime minister’s

18 THE APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF POPE FRANCIS TO THAILAND AND JAPAN greeting, the pope delivered his speech, expressing “esteem and admiration” for Japan, recalling the words of the famous Jesuit Alessandro Valignano who, in 1579, wrote: “Whoever wants to see what our Lord has given us should come and see it in Japan.” Francis resumed the nuclear theme, which he said should be addressed “on the multilateral plane, promoting a political and institutional process capable of creating a broader international consensus and action.” Multilateralism, as is well understood, is a key point in a world in which, according to Francis, global problems must be tackled. A truly just and human society is one that recognizes a fundamental human brotherhood. It is significant that also on this occasion the pope quoted once again the Document on Human Fraternity, signed last February: “Our shared concern for the future of the human family impels us to the ‘adoption of a culture of dialogue as the path; mutual cooperation as the code of conduct; reciprocal understanding as the method and standard.’” Another key point of Francis’ speech to the authorities was introduced by the image of cherry blossoms. Their “delicacy” reminds us of “the fragility of our common home, subject not only to natural disasters but also to greed, exploitation and devastation at the hands of human beings.” On Tuesday, November 26, at 7:30 a.m., the pope went to Sophia University, a Catholic university founded by the Society of Jesus in 1913. We recall that on October 18, 2017, the pope held a videoconference conversation with a group of 700 students from the University, who asked him various questions live. The pope celebrated Mass with the Jesuits in private.16 He then had breakfast with them in the refectory of the community and then met the elderly and sick priests, including Fr. Adolfo Nicolás, who was General of the Society of Jesus from 2008 to 2016.

16. The text of the homily is available here: laciviltacattolica.com/ our-little-path-pope-francis-with-the-jesuits-in-thailand-and-japan/

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Afterward, Francis visited the university, going to the Auditorium. Among other things, he observed that, despite the efficiency and order that characterize Japanese society, he has sensed “a yearning, too, for something greater: a profound desire to create an ever more humane, more compassionate, more merciful society.” The university, with 29 departments in nine faculties and exchanges with about 300 universities in 59 countries, is currently considered to be among the best Japanese universities. The teaching staff consists of about 1,400 professors from 21 countries. The pope stressed that “since its foundation, the University has been enriched by the presence of professors from different countries, sometimes even from countries in conflict with one another.” This bridging role is one of the focal points of the mission of the academic institution, which at every level “should always be open to creating an archipelago capable of connecting what can be considered socially and culturally separate.” At the end of the meeting the pope went to the airport of Tokyo-Haneda. Around 11:35 a.m., after the farewell ceremony, the papal flight took off for Rome Fiumicino airport, where it landed around 4:30 p.m.

20 A People Who Weave Together Their Future: Pope Francis journeys to Romania

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

21 June 2019 Romania: land of ancient evangelization Romania is a land of ancient evangelization. The Gospel arrived there with the conquest of Dacia by the emperor Trajan (105 A.D.)1. In the last century, the rise to power of the communists marked the beginning of a harsh persecution. In 1948, by order of Stalin, the Romanian Greek was declared outlawed. In 1949 it was the turn of the Church. The fall of the communist regime in 1989 marked the beginning of the rebirth of the Catholic Church, which was accompanied by the restoration of diplomatic relations with the , made official on May 15, 1990. The newly found freedom allowed the Catholic Church to resume its pastoral, charitable and educational activities, as well as to reopen the .2 Catholics today account for just over 7 percent of the population, where the Orthodox remain a clear majority (87 percent). They are divided between Greek Catholics of the – united with Rome since 1700 – with 737,900 Romanian-speaking faithful, and Latin- rite Catholics who speak Romanian, Hungarian, German,

1. Close to the Byzantine Empire, the churches in this area entered the orbit of Orthodoxy after the Great of 1054. This continued until the reunification with Rome of part of the Orthodox , ratified on May 7, 1700, by the Synod of Alba Iulia. In 1920, after the Trianon Peace Treaty, the Romanian government and the Holy See established diplomatic relations, which were followed by the signing of a on May 10, 1927. 2. We have already addressed in our magazine the analysis of the current situation in Romania: see G. Sale, “La Romania nell’Unione Europea,” in Civ. Catt. 2019 II 357-370.

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Polish and Slovak, to which should be added a small community of the . Over time, also due to the persecution of the communist regime, a strong Romanian Greek Catholic community of the diaspora has been created both in North America and in Western Europe. Relations with the began to progress after the journey of Saint John Paul II to the country, May 7-9, 1999, and after the historic meeting with Patriarch Teoctist. This was sealed by the signing of a Joint Declaration. February 2000 saw the patriarch’s own public request for forgiveness for the wrongs inflicted in the past on Romanian Greek Catholics.3

The ‘soul of the people’ At 8:15 a.m. on May 31, 2019, Pope Francis took off from Rome heading to Romania for his 30th apostolic journey. He landed at airport at 11:10 a.m. local time. The pope was welcomed by the President of Romania, Klaus Werner Iohannis, his wife and two children in traditional dress who offered him flowers. After greeting the bishops of the country,4 he went to the Cotroceni Palace, seat of the Presidency of the Romanian Republic, and former royal residence in Bucharest. The palace, built by King Carol I inside the Cotroceni monastery, is in classic Venetian style.5

3. Cf. G. Marchesi, “Il fraterno incontro ecumenico tra il Papa e il Patriarca ortodosso romeno,” 2002 IV 274-283. 4. The of Romania (Conferinţa Episcopilor din România, Cer) was reborn on March 16, 1991. The Cer brings together the bishops of the six dioceses of Latin rite, the six Greek Catholic and the Ordinariate for Catholics of Armenian rite resident in Romania with headquarters in . The presidency and vice-presidency are held alternatelyby the bishops of the two rites. 5. In 1984, during the communist regime, on the orders of Nicolae Ceauşescu, the church of the monastery was demolished. The palace became the seat of the Presidency of the Republic in 1989. Subsequently, the monastery church was rebuilt, and since 2009 it has been reinstated as a museum.

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The pope was welcomed by the president and his wife. In the palace he met privately first the president and his family and then the prime minister, Vasilica Viorica Dăncilă. At the end of the meeting, the president and the pope went to the Unirii Hall, where the meeting with the authorities took place. Here Francis delivered his first speech, greeting Romania, “ţară frumoasă (beautiful land), 20 years after the visit of St. John Paul II and when Romania, for the first time since its entrance into the European Union, holds the presidency of the Council of Europe.” The pontiff contrasted the oppression and denial of freedoms that isolated the nation to the “pluralism of political and social forces,” which has seen religious freedom and “the country’s full participation on the greater international stage.” He mentioned the phenomenon of emigration that has depopulated the villages but also enriched the host countries with the heritage of values and the work of many . He then expressed the wish that the Catholic Church give “her contribution to the construction of society and of civil and spiritual life” in Romania, putting herself “at the service of human dignity and the common good.” The pope was clear: it is about “developing not just material conditions but the very soul of your people. Because peoples have a soul; they have their own way of perceiving and experiencing reality. To keep going back to its very soul: this is what makes a people progress.”6 It must therefore be clear that the “Catholic Church is no stranger to this; she shares fully in the spirit of the nation, as is demonstrated by the participation of her faithful in the shaping of the country’s future and in the creation and development of the structures of integral education and forms of charitable assistance suited to a modern state. In this way, she desires to contribute to

6. The italics in the quotations of Francis’ speeches are always ours.

23 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ the building up of society and of civil and spiritual life.” Francis’ strong appeal to the “soul of the people” is an antidote to any form of sectarian populism that reduces this soul to a factitious and ideological element. The pontiff then pointed out some aspects of this constructive attitude: “To move forward together, as a way of shaping the future, requires a noble willingness to sacrifice something of one’s own vision or best interest for the sake of a greater project, and thus to create a harmony that makes it possible to advance securely toward shared goals,” he said. And then it would be a tragic mistake to see “the weak, the poor and those most in need” as “obstacles that prevent the ‘machine’ from functioning.” On the contrary, only “to the extent that a society is concerned for its most disadvantaged members, can it be considered truly civil.”

Proclaiming the Gospel beyond our own confines After lunch at the Nunciature, Francis went to the Romanian Orthodox at around 3:30 p.m. The palace was built between 1906 and 1908 as the seat of the Chamber of Deputies of the Kingdom, and then became between 1948 and 1989 the seat of the Assembly of the Socialist Republic. In 1996, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Bucharest obtained first the right of use and then the ownership of the building. The pope was welcomed by His Beatitude, Daniel, Patriarch of Romania, at the entrance to the patriarchal palace, where the members of the Permanent Synod and the Vatican ecclesiastical delegation were present. Then Patriarch Daniel accompanied the pope to the Dignitas room for the private meeting. Subsequently, there was a meeting with the Permanent Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church.7

7. The Permanent Synod is one of the highest decision-making bodies of the Romanian Orthodox Church. It includes the Patriarch, who has the presidency, the other nine metropolitans (five internal and four from abroad), an archbishop and two bishops.

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The climate was very fraternal. The patriarch greeted the pope by welcoming him and reminding him that the name of the room, Conventus, means “meeting.” And he mentioned the meeting between Teoctist and Saint John Paul II. In the room there is also a plaque commemorating that meeting of May 8, 1999. The patriarch concluded by saying that “the preaching of the Gospel of Christ today means combining the liturgy with philanthropy, prayer with social action to help the poor, the sick and the marginalized.” Francis gave a speech in which he defined himself as “a pilgrim, a pilgrim brother, desirous of seeing the Lord’s face in the faces of my brothers.” His words aimed at the valorization of a “common heritage,” and above all at the need to be “journeying together in the rediscovery and revival of the fraternity that even now unites us. And this is already in place.” Certainly, it is the strength that comes from listening to the Lord that encourages us on our journey, “especially in recent times, when the roads of the world have led to rapid social and cultural change.” The message is clear: it is the challenges of the world and the need to carry the Gospel that drive Christians to be united and to walk together, beyond what divides them. The pontiff also brought attention to the polarizations and tensions that are experienced in our societies and in politics. Francis noted how “while a globalization that tends to level differences has contributed to uprooting traditional values and weakening ethics and social life, which more recently has witnessed a growing sense of fear that, often skillfully stoked, leads to attitudes of rejection and hate, we need to help one another not to yield to the seductions of a ‘culture of hate,’ a culture of individualism that, perhaps no longer ideological as in the time of the atheist persecution, is nonetheless more persuasive and no less materialist.” On the contrary, “we need to let our hearts be warmed by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The pope then recalled “the many Romanian Orthodox communities that cooperate fruitfully with the many

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Catholic dioceses in Western Europe where they are present,” developing “a relationship of reciprocal trust and friendship, grounded in fraternity and nurtured by concrete gestures of acceptance, support and solidarity.” Finally, Francis invoked the Spirit on the journey toward Pentecost: “May his fire consume our lack of confidence and his breath sweep away the hesitation that holds us back from bearing witness together to the new life he offers us. May he, the builder of fraternity, give us the grace to walk beside one another. May he, the creator of newness, make us courageous as we experience unprecedented ways of sharing and of mission. May he, the strength of the martyrs, keep us from making his gift of self fruitless.” From the seat of the Patriarchate, the pope moved to the new Orthodox cathedral “ of the People.” Inaugurated in November 2018 by Patriarch Daniel and Patriarch Bartholomew of , it is under construction and is expected to be completed in 2024, after 14 years of work. Located in the center of Bucharest and able to accommodate 5,000 worshippers, the building is in the shape of a Greek cross and has impressive dimensions: 120 meters high, 126 long and 68 wide. Its 120-meter bell tower will make it the second tallest building in the country, after that of the parliament. During his apostolic visit to Romania in May 1999, St. John Paul II made a of $200,000; he is in fact mentioned in the list of donors to the cathedral. Francis was greeted on the stairs of the cathedral by His Beatitude Daniel, and together they entered the central nave and went up to the threshold of the iconostasis, accompanied by songs in a setting of great solemnity. The patriarch greeted the pope in the “dedicated to St , the first called, brother of Peter the Apostle.” His greeting was followed by one from the Holy Father. The prayer included the recitation of the Our Father in Latin, three Catholic Easter songs, the recitation of the

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Our Father in Romanian, three Orthodox Easter songs and the final song. Although the prayers were not recited together by the pope and the patriarch, in the Church both versions of the Our Father were recited aloud by the faithful present. And Francis himself said that he prayed the Our Father in Latin while Daniel did so in Romanian. The pope invoked “the harmony that we have not been able to build on earth,” and said: “We wait in expectation for your kingdom to come. We ask for it and we long for it, because we see that the workings of this world do not favor it, organized as they are around money, personal interests and power.” Then he commented on the Lord’s prayer, expression by expression. In particular, he prayed: “Help us, Father, by sending to us, as at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, source of courage and joy, to impel us to preach the good news of the Gospel beyond the confines of the communities to which we belong, our languages, our cultures and our nations.”

‘Blessed are those who believe and have the courage to foster encounter and communion.’ Around 5:45 p.m. Francis went to the Catholic Cathedral of St. Joseph. It was built between 1875 and 1883, in the design of the Vienna School, and consecrated by the first Catholic archbishop of Bucharest, Ignatius Paoli, on February 15, 1884. The building is in Romanesque style, with some Gothic elements; it has a length of 40 meters and a width of 22 and can accommodate about 1,200 faithful. They venerate there the relics of Blessed Vladimir Ghika, priest and martyr, and some relics of St. John Paul II. Outside the cathedral and in the surrounding area there were about 25,000 people waiting for Francis. The pope celebrated Mass in Latin on the feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Mary. He gave a homily centered on three images: “Mary journeys, Mary encounters, Mary rejoices.”

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Francis described Our Lady on difficult paths that “required courage and patience”: Our Lady “knows what it means to walk uphill, she knows what it means for us to walk uphill, and she is our sister at every step of the way. She knows what it is to be weary of walking and she can take us by the hand amid our difficulties, in the most perilous twists and turns in our life’s journey.” Mary encounters Elizabeth. And the Mary who “meets” is also the image of our encounters, especially those between people who live deep differences. “In the Church, when different rites meet, when the most important thing is not one’s own affiliation, group or ethnicity, but the People who together praise God, then great things take place. Again, let us state it emphatically: Blessed are those who believe and who have the courage to foster encounter and communion.” Finally, Mary rejoices. “Faith wavers when it just floats along in sadness and discouragement,” because everything is reduced to our sadness, and “we forget that we are not orphans, for we have a Father in our midst, a powerful savior.” Mary comes to our aid, “because instead of reducing things, she magnifies them in ‘magnifying’ the Lord, in praising his greatness” and “entrusts herself to the Lord in all things.” Back in the Nunciature, the pope found 22 Jesuits who are working in Romania – 14 of them Romanians – to welcome him and stayed with them for an hour, answering some questions in a family atmosphere.8

In Transylvania. The artisan work of weaving together the future On Saturday, June 1, at 9:20 a.m., the papal plane took off from Bucharest for Târgu Mureş. The original plan to fly to Bacau and then from there take a helicopter was changed due to weather conditions. From Târgu Mureş the pope drove to Sumuleu-Ciuc, a district of the small town

8. The conversation is available here: laciviltacattolica.com/stir-up- indifferent-conversation-with-jesuits-in-romania/

28 POPE FRANCIS JOURNEYS TO ROMANIA of Miercurea-Ciuc, located in the region of Transylvania among the mountain ranges of the Eastern Carpathians, in the Ciuc depression on the banks of the River Olt. The majority of the population belongs to the Székely ethnic group and commonly speaks Hungarian. The shrine, situated in an evocative natural setting, is a historical pilgrimage destination for Hungarian- speaking Catholics from Romania and other countries. A first church was built between 1442 and 1448 on the ruins of an earlier church building of 1352. The present building, in baroque style, was completed between 1802 and 1824. Inside there is a precious lime wood statue of the Virgin made between 1515 and 1520, which survived the fire of 1661. The traditional annual pilgrimage takes place at Pentecost. On the hill in front of the there were about 100,000 people. They waited for the pope in the rain, coming even from Hungary. The ground was muddy, but that did not hold back the devotion of the people. Here the pope celebrated in Latin the votive Mass of Mary Mother of the Church.9 Francis gave a homily that was brief but dense. It was translated first into Romanian and then into Hungarian. Francis recalled that at the Marian shrine we come to meet Mary and “acknowledge that we are all brothers and sisters.” We come to the sanctuary “as people returning home.” In particular, the words of Francis reaffirmed the importance of brotherhood and the need not to “let ourselves be robbed of our fraternal love by those voices and hurts that provoke division and fragmentation.” The Church, he recalled, is a “field hospital” where these wounds are treated.

9. The logo represents Our Lady and the walking under her protection. Romania is often called the “Garden of the Mother of God,” a formula dear to all the faithful. The visit of Pope Francis takes up this Marian emphasis, inviting us to unite all our forces under the protective cloak of Our Lady, as the motto “Let’s walk together!” indicates. The colors used in the logo recall those of the national flag: blue, yellow and red.

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It is true that in those frontier lands there are tensions linked to language and culture. The pope said: “Complicated and sorrow-filled situations from the past must not be forgotten or denied.” However, “neither must they be an obstacle or an excuse standing in the way of our desire to live together as brothers and sisters.” The annual pilgrimage to the shrine is an “opportunity for fellowship.” It “is part of the heritage of Transylvania, but at the same time it honors Romanian and Hungarian religious traditions. The faithful of other confessions take part in it, and it is thus a symbol of dialogue, unity and fraternity. It invites us to rediscover the witness of living faith and hope-filled life.” The appeal of Francis to the universality of the Church and to human brotherhood was therefore strong. The pope then indicated the backdrop of the commitment of “journeying together” of which the pilgrimage is the image, the future. He said: “To go on pilgrimage is to commit ourselves to ensuring that the stragglers of yesterday can become the protagonists of tomorrow, and that today’s protagonists do not become tomorrow’s stragglers. And this, dear brothers and sisters, requires a certain skill, the art of weaving the threads of the future. That is why we are here today, to say together: Mother, teach us to baste the future!” It is important to note the precise use of the verbs “to weave” and “to baste,” which refer to sewing, to putting together the edges of two pieces of fabric with long stitches of cotton thread, perhaps destined to be replaced by the final sewing. Baste indicates slow, progressive, step-by- step work. At the end of the celebration, the pope donated a in homage to the Virgin Mary. For lunch, Francis stopped at the Jakab Antal House in Sumuleu-Ciuc. The structure, inaugurated in 2016, is used to host conferences and events, and is named after Antal, archbishop of Alba Iulia from 1980 to 1990, who, during the communist regime, was detained in prison for 13 years, from 1951 to 1964, and forced to work in a lead mine.

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In Moldova. A song more beautiful than that of the tempting sirens At 4:10 p.m., the pope transferred by helicopter to Iaşi, which is the most important political, economic and cultural center of the province of Moldova. Located in the northeastern part of the country, for many centuries this city has been crossed by the most important trade routes connecting , Hungary, Russia and Constantinople. It is the heartland of Moldovan culture. To welcome the pope at the international airport were Bishop Petru Gherghel of Iaşi, the mayor, the president of the region and the prefect. The pope went to the Cathedral of Queen Virgin Mary, which is part of the Catholic Episcopal complex of Iaşi, together with the old cathedral (built between 1782 and 1789), the bishop’s palace and the cathedral square. Built in the immediate vicinity of the old one, the new cathedral has the architectural features of a crown. It was consecrated in 2005, after 12 years’ construction. In modern style, with precious mosaics depicting the evangelists and stained glass windows dedicated to the sacraments and mysteries of the , the building has an external diameter of 38 meters and a height of 26 meters. Inside there is a large mosaic depicting the assumption into heaven of the Madonna. Here the pope made a private visit. At the entrance to the cathedral he was welcomed by the , who brought him the . At the second door, the parish priest of the cathedral, together with a family, gave him the holy water blessed for aspersion. The pontiff crossed the central nave to the altar, where a young and an elderly priest offered him a candle, which he placed in front of the relics of the blessed martyr . Here Francis stopped to pray in silence. After the prayer, he blessed those present, greeting and embracing many, especially the sick, after saying a few brief words of thanks.

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Then, at about 5:30 p.m., he went to the square in front of the Palace of Culture. He wend round the crowds in the piazza here. Before getting in the he silently blessed a marble statue of The Redeemer and a stone marking the Way of St. James to Compostela in . The Palace of Culture was built in neo-Gothic style between 1906 and 1925. In the center of the façade there is a tower with a carillon clock and eight bells. The Marian encounter with youth and families took place in a packed square under an almost clear sky after the threat of rain. The pope was welcomed by four children who wore traditional clothes and offered him flowers. Then he took the stage, accompanied by children, and went to the icon of the Virgin of Cacica. Greetings came from Bishop Gherghel and there followed songs, testimonies and prayers in Romanian, Polish, German and Hungarian. In particular, we remember the testimony of a grandmother present together with her husband and her 11 children – 4 of whom are consecrated – and her grandchildren. The pope gave a speech in which he said: “we see more trenches than roads. The Lord is the one who gives us a song more powerful than all the siren songs that would paralyze us on our journey. And he always does it the same way, by singing a more beautiful and more attractive song.” In an anecdote, he asked, “Tell me, Father, when will the world end?” And he replied: “When there is no more Christian love and understanding between brothers and sisters, relatives, Christians and other peoples! When people lose all their love, then it will truly be the end of the world.” Once again, the theme of unity was central. Francis said: “The Evil One divides, scatters, separates; he sows discord and distrust. He wants us to live ‘detached’ from others and from ourselves. The Spirit, on the contrary, reminds us that we are not anonymous, abstract, faceless beings, without history or identity. We are not meant to be empty or superficial. There is a very strong spiritual

32 POPE FRANCIS JOURNEYS TO ROMANIA network that unites us; one that ‘connects’ and sustains us, and is stronger than any other type of connection. And this network is our roots, the realization that we belong to one another, that each of our lives is anchored in the lives of others.” From a city like Iaşi, crossroads of cultures and encounters, a “city that knows how to open and start processes,” “new paths can open up to the future, toward Europe and many other parts of the world. Young people, you are pilgrims of the twenty-first century, capable of imagining afresh the bonds that unite us.” It is a strong image for the nation, for our coexistence and for our Europe in times of fundamentalism, populism and strong polarization. At the end of the meeting Francis headed to the airport to return to Bucharest.

Blaj. The of seven martyred bishops and the meeting with the Roma On Sunday, June 2, after leaving the Nunciature, the pope went to Bucharest airport to fly to Sibiu, Transylvania. From here, by car, he reached , a town on the Transylvanian plateau, in a rich area famous for its vineyards. In the second half of the 18th century this city became the center of Romanian Catholics in Transylvania and also home to the “Transylvanian School,” an expression of Romanian Enlightenment. Here in 1795 the first Catholic translation of the Holy Scripture into Romanian was made, known as “The Bible of Blaj.”10 Here is the residence of His Beatitude,

10. The basis for the use of the Latin alphabet in all Romanian publications was also founded here. For this reason the Romanian poet Eminescu called it “Little Rome.” In addition, important theological, historical and linguistic works have been printed in Blaj, which have shaped the national conscience of the Romanians of Transylvania and have strongly influenced the political and cultural life of the other historical provinces.

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Cardinal Lucian Mureşan, of Făgăraş şi Alba Iulia and of the Greek-Catholic Church of Romania. The pope went to the Field of Freedom, located in the eastern part of the city of Blaj, near the Greek Catholic Theological . It is the place where on May 15, 1848, more than 40,000 people gathered to assert their national conscience and demand the recognition of the Romanian people as a nation, with freedom and equal civil rights. This place is the memorial of the testimony of the martyrs who died for the Catholic faith during the communist dictatorship. Here, in fact, during the celebrations of the first centenary of the Revolution, on May 15, 1948, the communist regime asked the Greek- Catholics to abandon the Catholic faith and to join the Orthodox Church. The then Greek Catholic Bishop , given the impossibility of responding freely, abandoned the gathering as a sign of protest. That gesture was a clear invitation which was accepted by the priests and the Greek Catholic faithful who embraced with faith the way of persecution. Here the pope presided over the Divine Liturgy which involved the beatification of seven Greek Catholic martyred bishops: , , Ioan Bălan, Valeriu Traian Frențiu, Ioan Suciu, and . Over 20,000 people were present. Francis gave a homily on the Gospel passage of the man born blind, which reminded him of the logic of the Lord, which is that of not putting labels, theories, abstractions and ideologies at the center, but to “look people in the eye, see their hurts and their history.” Francis thus hopes that fraternity and dialogue, which put the person at the center, will always prevail over divisions. In this context he recalled what Bishop Iuliu Hossu said during his imprisonment: “God sent us into this darkness of suffering in order to offer forgiveness and to pray for the conversion of all.”

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At the end of Mass, Cardinal Mureșan offered the pope a silver casket containing some relics of the new blesseds and their icon. Francis then recited the “Regina Coeli” and gave the final blessing. He also expressed his gratitude to all those who welcomed him: to the president, to the authorities and “to His Beatitude, Patriarch Daniel, to the Holy Synod, to the clergy and faithful of the Orthodox Church of Romania.” And he said: “May the Lord bless this ancient and illustrious Church and sustain it in its mission.” For lunch, the pope went to the Curial Palace, located in the central area of Blaj. Then, in the afternoon, he headed to the Barbu Lăutaru district, where, according to the last census of 2011, 9 percent of the inhabitants are Roma.11 On October 1, 2017, the first stone of a church and a pastoral center was blessed. The new church was consecrated on May 19, 2019, and is dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle and Blessed Ioan Suciu. The Greek Catholic Romanian Church of the city has for years worked for the pastoral care and social assistance of the Roma community. The martyr Bishop Ioan Suciu, a native of Blaj, also grew up among the Roma and supported their community and promoted evangelization initiatives with young people. The pope met the Roma community inside the small church and outside. There were about 300 people in total. A Greek Catholic priest of Roma ethnicity gave his testimony, a song was performed by the children, and then came the greeting of the Holy Father before the prayer of the “Our Father” and the final blessing. Outside, a Roma children’s choir sang a song. In his greeting Francis indicated the Church as a “place of encounter. We need to keep this in mind, not as a pretty slogan but rather as part of our identity card as Christians.” That is why he spoke of the weight he bears

11. Cf. L. Lechintan, “I rom della Romania tra esclusione e integrazione,” in Civ. Catt. 2019 II 470-478.

35 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ in his heart: “It is weighed down by the many experiences of discrimination, segregation and mistreatment experienced by your communities. History tells us that Christians too, including Catholics, are not strangers to such evil. I would like to ask your forgiveness for this. I ask forgiveness – in the name of the Church and of the Lord – and I ask forgiveness of you. For all those times in history when we have discriminated, mistreated or looked askance at you, with the look of Cain rather than that of Abel, and were unable to acknowledge you, to value you and to defend you in your uniqueness.” And he continued: “you have a great role to play. Do not be afraid to share and offer the distinctive gifts you possess and that have marked your history.” From Blaj Francis returned by car to Sibiu, where the farewell ceremony was held. The plane with the pope on board, the members of the retinue and the accredited journalists landed in Rome’s Ciampino airport at 6:10 p.m.

* * *

The trip to Romania took place close to Pentecost, whose spirit shaped the meetings of Francis. The tension for unity and reconciliation between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches was palpable at all times, thanks to the overcoming of barriers and divisions, including cultural and linguistic ones, such as those experienced between the Hungarian- and Romanian-speaking communities. The meeting with the Roma, with the request for forgiveness, was also a key moment. In his video message sent on the eve of his departure, Francis had recalled the suffering that the oppression of the communist regime had caused the population. The pain experienced together, even with martyrdom for faith, is “a legacy too precious to be forgotten. And it is a common heritage, which calls us not to distance ourselves from our brothers and sisters who share it.”

36 POPE FRANCIS JOURNEYS TO ROMANIA

For the pontiff, therefore, Romania is called to “weave together the future,” to “baste” it in an artisanal way. The guiding image of this task is that of “journeying together” as a people. This is the other great theme of Francis’ apostolic journey to Romania: to develop the “soul of the people,” which is a way of understanding and living reality and participating in the formation of the destiny of the country. He said in an interview: “To be part of the people is to be part of a common identity made up of social and cultural ties. And this is not an automatic thing; on the contrary, it is a slow, difficult process… toward a common project.”12 This is the seed left by Francis in Romania, in the hope that it will bear fruit for the growth of a young nation, of ancient evangelization, called to assume its responsibilities in the context of the global stage and, in particular, of the European one. During the press conference on the return flight, Francis broadened the horizon: “If Europe does not look properly at the challenges ahead, then Europe will wither. We are seeing borders in Europe: this is not good […]. It is true that every country has its own culture and must preserve it […]. But please, Europe must not be won by pessimism and ideologies […]: ideologies that are not European, that come from outside or are born in small European groups. Think of the divided and belligerent Europe of 1914 and 1932-3 […]. Let us learn from history.”

12. Cf. A. Spadaro, “Le orme di un pastore. Una conversazione con Papa Francesco,” in Papa Francesco, Nei tuoi occhi è la mia parola. Omelie e discorsi di 1999-2013, Milan, Rizzoli, 2016, XV-XVI.

37 ‘Let us throw ourselves into history’: Francis in Bulgaria and North Macedonia

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

5 June 2019 The 29th apostolic journey of Pope Francis had as its destination Bulgaria and North Macedonia.1 At 7 a.m. on Sunday, May 5, an Alitalia flight took off from Rome’s Fiumicino airport with the pope, his entourage and accredited journalists on board. At 10 a.m. it landed in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Pope Francis thus became the second pope to visit Bulgaria: Saint John Paul II had visited the country in May 2002. In Bulgaria there are about 68,000 Catholics, or 0.95 percent of the population. There are 55 parishes and 57 priests (36 of whom are religious) and 63 religious sisters. The Bulgarian Bishops’ Conference, established by Paul VI in 1970, brings together the bishops of the two Latin rite dioceses – that of Nicopolis, led by Bishop Petko Jordanov Christov and that of Sofia and Plovdiv led by Bishop Gheorghi Ivanov Jovčev – and the exarchate for the Slavic-Byzantine Bulgarians whose bishop, Christo Proykov, is also president of the bishops’ conference.

Bulgaria, a bridge country At 10 a.m. the pope was welcomed by Prime Minister Boyko Borisov as he disembarked from the plane. Four children in traditional dress offered him flowers. A private meeting took place between the prime minister and the pope in a lounge of Sofia’s airport. Then Francis went to the Presidential Palace, where he was welcomed at the entrance by the President of the Republic, Rumen Radev.

1. For further analysis of the situation of the two countries, cf. G. Sale, “La Macedonia del Nord e Bulgaria,” in Civ. Catt. 2019 II 145-158.

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The Presidential Palace, built in the mid-1950s in the center of Sofia, is characterized by the colors white and red and is decorated with brick arches. The private meeting with the president, the presentation of his family and the exchange of gifts took place in the Green Room on the second floor of the Palace. Afterward, the president accompanied the pope to the main entrance to Atanas Burov Square (Burov was a statesman “who suffered under a regime that could not tolerate freedom of thought,” said Francis), where he met with representatives of government, of civil society and the diplomatic corps. Both President Radev and the Holy Father gave speeches. The described a nation with a dramatic history, full of wars and suffering. “Therefore,” he said “we know the price of peace and we know that peace lasts only when humanism and tolerance between different religions, ethnic groups and peoples triumph, because Bulgarian society does not tolerate xenophobia and racism.” And he went on: “In your Easter message you asked ‘to build bridges, not walls.’ This is the mission of our time. The walls are easy to build, but building bridges takes time and patience.” Francis, in turn, painted the picture of a Bulgaria understood as a country in which “diversity, combined with respect for distinctive identities, is viewed as an opportunity, a source of enrichment, and not as a source of conflict. . . a place of encounter between many cultures and civilizations, a bridge between Eastern and Southern Europe, an open door to the Near East, and a land of ancient Christian roots that nourish its vocation to foster encounter, both in the region and in the international community.” Francis wanted to link his visit to the country to that of John Paul II, and especially to the presence of about a decade in the country of the then apostolic delegate, Archbishop Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, who became pope taking the name of John XXIII. At the very beginning

39 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ of this apostolic journey, he clearly wanted to place at the center of his reflection the document signed in Abu Dhabi on 4 February last with the Imam of al-Ahzar and centered on the values of “mutual knowledge, human fraternity and life together.”2 Francis hoped that every religion “can contribute to the growth of a culture and an environment of complete respect for the human person and his or her dignity, establishing vital links between different civilizations, sensibilities and traditions, and by rejecting every form of violence and coercion. In this way, those who seek by any means to manipulate and exploit religion will be defeated.” The pontiff’s speech looked at the geopolitical framework within which Bulgaria is inserted. He presented Cyril and Methodius, co-patrons of Europe, as “an inspiration for fruitful dialogue, harmony, fraternal encounter between Churches, States and peoples.”3 There is a clear reference here to Europe, and in particular to the European Union, of which Bulgaria is a member. But Francis also referred to the “solid links” that the country has with Russia and . Then the pope went to the Palace of the Synod, built in the early 20th century, home of the Patriarchate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Recognized in its independence by the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 927, today this Church has 6.5 million faithful in Bulgaria and more than 1.5 million members outside the country.

2. A. Spadaro, “Sentinels of fraternity in the night.” The Apostolic Journey of Pope Francis to Abu Dhabi,” in Civ. Catt. En. Ed. https:// laciviltacattolica.com/sentinels-of-fraternity-in-the-night-the- apostolic-visit-of-pope-francis-to-abu-dhabi 3. The brothers Cyril and Methodius were born in Thessaloniki in the mid-ninth century. Following the request of Rastislav of Greater Moravia to Emperor III to send his people a bishop and teacher who could explain to them the Christian faith in their language, the two brothers were chosen for this mission. They gave the Slavic script a definitive form, which spread rapidly to Russia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Macedonia. Cyril and Methodius also produced the first Slavic version of the Bible and the liturgy.

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At the ‘spiritual crossroads’ : the meeting with the Patriarch and the Holy Synod The pope was welcomed at the main entrance of the Palace of the Holy Synod, which is built in the Moorish- Byzantine style. Welcoming him was the Metropolitan of Western and Central Europe, Anthony, who accompanied him to the Hall on the first floor, where he was awaited by Neofit, Metropolitan of Sofia and Patriarch of all Bulgaria.4 Only the members of the Holy Synod and the ecclesiastical members of the papal entourage were present at the meeting. Former Tsar of Bulgaria also participated in the event. The Patriarch addressed his greeting to the Holy Father and “to his fellow travelers”: “Welcome,” he began, “to the lands that bear the heritage of Saint Boris-Michael Evangelizer, St. Clement of Ocrida and many other saints and God- fearing men and women, thanks to whose educational work in the ninth and tenth centuries Christianity has spread in Europe and beyond its borders.” Francis spoke next and addressed an Easter greeting on “St. Thomas’ Sunday.” Contemplating the apostle who was invited to put his hand in the side of the Lord and touch his wounds, he said: “The wounds that have opened up among us Christians throughout history remain painful lesions on the Body of Christ which is the Church. Even today, their effects are tangible; we can touch them with our hands. Yet, perhaps together we can touch those wounds, confess that Jesus is risen, and proclaim him our Lord and our God. Perhaps together we can recognize our failings and immerse ourselves in his wounds of love. And in this way, we can discover the joy of forgiveness and

4. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church does not participate in ecumenical activities, nor is it a member of the of Churches. It did not participate in the Pan-Orthodox Synod of Crete in June 2016. Cf. E. Farrugia, “Il ‘Santo e Grande’ Sinodo Panortodosso. 18-27 Giugno 2016,” in Civ. Catt. 2016 II 521-533; Id., “Il ‘Santo e Grande’ Sinodo Panortodosso. Documentazione e reazione,” 2016 IV 53-67.

41 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ enjoy a foretaste of the day when, with God’s help, we can celebrate the Paschal mystery at one altar.” Thus he evoked three forms of ecumenism, which does not wait for theological dialogue to take place and which appeals to the direct experience of the Christian people. They are: the “ecumenism of blood,” lived during the years of persecution in the 20th century; the “ecumenism of the poor,” lived in the service of the poorest and most forgotten; and the “ecumenism of mission,” lived in exemplary fashion by Saints Cyril and Methodius, who put the proclamation of the Lord first. This ecumenism is inspired by a “fraternal nostalgia” typical of those who are “children of the same Father,” and with whom Pope John lived in his years in Sofia, Francis recalled. The pontiff’s discourse expanded to include a look at Europe, thanks to Saints Cyril and Methodius and their work. They are the promoters of “a united Europe and of a profound peace among all the inhabitants of the continent, showing the basis for a new art of living together, with respect for differences, which are in no way an obstacle to unity,” he said, quoting Saint John Paul II. And Francis also recalled that these two saints of the Greek tradition and apostles of the Slavs are venerated in the Russian tradition along with Saint Aleksander Nevsky. This interweaving of traditions reveals how Bulgaria is a “bridge country,” which has a “lofty vocation.” After the speeches, there came the exchange of gifts and the cordial presentation of the members of the Synod to the pope and the ecclesiastics of the papal entourage to the patriarch. The meeting ended with a group photo. At the end, the pope went on foot, together with Metropolitan Anthony, to the famous Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Aleksander Nevsky, which is the seat of the Patriarch of Bulgaria.5

5. The cathedral was built to commemorate the death of 200,000 Russian soldiers who died in the 1877-1878 war to free the Slav peoples from Ottoman rule. The neo-Byzantine construction – one of the largest

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Upon entering the cathedral, Francis briefly stopped in front of the Throne of Saints Cyril and Methodius in the middle of the nave, before going to the altar dedicated to the saints. Here, sitting down, he prayed in silence. Then he went outside the cathedral for the recitation of the Regina Coeli. He climbed to the podium, where there was the icon of Our Lady of Nessebar – which means “Gate of Heaven” – so dear to St. John XXIII, and made a brief silent prayer, while the choir sang a Marian hymn. In his brief speech he cited again the document signed in Abu Dhabi, framing the country as “a crossroads where various religious expressions encounter one another in dialogue.” For this reason, he prayed that the Risen One might “grant this beloved land the necessary impulse always to be a land of encounter.” At the end, the pope greeted 10 members of the religious confessions present in Bulgaria. After a lunch break in the Nunciature, the pontiff resumed his activity around 4 p.m., when he went to Knyaz Alexandar I Square, located in the center of Sofia, to celebrate Mass after spending time among the approximately 12,000 faithful present. In his homily Francis urged the congregation not to yield to the temptation of “nostalgia for the past” and not to live the “tomb psychology that tinges everything with dejection and leads us to indulge in a soothing sense of self-pity that, like a moth, eats away at all our hope.” Christian life is called to emerge from the “grim pragmatism of life” that degenerates into “small- mindedness.” Francis’ strong appeal is to a life that does not allow itself to be constrained by failures or that waits for ideal situations. The Lord “does not wait to meet with people without problems, without disappointments, sins or limitations.” When we welcome the Lord, “let us go in the world – was completed in 1912. It is 45 meters high: the golden dome rises over a series of half-domes, while the bell tower, with its 12 bells, is more than 50 meters high. The interior, with 5 naves, has precious marbles, precious materials and mosaics in Murano glass.

43 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ higher, let us embrace our most beautiful future, not as a possibility but as a reality.” There is a significant image of the Church that emerges from this discourse which asks us to overcome the “paralyzing barriers” and “throw ourselves – not just our nets – into history.”

Loving, without asking for a resume At 8:15 a.m. on Monday, May 6, the pope went to the Refugee Centre in Vrazhdebna. Opened in 2013, in the old building of a former school on the outskirts of Sofia, it is one of three centers for refugees in the Bulgarian capital. The guests are looked after by international organizations and local NGOs, the Bulgarian Red Cross and the Swiss Red Cross. Until 2012, Bulgaria was not a favored destination for the flow of migrants. Between 2013 and 2015, thanks to the closure of the Balkan route through Macedonia, there was a sharp increase in their presence. The pope was welcomed by the director of the Centre and by the director of Caritas. Then he went to the refectory, where about 50 children and parents were gathered. After the greeting of a volunteer and a song, the children gifted him some of their drawings. He said a few words spontaneously: “Today the world of migrants and refugees is a bit of a cross, a cross of humanity.” In his speech to the Catholic community of Rakovsky in the afternoon, the pope commented on this visit as follows: “The heart of the Caritas Centre stems from the awareness that every person is a child of God, regardless of ethnicity or religious denomination. In order to love someone, you don’t need to ask them for their curricula vitae; love precedes, it goes ahead, it takes the first step, because it is free. In this Caritas Centre there are many Christians who have learned to see with God’s own eyes. God is not worried about labels, but seeks out and awaits each person with a Father’s eyes.” Then Francis went to Sofia airport to fly to theGraf Ignatievo air base in Plovdiv, the second largest city in

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Bulgaria. Historical capital of Thrace, it is one of the oldest cities in Europe, a contemporary of Troy and Mycenae and older than Rome, Athens and Constantinople. From the base he drove to the church of the in Rakovsky, a city with an overwhelming Catholic majority. Here he celebrated a Votive Mass of the Most Holy Eucharist, during which 245 children received their First Communion from his hands. There were about 700 believers inside, including the children. Outside the church and in the surrounding area there were over 10,000 people. Speaking to journalists about this unique celebration, Francis recalled the day of his own First Communion, October 8, 1944. The pope welcomed children who had come “from every corner of this ‘Land of Roses’ to take part in a wonderful celebration. I am sure you will never forget: your first encounter with Jesus in the sacrament of the Eucharist.” The message of his homily on this occasion was again addressed to the future; it was an appeal to come out of hiding: “Some miracles can only take place if we have a heart like yours, a heart capable of sharing, dreaming, feeling gratitude, trusting and respecting other people.” And the pope summarized his homily as follows: “God is our Father, Jesus is our Brother, the Church is our family, all of us are brothers and sisters, our law is love.” Francis also spoke with the children spontaneously, thanks to a translator. At the end of the Mass, a “snowfall” of white rose petals – the symbolic flower of Bulgaria – rained down from the ceiling over the pontiff’s procession as he walked through the nave to leave the church, greeting the children and their families. After the celebration, the pope went to the convent of the Franciscan sisters where he had lunch, in private, with the three bishops of Bulgaria.

A message of trust in a Church that is a small seed At 3.20 p.m. Francis went to the church of St. Michael the , consecrated on December 8, 1931, after

45 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ reconstruction following a major earthquake in 1928. Here he met with the Catholic community. After a brief greeting from Bishop Gheorghi Ivanov Jovčev, Bishop of Sofia and Plovdiv, the testimonies of a nun, a priest and a family followed one another, alternating with songs and choreographed movements. Then Francis made his speech, giving thanks for the warm welcome: “It is always a source of joy to be able to meet the holy People of God with its myriad faces and charisms.” He once again recalled Pope John, the good pope, “whose heart was so attuned to the Lord that he could register his disagreement with those around him who saw only evil and called them prophets of doom.” Again he addressed a positive and confident message to a small Church, which is like a seed in a land that is a “crossroads” and a “bridge.” Francis has always expressed a particular predilection for these Churches.6 He invited us to launch ourselves into history, on the basis of deep roots: “It is good to know that you can count on a great living history, but it is even more beautiful to realize that you are being asked to write its next chapter. Never tire of being a Church that continues to give birth, amid contradictions, sorrows and also much poverty, the Church-who-is-a-mother that continually has children, that gives life to the sons and daughters that this land needs today, at the start of this twenty-first century. Always listen with one ear to the Gospel and the other to the heart of your people.” The pontiff made various statements off the cuff. In particular, recalling what a priest and poet, Amelio Luis Calori, wrote of a Church that, if it closes the door, never does so from within: “If they close the door, the key is on the outside: you can open it. And that is our hope. The hope of reconciliation.”

6. One need only recall, for example, the ecclesiology expressed by Francis in his address to the Catholic community of Morocco. http:// w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2019/march.index.html

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Finally, he walked down the central nave while the choir was singing. When he went outside, some sick boys were waiting for him with volunteers. They released balloons while the bells were ringing. At the end of the meeting, the pontiff returned by plane to Sofia and, from the airport, around 6 p.m. arrived in Nezavisimost Square – formerly Lenin Square – which is the center of Sofia. The monumental buildings surrounding the square are built in the characteristic style of socialist realism. Here, on an afternoon of wind and rain, the meeting for peace took place, presided over by the pope and attended by representatives of religious denominations present in Bulgaria: the Jewish, Armenian, Protestant and Islamic communities. The Director for Religious Affairs of the Government was also present. On the stage there was a candle with the logo of the pope’s visit, an olive tree as a symbol of peace, and roses, a symbol of Bulgaria. The Canticle of the Creatures of Saint Francis was recited in Italian and Bulgarian, and Psalm 122. Then a candle and six torches were lit, symbolizing all the religious denominations of the country. This was followed by prayers formulated by the various confessions. The pope recited the Prayer of St. Francis and then addressed his message. Quoting once again the document signed in Abu Dhabi, he said that “peace requires and demands that we make dialogue a way, that we make common collaboration our conduct, that we make mutual knowledge the method and the criterion for meeting each other in what unites us, for respecting each other in what separates us and for encouraging us to look to the future as a space of opportunity and dignity, especially for future generations.” Francis’ journey to Bulgaria ended with this speech and with the “hope that the dream of Saint John XXIII will come true: the dream of an earth where peace is at home.” These are the splendid words of Francis, who hopes for a future, rereading the past: “Our celebration

47 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ of peace takes place here on the ruins of ancient Serdika, in Sofia, the heart of Bulgaria. From here we can see the places of worship of the different Churches and religious Confessions: Saint Nedelya of our Orthodox brothers and sisters, of we Catholics, the synagogue of our elder brothers, the Jews, the mosque of our Muslim brothers and sisters and, closer to us, the church of the Armenians. For many centuries, the Bulgarians of Sofia belonging to different cultural and religious groups gathered in this place for meetings and discussions. May this symbolic place become a witness to peace. Tonight our voices blend in expressing our ardent desire for peace. Let there be peace on earth!” After the meeting for peace, returning to the Nunciature, Francis drove past all the places he had mentioned in his speech. The farewell from Bulgaria ceremony took place on the morning of the following day, Tuesday 7. Around 8 a.m., the pope was welcomed by the Prime Minister and, after a guard of honor, departed for Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia.

North Macedonia, a melting pot of cultures and belonging Around 8:15 a.m., the papal flight landed at Skopje airport. Francis was the first pope to travel to North Macedonia, and the journey took place on the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Holy See, a few years after independence, achieved in September 1991. In North Macedonia, Catholics are approximately 0.7 percent of the population, or about 15,000. There are 10 parishes, 22 priests (including one religious) and 30 religious sisters. In May 2018, Pope Francis elevated the apostolic exarchate for the Byzantine Catholic faithful living in North Macedonia to the status of , assigning the new province the of “Blessed Virgin Mary of the Assumption in Strumica-Skopje.” He nominated as first

48 FRANCIS IN BULGARIA AND NORTH MACEDONIA eparchal bishop Kiro Stojanov, bishop for Catholics of the Latin rite, who was already apostolic of the same province. So there is a single bishop of both the and the Byzantines. The pope was welcomed at the foot of the plane by President Gjorge Ivanov and two children in traditional dress. They offered him bread, salt and water. President Ivanov and Prime Minister, Zoran Zaev, addressed words of welcome. Francis took a piece of bread, broke it, and offered it to the president, saying: “That’s how you make friends, isn’t it?” From the airport, the pope went to the Presidential Palace, better known as Villa Vodno, named after the mountain overlooking the city of Skopje in the southwest. It has been the seat of the Head of State since 2009. Surrounded by a park, Villa Vodno houses a rich collection of Macedonian art. After the welcome ceremony, a visit to the president and a meeting with the prime minister, a meeting with the authorities, representatives of civil society and the diplomatic corps took place. In the front row was Stevo Pendarovski, who the previous day had been elected as the new president of the Republic and successor to Ivanov. In his wide-ranging and profound speech President Ivanov declared, among other things: “I am convinced that his efforts for peace and unity, equality and social justice, freedom of thought, conscience and religion, sustainable development and the role of justice make a profound difference because they are symbols of a renewed world. Only people transformed in the spirit can transform the spirit of society.” He added that this “requires a person with important moral authority who can speak to the soul of the nation. I am deeply convinced that Macedonian citizens – Christians, Muslims, Jews or atheists – recognize this type of person in Your Holiness. Many young leaders who leave my leadership school look to you as the leader who best inspires people. That

49 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ is why symbolically, as a Macedonian, I asked you to come to Macedonia to help us in the spiritual renewal of our country.” Francis gave a speech highlighting how North Macedonia is a bridge country, “a crucible of cultures and ethnic and religious identities,” and a spiritual crossroads. He said: “Your land, a bridge between East and West and the confluence of numerous cultural currents, embodies many of the distinctive marks of this region. With the elegant testimonies of its Byzantine and Ottoman past, its lofty mountain fortresses and the splendid iconostases of its ancient churches, which speak of a Christian presence dating back to apostolic times, North Macedonia reflects all the depth and richness of its millennial culture.” In North Macedonia, too, the pope spoke with his eyes turned toward Europe. In this country, “the different religious identities of Orthodox, Muslims, Catholics, Jews and Protestants, as well as the ethnic distinction between Macedonians, , Serbs, Croats and people of other origins, have created a mosaic in which every tile is necessary to the originality and beauty of the overall picture,” in the construction of a “common destiny.” And this is “highly significant for increased integration with the nations of Europe.” Francis expressed his “hope that this integration will develop in a way that is beneficial for the entire region of the Western Balkans.” In his speech the pope offered as a reference figure Anjezë Gonxha Bojaxhiu, that is of Calcutta, daughter of this land. She is a model of a solidarity that the pope has recognized in the Macedonian people, who have made a generous effort “to welcome and to provide assistance to the great number of migrants and refugees coming from different Middle Eastern countries.” After leaving, Francis went to the “Mother Teresa Memorial,” inaugurated in 2008, which stands where the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was before being destroyed by an earthquake in 1963. Here the saint was

50 FRANCIS IN BULGARIA AND NORTH MACEDONIA baptized and she used to come to pray. The building has a stone base in which various elements are inserted and, in particular, a sort of glass tower. On the first floor there is a small museum displaying photos, objects that belonged to Mother Teresa, and some of her relics; on the second floor is the chapel with glass walls. The pope was welcomed by the superior, three and a child, who offered him flowers, which Francis then placed in front of a large statue of the saint. Afterward, he went to the chapel, where the leaders of the religious communities of the country were gathered with their families and the two cousins of Mother Teresa. On the altar were exhibited a relic of the saint, some personal items and five candles to represent the religious confessions. There was a moment of silent prayer before the relic, followed by a prayer of the Holy Father in honor of Mother Teresa. The Orthodox Metropolitan of Skopje, the Reis ul-ulema of the Islamic community, a Methodist pastor, and a representative of the Jewish community also participated. At the end, the pope reached the courtyard, where there were about 100 poor people assisted by the Missionary Sisters of Charity. Here, after a brief greeting from the superior of the community and the testimony of a guest, there was the blessing of the foundation stone for the shrine of Mother Teresa.

Opening routes for change At 11 a.m., the pope went to Macedonia Square, the geographical and symbolic center of Skopje. There he celebrated Mass in front of about 15,000 people. In his homily he spoke of the Lord who came to give life to the world, challenging “the narrowness of our calculations, the mediocrity of our expectations and the superficiality of our rationalizations; He questions our views and our certainties, inviting us to move on to a new horizon that gives space to a different way of constructing reality.”

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In particular the pope made a robust analysis of the situation: : “We have become accustomed to eating the stale bread of disinformation and ending up as prisoners of dishonor, labels and ignominy. We thought that conformism would satisfy our thirst, yet we ended up drinking only indifference and insensitivity. We fed ourselves on dreams of splendor and grandeur, and ended up consuming distraction, insularity and solitude. We gorged ourselves on networking, and lost the taste for fraternity. We looked for quick and safe results, only to find ourselves overwhelmed by impatience and anxiety. Prisoners of a virtual reality, we lost the taste and flavor of the truly real.” Hence he called upon his hearers to declare “with strength and without fear” our hunger for “fraternity where indifference, dishonor, ignominy do not fill our tables and do not take pride of place in our homes.” After Mass, the pope had lunch with his entourage at the episcopal residence, then at 3:45 p.m. he went to the Pastoral Centre in Skopje, behind the cathedral. Here, in the open air, an ecumenical and interreligious meeting was held.7 Testimonies were given by a young couple, he Catholic and she Orthodox, one by a young Muslim, and one by a young Catholic of the Byzantine rite. Then the pope gave a speech in dialogue with the young people, who spoke about their lives. It was a talk about dreams: “Dreaming is never too much. One of the main problems of today for many young people is that they have lost the ability to dream.” He recalled the Abu Dhabi Document, signed “with a friend, the Great Imam

7. Francis did not have a specific meeting with Archbishop Stefan, who leads the Macedonian Orthodox Church. The situation of the Church poses some problems that are still unresolved. Two years ago, in fact, it began its steps to recognize the Bulgarian Orthodox Church as the mother Church, freeing itself from the Serbian Patriarchate, which instead considers North Macedonia as its . In this way it also seeks recognition of its autocephaly, proclaimed in 1967 and never recognized by the synaxis of the Orthodox Churches.

52 FRANCIS IN BULGARIA AND NORTH MACEDONIA of Al-Azhar Ahmad el-Tayeb” – said the pope in dialogue with the Muslim girl who had spoken – because “we also had a dream very similar to yours.” He then used the image of stonemasons, “skilled at cutting the stone and working it.” Therefore, “you have to work like those artists and become good carvers of your dreams.” And he added that it is important not to dream alone: “Alone you risk seeing mirages, seeing what is not there. But dreams are built together.” Above all, one must never dream “against others.” He also asked his hearers not to exchange pure gold for “colored glass,” what is precious in life for shiny, fake imitations. In the end, Mother Teresa’s prayer was recited, “Do you need my hands, Lord?” The bishop of Skopje then accompanied the pope inside the cathedral through a side door. The cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, built in 1977, is the seat of the diocese of Skopje. Here the meeting with the priests, their families and religious took place. Two sisters offered flowers to the pope, who placed them in front of the Blessed Sacrament. After a silent prayer, Francis reached the altar to begin the meeting. Then there were testimonies from a priest of the Byzantine rite with his wife and four children, one from a Latin priest, and one from a religious sister. The pope thanked them as follows: “I can see the Church breathing fully with her two lungs – Latin rite and Byzantine rite – to fill herself with the ever new and renewing air of the Holy Spirit.” And he asked everyone not to count on the “precariousness of our resources to carry out the missionary mandate entrusted to us.” Francis’ speech was an invitation to the missionary conversion of the Church, to a broad opening, even in the fragility of our life and our abilities. Mother Teresa is once again a “concrete sign of how one small person, anointed by the Lord, could permeate everything, once the fragrance of the Beatitudes was spread over the weary feet of our humanity.” These are

53 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ the last words of Francis on Macedonian soil: “Let us ask the Spirit to keep renewing us in our mission, with the confidence of knowing that he wants to permeate everything with his presence.” Before leaving the cathedral, the pope blessed the foundation stone of the sanctuary of St. Paul. After leaving the cathedral, Francis headed for Skopje airport, where he was welcomed by the President of the Republic, who accompanied him to the plane. The flight took off from the Macedonian capital around 6.15 p.m. and landed at Rome’s Ciampino airport at 7.50 p.m.

The most beautiful mosaics are the most colorful ones “The most beautiful mosaics are the most colorful,” said Francis in a video message sent before taking off for his 29th apostolic journey. Bulgaria and North Macedonia can be defined as mosaics featuring: “bridges” and “crossroads” between cultures and religions; two key figures for the evangelization of the Slavic peoples, Cyril and Methodius; two contemporary figures of holiness in John XXIII and Mother Teresa; a common European horizon of brotherhood and coexistence in light of the document signed in Abu Dhabi; an ecumenism born of persecution, of service to the poor and of the mission of proclaiming the Gospel; an open vision of the Church in full missionary mode, which opens itself to the challenges of the future without falling back in a fearful and petty manner. These are the fundamental elements of Francis’ apostolic journey to lands that contain a small number of Catholics t. Theirs is a mission of reconciliation and dialogue in a geopolitical quadrant that is a mosaic of cultures, religions and sensibilities.

54 ‘Sentinels of Fraternity in the Night’ The apostolic visit of Pope Francis to Abu Dhabi

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

20 March 2019 At 1 p.m. on February 3, 2019, Pope Francis flew to the United Arab Emirates for his 27th apostolic journey. It was the first visit of a pontiff to the Arabian Peninsula, so close to the holy places of Islam: Medina and Mecca. After the 12 Noon Angelus prayer in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, and before going to Fiumicino airport, the pontiff reminded us of Yemen. He expressed his great concern about events in a country shaken by a war that has already caused thousands of victims and refugees, and where the most vulnerable are always the children. This tragedy has occurred in the same Arabian Peninsula. With this appeal, the pope wanted to give a clear sign of his familiarity with the geopolitical dynamics of the region, to which the Emirates themselves are no strangers. The invitation to visit the country was extended to him in May 2016 by Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of State for Tolerance, in the course of her visit to the Vatican. In September of that year, the pope had received in the Vatican Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, son of the deceased Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, “father of the nation,” first president of the Emirates, and brother of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Emir of Abu Dhabi and president of United Arab Emirates. The prince spoke with the pope about the fight against fanaticism and about the culture of coexistence between Christians and Muslims. Along with a “carpet of peace”

55 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ created by Afghan women in the context of a project of solidarity supported by the government of the United Arab Emirates, the prince gave him a book of photography about the archeological excavations on the island of Bani Yas. Those excavations have brought to light an ancient Christian monastery, built in the pre-Islamic period on a small island not far from the coast of Arabia, officially recognizing a Christian presence in the region since ancient times.

The first time a pope visits the Arabian Peninsula The pope’s plane landed around 10 p.m. at the presidential airport in the city of Abu Dhabi, which in Arabic signifies “land of the gazelle.” It is the capital of the Emirates and its second largest city, after Dubai. This land is part of the of Southern Arabia, founded in 2011, which counts about 1 million faithful – essentially immigrants – divided into 16 parishes, with 13 secular priests and 51 religious. The Apostolic Vicar Bishop Paul Hinder, has jurisdiction over all the Catholic residents in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Yemen. In the Peninsula there is also the Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Arabia, which has jurisdiction over Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain. The pope was welcomed as he came off the airplane via the passenger boarding bridge by the crown prince. Two children in traditional dress gave him flowers as part of a festive welcome. Awaiting him was the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmad el-Tayeb, who had landed shortly before. The work of the visit began the following day, February 4. At 11:50 a.m., the pope went to the Presidential Palace, which occupies an area of 160,000 square meters. The palace, covered in spotless white, is surmounted by more than 70 domes with mosaics of glass and gold covering a surface of 18,000 square meters. The main door is imposing: it is 12 meters high and 8 meters wide, in steel and bronze. The pope’s vehicle was escorted by the

56 THE APOSTOLIC VISIT OF POPE FRANCIS TO ABU DHABI presidential guards on horseback up to the main entrance of the palace. Here, Francis was received by the crown prince. With the presentations completed, the prince accompanied the pope to the hall specifically prepared for the private meeting. In the afternoon, the pontiff moved to the Great Mosque of Sheikh Zayed, the most important place of worship in the country and one of the largest mosques in the world. It can host more than 40,000 faithful. The monumental complex reflects the desire to unite the cultural differences of the Islamic world with the historical and modern values of architecture and art. The edifice is equipped with 82 domes and about 1,100 columns, Moorish arches and four minarets. The pope was welcomed by Grand Imam el-Tayeb, by the Foreign Minister and by the Ministers for Tolerance and Culture at the entrance of the Mausoleum of the Sheikh, which Francis visited. Next, the pope got into a golf cart together with the grand imam in order to reach the Courtyard of the Mosque, where, in the open air, a private meeting took place with the Muslim Council of Elders, an independent international organization that promotes peace in Islamic communities and based in Abu Dhabi. The occasion for the trip to the United Arab Emirates was the Global Conference of Human Fraternity, promoted by the council. Before the arrival of the pope, 500 religious leaders from all over the world had already joined together. They had discussions in 21 workshops with 60 presenters, and 30 involving Christians, Jews and other Muslims. With the meeting over, the pope, accompanied by el- Tayeb and the ministers present, went to the Founders Memorial, a national monument that commemorates the life, patrimony and values of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The building is very impressive and has in the center the installation The Constellation. Designed by American artist Ralph Helmick, it represents a three-

57 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ dimensional and dynamic portrait of Sheikh Zayed. It is hosted in a pavilion in the form of a cube 30 meters high and contains 1,327 geometric forms hanging from 1,110 cables, which in perspective form the portrait of the leader. The pope and the imam reached the podium together. After greetings from the prince, el-Tayeb and Francis responded.

‘Demilitarizing the human heart’ The grand imam first visited Francis on May 23, 2016, while their most recent meeting – a private visit at Casa Santa Marta – took place in October 2018. And el-Tayeb welcomed the pope during the apostolic visit to on April 28-29, 2017, on the occasion of the International Conference for Peace, organized by Al-Azhar and the Muslim Council of Elders. The pontiff was described by his host as “Great guest and dear brother.” The year 2019 marks the 800th anniversary of the meeting between with Sultan al-Malik al-Kamil, nephew of Saladin. The memory of this embrace from the past has become today the icon of a possible future. “There is no alternative,” the pope said on that occasion: either “the civility of encounter” or the “incivility of conflict.” Future generations have to develop as trees that are well rooted in the soil of history, which, “growing up high and next to others,” transform “the polluted air of hate into the oxygen of brotherhood.” And it is precisely this “oxygen” that is the linchpin of the document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Coexistence, signed by the pope and the imam, February 4, in Abu Dhabi. Before the historical signing, the grand imam and the pope gave their speeches. First, el-Tayeb began by speaking of his personal experience as a part of what might be called the “generation of wars”: from the Second World War up to the tragedy of September 11, 2001, his was a litany that poured forth into a desire for

58 THE APOSTOLIC VISIT OF POPE FRANCIS TO ABU DHABI radical change. Addressing the pope and considering the plague of terrorism, he said: “My dear and merciful friend observed with sadness the suffering of humanity without any distinction or discrimination whatever. We are agreed that the heavenly religions have nothing to do with these movements, with these armed groups.” Then he appealed strongly to the Christians in the East: “You are citizens. You are not minorities. You are children of this land”; as well as to the Muslims who are in the West: “Make yourself a part of society, do it in a positive way so as to protect your religious identity, so that you respect the laws of these societies. You should know that the security of society is also your responsibility.” In his speech, Francis presented himself as a “believer thirsting for peace.” And “in order to safeguard peace, we need to enter together as one family into an ark that can sail the stormy seas of the world, the ark of fraternity.” “Fraternity” was the key word of the whole speech and of the document signed. Francis places the foundations of it in God, who is “at the origin of the one human family.” The perspective of God, “the perspective of Heaven,” embraces and includes. No violence can be justified by religion. Plurality and multiplicity must be safeguarded. Fraternity has nothing to do with an easy syncretism. On the contrary, it is the “courage of otherness, which brings with it the full recognition of the other and his or her freedom.” In particular, religious liberty is precisely that which “sees truly in the other a brother or sister, a child of my own humanity whom God leaves free.” The speech of Francis was not limited to the relationship between Christians and Muslims. Its bearing was universal, and the message geared toward a wounded world. “There is no alternative: we will either build the future together or there will not be a future. Religions, in particular, cannot renounce the urgent task of building bridges between peoples and cultures. The time has come

59 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ when religions should more actively exert themselves, with courage and audacity, and without pretense, to help the human family deepen the capacity for reconciliation, the vision of hope and the concrete paths of peace.” Religions therefore are called upon to be “sentinels of fraternity in the night of conflict,” which keep humanity from resigning itself to the dramas of the world and contribute actively to “demilitarizing the human heart.” The pope then made the point of the need to work “against the logic of armed power, against the monetization of relationships, the militarization of borders, the raising of walls, the gagging of the poor.”

The document on fraternity After the two speeches, the pope and the grand imam proceeded to the joint signing of the document in an another setting and in the presence of the participants of the International Conference on Fraternity1. An informed reading of the document will require further explanation. Here we limit ourselves to emphasizing some principal aspects of the document within the dynamics of the trip. We specify that his signature was a surprise to many, because the news had not been spread, nor was the text known beforehand. The essential contents of its message were therefore made known on the spot, thanks to a video image projected on to a large screen next to the Founders Memorial. First of all, we note that the two leaders express themselves “in the name of God,” but they do not posit theological premises. They begin with the experience of their meeting and the fact that various times they have shared “the joys, sorrows, and problems of our contemporary world.” It is the situation of the world – and not a theoretical setting of interreligious dialogue –

1. https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/travels/2019/outside/ documents/papa-francesco_20190204_documento-fratellanza- umana.html

60 THE APOSTOLIC VISIT OF POPE FRANCIS TO ABU DHABI that has pushed Francis and el-Tayeb to say something together that may be a “guide for future generations to advance a culture of mutual respect in the awareness of the great that makes all human beings brothers and sisters.” There is already here an important point about method: encounter is born from listening to reality. For this reason, the two leaders speak “in the name of” the poor, orphans, widows, embattled peoples, that is, the throwaways of the world. But, also “in the name of” liberty, justice, mercy, and all persons of good will. The reading of reality manifests itself “in a global context overshadowed by uncertainty, disillusionment, fear of the future, and controlled by narrow-minded economic interests.” The cause is attributed to a “desensitized human conscience,” to “moral deterioration,” to “weakening of spiritual values,” and the consequences of “religious and nationalist extremism.” The document courageously confronts the challenge of the religious illness that transforms holiness into the service of political action understood as a sacred cause. In its most extreme and virulent forms, it seems to push the adherent to a new “creation” of the world through violence and terror. Its presumed divine character would be constituted precisely by this. And the “martyr” venerated by this form of fundamentalism becomes the object of a collective cult that legitimizes and sanctifies the cohesive identity of the group. Francis and el-Tayeb together reveal the perverse dynamics of this vision, and they definitively strip it of its religious character. By doing so, they bring to the center the moral need to protect the dignity of the human person. The pope and the grand imam want to save the religious sense from political and nihilist instrumentalization. As is well known, the document on fraternity has a significance that goes well beyond interreligious dialogue between experts. And it also goes

61 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ beyond dialogue between Christians and Muslims: it is, in fact, a text of profound religious value and of great political impact. The document marks a turning point because it essentially supplants the logic of “dialogue,” that is, the discussing of important topics, which, though a fundamental element, no longer appears sufficient. Here, what Francis said in an off-the-cuff greeting in August 2014, in Korea, during a meeting with the religious leaders of the country, comes to fruition: “Life is a long journey that one cannot make alone. One must travel with brothers in the presence of God: this is what God asked of . We recognize each other as brothers and travel together.” The recognition of fraternity changes our perspective. It turns it upside down and becomes an important religious and political message. Not by chance, this brings us immediately to reflect upon the meaning of “citizenship”: we are all brothers and sisters, and therefore all are citizens with equal rights and duties; under its shade all enjoy justice. What disappears therefore is the idea of a “minority,” which brings with itself the seeds of tribalism and hostility, that sees in the face of the other the mask of the enemy. Thus, on one hand, the Islamic world expresses a better comprehension of modernity; on the other hand, the message takes on global relevance: in a time marked by walls, hate and induced fear, these words turn upside down the logic of necessary conflict. Obviously, we are not speaking here of a completed reality, but of a direction in which to move. The appeal is an “awakening of the religious sense.” Asked by journalists about the document during the return trip to Rome, the pope affirmed: “If we believers are unable to give each other a hand, embrace each other, kiss each other, and also to pray, our faith will be defeated.” Here Francis speaks of all “believers” and of “faith,” enlarging our perspective beyond that of the Catholic faithful.

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The pope and the grand imam have taken a decisive step toward overcoming resentment and ideological pitfalls. They have beaten down the walls built by cultural warriors who crave a clash of civilizations thanks to an ideological reductionism of religions. The foundation of all is seen in a single expression: “The faith brings the believer to see in the other a sister or brother to support and love.” From this conviction comes the correct attitude. Francis has never intended to tell Islam what it should be. He is not promoting a kind of “enlightened” reform of Islamic culture. Not at all. The document, on the contrary, was written by four hands because it is necessary to travel together. In a world where globalized divisions prevail, the fraternity of the one who recognizes himself a “son of God” becomes a form of critical thought. How do we interpret the value of this document from Francis’ point of view? The pope is – in sporting terms – a creative player. His play on the field is at times characterized by originality and surprise. This brings him, in some circumstances, to respond to the appeals of the Spirit more than to codified rules and customs. He tends to be prophetic, and therefore to move the ball out of bounds even, to play the true game there. But it is not a game that one can play alone. And he has done this in different ways with Bartholomew, with Kyril, and now with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar. The two players of Abu Dhabi pushed the ball out, but one saying he is speaking “in the name of the Muslims of the East and West” and the other “in the name of the Catholics of the East and West.” For this reason, dissonant voices will certainly be heard. However, one can no longer turn back: the process has begun, the ball is in play. And the processes “must mature, like flowers, like fruit,” Francis said on the return flight. Moving and promoting such processes, the Catholic Church shows itself to be today, in our broken world, a powerful geopolitical factor for mending and regeneration

63 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ based on the fundamental and universal values of fraternity. This document should also be understood as a fruit of the , as Francis emphasized.

A migrant Catholic community integrating differences The next day, February 5, at around 9 a.m. the pope went to St. Joseph’s Cathedral, one of only two Catholic churches in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi (the other is the Church of Saint Paul at Musaffah). The original church goes back to 1962 and was built on the coast, on a piece of land donated by the governor of Abu Dhabi. The church welcomes Catholic faithful coming from every part of the world, so much so that the celebrations take place not just in Arabic, English and French, but also in Tagalog, Malayalam, Sinhalese, Urdu and Tamil. Francis’ visit took place in private. While a hymn was intoned, the pope entered in procession and made his way down the central nave. A family gave him flowers, and then he placed them on the altar. After a moment of recollection, Francis blessed those present. Then he retook the road to the stadium for the celebration of Mass. Having arrived at the Zayed Sports City, he moved among the faithful, both outside and within the stadium. It was constructed in 1979 and, with its 45,000 seats, is the largest multifunctional stadium in the Arab Emirates. The emotion and festive atmosphere were palpable, both within and outside the stadium, with the 180,000 migrant Catholics present. They constitute 10 percent of the population, having come to the Emirates for work. With their diverse rites and languages, they are, nevertheless, united in the faith. The unity among people of about 100 different nationalities is a sign that is hard to find elsewhere. Chaldeans, Copts, Greek Catholics, Greek Melchites, Latins, Maronites, Syro-Catholics, Syro-Malabars and Syro-Malankaras participated in the Mass. It was the largest public Christian celebration ever to have taken

64 THE APOSTOLIC VISIT OF POPE FRANCIS TO ABU DHABI place on the Arabian Peninsula. Even the Prayers of the Faithful made evident the multiplicity of nationalities among the Catholics of the country, insofar as the intentions were pronounced in Korean, Konkani, French, Tagalog, Urdu and Malayalam. The Mass was celebrated in English and Latin. The Minister of Tolerance and 4,000 Muslims were also present. The day was therefore dedicated to the Catholic community that lives in those lands and represents in itself a specific value for Catholicism in general. The Church in Arabia has a peculiarity based on the fact that in the big cities of the Gulf a special encounter between Christians and Muslims takes place: hundreds of thousands of migrant Christians constitute today the new face of the Arabian Peninsula. The Emirates cannot, in fact, do without Philippine and Indian manual labor. The local population is a minority. For this reason, in 2015, the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi promulgated a law to protect all religions against hate and intolerance, but on the condition that the faith is professed with discretion. In this regard, it is good to specify that, because of the exceptional nature of the pope’s visit, he was given permission to celebrate the Mass in a public place, in the open air, something which is normally not possible to do: this also is a historical novelty. Generally, Christians are forced to celebrate inside church buildings. The government, because of the exceptional nature of the pope’s visit, chose to give this permission. Moreover, a paid holiday was conceded to the workers in the private sector who participated at the Mass with the pontiff. The of these Arabian lands is multilingual, multicultural and multicolor; it has grown in an unorganized manner, starting from financial concerns that have pushed so many to leave their own native lands to find work. Thus the few parishes, always crowded, are shared by communities with different languages and rites, and thousands of are celebrated there every year. This multiethnic

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Catholicism, migrant and varied in its differences, already constitutes a strong message to Catholicism at a time when the temptations of identity and sovereignty politics are spreading in the Western world. What is Francis’ message for this community? Thanksgiving for this peculiar and intense catholicity. As he said, “You who are here know the Gospel’s tune and you follow its rhythm with enthusiasm. You are a choir composed of numerous nations, languages and rites, a diversity that the Holy Spirit loves and wants to harmonize ever more, in order to make a symphony. This joyful polyphony of faith is a witness that you give everyone and that builds up the Church.” It is in this situation that one may live the spirit of the Beatitudes: “To live the life of the blessed and following the way of Jesus does not, however, mean always being cheerful. Someone who is afflicted, who suffers injustice, who does everything he can to be a peacemaker, knows what it means to suffer. It is most certainly not easy for you to live far from home, missing the affection of your loved ones, and perhaps also feeling uncertainty about the future. But the Lord is faithful and does not abandon his people.” In particular, Francis pointed to two beatitudes to live out: meekness and working for peace. Let the Christian be “armed only with humble faith and concrete love.” This is how the Christian is a channel for the presence of God in the world.

* * *

At around 12 Noon, with the Mass finished, the pope left the stadium to make his way to the airport, where he found the crown prince ready to farewell him. After having said goodbye to the delegation of the United Arab Emirates, he was last to board. At around 1 p.m. the airplane took off for Rome.

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And already Francis’ next journey has been announced, to Morocco, March 30-31. The “triptych” composed of Egypt, the Emirates, and Morocco – not counting the trips made to Turkey, Azerbaijan and Bangladesh – is a powerful appeal to our imaginations, all in order to prolong that embrace from 800 years ago between the Sultan and the Saint from Assisi.

67 “Today the Church needs to grow in discernment:” Pope Francis meets with Polish Jesuits

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

11 December 2018 During his Apostolic Trip in Poland on the occasion of the 31st World Youth Day, July 30, 2016 — first vespers of St — at 5 p.m., Pope Francis met with a group of 28 Polish Jesuits belonging to two Provinces of the Society of Jesus of the country and two lay collaborators, accompanied by the two Father Provincials, Fr. Tomasz Ortman and Fr. Jakub Kolacz. Attended also the meeting other three Jesuits: Fr. Andrzej Majewski, ’s director of programs, Fr. , at that time director of the Press Office of the Holy See, and Fr. Antonio Spadaro, editor in chief of La Civiltà Cattolica. The encounter occurred at the Archbishopric of Krakow in a climate of great simplicity, spontaneity and cordiality, and though it was not devoid of meaningful content to the Order, it also held meaning for the Church more in general. Francis greeted everyone present, one by one, and he focused in particular on those he had known in the past. When he was seated and began the dialogue, listening to the questions posed and answering in Italian, Fr. Kolacz translated his words into Polish, even though the majority of those present understood Italian well. Then the Pontiff received some gifts. Before concluding the encounter, lasting a total of 40 minutes, the Pope wanted to add a recommendation easily understandable in connection with his recent Magisterium. With the Holy Father’s approval, we report here the dialogue, in its

68 POPE FRANCIS MEETS WITH POLISH JESUITS immediacy, just as it happened, even preserving some personal memories. It is intended as a witnessing that— as you will read—even gathers some impressions of the Pontiff’s experience with the young people of WYD and also provides meaningful pastoral lines. Antonio Spadaro S.J.

Your message gets to the heart of the young people. How do you speak to them so effectively? Could you give us some advice for working with youth? When I speak, I must look people in the eyes. It isn’t possible to look in the eyes of all of them, but I look into the eyes of this one, of this one, of this one….and everyone feels I look at them. It is something that comes to me spontaneously. This is how I do it with the young people. But, then the young people, when you speak with them, ask questions…..Today at lunch they asked some questions….They even asked me how I go to confession! They have no discretion. They ask direct questions. And you always need to answer a young person with the truth. A young man asked me: “How do you confess?” And I began to talk about myself. He said to me: “In my country there were scandals tied to priests and we do not have the courage to go to confession with these priests who have lived these scandals. I cannot do it.” You see: they tell you the truth, at times they reprimand you…Young people speak directly. They want the truth or at least a clear “I don’t know how to answer you.” You never find subterfuges with young people. So with prayer. They asked me: “How do you pray?” If you answer with a theory they remain disappointed. Young people are generous. But the work with them also requires patience, a lot of patience. One of them asked me today: “What should I say to a friend who does not believe in God so that they can become a believer?” Here, you see that at times young people need “recipes.” Then you must be ready to correct this attitude that requires recipes and

69 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ ready answers. I answered: “See that the last thing that you must do is to say something. Begin to do something. Then he or she will ask you explanations on how you live and why.” Here, you must be direct, direct with the truth.

What is the role of the Jesuit universities? A university as a straight line from the Jesuits must point to a global formation, not only intellectual, a formation of the whole human person. In fact if the university becomes simply an academy of ideas or a ‘factory’ of professionals or a mentality centered on business prevails in its structure then it is truly off the path. We have the Spiritual Exercises in hand. Here’s the challenge: take the university on the path of the Exercises. This means risking on the truth, and not on the ‘closed truth’ that no one discusses. The truth of the encounter with people is open and requires that we let ourselves make enquiries truly from reality. And the Jesuit university must be involved with the real life of the Church and the Nation: also this is reality, in fact. Particular attention must always be given to the marginalized, to the defense of those more in need of protection. And this — it is clear — is not being a Communist: it is simply being truly involved with reality. In this case, in particular a Jesuit university must be fully involved with reality expressing the social thought of the Church. The free-market thought that removes man and woman from the center and puts money at the center is not ours. The doctrine of the Church is clear and it must move forward in this sense.

Why did you become a Jesuit? When I entered the seminary, I already had a religious vocation. But at that time my confessor was anti-Jesuit. I also liked the Dominicans and their intellectual life. Then I got sick and had to undergo lung surgery. Later another priest helped me spiritually. I remember when I then told

70 POPE FRANCIS MEETS WITH POLISH JESUITS the first priest that I had entered the Jesuits, he truly did not take it well. But here the irony of the Lord moved. In fact, at that time they were receiving minor orders. The tonsure is done in the first year of . The told me to go to Buenos Aires to the auxiliary bishop, Msgr. Oscar Villena, to look for him to do the tonsure ceremony. I went to the House of Clergy, but they told me that Msgr. Villena was sick. There was in his place another who was precisely that first priest who had then became a Bishop! And I received the tonsure precisely from him! And we have made peace after many years…. But, yes, I can say, my choice of the Society matured by itself…

There are some recently ordained priests in this group. Do you have advice for their future? You know: the future is from God. The most that we can do is the feasible. And the feasible are all of the bad spirit! An advice: the priesthood is truly a great grace: your priesthood as a Jesuit is soaked in the spirituality that you have lived up to now: the spirituality of the Suscipe of St Ignatius.

At this time the encounter seems to be ending with the presentation to the Pontiff of gifts from Jesuits accompanying some young people, attracted to Ignatian spirituality, who came from all over the world to WYD. Francis then wants to add a recommendation, and everyone sits down again. I want to add something now. I ask you to work with seminarians. Above all, give them what you have received from the Exercises: the wisdom of discernment. The Church today needs to grow in the ability of spiritual discernment. Some priestly formation programs run the risk of educating in the light of overly clear and distinct ideas, and therefore to act within limits and criteria that are rigidly defineda priori, and that set aside concrete

71 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ situations: “you must do this, you must not do this.” And then the seminarians, when they become priests, find themselves in difficulty in accompanying the life of so many young people and adults. Because many are asking: “can you do this or can you not?” That’s all. And many people leave the confessional disappointed. Not because the priest is bad, but because the priest doesn’t have the ability to discern situations, to accompany them in authentic discernment. They don’t have the needed formation. Today the Church needs to grow in discernment, in the ability to discern. And priests above all really need it for their ministry. This is why we need to teach it to seminarians and priests in formation: they are the ones usually entrusted with the confidences of the conscience of the faithful. Spiritual direction is not solely a priestly charism, but also lay, it is true. But, I repeat, you must teach this above all to priests, helping them in the light of the Exercises in the dynamic of pastoral discernment, which respects the law but knows how to go beyond. This is an important task for the Society. A thought of Fr. Hugo Rahner has often struck me. He thought clearly and wrote clearly! Hugo said that the Jesuit must be a man with the nose for the supernatural, that is he must be a man gifted with a sense of the divine and of the diabolical relative to the events of human life and history. The Jesuit must therefore be capable of discerning both in the field of God and in the field of the devil. This is why in the Exercises St Ignatius asks to be introduced both to the intentions of the Lord of life and to those of the enemy of human nature and to his lies. What he has written is bold, it is truly bold, but discernment is precisely this! We need to form future priests not to general and abstract ideas, which are clear and distinct, but to this keen discernment of spirits so that they can help people in their concrete life. We need to truly

72 POPE FRANCIS MEETS WITH POLISH JESUITS understand this: in life not all is black on white or white on black. No! The shades of grey prevail in life. We must them teach to discern in this grey area.

The encounter ends here above all by the necessity to continue on the day’s program brought to the attention of the Holy Father by his collaborators. Before taking his leave, however, Francis wanted once more to greet the Jesuits one by one concluding with a final blessing.

73 The Whole World, a Big Family: Pope Francis in Ireland

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

13 September 2018

At about 8 a.m. on August 25, an Aer Lingus flight with Pope Francis, his entourage and journalists aboard took off for Dublin. The pope was heading to Ireland because its capital was the setting for the Ninth World Meeting of Families (August 21-26) on the theme, “The Gospel of the Family: Joy for the World.” Francis had taken part in the previous meeting in Philadelphia in 2015 during his apostolic journey to the United States. Every three years, this important international event unites families from across the world to celebrate, pray and reflect together on the fundamental importance of marriage and the family for life, society and the Church.1 The trip focused on the Meeting of Families but took place in a complex land where intergenerational tensions exist between those who feel at ease in a media-driven postmodernity and another, older generation tied to the Catholic tradition. The Irish Church, which was until recently a very strong institution, today sometimes seems beleaguered and humiliated.

1. The World Meetings of Families began in 1994 when Pope John Paul asked the for the Family (now part of the for Laity, Family and Life) to set up an international moment of prayer, catechesis and celebration to bring people together from around the world to strengthen families and witness to the fundamental importance of marriage and the family for all of society. The event this year took place August 21-26 around four main moments: Inauguration, Congress (a rich program with talks, workshops, seminars, witness, debate, and shows, cultural events and music), Festival and Solemn Eucharistic Celebration. The complete program is available at www.worldmeeting2018.ie.

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In particular, the theme of abuse emerged starkly at the end of July with the publication of the Report by the Grand Jury of Pennsylvania on the sexual abuse of minors committed by Catholic clergy. On August 20, following that Report, the pope wrote a Letter to the People of God.2 The echo of what had happened was heard in Ireland and recalled by Francis in his talks. It must be said that in every Irish parish there are many Catholics carrying out a rich life of prayer and service. We have already spoken about these lights and shadows in our journal.3

The meeting with the authorities of Ireland The welcome ceremony took place at the presidential residence. The pope was received by Mr. Michael D. Higgins, the president of Ireland, and his spouse at the main entrance to the residence. To welcome him were also a family of refugees and an Irish family that hosts refugees. After the courtesy visit, the president accompanied Francis to the garden of the residence, and the pope planted a tree. He was then taken to Dublin Castle, which is located in the center of the city on the southern bank of the River Liffey, to meet with some 250 people, including political and religious authorities, representatives of civil society and the diplomatic corps. A delegation was present from Northern Ireland. The pope was welcomed at the main entrance by the (Prime minister). He spent some time with them, affectionately greeting three children, and was able to speak with Katherine Zappone, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. She spoke words that touched clearly on the drama of abuse, making such an impression on Francis that he himself would repeat them later.

2. http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2018/documents/ papa-francesco_20180820_lettera-popolo-didio.html 3. A. McGuckian, “Ireland, Whence and Whither?” in http://laciviltacattolica. com/ireland-whence-and-whither/.

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Using an ancient tradition of the Irish people, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar welcomed Pope Francis to Dublin Castle. He mentioned the time Bergoglio spent “in 1980 at the Jesuit center learning English.” The Taoiseach thanked the pope for having underlined the urgent challenge of climate change and for the empathy shown for the poor, migrants and refugees. “The Church,” he stated, “has always helped us understand that we are citizens of a wider world and part of a global family.” And “our brave missionary priests and nuns provided an education to many around the world, and helped the sick, the poor and the vulnerable.” The Taoiseach stated that the Church was in the frontline providing healthcare and education as well as refuge for those most in need. In this perspective, he stated, the witness of the pope to “those who are at the margins of our society” speaks clearly. Varadkar then recalled the “history of sorrow and shame” in the violence against children and women. He asked the pope to do everything possible to ensure justice be done. And above all he asked him “to listen to the victims.” “Ireland,” he concluded, “is increasingly diverse: one in six of us were not born here, and there are more and more people who adhere to other faiths,” or who follow no organized religion.” Today, “religion is no longer at the center of our society, but it still has an important place” and so now is the time “to build a new relationship between church and state in Ireland.” Francis then gave his first public speech, entirely centered on the specific theme of the journey: the family. The approach to the theme was significantly tied to the social importance of the family and its unique role in the development of society as a whole. The pope spoke of family dynamics as a model of sharing, solidarity and service for the common good. Then he widened his perspectives to consider how the whole world is a single family, due to the bonds of the human community. He quoted the “persistent evils of racial and ethnic hatred,”

76 THE WHOLE WORLD, A BIG FAMILY: POPE FRANCIS IN IRELAND the “intractable conflicts and violence,” the “contempt for human dignity and for fundamental human rights,” and “the growing divide between rich and poor.” And he exclaimed: “How much we need to recover, in every instance of political and social life, the sense of being a true family of peoples!” Given the long conflict that separated the inhabitants of the island, we can say that Ireland has lived its own family difficulty. So this was an important occasion to recall the importance of one delicate phase of current history, namely the exiting of the United Kingdom from the European Union and the consequences this deed will have for the boundary between the Republic and the North. The pope recalled “our ideal of a global family of nations” that “risks becoming no more than another empty platitude” if we don’t work to build “a more just and equitable social order.” Among the challenges, he spoke of the “massive refugee crisis,” which is not destined to disappear and “whose solution calls for a wisdom, a breadth of vision and a humanitarian concern that go far beyond short-term political decisions.” He then made direct reference to the “grave scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the Church charged with responsibility for their protection and education.” He acknowledged that “the failure of ecclesiastical authorities – bishops, religious superiors, priests and others – to adequately address these repellent crimes has rightly given rise to outrage, and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community.” Finally, he reminded the Irish of their roots and how the Christian message preached by Palladius and Patrick more than 1,500 years ago became an integral part of Irish culture. And he concluded his speech by describing Ireland, with its changes and tensions, as “listening to the polyphony of contemporary political and social

77 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ discussion.” He asked the country that in this listening it “not be forgetful of the powerful strains of the Christian message that have sustained it in the past, and can continue to do so in the future.”

The faithful, the survivors, the Jesuits, the families In the afternoon, around 3:30 p.m., Francis went to St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, the most important church in Dublin, symbol of Catholic rebirth in the city. Its history is closely tied to the most important political-religious episodes of the country. Situated on the central Marlborough Street, the building rises on the land of a Cistercian abbey that was suppressed after the Anglican schism of 1534. The pro- Cathedral, considered one of the finest churches in the neo-classical style in all Ireland, was built at the request of a Dominican Archbishop of Dublin, John Thomas Troy, and was consecrated on November 14, 1825. The pope was welcomed at the main entrance by the archbishop of Dublin and the metropolitan chapter. A young couple offered him flowers near the altar, which he then placed before the Most Blessed Sacrament, staying some time in silent prayer. In the chapel a candle is lit for the victims of abuse. Then there were brief greetings from an elderly couple and two young couples. They asked the pope some questions. Francis replied, referring to personal experiences tied to his family. He spoke of love as a dream, risk and commitment. And he said that you have to be open to fear if you want to be able to love. After the meeting he went to the Capuchin Day Centre for Homeless People, founded 48 years ago by Fr. Kevin Crowley. The center offers services for those of no fixed abode and families in need, which have grown in number in Ireland since the financial crisis. The services are entirely offered by volunteers and are entirely paid for by private donations and different organizations, schools, parish groups and associations.

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The pope was welcomed at the lateral entrance to the refectory by 10 Capuchin fathers who run the Day Centre. In the courtyard were the staff and volunteers who work for the center. Inside the refectory were about 100 of those being assisted. After a short word of welcome from the director, the pope spoke to those present; at the end, he blessed them and left by the side door. Then he returned to the Nunciature where he met eight people who had been abused by clerics. He spoke with them for an hour and a half, listening and discussing. A communication signed by two participants states: “The meeting was cordial and gentle and the pope was given a letter that speaks of at least 100,000 unmarried mothers being forced to give up their children.”4 Then he met 62 Jesuits. He stayed with them for half an hour for a conversation that we are publishing separately. Those present included two Jesuit bishops: Alan McGuckian, Bishop of Raphoe (Ireland), and Terrence Prendergast, Archbishop of Ottawa. Keeping to a busy, almost breathless schedule, at 7:15 p.m. Francis went to Croke Park Stadium, where over 75,000 people from around 35 countries had attended the Mass for the closure of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in 2012. After passing through the crowds of faithful, he participated in the Feast of Families. The welcome was very warm. The words of greeting and prayer from Cardinal Kevin Farrell were followed by dancing and testimony by families from India, Canada, Iraq, Ireland and Burkina Faso. The ambience was of a great party, animated by music from different lands. Over 80,000 were present.

4. The press release says: “Pope Francis condemned the corruption and cover up of abuse within the Church as caca.” Those participating in the meeting did not understand this word. The interpreter explained: “literally, the dirt you would see in a bathroom.” A word unfamiliar to the participants, but effective.

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Francis read his speech from a written text, but often improvised with off-the-cuff remarks. He began his reflections recalling the family nature of the Church, which is “one family in Christ, spread throughout the world.” In light of this vision, the pope spoke of the family as it is, in its “daily routine.” “God’s grace helps us daily to live as one in mind and heart. Even daughters-in-law and mothers-in-law! No one said this would be easy. You know better than I. It is like making tea: it is easy to bring the water to a boil, but a good cup of tea takes time and patience; it needs to brew! So it is that each day Jesus warms us with his love and lets it penetrate our whole being.” In his talk the pope echoed the testimonies, like those of Enass and Sarmaad, which have brought us to understand how “how a family’s love and faith can be a source of strength and peace even amid the violence and destruction caused by war and persecution.” Francis went back to the leitmotiv of his speeches: humanity as a family. And so he invited the Christian families to act to help “draw all God’s children closer together, so that they can grow in unity and learn what it is for the entire world to live in peace as one great family.” The meeting finished with prayer and a final blessing.

The sanctuary at Knock and the meeting with the bishops The next day, Sunday, August 26, after taking his leave of the staff of the Nunciature, the pope traveled on an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin airport to Knock. The village has a population of less than 1,000 and is located in the Irish county of Mayo. It is famous for its sanctuary where there was a in the 19th century.5 About 1.5 million pilgrims head there

5. On August 21, 1879, under driving rain, the Virgin, St. John and St. Joseph appeared on the south gable of the local parish church. The apparition lasted two hours and was seen first by two women, and then by another handful of people from the village. On October 8, 1879, the

80 THE WHOLE WORLD, A BIG FAMILY: POPE FRANCIS IN IRELAND each year. It should be remembered that on August 15, 2013, the sanctuary hosted the solemn of Ireland to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is not far from Croagh Patrick, the legendary place where St. Patrick chased away all the snakes from the island and fasted, in the year 441, for the 40 days of . Each year, the last Sunday of July (Reek Sunday), thousands of pilgrims – some barefoot – climb the mountain. St. John Paul II visited Knock on September 30, 1979, to commemorate the centenary of the apparition. Francis was welcomed by the archbishop of Tuam and four bishops from the ecclesiastical province. Some children were also present. On arriving in the Chapel of the Apparitions, the pope was welcomed by the rector of the sanctuary. Around 200 faithful were gathered in the chapel. After some time of recollection and silent meditation before the image of the Madonna, the pope offered a golden rosary and, at the end, went to the podium in the square to recite the Angelus. His words touched again on the pain caused by the drama of abuse. He said, “May Our Lady also look with mercy on all the suffering members of her Son’s family. In my prayer before her statue, I presented to her in particular all the survivors of abuse committed by members of the Church in Ireland. None of us can fail to be moved by the

Archbishop of Tuam, John MacHale, set up a commission of inquiry to seek out the truthfulness of the apparition. A second commission was established in 1936. Both commissions found that the witnesses who had been present were “trustworthy and satisfactory.” Devotion to the Virgin of Knock started to spread thanks to the healing of some sick people who had visited the shrine. Soon a chapel with transparent glass was build next to the parish church and pilgrimages began to what was then recognized as a Marian shrine. In 1976 a great new church was added to the parish church. This was – and still is – a modern building resting on 32 pillars, one for each of the 32 counties of Ireland. Today the shrine contains five sacred places: the Church of the Apparition, the parish church, the basilica, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament and the Chapel of Reconciliation.

81 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ stories of young people who suffered abuse, were robbed of their innocence, were separated from their mothers, and were left scarred by painful memories. This open wound challenges us to be firm and decisive in the pursuit of truth and justice. I beg the Lord’s forgiveness for these sins and for the scandal and betrayal felt by so many others in God’s family.” Francis also said that he asked “our Blessed Mother to intercede for all the survivors of abuse of any kind and to confirm every member of our Christian family in the resolve never again to permit these situations to occur. And to intercede for all of us, so that we can proceed always with justice and remedy, to the extent it depends on us, such violence.” Again at the Angelus, the pope recalled “the beloved people of Northern Ireland,” assuring them of his affection and closeness in prayer: “I ask Our Lady to sustain all the members of the Irish family to persevere, as brothers and sisters, in the work of reconciliation.” And he mentioned the “advances in ecumenism and the significant growth of friendship and cooperation between the Christian communities.” After the Angelus, Francis made a special greeting to men and women prisoners before making his way to the airport to return to Dublin. In the afternoon the pope was taken to Phoenix Park, one of Europe’s largest city parks. Its greenery extends over 700 hectares (1730 acres). It is situated just 3 kilometers northwest of the center of Dublin and is surrounded by a perimeter wall 16 kilometers long. The great commemorates the Mass celebrated by St. John Paul II on September 29, 1979. Here Pope Francis celebrated Mass before 300,000 people. For the occasion, the pope wrote his own penitential act, which he read himself in Spanish, with a subsequent translation into English. He began thus: “Yesterday I met with eight persons who are survivors of the abuse of power,

82 THE WHOLE WORLD, A BIG FAMILY: POPE FRANCIS IN IRELAND the abuse of conscience and sexual abuse. In reflecting on what they told me, I wish to implore the Lord’s mercy for these crimes and to ask forgiveness for them.” In his homily Francis said the love of Christ “became incarnate in our world through a family, and through the witness of Christian families in every age it has the power to break down every barrier in order to reconcile the world to God and to make us what we were always meant to be: a single human family dwelling together in justice, holiness and peace.” And so he came back to speaking of the family in the perspective of a reconciled humanity, of a human family as a whole. The world has a vocation to be a family. Recalling the first Irish missionaries, Francis stated that by their Gospel witness they helped “give birth to the culture of Europe.” Bringing this lesson up to today, he underlined some knots that Europe is facing, like “welcoming the migrant and the foreigner” – a theme he came back to for the second time during the journey – and “protecting the rights of the most vulnerable, the unborn or the elderly, who seem to impinge upon our own sense of freedom.” At 5 p.m. Francis went to the nearby convent of Dominican sisters. There he met with the bishops of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, which gathers the of the four metropolitan archdioceses and 22 dioceses of Eire and of Northern Ireland and their four auxiliaries. The current president is Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh (Northern Ireland), of all Ireland.6 The pope gave an important speech that continued the fraternal discussion the Irish bishops had had with him during their ad limina visit last year. He came back for the third time to the theme of abuse, recalling “the ways of purification and reconciliation with the victims of abuse,” but also the rigorous set of norms – established with the

6. The Archbishop of Armagh is the primate of Ireland as the successor in the episcopal see of St. Patrick, the country’s patron.

83 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ help of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Church in Ireland – aimed at ensuring the safety of the young. Francis said that “families are growing more and more conscious of their own irreplaceable role in passing on the faith,” and at a time of trial for the “traditionally strong faith of the Irish people.” But he also recognized that “the upheavals of recent years” have “offered the opportunity for an interior renewal of the Church in this country and pointed to new ways of envisioning its life and mission.” With this message, aware of the enormous challenges but also open to the opportunities that the crisis offers, he invited the bishops to never give up hope, to be “fathers and pastors of the family of God in this country.” After meeting with the bishops, the pope went to Dublin airport for the farewell ceremony. The Aer Lingus papal flight departed at 6:45 p.m. and landed at Rome’s Ciampino airport at 10.45 p.m. For the first time, the pope sat in the pilot’s cabin for the landing and was able to admire from on high the city of Rome and pray over it. Thus concluded his apostolic journey to Ireland, his 24th outside of .

* * *

The main theme of the papal trip was clearly that of the family as the deepest meaning for the Church and for society. Christ himself became incarnate in a family setting; the Church is “family of families,” and the Christian message is spread through the witness of Christian families. The family is a fundamental element in the development of society; families are “the glue of society.” The family is where we learn what we have always been called to be: a single human family that lives together in justice and peace.

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Placing the message on the family into a wider context, Francis spoke of the world and of the need for a deep unity in a world marked by conflict and divisions among peoples. Recalling that that world is called to be united is clearly a prophetic message. This understanding of family clearly touches on the task of the Church, which is called on to feed the spirit of the family in the world. And so pastors too are called to live a familial relation with the people of God. “As good fathers,” Francis told the bishops of Ireland, “we want to encourage and inspire, to reconcile and unify, and above all, to preserve all the good handed down from generation to generation in this great family which is the Church in Ireland.”

85 Diplomacy and Prophecy: Pope Francis in Myanmar and Bangladesh

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

10 January 2018 Following his trips to Korea (2014) and to Sri Lanka and the Philippines (2015), Pope Francis continued his itinerary to Asia with a visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh in 2017. The flight carrying the pontiff left Fiumicino airport in Rome on November 26 at 10:10 p.m. and landed in Yangon, Myanmar, at 1:20 p.m. local time the next day. Evangelical prophecy and diplomacy: perhaps these are the best words to summarize the significance of the apostolic journey to Myanmar and Bangladesh in the heart of the Asian continent. Our journal has previously described the situation that the pope would encounter on landing at the crossroads of India, China and Southeast Asia.1 There are many ways of reading this journey, and here we seek to outline the main ones.

The Church as a field hospital There is a geopolitical dimension to the journeys Francis has made into the heart of Asia. Let us consider, for example, the New Silk Road2 and the Indian nationalist tensions that are features of the area.3 These mix with the religious question in a place where Buddhism and Islam meet and clash. Francis went

1. M. Kelly, “Myanmar and Bangladesh: Two nations in the heart of Asia,” in Civ. Catt. English edition, November 2017. 2. F. de la Iglesia Viguiristi, “The New Silk Road: The global ambitions of the Chinese economy,” in Civ. Catt. English edition, November 2017. 3. R. Heredia, “The Springtide of Saffron Power: India between Democracy and Nationalism,” in Civ. Catt. English edition, October 2017.

86 DIPLOMACY AND PROPHECY: POPE FRANCIS IN MYANMAR AND BANGLADESH from majority Buddhist Myanmar (88 percent of the population) to predominantly Muslim Bangladesh (90 percent). And we know that the heart of Asia is a land of Christian martyrs. Political dialogue and interreligious dialogue are forms of the culture of encounter that Francis has always preached. His political vision is the fruit of the questions he puts to himself as pope, as he said on the in-flight press conference. The Gospel is for the world and must be as leaven. In the eyes of Francis, in those countries where there are majorities of other religions, small Christian communities have the value of being a seed for the future with the distinctly prophetic mission of building bridges and ties wherever social relations are frayed or even torn apart. He does not seek to apply a superficial patch but to weave the material together. This apostolic journey appeared problematic, arduous and risky as it headed to a frontier with its difficulties and conflicts. This is seen especially with the tragic situation of the Rohingya, an Islamic ethnic group that is one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, according to reports from the United Nations. On his previous journeys the pope had clearly expressed his wish that the Church be a field hospital,4 and this 21st journey confirmed that vision. Indeed, he explicitly said so to the bishops of Myanmar, interrupting the reading of his prepared talk. And he also underlined the need for a prophetic vision to confirm in faith the small Catholic flock that knows how to work for the good of the world together with other men and women and with other religions. “Field hospital” is not just a metaphor. Often the Church takes on the very form of a hospital to carry out its witness: in Myanmar there are 87 Catholic health centers, including six hospitals; and in Bangladesh there are 98

4. A. Spadaro, “Intervista a Papa Francesco,” in Civ. Catt. 2013 III 449-477, in particular 461.

87 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ centers, including 10 hospitals. And it was no accident that led Francis to visit the house in Dhaka where Mother Theresa slept when she was in Bangladesh: the saint of Calcutta made no distinctions in terms of creed or race. Shortly before the pope left, unexpected news arrived that an agreement had been made to allow the Muslim refugees in Bangladesh to partially return home to Myanmar: a clear political sign. The trouble had been a restrictive law of 1982 on citizenship in Myanmar that did not recognize the Rohingya minority as being from Myanmar.

Around China, world power Another important element of this journey is the fact that the pope explicitly recalled the new role China wants to have – and already has – on the international scene. Francis himself summarized one aspect during his Rome-bound press conference with these exact words: “Beijing has great influence in the region, as is natural: I do not know how many kilometers of border they share with Myanmar: also there were Chinese who came to the Masses … I think that these countries that surround China, and Laos, Cambodia, need good relations, they are near. And I find this wise, politically constructive, if you can go forward. But it is true that China today is a world power: If we see it from this side, it can change the panorama.” That the apostolic journey was in some way tied to China is not only due to Myanmar sharing 2,200 kilometers of its border with that great country. As the pope noted, there was a group of Chinese Catholics with the flag of the People’s Republic waiting for him at the Yangon Cathedral after the meeting with bishops. And more: On November 27, the Global Times – a tabloid produced by the Chinese Communist Party’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily – published a photograph in its online diplomacy section with Francis embracing a girl dressed

88 DIPLOMACY AND PROPHECY: POPE FRANCIS IN MYANMAR AND BANGLADESH in traditional clothing under the title “Warm Hug.”5 And the same newspaper, on November 29, dedicated for the first time an article to a papal journey – with a large photo – giving an evaluation of what Francis had said and done in Myanmar. The title of the printed edition was “Respect each ethnic group: Pope.”6 And November 25, before Francis made his journey, an article entirely dedicated to Jesuits who have left an indelible mark on China had appeared in China Daily, the most widely read Beijing- based daily paper in English. The title of the article was “Men on a Mission.”7 Two further facts: State Counsellor and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, flew to Beijing after receiving Francis. And during the in-flight press conference the pope himself mentioned contacts with Beijing to study the relations between China and the Holy See. Nor did Francis hide his desire to travel to China one day: “I would like to, it’s no secret. The talks with China are at a high cultural level.” But he added: “Then there is the political dialogue, especially for the Chinese Church, with its history of the patriotic Church and the clandestine Church, that must be taken step by step, delicately as is being done. Slowly.” And he concluded: “But the doors to the heart are open. And I think it will do good to all, a journey to China. I would like to go…”

Diplomacy as an integral part of prophecy Francis used an interesting expression when speaking of China: see things from an angle that can change the perception of the panorama. And he spoke of international

5. “Warm hug,” Global Times, November 27, 2017, http://www. globaltimes.cn/content/1077488.shtml. 6. “Pope urges respect for rights, justice and ethnic diversity in Myanmar speech,” Global Times, November 28, 2017, http://www.globaltimes.cn/ content/1077697.shtml. 7. Zhao Xu, “Men on a Mission,” China Daily, November 25, 2017, http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2017-11/25/content_34980286.htm

89 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ relations that are “politically constructive.” We should not miss the significance of these words for they are the key to Bergoglio’s diplomacy of mercy. In his actions and in his words the pope is constructive. He does not do things out of media pressure or to be seen in a favorable light: he does what he has to do to build bridges and keep the doors of dialogue open. His is a realism that aims to weave relations. The pope himself explained it very well during his press conference, summarizing simply and clearly how he communicates: “For me, the important thing is that the message gets across, and so I seek to say things step by step and listen to the answers until the message gets through. Here’s an everyday example: a young boy or girl going through adolescence can say what they think, slamming the door in someone’s face, and the message does not get through. It’s closed. But I want the message to get through.” We saw what this means in the case of the Rohingya. Before the journey we saw some strong media pressure on the pope. It was as if the moral credibility of the pontificate would stand or fall on whether or not he used the word “Rohingya.” It is a word that is considered unpronounceable in Myanmar due to its political connotations. Many thought the pope had no way out: pronounce the word “Rohingya” and be the champion of a persecuted ethnic group, irritating the government and compromising the dialogue; or avoid pronouncing it, avoid conflict but lose moral credibility. Some commentators even wrote that the pope would be well advised not to make the journey. But Francis flew into this conflict-ridden heart of Asia precisely because this was a difficult journey, as he explained to the Jesuits in Myanmar, adding that we must “be at the crossroads of history.”8

8. Francis, “At the Crossroads of History: Conversations with the Jesuits in Myanmar and Bangladesh,” in Civ. Catt. English edition, December 2017.

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In Myanmar he wanted to “keep in mind the building of the country,” as he said on his return. This is why he spoke of the Rohingya – a lot! – in such a way as to be heard but without accentuating the tensions, provoking polarizations or entrenchment of positions that would only have worsened their situation. And then he met them in Bangladesh, face to face: 16 people. He listened to them and he asked them to pray. There he spoke the name of their ethnic group. In this way he wisely combined diplomacy and prophecy. And he put the tragedy of a population that has been persecuted under the spotlight of the world’s media for several days, forcing the press to speak about it, even if only to judge his behavior. But there were also some who expressed perplexity at his support for the Rohingya, for there are some Islamic-inspired terrorist groups among them trying to capitalize on the situation. The military authorities of Myanmar leverage these ideas. The pope replied to these objections during his press conference on the flight, noting that fundamentalists are present in all ethnic and religious groups, and precisely for this reason he chose to speak with them: they are victims both of oppression and of a fundamentalist drift that is actually one of its consequences. So Francis followed his own path with discretion; he was neither timid nor concerned with the opposing polemics and pressures. Let us follow now the stages and events of this journey, which was one of the most demanding of all his journeys.

The dream of a reconciled Myanmar between politics and religions The journey to Myanmar took place just a few months after full diplomatic relations with the Holy See were established at the beginning of May. And it was the first visit of a pontiff to this country. In 2014 the small, lively

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Catholic community in the nation had celebrated the beatification of two martyrs: an Italian missionary and an indigenous catechist. Great festive crowds now lined the streets of the city from the airport to the archbishop’s residence to welcome the pope, a sign of the 16 dioceses of the country with their 900 priests, 2,400 sisters and an army of catechists doing extraordinary work among the most remote communities. The city of Yangon with its population of 6 million sits under the golden dome of the sacred pagoda Schwedagon Paya, the holiest in Myanmar. Built 2,500 years ago, it conserves the relics of the Buddha. The papal entourage made a private visit there in the afternoon. Under the pagoda the city breathes the great contrasts among beautiful parks, new futuristic skyscrapers and congested streets overrun with Chinese-style rickshaws crammed between crumbling, almost slum-like housing. The first days of the journey had a light program allowing the basis of the visit to be established and its fundamental themes to develop. On the afternoon of November 27, the pope agreed to receive in the archbishop’s house the highest military authority, General Min Aung Hlaing. They spoke about the situation of the country during this moment of transition. The pope is perfectly aware that a politics of national reconciliation has to involve the governing military authorities and so accepts – whenever he is asked – to meet with all the parties involved. The government has introduced gradual reforms since 2010, freed opposition prisoners and called free elections. But the process is still underway. Here is the pope’s comment on that encounter: “By speaking you lose nothing, you always win.” And he clarified, “I did not negotiate the truth, I can assure you. But I spoke in such a way to ensure he understood that a road, as it was in the bad times, reconstructed today, cannot be used. It was a good meeting, civil; and there again, the message got across.” The meeting responds

92 DIPLOMACY AND PROPHECY: POPE FRANCIS IN MYANMAR AND BANGLADESH to the logic of Bergoglio: accept it, if it is requested by someone involved in a conflict, and consider “dialogue as more important than suspicion.” At the archbishop’s residence in Yangon on the morning of November 28, the pope met with 17 Myanmar religious leaders: Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews and Christians (Anglican and Catholic). The key word was harmony. At a time when “we see a world tending toward uniformity, making everything the same,” we can learn instead from our differences. And it is thanks to this sense of brotherhood, the pope concluded, that the country can be built. The two meetings were not officially planned in the calendar of appointments for each day but they made the religious and political significance of the journey clear and were united in the dream of reconciliation in the country. And this dream was pursued in the official and direct encounter with the authorities that Francis held November 28 in the country’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw. It is a city that spreads across vast spaces with ministries, government offices, commercial centers and hotels. The roads have up to 20 lanes and stretch as far as the eye can see. The pope met privately with President Htin Kyaw, and then with the Counsellor of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi The pontiff then went to the International Convention Centre where his talk was preceded by that of Aung San Suu Kyi. To understand this Burmese leader we need to remember that the military has maintained its control of the vital ganglia of power. This is an incomplete democracy and “the Lady” – as she is called in Myanmar – is forced to walk a narrow path, where even a small mistake could cause all to be lost, sending her life’s work for freedom and democracy up in smoke. The pope knew this very well.

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In her speech, the Lady cited the Gospel Beatitudes, setting them out as “a program and a challenge for political and religious leaders, the heads of international institutions and business and media executives.” And she added: “It is a challenge to build up society, communities and businesses by acting as peacemakers. It is to show mercy by refusing to discard people, harm the environment or seek to win at any cost.” These words did not seem to be merely ceremonial, for Aung San Suu Kyi clearly affirmed that “the road of peace is not always smooth, but it is the only way that will lead our people to their dream of a just and prosperous land that will be their refuge, their pride, their joy.” She did not fail to mention the difficult situation in the state of Rakhine – where the Rohingya are found – and its “long-standing issues, social, economic and political, that have eroded trust and understanding, harmony and cooperation among different communities.” Pope Francis in his talk wanted to “embrace the entire population of Myanmar and to offer a word of encouragement to all those who are working to build a just, reconciled and inclusive social order.” His talk sought to encourage the healing of open wounds. The Church is on the side of all those who collaborate in the difficult process of building peace and national reconciliation that “can only advance through a commitment to justice and respect for human rights.” The pope repeated the themes of the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference in 2016, named after that of February 12, 1947, which brought about the birth of the modern state, uniting different ethnic groups of the country: the Bamar, who are the majority component, and the minorities Chin, Kachin and Shan. And speaking of the future he said: “The future of Myanmar must be peace, a peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society, respect for each ethnic group and its identity, respect for the rule of law, and respect

94 DIPLOMACY AND PROPHECY: POPE FRANCIS IN MYANMAR AND BANGLADESH for a democratic order that enables each individual and every group – none excluded – to offer its legitimate contribution to the common good.” Religions have a specific place and privileged role in this work of reconstruction and reconciliation: “Religious differences need not be a source of division and distrust, but rather a force for unity, forgiveness, tolerance and wise nation-building. Religions can play a significant role in repairing the emotional, spiritual and psychological wounds of those who have suffered in the years of conflict. Drawing on deeply-held values, they can help to uproot the causes of conflict, build bridges of dialogue, seek justice and be a prophetic voice for all who suffer.” The final appeal was to the young people: Francis looked to them to consolidate democracy and promote the growth of unity and peace at all levels of society. At about 6:30 p.m. the pope with this entourage and journalists began their return to Yangon.

Three words for Myanmar: healing, harmony, prophecy There were three central moments to the day of November 29: in the morning the celebration of Mass with some 150,000 people present, most of whom had arrived the evening before, some coming on foot from a long distance; the meeting with the Supreme Sangha Council of Buddhist monks; and the meeting with the 22 bishops of Myanmar. At the end of the day Francis met in the archbishop’s residence with a group of Jesuits who are working in the country. Healing. When he embraced the Catholic community the pope repeated one of the more frequent themes of the journey: the healing of wounds from violence, both visible and invisible. And he added: “We think that healing can come from anger and revenge. Yet the way of revenge is not the way of Jesus.” The Church in Myanmar “is already doing much to bring the healing balm of God’s mercy to others, especially those most in need.” This is the road

95 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ to follow: to help “great numbers of men, women and children, regardless of religion or ethnic background.” And at Mass, during the prayers of the faithful, there were prayers for peace and for an end to conflicts in the states of Kachin, Shan and Rakhine, which is the wretched setting where the Rohingya population is living its tragedy. Harmony. The encounter with the monks took place in a climate that seemed formal at the beginning and a little rigid, but they soon relaxed and ended up with warm and smiling handshakes between the pope and chairman of the Sangha Council, Dr. Bhaddanta Kumarabhivamsa. The pontiff removed his shoes and entered with his black socks into the Kaba Aye Center, one of the most important places in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. It is one of the most frequently visited temples, under the Pagoda for World Peace that rises 36 meters above with its splendid dome of overlaid golden leaves. In front of the members of the papal delegation there were elderly monks, also without footwear, with shallow faces and long orange and garnet red . We know that the ethnic tensions in Myanmar have religious overtones, but the encounter pointed in different directions. The chairman of the Sangha deplored the “terrorism and extremism carried out in the name of religion” and wished for “reciprocal understanding, respect and trust.” The pontiff for his part repeated the word “healing” as a practical path. And he paired it with another important word from his vocabulary, a word much loved in Asia: “Harmony.” Clearly this does not indicate a simple tranquility but is a call to justice, guaranteed for all. Peace, for the pope, is always the fruit of justice, and harmony is a condition for its development. And in order to say this the pope cited texts from the Buddha and from St. Francis of Assisi. Prophecy. He also repeated to the bishops the word “healing,” articulating it with the words “accompaniment” and “prophecy.” In developing his theme, Francis once

96 DIPLOMACY AND PROPHECY: POPE FRANCIS IN MYANMAR AND BANGLADESH again painted the Church as a field hospital, which is the defining ecclesiological image of his pontificate. Starting with the consideration that the country is trying to overcome profoundly rooted divisions and construct national unity, the pope wanted the preaching of the Gospel not to be just a “source of consolation and strength, but also a summons to foster unity, charity and healing in the life of this nation.” And the reference to the Rohingya was clear when he spoke of the displaced persons. It is important to note that for Francis ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and also work in civil society are forms of this necessary healing. Dialogue means weaving relations, and therefore also reconciliation and – as is typical for a pastor – accompaniment. Only relationships allow fractures to be healed. For the Church, the spirit of prophecy is to announce the Gospel in ways so as “to play a constructive part in the life of society.” Francis is always careful not to create a flock that is separated and self-referential. Prophecy in the Church is for the world and must be put into place “through its works of education and charity, its defense of human rights, its support for democratic principles.” Also by ensuring your voices are “heard on issues of national interest, particularly by insisting on respect for the dignity and rights of all, especially the poorest and the most vulnerable.” Evangelical prophecy becomes social prophecy too.

“A word of hope for the Church, your country, the world” Before leaving Myanmar Francis celebrated Mass for young people in the cathedral. It was full of young men and women from across the country wearing their colorful traditional clothing. It was a feast, an embrace of unity, made more visible by the prayers of the faithful in different languages: Tamil, Kachin, Kayan, Chin, Karen and Chinese. As he had said to the authorities, the pope is convinced that the youth are a resource for the future of

97 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ the country. He asked them to be courageous, generous, to have no fear of creating a ruckus, of asking questions that make people think, of shouting with their lives. And Francis expressed a desire that seems to summarize the general task of the Church in the country: “I want people to know that you, the young men and women of Myanmar, are not afraid to believe in the good news of God’s mercy, because it has a name and a face: Jesus Christ. As messengers of this good news, you are ready to bring a word of hope to the Church, to your own country and to the wider world. You are ready to bring good news for your suffering brothers and sisters who need your prayers and your solidarity, but also your enthusiasm for human rights, for justice and for the growth of that love and peace that Jesus brings.” At around 1 p.m., after official greetings, the pope left the country and headed for Bangladesh.

Bangladesh: civil society, religions and Church On November 30 at around 3 p.m., the pope landed at the airport in Dhaka, a city that had welcomed the apostolic journeys of Paul VI (1970) and John Paul II (1986). It is a chaotic and densely populated city in a country of increasing development, but tiring and unequal. A quarter of the population of Bangladesh lives under the poverty line and there is a high level of food insecurity in an area often brought to its knees by cyclones and flooding. The capital is growing wildly, with large slums, pollution and traffic congestion. We describe briefly the stages of this journey of Francis into East Bengal. After the official greetings, the pope traveled 23 kilometers across the city to reach the National Martyrs’ Memorial in Savar that symbolizes the value and sacrifice of those who gave their lives for the country in the 1971 war of independence. Through this lengthy drive, Francis saw how the city is growing and also its precarious development.

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After laying a floral wreath and signing the Book of Honor, the pope planted a tree in the Garden of Peace. Then another long road (35.4 kilometers) to the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum, which is the museum at the former home of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the first president of Bangladesh who is considered the “Father of the Nation.” After a private meeting, speeches were given by President Abdul Hamid and Pope Francis during an encounter with the authorities, the diplomatic corps and civil society. In the afternoon of the following day, the pontiff met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a room on the first floor of the . The visit then unfolded in three moments that allowed him to meet the small but lively Church, religious leaders and young people. On December 1, at Suhrawardy Udyan Park, Francis celebrated a Mass during which he ordained 16 priests. He was filled with joy at this moment of hope for a growing Church that is still a small seed. Following a visit to the cathedral, he met the 10 bishops of Bangladesh. The archbishop’s residence also hosted an interreligious and ecumenical meeting for peace with five representatives of the country’s religious communities (Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic) and of civil society. The concluding ecumenical prayer was led by the Anglican bishop. During the final day of his stay in Bangladesh, Francis visited the Mother Teresa House where the saint chose to stay when in the city. He met children, the sick and elderly who are looked after by the structures of the Congregation. Then he went to Holy Rosary Church where he met priests, religious, seminarians and men and women novices. The final stage of the journey was the meeting with young people at Notre Dame College in Dhaka. The pope blessed the foundation stone of the new building of Notre Dame University Bangladesh and also a commemorative plaque.

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Creating ties: harmony, compassion, attentiveness, openness What were the messages of these meetings in Bangladesh? The pope reminded civil society of the lesson of the “Father of the Nation”: “For only through sincere dialogue and respect for legitimate diversity can a people reconcile divisions, overcome unilateral perspectives and recognize the validity of differing viewpoints. Because true dialogue looks to the future, it builds unity in the service of the common good and is concerned with the needs of all citizens, especially the poor, the underprivileged and those who have no voice.” The reference to the refugees from the state of Rakhine was explicit. To the bishops the pope recalled his experience of Aparecida that “launched the continental mission in South America,” and “convinced me of the fruitfulness of such plans that engage the entire people of God in an ongoing process of discernment and action.” In this way that experience can be considered paradigmatic: it is as though the pope were to propose it to all of Asia for the organic growth of a Church of great hope. Francis insisted at length on the ministry of the bishop as a ministry of presence and communion. The pastors are called to create ties, build bridges and promote dialogue. In a society that risks fractures along ethnic and religious lines, the Church must work for harmony. In his talk to priests and religious, harmony took on the form of the compassion of Christ and the attentiveness of Mary. In his words to the young people it took on the form of hope that helps face the future with courage and helps “promote a climate of harmony where your hand reaches out to others.” There were two priorities illustrated to the bishops: the refugee crisis and the violence dressed up as religion. The pontiff notably mentioned his talk to the participants at the International Peace Conference at al-Azhar University in : “We need to help future generations

100 DIPLOMACY AND PROPHECY: POPE FRANCIS IN MYANMAR AND BANGLADESH by accompanying them on the path to maturity where they will respond to the incendiary logic of evil with the patient quest for the good.” The pope returned to this theme, speaking to the religious leaders and using three images to describe the openness of heart that is necessary for a society of harmony and peace: the door, the stairs and the pathway.

The meeting with the Rohingya At the end of the interreligious and ecumenical meeting, 16 ethnic Rohingya stepped onto the stage: 12 men, two women and two girls. Francis greeted and listened to them one by one in a way that showed his emotions and his discomfort. He did not allow the meeting to become rigid or lack a sincere exchange of words. He asked them to have one of them pray, thereby engaging the other interreligious leaders present in the prayer. During his meeting with the Jesuits he gave voice to his deepest feelings about that meeting, affirming that he felt in himself the shame of an unresponsive world.9 Francis pronounced some spontaneous words to the Rohingya, asking forgiveness for the world’s indifference. And he recalled that a religious tradition says that God at the beginning took a piece of salt and threw it in the water, which was the soul of all people. “These brothers and sisters,” he concluded, “carry within them the salt of God.” And bowing his head, as before the cross of Christ, he concluded: “The presence of God today is also called Rohingya.” What moves the pope to action is neither sociology nor politics but the recognition of the image of God in a brother or sister, with whom we can only have encounter, listening and above all prayer.

9. Francis, “At the Crossroads of History,” ibid.

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The airplane with the pope, his entourage and journalists on board left Dhaka at around 5 p.m. In 2015 Francis had created the first cardinal originating from Myanmar, Charles Maung Bo, the archbishop of Yangon. On October 9, 2016, he had announced the creation as cardinal of the archbishop of Dhaka, Patrick D’Rozario. In his conversation with the Jesuits in Bangladesh, Francis explained these nominations and in doing so showed the profound motivation that had pushed him to visit these small but lively Churches of Myanmar and Bangladesh: “Naming the cardinals, I tried to look at small Churches, those that grow in the peripheries, at the edges. Not to give consolation to those Churches, but to launch a clear message: the small Churches that grow in the periphery and are without ancient Catholic traditions today must speak to the universal Church, to the whole Church. I clearly feel that they have something to teach us.”10

10. Ibid.

102 At the Crossroads of History: Pope Francis’ Conversations with the Jesuits in Myanmar and Bangladesh

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

14 December 2017 From November 26 to December 2, Pope Francis traveled to Myanmar and Bangladesh on his 21st international apostolic journey. On Wednesday, November 29, following his encounter with the bishops of Myanmar, Francis left the small room that had hosted the meeting and found himself before 300 seminarians who were waiting for a photo opportunity. He also greeted a small group of Chinese people proudly waving the flag of the People’s Republic. Their words: “Come to our country soon!” After walking among these joyful gatherings, the pope entered the chapel on the ground floor of the archbishop’s house to meet 31 Jesuits based in the country: 13 were from Myanmar (three priests, five novices and five scholastics); the others were from Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, and China. Another 21 Myanmar Jesuits were not present because they are studying in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Collectively, those present represented all the institutions of the Society of Jesus in the country: educational institutions that are open to all, regardless of ethnic or religious background; a parish in a border diocese serving the Kachin and Shan people; a school in a slum area in Yangon, where Jesuits also help the poor to rebuild their homes and have a small microcredit service; the Jesuit Refugee Service that mostly works with hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the Kachin and Kayah States and on the border with Thailand and China.

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Upon entering, Francis was welcomed with applause and then he proceeded to greet everyone individually. As is typical of a chapel, the room was narrow and long, but the atmosphere was that of a spontaneous embrace breaking through the chairs set in rows. The faces of those present made it clear that the pope was in the company of people with many different roots and backgrounds. A Jesuit student placed around his shoulders a shawl typical of the Chin ethnic group. Francis sat down and said he needed an English translator, promptly presenting Msgr. Mark Miles. Jokingly, the pope added, “He is a good man and will not reveal any of the Jesuit secrets we will talk about here.” And then he spontaneously thanked those present. What follows is a transcript of the two conversations I attended, the publication of which has been approved by the Holy Father. Accompanying the text are some background notes to contextualize the conversation and a final consideration. (Antonio Spadaro, SJ)

Thank you for coming. I see many young faces, and I’m glad. It’s a good thing, because it’s a promise. Young people have a future if they have roots. If they do not have roots, they will be at the will of the wind. To begin with, I would like to ask a question. Everyone should ask it in their examination of conscience: Where are my roots? Do I have roots? Are my roots tenacious or weak? It is a question that does us good. St. Ignatius began the Spiritual Exercises speaking of a root: “Humans are created to praise.” And he concluded with another root: the root of love. And he proposed a contemplation to grow in love. There is no true love if it does not take root. There it is, that was my initial sermon! But now I would like you to ask a few questions.

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Thank you, Holy Father, for being with us. We all live in Myanmar and you understand the situation in our country. We share the same spirituality, that of the Spiritual Exercises. Our spirituality contemplates the Incarnation which pushes us forward; it moves us to mission. We are here, and therefore we are on a mission. Contemplating the actual situation in Myanmar, what do you expect from us? I believe we cannot think of a mission – I say this not only as a Jesuit but as a Christian – without the mystery of the Incarnation. The mystery of the Incarnation illuminates our approach to reality and the world completely, all our closeness to people, to culture. Christian closeness is always incarnated. It is a closeness like that of the Word, who comes to be with us. I remind you of the synkatabasis, the being with … The Jesuit is one who must always get closer, as the Word made flesh came close. To look, to listen without prejudices, but mystically. To look without fear and look mystically: this is fundamental for the way we look at reality. Inculturation begins with this way of looking. Inculturation is not a fashion, no. It is the very essence of the Word which became flesh, took our culture, our language, our flesh, our life, and died. Inculturation is to take on board the culture of the people I am sent to. And for this reason the Jesuit prayer – I mean mainly in relation to inculturation – is the prayer of intercession. It is necessary to pray to the Lord precisely for those realities in which I am immersed. There have been many failures in the Society’s life of prayer. At first some Jesuits gave St. Ignatius a headache because they wanted the Jesuits to remain closed away and to dedicate two or three hours to prayer … And St. Ignatius said: “No, contemplate in action!” And in 1974 it was my turn to experience this. There was – as you know – a movement of the so-called “Discalced Jesuits,” who wanted a rigid, almost cloistered observance of the rules. A contrary reform, against the spirit of St. Ignatius. True

105 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ prayer and true Jesuit observance do not follow that route. It is not a restorationist observance. Our observance is always to look forward with the inspiration of the past, but always looking forward. The challenges are not behind, they lie ahead. For this, Blessed Pope Paul VI helped the Society greatly, and on December 3, 1974, he addressed us with a speech that remains entirely relevant. I recommend you read it. He says, for example, a phrase: Wherever, at the crossroads of history, there are Jesuits.1 Paul VI said it! He did not say, “Be locked up in a convent,” but he tells the Jesuits, “Go to the crossroads!” And to go to the crossroads of history, my dear friends, we must pray! We must be men of prayer alive in the crossroads of history!

I would like to reflect for a moment on our people. Some here have walked three days to see you, others have put money aside for six months. I can testify that they were happy to see you. Thank you! My question is this: many in the media have said that your visit to Myanmar is one of your most difficult and is full of challenges. Is it as they suggest? You said two things. First you talked about the People of God. When I heard that these people had traveled and walked a lot, that they had saved money to come here, I confess that I felt a great sense of shame. The People of God teaches us heroic virtues. And I feel ashamed at being a shepherd of a people who overtake me in their virtue, in their thirst for God, their sense of belonging to the Church, their desire to come to see Peter. I felt it, and I thank God for letting me feel it. And incidentally I tell you that, if there is a grace that the Jesuit must ask for,

1. Pope Paul VI said, “Wherever in the Church, even in the most difficult and extreme fields, at the crossroads of ideologies, in the social trenches, there has been and there is confrontation between the burning exigencies of man and the perennial message of the Gospel, here also there have been, and there are, Jesuits.” (Paul VI, Address to the 32nd of the Jesuits, December 3, 1974; ORE, December 12, n. 2, p. 4.).

106 AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY it is shame, great shame. St. Ignatius tells us to ask for it in the First Week of the Spiritual Exercises before the Crucified Christ. Ask for the grace of shame, for you and for me. It is a grace! Let me now turn to your second question. This is a very difficult journey, yes. Perhaps it even risked being canceled at some point. So it is a difficult journey. But precisely because it is difficult, I had to make it! In fact, a short time ago we read in the Office of Readings what the prophet says of the pastors who take advantage of their people, who live off their people. They live to suck their milk, they are shepherds who take the milk from the sheep and shear their wool. Here are two symbols. Food stands for riches, and wool for vanity. A pastor who becomes accustomed to riches and vanity ends up, as Saint Ignatius says, suffering great pride. Hence St. Augustine takes up this theme of the prophet Ezekiel in a famous treatise, De pastoribus, and shows that if the bad shepherd clings to wealth, if he clings to vanity, he ends up becoming full of pride. So, what makes the good shepherd healthy is poverty. St. Ignatius called poverty the mother and the wall of religious life. The People of God are a poor people, a humble people, and a people who thirst for God. We pastors must learn from the people. So, if this journey seemed difficult, I came because we have to be at the crossroads of history.

When we heard about your visit, we began to feel and think that we were at the crossroads, as you just said. Your visit for us is a push forward in this sense. The key is, as you often say, to have the smell of the sheep upon us. We come here from different places in Myanmar, where we perceive this smell as priests. Some of us smell the refugees. How can we feel and think with the Church, as St. Ignatius asks us, sensing this smell of the People of God so intensely? How can we feel the presence of the pope?

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I recently spoke to the bishops about two smells: the smell of the sheep and the smell of God. We must know the smell of sheep, to acknowledge, understand and accompany, and the sheep must perceive that we exude the smell of God. And this is the testimony. Today, the missionary activity, thanks be to God, is not a matter of proselytism. Pope Benedict XVI made it clear: the Church does not grow by proselytism, but by attraction, by witness. How can you feel the presence of the pope, you who work there? How can refugees feel it? Answering is not easy. I have visited four refugee camps so far. Three huge ones in Lampedusa, Lesbos and Bologna, which is in Northern Italy. There our work is of closeness. Sometimes it is not possible to distinguish well between a place one person expects to leave and a prison under another name. And sometimes the camps are nothing other than concentration camps, prisons. In Italy, the presence of refugees from Africa is strongly felt, because they are there, so close, and real tragedies happen. A refugee I spoke to told me that it took him three years to get from his house to Lampedusa. And in those three years he was sold five times. On the trafficking of young women, girls who are deceived and sold to traffickers in Rome, an elderly priest once told me with a certain irony, that he was not sure if there were more priests in Rome or young women enslaved in prostitution. And they are girls who have been kidnapped, deceived, carried from one place to another. The diocesan Church of Rome works a lot on this issue. It is a work of liberation. Then we think about the exploitation of children forced into child labor. We think of children who have forgotten how to play. They have to work. Here is our Third Week of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: to see them is to see Christ suffering and crucified. How do I approach all this? Yes, I try to visit, I speak clearly, especially with countries that have closed their borders. Unfortunately, in Europe there are countries that have chosen to close

108 AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY their borders. The most painful thing is that to take such a decision they had to close their hearts. And our missionary work must also reach those hearts that are closed to the reception of others. I do not know what else to say on this subject, except that it is a serious issue. Tonight we will have dinner. Many of these refugees have a piece of bread for dinner. Maybe we will have a cake. This brings back to me an image of Lesbos. I was there with Patriarch Bartholomew and the Orthodox Archbishop of Athens, Ieronymos. They were all seated in rows, very neat – there were many thousands – and I was walking in front; behind me came Patriarch Bartholomew, and then Archbishop Ieronymos. I was saying goodbye, and at a certain moment I realized that the children were holding my hand but looking back. I asked myself: “What’s up?” I turned around and saw that Patriarch Bartholomew had pockets full of candy and gave it to the children. With one hand they greeted me, with the other they grabbed the candy. I thought maybe it was the only sweet they had eaten for days. And there is another image from Lesbos that helped me to cry a lot before God: a man of about 30 with three little children told me: “I am a Muslim. My wife was a Christian. We loved each other very much. The terrorists came one day. They saw her cross. They told her to take it off. She said no and they slit her throat before my very eyes. I continue to love my wife and my children.” These things must be seen and must be told. These things do not come to the living rooms of our big cities. We are obliged to report and make public these human tragedies that some try to silence.

Many Jesuits here are involved in formation and as trainers we try to better understand what the Jesuit figure is today. You are a good Jesuit, committed to the mission entrusted to you. What can you tell us about that? What is your advice to young Jesuits in Myanmar to become a good Jesuit?

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Don’t teach them to be like me! (And here the pope bursts out laughing.) I will say two things. Among my formators there was an elderly Jesuit who had been at the existential frontiers. He was a great Jesuit scientist, and he once gave me some advice: If you want to persevere in the Society, think clearly and speak obscurely. He was a great scientist, but he was a bad formator. Do you understand? (And here he laughs together with the other Jesuits). The second thing I want to mention concerns another man and I want to mention him here in Myanmar, because I believe he never imagined that his name would be pronounced here. He is an Argentine Jesuit and his name was Miguel Angel Fiorito. He made a critical edition of the Memoriale by St. Peter Fabre, but he was a philosopher and had written his thesis on St. Thomas and the natural human desire to find God. He was a professor of , dean of the , but he loved spirituality. And he taught us students the spirituality of St. Ignatius. It was he who taught us the path of discernment. You who are a formator, if you meet a Jesuit who is in formation but cannot discern, who has not learned discernment and who shows little intention to learn it, even if he is an excellent young man, tell him to look for another path. The Jesuit must be a master of discernment, for himself and for others. St. Ignatius did not ask us to do two examinations of conscience a day to get rid of lice or fleas. No, he did it because we would like to see what happens in our heart. In my opinion, the vocational criterion for the Society is this: Can the candidate discern? Will he learn to discern? If he knows how to discern, he knows how to recognize what comes from God and what comes from the bad spirit, then this is enough for him to go on. Even if he does not understand much, even if they fail him at the exams … it is OK, as long as he knows spiritual discernment. Think of St. . He knew how to discern and knew that God

110 AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY wanted him to spend his life among the black slaves. Meanwhile some esteemed theologians were discussing whether or not they had a soul.

My formation lasted 14 years from to priestly . Along the way other companions in formation left. We local Jesuit priests are now only three. What are your words of encouragement for those in formation? One of the things the Lord respects is liberty. Including the liberty to get away from him, the freedom to sin. He is silent and suffers. He doesn’t say anything. This is the extreme. Between that extreme and here, there are many situations that are not a sin, but are historical situations that weaken the person or make it clear that this was not his path … The abandonment of the religious life, the abandonment of a priest, is a mystery. And we must respect him, help him if he asks for help, remain available and pray for him. In fact, the Lord awaits him at the most opportune moment. And we must never despair, because the Lord is good and even sly, if you will pardon the word. I would like to add something about God’s slyness: I want to tell you about a work of art that strikes me. It is a chapel located in the church of St. in Vézelay, in the center of , where the Way of St. James begins. On one side of the chapel there is Judas hanged, with his tongue out, his eyes open, dead. And next to him the devil is ready to take him away. On the other side of the chapel is the figure of the Good Shepherd, who has grabbed him, put him on his shoulders and taken him away. That 13th century sculptor was an artist, but in his heart he was also a theologian. He was a mystic. And he was brave. He took leave to say something that none of us, no theologian, would dare to say officially: God is smart. God is sly. And he is special. If we look carefully at the Good Shepherd’s lips, we see that he wears a joking smile as if he were saying to the devil: “I fooled you.”

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This teaches me a lot. Always to hope … it is the same sentence that the Curé d’Ars told the widow of someone who committed suicide, anguished because her husband had gone to hell: “Madam, between the bridge from which your husband threw himself and the river there is the mercy of God.” Never forget the word mercy.

I am a Jesuit in formation as a teacher and I work in a slum. People are very poor, but people there want to help each other. A girl asked me: How can I help those in need if I need help myself? I tried to give her an intellectual answer, but it did not convince me. Then someone advised me to ask the Holy Father the question. Intellectual answers don’t help. I am not an anti- intellectual, be clear! We need to study a lot, but the intellectual and abstract response in this case does not help. For a mother who has lost her son, for a man who has lost his wife, a child, a sick man … what can words do? Just a look … a smile, shaking hands, arms, touch … and perhaps at that point the Lord will inspire a word in us. But do not give explanations. And the question the girl asked was an existential question: “How can I, who have nothing, help others?” Come closer! And think about how that person can help you. Come closer. Accompany. Stay close. And the Holy Spirit – let us not forget that we have the Spirit inside – will inspire in you what you can do, what you can say. Because to speak is the last thing. First, do. Be silent, accompany, stay close. Proximity, nearness. It is the mystery of the Word made flesh. Nearness. Maybe you can tell the girl: “Be closer!” She needs closeness. And you need closeness too. And let God do the rest.

Holy Father, I wonder why you always find time to visit the Jesuits during your travels. And another question: What are the three important things that a Jesuit can do for the people of this country, for the Church in Myanmar?

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The reason why I always meet the Jesuits is to not forget that I am a missionary and that I must convert sinners! (The pope thus provoked those present to laugh.) As for the question, I like your use of the word “Church.” Ignatius cared deeply for feeling with the Church, for feeling in the Church. And this also requires discernment. But we must be close to the hierarchy. And if I do not agree with what the bishop says, I must have the parrhesia to go and talk to him with courage and dialogue. And eventually obey. Remember St. Ignatius when Gian Pietro Carafa, Pope Paul IV, was elected. When he was asked what would happen to him if the pope were to dissolve the Society, I believe St. Ignatius replied that with a little prayer he would have fixed everything. And he would have remained in peace. But one cannot think of the Society of Jesus as a parallel Church, or a sub-Church. We all belong to the holy and sinful Church. We belong to the Church in joy and sadness. We have examples of great Jesuits who felt crucified by the Church of their time and kept their mouths shut. Let’s think of Cardinal De Lubac, to name one. And many others I would say: Be men of the Church. When the Society gets into the orbit of self-sufficiency, it stops being the Society of Jesus.

A serious problem here is fundamentalism. I come from a region where there are many tensions with Muslims. I wonder how you can take care of people who have this tendency toward fundamentalism. What do you feel about this, visiting our country? Look, there are fundamentalisms everywhere. And we Catholics have “the honor” of having fundamentalists among the baptized. I think it would be interesting if some of you who are preparing for graduation were to study the roots of fundamentalism. It is an attitude of the soul that stands as a judge of others and of those who share their religion. It is a going to the essential – a claim to be going to the essential – of religion, but to such an extent as to

113 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ forget what is existential. It forgets the consequences. Fundamentalist attitudes take different forms, but they have the common background of underlining the essential so much that they deny the existential. The fundamentalist denies history, denies the person. And Christian fundamentalism denies the Incarnation.

The meeting concluded in a festive atmosphere with the “Salve Regina” and then with personal greetings and photographs. On the afternoon of December 1, during his visit to Bangladesh, the pope attended an ecumenical and interreligious meeting for peace together with four religious representatives (a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Catholic) and a representative of civil society. The final prayer was recited by an Anglican bishop. Then a group of Rohingya came up onto the stage. The pope welcomed them, listened to their stories, and asked one of them to pray. At the end he went to the Apostolic Nunciature of Dhaka, where 13 Jesuits who carry out their mission in that country were waiting for him in a room, seated in a circle. The superior of the Mission expressed the joy of the Jesuits at having the pope there with them: “We are a group of Jesuits working in Bangladesh. Nine of us are from here, three from India and one from Belgium. God has blessed us and we work here in Bangladesh in three dioceses. The Mission has another 14 scholastics, three juniors and three novices. We work in a house for spiritual exercises and in formation, in parish ministries, in the educational apostolate, and in the service of refugees. The first presence of the Jesuits in this land dates back to the end of the 16th century. In 1600 a church was built, but the following year it was destroyed. After various events we have been back in Bangladesh since 1994, when we were invited by the local Church. Today, you give us the privilege of meeting you. We all feel proud to be Jesuits and we ask for your blessing. Today, I had considered giving a speech,

114 AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY but then I thought better of it: better to have an open conversation.” The pope replied to the greeting by saying: The two dates you mentioned have attracted my attention: 1600 and 1994. So for centuries the Jesuits have lived alternating vicissitudes without a stable presence. And that’s okay: the Jesuits live like that too. Fr. Hugo Rahner said that a Jesuit must be a man who is capable of moving while practicing discernment, both in the field of God and in the field of the devil. Your years have been a little like this: a move without stability and a move forward in the light of discernment.

Holy Father, thank you for talking about the Rohingya people. They are our brothers and sisters, and you spoke of them in these terms: as brothers and sisters. Our provincial sent two of us to help them … Jesus Christ today is called Rohingya. You talk about them as brothers and sisters: They are. I think of St. Peter Claver, who is very dear to me. He worked with the slaves of his time … and to think that some theologians of the time – not so many, thank God – discussed if the slaves had a soul or not! His life was a prophecy, and he helped his brothers and sisters who lived in shameful conditions. But this shame today is not over. Today there is much discussion about how to save the banks. The problem is the salvation of the banks. But who saves the dignity of men and women today? Nobody cares about people in ruins any longer. The devil manages to do this in today’s world. If we had a little sense of reality, this should scandalize us. The media scandal today concerns the banks and not the people. In front of all this we must ask for a grace: to cry. The world has lost the gift of tears. St. Ignatius – who had this experience – asked for the gift of tears. St. Peter Fabre did so too. Once we used to ask for the gift of tears during the Mass. The prayer was: “Lord, you made water flow from the rock, make tears flow from my sinful heart.” The impudence of our world

115 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ is such that the only solution is to pray and ask for the grace of tears. But this evening, in front of those poor people I met, I felt ashamed! I felt ashamed of myself, for the whole world! Sorry, I’m just trying to share my feelings with you … .

How can the Society of Jesus respond today to the needs of Bangladesh? Honestly, I know little of the activities of the Society of Jesus in Bangladesh. But the fact that the provincial charged two Jesuits with the responsibility to work in the refugee camps makes me understand that the Jesuits are moving! And this is precisely our vocation, and it is well said in one word of the “Formula of the Institute of the Society”: discurrir, that is … move forward, move … go around … try the spirits … This is beautiful and it is right for our vocation.

We feel blessed that you came to Bangladesh, that is a nation where there is such a small Christian community. And you made the archbishop of our capital a cardinal. Why such attention for us? I have to say that Bangladesh was a surprise for me too: there’s so much wealth! Naming the cardinals, I tried to look at small Churches, those that grow in the peripheries, at the edges. Not to give consolation to those Churches, but to launch a clear message: the small Churches that grow in the periphery and are without ancient Catholic traditions today must speak to the universal Church, to the whole Church. I clearly feel that they have something to teach us.

How do you feel today after celebrating Mass with Catholics? Did you manage to greet children as you usually do? Yes. I greeted some of them. And tonight I greeted the two Rohingya girls. Children give me tenderness. Tenderness is good in this cruel world: we need it. I want

116 AT THE CROSSROADS OF HISTORY to add something about it: St. Ignatius was mystical. His true figure has been rediscovered recently. We had a rigid image of him. But he was a mother to the sick people! He was capable of a deep tenderness, which he manifested on many occasions. It was Father Arrupe, who as General of the Society, repeated these things to us and showed us Ignatius’ profound soul. He founded the Ignatian Spirituality Center and the Christus magazine to further refine our spirituality. For me, he is a prophetic figure. Your question makes me think of how important it is to have a heart capable of tenderness and compassion for those who are weak or poor or small. And remember that it was Father Arrupe who founded the Jesuit Refugee Service. In Bangkok, before taking the plane on which he had a stroke, he said: “Pray, pray, pray.” This was the sense of the discourse that he addressed there to the Jesuits who are working with the refugees: not to neglect prayer. This was his swan song. This was precisely his last legacy left to the Society. Do you understand? Sociology is important, yes, but prayer matters more, much more.

Our thoughts went immediately to the fact that shortly before, in his meeting with the Rohingya, the pope had concluded not with a sociological discourse but asking one of them to raise a prayer, and to pray together. At this point the pope asked if there were any further questions, but one of them replied: “No. Your presence here among us is more than many answers!” The encounter ended with the blessing of and some group photos. In meditating on the words used by the pontiff in these conversations it is always necessary to remember what he himself wrote in the preface to a volume that contains, inter alia, his earlier conversations with Jesuits during his trips: “I must say that I felt these moments as being very free, especially when they happen during my

117 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ journeys: this is the occasion to make my first thoughts on that trip. I feel at home I speak our family’s language, and I do not fear misunderstandings. So what I say can sometimes be a little risky.” And he added: “Sometimes what I feel I have to say, I say to myself; it is important for me too. In the conversations some important things are born in me, upon which I can then reflect.”2

2. Pope Francis, Adesso fate le vostre domande. Conversazioni sulla Chiesa e sul mondo di domani, Milan, Rizzoli, 2017, 8.

118 Peace in Colombia: Not an Objective but a Condition. Pope Francis in Colombia

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

15 November 2017 Let’s say it right away: the apostolic journey of Pope Francis to Colombia (September 6-11, 2017) was really and truly a “manifesto” not only in words but also in actions and gestures. It showed that a different world is possible and indicated to the Church its own role of service as salt of the earth. The motto of the journey was Demos el primer paso, that is, “Let’s take the first step,” a quotation from (EG) n. 24. It is not often that the pope when traveling in one country makes reference to circumstances that concern another one. In the case of Colombia this happened, further proof of the long gestation of a deeply longed-for trip. In fact, after Mass and before the Angelus on Sunday, September 20, 2015, in Revolution Square of Havana, Cuba, Pope Francis unexpectedly said: “At this time I feel the duty of turning my thoughts to the beloved land of Colombia, aware of the crucial importance of the present moment, in which, with renewed force and moved by hope, its children are trying to build a peaceful society.” And he concluded: “Please, we cannot permit ourselves another failure on the path of peace and reconciliation.” Recently, the right conditions were created for the third journey of a pontiff to Colombia. We remember that the first journey was that of Blessed Paul VI (August 22- 25, 1968), and the second that of St. John Paul II (July 1-8, 1986). Francis knows Colombia and has visited on more than one occasion, both when he was leading the

119 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ archdiocese of Buenos Aires and earlier as provincial of the Jesuits. Now he decided to visit it “as brother and father,” and pontiff. Many times this journal has written about Colombia, with its internal tensions and during the various phases of a long peace process that is still underway.1 It did so also in preparation for Francis’ journey.2 We leave the description of the context to our earlier writings. Here, we wish to recall the stages of the trip and then we will offer a reflection on its profound significance.

Three new tesserae for the mosaic First of all, we must add three new tesserae to the mosaic already constructed within our pages. The first is the news that reached us as the pope began his trip: the bilateral ceasefire of 102 days between the government and the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN), agreed in Quito, Ecuador. It was stated that the truce would be renewed from time to time as the negotiations advance. But the hope is that they reach an agreement. During his return flight, the pope thanked the ELN for this step. The second tessera is an open letter to the pope, soon after his arrival in the land of Colombia, in which the leader of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), Timoshenko (Timoleón Jiménez), writes: “Your repeated explanations of the infinite mercy of God push me to ask your forgiveness for any tears or pain we have caused the people of Colombia or any of its members.” The leader of the FARC affirmed among other things: “We have put aside every manifestation of hate and violence; we are urged on by the intention of pardoning those who

1. cf. F. Occhetta, “La Colombia, una repubblica in cerca di pace,” in Civ. Catt. 2003 IV 592-604; J. D. Rodríguez Cuadros, “Il processo di pace in Colombia,” ibid. 2015 I 365-377; F. De Roux, “Colombia: la riflessione di un testimone. La crisi, la pace e la Chiesa,” ibid. 2016 IV 356-370. 2. cf. J. D. Rodríguez Cuadros, “La Colombiaalla vigilia della visita di Papa Francesco,” ibid. 2017 III 406-416.

120 POPE FRANCIS IN COLOMBIA were our enemies and have done so much harm to our people; we perform the act of contrition indispensable for recognizing our errors and asking forgiveness of all those men and women who in any way were victims of our actions.” And he added: “From your first step in my country I have felt that finally something could change.” The third is that, as was announced by President Santos, “the ‘del Golfo’ cartel has manifested its willingness to submit to Colombian justice,” with the desire expressed by its boss and members to turn themselves in to the forces of law and order. The cartel is one of the principal cartels of drug traffickers with branches in Mexico and the United States. In this case it is not a political negotiation, and it will be necessary to devise a legal procedure for the collective surrender of a criminal organization, something that has never happened before and for which the country does not have legislation.

Four stages: Bogotá, Villavicencio, Medellín, Cartagena Bogotá. The plane with the pope, his entourage and authorized journalists aboard, took off at 11 a.m. on September 6. Greeting the journalists, the pope said: “[This] is also a trip to help Colombia move forward on the path to peace.” He immediately added: “Moreover, I would like to say that on the flight we will pass over Venezuela. And therefore a prayer also for Venezuela, so that dialogue can be had there, and the country find a beautiful stability, through dialogue with all.” With a few phrases the pope gave a key to interpret the entire trip, but he also extended his gaze from Colombia to nearby Venezuela and its drama. He did with this country what he had done with Colombia from Cuba. It was a sign of great attentiveness. The plane landed at 4:30 p.m. at the CATAM military airport, located at the Bogotá airport. After the welcoming ceremony and the greeting of the President of the Republic, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, Francis moved

121 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ to the apostolic nunciature, traveling about 15 kilometers in the popemobile. Here he was welcomed by a group of people who up until recently were living on the street, among them former drug addicts. They performed songs and traditional dances. The pope encountered the faithful gathered together outside the nunciature every evening during his stay in Colombia. These were always emotional moments in which Francis would greet the faithful spontaneously with brief but very powerful messages. The pontiff visited four cities: Bogotá, Villavicencio, Medellín and Cartagena de Indias. The four stops were bound by specific motives particular to each place, which are like the principal faces of the Colombian polyhedron, richly diverse and colorful. The first day of the journey, September 7, was dedicated to the capital, Santa Fe de Bogotá. It is also the seat of the Bishops’ Conference of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM), which was established at the will of Pius XII after the first general assembly of the bishops of the region in 1955. This is the same institution of ecclesial coordination that then organized the successive general conferences in Medellín (1968), Puebla (1979), Santo Domingo (1992) and Aparecida (2007). On a day of bright sunshine, the pope went to the Casa de Nariño, the presidential palace named in honor of the forerunner of the independence of the country, Antonio Nariño (1765-1823). Francis was welcomed there both formally and by a group of children who ran out to meet him. The pope and the president then moved to the podium to give their addresses. Next came a private meeting and then they shifted location to the cathedral where Francis symbolically received the keys of the city and paused to pray in silence before the painting of Nuestra Señora de Chiquinquirá. Then he moved to the cardinal’s palace where he blessed the faithful and held a meeting with the bishops of the country. In the afternoon, after a stop at the

122 POPE FRANCIS IN COLOMBIA nunciature, the pope met the governing committee of CELAM and delivered a wide-ranging speech. Then he moved to Simón Bolívar Park, where he celebrated the votive Mass for peace and justice. The preface chosen for the occasion was that of “the reconciliation with God, foundation of human concord.” Finally, the pope returned to the nunciature where groups of children, the elderly and the disabled were waiting. He delivered a spontaneous address, concluding with a blessing. Villavicencio. The second day, September 8, was dedicated to Villavicencio, a city 115 kilometers southeast of the capital. Known as the “heart of eastern Colombia,” it is a true ecological treasure chest. The bishops of the diocese have always maintained within their ecclesial communities a lively sense of social duty with many activities oriented toward sustainable human advancement and development. Villavicencio was deeply involved in the past in the armed conflict within the country: not only that with the FARC, but also the violence that broke out after the of the liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán (1948). President César Gaviria in 2012 chose this city to celebrate the Día Nacional de la Memoria y Solidaridad con las Víctimas (April 9). The papal airplane landed at the Luis Gómez Niño- Apiay Air Base. From there the pope moved to Terreno di Catama to celebrate the memorial Mass of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. During the celebration, the Servants of God Jesús Emilio Jaramillo Monsalve, bishop of Arauca, and Pedro María Ramírez Ramos, a diocesan priest, were proclaimed blessed. They are two victims of the climate of violence that Colombia has been experiencing for decades. Fr. Ramos was killed when he was 44 years old, April 10, 1948; Bishop Jaramillo was abducted, tortured and executed at the age of 73 by ELN guerrilla fighters, October 2, 1989.

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The significance of the is clear: “Peace is, perhaps above all, founded on the blood of the many witnesses of love, truth and justice, and also of true and proper martyrs, killed for the faith.”3 Many of the faithful came to the Mass from the regions of Llanos and indigenous villages, as well as victims of the violence. Afterward, the pope moved to the Maloca del Joropo compound, where he had lunch and rested before reaching an adjacent covered structure. About 6,000 were gathered there for the great meeting of national reconciliation. The testimonies that were offered by ex- guerrillas and victims were moving and offered a living image of the ongoing peace process. From here, the pope moved to the Parque de los Fundadores, the largest park in Villavicencio, where he paid homage to the “Cross of Reconciliation,” which was placed there at the end of a Via Crucis that was carried through the Llanos Orientales in 2012. President Santos, about 400 children and a group of indigenous people were present. The pope was welcomed by some children who accompanied him to the cross that records the number of the victims of the violence that has rocked the country in recent decades. At the end, Francis planted a tree as a symbol of new life. From here he moved to the airport in order to return to the nunciature where groups of victims of violence, soldiers, police and ex-guerrillas awaited him. Medellín. The third day, September 9, was dedicated to the city of Medellín, well known in the life of the Church in Latin America for the Second General Conference of the Latin American Bishops in 1968, inaugurated by Paul VI in Bogotá. Francis’ presence in Colombia, welcomed by the enormous participation of the people, was immediately associated with the encyclical Populorum Progressio (March 26, 1967). The city of Medellín paid a terrible tribute in blood during the years of the conflict.

3. Francis, General Audience, September 13, 2017.

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Among the victims were priests, religious and catechists. In the past, the power of the cocaine cartels imposed its law, generating an unstoppable spiral of violence. After landing at José M. Córdoba Airport in Rionegro, a transfer by helicopter was planned but did not take place due to bad weather. So the pope reached the city by car, becoming more and more behind schedule, finally by about an hour, and many came out to greet him on the street having learned of the change of schedule. Having reached the Enrique Olaya Herrera Airport, Francis celebrated the memorial Mass of St. Peter Claver. The image of the patroness of Medellín, the Virgen de la Candelaria, was exposed on the altar. Afterward, the pope went to the seminary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, also known as the Seminario Conciliar de Medellín. Here he ate lunch and rested before going to the Hogar de San José, a home managed by the archdiocese of Medellín for child victims of violence and abandonment who receive an education and medical and psychological assistance to overcome the traumas they have suffered. Then Francis went to the Events Center La Macarena, where he met 12,000 people including priests, religious, the consecrated, seminarians and their families. The pope’s speech was preceded by songs and testimonies. Then Francis went by helicopter to the airport at Rionegro and on to the nunciature, where the consecrated, newlyweds and couples celebrating golden and silver wedding anniversaries were waiting for him. Cartagena. The fourth and final day of the stay in Colombia, September 10, was dedicated to Cartagena. The city was founded in 1533 and is a jewel of UNESCO. It had been a strategic hub of Spanish colonialism, and it was there that the Africans captured for sale as slaves in the New World were brought. The figure of the Jesuit missionary St. Peter Claver, the apostle of the slaves (1581-1654), is forever tied up with the city.

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The son of a peasant from Catalonia, Peter graduated from the University of and at the age of 20 entered the Society of Jesus. While he was studying in Majorca, the porter encouraged him to depart to evangelize the Spanish territories in America. In fact, in 1610 Peter disembarked in Cartagena, where for 44 years he was a missionary among the African slaves, defining himself Aethiopum semper servus, that is, “slave of the Africans forever.” Whenever word came that new slaves had arrived, Claver put out to sea in his boat to meet them, bringing them food and comfort. While they were prisoners in Cartagena, waiting to be bought, Claver instructed and baptized them. In the square, right in front of the church that houses the relics of St. Peter Claver, on September 26, 2016, in the presence of the Vatican , Cardinal , the first peace agreement between President Santos and the leader of the FARC group of guerrilla fighters was signed. After landing at the Rafael Núñez Airport, Francis went to the St. Francis of Assisi Square. Here, using the popemobile, he greeted the crowd. Along the way, there was an accident in which the pope banged his head against the window of the popemobile. Having immediately received first aid, he decided to proceed as planned to the church and the monastery of St. Peter Claver, which belong to the Society of Jesus. Welcomed by the provincial of the Jesuits, the pope stepped immediately onto the podium outside the church for the Angelus. Then he made his entrance into the sanctuary, where he was warmly welcomed by about 300 members of the Afro-Caribbean community. He stopped in silent prayer before the relics of Claver. At the end, he went to the internal courtyard where he met privately with a delegation of 65 Jesuits.4 Finally, he

4. The text of the conversation with the Colombian Jesuits is available here: https://laciviltacattolica.com/free-article/grace-is-not-

126 POPE FRANCIS IN COLOMBIA went to the monastery of St. Dominic where he ate lunch with his entourage. From here went to the archbishop’s house in Cartagena. The final stage of the apostolic journey was the Mass celebrated in the port of Cartagena, one of the biggest industrial zones of the country, with commercial transport, sorting, and international and intercontinental embarkations. Cartagena is among the 30 most important port cities in the world and a primary reference point in the maritime traffic of the Caribbean. The pope’s farewell ceremony took place at Rafael Núñez Airport in Cartagena, where an airplane of the Colombian national airline, Avianca, awaited him. It carried the Holy Father, his entourage and the journalists back to the airport of Ciampino in Rome. Francis had flown, therefore, 19,650 kilometers of intercontinental flight and traveled another 1,528 kilometers within Colombia.

“We are victims, innocent or guilty, but all victims” With the peace accords signed by the ex-guerrillas of FARC last October, Colombia does not merely wish to bring to an end the years of political and ideological violence which marked the conflict with the armed Marxist- Leninist groups that date back to the early 1960s. It also wishes to close a page on the many instances of clashes from an earlier period (1948-1958), the decade called La Violencia, in the course of which the conservative and liberal parties faced each other in armed conflict. Today, after having handed over its arms to the United Nations, the acronym FARC remains, but it now means something else: from Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, it has become Furze Alternativa Revolucionaria del Común. And today the “enemy” is only the legitimate “political adversary.” an-ideology-a-private-conversation-with-some-colombian-jesuits/

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In meeting the authorities and representatives of civic society, Francis expressed his awareness of “visiting this nation in a particular moment of its history,” as he also expressed his “appreciation for the efforts taken” to construct bridges and the “culture of encounter.” Therefore, the message of Francis was a message of peace. But “peace” does not mean ideological pacifism, the simple desire for social order, or the easy covering up of the injustices perpetrated and suffered. This would be a pseudo-justice, as the pope clarified in his homily at Mass in Villavicencio. On the contrary, peace is born from “the desire to resolve the structural causes of poverty that lead to exclusion and violence. Only in this way can there be healing of the sickness that brings fragility and lack of dignity to society, leaving it always vulnerable to new crises. Let us not forget that inequality is the root of social ills.” For Francis, peace is not an objective to be accomplished, but just the first step, the necessary condition of development and the overcoming of injustices (EG 202). The protection and guarantee of many other inalienable rights overflow from the supreme common good of peace: for example, life, food, justice and the freedom of religious worship and belief. Without peace, none of these rights would be possible. Francis took the theme up again in his speech to the authorities: “I encourage you to look to all those today who are excluded and marginalized by society, those who have no value in the eyes of the majority, who are held back, cast aside. Everyone is needed in the work of creating and shaping society.”5 Colombia has always been a polarized country that requires reconciliation: it has an open wound that begs to be healed. Its soil has been soaked in blood, and there have been about 8 million victims in various ways (deaths, injuries, missing persons, people who have lost

5. Francis, Address to the Authorities in Bogota, September 7, 2017.

128 POPE FRANCIS IN COLOMBIA their homes…) during the 50 years of conflict. For this reason, the pope was faithful to a clear principle that he expressed in his homily in Cartagena: peace is a process of the harmonizing of politics and rights that must involve the people; it cannot be a design of institutional rules among political and economic groups; the devastation has been too deep for agreements between the leaders alone. On the return trip to Rome, responding to a question of the Argentine journalist Hernán Reyes, Francis emphasized: “A peace process will go ahead only when the people take it in their hands. If the people do not take it in hand, it may go ahead for a bit, it may arrive at a compromise. […] Either the protagonist of the peace process is the people, or it will only go ahead to a certain point. But when the people take the thing in hand, they are capable of really making it happen.” The historical subject of the peace process, its true author, for Francis, is the people, not a class, a faction, a group, an elite. A project of a few geared to a few, or of an enlightened or witnessing minority that appropriates to itself a collective sentiment is not sufficient. It is in fact an agreement to live together, a social and cultural pact (EG 239). And if it is a popular process, it is inclusive, it aims at integration. Saluting the Colombian people from the balcony of the cardinal’s palace in Bogotá, the pope insisted: “The Lord is not selective, he does not exclude anyone, the Lord embraces everyone.” There is no reconciliation without integration. The words of the pope were warm, suffused with encouragement and emotion: “Do not fear the future! Be bold enough to dream big! To this big dream I invite you today. Please, do not lose yourselves in trifles, do not fly along the ground, fly high and dream big!” he kept saying in his goodbye to the people. The pontiff spoke above all to the young, who are by nature “restless” and capable of looking to the future. To construct a nation you must embrace their desire for life

129 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ and to dream, for volunteering and to be activists. Only the young who are not “nauseated” and “anesthetized” are able to use their special sensibility for encounter, risk and smiling. The event that gave a concrete and unforgettable face to the reconciliation was the prayer encounter in Villavicencio. In a semi-covered and overflowing structure, more than 6,000 people met before a small crucifix without arms or legs. It is the crucifix of Bojayá, which on May 2, 2002, was present and witnessed the massacre of dozens who had sought refuge in the church. There, together, were gathered the victims of violence: soldiers, police officers and ex-guerrillas. As one united people they now asked for peace. In their stories there is all the horror of war. Anita, at the age of 14, was raped by a paramilitary commando while her entire family was exterminated before her own eyes. Angela, also at the age of 14, joined the guerrillas and, after six years of “hell on earth,” she asked for help. Indescribable is the testimony of Pastora Mira García who lost her father, husband and two children. She recounted how “[Three days after burying my son] I helped a young wounded man, and I let him sleep in my son’s room. When he was leaving, he saw my son’s photos and told me he was one of his murderers.” And she continued: “I thank God, with the help of the Madonna, who gave me the strength to help that man without doing him harm, despite my unspeakable pain.” On these testimonials the word of the pope came down, lucidly and scandalously evangelical: “We are all, in the end, in one way or another, victims, innocent or guilty, but all victims, on one side and the other: all victims. All joined together in this loss of humanity that violence and death bring.”

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The Church, restorative justice and the “counterculture of encounter” Francis, in Colombia, gave two very long and fundamental speeches to the bishops: first to those of Colombia and then to the governing committee of CELAM. In these speeches there is a lot more than an exhortation bound up with the event: there is a true and proper ecclesiology of mission that expresses the profound feeling of the current pontificate. These speeches ought to be read together with those that the pope gave in Brazil in 2013: these were also “foundational” speeches. Francis asked the bishops of the country to be the “guardians” of the first step in the path of peace. “In the dialogue with the State and society,” he had recommended in EG 241, “the Church does not have solutions for all the particular questions. However, together with the different social forces, it accompanies the proposals which are best able to respond to the dignity of the human person and the common good. In doing so, it proposes always with clarity the fundamental values of human existence, to transmit convictions which can then be translated into political actions.” Illustrating this task, Francis painted the reality of Colombia as a scene full of movement, of “works in progress,” as if it were a building site or a path for “it has never been a goal fully attained, a destiny completely achieved.” For this reason, “every area of your episcopal ministry should be marked by the freedom to take the first step. The premise for the exercise of the apostolic ministry is a readiness to draw close to Jesus, ‘leaving behind all that we were, in order to become something we were not.’” The Church therefore participates in a constant forward movement which is the movement of all people. It would be terrible if these were transformed into a “cast of functionaries bent by the tyranny of the present” or in the grips of “shady dealing (agendas encubiertas).”

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In firm tones, Francis said to the bishops: “You are not technicians or politicians, you are Pastors.” The bishops do not carry “formulas,” but a word that is neither bureaucratic nor abstract: a word that “shakes up” and is capable of changing hearts, sustaining a “change of direction,” keeping a “fixed gaze upon the real people.” The pope said in his homily during the Mass at Simón Bolívar Park that for the Word of God to meet this real person, we must be ready to go into the “open sea,” to “take to deep seas” within the human “tide.” The pontiff also spoke a lot about “wounds” that are in the process of scabbing over, but not yet healed. One is reminded here of the appeal to be a “field hospital after a battle”6 that Francis repeated the evening of September 8 in his off-the-cuff remarks to the crowd outside the nunciature. Concretely, the Church is called upon to make the most of the process of reconciliation, working so that it may be understood and applied correctly. For the Church “reconciliation” does not signify “impunity.” In fact, the parties have opted for a true “restorative” justice based on encounter,7 which the Church supports and sustains. It does not correspond to the crime-conviction- imprisonment formula, but rather to a justice that expects that the culpable admit their guilt, ask forgiveness and contribute to the reconstruction of the truth and the peace. The sentence aims at repaying the victims more than assigning blame to the guilty. But this is not the classic “amnesty”: it is a slow process requiring a lot of awareness and the involvement of everyone. It is like a therapy, a cure, which in the final homily in Cartagena was described as a “countercultural current of encounter.”

6. cf. A. Spadaro, “Intervista a Papa Francesco,” in Civ. Catt. 2013 III 461. 7. cf. F. Occhetta, “Le radici morali della giustizia riparativa,” in Civ. Catt. 2008 IV 444-457; ibid., “La giustizia riparativa. Verso una nuova idea della pena,” ibid. 2010 IV 213-226; ibid., “Le vittime dei reati e il loro dolore,” ibid. 2016 264-274.

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A slow process with contradictions and vulnerability It would be an error to believe that the process is fast, or that it flows smoothly, or corresponds to an ideal paradigm. On the contrary, as the pope said during the liturgy of reconciliation in Villavicencio: “It is clear that in this great field which is Colombia there is still room for weeds. Let us not fool ourselves!” With a healthy realism, Francis continued inviting them to pay attention to the fruits, to take care of the wheat, not to lose the peace because of the weeds, not to have “alarmist reactions.” Imperfection and incompleteness are part of the process, precisely because it is truly human and concrete. “Even when conflicts, violence or the desire for revenge remain,” Francis continued, “let us not impede justice and mercy from meeting in an embrace which takes up Colombia’s history of pain. Let us heal that pain and embrace every human being who has committed crimes, recognizes them, repents and works to make reparation, contributing to the construction of the new order in which justice and peace shine forth.” It is interesting to note that, meeting priests, religious and seminarians in Medellín, Francis spoke of the action of God that unfolds “in situations full of contradictions and contrasts.” Indeed, “God manifests his closeness and his election where he wills, in the land he wills, in whatever situation it is in, with its real contradictions, as he wills. He changes the course of events to call men and women in the frailty of their own personal and shared history.” In summary, it is necessary to accept limits and weaknesses.8 The duty of the Church then is

8. Returning to the nunciature after the first intense day in Bogotá, the pope met a child called Maria who has Down syndrome. She said to him that she was “very vulnerable.” The pope – profoundly moved – took the opportunity to say: “We want a world where vulnerability is recognized as essential to humanity. Instead of weakening us, it reinforces us and gives us dignity. A common meeting place that humanizes us.” And it is important therefore that “this vulnerability is respected, caressed, taken care of as

133 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ that of kneading itself into the concrete reality, standing alongside, promoting, sustaining and accompanying the action of God in history in the midst of contradictions and weaknesses.

A Latin–American Catholicism Speaking to the governing committee of CELAM, the pope widened his gaze to the subcontinent and spoke of a “Latin-American Catholicism” with “a continental mission, which is not meant to be the sum of programs that fill agendas and waste precious energies, but the endeavor to place the mission of Jesus at the heart of the Church.” He insisted that the bishops not fall into the temptation of “idealizing the evangelical message, of ecclesial functionalism and clericalism.” God does not call upon us as a “notary” would or a “sacred bureaucrat,” but as a father who in intimacy turns to his son. “Closeness and encounter,” therefore, are the instruments of God that the pastor must make his own in order to “set out concretely with Jesus in mission today in Latin America”: if you do not draw close and touch, you cannot “heal and save.” And the pope insisted on the adverb “concretely” because “the Gospel is always concrete” and does not entangle itself in the “bizantinismo” (frivolous objections) of the doctors of the law. Francis also repeated this concept in his homily in Medellín when he thundered against the pharisaical rigorism that constantly raises the sign “No Entry!” However, it is a concreteness that never loses its visionary quality, farsightedness and passion. The pope spoke of a concretización visionaria. And he also spoke much as possible, and that it yields fruit for others. We are all vulnerable.” Sure, “in some, it is seen, and in others, it is not seen. However, it is the essence of humanity this necessity of being sustained by God.” Therefore, “for this reason, one ought not, it is not possible to throw anyone away.” Two days later, in the same place, Francis used these expressions: “The protagonist of history is the beggar, the protagonist of the history of salvation is the beggar, the one who lives inside each one of us.”

134 POPE FRANCIS IN COLOMBIA a lot about pasión: “passion of young lovers and of wise elders, a passion that turns ideas into viable utopias, a passion for the work of our hands, a passion that makes us constant pilgrims in our Churches.” In the homily in Medellín he also spoke of boldness and involvement. To be concrete visionaries means putting ourselves day after day to work in the field and “to re-appropriate the verbs that the Word of God conjugates as he carries out his divine mission. To go forth to meet without keeping a safe distance; to take rest without being idle; to touch others without fear.” Therefore, “we cannot let ourselves be paralyzed by our air-conditioned offices, our statistics and our strategies. We have to speak to men and women in their concrete situations; we cannot avert our gaze from them. The mission is always carried out by one-to- one contact.” This unveils the true face of the people. And what are the characteristics of this face? The pope says that this is a “mestizo face: not merely indigenous, Hispanic, Portuguese or African, but mestizo: Latin American!” Diversity characterizes both Colombia and Latin America in general. The body of the continent is a body brought to life by its differences, and this typifies Latin-American Catholicism itself.

* * *

In the General Audience on the Wednesday following his return, reflecting on the journey, Francis said he wanted to bless the “desire for life and peace which overflows from the heart of that nation.”9 And he concluded by wishing that each Colombian “may make every day the first step toward his brother and sister, and thus build together, day after day, peace in love, in justice and in truth.”

9. Francis, General Audience, September 13, 2017.

135 Grace is not an ideology: Pope Francis’ private conversation with some Colombian Jesuits

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

28 September 2017 From September 6-11, 2017, Pope Francis was in Colombia, so completing his 20th apostolic voyage. The voyage included a visit on September 10 to the city of Cartagena de Indias, the capital of the region of Bolívar that looks onto the Caribbean Sea to the north of Colombia. The pope went first to the St. Francis of Assisi Square, and then he went on to the sanctuary of St. Peter Claver, greeting people along the way. After reciting the Angelus in the piazza, he entered the sanctuary and remained in silence some moments before the altar that contains the relics of the saint, laying some flowers that had been given to him by two children. Some 300 representatives of the Afro-Colombian community served by the Jesuits were in the church. The pope gave a gift to the rector of the sanctuary. Afterwards he went into the inner courtyard where he met privately with representatives of the community of the Society of Jesus made up of 65 religious.

Francis was welcomed with song and applause. Then he sat down and gave thanks for the meeting. Referring to the Society of Jesus he said playfully, “I like meeting with the sect,” prompting laughter all round. “Thank you for what you are doing in Colombia,” he said, and continued: “Yesterday I was very happy to meet Álvaro Restrepo in Medellín. He was the provincial in Argentina. He used to come to my residence to talk… He’s a great

136 GRACE IS NOT AN IDEOLOGY man, very good, very good. Well, I am here for you. I don’t want to make a speech, so if you have some questions or something you want to know, ask me now, that’s best: provoke and inspire me!” Somebody immediately asked for a blessing but the pope replied: “At the end. When I give my concluding blessing, I’ll bless you all.” Fr. Carlos Eduardo Correa, SJ, the Jesuit provincial in Colombia, declared: “Dear Pope Francis, we are very happy because your message in these days in Colombia has encouraged us in the commitment to reconciliation and peace. We want to say to you that in all our work we want to continue taking these processes forward, so that in this country we can live the fellowship of the Gospel, and for this we want to thank you from our hearts for encouraging us and confirming us in the faith and in hope. Sincere thanks and may God continue to bless your ministry.” Francis thanked him for his words. After the provincial comes the rector of the “Javeriana,” Fr. Jorge Humberto Peláez, SJ: “Your Holiness, this has been a marvelous gift because Colombia has sunk into a state of despair. With this visit we will take not just one step forward but many. You can count on the Javeriana University and the entire educational and pastoral work of the Jesuits for the work of reconciliation. Thank you for this visit. It gives us hope, Your Holiness.” Fr. Jorge Iván Moreno asks the first question: “Dear Francis, I’m pastor of the parish of St. Rita. The people there love you and appreciate you, and we wrote you a letter a few days ago. I want to know: when you were in San Francisco at those communities at Pie de la Popa, what struck you most? I think it’s the first time you’ve come to Cartagena and I’d like to know: as pontiff, what have you seen while passing through this “other” Cartagena, as we call it?” replied: Let’s stop at the question, as I think it gives me an opportunity to say something very dear to me. What I noticed and what touched me most was the spontaneity.

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The people of God there placed no limits on their joyful enthusiasm. Scholars could give a thousand different interpretations, but it was simply the people of God going out to be welcoming. For me there was a clear indicator that this wasn’t something prepared beforehand with ready-made slogans: the very culture of these different parts of the people of God, these areas I passed through, expressed itself in complete freedom, praising God. It’s unusual. Sadly, we are often tempted to evangelize for the people, toward the people, but without the people of God. Everything for the people, but nothing with the people. This way of being, in the final analysis, is due to a liberal and illuminist vision of evangelization. Surely, the first rejection of such a vision comes in Lumen Gentium: the Church is the holy people of God. So, if we want to hear the Church, we have to hear the people of God. People… Today we need to be careful when we speak of people! For someone might say: “you’ll end up being populists,” and they’ll start concocting theories. But we need to understand that this “people” is not a category of logic. If you want to speak of people with logical schemes you end up falling into an illuminist and liberal ideology, or a “populist” one, right… anyway you end up closing the people into an ideologica schema. ‘People’, however, refers to a mythical category. And to understand the people we need to immerse ourselves in them, we need to accompany them from within. To be Church, the holy pilgrim people, faithful to God, requires pastors who let themselves be carried by the reality of the people, which is not a mere ideology: it is vital, it is alive. The grace of God that is present in the life of the people is not an ideology. Certainly, many theologians could explain several important things that need to be known about the theme. But I want to say that grace is not an ideology: it is an embrace, it is something bigger.

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When I come to places like Cartagena where people express themselves freely, I see they are expressing themselves as the people of God. Certainly, it is true that some affirm that the people are superstitious. So I tell them to go and read Paul VI who in Evangelii Nuntiandi. 48 highlighted the risks involved but also the virtues of the people. He said that popular piety is, yes, open to the penetration of superstition. But he also said that, if it is well-ordered then it is full of values and shows a thirst for God that only the simple and the poor can know. The people of God have a good sense of smell. Perhaps the people struggle to communicate well, and sometimes people get it wrong… But can any of us say, “Thank you, Lord, for I have never been wrong?” No. The people of God have a good sense of smell. And sometimes our task as pastors is to be behind the people. A pastor has to take up all three positions: in front to mark out the road, in the middle, to know it, and at the back to ensure nobody falls behind and to let the flock seek the road… and the sheep smell a good pasture. A pastor has to move continually between these three positions. See, this is what your question has prompted me to say.

“Good evening, your Holiness, I am Rodolfo Abello, responsible for youth work in the province. I want to ask something along these lines toward which horizon should we be motivating our young people with Ignatian spirituality?” What comes to me is to say something a bit intellectual: put them into the spirituality of the Exercises. What do I mean? I mean, put them in movement, into action. Youth work as pure reflection in small groups no longer works today. This pastoral approach to inactive youth gets no traction. You have to make them move: whether they are practicing or non-practicing, you need to get them up and active.

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If they are believers, leading them will be easy. If they are non-believers, you need to let life itself make demands of them, but in action and with accompaniment. Impose nothing, accompany them… in volunteering, working with the elderly, in teaching basic literacy… all appropriate ways for the youth. If we put a young person into action, we facilitate a dynamic where the Lord starts to speak and move the heart of that person. It won’t be for us to stir the heart with our wisdom, at most we can help by using our minds once the heart moves. Yesterday at Medellin I recalled an event that was very important to me because it came from the heart. At Krakow during lunch with the archbishop and 15 young people from around the world – in every World Youth Day there is such a lunch – they started to ask questions and a dialogue opened up. A university student asked me: “Some of my companions are atheists, what do I have to say to persuade them?” I noticed a sense of ecclesial militancy in the young man. The response came to me clearly: “The last thing to do is to use words, really, speaking is the very last thing. Start by acting, invite him along, and when he sees what you do and how you do it, then he will ask you, and then you can start to speak.” What I am saying is to get the youth moving, invent things that make them feel as though they are the protagonists and then lead them to ask themselves: “What is happening, what has changed my heart, why does this make me happy?” Just as in the Exercises when considering interior movements. Obviously though, don’t ask the young people what movements they have experienced because they won’t understand your language. But let them tell you how they feel, and from there engage with them bit by bit. To do this – and here’s a tip I received from the much loved Fr. Furlong when they made me provincial – you need to have the patience to sit and

140 GRACE IS NOT AN IDEOLOGY listen to those who come asking questions, and you need to know how to handle people who want to push you into endless discussions. The youth are tiring, the youth are discussing, so you need this continual mortification of being among them to listen, always and in any way. But for me the key point is the movement.

Jesuit scholastic Jefferson Chaverra put this request to the pope: “Your Holiness, firstly, I want to thank you for coming to visit us and for coming to Colombia. Secondly, I don’t want to ask a real question but to make a request in the name of all Afro-Colombians, of all the black people of Colombia. I want to thank you for the many priests and bishops committed to our causes and at the same time tell you, and in your name tell the whole Church, that we blacks in Colombia need greater accompaniment by and engagement with the Church, for our pain and our suffering as black people continues to be enormous, and the workers are still few. Your Holiness, the harvest is great but the laborers are few. Many thanks.” What you say is true. I spoke of this matter you touch on in my talk to the bishops. There is a basic charism for the Colombian Jesuit: a person whose name is Peter Claver. I believe that God has spoken to us through this man. This impresses me. He was just a weak boy, a young Jesuit in formation, yet he spoke so much to the old porter. And the old man nourished his aspirations. How good it would be if the elderly in our Society were to step forward and the youth follow them: this would fulfil the words of : “the elderly will dream and the young will prophesy.” And so there is a need to prophesy, and to speak with the elderly. Fr. Jorge Alberto Camacho, pastor of the St. Peter Claver parish, says to the pope: “Holiness, real thanks to you for being here with us. You have made a present to the sanctuary and we from the sanctuary want to reciprocate with some small tokens. One is the process of of St. Peter Claver. It contains everything that made him

141 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ a saint, his actions that enable us to work, like you. Fr. Tulio Aristizábal, the eldest member of our community in Cartagena, is 96 and an expert on St. Peter Claver. He will give you the book. Fr. Tulio Aristizábal stands up and, with great emotion, says: “My father superior has asked me to give you as a gift the book of the process of canonization of St. Peter Claver. It contains a most interesting section: the sworn declaration of more than 30 slaves who tell us about St. Peter. In my mind, this is the best biography of the saint. I place it in your hands.” Pope Francis thanks him. Fr. Jorge Alberto Camacho continues: “Holiness, the other present we have prepared for you is a program we have been promoting these past three months. We have called it the Pope Francis Ruta Verde or Green Way. It takes the encyclical Laudato Si’ into the popular districts. As a sign of this way, we want to gift you the booklet that we have used with the youngsters in the streets and the t-shirt of the Ruta Verde. At the end we will ask Your Holiness to bless these objects and the saplings of the Ruta Verde, local fruit trees that we have planted in the city.”

Fr. Vicente Durán Casas stands to ask another question: “Holy Father, again thank you for your visit. I teach philosophy and I would like to know, and I speak for my teaching colleagues in theology too, what do you expect from philosophical and theological reflection in a country such as ours and in the Church generally?” To start, I’d say let’s not have laboratory reflection. We’ve seen what damage occurred when the great and brilliant Thomist scholastics deteriorated, falling down, down, down to a manualistic without life, mere ideas that transformed into a casuistic pastoral approach. At least, in our day we were formed that way… I’d say it was quite ridiculous how, to explain metaphysical continuity, the philosopher Losada

142 GRACE IS NOT AN IDEOLOGY spoke of puncta inflata… To demonstrate some ideas, things got ridiculous. He was a good philosopher, but decadent, he didn’t become famous… So, philosophy not in a laboratory, but in life, in dialogue with reality. In dialogue with reality, philosophers will find the three transcendentals that constitute unity, but they will have a real name. Recall the words of our great writer Dostoyevsky. Like him we must reflect on which beauty will save us, on goodness, on truth. Benedict XVI spoke of truth as an encounter, that is to say no longer a classification, but a road. Always in dialogue with reality, for you cannot do philosophy with a logarithmic table. Besides, nobody uses them anymore. The same is true for theology, but this does not mean to corrupt theology, depriving it of its purity. Quite the opposite. The theology of Jesus was the most real thing of all; it began with reality and rose up to the Father. It began with a seed, a parable, a fact… and explained them. Jesus wanted to make a deep theology and the great reality is the Lord. I like to repeat that to be a good theologian, together with study you have to be dedicated, awake and seize hold of reality; and you need to reflect on all of this on your knees. A man who does not pray, a woman who does not pray, cannot be a theologian. They might be a living form of Denzinger, they might know every possible existing doctrine, but they’ll not be doing theology. They’ll be a compendium or a manual containing everything. But today it is a matter of how you express God, how you tell who God is, how you show the Spirit, the wounds of Christ, the mystery of Christ, starting with the Letter to the Philippians 2:7… How you explain these mysteries and keep explaining them, and how you are teaching the encounter that is grace. As when you read Paul in the Letter to the Romans where there’s the entire mystery of grace and you want to explain it.

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I’ll use this question to say something else that I believe should be said out of justice, and also out of charity. In fact I hear many comments – they are respectable for they come from children of God, but wrong – concerning the post-synod . To understand you need to read it from the start to the end. Beginning with the first chapter, and to continue to the second and then on … and reflect. And read what was said in the Synod. A second thing: some maintain that there is no Catholic morality underlying Amoris Laetitia, or at least, no sure morality. I want to repeat clearly that the morality of Amoris Laetitia is Thomist, the morality of the great Thomas. You can speak of it with a great theologian, one of the best today and one of the most mature, Cardinal Schönborn. I want to say this so that you can help those who believe that morality is purely casuistic. Help them understand that the great Thomas possesses the greatest richness, which is still able to inspire us today. But on your knees, always on your knees… Before leaving, the Holy Father blessed the Jesuits asking them not to forget to pray for him. Then, after some photos and greetings, he headed for the Monastero di Santo where he lunched with the papal entourage.

144 Egypt, Land of Civilizations and Alliances: Francis’ dramatic, therapeutic and prophetic journey

Antonio Spadaro, SJ

21 July 2017 From the Tiber to the Nile The papal plane touched down at Cairo International Airport shortly after 2 p.m. having flown over the Nile Delta and the sandy colored houses of the Egyptian capital. In the distance, the silhouettes of the pyramids reminded the papal entourage and the journalists on board that we were about to land in a country with ancient civilization, of which the people of Egypt are the heirs. In fact, in his first speech at the University of Al-Azhar, the pope began by recalling how Egypt had a “glorious history” and evoked the “search for wisdom” that has always characterized its civilization: wisdom, talent, art, astronomy. But this land of water and sand, both fertile and arid, contains striking contrasts. Egypt’s porous stone is also soaked with the blood of martyrs. The wisdom of knowledge, which is open to the other, to diversity, seems threatened by a violence that denies otherness, and fails to recognize who this other represents. During his journey from the Tiber to the Nile, being aware of these tensions, Francis wanted to visit “the cradle of civilization, the gift of the Nile, the land of sun and hospitality, the land where and Prophets lived, and where God, Benevolent and Merciful, the Almighty and One God, made his voice heard.”1

1. From the beginning of his video message broadcast on the eve of departure.

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The journey may have lasted just 27 hours, but its intensity seems to have dilated the hours and minutes. “In response to the invitation from the President of the Republic, the Bishops of the Catholic Church, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II and the Grand Imam of the Mosque of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed el-Tayeb, His Holiness Pope Francis will make an Apostolic trip to the Arab Republic of Egypt April 28-29, 2017, visiting the city of Cairo.” This was the announcement made by the on March 18. A pope invited by all the elements present in a society, at times in tension with each other.

Therapeutic Urgency and Unity of the Country Then there were the events of April 9, Palm Sunday. In Tanta, halfway between Cairo and Alexandria, in the Nile Delta, a bomb exploded in the Orthodox Coptic church of St. George. The church was packed with the faithful and the State TV was broadcasting the celebration live. The images broke off at the moment of the explosion that left the dead and wounded among the church pews. Less than two hours later, a second bomb exploded in Alexandria in front of St. Mark’s Cathedral (venerated as the founder of the Coptic Church), where the liturgy was underway with Pope Tawadros II officiating. Forty-nine people died, and 78 were injured. The Egyptian security forces had also disarmed two explosive devices that had been placed in the Sidi Abdel Rahim mosque, in Tanta, where there is a Sufi sanctuary. On April 19, there was an attack on a checkpoint on the road leading to the ancient monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai.2

2. It would be a very long list if I were to recall the series of attacks that have threatened the Coptic community that led to bloodshed. The attack that took place Sunday, April 9, was the most serious attack in recent memory, but it was preceded by almost 500 other violent episodes against Christians in Egypt since 2013. Let us recall that a few days before his trip, on Saturday, April 22, Francis had been to the St. Bartholomew’s Basilica,

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Pope Francis’ journey, therefore, suddenly assumed a higher value, a radically therapeutic one with the Church as a “field hospital” attending to wounded humanity through the hands of its universal shepherd. After all, this is one of Francis’ goals and characterizes his apostolic journeys: to touch the wounds. He did so in Bangui and Sarajevo, Lampedusa and Auschwitz, in the Philippines and Mexico and so on. After the bomb attacks, some had begun to question the wisdom of Francis’ journey. But on the contrary, in the eyes of the pontiff, the attacks made the apostolic trip even more necessary. In addition, every attack on a Christian is an attack on the unity of the country, which is instead a precious fruit of peace.3 “Pope of Peace in Egypt of Peace” as mentioned was the official motto of the visit. Francis was depicted smiling and blessing, with the pyramids and the River Nile in the background, surmounted by the Muslim Crescent and the , and next to a dove, symbol of peace.

The Encounter with the Imam of Al–Azhar After landing in Cairo, the pope headed to the Presidential Palace in Heliopolis, where he was welcomed at a first private meeting and an exchange of gifts with President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.4 on Tiber Island to celebrate the Liturgy of the Word with the Community of St. Egidio in memory of the “New Martyrs” of the XX and XXI century. 3. “These acts will not harm the unity of this people and their cohesion. The Egyptians are united before this terrorism until it is eradicated,” Tawadros told the Egyptian prime minister, Sherif Ismail, who had telephoned him to convey his condolences. Here is the point: the unity of the Egyptian people and its cohesion in the land of all. Pope Shenouda III, the predecessor of Tawadros, told John Paul II: “Egypt is not the birthplace in which we live, but the native land that lives in us.” 4. Born in Cairo on 19 November 1954, the military chief of Egyptian intelligence after Mubarak’s removal, el-Sissi is currently the sixth president of the Republic of Egypt. He rose to power after President Mohamed Morsi was overthrown on July 3, 2013.

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He then moved on to Al-Azhar, about 10 kilometers away, for a courtesy visit to the Grand Imam of the mosque. The encounter with el-Tayeb5 made this journey particularly significant. In fact, the mosque, with the associated higher school of Muslim studies in Cairo, founded in the 10th century, is still the largest center of theological and juridical studies of the Islamic world. Francis’ visit to Al-Azhar was of great symbolic value because his authority is recognized in the Sunni Islamic world, and each year, this school forms thousands of imams destined to preach in mosques around the world. Francis had previously encountered Ahmed el-Tayeb in the Vatican on May 23, 2016, for a thirty-minute meeting. “Our encounter is the message,” said Francis according to those present.6 It is important to have positive relations with the most credible and authoritative Sunni interlocutor precisely for anti-fundamentalist reasons, furthering the initiatives undertaken with certain Muslim elites in view of a wider and more incisive collaboration.7

5. Ahmed el-Tayeb, born in Luxor on January 6, 1946, is a well- known religious figure, philosopher and Egyptian theologian. He attained his PhD in Islamic Thought at the Paris IV University (Paris- Sorbonne), and then taught there as Invited Professor; in 1989 he was also a professor at the University of Freiburg. On January 6, 1988, he became professor of philosophy and theology at Al-Azhar, and became the mosque’s Imam in 2010. 6. That hearing was of great importance because it took place after the relations between the Vatican and Al-Azhar had been through a period of coldness. Also, following an attack on a Coptic church in Alexandria, Benedict XVI asked for protection for Christians from the Middle East and Egypt in particular, appealing both to the Cairo authorities and to other governments of the region and the European Union. Unfortunately, this was misunderstood as an act of interference in Egypt’s internal affairs. Since then, Vatican diplomacy and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue have worked hard to re-establish contacts. 7. See the speech of Secretary of State, Card. Pietro Parolin, on the occasion of the General Public Consistory on the Middle East on October 20, 2014.

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Citizenship and Building the Future Together To appreciate the significance of the pope’s presence at Al-Azhar, it is necessary to recall that from February 28 to March 1, 2017, the “Freedom and Citizenship: Diversity and Integration” conference was held there. At its close, the participants – politicians, academics, Christian and Muslim religious leaders – from 50 countries signed the “Declaration of Mutual Muslim-Christian Coexistence.” It condemns the use of violence in the name of religion and points to the principle of citizenship as the criterion to be applied to ensure peaceful and fruitful coexistence between persons belonging to different faiths and religious communities. Muslims and Christians – states the Declaration – are “one community, Muslims with their religion, and Christians with their religion the responsibilities of the homeland are, in fact, a shared responsibility for all.” The Declaration uses a beautiful image: “Now, we are in the same boat since we constitute one society; we face serious dangers that threaten our lives, countries, and religions. Therefore, we want to work hard together to save our societies and countries and to correct our relationship with the whole world by virtue of our common will and the fact that we share the same destiny.” The concept of the nation, which in Arabic did not exist until the 19th century, had always been interpreted in ethnic or religious terms.8 Today, the most important Sunni institution, Al-Azhar, understands this concept in geographic terms, in the common homeland where peoples must live together as equals, without ethnic or religious subordination or quest for dominance.

8. Regarding the concept of citizenship, it is important to refer to the Declaration of Marrakesh, January 26, 2016. See R. Cristiano, “Courban: ‘Il Papa al Cairo mentre nasce una nuova “umma”’”, in Vatican Insider (www.lastampa.it/vaticaninsider/eng), April 20, 2017.

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This is the very heart of the problem: it is not about requesting protection for one or other religious community from those in power, but guaranteeing fundamental rights to people as part of a single human family. The very foundation for the defense of Christians is the protection of the person and respect for human rights, especially those of religious freedom and freedom of conscience. It is therefore necessary to promote and develop the concept of citizenship as a reference point for social life, guaranteeing the rights of all citizens through appropriate legal instruments. In short, we must move from theory to facts, from speeches to political processes. And if there is something which dictators and fundamentalists hate, it is just this.”9

Either “civility of the encounter” or “the incivility of conflict” Pope Francis and the Imam met at the Conference Center of Al-Azhar, where from April 27-28, an “Inter- Religious Peace Conference” had been held, organized by the Islamic Council of the Elderly, an organization based in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, which aims to promote human values within the Islamic world. In the presence of Egyptian and other religious leaders, politicians and a large representation of university professors and students, the speeches of the Grand Imam and of the pontiff concluded the conference organized to coincide with the papal visit. The two leaders spoke from a lectern, where olive branches and a palm branch were placed, signs of peace and martyrdom. Everybody was touched by the warm and long embrace between the pope and the Imam, who called Francis “a great guest and a dear brother.” This image

9. Terrorists thrive under those powers that push the frustrated fringes of the population to seek shelter under the black flags of fundamentalist Islam. Hence, the temptation of those who are relegated to the rank of minorities to entirely entrust their destiny to regimes considered to be a bastion of protection from terrorism.

150 EGYPT, LAND OF CIVILIZATIONS AND ALLIANCES evoked that of the embrace between St. Francis and the sultan Malik al-Kamil. Referring to that image, Francis delivered a wide- ranging, high-profile speech that was interrupted a dozen times by applause. The discussion centered on the “importance of the other,” of their diversity. The “search for wisdom” has always belonged to Egypt: “Wisdom seeks the other, overcoming temptations to rigidity and closed-mindedness.” Going back in time, remembering the ancient civilization, the pope did not appeal to either ancient Christian or Islamic roots. In short, he placed the Egyptians of today all together on the same side, all heirs of a great civilization. And he went to the roots of this civilization, claiming that true wisdom is born from the opening of the heart and mind: it is “open and in motion, at once humble and inquisitive.” Today this can clearly only be the fruit of education, which must promote the encounter between religions and cultures in dialogue. “The polychromatic light of religions shone in this land,” said the pope. There is no alternative: either “civility of the encounter or the incivility of conflict.” The future must be built together: Egypt is and must be a “land of alliances” for the common good. Henceforth, a desirable renewal of religious discourse must begin, aimed at solving the theoretical and practical contradictions that put violence and religion together. For this reason, it is necessary to distinguish between the religious and political spheres, so that future generations develop as well-rooted trees in the land of history, which, by “growing heavenward in one another’s company, can daily turn the polluted air of hatred into the oxygen of fraternity.” In his speech, the pope melded populism with fundamentalism, stigmatizing both the religion that uses violence, and the religion that allows itself to be used by those in power by becoming involved with governments and political factions. This is a strong message that goes far beyond the Middle East situation.

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The appeal against violence was strong, especially the “violence that masquerades as purported sanctity.” It is “the negation of every authentic religious expression.” In this, Francis was very tough. The clear and determined “no” to violence echoed several times in the papal discourse and was accompanied by the applause of those present. In this regard, we should also recall that the meeting was opened with a request of the Grand Imam for some moments of silence in memory of the victims of the terrorist attacks. Building peace is only possible if “we spare no effort in eliminating situations of poverty and exploitation where extremism more easily takes root,” and “in blocking the flow of money and weapons destined to those who provoke violence,” the pontiff said. There is no abstract pacifism: it is necessary to work against the most remote roots of violence. The pope’s visit to Al-Azhar is thus a further step in the direction of overcoming the ideology of the clash of civilizations and war between religions that Francis is conducting with inflexible determination. He knows that the use of fear for geopolitical purposes is a constant in human history. The Jihadism that generates “Islamic terrorism” actually has socio-economic, and not cultural and religious matrices.10 And it corresponds to the “crusader” identity in the West, itself driven by political and economic interests.11

The Prophecy of Egypt, “Homeland for All” At the end of his visit to Al-Azhar, the pope moved on to the Al Masah Hotel, where he met with Egyptian authorities. There were about 800 representatives of institutions,

10. See R. Aitala, “Il falso mito dello scontro di civilta”, in Limes n. 2/2017, 193-204. 11. See A. Spadaro, “La diplomazia di Francesco. La misericordia come processo politico”, in Civ. Catt. 2016 I 209-226.

152 EGYPT, LAND OF CIVILIZATIONS AND ALLIANCES the diplomatic corps and civil society. Here the pope and the president met in public and delivered their speeches. In recent years, Egypt has been shaken by the Tahrir Square revolution and by the toppling of Hosni Mubarak, then by the election of the Muslim Brotherhood, and then by the crisis of their government and the new uprising that overthrew Mohamed Morsi to see Abdel Fattah el- Sissi, another person belonging to the armed forces, rise to power and become president.12 During his presidency, the living conditions of Christians have improved and the construction of new churches has recommenced. El-Sissi is the first head of state in Egypt’s history to attend the Coptic celebration held on January 7 according to the Coptic Calendar. The president has frequently urged religious leaders to implement a reform that makes Islam more and more compatible with democracy and to condemn the Jihadist perversion of it. After the double attack on the Coptic churches, he increased the presence of the armed forces throughout the country, raising concerns about the abuse of anti- terrorism and control measures introduced in the name of safeguarding security. Today’s Egypt abounds with tormenting contradictions, although its policy certainly is decisive for the stability of a whole area of great strategic interest. The pope has not kept silent with regard to the fact that peace is “a good that must be built up and protected, respecting the principle that upholds the force of law and not the law of force,” and the absolute necessity of “unconditional respect for inalienable human rights.” It was also very clear, moreover, that Francis considered Egypt as a nation with a key role to play in the Middle East as a partner and an important interlocutor, recognizing it as playing a “unique role” in

12. See, for example, G. Sale, “Il dibattito su democrazia e mondo islamico a cinque anni dalle ‘primavere arabe’”, in Civ. Catt. 2016 II 17- 32; Id. “La “seconda rivoluzione” egiziana dell’estate”, ibid. III 2013 478-491; Id., «Islam e democrazia», ibid. 2011 II 319-326.

153 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ the Middle Eastern geopolitical quadrant. Even though it was hurt by “blind and brutal violence itself,” he imagined an Egyptian promoter of regional peace. The pope, then, responded as leaders of high political profile do, knowing well that “peace is a gift of God, but also the work of people,” a slow, tiring and sometimes contradictory work. The pontiff had previously met the president in the Vatican on November 24, 2014. The Holy See’s press release had noted during the talks the hope that “peaceful coexistence among all components of society may be strengthened and the path of interreligious dialogue may continue to be pursued.” That visit had touched on the issues of Egypt’s role in promoting peace and stability in the Middle East and North Africa. In Cairo, in his speech to the Egyptian authorities, Francis once again recalled Egypt’s prestigious historical past – the Pharaohs, the Copts and Muslims – but also the biblical past and the fact that “on Egyptian soil the of Jesus, Mary and Joseph found refuge and hospitality.” Today in this land, hospitality is given to “millions of refugees from different countries, including Sudan, Eritrea, Syria and Iraq, refugees whom you make praiseworthy efforts to integrate into Egyptian society.” Then the pope called for the construction of “an Egypt where no one lacks bread, freedom and social justice.” He then turned to “our duty to proclaim together that history does not forgive those who preach justice, but then practice injustice. History does not forgive those who talk about equality, but then discard those who are different. It is our duty to unmask the peddlers of illusions about the afterlife, those who preach hatred in order to rob the simple of their present life and their right to live with dignity, and who exploit others by taking away their ability to choose freely and to believe responsibly. It is our duty to dismantle deadly ideas and extremist ideologies, while upholding the incompatibility of true faith and violence, of God and acts of murder.”

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Then Francis reiterated that Egypt is and must be “the nation to all” as the motto of the Revolution of July 23, 1952 states, thanks to the “equality among all citizens.” The presence of Christians is “an ancient and an inseparable part of the history of Egypt.” And he continued, between applause: “You have shown, and continue to show, that it is possible to live together in mutual respect and fairness, finding in difference a source of richness and never a motive of conflict.” In this way, Francis wanted to acknowledge and support the important debate on religion and citizenship in the Islamic world, so that it moves on from the theoretical sphere, a debate that wants to escape the temptation to build ethno-nationalist societies and a tribal understanding of religious identity. In delivering his discourse, the pontiff was well aware that Coptic blood was used in the wake of a wider political conflict both against the president and to attract Salafists and the radicalized, disappointed Muslim Brotherhood. Citing conflict – as is known – is a political control technique; but the Coptic community is fully aware of being a native community. As such, among other things, it has consistently participated in the various passages of national emancipation that have always been carried out by Muslims and Christians together. Even at this difficult time of attacks and fear, Christian maturity was clearly demonstrated in the Coptic leadership’s reactions. They did not use self- pitying formulas or a persecution syndrome, despite instrumentalized Western pressure. Christian communities are not merely tolerated minorities in Egypt, nor can they be reduced – as sometimes occurs in the media – solely to the role of victims. They are essential, vital, historical and cultural components of a polyhedric and polychromatic country.

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Brother Tawadros and the Dramatic Testimony of the Coptic Church At around 5:20 p.m., Francis arrived at Tawadros II’s residence, where the two had a private meeting. Then, in an adjacent room, in the presence of delegations, they delivered their speeches. Everyone was struck to see Francis entering the room wearing a Coptic , received as a gift. Tawadros II heads the Coptic Church, which is one of the ancient Oriental Churches, where the term ‘pope’ is given to the . The term ‘Coptic’ comes which in turn comes from ,(طبق) from the Arabic qubt the Greek αíγυπτος, which means Egyptian. According to reliable statistics, the faithful number approximately ten million in a total Egyptian population of over 90 million. The Church was founded in Egypt in the first century and traces its origin to Saint Mark’s preaching. It has made a remarkable contribution to the growth of Christianity thanks to its writers, exegetes and philosophers, from to Origen. Alexandria was home to the first catechesis school of Christianity (A.D. 190). It had great teachers. In his speech, Tawadros II expressed his affection for and gratitude to Francis, who reciprocated these sentiments saying, “in coming here as a pilgrim, I was sure of receiving the blessing of a brother who awaited me.” In the room, the atmosphere was that of an important meeting, while at the same time solemn and fraternal. The division between the Coptic and the Catholic Church dates back to the fifth century when the former, along with other Eastern Churches, separated from the Latin and Greek Churches due to the rejection of the conclusions of the in 451. The Copts are ‘miaphysite’, which means they believe that Jesus is perfect in his divinity and perfect in his humanity, and his divinity and his humanity have been united in one nature, called “the nature of the incarnated Word.”

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In his speech, Pope Francis framed the visit as a further step along the common path within what he called “an already effective communion.” In fact, “in the sight of God, who wishes us to be ‘perfectly one,’ it is no longer possible to take refuge behind the pretext of differing interpretations, much less of those centuries of history and traditions that estranged us one from the other.” It is no longer possible to move forward separately. “Ecumenism of blood” supports the maturation of the ecumenical path. “Just as the heavenly Jerusalem is one, so too is our ,” said the pontiff. It is therefore necessary to build “communion in the concreteness of a daily lived witness.” Francis’ speech lies within a history of ecumenical relations that began after the Second Vatican Council. In particular, since June 1968, when following a request from Patriarch Cyril VI, Pope Paul VI returned a part of the relics of the evangelist Mark to the Copts. The relics of the saint had been stolen in 828 and brought to . Paul VI was the first pope to meet an Orthodox Coptic patriarch of Egypt. This happened on May 10, 1973, in the Vatican, when Paul VI and Shenouda III signed an important common Christological declaration and initiated bilateral ecumenical dialogue between the two Churches. The main result was the Joint Declaration (February 12, 1988) that expresses an official agreement on Christology, an agreement approved by the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Coptic Church. The Common Declaration on Christological Faith brought to an end centuries of misunderstanding and mutual distrust.13

13. “We confess that our Lord and God and Saviour and King of us all, Jesus Christ, is perfect God with respect to His Divinity, perfect man with respect to His humanity. In Him His divinity is united with His humanity in a real, perfect union without mingling, without commixtion, without confusion, without alteration, without division, without separation. His divinity did not separate from His humanity for an instant, not for the twinkling of an eye. At the same time, [we pronounce anathema on the]

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The , the Patriarchs, and Already Effective Communion The most recent meeting between the leaders of the two Churches was May 10, 2013, when Francis and Tawadros II met in Rome for what the pontiff had called “a great joy and a true moment of grace.” In his homily during the morning Mass at Santa Marta, he expressed his feelings: “He is a brother who comes to visit the Church of Rome to talk, to make a journey together. He is a brother bishop, a bishop like me, and he carries his Church forward. Let us ask the Lord to bless him and help him in his ministry to carry forward the Coptic Church; and for us too, because we know that we walk together on this journey.” In the embrace with Tawadros II on April 28, Francis embraced a Church that knew martyrdom all too well, today as in its past, living it with dignity and hope. The manifestation of affectionate solidarity from Francis to Tawadros II has assumed immense ecumenical value. Ecumenism, on the other hand, is not an end to itself, but it is at the service of Christians united in a divided, fractured and unstable world. As a firm indication, Francis and Tawadros II signed a Joint Declaration that summarizes the ecumenical path and relaunches it for the future: “We mutually declare that we, with one mind and heart, will seek sincerely not to repeat the that has been administered in either of our Churches for any person who wishes to join the other.” From this further ecumenical stage, it is evident that the pope and patriarchs he has met so far are playing a prophetic role within their respective Churches, moving toward a greater communion, beyond all resistance and inertia that oppose it. An obvious picture of this ecumenical dynamic was what happened after the signings and the exchange of gifts: doctrine of Nestorius and Eutyches.”

158 EGYPT, LAND OF CIVILIZATIONS AND ALLIANCES the pope with the patriarch and the delegations moved in procession to St. Peter’s church, 100 meters away, for ecumenical prayer in the presence of the heads of other Christian confessions. In the church, there are evident traces of the serious attack carried out on December 11, 2016, that resulted in 29 deaths and 31 wounded. On that day, the bodies were transported from inside the church to a wall outside. That wall was imbued with their blood. Today, a protective glass has been placed in front of the wall and it has become a destination for pilgrimage and prayer, a true “wall of martyrs.” Between these walls, a celebration now took place with, among others, Pope Francis, Pope Tawadros, Patriarch Bartholomew, and Patriarch Theodorus II of Alexandria all together for the first time. After readings of the gospel passage of the beatitudes by the religious leaders in Spanish, English, Greek and Arabic, and after the prayers of Pope Francis and Pope Tawadros II, there was the exchange of the sign of peace and the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. At the exit to the church, in the atrium, the pontiff paid homage to the place that recalls the victims, placing a wreath of flowers and lighting a candle in absolute silence. The place of martyrdom, the bloody wall, was one of the many touched by Francis.

Catholic Coptic Church and the Extremism of Charity On Saturday, April 29, at around 9:30 a.m., Francis arrived at the military aeronautics stadium and celebrated Mass for the Catholic community, consisting of Coptic, Latin, Chaldean, Melkite, Armenian and Maronite Christians. The previous evening he had greeted the 300 young people who had reached the Egyptian capital after a two-day pilgrimage and then attended the celebration. As soon as he arrived, Francis was surrounded by a group of children who ran up to hug him. The Mass was a great symphony of chants performed by six choirs

159 ANTONIO SPADARO, SJ representing the various Catholic rites in Egypt and as a sign of a universal and united Church. Among those present were representatives of the Orthodox and Al- Azhar Coptic communities. Among the faithful, there were numerous Orthodox and Muslims, including some relatives of the victims from the recent terrorist attacks. In Egypt there are about 270,000 Catholics, 213 parishes, 16 bishops, about 500 priests (diocesan and religious), and about 730 religious, as well as another 100 consecrated persons. Catholics are involved in about 400 educational institutions – including three of higher and university level – attended by 100,000 students. There are over 230 charitable and social centers owned or directed by ecclesiastical or religious orders. In his pastoral message to the small Catholic community, the pope commented on the Gospel of the Disciples of Emmaus, from the liturgy of the Third Sunday of Easter. And he said: “How often do we paralyze ourselves by refusing to transcend our own ideas of God, a god created in the image and likeness of man! How often do we despair by refusing to believe that God’s omnipotence is not one of power and authority, but rather of love, forgiveness and life!” God is beyond our ideas about him, often linked to a worldly comprehension of omnipotence as an expression of power. God’s omnipotence is that of love. A further message that, affirming love, denies violence and rejects it from the territory of religion. The pope spoke of a real “extremism of charity” inviting all to “love everyone, friends and enemies alike.” This is a strong message that – despite everything – invites the small Catholic flock of Egypt to come out of a defensive position, trusting not in worldly power but in that of God. In the afternoon, at around 3 p.m., the pontiff was welcomed by the Coptic Catholic patriarch, His Beatitude Ibrahim Sidrak, at the Patriarchal Seminary of St. Leo the Great, in the district of Maadi. Here, in the

160 EGYPT, LAND OF CIVILIZATIONS AND ALLIANCES sports field, he met clergy, male and female religious, and seminarians: around 1,500 people in all. Within the liturgy of the Word, Francis gave a speech, identifying consecrated priests and men and women religious “as the ‘leaven’ that God is preparing for this blessed land, so that, together with our Orthodox brothers and sisters, his Kingdom may increase in this place.” They are “sowers of hope, builders of bridges and agents of dialogue and harmony.” This is how to be “shepherds” on Egypt’s land, avoiding a series of temptations – Francis has identified seven of them – including the one of “the pharaoh” that leads to isolation and a sense of superiority. The pope recalled the two elements of Egyptian religious identity: “Your identity as sons and daughters of the Church is to be Copts – rooted in your noble and ancient origins – and to be Catholics – part of the one and universal Church.” At the end of the seminary meeting, the pontiff travelled the 40 kilometers to the airport for the farewell ceremony.

* * *

On August 23, 2017, the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Egypt and the Vatican will be celebrated. The situation of international politics is complex, and in this framework Francis has been recognized as “one of the main leaders who can lead the world toward peace and security.”14 Italian President Mattarella summed it up well in his Message to Francis prior to his departure for Cairo: this journey is “a message of hope to both believers and non-believers, a plea for the protection of universally recognized human rights, and an encouragement to solve the many crises that for too long have shaken the Middle East.”

14. Ambassador Abdel Rahman Moussa, Counsellor of the Great Imam, in an interview with Sir, on April 19, 2017.

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Egypt, then, was a journey rich in meaning, recurring messages and key words: God, peace, life, earth, and together. On the return journey from the Nile to the Tiber, the pope was visibly happy. His fundamental message is the one he had reiterated in Arabic at the beginning of all of his interventions: As–salamu alaykum! “Peace be with you!”15

15. Francis “brought happiness and joy to the Egyptian people,” reads a statement by the Egyptian Presidency, which is committed to “continue to make the utmost effort to counter the fundamentalist thinking and to annihilate it by raising the values of respect, from the reciprocal reception of the other, collaboration and edification for the good of the whole humanity.”

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