Price € 1,00. Back issues € 2,00

L’O S S E RVATOR E ROMANOWEEKLY EDITION

Unicuique suum

IN ENGLISHNon praevalebunt

Fifty-third year, number 25 (2.652) Vatican City Friday, 19 June 2020

On Francis’ Message for World Day of the Poor

Revive our sense of responsibilityto counter the risk of indifference

St John XXIII and Prof. Isaac

On the 60th anniversary

PAGE 5

General Audience

Bridges to God

PAGE 3

Interview with the Bishop of Gallup

Spirit of the Navajo

PAGE 11

Corpus Christi Homily

Close to ones who hunger

PAGE 5

Holy Father’s Message for the fourth World Day of the Poor

‘Stretch forth your hand to the poor’

CONTINUED ON PA G E 8

ANDREA MONDA

“I have seen the affliction of myp eople who are in Egypt, and haveheard their cry because of theirtaskmasters; I know their sufferings,and I have come down to deliverthem”. The words that God ad-dresses to Moses from the branchesof a bush that burns without beingconsumed, in the third chapter ofthe Book of Exodus, mark the be-ginning of history, a truly humanhistory, a history of salvation. Be-fore these words there was no true‘history’. Man was only a naturalelement among other similar livingbeings, subjugated to the cyclicalrhythm of nature, within a harshstruggle for survival that alwaysgave rise to a law, that of the fittest.

The Egyptians and the Hebrews.Now a new event has occurred.Someone, above nature, the creatorhimself, intervenes, comes in, ‘des-cends’ to free mankind for whomhe feels compassion in its ‘afflic-tion’. This descent occurs becausethree actions are accomplished to-gether: observing, listening, recog-nizing. And then we move on tothe action of liberating.

This is the origin of Israel’s his-tory which is fulfilled in the adventof Christ, a history that always seesmankind as the protagonist togeth-er with God. “He who created uswithout our help will not save uswithout our consent”, Saint Au-gustine reminds us. This salvationhistory can only happen with man’sactive response, only if the journeyis a synod, a path traveled together:

God walks with his people who ac-cept his offer of freedom. This story,like so many others told in theBible, continues to happen eachday. God calls and offers, man re-sponds. Man can do so because heis able to, he is ‘resp onse-able’. Attimes he does so, but not always.And when man does not respond hegoes back to being simply a naturalelement. This can be recognizedfrom the fact that his sense of re-sponsibility has been put to sleep; ithas gone into hibernation. This isthe expression that the Pope usedin his latest Message for World Dayof the Poor, released on Saturday, 13June: “Until we revive our sense ofresponsibility for our neighbour andfor every person, grave economic,

See page 6/7

L’OSSERVATORE ROMANOWEEKLY EDITION

Unicuique suumIN ENGLISHNon praevalebunt

Vatican Cityredazione.inglese.or@sp c.vaw w w. o s s e r v a t o re ro m a n o .v a

ANDREA MONDAEditor-in-Chief

Giuseppe FiorentinoAssistant Editor

Editorial officevia del Pellegrino, 00120 Vatican City

telephone +390669899300, fax +390669883675

TIPO GRAFIA VAT I C A N A EDITRICEL’OS S E R VAT O R E ROMANO

Photo Servicephoto@ossrom.va w w w. p h o t o .v a

Advertising AgencyIl Sole 24 Ore S.p.A.

System Comunicazione PubblicitariaVia Monte Rosa 91, 20149 Milano

s e g re t e r i a d i re z i o n e s y s t e m @ i l s o l e 2 4 o re . c o m

Subscription rates: Italy - Vatican: € 58.00; Europe: € 100.00 - US$ 148.00 £ 80.00; Latin America, Africa,Asia: € 110.00 - US$ 160.00 - £ 88.00; Oceania, North America: € 162.00 - £ 130.00.Management Office: phone +390669899480; fax +390669885164; e-mail subscriptions.or@spc.va.For India: The weekly English Edition of L'Osservatore Romano is published and distributed inIndia by Carmel International Publishing House, Cotton Hill, Trivandrum- 695 014, Kerala-India;phone: +91471327253, fax: +91471328191, 329934; e-mail: ciph@md4.vsnl.net.in; loroceania@carmelpublications.com.For North America: L’Osservatore Romano (USPS 016-419) is published fifty times per year (weekly, except third week inAugust and last week in December) by Our Sunday Visitor, L’Osservatore Romano, English Edition, 200 Noll Plaza,Huntington, IN 46750. Periodicals Postage Pending at Huntington, IN, and additional mailing offices, USA – phone:800-348-2440 x2171; fax: 866-891-7390 – e-mail: osvsales@osv.com.POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Our Sunday Visitor, 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750

page 2 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 19 June 2020, number 25

VAT I C A NBULLETIN

AUDIENCES

Friday, 12 June

Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle,Prefect of the Congregation for theEvangelization of PeoplesH.E. Mr Jan Tombin ski, Ambassa-dor of the European Union, on hisfarewell visitProfessor Marta Cartabia, Presidentof the Constitutional CourtMembers of the National Presidencyof the Ecclesial Movement for Cul-tural Commitment (Movimento Ec-clesiale di Impegno Culturale,MEIC).Fr Pasquale Spinoso, EcclesiasticalCounsellor of the Embassy of Italyto the Holy SeeSaturday, 13 June

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, PSS, Prefectof the Congregation for BishopsDr Federico Cafiero de Raho, Na-tional Anti-Mafia and Counter-Ter-rorism public prosecutorProfessor Andrea Monda, Editor-in-Chief of L’Osservatore Romano

Monday, 15 June

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefectof the Congregation for EasternC h u rc h e s

CHANGES IN EP I S C O PAT E

The Holy Father accepted the resig-nation of Bishop Pedro Daniel Mar-tínez Perea from his office as Bishopof San Luis, Argentina (9 June).The Holy Father appointed BishopGabriel Bernardo Barba as Bishopof San Luis. Until now he hasserved as Bishop of Gregorio de La-ferrere, Argentina (9 June).

Bishop Barba, 56, was born inMorón, Argentina. He was ordaineda priest on 12 August 1989. He wasordained a bishop on 1 March 2014,subsequent to his appointment asBishop of Gregorio de Laferrere.

The Holy Father accepted the resig-nation of Archbishop Robert JamesCarlson from his office as Archbish-op of the Metropolitan Archdioceseof Saint Louis, USA (10 June).The Holy Father appointed BishopMitchell Thomas Rozanski as Arch-bishop of Saint Louis. Until now hehas served as Bishop of Springfieldin Massachusetts, USA (10 June).

Archbishop Rozanski, 61, wasborn in Baltimore, USA . He was or-dained a priest on 24 November1984. He was ordained a bishop on24 August 2004, subsequent to hisappointment as titular Bishop ofWalla Walla and Auxiliary of Bal-timore. He was appointed Bishop ofSpringfield in Massachusetts on 19June 2014.

The Holy Father accepted the resig-nation of Bishop Aloísio Jorge PenaVitral from his office as Bishop ofSete Lagoas, Brazil (10 June).

The Holy Father appointed BishopFrancisco Cota de Oliveira as Bish-op of Sete Lagoas. Until now he hasserved as titular Bishop ofFiorentino and Auxiliary of Curiti-ba, Brazil (10 June).

Bishop Cota de Oliveira, 50, wasborn in Onça do Pitangui, Brazil.He was ordained a priest on 1 Au-gust 1999. He was ordained a bishopon 26 August 2017, subsequent tohis appointment as titular Bishop ofFiorentino and Auxiliary of Curit-iba.

The Holy Father appointed FrBruce Lewandowski, CSSR, as Auxili-ary Bishop of the Archdiocese ofBaltimore, USA, assigning him the

titular episcopal See of Croae. Untilnow he has served as ad interim del-egate for Hispanic Ministry of theArchdiocese of Baltimore and parishpriest of the Sacred Heart of Jesus /Sagrado Corazon de Jesus parish inHighlandtown, Maryland (10 June).

Bishop-elect Lewandowski, 53,was born in Toledo, USA . He com-pleted his theological studies at theWashington Theological Union. Hewas ordained a priest on 7 May1994.

The Holy Father accepted the resig-nation of Bishop José VilaplanaBlasco from his office as Bishop ofHuelva, Spain (15 June).The Holy Father appointed BishopSantiago Gómez Sierra as Bishop ofHuelva. Until now he has served astitular Bishop of Vergi and Auxiliaryof Seville, Spain (15 June).

Bishop Gómez Sierra, 62, wasborn in Madridejos, Spain. He wasordained a priest on 18 September1982. He was ordained a bishop on26 February 2011, subsequent to hisappointment as titular Bishop ofVergi and Auxiliary of Seville.

The Holy Father appointed BishopArturo Eduardo Fajardo Bustamanteas Bishop of Salto, Uruguay. Untilnow he has served as Bishop of SanJosé de Mayo, Uruguay (15 June).

Bishop Fajardo Bustamante, 58,was born in Aiguá, Uruguay. Hewas ordained a priest on 8 May1988. He was ordained a bishop on8 September 2007, subsequent to his

Congregation for the Causes of Saints

Promulgation of DecreesOn 26 May, the Holy Father received in audience Cardin-al Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for theCauses of Saints. During the audience, the SupremePontiff authorized the said Congregation to promulgate theDecrees relating to:

— the miracle attributed to the intercession ofBlessed César de Bus, priest, founder of the Congrega-tion of the Christian Doctrine Fathers (Doctrinaries),born on 3 February 1544 in Cavaillon, France, and diedon 15 April 1607 in Avignon, France;

— the miracle attributed to the intercession ofBlessed Charles de Foucauld (known as Charles ofJesus), diocesan priest, born on 15 September 1858 inStrasbourg, France, and died on 1 December 1916 inTamanrasset, Algeria;

— the miracle attributed to the intercession ofBlessed María Domenica Mantovani, co-founder andfirst Superior General of the Institute of the Little Sis-ters of the Holy Family, born on 12 November 1862 inCastelletto di Brenzone, Italy, and died there on 2 Feb-ruary 1934;

— the miracle attributed to the intercession of theVenerable Servant of God Michael McGivney, dioces-an priest, founder of the Order of the Knights of

Columbus, born on 12 August 1852 in Waterbury, USA,and died on 14 August 1890 in Thomaston, USA;

— the miracle attributed to the intercession of theVenerable Servant of God Pauline-Marie Jaricot,founder of the Society for the Propagation of the Faithand the Living Rosary Association, born on 22 July1799 in Lyon, France, and died there on 9 January1862;

— the martyrdom of the Servants of God SimèonCardon and five companions, professed religious of theCistercian Congregation of Casamari, killed inCasamari in hatred of the faith between 13 and 16 May1799;

— the martyrdom of the Servant of God CosmaSpessotto (in the world Sante), professed priest of theOrder of Friars Minor, born on 28 January 1923 inMansué, Italy, and killed in hatred of the faith in SanJuan Nonualco, El Salvador, on 14 June 1980;

— the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Melchior-Marie de Marion Brésillac, titular bishop of Prusa,formerly vicar apostolic of Coimbaore, founder of theAfrican Mission Societies, born on 2 December 1813 inCastelnaudary, France, and died in Freetown, SierraLeone, on 25 June 1859.

London property deal

Torzi granted provisional releaseThe Vatican’s Office of the Promotor of Justice, of the interrogator-ies to which Gianluigi Torzi was subjected in relation to the invest-igation of the sale of the building at 60 Sloane Avenue in London,has granted provisional release by an order dated 15 June. The de-cree, signed by Promotor of Justice Gian Piero Milano, and by hisAdjunct, Alessandro Diddi, indicates that the magistrates took no-tice of elements deduced in a joint memorandum consigned by MrTorzi, and of the numerous documentary attachments deemed use-ful in the reconstruction of facts under investigation. CONTINUED ON PA G E 8

number 25, Friday, 19 June 2020 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 3

The Holy Father speaks about the prayer of Moses and the mission of pastors

Bridges between the People and God

At the General Audience on Wednesday, 17 June, Pope Francisaddressed the faithful from the Library of the Apostolic Palace.He continued his series of catecheses on prayer, offering Moses’prayers of intercession on behalf of his people as an example ofhow we Christians today can pray for our neighbours. Thefollowing is a translation of the Holy Father’s catechesis, whichhe shared in Italian.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,Good morning!In our itinerary on the theme ofprayer, we are realizing that Godnever liked to deal with thosewho prayed the ‘easy’ way’. AndMoses was not a ‘weak’ conversa-tionalist either, from the very firstday of his vocation.

When God called him, Moseswas, in human terms, ‘a failure’.The Book of Exodus portrayshim in the land of Midian as afugitive. As a young man he hadfelt compassion for his people,and had aligned himself in de-fense of the oppressed. But hesoon discovered that, despite hisgood intentions, it was notjustice, but violence that flowedfrom his hands. Thus his dreamsof glory were shattered: Moseswas no longer a promising offi-cial, destined to rise rapidly in hiscareer, but rather one whogambled away opportunities, andnow grazed a flock that was noteven his own. And it was pre-cisely in the silence of the Midiandesert that God summonedMoses to the revelation of theburning bush: “‘I am the God ofyour father, the God of Abraham,the God of Isaac, and the God ofJacob’. And Moses hid his face,for he was afraid to look at God”(Ex 3:6).

Moses resists God who speaks,who invites him to take care ofthe people of Israel once more,with his fears and his objections:he is not worthy of that mission,he does not know God’s name,he will not be believed by the Is-raelites, he has a stammeringtongue ... so many objections.The word that issues most fre-quently from Moses’ lips, in everyprayer he addresses to God, is thequestion: ‘Why?’ Why have yousent me? Why do you want tofree this people? Why? In thePentateuch, there is even a dra-matic passage where God re-proaches Moses for his lack oftrust, a lack that will prevent himfrom entering the promised land(cf. Num 20:12).

With these fears, with this of-ten wavering heart, how canMoses pray? Indeed, Moses ap-pears human like us. And thishappens to us too: when we have

doubts, how can we pray? We donot feel like praying. And it is be-cause of this, his weakness, aswell as his strength, that we areimpressed. Entrusted by God totransmit the Law to his people,founder of divine worship, medi-ator of the loftiest mysteries, hewill not for this reason cease tomaintain close bonds of solidaritywith his people, especially in thehour of temptation and sin. He isalways attached to his people.Moses never forgets his people.And this is a great characteristicof pastors: not forgetting thepeople, not forgetting one’s roots.It is what Paul says to his be-loved young Bishop Timothy:“Remember your mother andyour grandmother, your roots,your people”. Moses is sofriendly with God that he canspeak with Him face to face (cf.Ex 33:11); and he will remain sofriendly with the people that hefeels mercy for their sins, for theirtemptations, for the sudden nos-talgia that the exiles feel for thepast, recalling when they were inEgypt.

Moses does not reject God, butnor does he reject his people. Heis faithful to his flesh and blood,he is faithful to God’s voice.Moses is not therefore an author-itarian and despotic leader; theBook of Numbers defines himrather as “very meek, more thanall men that were on the face ofthe earth” (Num 12:3). Despitehis privileged status, Moses neverceases to belong to the ranks ofthe poor in spirit who live bytrusting in God as the viaticumof their journey. He is a man ofhis people.

Thus, the manner of prayermost proper to Moses is throughi n t e rc e s s i o n (cf. Catechism of theCatholic Church, 2574). His faithin God is completely at one withthe sense of fatherhood he feelstoward his people. Scripture ha-bitually portrays him with hishands outstretched toward God,as if to form with his own persona bridge between heaven andearth. Even in the most difficultmoments, even on the day whenthe people repudiate God andMoses himself as leader and makethemselves a golden calf, Moses

does not feel inclined to set hispeople aside. They are mypeople. They are your people.They are my people. He does notreject God nor his people. Andhe says to God: “this people havesinned a great sin; they havemade for themselves gods ofgold. But now, if thou wilt for-give their sin — and if not, blotme, I pray thee, out of thy bookwhich thou hast written” (Ex32:31-32). Moses does not barterhis people. He is the bridge; he isthe intercessor. Both of them, thepeople and God, and he is in themiddle. He does not sell out hispeople to advance his career. Hedoes not climb the ladder; he isan intercessor: for his people, forhis flesh and blood, for his his-tory, for his people and for theGod who called him. He is thebridge. What a beautiful examplefor all pastors who must be‘bridges’. This is why they arecalled pontifex, bridges. Pastorsare the bridges between thepeople they belong to, and God,to whom they belong by voca-tion. This is what Moses is:“Lord, forgive their sin, and ifyou do not forgive, blot me fromthe book you have written. I donot want to advance at the ex-pense of my people”.

And this is the prayer that truebelievers cultivate in their spiritu-al life. Even if they experiencep eople’s shortcomings and theirdistance from God, these prayer-ful people do not condemn them,they do not reject them. The in-tercessory attitude is proper tothe saints who, in imitation of Je-sus, are ‘bridges’ between Godand his people. Moses, in thissense, was the first great prophetof Jesus, our advocate and inter-cessor (cf. Catechism of the Cathol-ic Church, 2577). And today, too,Jesus is the pontifex; he is thebridge between us and the Father.And Jesus intercedes for us; heshows the Father the wounds thatare the price of our salvation, andhe intercedes. And Moses is thefigure of Jesus who today praysfor us, intercedes for us.

Moses urges us to pray withthe same ardour of Jesus, to inter-cede for the world, to rememberthat despite all its frailties, it still

belongs to God. Everyone be-longs to God. The worst sinners,the most wicked people, the mostcorrupt leaders, are children ofGod, and Jesus feels this and in-tercedes for everyone. And theworld lives and flourishes to theblessing of the righteous, to theprayer for mercy, this prayer formercy that the holy, the right-eous, the intercessor, the priest,the bishop, the Pope, the layper-son, any baptized person unceas-ingly raises up for humanity, inevery place and time in history.Let us think of Moses, the inter-cessor. And when we want tocondemn someone and we be-come angry inside — gettingangry can do good, but con-demning does no good – let usintercede for him or her; this willhelp us a lot.

Today is the “Day of Con-science”, inspired by the witnessof the Portuguese diplomat Ari-stides de Sousa Mendes, whosome 80 years ago decided to fol-low the voice of his conscienceand saved the lives of thousandsof Jews and other persecutedpeople. May freedom of con-science be respected always andeverywhere; and may every Chris-tian give the example of consist-ency with an upright conscienceenlightened by the Word of God.

SPECIAL GREETINGS

I greet the English-speakingfaithful joining us through themedia. Upon you and your famil-ies I invoke the joy and peace ofthe Lord. May God bless you!

Tomorrow is the Solemnity ofthe Sacred Heart of Jesus: a cel-ebration so dear to the Christianpeople. I invite you to discoverthe riches hidden in the Heart ofJesus, in order to learn how tolove your neighbour.

I address my thoughts to thee l d e rl y, to young people, to the sickand to newlyweds: Turn your gazeto the Heart of Jesus and you willfind peace, comfort and hope. Ioffer you my heartfelt blessing!

GENERAL AU D I E N C E

page 4 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 19 June 2020, number 25

Video Message to Scholas Occurentes for the online meeting on the occasion of World Environment Day

Gratuity, meaning andbeauty are the future of humanity

Dear Brothers and Sisters of Scholas,Today, after all these years in whichwe have shared our founding issue,it is a great joy to be able to callyou a “community”. A communityof friends, a community of brothersand sisters.

I still remember its origins: twoteachers, two professors, in the midstof a crisis, with a little folly and alittle intuition. Something un-planned, which took shape alongthe way.

When the crisis in that time leftbehind a land of violence, that edu-cation brought young people togeth-er, generating meaning and, there-fore, generating beauty.

Three images of this journey cometo my heart, three images that haveguided three years of reflection andencounter: the fool in Fellini’s “LaStrada”, Caravaggio’s “The Callingof Matthew”, and Dostoyevsky’s“The Idiot”. Meaning — the fool —,the Call — Matthew —, and Beauty.

The three stories are the story of acrisis. And thus in all three, humanresponsibility comes into play. Crisisoriginally means ‘ru p t u re ’, ‘tear’,‘opening' ... ‘danger’, but also ‘op-p ortunity’.

When roots need space to contin-ue growing, the flowerpot ends upbreaking. The fact is that life is lar-ger than our own life and thereforeit breaks. But such is life! It grows,it breaks.

Poor humanity, without crises!Everything perfect, everything or-derly, all neatly starched. Poor hu-manity. Let us imagine, such a hu-manity would be an unhealthy hu-manity, very unhealthy. Thank Godthis doesn’t happen. It would be anumb humanity.

On the other hand, given thatcrisis enlivens us, calling us into theopen, danger comes when we are nottaught how to relate to one anotherwith that openness. This is whycrises, if they are not well supported,are dangerous, as one can becomedisoriented. And it is wise advice,even for small, personal, marital andsocial crises: “never enter a crisisalone; go in company”.

There, in crisis, we are invaded byfear, we close ourselves off as indi-viduals, or we begin to repeat whatis convenient for very few, emptyingourselves of meaning, concealingone’s own call, losing beauty. This iswhat happens when one goesthrough a crisis alone, without reser-vation. This beauty that, as Dosto-evsky said, will save the world.

Scholas was born of a crisis, but itdid not raise its fists to fight withthe culture, nor did it lower its arms

and give up, or run away crying:what a disaster, what terrible times!It came out, listening to the heartsof young people, to cultivate thenew reality. “This isn’t working?Let’s go search elsewhere”.

Scholas looks out through thecracks in the world — not with thehead — with the whole body, to see

if another response returns from theoutside.

And this means educating. Educa-tion is listening, or it does not edu-cate. If one does not listen, one doesnot educate. Education creates cul-ture, or it does not educate. Educa-tion teaches us to celebrate, or itdoes not educate.

Someone might say to me, “Buthow, isn’t education about knowingthings?”. No. This is knowledge.But to educate is to listen, to createculture, to celebrate.

And this is how Scholas grew. Noteven these two fools — the founding

fathers, we could say in jest — ima-gined that that educational experi-ence in the Diocese of Buenos Aires,after 20 years would have grown asa new culture, “poetically dwellingupon the earth”, as Hölderlin taughtus. Listening, creating and celebrat-ing life. This new culture poeticallydwelling upon the earth.

Harmonizing the language ofthought with feelings and actions.That is what you heard me say manytimes: the language of the head, ofthe heart and of the hands, syn-chronized. Head, heart and hands,growing harmoniously.

In Scholas I have seen Japaneseteachers and students dancing withColombians. It’s impossible! I haveseen it. I have seen young people ofIsrael playing with those ofPalestine. I have seen it. Studentsfrom Haiti thinking with those fromDubai. Children from Mozambiquepainting with those from Portugal....I have seen, between East and West,an olive tree creating a culture of en-c o u n t e r.

Therefore, in this new crisis thathumanity is facing today, where cul-ture has been shown to have lost itsvitality, I want to celebrate the factthat Scholas, as a community thateducates, as an intuition that grows,

On the 60th anniversary of the meeting between Pope Saint John XXIII and Prof. Jules Isaac

Recommitting to a Moment of TransformationABRAHAM SKO R KA

There are moments in history thatchange peoples and individualsforever. Many such moments areencounters between people andGod or between people and theirneighbors. Abraham’s encounterwith the Creator in which he heardthe command: “Go” (Genesis 12:1)and Moses’ encounter with God inthe burning bush (Exodus 3) aretwo biblical examples of very trans-formative conversations. Anotherturning point in history occurred60 years ago, on 13 June 1960,when Prof. Jules Isaac had an audi-ence with Saint Pope John XXIII.

Fifteen years had passed sincethe end of the Second World War;a new world was coming into beingon the ruins and devastation left bythe conflagration. The Pope real-ized that the Catholic Church hadto adapt to this new reality if itwere to contribute to global needs.Therefore, on 24 January 1960, heannounced that he would convenea great council of all the world’sbishops, the Second Vatican Coun-cil.

At the Vatican’s invitation, thou-sands of proposals were sent bybishops and theologians for pos-sible topics to be considered by the

Council. There were hardly any re-quests that the Council take up thequestion of the Shoah and its rela-tion to centuries of anti-JewishChristian teaching. One exceptionwas an appeal sent by the rectorand Jesuit faculty of the PontificalBiblical Institute in Rome.

The evident widespread failure tounderstand the urgency of thequestion greatly distressed PaulistFather Thomas F. Stransky, a staffmember of the Secretariat for thePromotion of Christian Unity, whorecalled decades later:

I asked myself: Was such indif-ference an unintentional collectiveoversight? Was the genocide exper-ience of the Jews in ChristianE u ro p e , the “final solution” for theworld’s Jewish people, already for-gotten or so marginalized? Werethe heavily publicized NurembergWar Trials in 1947 a quickly extin-guished blimp?

The Jewish historian, Prof. JulesIsaac was famous before WorldWar II for his books on secondaryeducation in France. Although helost his wife, daughter and son-in-law in Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, he did not become em-bittered. In 1947 he published animportant study, Jésus et Israël onhow the Jewishness of Jesus con-

trasted with later Christian anti-Jewish teachings. He also was oneof the founders of the Am i tié Judéo-C h ré t i e n n e de France and one of thekey participants in the famousSeelisberg Conference (1947). Heunderstood that although Nazianti-Semitism had pagan roots,centuries of the Christian “teachingof contempt” (the title of his 1962book) had served the Nazis well.And so he became one of the greatadvocates of Christian-Jewish dia-logue. When the newly electedJohn XXIII announced the GreatCouncil, Isaac sought an audience.He would find the new Pope to bea sympathetic listener.

As Ambassador of the Holy Seeto Turkey, the former Angelo Ron-calli had provided, at the request ofthe Jewish Agency, thousands offalse baptismal certificates andtravel visas to Bulgarian, Romani-an, Slovakian and Hungarian Jews,saving them from the Shoah andenabling them to flee from Europeto Palestine. On his first Good Fri-day as Pope, he had removed theword “p erfidious” from the interces-sion for Jews.

When the two met on 13 June1960, Isaac presented a portfolio

CONTINUED ON PA G E 5

CONTINUED ON PA G E 8

“Gratuitousness, meaning and beauty” are the three key words that Pope Francisemphasized to the thousands of young people from over 170 countries around theworld who, along with their parents and teachers, participated in an onlinemeeting on Friday, 5 June, World Environment Day. The following is atranslation of the Holy Father’s video message, which he delivered in Spanish.

number 25, Friday, 19 June 2020 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 5

Pope celebrates Corpus Christi Mass in the Vatican Basilica

Close to those who hunger for food and dignityWe need bonds of solidarity so that no one will be left alone

Holy Father to Scholas OccurentesCONTINUED FROM PA G E 4

We need “bonds of solidarity” today in order “to takecare of those who hunger for food and for dignity, ofthose without work and those who struggle to carryon”, Pope Francis reminded the faithful during hishomily for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body andBlood of Christ on Sunday, 14 June. The followingis the English text of the Pope’s homily.

“Remember all the way which the Lord your Godhas led you” (Deut 8:2). Today’s Scripture read-ings begin with this command of Moses: Remem-ber! Shortly afterwards Moses reiterates: “Do notforget the Lord, your God” (v. 14). Scripture hasbeen given to us that we might overcome our for-getfulness of God. How important it is to remem-ber this when we pray! As one of the Psalmsteaches: “I will call to mind the deeds of theLord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old”(77:11). But all those wonders too, that the Lordhas worked in our own lives.

It is vital to remember the good we have re-ceived. If we do not remember it, we becomestrangers to ourselves, “passers-by” of existence.Without memory, we uproot ourselves from thesoil that nourishes us and allow ourselves to becarried away like leaves in the wind. If we do re-member, however, we bind ourselves afresh tothe strongest of ties; we feel part of a living his-tory, the living experience of a people. Memoryis not something private; it is the path thatunites us to God and to others. This is why inthe Bible the memory of the Lord must bepassed on from generation to generation. Fath-ers are commanded to tell the story to theirsons, as we read in a beautiful passage. “Whenyour son asks you in time to come, ‘What is themeaning of the decrees and the statutes and theordinances which the Lord our God has com-manded you?’, then you shall say to your son,‘We were slaves… [think of the whole history ofslavery!], and the Lord showed signs and won-ders… before our eyes’” (Deut 6:20-22). Youshall hand down this memory to your son.

But there is a problem: what if the chain oftransmission of memories is interrupted? Andhow can we remember what we have only heard,unless we have also experienced it? God knowshow difficult it is, he knows how weak ourmemory is, and he has done something remark-able: he left us a memorial. He did not just leaveus words, for it is easy to forget what we hear. Hedid not just leave us the Scriptures, for it is easyto forget what we read. He did not just leave ussigns, for we can forget even what we see. Hegave us Food, for it is not easy to forgetsomething we have actually tasted. He left us

Bread in which he is truly present, alive and true,with all the flavour of his love. Receiving him wecan say: “He is the Lord; he remembers me!”That is why Jesus told us: “Do this in remem-brance of me” (1 Cor 11:24). Do! The Eucharist isnot simply an act of remembrance; it is a fact: theL o rd ’s Passover is made present once again forus. In Mass the death and resurrection of Jesusare set before us. Do this in remembrance of me:come together and celebrate the Eucharist as acommunity, as a people, as a family, in order toremember me. We cannot do without the Euchar-ist, for it is God’s memorial. And it heals ourwounded memory.

The Eucharist first heals our orphaned memory.We are living at a time of great orphanage. TheEucharist heals orphaned memory. So many peoplehave memories marked by a lack of affection andbitter disappointments caused by those whoshould have given them love and insteadorphaned their hearts. We would like to go backand change the past, but we cannot. God,however, can heal these wounds by placing withinour memory a greater love: his own love. TheEucharist brings us the Father’s faithful love,

which heals our sense of being orphans. It givesus Jesus’ love, which transformed a tomb from anend to a beginning, and in the same way cantransform our lives. It fills our hearts with theconsoling love of the Holy Spirit, who neverleaves us alone and always heals our wounds.

Through the Eucharist, the Lord also heals ournegative memory, that negativity which seeps so of-ten into our hearts. The Lord heals this negativememory, which drags to the surface things thathave gone wrong and leaves us with the sorry no-tion that we are useless, that we only make mis-takes, that we are ourselves a mistake. Jesuscomes to tell us that this is not so. He wants tobe close to us. Every time we receive him, he re-minds us that we are precious, that we are guestshe has invited to his banquet, friends with whomhe wants to dine. And not only because he isgenerous, but because he is truly in love with us.He sees and loves the beauty and goodness thatwe are. The Lord knows that evil and sins do notdefine us; they are diseases, infections. And hecomes to heal them with the Eucharist, whichcontains the antibodies to our negative memory.With Jesus, we can become immune to sadness. Wewill always remember our failures, troubles, prob-lems at home and at work, our unrealized dreams.But their weight will not crush us because Jesus ispresent even more deeply, encouraging us withhis love. This is the strength of the Eucharist,which transforms us into bringers of God, bringersof joy, not negativity. We who go to Mass canask: What is it that we bring to the world? Is itour sadness and bitterness, or the joy of theLord? Do we receive Holy Communion and thencarry on complaining, criticizing and feeling sorryfor ourselves? This does not improve anything,whereas the joy of the Lord can change lives.

Finally, the Eucharist heals our closed memory.The wounds we keep inside create problems notonly for us, but also for others. They make usfearful and suspicious. We start with beingclosed, and end up cynical and indifferent. Ourwounds can lead us to react to others with de-tachment and arrogance, in the illusion that inthis way we can control situations. Yet that is in-deed an illusion, for only love can heal fear at itsroot and free us from the self-centredness that im-prisons us. And that is what Jesus does. He ap-proaches us gently, in the disarming simplicity ofthe Host. He comes as Bread broken in order tobreak open the shells of our selfishness. He givesof himself in order to teach us that only by open-ing our hearts can we be set free from our interiorbarriers, from the paralysis of the heart.

The Lord, offering himself to us in the simpli-city of bread, also invites us not to waste our livesin chasing the myriad illusions that we think wecannot do without, yet that leave us empty with-in. The Eucharist satisfies our hunger for materialthings and kindles our desire to serve. It raises usfrom our comfortable and lazy lifestyle and re-minds us that we are not only mouths to be fed,but also his hands, to be used to help feed others.It is especially urgent now to take care of thosewho hunger for food and for dignity, of thosewithout work and those who struggle to carry on.And this we must do in a real way, as real as theBread that Jesus gives us. Genuine closeness isneeded, as are true bonds of solidarity. In theEucharist, Jesus draws close to us: let us not turnaway from those around us!

Dear brothers and sisters, let us continue ourcelebration of Holy Mass: the Memorial thatheals our memory. Let us never forget: the Massis the Memorial that heals memory, the memoryof the heart. The Mass is the treasure that shouldbe foremost both in the Church and in our lives.And let us also rediscover Eucharistic adoration,which continues the work of the Mass within us.This will do us much good, for it heals us within.Especially now, when our need is so great.

opens the doors of the Uni-versity of Meaning. Because toeducate is to seek the meaningof things. It is to teach how tolook for the meaning of things.

Uniting the dream of chil-dren and young people withthe experience of adults andthe elderly. This encountermust always take place; other-wise there is no humanity, be-cause there are no roots, thereis no history; there is no prom-ise; there is no growth; thereare no dreams; there is nop ro p h e c y.

Students of all situations,languages and beliefs, because

no one is left out when what istaught is not just a thing, butLife. The same life that gener-ates us and will always gener-ate other worlds. Differentworlds, unique, as we are also.In our most profound suffer-ings, joys, desires and nostal-gia. Worlds of Gratuitousness,of Meaning, and of Beauty.“The Idiot”, Caravaggio’s“Calling”, and the fool of “LaStrada”.

Never forget these last threewords: gratuitousness, meaningand beauty. They may seemworthless to you, especiallynowadays. Who starts a busi-ness seeking gratuitousness,meaning and beauty? It does

not produce; it does not pro-duce. Yet the whole of human-ity, the future, depends uponthese things that seem worth-less. Move forward, take thismystique that has been given,that no one invented; and thefirst to be surprised were thesetwo fools who founded it. Andthis is why they offer it, theygive it away, because it is nottheirs. It is something thatcame to them as a gift. Goforth sowing and reaping, witha smile, with risk, but all to-gether and always hand inhand, to overcome any crisis.

May God bless you. Andplease, do not forget to prayfor me. Thank you very much.

number 25, Friday, 19 June 2020 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 6/7

“Time devoted to prayer can never become an alibi for neglecting our neighbour inneed”, Pope Francis said in his message for the Fourth World Day of the Poor.Indeed, he added, “prayer attains its goal when accompanied by service to thepoor”. Instituted by Pope Francis at the end of the Jubilee of Mercy in 2016 withthe Apostolic Letter “Misericordia et Misera”, World Day of the Poor, 2020 willbe celebrated on 15 November, 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. The following isthe English text of the Holy Father’s message.

Pontiff praises those who risked contagion to help others during the pandemic

Hands outstretched with generosityto answer to the silent cry of the neediest

WORLD DAY OF THE PO OR

“Stretch forth your handto the poor” (Sir 6:7)

“Stretch forth your hand to thep o or” (Sir 6:7). Age-old wisdomhas proposed these words as a sac-red rule to be followed in life.Today these words remain astimely as ever. They help us fix ourgaze on what is essential and over-come the barriers of indifference.Poverty always appears in a varietyof guises, and calls for attention toeach particular situation. In all ofthese, we have an opportunity toencounter the Lord Jesus, who hasrevealed himself as present in theleast of his brothers and sisters (cf.Mt 25:40).

1. Let us take up the Old Testa-ment book of Sirach, in which wefind the words of a sage who livedsome two hundred years beforeChrist. He sought out the wisdomthat makes men and women betterand more capable of insight intothe affairs of life. He did this at atime of severe testing for thepeople of Israel, a time of suffer-ing, grief and poverty due to thedomination of foreign powers. As aman of great faith, rooted in thetraditions of his forebears, his firstthought was to turn to God and tobeg from him the gift of wisdom.The Lord did not refuse his help.

From the book’s first pages, itsauthor presents his advice concern-ing many concrete situations inlife, one of which is poverty. He in-sists that even amid hardship wemust continue to trust in God:“Do not be alarmed when disastercomes. Cling to him and do notleave him, so that you may be hon-oured at the end of your days.Whatever happens to you, accept

it, and in the uncertainties of yourhumble state, be patient, sincegold is tested in the fire, andchosen men in the furnace of hu-miliation. Trust him and he willuphold you, follow a straight pathand hope in him. You who fear theLord, wait for his mercy; do notturn aside in case you fall” (2:2-7).

2. In page after page, we discov-er a precious compendium of ad-vice on how to act in the light of aclose relationship with God, creat-or and lover of creation, just andprovident towards all his children.This constant reference to God,however, does not detract from aconcrete consideration of mankind.On the contrary, the two areclosely connected.

This is clearly demonstrated bythe passage from which the themeof this year’s Message is taken (cf.7:29-36). Prayer to God and solid-arity with the poor and sufferingare inseparable. In order to per-form an act of worship acceptableto the Lord, we have to recognizethat each person, even the poorestand most contemptible, is made inthe image of God. From thisawareness comes the gift of God’sblessing, drawn by the generositywe show to the poor. Time devotedto prayer can never become analibi for neglecting our neighbourin need. In fact the very oppositeis true: the Lord’s blessing des-cends upon us and prayer attainsits goal when accompanied by ser-vice to the poor.

3. How timely too, for ourselves,is this ancient teaching! Indeed,the word of God transcends spaceand time, religions and cultures.Generosity that supports the weak,consoles the afflicted, relieves suf-fering and restores dignity to thosestripped of it, is a condition for afully human life. The decision tocare for the poor, for their manydifferent needs, cannot be condi-tioned by the time available or byprivate interests, or by impersonalpastoral or social projects. Thepower of God’s grace cannot be re-strained by the selfish tendency toput ourselves always first.

Keeping our gaze fixed on thepoor is difficult, but more neces-sary than ever if we are to giveproper direction to our personal

life and the life of society. It is nota matter of fine words but of aconcrete commitment inspired bydivine charity. Each year, on theWorld Day of the Poor, I reiteratethis basic truth in the life of theChurch, for the poor are and al-ways will be with us to help uswelcome Christ’s presence into ourdaily lives (cf. Jn 12:8).

4. Encountering the poor andthose in need constantly challengesus and forces us to think. How canwe help to eliminate or at least al-leviate their marginalization andsuffering? How can we help themin their spiritual need? The Christi-an community is called to be in-volved in this kind of sharing andto recognize that it cannot be del-egated to others. In order to helpthe poor, we ourselves need to livethe experience of evangelicalpoverty. We cannot feel “alright”when any member of the humanfamily is left behind and in theshadows. The silent cry of so manypoor men, women and childrenshould find the people of God atthe forefront, always and every-where, in efforts to give them avoice, to protect and support themin the face of hypocrisy and somany unfulfilled promises, and toinvite them to share in the life ofthe community.

The Church certainly has nocomprehensive solutions to pro-pose, but by the grace of Christshe can offer her witness and hergestures of charity. She likewisefeels compelled to speak out onbehalf of those who lack life’s basic

necessities. For the Christianpeople, to remind everyone of thegreat value of the common good isa vital commitment, expressed inthe effort to ensure that no onewhose human dignity is violated inits basic needs will be forgotten.

5. The ability to stretch forth ourhand shows that we possess an in-nate capacity to act in ways thatgive meaning to life. How manyoutstretched hands do we see everyday! Sadly, it is more and more thecase that the frenetic pace of lifesucks us into a whirlwind of indif-ference, to the point that we nolonger know how to recognize thegood silently being done each dayand with great generosity allaround us. Only when somethinghappens that upsets the course ofour lives do our eyes become cap-able of seeing the goodness of thesaints “next door”, of “those who,living in our midst, reflect God’sp re s e n c e ” (Gaudete et Exsultate, 7),but without fanfare. Bad news fillsthe pages of newspapers, websitesand television screens, to the pointthat evil seems to reign supreme.But that is not the case. To besure, malice and violence, abuseand corruption abound, but life isinterwoven too with acts of respectand generosity that not only com-pensate for evil, but inspire us totake an extra step and fill ourhearts with hope.

6. A hand held out is a sign; asign that immediately speaks ofcloseness, solidarity and love. Inthese months, when the wholeworld was prey to a virus that

brought pain and death, despairand bewilderment, how many out-stretched hands have we seen! Theoutstretched hands of physicianswho cared about each patient andtried to find the right cure. Theoutstretched hands of nurses whoworked overtime, for hours on end,to look after the sick. The out-stretched hands of administratorswho procured the means to save asmany lives as possible. The out-stretched hands of pharmacistswho at personal risk responded top eople’s pressing needs. The out-stretched hands of priests whosehearts broke as they offered ablessing. The outstretched hands ofvolunteers who helped people liv-ing on the streets and those with ahome yet nothing to eat. The out-stretched hands of men and wo-men who worked to provide essen-tial services and security. We couldcontinue to speak of so many otheroutstretched hands, all of whichmake up a great litany of goodworks. Those hands defied conta-gion and fear in order to offer sup-port and consolation.

7. This pandemic arrived sud-denly and caught us unprepared,sparking a powerful sense of bewil-derment and helplessness. Yethands never stopped reaching outto the poor. This has made us allthe more aware of the presence ofthe poor in our midst and theirneed for help. Structures of charity,works of mercy, cannot be impro-vised. Constant organization andtraining is needed, based on therealization of our own need for anoutstretched hand.

The present experience has chal-lenged many of our assumptions.We feel poorer and less self-suffi-cient because we have come tosense our limitations and the re-striction of our freedom. The lossof employment, and of opportunit-ies to be close to our loved onesand our regular acquaintances,suddenly opened our eyes to hori-zons that we had long since takenfor granted. Our spiritual and ma-terial resources were called intoquestion and we found ourselvesexperiencing fear. In the silence ofour homes, we rediscovered the im-portance of simplicity and of keep-ing our eyes fixed on the essentials.We came to realize how much weneed a new sense of fraternity, formutual help and esteem. Now is agood time to recover “the convic-tion that we need one another, thatwe have a shared responsibility forothers and the world… We havehad enough of immorality and themockery of ethics, goodness, faith

and honesty… When the founda-tions of social life are corroded,what ensues are battles over con-flicting interests, new forms of viol-ence and brutality, and obstacles tothe growth of a genuine culture ofcare for the environment” (LaudatoSi’, 229). In a word, until we reviveour sense of responsibility for ourneighbour and for every person,grave economic, financial andpolitical crises will continue.

8. This year’s theme — “S t re t c hforth your hand to the poor” — isthus a summons to responsibilityand commitment as men and wo-men who are part of our one hu-man family. It encourages us tobear the burdens of the weakest, inaccord with the words of SaintPaul: “Through love serve one an-other. For the whole law is fulfilledin one word: ‘You shall love yourneighbour as yourself’… Bear oneanother’s burdens, and so fulfil thelaw of Christ” (Gal 5:13-14; 6:2).The Apostle teaches that the free-dom bestowed through the deathand resurrection of Jesus Christmakes us individually responsiblefor serving others, especially theweakest. This is not an option, butrather a sign of the authenticity ofthe faith we profess.

Here again, the book of Sirachcan help us. It suggests concreteways to support the most vulner-able and it uses striking images.First, it asks us to sympathize withthose who are sorrowing: “Do notfail those who weep” (7:34). Thetime of pandemic forced us intostrict isolation, making it im-possible even to see and consolefriends and acquaintances grievingthe loss of their loved ones. Thesacred author also says: “Do notshrink from visiting the sick” (7:35).We have been unable to be closeto those who suffer, and at thesame time we have become moreaware of the fragility of our ownlives. The word of God allows forno complacency; it constantly im-pels us to acts of love.

9. At the same time, the com-mand: “Stretch forth your hand tothe poor” challenges the attitude ofthose who prefer to keep theirhands in their pockets and to re-main unmoved by situations ofpoverty in which they are oftencomplicit. Indifference and cyn-icism are their daily food. What adifference from the generous handswe have described! If they stretchout their hands, it is to touch com-puter keys to transfer sums ofmoney from one part of the worldto another, ensuring the wealth ofan elite few and the dire poverty ofmillions and the ruin of entire na-tions. Some hands are outstretchedto accumulate money by the sale ofweapons that others, includingthose of children, use to sow deathand poverty. Other hands are out-stretched to deal doses of death indark alleys in order to grow richand live in luxury and excess, or toquietly pass a bribe for the sake ofquick and corrupt gain. Othersstill, parading a sham respectabil-ity, lay down laws which theythemselves do not observe.

Amid all these scenarios, “theexcluded are still waiting. To sus-tain a lifestyle which excludes oth-ers, or to sustain enthusiasm forthat selfish ideal, a globalization ofindifference has developed. Almostwithout being aware of it, we endup being incapable of feeling com-passion at the outcry of the poor,weeping for other people’s pain,and feeling a need to help them, asthough all this were someone else’sresponsibility and not our own”(Evangelii Gaudium, 54). We can-not be happy until these handsthat sow death are transformed in-to instruments of justice and peacefor the whole world.

10. “In everything you do, re-member your end” (Sir 7:36).These are the final words of thischapter of the book of Sirach.They can be understood in twoways. First, our lives will sooner orlater come to an end. Remember-ing our common destiny can help

lead to a life of concern for thosepoorer than ourselves or lackingthe opportunities that were ours.But second, there is also an end orgoal towards which each of us istending. And this means that ourlives are a project and a process.The “end” of all our actions canonly be love. This is the ultimategoal of our journey, and nothingshould distract us from it. Thislove is one of sharing, dedicationand service, born of the realizationthat we were first loved andawakened to love. We see this inthe way children greet their moth-er’s smile and feel loved simply byvirtue of being alive. Even a smilethat we can share with the poor isa source of love and a way ofspreading love. An outstretchedhand, then, can always be enrichedby the smile of those who quietlyand unassumingly offer to help, in-spired only by the joy of living asone of Christ’s disciples.

In this journey of daily en-counter with the poor, the Motherof God is ever at our side. Morethan any other, she is the Motherof the Poor. The Virgin Maryknows well the difficulties and suf-ferings of the marginalized, for sheherself gave birth to the Son ofGod in a stable. Due to the threatof Herod, she fled to anothercountry with Joseph her spouseand the child Jesus. For severalyears, the Holy Family lived asrefugees. May our prayer to Mary,Mother of the Poor, unite these,her beloved children, with all thosewho serve them in Christ’s name.And may that prayer enable out-stretched hands to become an em-brace of shared and rediscoveredf r a t e r n i t y.

Rome, Saint John Lateran,13 June 2020Memorial of

Saint Anthony of Padua

page 8 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 19 June 2020, number 25

Reviving our sense of responsibilityCONTINUED FROM PA G E 1

Photo by Daniele Garofani

Rabbi Skorka: Recommitting to a Moment CONTINUED FROM PA G E 4

VAT I C A N BULLETIN

appointment as Bishop of San Joséde Mayo.

PA PA L MASTER OF CEREMONIES

Msgr. Ľubomír Welnitz, of the clergyof the Work of Jesus the High PriestClerical Association and official of theApostolic Penitentiary has been ap-pointed as Papal Master of Ceremon-ies (14 June).

RE L AT I O N S WITH STAT E S

The Holy Father appointed Archbish-op Brian Udaigwe, titular Archbishopof Suelli, as Apostolic Nuncio to SriLanka. Until now he has beenApostolic Nuncio to Benin and toTogo (13 June).

VAT I C A N CITY

The Holy Father appointed as officehead at the Vatican Apostolic LibraryMs Raffaella Vincenti, secretary of thesaid Vatican Apostolic Library (12June).The Holy Father appointed ProfessorAntonella Sciarrone Alibrandi, pro-rector of the Catholic University ofthe Sacred Heart, Italy, as member ofthe managing board of the FinancialInformation Authority (12 June).

NECROLO GY

Archbishop Youssef Béchara, Arch-bishop emeritus of Antélias for Ma-ronites, at age 85 (9 June)Bishop Basil Meeking, Bishop emerit-us of Christchurch, New Zealand, atage 90 (11 June)Bishop Lino Garavaglia, OFM Cap.,Bishop emeritus of Cesena-Sarsina,Italy, at age 92 (12 June)Archbishop Philippe Barakat ofHoms fir Syrians, at age 67 (13 June)

CONTINUED FROM PA G E 2

Prof. Jules Isaac and Pope Saint John XXIII

financial and political crises willcontinue”. In Italian he uses thisinteresting verb: non cesseranno —‘will not cease’ — as if to say thateconomic development, entrustedonly to mankind, becomes a natur-al, “constant flow” of grave crises,of a struggle for power aimed atsatisfying an insatiable greed. Ifgreed never sleeps, then, in order tosucceed, everything else — that is,the conscience — must sleep, musthibernate so that even man’s re-sponsibility continues to abate untilit disappears. A supernatural inter-vention is necessary to interruptthis seemingly inescapable cycle,and this happens precisely thanksto the fact that, as Pascal recalled,“man is infinitely more than man”.

This intervention is expressed ina gesture that the Pope chose toindicate as the title of his Message:“Stretch forth your hand to thep o or”. A gesture that today, evenin this time of tragic crisis, hap-pens often, every day, except we donot realize it. The Pope offers atleast seven examples of “out-stretched hands”: those of doctors,nurses, “of administrators who pro-cured the means to save as manylives as possible”, of pharmacists,“of priests whose hearts broke asthey offered a blessing”, of volun-teers, “of men and women whoworked to provide essential servicesand security. We could continue tospeak of so many other out-stretched hands, all of which makeup a great litany of good works.Those hands defied contagion andfear in order to offer support andconsolation”.

What did these people do? Theydid as God did: they observed,listened, recognized the suffering,

they hastened to free others fromthat pain, or at least accompanythem in the fight against an evilthat did all it could to destroy thevery possibility of this together-ness. Those outstretched handswere the hands of God who, in or-der to caress mankind, asks for co-operation through the hands ofother men and women. The ges-ture of stretching out a hand to thepoor, the Pope observes, “chal-lenges the attitude of those whoprefer to keep their hands in theirpockets and to remain unmoved bysituations of poverty in which theyare often complicit. Indifferenceand cynicism are their daily food”.

We become co-workers in God’stenderness or indifferent, not inone fell swoop, but through ‘dailyfo o d’. “Structures of charity, worksof mercy, cannot be improvised”,continues the Pope in his Message:“Constant organization and train-ing is needed, based on the realiza-tion of our own need for an out-stretched hand. The present experi-ence has challenged many of ourassumptions. We feel poorer andless self-sufficient because we havecome to sense our limitations andthe restriction of our freedom. Theloss of employment, and of oppor-tunities to be close to our lovedones and our regular acquaint-ances, suddenly opened our eyes tohorizons that we had long sincetaken for granted. Our spiritualand material resources were calledinto question and we foundourselves experiencing fear. In thesilence of our homes, we redis-covered the importance of simpli-city and of keeping our eyes fixedon the essentials”.

Keeping our eyes fixed, that is,observing. And obeying, that is,listening, because there is a cry in

man’s history that must be heard.So as to understand the sufferingof others. This is perhaps the mostdelicate passage: the world todayseems divided into two halves thatignore each other, those on oneside know nothing about the livesof those on the other. They are un-able to find a meeting point (thiswould be the ‘place’ of politics),and their clash inevitably becomesa collision. But only if they arecognizant of the suffering, if they‘re - c o g n i z e ’, can they truly moveon to the action of meeting, caring,saving. In this passage the Pope’swords are as clear and unequivocalas ever: “We cannot feel ‘alright’when any member of the humanfamily is left behind and in theshadows. The silent cry of so manypoor men, women and childrenshould find the people of God atthe forefront, always and every-where, in efforts to give them avoice, to protect and support themin the face of hypocrisy and somany unfulfilled promises, and toinvite them to share in the life ofthe community”.

It is a discourse that certainlyhas political consequences, butwhich is firstly profoundly humanand authentically Christian, ad-dressed to the Christian people,who by their nature cannot, on thisearth, feel “alright”.

A.M.

that summarized his research and requested that inpreparation for the Council a sub-committee examineCatholic teaching about Jews. According to Isaac, thePope said, “I thought of that at the beginning of ourconversation”. They parted amicably and when Isaacwondered aloud if he could “take away a glimmer ofhop e”, Pope John exclaimed, “You are entitled tomore than a hope!”.

After the summer hiatus, the Pope instructed Car-dinal Augustin Bea to form the sub-committee. Thisdirective would ultimately lead to the promulgation ofNostra Aetate on 28 October 1965. John XXIII’s person-al secretary, looking back at the audience with Prof.Isaac, wrote:

I remember very well that the Pope remained ex-tremely impressed by that meeting and he talkedabout it with me for a long time. It is also true thatuntil that day it had not occurred to John XXIII thatthe Council had to deal with the Jewish question andwith anti-Semitism. But from that day on he was com-pletely taken by it.

The brief meeting between the Pope and the Pro-fessor was thus an enormously transformative mo-ment. It gave rise to a “journey of friendship”, asPope Francis has described it, that has blessed Cath-olics and Jews ever since.

The journey has not been without missteps andcontroversies along the way. But gradually we havelearned how to talk with each other, and in manyparts of the world a profound dialogue has grownbetween us. We have come to treasure our differences,

to cherish the distinct ways in which Jews and Christi-ans [made a] covenant with God, to see the holinessin each other’s traditions, and to be able to say toeach other, “to see your face is like seeing the face ofGo d!” (Genesis 33:10).

As we recall the turning point in history representedby the dialogue between John XXIII and Jules Isaac, letus thank God and honour their memories by deepeningand extending the dialogue they began 60 years ago.

Institute for Jewish-Catholic Relations of Saint Joseph’sUniversity, Philadelphia

number 25, Friday, 19 June 2020 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 9

When my son brought me to ChurchStories connect us through narrative

CONTINUED ON PA G E 10

Every great work of literature startswith one human being — in theloneliness of her journey — wantingto reach out and find another, like-minded creature

John Everett Millais, “The Boyhood of Raleigh” (1870)

storytellingWORD OF THE YEAR

“I would like to devote this year’s Message to the theme of storytelling,because I believe that, so as not to lose our bearings, we need to make ourown the truth contained in good stories. Stories that build up, not teardown; stories that help us rediscover our roots and the strength needed tomove forward together”

(Message of the Holy Father forthe 54th World Communications Day)

MARY KARR

“Since God became story, every hu-man story is, in a certain sense, adivine story. In the history of everyperson, the Father sees again thestory of his Son.” — Pope Francis

For my first forty years, I was anonbeliever and so always feltlike a witch in any church I gotdragged into — mostly as a kid byneighbors. It touches me to readin the Pope’s piece on story howeach person’s life saga holds “anirrepressible dignity”, that theFather actually looks on each ofus and sees his son Jesus — go o dnews, indeed, for this black-belts i n n e r.

I grew up in a hard-drinking,complicated household of dedic-ated atheists, but the books Ifound there — which wereoddball in the blue-collar TexasBible belt I was born to — insome way saved me by connect-ing me with other sufferingcreatures through story. I didn’tbelieve in God, but part of mereally thought that Winnie-the-Pooh was waiting in the wood forhis friend Christopher Robin, andthat a young stable boy namedWart would become king bypulling a sword from a stone — adestiny he only accidentally en-acted. (As we often only accident-ally enact God’s special dream foreach of us.) Such stories gave mehope when it was scarce.

I was a thin-skinned, bookishkid, a weirdo and a weeper. Itwas a rough neighborhood, and Iwas mouthy enough to take mylicks till my daddy egged me onto start biting anybody gettingthe better of me. “Lay the ivoryto them, Pokey,” he’d say. A biteleft a mark that’d stay with eventhe biggest bully. And the scars Ileft became part of neighborhoodlore about how wild I was. Icussed like a sailor, even as a verysmall girl — my parents found itfunny for me to swear. I can stillhear Mrs. Perry standing on herporch shaking her mop at me andsaying, “There are snakes and liz-

ards coming out of your mouth,Mary Karr,” she said. But when Itold her I didn’t really care, I wasl y i n g.

I did care, and it wounded mewhen other kids claimed we wereall going to hell, even if I didn’tbelieve there was such a place. Si-mone Weil said there is no suffer-ing without affliction — someform of public shame, or scorn.While our neighbors didn’t ex-actly shrink from us — they let usplay in their baseball games andanswered when spoken to — mostgrownups wouldn’t let their kidsplay in our yard. Who could

she didn’t have any pores! — thatI figured she’d really hate me.

But the butchered body nailedto the cross — that struck me asreal. It drew me with a fascina-tion almost pornographic. Forsuch grotesque private sufferingto be held up in publicgobsmacked me. Also, feelingsorry for myself had made metender-hearted towards the hurt. Ijust could not look at a crucifiedJesus and not feel an actual catchin my throat.

But I certainly didn’t believehe came back! No human beingnailed to a cross like that rose up

just enter into the tradition ofShakespeare and Aeschylus andof prophets like St. Paul, we alsojoin ancestors sitting in cavessketching buffalo across walls.[We are joined] throughout ourhuman family, the Holy Fatherteaches.

When I was a struggling youngmother and writer, my own drink-ing and drug use started to wreckmy toddler son’s life. To getsober, I was sent to a basementroom where other drunks and ad-dicts looked like ne’er do wellsand losers — nobody I wanted tohang out with. It took everyounce of self restraint not to dashout to the nearest bar, for I wascraving a whiskey awful. But Igot a styrofoam cup of coffee and— despite my revulsion started tolisten. The result was magic. Eachface began to bloom open like asunflower. How hard everybodys t ru g g l e d !

Dr John Avery, an addictionspecialist at New York Hospitalin Manhattan, later told me thecomfort I began to feel had abasis in physiology. When welisten to people’s stories — esp e-cially people we’ve shared ourown adventures with — we releasea hormone called oxytocin, the“feel good” hormone. Our levelsof cortisol and adrenaline — thestress hormones — fall. In fact,oxytocin is what mother’s secretewhen they breastfeed. It helps usto connect with each other and tofeel less alone. It reduces anxietyand can magically weave dispar-ate strangers into a loving tribe.When Joan Didion wrote, “Wetell each other stories in order tolive”, she no doubt meant wegain this fairy-dust comfort inpart from connecting throughnarrative.

In early sobriety, I began topractice centering prayer — not to“find God”, but to relieve a life-time of depression and anxiety.And I found myself reading moreand more Christian monasticworks from people like Thomas

could. But each suffered awfuldemons — Daddy perhaps fromthe second world war, motherfrom a pair of kids she lost andmore than five husbands I onlyfound out about in my twenties.Both drank to relieve pain, whichhabit only made them morebleary and depressed.

“Evil snakes its way throughh i s t o r y, ” the Holy Father writes.And so Christians often use Biblestories to exclude those peopleJesus most wants us to welcome.In my child’s mind, I dovetailedthe scolding piety of our neigh-bors with all religion — with Godand Jesus, too, the whole she-bang. So I reflexively scorned anyfaith stories just when I wasstarving most for their succor.

Plus the tales were tough toswallow. Who could believe anark once held two of every anim-al, or that a sea parted so slavescould escape their captors? I cer-tainly couldn’t believe the meekwould ever inherit the earth.Dragged to Mass by a schoolfriend, I found the statue ofMary so beatific and perfect —

and made his buddies a barbecueon the beach. Not possible. Nota chance.

We tell each other stories in or-der to live, American essayistJoan Didion wrote. As a techno-logy evolved to share and storeinformation, stories have nodoubt shaped the very wiring ofour brains. But every great workof literature starts with one hu-man being — in the loneliness ofher journey — wanting to reachout and find another, like-mindedc re a t u re .

Earliest literature such as theO d y s s e y, say, carried all human en-deavors. That poem didn’t justserve as entertainment, it also ex-plained religious mores and ex-pounded on history; it transmit-ted religion and civics, philo-sophy and law, snapshots ofeveryday life. Now other techno-logies share those burdens — text-books and photos, documentaryfilm and video games. But at theheart of how we know each other— hardwired in us and embeddedin our firmware — is the story.When we share stories, we don’t

blame them? Therewere bullet holes inmy kitchen walls.Truth be told, I didn’tfeel that safe in myhouse either.

D on’t get mewrong. My parentsw e re n ’t monsters. Iadored them, and theyloved me the best they

page 10 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 19 June 2020, number 25

When my son brought me to Church

Merton and the great, recently lateCistercian, Father Thomas Keating.And in the midst of my findingsome community among the soberand some quiet in the middle of mychest, my son asked me to take himto church “to see if God’s there”. Hewas eight or nine at the time, so Iput a bow tie on him, and off wewent.

Boy did I feel like a freak and aweirdo walking into Mass — a di-vorced woman, a former drug addictamong all those clean-scrubbed fam-

ilies. I didn’t know the rules — whento stand up and what to say. My sonwent down to Sunday school, and Isat in the back with a stack of pa-pers to grade (I’m a professor) anda latte.

Then the strangest thinghappened. During the Prayers of theFaithful, people began to state theirintentions. I was in the way backand couldn’t see anybody’s face, butI could hear every voice. A tremu-lous young woman said, “For ourson’s cancer surgery,” and the con-gregation replied Lord, have mercy.From a pew behind her, a woman’s

hand landed on the speaker’sshoulder, and I found myself chok-ing up. An older man prayed inthanksgiving that his granddaughtercame back safely from a mission inEl Salvador, and a gentleman acrossthe aisle gave him a thumb’s up.Listening to these peoples simplehopes and fears, I found the hardshell around my heart dissolving. Iwas hearing small fragments ofbeautiful, noble stories spoken bypeople I hadn’t met yet.

It wasn’t the fabulous stories inthe liturgy that brought me in —those came years later. It was the

loving hearts of the people extendedto their fellows, and eventually tomy son and me. Their stories led meto the scriptures, and — ultimately —to baptism. Now the Holy Spirit hasrewritten my own story. My child-hood home wasn’t just a cruel placewhere brutality left me ruined bytrauma — though that’s partly true.It was also a place I got to practicethe patient, willing love for my par-ents that was instilled in my heartwhen I was knit in my mother’swomb. That’s a story I can get be-hind.

CONTINUED FROM PA G E 9

The virus and the new world in the thoughts of philosopher Slavoj Žižek

Egotistically, solidarity is our only choice

Closeness is in our eyes

LORENZO FAZZINI

He repeats several times the state-ment that Pope Francis made reson-ate in his unforgettable public pray-er in Saint Peter’s Square on 27March: “we are on the same boat”.Slavoj Žižek — philosopher, multifa-ceted intellectual known for hisMarxist statements often owing toJacques Lacan — has no doubt:“We ’re all in the same boat now”.He reiterates it at least three times inhis most recently published volumePandemic! Covid-19 Shakes the World(OrBooks, New York – London),the introduction to which appearshere in its original English transla-tion (thanks to the kind concessionof the editor).

And this common suffering is aprecisely Christian situation, accord-ing to the Slovenian thinker. Echo-ing Catherine Malabou, Žižek writesthat “‘a bracketing of sociality, issometimes the only access to alterity,a way to feel close to all the isolatedpeople on Earth. Such is the reasonwhy I am trying to be as solitary aspossible in my loneliness.’ This is adeeply Christian idea: when I feelalone, abandoned by God, at thatpoint I am like Christ on the cross,in full solidarity with him”. TheSlovenian philosopher who un-abashedly presents himself as “aChristian atheist” — his texts onSaint Paul and theology, written to-gether with the Anglican theologianJohn Milbank, are well-known —notes that the emergence of thecoronavirus amplified certain posit-ive and other negative tendencies ofour society. On the negative front,“the ongoing spread of thecoronavirus epidemic has alsotriggered a vast epidemic of ideolog-ical viruses which were lyingdormant in our societies: fake news,paranoiac conspiracy theories, explo-sions of racism”. But also and aboveall, a tremendous amount of solidar-ity. Slavoj Žižek is certain of it, andhe uses a term dear to him — a new“communism” — to identify the pos-sible benefits that could arise fromthe consequences of the pandemic: “Idon’t appeal to an idealized solidar-ity between people — on the con-trary, the present crisis demonstratesclearly how global solidarity and co-operation is in the interest of the sur-

vival of all and each of us, how it isthe only rational egotist thing to do”.The pandemic has alas convinced usof a too often forgotten, ‘oh dear!’ is-sue: “our first principle should benot to economize but to assist un-conditionally, irrespective of costs,those who need help”; thus he pointsout that “decisions about solidarityare eminently political”. The con-sumerist world typical of globalizedcapitalism, Žižek writes, is sufferingserious blows. And the thinker fromLubiana summarizes this defeat,identifying it with a few symbols:“Amusement parks are turning intoghost towns — perfect, I cannot ima-gine a more boring and stupid placethan Disneyland. Car production isseriously affected — good, this may

compel us to think about alternativesto our obsession with individualvehicles. The list can go on”.

Žižek has some harsh words forthose who are (again) seeking ascapegoat in the migrants who try toland in Europe: “It’s hard to grasptheir level of despair if a territoryunder lock-down in an epidemic isstill an attractive destination forthem”. And also with regard to an-other category — the elderly — ofthat “throwaway culture”, Francishas repeatedly stigmatized, Žižekhas quite decisive words, which referto that “new barbarism” mentionedin the text presented here. The an-notation refers to healthcare de-cisions in which aged people wereleft to die, as they were considered

expendable: “The only occasion inrecent times that a similar approachwas taken, as far as I know, was inthe last years of Ceauşescu’s rule inRomania when retired people weresimply not accepted into hospitals,whatever their state, because theywere no longer considered of anyuse to society”.

SL AV O J ŽIŽEK

“Touch me not,” according to John 20:17, is what Jesussaid to Mary Magdalene when she recognized himafter his resurrection. How do I, an avowed Christianatheist, understand these words? First, I take them to-gether with Christ’s answer to his disciple’s question asto how we will know that he is returned, resurrected.Christ says he will be there whenever there is lovebetween his believers. He will be there not as a personto touch, but as the bond of love and solidaritybetween people — so, “do not touch me, touch anddeal with other people in the spirit of love.” To day,however, in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, weare all bombarded precisely by calls not to touch oth-ers but to isolate ourselves, to maintain a proper cor-poreal distance. What does this mean for the injunc-tion “touch me not?” Hands cannot reach the otherperson; it is only from within that we can approachone another — and the window onto “within” is oureyes. These days, when you meet someone close to you(or even a stranger) and maintain a proper distance, adeep look into the other’s eyes can disclose more thanan intimate touch. In one of his youthful fragments,Hegel wrote: “The beloved is not opposed to us, he isone with our own being; we see us only in him, butthen again he is not a we anymore – a riddle, a miracle[ein Wunder], one that we cannot grasp.” It is crucialnot to read these two claims as opposed, as if the be-loved is partially a “we,” part of myself, and partially ariddle. Is not the miracle of love that you are part ofmy identity precisely insofar as you remain a miraclethat I cannot grasp, a riddle not only for me but alsofor yourself? To quote another well-known passage

from young Hegel: “The human being is this night,this empty nothing, that contains everything in its sim-plicity — an unending wealth of many representations,images, of which none belongs to him – or which arenot present. One catches sight of this night when onelooks human beings in the eye.” No coronavirus cantake this from us. So there is a hope that corporeal dis-tancing will even strengthen the intensity of our linkwith others. It is only now, when I have to avoid manyof those who are close to me, that I fully experiencetheir presence, their importance to me. I can alreadyhear a cynic’s laughter at this point: OK, maybe wewill get such moments of spiritual proximity, but howwill this help us to deal with the ongoing catastrophe?Will we learn anything from it? Hegel wrote that theonly thing we can learn from history is that we learnnothing from history, so I doubt the epidemic willmake us any wiser. The only thing that is clear is thatthe virus will shatter the very foundations of our lives,causing not only an immense amount of suffering butalso economic havoc conceivably worse than the GreatRecession. There is no return to normal, the new “nor-mal” will have to be constructed on the ruins of ourold lives, or we will find ourselves in a new barbarismwhose signs are already clearly discernible. It will notbe enough to treat the epidemic as an unfortunate ac-cident, to get rid of its consequences and return to thesmooth functioning of the old way of doing things,with perhaps some adjustments to our healthcare ar-rangements. We will have to raise the key question:What is wrong with our system that we were caughtunprepared by the catastrophe despite scientists warn-ing us about it for years?

number 25, Friday, 19 June 2020 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO page 11

On the coronavirus situation of Native Americans

Strengthening the spiritof the Navajo

I N T E R V I E W

Saint Katharine Drexel

with the Bishop of Gallup

GIORDANO CONTU

On the United States reservationof the Navajo Nation it is a critic-al moment due to Covid-19. Ac-cording to data published on 17June by the Health Departmentof the Navajo Nation, there are6747 infections and 322 deathsout of over 173 thousand inhabit-ants. This territory of the south-western United States locatedbetween Arizona, Utah and NewMexico has the highest rate of in-fection per inhabitant in the US.A plague that affects a poor pop-ulation and one of the most vul-nerable in the country due to thelack of infrastructure and minimalhealth services, often without run-ning water and electricity,weakened by social and environ-mental problems. Washington hasallo cated new resources to copewith the emergency in native andindigenous communities. TheUnited States Conference ofCatholic Bishops praised the de-cision, expressing the hope thataid will arrive quickly and thattribal leaders will be involved. Inthis interview with L’O s s e r v a t o reRomano, Bishop James SeanWall, President of the USCCBSubcommittee on Native Americ-an Affairs captures the situation.

Bishop Wall, how is Covid-19 im-pacting the Navajo Nation?

The Covid-19 has had a devast-ating impact on the Navajo Na-tion, the largest reservation in theUnited States. It also has one ofthe highest infection rates. This isdue to the low quality of healthcare, poor diet, and many Navajohave underlying medical condi-tions such as diabetes.

The United States Conference ofCatholic Bishops has recently im-plored lawmakers and governmentofficials to protect native and indi-genous communities. What has beendone? What should be done?

In October of last year, theUnited States Conference ofCatholic Bishops sponsored agathering of experts on NativeAmerican poverty in the UnitedStates at the University of NotreDame. In that meeting, the ex-perts developed an action plan toend poverty especially on NativeAmerican reservations. In addi-tion to the private sector, theyalso recommended several stepsto involve the U.S. Federal Gov-ernment. The plan includes in-crease in funding of Native Com-munity Development FinancialInstitutions. These institutionsdevelop ways to insure invest-ments and loans on reservations.Loans and investments are partic-ularly problematic because landcannot be used as collateral be-

cause the Federal Governmenthas title to the land. The Anti-Poverty Summit also found suffi-cient evidence to call for the Fed-eral Government to live up to itsfull treaty responsibilities and todevelop a voucher system to fundCatholic schools on reservations.

Beyond the emergency, these popula-tions have some difficulties in every-day life. What are their needs?

There are three major needs.From my perspective, the mostimportant need is spiritual. MostNative Americans have a deepspiritual awareness. The CatholicChurch has a long history amongthe Native American peoples, aswe were the first to evangelize theindigenous peoples. We try to re-spond to the spiritual need of thepeople in a pastoral manner. Atthe heart of this response is topreach the Gospel of JesusChrist. The other need is theneed for employment. TheNavajo reservation has approxim-ately 86 per cent unemploymenteven before the Covid-19 crisis.The last need is to come up tothe level of basic and adequateeducation. By all measures, pub-lic education on reservations doesnot come close to the standardsof education in the rest of the na-tion. Catholic schools are oneway Native Americans can liftthemselves out of poverty, butdue to financial restraints, Cath-olic schools can only help a smallfraction of the population.

According to Pope Francis there isnot just one kind of pandemic. Wehave to think about many other onesthat afflict humanity: hunger, war,uneducated children. How is the USChurch facing this situation andprotecting minorities?

The Catholic Church in theUnited States is always a voicefor the voiceless. Since 1874 whenthe Bureau of Indian Missionswas established, the CatholicChurch has worked to developways to enhance [her response to]the spiritual needs as well as thecharitable needs of Native Amer-icans and Alaska Natives. One ofthe most important parts of an-swering these needs is to listen

first to the Native AmericanCatholic leadership themselves. Itis not a “top down approach”,rather it is one of cooperation.The leadership have an importantrole in developing paths forwardboth for faith as well as economicdevelopment.

What does the Subcommittee onNative American Affairs that youpreside do? How does it fulfil itsChristian mission?

The Subcommittee on NativeAmerican Affairs has five majorgoals. The Subcommittee is work-ing on proper ways for integra-tion of the Native cultures withinthe Sacred Liturgy. We are alsoworking on the reconciliation ofthe “boarding school period”with Native American communit-ies. This was a time when chil-dren were forcibly removed bythe federal government andplaced into boarding schools,some of which were Catholic in-stitutions. We are working onways to make Native Americanministry more visible in the Cath-olic Church. We are working onways to enhance Native vocationsand to work with seminaries toeducate future priests on Native

American cultures. Lastly, in-spired by the devastation of thepandemic, we are working to in-crease our knowledge of the Nat-ive American health services inorder to add our voice to reformmedical care.

The Diocese of Gallup, which youlead, is in the middle of the NavajoNation. How does the local Churchpromote integration and dialoguebetween cultures in everyday life?

We try to be faithful to thecommand Our Lord gave to theChurch prior to His ascension tothe right hand of the Father,which is to make disciples bap-tize, teach and know Christ iswith us until the end of the age.This is the heart of the mission-ary Church: to know Christ camenot for a few, but for all people.

In this area there are some NativeAmerican Catholic schools. Whatrole do they play in building thepresent and the future of NativeAm e r i c a n s ?

We have a long history ofCatholic education among theNative American people. SaintKatharine Drexel founded a reli-gious community that ministeredto two underserved portions ofthe American population — Afric-an Americans and Native Americ-an peoples. Saint Katharine andher sisters saw their outreach tothe people as a charitable re-sponse of the Gospel. Pope Fran-cis urges us to go out to the peri-pheries, and efforts to evangelizeand catechize through Catholiceducation is the way we continuethe work of Saint Katharine andrespond to the invitation of ourHoly Father. Catholic Schools arevital for the elimination ofpoverty and for the faith presencein Native American communities.The Subcommittee on NativeAmerican Affairs works veryclosely with organizations ofCatholic Schools on reservationsto maintain their vitality, culturalsensitivity and continued academ-ic success.

page 12 L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO Friday, 19 June 2020, number 25

ANGELUS

At the recitation of the Angelus on Sunday, 14 June,Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Pope Francisspoke of “the mystical effect and the communal effect” of theEucharist. “One cannot participate in the Eucharist”, hesaid, “without committing oneself to mutual fraternity”. Thefollowing is a translation of the Holy Father’s reflection,which he delivered in Italian.

Protect migrants, end violence in LibyaPope Francis appeals to the international community

Dear Brothers and Sisters,Good morning!Today, in Italy and in other na-tions, the Solemnity of the Bodyand Blood of Christ, C o rp u sChristi, is being celebrated. In thesecond Reading of today’s liturgy,Saint Paul reawakens our faith inthis mystery of communion (cf. 1Cor 10:16-17). He highlights twoeffects of the shared chalice andthe broken bread: the mystical ef-fect and the communal effect.

First, the Apostle states: “Thecup of blessing which we bless, isit not a participation in the bloodof Christ? The bread which webreak is it not a participation inthe body of Christ?” (v. 16).These words express the mysticaleffect, or we might say the spir-itual effect of the Eucharist: itrelates to the union with Christ,who in the bread and the wineoffers himself for the salvation of

all. Jesus is present in the sacra-ment of the Eucharist to be ournourishment, to be assimilatedand to become in us that renew-ing force that gives once againthe energy and gives once morethe desire to set out again afterevery pause or after every fall.But this requires our consent, ourwillingness to let ourselves, ourway of thinking and acting, betransformed. Otherwise theEucharistic celebrations in whichwe participate are reduced toempty and formal rituals. Oftensome go to Mass because theyhave to go, as if it were a socialevent, respectful but social.However, the mystery issomething else. It is Jesus who ispresent and comes to nourish us.

The second effect is the com-munal one, and is expressed bySaint Paul in these words: “Be-cause there is one bread, we who

are many are one body” (v. 17). Itis the mutual communion ofthose who participate in theEucharist, to the point of becom-ing one body among them, inthe same way that the bread thatis broken and distributed is one.We are a community nourishedby the body and blood of Christ.We are a community, nourishedby the body and blood of Christ.Communion with the body ofChrist is an effective sign ofunity, of communion, of sharing.One cannot participate in theEucharist without committingoneself to mutual fraternity,which is sincere. But the Lordknows well that our humanstrength alone is not enough forthis. On the contrary, he knowsthat among his disciples therewill always be the temptation ofrivalry, envy, prejudice, divi-sion.... We are all aware of thesethings. For this reason too he left

us the Sacrament of his real, tan-gible and permanent Presence, sothat, in remaining united to him,we may always receive the gift offraternal love. “Abide in mylove” (Jn 15:9), Jesus said; andthis is possible thanks to theEucharist. To abide in friendship,in love.

This twofold fruit of theEucharist: first, union with Christand second, communion betweenthose who are nourished by him,generates and continually renewsthe Christian community. It is theChurch that makes the Eucharist,but it is more fundamental thatthe Eucharist makes the Church,and allows her to be her mission,even before she accomplishes it.This is the mystery of commu-nion, of the Eucharist: receivingJesus so he may transform usfrom within, and receiving Jesusso that he may create unity in usand not division.

May the Blessed Virgin help usto always welcome with wonderand gratitude the great gift thatJesus gave us by leaving us theSacrament of his Body and hisBlo o d.

After the Angelus the Holy Fathercontinued:

Today is World Blood DonorD a y. It is an opportunity to en-courage society to be supportiveand sensitive to those in need. Igreet the volunteers present andexpress my appreciation to allthose who perform this simplebut very important act of helpingothers: donating blood.

I greet you all, the faithful ofRome and pilgrims. I wish you,and all those connected via themedia, a happy Sunday. Pleasedo not forget to pray for me. En-joy your lunch. Ar r i v e d e rc i .

After praying the Angelus the Holy Father turned histhoughts and prayers to the dramatic situation inLibya.

Dear brothers and sisters, I am following the dra-matic situation in Libya with great apprehensionand sorrow. It has been present in my prayer in re-cent days. Please, I urge international organizationsand those who have political and military responsib-ilities to recommence with conviction and determin-ation the search for a path towards an end to the vi-olence, leading to peace, stability and the unity ofthe country. I also pray for the thousands of mi-grants, refugees, asylum seekers and internally dis-placed persons in Libya. The health situation hasaggravated their already precarious conditions, mak-ing them more vulnerable to forms of exploitationand violence. There is cruelty. I call on the interna-tional community to please take their plight toheart, identifying pathways and providing means toassure them the protection they need, a dignifiedcondition and a hopeful future. Brothers and sisters,we all have responsibility for this; no one shouldfeel exempt. Let us all pray for Libya in silence.

Pontiff's Appeal after the Marian Prayer

Migrants stand outside a detention centre inTripoli, Libya (AFP or licensors)