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Skriven 2007-06-19 00:58:00 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45)
Ärende: Vatican Information Service - Press Release
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                               VIS-Press releases

FRANCIS: ENAMOURED OF CHRIST AND AN ARCHITECT OF PEACE

VATICAN CITY, JUN 17, 2007 (VIS) - Departing from the cathedral of San Rufino,
Benedict XVI travelled by car to the basilica of St. Mary of the Angels. Along
the route he blessed disabled people from Assisi's Seraphic Institute.

At 5.45 reached the square in front of the basilica. There he was greeted by
the custodian, the rector and the pastor before going on to visit the Shrine of
Porziuncola and the chapel of St. Francis. At 6 p.m., the Holy Father delivered
an address to the young people awaiting him in the square.

"It was here," said the Pope, that Francis "established the 'headquarters' of
his order, where the friars could come together, as if in a maternal bosom,
regenerating themselves before starting out again full of apostolic energy."
Pope Benedict then went on to give a broad outline of the saint's biography,
focussing on the "special attraction" his figure has for the young.

Francis' conversion at the age of 25 "came about when he at the peak of his
vitality, his experiences, his dreams," said Benedict XVI. He also dwelt on
Francis' character before his conversion, describing him as a "carefree and
generous," person "who wandered the city of Assisi day and night with his
friends."

"How can it be denied," the Pope went on, "that may people are tempted to
follow the life of the young Francis before his conversion? That lifestyle
hides the desire for happiness that dwells in every human heart." Yet the saint
did not find "true joy" there, because "the truth is that finite things can
give glimmers of joy but only the infinite can fill the heart."

Another feature of St. Francis was "his ambition, his thirst for glory and
adventure," said the Pope, noting how the Lord used this characteristic in
order to attract the saint "showing him the path of a saintly ambition
projected towards the infinite."

"As He did to Francis, Christ also speaks to our heart. We risk passing our
entire lives being deafened by loud but empty voices. We risk missing His
voice, the only one that counts because it is the only one that saves."

"Do not be afraid to imitate Francis," said the Holy Father to the young
people, "above all in your capacity to go back to yourselves. He knew how to
create a silence within himself, listening to the Word of God. Step by step he
let himself be guided by the hand towards the full encounter with Jesus, to the
point of making this the treasure and light of his life."

"Francis was truly enamoured of Jesus. He met Him in the Word of God, in his
fellow man, in nature, but above all in His presence in the Eucharist. ... The
nativity scene of Greccio well expresses his need to contemplate [the Lord] in
the tender human form of a baby. ... His experience on the mountain of La Verna
where he received the stigmata shows what level of intimacy he reached in his
relationship with the crucified Christ."

"Precisely because he was a man of Christ, Francis was also a man of the
Church. From the crucifix of St. Damian he received the command to repair the
house of Christ, in other words the Church. ... In the final analysis, that
task was nothing other than the responsibility attributed by Christ to all the
baptized. The Church grows and is repaired, above all, in the measure to which
each of us converts and seeks sanctification."

"Like concentric circles, Francis' love for Jesus expands not only over the
Church but over all things, seen in Christ and for Christ. Here are the origins
of his 'Canticle of the Sun' in which his eye rests upon the splendor of the
Creation" and which "even before being an exalted piece of poetry and an
implicit invitation to respect creation, is a prayer."

"Francis' commitment to peace is also to be seen as a form of prayer. This
aspect of his life is of great contemporary importance in a world which has so
much need of peace yet does not manage to achieve it. Francis was a man of
peace and an architect of peace. He showed as much in the mildness with which
he approached men of other faiths, yet without silencing his own faith. ... If
inter-religious dialogue today, and especially after Vatican Council II, has
become a shared and indispensable patrimony of Christianity, Francis can help
us to discover true dialogue without lapsing into a position of indifference
towards the truth or lessening our Christian announcement."

After the meeting, the Pope travelled to the Migaghelli sports field where he
boarded the helicopter that took him back to the Vatican
PV-ITALY/YOUNG PEOPLE/ASSISIVIS 070618 (800)

SUMMARY

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