Pope Francis: The future of the Catholic Church is in Latin America, Asia and Africa

When receiving members of various congregations this July 15, among whom were nuns from Asia, Africa and Latin America, Pope Francis assured that “the future is there. It is true.”

Representatives of the Order of Minims participated in the audience at the Apostolic Palace of the Vatican; the Minor Clergy Regulars; the Augustinian Sisters of Divine Love; the Clerics of San Viator; the Reparatory Sisters of the Sacred Heart and the Missionaries of San Antonio Claret.

At the beginning of his speech, in an attempt to raise awareness about the need for vocations in the West, the Holy Father asked how many novices there were in each of the Orders. Upon hearing the responses, the Pontiff pointed out that “the numbers must be doubled.”

Pope Francis highlighted that they represent “the mystery of the Church,” which in its variety allows “the beauty of Christ to shine with all its light in the world.”

And to avoid “interests other than love” during the spiritual path of the consecrated, the Holy Father reflected on two aspects: beauty and simplicity.

The beauty

The Pontiff highlighted that their lives are “stories of beauty,” because in them “the grace of God’s face shines.”

He stressed that the founders of these Congregations “knew how to capture the features of this beauty and correspond to it in diverse ways,” and reminded the religious that their duty is to “pick up the witness.”

He affirmed that they must “continue like them to seek and sow the beauty of Christ in the concretion of the folds of history, above all listening to the Love that animated them,” and then allowing themselves to be challenged “by the ways in which they have reciprocated you.”

“For what they have chosen and for what they have renounced, perhaps with suffering, to be for your contemporaries a clear mirror of the face of God,” he added.

The simplicity

He then noted that “God’s love is simple and his beauty is simple, it is not a sophisticated beauty.”

For this reason, he encouraged them to ask the Lord for simplicity, both personally and in the synodal dynamics of the common path, “removing everything that is not necessary or that can hinder listening and harmony in your discernment processes.”

In this sense, he warned that ambition “is a plague in consecrated life” and asked them to be careful with it.

He also made reference to envy, which he defined as the “yellow disease,” as well as pretensions, rigidity and any other “temptation for self-referentiality.”

In this way, Pope Francis affirmed that they will be able to “read together, with wisdom, the present” and capture in it the “signs of the times” and make “the best decisions for the future.”

He stressed that religious people embrace poverty to empty themselves “of everything that is not love for Christ” and urged them to allow themselves to be “filled with its beauty, until it overflows throughout the world, wherever the Lord sends you and wherever you are.” brother or sister that he puts in your path, especially through obedience.”

Pope Francis assured that “this is a great mission,” at the same time that he asked them to take care of prayer and the moments before the tabernacle, “talking to the Lord and letting the Lord speak to us.”

“But the prayer of the heart: not the prayer of the parrots, no, no. The one that comes from the heart and that keeps us on the path of the Lord,” he said.

Finally, he asked them to take care of their training and thanked them for the good they do for the Church, encouraging them to continue their work “with faith and generosity.”