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Pope at Angelus: ‘What If We Turned to Bible As We Do Our Cell Phone?’ by Deborah Castellano Lubov
‘What if we turned to our Bible as we do our smart phone?’
Pope Francis asked those in St. Peter’s Square this question during his Sunday, March 6, 2017, Angelus address at noon as he reflected on yesterday’s Gospel showing Jesus, while fasting forty days in the desert, being subjected to the devil’s temptations (Matthew 4:1-11).
Through a threefold temptation, the Jesuit Pope reminded, Satan wants to divert Jesus from the way of obedience and humiliation – “because he knows that, through this way, evil will thus be defeated – and lead Him on the false shortcut of success and glory.”
“However, the devil’s poisonous arrows are all ‘stopped’ with the shield of the Word of God,” Francis observed, noting that in this way, Jesus comes out of the desert victoriously.
“As Christians, we are invited, during the forty days of Lent,” Francis said, “to follow in Jesus steps and face the spiritual combat against the Evil One with the strength of the Word of God.”
“Not with our ‘word,’ which is useless,” he added, but with “the Word of God: tha has the strength to defeat Satan.”
Therefore, he said, it is necessary to draw confidence from the Bible: to read it often, meditate on it and assimilate it. Francis then pointed out that containing the Word of God, the Bible is always timely and effective.
“Someone said: what would happen if we treated the Bible as we treat our mobile phone? If we always carried it with us, or at least a small pocket Bible, what would happen? If we went back when we forgot it: you forgot your mobile phone – ‘O, I don’t have it, I’ll go back to find it’; if we opened it several times a day; what would happen if we read God’s messages contained in the Bible, as we read our phone messages?”
The paragon is clearly paradoxical, he admitted, but pointed out that it still makes us reflect.
“In fact, if we had the Word of God always in the heart, no temptation would be able to estrange us from God and no obstacle would be able to make us deviate from the path of goodness; we would be able to overcome the daily suggestions of evil that are in us and outside of us; we would be more capable of living a resurrected life according to the Spirit, receiving and loving our brothers, especially the weakest and neediest, and also our enemies.”
Before reciting the Angelus, the Pope prayed that the Virgin Mary, “perfect icon of obedience to God and of unconditional trust in His will, sustain us on our Lenten journey, so that we place ourselves in docile listening to the Word of God, to undertake a true conversion of the heart.”
After the midday prayer, and reminding those present to pray for his and the Curia’s week of spiritual exercises, Francis said: “And please, don’t forget – don’t forget! – what would happen if we treated the Bible as we treat our mobile phone. Think about it — the Bible always with us, close to us!”
As usual, Pope Francis concluded, telling those present to have a good Sunday and good lunch.
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On Zenit’s Web page:
Full Text: https://zenit.org/articles/angelus-address-facing-the-lenten-spiritual-combat-with-the-strength-of-the-word-of-god/
INTERVIEW: Ireland’s Archbishop Martin: ‘We Are Concerned About the Border and Return to Conflict’ by Federico Cenci
“We are really worried,” said Archbishop Martin. Almost 20 years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, which sanctioned the end of the armed struggle, the dark clouds of conflict and division once again hover over the Irish Island. Archbishop Eamon Martin, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland since 2014, was born and grew up in the difficult city of Derry, where in 1972 the infamous Bloody Sunday took place. He does not hide the fact that the Island’s social atmosphere today is anything but serene.
While giving this interview to ZENIT, the polls opened in Northern Ireland to elect new members of the Belfast Parliament. Among the first issues on the table after the elections will be Brexit. Up to today there are no blockades between the two Irelands; the passage from Dublin to Belfast is free of interruptions. However, when London leaves the European Union, the border issue will be a knot that the British Government will have to untangle.
The border in the Island does not exist for the Catholic Church. There is one Episcopal Conference and Pope Francis received its members in the Vatican last January 20 during their ad Limina visit. Archbishop Martin said to ZENIT that they spoke with the Pontiff about the delicate situation of sexual abuses and the pastoral challenges in an ever more secularized society troubled by the political crisis.
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ZENIT: Archbishop Martin, how was the meeting with the Pope?
The Ad Limina meeting in January of the bishops of Ireland with Pope Francis was quite extraordinary. For many of the bishops, myself included, this was our first Ad Limina visit. Pope Francis was very welcoming and eager to hear about our pastoral experiences as bishops in Ireland.
ZENIT: What are the main pastoral commitments in Ireland? Were there subjects in particular upon which you reflected further?
So much has changed for us in the ten years since the last Ad limina visit of the Irish bishops with Pope Benedict XVI so there was a lot to discuss. We discussed with Pope Francis the ongoing determined efforts being made to safeguard children and vulnerable people from abuse. During our visit Sir Anthony Hart’s report into Historical Institutional Abuse in Northern Ireland was published in Belfast and it served as a reminder that much work remains to be undertaken in this regard.
We also spoke to Pope Francis about vocations in Ireland and the well-being and ministry of our priests and religious. We are aware of declining numbers of priests and the toll their increased workload can take. We are thankful for their resilience, dedication and generosity, and for the ongoing kindness and support of the faithful. It was clear to us that the Church in Ireland is in a period of transition and that it is time for us to move out of a maintenance mode and into a ‘missionary key’. This will mean a ‘letting go’ in some senses by priests and bishops of a clerical mentality and an openness to calling forth and embracing the gifts and charisms of the lay faithful, including the particular gifts of women. We thank God for the many shoots of new growth, and renewal, that are emerging in parishes and dioceses all over the country, especially in catechesis, lay involvement and pastoral outreach to the marginalized.
Of course, we also discussed with the Holy Father the upcoming World Meeting of Families which will take place in Dublin in August 2018, and repeated our invitation to Pope Francis to join us for the occasion. The pastoral care of families remains a priority for us. For Ireland, the World Meeting of Families is much more than a ‘once-off’ event. We look to it, rather, as a graced opportunity, a process by which we can celebrate and explore further the riches of the Church’s ‘Gospel of the Family’.
ZENIT: Before the elections in Northern Ireland, you bishops prepared a document for the voters. Why?
As bishops, we have an obligation to serve the faithful and to preach the Gospel. This is a critical time for our society. Recent months have brought into the open the reality that the principles of the Good Friday Agreement, which was agreed in 1998, are perhaps not as deeply embedded as we might have hoped. There has been a return to the language of division and difference and it is important that everyone in the community gets behind our newly elected representatives and urges them not to unravel the tremendous progress that has been made over the past twenty years.
We all have responsibilities in this regard including the Churches, the business community as well as the British and Irish governments as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement and peace process. We must all avoid the use of harsh or angry language or the temptation to play the ‘blame game’ rather than accepting our collective responsibility for the past, present and future. Our politicians have a precious vocation to work for the common good and exercise their leadership through the careful practice of compromise and agreement.
ZENIT: In the last 20 years, the situation in Northern Ireland has changed greatly. What did the Good Friday Agreement represent for you, Primate of Ireland born in Derry?
Much has changed in this part of Ireland in the last twenty years, most notably with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. I grew up during troubled times and in a troubled and divided city. It was a difficult time for Ireland and for Derry. However we have shown that it is possible to find common ground and to build a peaceful and shared future in many ways. Now other troubled parts of the world look to us in the North of Ireland as a beacon of hope that peace can be achieved.
One cannot underestimate the importance of the Good Friday Agreement. People around the world look to Northern Ireland as an example of people sorting out their differences. There is a whole new generation that has now grown up without cultural experience of violence. I would be terribly disappointed if a new generation of young people would be manipulated into violence. As a society we have hardly yet begun to tackle the terrible legacy of trauma that the years of violence left behind.
ZENIT: Might the Brexit have an impact on Ireland?
Ireland, North and South is in a state of uncertainty because of Brexit. We do not know the impact Brexit might have socially, culturally, politically and indeed economically. In many ways being part of Europe together helped us to see our problems in a less insular way. We looked to Europe and saw where former enemies are now cooperating, working side by side, and that was an inspiration for us to see beyond borders and barriers.
Despite assurances of British Prime Minister Teresa May and from the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, many people have begun talking, once again, about borders between the North and South of Ireland and about restrictions on the movement of goods. There is even a fear of restrictions on the movement of people. This kind of nervousness, combined with uncertainty and lack of confidence in the institution of government in Northern Ireland, can make for a dangerous cocktail. Sadly, of course – as in all conflict situations – it will be the poor, the marginalised, the socially and economically deprived, who will suffer most and may even end up getting manipulated and drawn into violence and hopelessness. We must avoid that at all costs.
ZENIT: Therefore, the return of the border issue and violence in Ireland are sources of concrete preoccupation?
We are genuinely concerned at the prospect of a return to a hard border between North and South. The Catholic Church, and indeed Methodists, Presbyterians and Anglicans, are organised on an all-island basis. The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, for example, is an all-Ireland decision making forum which serves the faithful throughout the island of Ireland, north and south. There is no distinction between northern dioceses and southern dioceses. Armagh, which is my archdiocese, consists of about 60% of people situated in Northern Ireland, and the remaining 40% live in the Republic.
Of course the more difficult and dangerous borders can exist in our minds, where we develop attitudes of exclusion towards migrants, refugees, people of other political persuasions. Northern Ireland is a small place. It exists in relationship – with the Republic to the South, with Britain to the East, and further beyond with mainland Europe. However the past has shown, that although small, violence in Northern Ireland can have a destabilising impact way beyond its own borders. I therefore feel that Europe, Britain and Ireland can have an important shared responsibility, and contribution, to help find a unique solution for the future place of Northern Ireland within this consortium of relationships.
ZENIT: The possibility is being discussed in Ireland to modify the eighth Amendment of Article 40 of the Constitution, which sanctions the right to life of the unborn child. What is the atmosphere of the debate? In regard to topics such as abortion and homosexual marriage, it seems that the Protestant parties of Northern Ireland hold positions that are closer to those of the Catholic Church than the historical parties that represent the Catholic community . . .
In our submission to the Citizens’ Assembly, Two Lives, One Love (see link below), we affirm our belief that human life is sacred from conception until natural death and that the right to life is a fundamental personal right. There is no such thing as a human life without value. The deletion or amendment of Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution of Ireland would serve no purpose other than to withdraw the right to life from some categories of unborn children. To do so would radically change the principle, for all unborn children and indeed for all of us, that the right to life is a fundamental human right.
Pope Francis speaks about a ‘revolution of tenderness’. For me Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution of Ireland tenderly holds together the right to life of a mother and her child. Two Lives. One Love. Equality at its most fundamental and foundational moment – the beginning of new life. Supporting and sustaining a culture of life is in the interests of every woman and every generation and it defines us as a society. We have an obligation to be at our most compassionate, our most merciful, if and when the expectant mother and father and their unborn child require support during a crisis pregnancy.
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On the Net:
About ‘Two Lives, One Love‘ (on Irish Bishops’ Website): http://www.catholicbishops.ie/2016/12/09/two-lives-one-love/
Pope’s Address to International Congress to Sacred Music by ZENIT Staff
Below is a Zenit translation of Pope Francis’ address to participants in the International Congress on Sacred Music, organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Congregation for Catholic Education, in collaboration with the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music and the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Saint Anselm’s Athenaeum. The Congress was held in Rome from March 2-4, 2017, on the theme: “Music and Church: Worship and Culture 50 Years after Musicam Sacram.
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Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am happy to meet with you all, gathered in Rome from several countries to take part in the Congress on “Music and Church: Worship and Culture 50 Years after Musicam Sacram,” organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Congregation for Catholic Education, in collaboration with the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music and the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Saint Anselm’s Athenaeum. I greet you all warmly, beginning with Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, whom I thank for his introduction. I hope that the experience of encounter and dialogue lived these days, in common reflection on sacred music and, particularly, in its cultural and artistic aspects, will be fruitful for the ecclesial communities.
Half a century after the Instruction Musicam Sacram, the Congress wished to reflect further, in an inter-disciplinary and ecumenical perspective, on the present relation between sacred music and contemporary culture, between the musical repertoire adopted and used by the Christian community and the prevailing musical tendencies. Of great importance also was the reflection on aesthetic and musical formation, be it of the clergy and Religious, be it of the laity committed in pastoral life, and more directly in the scholae cantorum.
The first document issued by Vatican Council II was in fact the Constitution on the Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium. The Conciliar Fathers perceived well the difficulty of the faithful in participating in a liturgy whose language, words and signs they did not fully understand. To concretize the fundamental lines traced by the Constitution, Instructions were issued, among which, in fact, was that on sacred music. Since then, although no new documents have been produced by the Magisterium on the argument, there have been different and significant papal interventions that have oriented the reflection and the pastoral commitment.
The premise of the mentioned Instruction is still very timely: “Liturgical action has a more noble form when it is celebrated in song, with ministers of all levels carrying out their office, and with the participation of the people. Thus, in fact, the celebration acquires a more joyful expression, the mystery of the sacred liturgy and its hierarchic and communal nature are manifested more clearly, the unity of hearts is rendered more profound by the unity of the voices, minds are raised more easily to celestial things through the splendor of sacred things, and the whole celebration prefigures more clearly the liturgy, which is carried out in the heavenly Jerusalem” (n. 5).
In keeping with the Conciliar indications, the Document often evidences the importance of the participation of the entire assembly of faithful, described as “active, aware and full,” and also underlines very clearly that the “true solemnity of a liturgical action does not depend on the richest form of the singing and of the more magnificent array of the ceremonies, but rather on the worthy and religious way of the celebration” (n. 11). Therefore, it is first of all about participating intensely in the Mystery of God, in the “theophany” that takes place in every Eucharistic celebration, in which the Lord makes Himself present in the midst of His people, called to really participate in the salvation effected by Christ dead and risen. Therefore, active and conscious participation consists in being able to enter profoundly in this mystery, in being able to contemplate, adore and receive it, in perceiving the meaning, thanks in particular to the religious silence and to the “musicality of the language with which the Lord speaks to us” (Homily at Saint Martha’s, December 12, 2013). It is in this perspective that the reflection moves on the renewal of sacred music and its precious contribution.
In this way, a twofold mission emerges, which the Church is called to pursue, especially through all those who, with various titles, work in this sector. On one hand, it is about safeguarding and appreciating the rich and multi-form patrimony inherited from the past, using it with balance in the present and avoiding the risk of a nostalgic or “archaeological” vision. On the other hand, it is necessary to see that sacred music and liturgical singing are fully “inculturated” in the artistic and musical languages of the present; that is, they must be able to incarnate and translate the Word of God in songs, sounds, harmonies that make the heart of our contemporaries vibrate, creating also an opportune emotive atmosphere, which disposes to faith and elicits the reception and full participation in the mystery being celebrated. The encounter with modernity and the introduction of spoken languages in the liturgy has certainly occasioned many problems: of languages, forms, and musical genres. Sometimes a certain mediocrity, superficiality and banality have prevailed to the detriment of the beauty and intensity of the liturgical celebrations. Therefore, the various protagonists in this ambit – musicians and composers, directors and choristers of scholae cantorum, animators of the liturgy – can make a precious contribution, especially qualitative, to the renewal of sacred music and of liturgical singing. To foster this path, it is necessary to promote adequate musical formation, also in those who are preparing to be priests, in dialogue with the musical currents of our time, with the instances of the different cultural areas, and in an ecumenical attitude.
Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you again for your commitment in the realm of sacred music. May the Virgin Mary accompany you, who in the Magnificat sang God’s merciful holiness. I encourage you not to lose sight of this important objective: to help the liturgical assembly and the people of God to perceive and participate, with all the senses, physical and spiritual, in the mystery of God. Sacred music and liturgical singing have the task to give us the sense of the glory of God, of His beauty, and of His holiness that envelops us like a “luminous cloud.”
I ask you, please, to pray for me and I impart to you my heartfelt Apostolic Blessing.
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
Pope Departs for Week of Spiritual Exercises by Deborah Castellano Lubov
Yesterday afternoon, Pope Francis departed to participate in his annual Lenten Spiritual Exercises at Casa ‘Gesù Divin Maestro’ (the Divine Master House) in the town of Ariccia near Rome.
For a week, the Holy Father will remain there praying with with members of the Roman Curia.
During his Sunday Angelus address, the Pope asked the faithful to pray for him and those who will be with him participating in the week long retreat. At 4 p.m., he and the Curia members got on their bus and by 6 p.m., they had arrived.
Meditations this year have been entrusted by the Pope to Father Giulio Michelini, O.F.M., who will lead the meditations on the theme: “Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus according to Matthew.”
Fr. Michelini will pronounce nine reflections in total and they generally will be held twice a day at 9:30 a.m. and 4 p.m, on each session’s specific Gospel reading.
The activities of the Pope and members of the Curia will include morning and evening prayer, and Eucharistic adoration.
The retreat will conclude on the morning of Friday, March 10. Until then, all of the Pope’s activities, including the weekly General Audience, March 8, are suspended.
Originally, the Spiritual Exercises took place in the Vatican, but Pope Francis moved them to the retreat house outside of Rome.
Vatican’s Consolidated Accounts for 2015 Published by ZENIT Staff
The Vatican has published its Consolidated Financial Statement for 2015. On Saturday, March 4, 2017, the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy released the following statement, giving a synopsis of the Annual Accounts of the Holy See, Vatican City State and Related Entities for 2015:
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The Holy See recorded a deficit of Euros 12.4 million in 2015. The main sources of income for 2015, in addition to investments, include the contributions made pursuant to Canon 1271 of the Code of Canon Law (Euros 24 million) and the contribution from the Institute of Works of Religion (Euros 50 million). As in previous years, the most significant expense for the Holy See is the cost of personnel.
The Governatorato of the Vatican City State indicates a surplus of Euros 59.9 million for 2015, largely due to continued revenue from the cultural activities, especially those linked to the Museums.
The 2015 Annual Accounts represent the first set of financial information prepared following the Vatican Financial Management Policies (VFMP), approved by Pope Francis on 24 October 2014, which are based on International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS).
The Secretariat for the Economy informed the Council for the Economy that the journey towards a full implementation of the VFMP is firmly underway and highlighted that, however, a few more years will be necessary for this process to be completed and a full audit to be performed. The 2015 Annual Accounts represent an important step for the economic reforms and along the journey towards new policies, which are progressing well.
The Council for the Economy noted the unaudited 2015 Consolidated Annual Accounts during this transition period. The adoption of the VFMP greatly benefits the Holy See and the Vatican City State in enhancing quality and transparency of the financial information and increasing discipline in the financial reporting and control systems.
Following the recommendation of the Council for the Economy in November of 2016, the Holy Father took note of the 2015 Consolidated Annual Accounts.
Important progress has been made in the budgeting process. The 2017 Budget has been presented, for the first time prior to the start of the new calendar year, to the Council for the Economy, which recommended its approval. This will allow further control on reviewing expenses, through the monitoring of actual performances against approved financial plans.
The Council for the Economy thanked the Secretariat for the Economy for the strong commitment in implementing the economic reforms approved by the Holy Father.[Original text: Italian] [Vatican-provided statement]
Archbishop Auza’s Address to Fordham University on Human Trafficking by ZENIT Staff
Archbishop Bernardito Auza delivered a lecture entitled, “The Holy See and the Fight Against Human Trafficking,” on February 23, 2017, upon his inauguration as the Casamarca Foundation Chair in Migration and Globalization Studies at Fordham University.
Archbishop Auza, who said an estimated 36 million people are affected by some form of trafficking, including a growing number of men, noted the various ways trafficking manifests in countries around the world, including using human beings as sex slaves in prostitution and pornography, forced labor, compelled participation in illegal activities, child soldiering, forced marriages and child brides, illegal adoptions, the stealing of children from pregnant women, organ harvesting, and human sacrifice.
The issue of human trafficking has grown in significance among the international community in the past decade, he said, noting the increase of UN platforms that have drawn attention to the issue, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the New York Declaration on Refugees and Migrants and Security Council Open Debates. He said that while international attention and policies outlawing trafficking are important, more work is necessary to cut out the scourge at its root, especially for women and girls.
Below is the text of Archbishop Auza’s lecture:
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Archbishop Bernardito Auza
Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the
United Nations
“The Holy See and The Fight Against Human Trafficking”
Inaugural Lecture of the Casamarca Foundation Chair
in Migration and Globalization at Fordham University
Flom Auditorium, Walsh Library, Fordham University, Bronx
February 23, 2017
Father McShane,
Members and Friends of the Fordham Community,
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is a joy to be with you tonight to deliver the inaugural lecture of the Casamarca Foundation Chair in Migration and Globalization. I am deeply honored that Fordham University offered me the Casamarca Foundation Chair dedicated to these two intimately linked phenomena that are as old as humanity itself but have in our days acquired heightened attention, becoming subjects of fiery political debates and of more focused attention among policymakers.
Introduction
I have been asked to talk on one of the darkest and most revolting realities in the world today, namely, the trafficking in human beings as sex slaves in prostitution and pornography, for forced labor and compelled participation in illegal activities, for child soldiering, for forced and sham marriages, for child brides, for illegal adoptions, for the stealing of children from pregnant women, for the removal of organs, and even for human sacrifice and, believe it or not, for aphrodisiacs and magical concoctions.
The tremendous advances in human civilization, in the sciences and technologies tempt us to think that slavery is a thing of a distant past. But when we examine the facts, we are shocked at how much slavery in all its modern forms is with us more than ever, albeit in a more submerged way. Far from being a historical footnote and far from of diminishing or going away, this phenomenon of trafficking in persons is growing, provoked by conflicts and extreme poverty, and exacerbated by the present migration and refugee crisis.
Three weeks ago, the Haitian police arrested nine North Americans in a sex trafficking sting involving 31 girls between the ages of 13 and 17. Investigators believe the syndicate was preparing to take the children over to the Dominican Republic. Similarly, as I was preparing this conference a few days ago, the Haitian press reported that the State Commissioner of Port-au-Prince, in just two days, had closed in Port-au-Prince alone forty-one illegal brothels, frequented by children in school uniforms, some of whom have been forced into prostitution even by their parents. The operation was conducted after nine minors aged 13 and 14 went to the police. Various parents were arrested, but the brothel owners were just told to put their papers in order before they could reopen.
Far be it from me, however, to single out Haiti and the Haitians, a people I love and respect having served as Nuncio in the country for more than six years. The reality is that no country in the world has been immune to the scourges of human trafficking and other contemporary forms of slavery. Indeed, the two Haitian cases I just cited are not even the tip of the iceberg, and would hardly cause a stir in the huge, vast, very lucrative and submerged phenomenon that is trafficking in persons.
Some statistics
How many persons are victims of human trafficking? The honest answer is that the number is staggering, and nobody really knows! There are only estimates, and the most cited is the 2012 figure given by the International Labour Organization (ILO) of about 21 million men, women and children who are trafficked, sold, coerced or subjected to conditions of slavery in various forms and in various sectors: from agriculture to domestic service, from prostitution to forced marriage, or cases of child soldiers, organ trafficking and sale of children. An annual increase of around three million people must be added to this figure. The data used by the ILO were mostly likely gathered in 2010 and partly in 2011. If you add three million each year to the 21 million from data gathered most likely in 2010, then you come up with 36 million persons trafficked in 2016. The highest estimate I saw was 45 million.
According to the 2016 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons released two months ago by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, human trafficking is a 32 billion dollar industry, running third behind arms and drug trafficking. Fifty-one percent of the victims are women, 21 percent are men, 20 percent girls and 8 percent boys.
While women and children still constitute 79 percent of the victims, the trend in the last 10 years indicates that more and more of the victims are men. In 2004, only 13 percent of the victims were male. In 2014, the percentage went up to 21 percent. With the increase of men being trafficked, there is a proportionate increase of forced labor among the forms of exploitation. Almost 86 percent of male victims are trafficked for forced labor.
Inversely, the trend of the share of women in the overall number of trafficked persons indicates a downward trend, from 74 percent in 2004 to 51 percent in 2014. Seventy-two percent of women are trafficked for sexual exploitation.
In the last ten years, the increase of the share of trafficked children more than doubled, from 13 percent in 2004 to 28 percent in 2014. But in Sub-Saharan Africa, a staggering 64 percent of those trafficked are children, and the Caribbean and Central America Region is not far behind, with 62 percent of the victims being children.
Why are people trafficked?
As is often said, misery breeds miseries. This holds so true in human trafficking! Persons who have “nothing to lose” are very vulnerable to the guile of traffickers, who are masters in spotting and exploiting situations of despair. Traffickers use the guise of smuggling, for example, to ensnare their victims. They present victims with putative job opportunities that echo the promises of smugglers, ask migrants to pay fees for their transport, and often use the same routes and transportation methods coyotes do. Human traffickers have no qualms about exploiting very vulnerable people escaping persecution, conflict, environmental disasters, and economic privation. Wars and conflicts are becoming more and more the primary push factor why people are more vulnerable to trafficking. Persons who escape persecution and conflict in search of freedom and protection are particularly vulnerable to being trafficked.
Mass migrations and refugee movements have become an advantageous environment for traffickers to operate. In 2015, the United Nations estimated that there were almost 250 million international migrants across the world, an increase of more than 40 percent since the year 2000 (173 million). Also in 2015, more than 65 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide due to persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations, an increase of 6 million compared to 2014.
Now, as the aforementioned 2016 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons shows, the citizenships of trafficking victims detected in the country of exploitation is highly correlated with the citizenships of regular migration flows. And so it’s clear that in order to eradicate the scourge of trafficking in persons, we must address how forced migration and the negative consequences of globalization are among its root causes, leaving so many in desperate situations vulnerable to traffickers using the exploitative business of migrant smuggling as a cover for the modern slave trade.
Women and girls have the added vulnerability in that, in still so many countries and regions in the world, they disproportionately constitute the poorest of the poor, discriminated against in education and healthcare, are the most affected by violence and conflict, and are disproportionately represented in the informal economy. These disadvantages are push factors, making them more likely to migrate, usually irregularly, and more vulnerable to the guile of the traffickers.
What does the United Nations do against human trafficking?
The international community through the United Nations is very much aware of the problem and its extent.
There is, above all, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by all countries in the world during the Development Summit held in the very same day that Pope Francis addressed the UN General Assembly on 25 September 2015.
The 2030 Agenda contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 Targets. Three of these Targets are dedicated to eliminating this humanitarian ignominy within the next decade and a half. These commit the United Nations and Member States expeditiously to “eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation” (5.2) “take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labor, end modern slavery and human trafficking” (8.7) and “end abuse, exploitation, trafficking and all forms of violence against and torture of children” (16.2).
In the New York Declaration on Refugee and Migrants adopted last September by the General Assembly, the international community recognized that “refugees and migrants in large movements are at greater risk of being trafficked and of being subjected to forced labor” and committed itself “vigorously [to] combat human trafficking and migrant smuggling with a view to their elimination, … provide support for the victims of human trafficking, … [and] prevent human trafficking among those affected by displacement” (35).
It likewise committed itself to implement the UN Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons, to conform national legislation with international law on migrant smuggling and human trafficking, to reinforce technical cooperation to prevent trafficking and to prosecute traffickers (36). In view of a Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, that the United Nations hopes will be adopted in a Summit in September 2018 in New York, the international community committed itself to “combating trafficking in persons … and contemporary forms of slavery,” “identifying those who have been trafficked and considering providing assistance, including temporary and permanent residency and work permits” (III,8,k-l).
I would also like to note that in December 2015, the Security Council held its first-ever thematic debate on Trafficking in Persons in Situations of Conflict, allowing an opening for greater concrete action and for binding decisions for all countries to implement. More and more countries are now actively involved. A group of States and other stakeholders has been proposing ways in which the Security Council can play a greater role in the fight against human trafficking. There has been an array of conferences, side events and panel discussions at the United Nations on the subject of human trafficking. Modesty aside, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer Mission is among the more active Missions in this area.
At the United Nations and across the international community, there has been practical progress, but in many basic areas, institutions have not come close to rising up to the needs, like in the area of prosecuting and condemning traffickers. On the positive side, there has been a dramatic increase in countries that have criminalized human trafficking in conformity with the definition in the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol. In 2003, only 33 countries worldwide had criminalized human trafficking; in 2016, 158 did.
That’s good news. But having laws on the books is one thing; using them to bust those engaged in enslaving their fellow human beings is another. Of the 136 countries for which we have data, 40 percent (or 54 countries) had fewer than 10 convictions per year and 15 percent (or 20 countries) did not have a single conviction over the three-year period between 2012-2014! Among countries that have had legislation for more than 13 years, the average amount of convictions was 29. No country in the world had more than 100 annual convictions. When the average number of victims per convicted trafficker is four, and when an estimated 36 million people today are victims, we can see that the vast majority of traffickers continue to enslave others with impunity.
There’s also the situation of the data needed and the competence and cooperation of national governments. In the 2016 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons published by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, there were only 136 countries reporting, and much of their data was partial. The Report acknowledges that in some areas the scarcity of data furnished by countries made it impossible to draw solid analyses and conclusions. What makes extrapolating scarce data even more problematic is the fact that some of the countries where the most trafficking victims originate or are exploited are among those that have not filed reports or filed incomplete data. There are a number of reasons behind these difficulties in reporting, one of them being insufficient institutional capacities in those countries.
In sum, steps in the right direction have been taken at the level of the international community and greater public awareness can be noted. As the irreproachable expression goes, much has been done, but much more still needs to be done! As Pope Francis stressed in his September 2015 Address to the UN General Assembly, paper commitments are not enough. Making our institutions effective is the great challenge. Forcing the submerged phenomenon of human trafficking to the surface requires specialized institutional capacities and tremendous political will on the part of every country.
The Popes, the Holy See and the Catholic Church
So, if words are not enough, what have the Popes, the Holy See and the Catholic Church done and actually do to fight the scourge of human trafficking?
The Holy See’s involvement in the fight against human trafficking is not new. It has long spoken out against the evil of human trafficking and through the dedicated work of so many Catholic religious institutes — especially women religious Congregations —, national and diocesan programs, and groups of committed faithful, the Catholic Church has sought to fight to address its various causes, care for those it victimizes, wake people up to the disgrace, and work with anyone and everyone to try to eliminate it.
During the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church, in its 1965 Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, condemned “slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children, and disgraceful working conditions where people are treated as instruments of gain rather than free and responsible persons” as “infamies” that “poison human society, debase their perpetrators” and as “a supreme dishonor to the Creator” (Gaudium et Spes (http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_cons_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html) , 27).
St. John Paul II, in a lengthy 2002 Address on the human rights dimension to human trafficking, forcefully declared that the “the issue of human trafficking must be addressed by promoting effective juridical instruments to halt this iniquitous trade, to punish those who profit from it, and to assist the reintegration of its victims.” He added, “The sexual exploitation of women and children is a particularly repugnant aspect of this trade, and must be recognized as an intrinsic violation of human dignity and rights. The disturbing tendency to treat prostitution as a business or industry not only contributes to the trade in human beings, but is itself evidence of a growing tendency to … reduce the rich mystery of human sexuality to a mere commodity.” He urged that attention be given not only to the “significant political and juridical issues involved in responding to this modern plague,” but also to the “ethical questions” that fuel the market demand for human trafficking,
namely, “the lifestyles and models of behavior, particularly with regard to the image of women, which generate what has become a veritable industry of sexual exploitation in the developed countries” (Letter on the occasion of the International Conference, “Twenty-First Century Slavery: the Human Rights Dimension to the Trafficking in Human Beings,” May 15, 2002).
Pope Benedict XVI likewise condemned the “scourge of trafficking in human beings” in his 2006 Message for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, saying that the world needed to combat the “trafficking in human beings, especially women, that flourishes where opportunities to improve their standard of living or even to survive are limited.” He continued, “It becomes easy for the trafficker to offer his own ‘services’ to the victims, who often do not even vaguely suspect what awaits them. In some cases there are women and girls who are destined to be exploited almost like slaves in their work, and not infrequently in the sex industry, too.” He specifically criticized the “the widespread hedonistic and commercial culture that encourages the systematic exploitation of sexuality” and in a particular way harms women and girls.
Pope Francis and the fight against human trafficking
But it has been Pope Francis who has captured the world’s attention for his strong and incessant denunciation of this social cancer and his attempt to wake up the world with him to eliminate it. He is universally recognized as the leading moral voice in the fight against trafficking in persons. By words and action, he has made it clear that this is one of the defining priorities of his papacy. Thus, following the Holy Father’s lead, the fight against modern slavery is a particular priority of the diplomatic work of the Holy See and a pastoral urgency of the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio had already been exposed to human trafficking in Buenos Aires, where he was Archbishop for 15 years prior to his papal election. In a daily homily, after noting that Jesus “stands with our brothers and sisters who live under slavery,” he commented, “We have been taught that slavery has been abolished, but you know what? It’s not true, because in the city of Buenos Aires slavery is not abolished. In this city slavery is present in different forms.” Soon after his election, he sent a hand-written note to his fellow Argentine, Bishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, in which he wrote, “I believe it would be good to examine human trafficking and modern slavery. Organ trafficking could be examined in connection with human trafficking. Many thanks, Francis.”
In his September 2015 Address to the UN General Assembly, he called on world leaders to avoid “every temptation to fall into a declarationist nominalism that would assuage our consciences” but do nothing more. He stressed, “We need to ensure that our institutions are truly effective in the struggle against all these scourges” and “take concrete steps and immediate measures … to [put] an end as quickly as possible to the phenomenon of social and economic exclusion, with its baneful consequences such as human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labor, including prostitution.”
Pope Francis has spoken on human trafficking on many other formal occasions. He dedicated part of his address to the UN General Assembly to it. He wrote about it in his encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home and in his exhortation The Joy of the Gospel. He dedicated the entirety 2015 Message for the World Day of Peace to the subject, making it a key priority of international diplomacy for the Holy See. He has spoken about it to the Ambassadors and other diplomats accredited to the Holy See, to international religious leaders, to an alliance of international police chiefs and Church leaders dedicated to eradicating modern slavery, to social scientists and scholars, to mayors from across the globe, and to various conferences in different parts of the world.
And he hasn’t merely been talking: he’s been taking action, not only catalyzing the Holy See’s hosting conferences through the Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences, but also spearheading the 2014 Joint Declaration of Religious Leaders against Modern Slavery and helping to found the Santa Marta Group, named after his residence in the Vatican, which brings together Catholic leaders and international law enforcement officials to battle this scourge.
What has been his essential message and approach as he has sought to spur the whole world toward effective action? Without pretending to be exhaustive, I would summarize it in six points:
First, what we’re dealing with is a crime against humanity. In an April 2014 meeting with social scientists in the Vatican, he said, “Human trafficking is an open wound on the body of contemporary society, a scourge upon the body of Christ. It is a crime against humanity.” Addressing interreligious leaders eight months later, he emphasized, with equally graphic language, “Modern slavery — in the form of human trafficking, forced labor, prostitution or the trafficking of organs — is a crime ‘against humanity,’ … an atrocious scourge that is present throughout the world on a broad scale, even as tourism.” Our response must be commensurate to the evil.
Second, human trafficking is a crime that’s occurring in our own backyards, it’s under our noses, and we cannot ignore it. “We must raise awareness of this new evil which, in the world at large, wants to be hidden since it is scandalous and ‘politically incorrect,’” he said in an April 2015 address to an interdisciplinary summit in the Vatican. “No one likes to acknowledge that in one’s own city, even in one’s own neighborhood, in one’s region or nation, there are new forms of slavery, while we know that this plagues almost all countries. … All of society is called to grow in this awareness… in order to be able to ensure that traffickers be brought to justice and their unjust earnings redirected for the rehabilitation of victims. … So often … these new forms of slavery are protected by the institutions that should be protecting the population from these crimes.”
Third, modern slavery takes advantage of a widespread culture of indifference and exclusion. In a March 5, 2014 Message to a Brazilian conference on “Fraternity and Human Trafficking, Pope Francis said, “It is not possible to remain indifferent before the knowledge that human beings are bought and sold like goods. I think of the adoption of children for the extraction of their organs, of women deceived and forced to prostitute themselves, of workers exploited and denied their rights or a voice, and so on. This is human trafficking!” In an address lastNovember 2to RENATE, an association of religious women in Europe networked against trafficking and exploitation, he applied Jesus’ words about the Last Judgment in St. Matthew’s Gospel to the situation of human trafficking, saying Jesus could say, and wants to say, to each of us, “I was abused, exploited, enslaved … and you rescued me.”
Fourth, the flood of trafficking victims has multiple tributaries. Pope Francis has specified four different causes: economic, environmental, political, and ethical. To eradicate the scourge of modern slavery, one must confront these economic, environmental, political, and ethical roots:
Economic. In his 2015 Peace Message he wrote that among the causes that “help to explain contemporary forms of slavery,… in the first place [is] poverty, underdevelopment and exclusion, especially when combined with a lack of access to education or scarce, even non-existent, employment opportunities. Not infrequently, the victims of human trafficking and slavery are people who look for a way out of a situation of extreme poverty; taken in by false promises of employment, they often end up in the hands of criminal networks that organize human trafficking.”
Environmental. In a July 21, 2015 Conference dedicated to the connection between “Modern Slavery and Climate Change,” Pope Francis said, “The United Nations must take greater interest … in human trafficking caused by environmental issues,” a point he developed at length in his encyclical Laudato Si’: “It is clearly inconsistent to combat trafficking in endangered species,” he said, “while remaining completely indifferent to human trafficking.” (LS 91).
Political. In his 2015 Message for the World Day of Peace, he was plain in saying that one obvious cause of modern slavery is “corruption on the part of people willing to do anything for financial gain. Slave labor and human trafficking often require the complicity of intermediaries, be they law enforcement personnel, state officials, or civil and military institutions.”
Ethical. In a December 12, 2013 Address to a group of new Ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, he said that modern slavery happens when people “are treated as objects,” which leads to their being “deceived, assaulted, often sold many times for different purposes and, in the end, killed or, in any case, physically and mentally harmed, ending up discarded and abandoned.” He reiterated the point in his encyclical Laudato Si’. “In the absence of objective truths or sound principles other than the satisfaction of our own desires and immediate needs,” he asked, “what limits can be placed on human trafficking, organized crime, the drug trade, commerce in blood diamonds and the fur of endangered species?” He says that the human beings are treated like things to be used and thrown away, and this happens “when the culture itself is corrupt and objective truth and universally valid principles are no longer upheld.” (LS 123).
Fifth, Pope Francis stresses that now is the time for action. In his 2015 Message for the World Day of Peace, he underlined, “Even though the international community has adopted numerous agreements aimed at ending slavery in all its forms, and has launched various strategies to combat this phenomenon, millions of people today – children, women and men of all ages – are deprived of freedom and are forced to live in conditions akin to slavery.” That leads to an urgency he called for in an October 2015 letter to a conference against modern slavery and human trafficking taking place in Madrid, in which he said, “Today the 193 States that belong to the UN have a new moral imperative to combat human trafficking which is a real crime against humanity.” In short, he is saying, now is the time to act with alacrity on the moral imperatives to eliminate human trafficking, modern slavery and forced labor.
Sixth, he insists on collaboration and partnerships, that the response must involve everyone’s working together. In his 2015 Message for the World Day of Peace, Pope Francis specified the need for the involvement of States, intergovernmental organizations, businesses, civil society organizations, and everyone, saying: “We ought to recognize that we are facing a global phenomenon that exceeds the competence of any one community or country. In order to eliminate it, we need a mobilization comparable in size to that of the phenomenon itself. For this reason I urgently appeal to all men and women of good will, and all those near or far, including the highest levels of civil institutions, who witness the scourge of contemporary slavery, not to become accomplices to this evil, not to turn away from the sufferings of our brothers and sisters, our fellow human beings, who are deprived of their freedom and dignity. Instead, may we have the courage to touch as revealed in the faces of those countless persons whom [Jesus] calls ‘the least of these my brethren’ (Mt 25:40, 45). … The globalization of indifference, which today burdens the lives of so many of our brothers and sisters, requires all of us to forge a new worldwide solidarity and fraternity capable of giving them new hope and helping them to advance with courage amid the problems of our time and the new horizons which they disclose and which God places in our hands” (2015 Message for the World Day of Prayer for Peace).
The Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations
The Permanent Observer Mission is working very hard to act on this priority of Pope Francis and of the Church in our work here in New York. Our Mission has organized a series of conferences dedicated to the issue. We inaugurated this series in April 2015, by hosting with the Santa Marta Group a huge conference for nearly 600 people on “Ending Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking by 2030,” with the some of the best experts and practitioners in the field. In March last year, we organized a side event on “the Pastoral Care of Women and Girls on the Street” and another in July on “Eliminating the Trafficking of Children and Youth.”
This coming March 22, the Mission will be holding another event entitled “Economically Empowering Trafficking Survivors to Stay Permanently Off the Streets,” to which you would all be invited. We are planning a big conference on Financing for Development focused on the most vulnerable women.
We will also be participating actively in the High-Level Meeting of the General Assembly this October on the appraisal of the UN Global Plan of Action to Combat Trafficking in Persons for which our Mission was involved in meetings earlier today. We are actively participating in the various preparatory phases leading toward the intergovernmental negotiations on an Outcome document on the Global Compact on safe, orderly and regular migration that will be adopted during the September 2018 Summit to be held in New York.
My participation in the annual assembly of the Santa Marta Group has helped me to have better country-focused understanding of the situation in specific countries, as both Church and law enforcement authorities report on the situation in their respective countries. This complements the wide-angle view we get at the United Nations. Moreover, country-specific reports provide for a deeper appreciation of the fundamental importance of the close collaboration between law enforcement authorities and those who take care of the victims of human trafficking.
Finally, the Mission collaborates with the Permanent Missions of countries that are actively fighting human trafficking, as well as with non-governmental organizations whose objective is to help to put an end to human trafficking.
Concluding Remarks
Allow me to conclude my comments with two brief points of reflection:
First, the importance of a faith actively manifested in deeds. Pope Francis wants those who are religious to find in their faith the deepest motivation for leadership and involvement in this fight. People of faith should bring their moral vision and passion to this whole movement. “Sustained,” he affirmed in joint declaration with world religious leaders, “by the ideals of our confessions of faith and by our shared human values, we all can and must raise the standard of spiritual values, common effort and the vision of freedom to eradicate slavery from our planet.”
In the same vein, in his Message to the participants of our April 2015 conference on human trafficking, the Holy Father reiterated the “steadfast commitment of the Catholic Church to fight this crime and to care for all of its victims,” urged all of us to recognize in this work “a true service to the poorest and most marginalized of society, who too often are forgotten and have no voice,” and challenged us to greater involvement still. We fight for our brothers and sisters who, like us, are made in the image and likeness of God. That appeal made ten months ago has lost nothing of its urgency.
Second, deeds sustained by the hope that, together, we shall overcome. It can, indeed, be very discouraging and frustrating that in spite of all the efforts, the phenomenon of human trafficking continues to grow rapidly. During our April 2017 Conference, Mr. Kevin Hyland, the Independent Anti-Slavery Commission of the United Kingdom, reminded us that it took William Wilberforce only 20 years to end the British slave trade and only 30 more to abolish the slave trade across the globe, at a time when slavery was as accepted as natural as birth, marriage and death. This can also happen in our fight against human trafficking, and it can happen sooner than we might think, as long as all, including each one of us here, are committed to fight the good and necessary fight against the evil of human trafficking. Let us bring that Wilberforce in each of us to bear in our fight against human trafficking and others forms of modern slavery.
Thank you for your kind attention!
Pope’s Address to Roman Clergy (Part II) by ZENIT Staff
Below is a working translation of Pope Francis’ address Thursday morning, March 2, 2017, to the priests of the Diocese of Rome, gathered in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran for the traditional appointment at the beginning of Lent. Due to the length of the address, Zenit is publishing this in separate pieces and this is part II.
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The Icon of Simon Peter “Sifted”
To concretize this reflection regarding a faith that grows with discernment of the moment, we contemplate the icon of Simon Peter “sifted” (cf. Luke 22:31), which the Lord prepared in a paradigmatic way, so that with his faith tested he could confirm all of us who “love Christ without having seen Him” (cf. 1 Peter 1:8).
We enter fully in the paradox by which he who must confirm us in the faith is the same one that the lord often reproaches for his “little faith.” The Lord usually indicates other persons as examples of great faith. With notable emphasis many times He praises the faith of simple persons and of others that do not belong to the people of Israel – we think of the centurion (cf. Luke 7:9) and the Syro-Phoenician woman (cf. 15:28) –, while to the disciples – and to Simon Peter in particular – He often reproaches their “little faith” (Matthew 14:31).
Keeping in mind that the Lord’s reflections regarding great faith and little faith have a pedagogic intent and are a stimulus to increase the desire to grow in faith, we concentrate on a key passage in Simon Peter’s life, that in which Jesus says to him that He “has prayed” for his faith. It is the moment that precedes the Passion; the Apostles have just discussed who among them is the traitor and who is the greatest, and Jesus says to Simon: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:31-32).
We specify the terms, because the Lord’s requests to the Father are things to treasure in the heart. We consider that the Lord “prays” [6] for Simon but thinking of us. “To fail” translates ekleipo – whence “eclipsed” – and the image of an eclipsed faith by the scandal of the Passion is very plastic. It is that experience that we call desolation: something covers the light.
To go back (epistrepsas) expresses here the sense of “being converted,” of returning to the previous consolation after an experience of desolation and of having been sifted by the devil.
“To confirm” (sterizon) is said in the sense of “to consolidate” (histemi) the faith so that henceforth it is “determined” (cf. Luke 9:51) — a faith that no wind of doctrine can toss (cf. Ephesians 4:14). Further on we pause again on this “sifting.” We can reread the Lord’s words thus: “Simon, Simon, [. . .] I have prayed to the Father for you, so that your faith is not eclipsed (from my disfigured face, in you who saw it transfigured); and you, once you have come out of this experience of desolation of which the devil has taken advantage to sift you, confirm (with your tested faith) “the faith of your brethren.”
Thus, we see that Simon Peter’s faith has a special character: it is a tested faith, and with it he has the mission to confirm and consolidate the faith of his brethren, our faith. Simon Peter’s faith is less than that of so many little ones of the faithful people of God. There are even pagans, as the centurion, who have a greater faith at the moment of imploring the healing of a sick one of their family. Simon’s faith is slower than that of Mary Magdalen or of John. John believes just seeing the sign of the shroud and he recognizes the Lord on the shore of the Lake on just hearing His words. Simon Peter’s faith has moments of greatness, as when he confesses that Jesus is the Messiah, but these moments are followed almost immediately by others of great error, of extreme frailty and total disconcert, as when he want to move the Lord away from the cross, or when he sinks without remedy in the Lake, or when he wants to defend the Lord with his sword, not to speak of the shameful moment of the three denials before the servants.
We can distinguish three types of thoughts, charged with affections [7], which interact in Simon Peter’s tests of faith: some are the thoughts that come from his very way of being; other thoughts are caused directly by the devil (of the evil spirit); and a third type of thoughts come directly from the Lord or from the Father (from the good spirit).
The Two Names and the Desire to Walk on the waters towards Christ
We see, in the first place, how the Lord relates to the most human aspect of Simon Peter’s faith. I speak of that healthy self-esteem with which one believes in oneself and in the other, in the capacity to be worthy of trust, sincere and faithful, on which every human friendship is based. There are two episodes on Simon Peter’s life in which one can see growth in faith, which can be called sincere. Sincere in the sense of without complications, in which a friendship grows deepening who each one is without their being shadows. One is the episode of the two names; the other, when Simon Peter asks the Lord to command that he go towards Him walking on the water.
Simon appears on the scene when his brother Andrew goes to seek him and says to him: “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41); and he follows his brother who takes him to Jesus. And there the change of name happens immediately. It is a choice the Lord makes in view of a mission, that of being Rock, solid foundation of faith on which He will build His Church. We note that, more than changing the name of Simon, what the Lord does, in fact, is to add that of Peter.
This fact is already a motive of tension and of growth. Peter will always move around the pivot which is the Lord, turning and feeling the weight and the movement of his two names: that of Simon – the fisherman, the sinner, the friend . . . –and that of Peter – the Rock on which to build, he who has the keys, who says the last word, who looks after and feed the sheep –. It does me good to think that Simon is the name with which Jesus calls him when they speak and say things to one another as friends, and Peter is the name with which the Lord presents him, justifies him, defends him and highlights him before the others in a unique manner as his man of total trust. Even if it is He who gives him the name of “Pietra,” Jesus calls him Simon.
Simon Peter’s faith progresses and grows in the tension between these two names, whose fixed point – the pivot – is centered in Jesus.
To have two names de-centers him. He cannot center himself on any of them. If he wished to have Simon as his fixed point, he would always have to say: “Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8). If he pretended to center himself exclusively on being Peter and forgot or covered all that is of Simon, he would become a rock of scandal, as happened when “he was not straightforward about the truth of the Gospel,” as Paul says to him, because he had concealed the fact of having gone to eat with Gentiles (cf. Galatians 2:11-14). To keep himself Simon (fisherman and sinner) and Peter (Rock and key for the others) will oblige him to constantly de-center himself to rotate only around Christ, the only center.
The icon of this de-centering, its putting it into act, is when he asks Jesus to command him to go toward Him on the waters. Simon Peter shows his character there, his dream, his attraction to imitate Jesus. When he sinks, because he stops looking at the Lord and looks at the agitation of the waves, he shows his fears and his ghosts. And when he prays that He save him and the Lord reaches out His hand, he shows that he knows well who Jesus is for him: his Savior. And the Lord reinforces his faith, granting him what he desires, giving him a hand and closing the question with that affectionate and reassuring phrase: “O man of little faith, why did you doubt?” (Matthew 14:31).
Simon Peter in all the “limit” situations in which he can get into, guided by his faith in Jesus will always discern the hand that saves him. With that certainty that, even when he does not understand well what Jesus says or does, will make him say: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68). Humanly, this awareness of having “little faith,” together with the humility to let himself be helped by one he knows can do so, is the point of healthy self-esteem in which the seed of that faith is rooted “to confirm the others,: to “build on it,” which is that that Jesus wants from Simon Peter and from us who participate in the ministry. I would say that it is a faith that can be shared, perhaps because it is no so admirable. The faith of one who has learnt to walk without tribulations on the waters would be fascinating, but it would distance us. Instead, this faith of a good friend, aware of his smallness and who trusts fully in Jesus, arouses our sympathy and – this is His grace – it confirms us!
B) Jesus’ Prayer and the Devil’s Sifting
In the central passage of Luke, which we took as guide, we can see what produces the devil’s sifting in the personality of Simon Peter and how Jesus prays so that the weakness, and even the sin, are transformed into grace and communal grace. We concentrate on the word “sifting” (siniazo: to sift the wheat), which evokes the movement of spirits, thanks to which, at the end, one discerns what comes from the good spirit from what comes from the evil one. In this case he who sifts – he who claims the power to sift – is the evil spirit. And the Lord does not impede him, but, taking advantage of the test, addresses His prayer to the Father to reinforce Simon Peter’s heart. Jesus prays so that Simon Peter “[does] not fall into temptation.” The Lord did everything possible to protect His own in His Passion. However, He cannot avoid that each one be tempted by the devil, who introduces himself in the weakest part. In this type of test, which God does not send directly but which He does not impede, Paul tells us that the Lord takes care that we not be tempted beyond our strength (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:3).
The fact that the Lord says expressly that He prays for Simon is extremely important, because the most insidious temptation of the devil is that, together with a certain particular test, he makes us feel that Jesus has abandoned us, that in some way He has left us alone and has not helped us as He should have. The Lord Himself experienced and overcame this temptation, first in the Garden and then on the cross, entrusting Himself to the Father’s hands when He felt abandoned. It is in this point of the faith that we have need to be in a special way and with care reinforced and confirmed. In the fact that the Lord foresaw what would happen to Simon Peter and assured him that He had already prayed so that his faith would not fail, we find the strength of which we are in need.
This “eclipse” of the faith in face of the scandal of the Passion is one of the things for which the lord prays in a particular way. The Lord asks us to pray always, with insistence: He associates us to His prayer, He makes us ask “that we fall not into temptation and that we be delivered from evil,” because our flesh is weak; He also reveals to us that there are devils that are only defeated with prayer and penance and, in certain things, He reveals to us that He prays in a special way. This is one of these. As He kept for Himself the humble task of washing the feet of His own, as once risen He was personally concerned with consoling His friends, in the same way this prayer with which, reinforcing Simon Peter’s faith, He reinforces that of all the others, it is something of which the Lord takes charge personally. And it is necessary to take it into account: it is to this prayer , which the Lord did once and continues to do – “who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us” (Romans 8:34) – to which we must take recourse to reinforce our faith.
If the lesson given to Simon Peter to let his feet be washed has confirmed the Lord’s attitude of service and has fixed it in the Church’s memory as a fundamental event, this lesson, given in the same context, must be put in it also as icon of the tempted and sifted faith for which the Lord prays. As priests who take part in the Petrine ministry, in that which is ours, we participate in the same mission: not only should we wash the feet of our brethren, as we do on Holy Thursday, but we must confirm them in their faith, witnessing how the Lord prayed for ours.
If in the trials that originate in our flesh the Lord encourages and reinforces us, often working miracles of healing, in these temptations that come directly from the devil, the Lord uses a more complex strategy. We see that there are some devils that He expels directly and bluntly; others He neutralizes, silencing them; He makes others speak, asks their name, as the one who was “Legion”; to others he answers amply with Scripture, enduring a long procedure, as the case of the temptations in the desert. This devil, who tempts his friend at the beginning of His Passion, He defeats by praying, not so that he will leave Him in peace, but so that His sifting will become a motive of strength for the benefit of others.
We have here some great teachings on growth in the faith. One has to do with the scandal of the suffering of the Innocent One and of the innocent. This touches us more than we think, it even touches those who cause it or those who feign not to see it. It does good to hear from the mouth of the Lord, at the precise moment in which He is about to take on Himself the scandal of the Passion, He prays that the faith will not fail of those He leaves instead of His own, and because it is for Him to confirm the rest of us. The eclipse of the faith caused by the Passion is not something that each one can resolve and surmount individually.
Another important lesson is when the Lord tests us, He never does so in our weakest part. This is typical of the devil, who exploits our weaknesses, who looks for our weakest part and who rages fiercely against the weakest of this world. Therefore the infinite and unconditional mercy of the Father for the littlest and sinners, and the compassion and infinite forgiveness that Jesus exercises to the point of giving his life for sinners, is no only because god is good, but it is also fruit of God’s ultimate discernment upon evil to uproot it from its relation with the frailty of the flesh. In the last instance, evil is not with the frailty and the limit of the flesh. Therefore, the Word is made flesh without any fear and gives witness that He can live perfectly in the heart of the Holy Family and grow protected by two humble creatures as Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary, His Mother.
Evil has its origin in an act of spiritual pride and is born of the arrogance of a perfect creature, Lucifer. Then, it is infected in Adam and Eve, but finding support in their “desire to be like gods,” not in their frailty. In the case of Simon Peter, the Lord does not fear his frailty as sinful man or his fear to walk on the waters in the midst of a storm. Rather, He fears the discussion about who is the greatest.
It is in this context that He says to Simon Peter that the devil has asked for permission to sift him. And we can think that the sifting began there, in the discussion about who would be the one to betray Him, which then resulted in the discussions about who was the greatest. Luke’s whole passage, which follows immediately after the institution of the Eucharist is a sifting: discussions, predictions of the denial, offering of the sword (cf. 22:23-38). Simon Peter’s faith is sifted in the tension between the desire to be loyal, to defend Jesus and that of being the greatest and denial, the cowardice and feeling himself the worst of all. The Lord prays so that Satan will not darken Simon’s faith in this moment, in which he looks at himself to make himself great, , to scorn himself or to remain disconcerted and perplexed.
If there is a formulation elaborated by Peter about these things, it is that of a “tested faith,” as his First Letter shows us, in which Peter warns that one must not be surprised by tests, as if they were something strange (cf. 4:12), but the devil must be resisted “firm in the faith” (5:9).Peter describes himself as a “witness of the sufferings of Christ” (5:1) and he writes his letters to “remind them [. . .] of the right way to think” (2 Peter 3:1) (eilikrine dianoian: judgment illuminated by a ray of sun), which would be the grace opposed to the “eclipse” of the faith.
Therefore, the progress of the faith happens thanks to this sifting, to this passing through temptations and trials. Simon Peter’s whole life can be seen as progress in the faith thanks to the Lord’s accompaniment, who teaches him to discern, in his heart, what comes from the Father and what comes from the devil.
b) The Lord who puts to the test making the faith grow from good to better and ever present temptation
Finally, the encounter by the Lake of Tiberius – a further step in which the Lord puts Simon Peter to the test, making him grow from the good to the better. The love of friendship is consolidated as that which “feeds” the flock and reinforces it in the faith (cf. John 21:15-19).
Reading in this context of Simon Peter’s trials of faith which serve to reinforce our own, we can see here how it is about a very special test of the Lord. In general it is said that the Lord questioned him three times because Simon Peter denied Him three times. It might be that this weakness was present in Simon Peter’s soul (or in him who reads his story) and that the dialogue served to cure it. But we can also think that the Lord healed that denial with his look which made Simon Peter weep bitterly (cf. Luke 22:62). In this interrogation we can see a way of proceeding of the Lord, namely, to begin from a god thing – which all recognized and of which Simon Peter could be happy –: “Do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15); confirming him, simplifying him in a simple “do you love me?” (v. 16), which removes every desire for greatness and rivalry from Simon’s soul; to end in that “do you love me as a friend?” (v. 17), which is what Simon Peter most desired and, evidently, is that which is most at heart in Jesus. If it is truly love of friendship, there is no type of reproach or correction in this love: friendship is friendship and it is the highest value that corrects and improves all the rest, without the need to talk about the motive.
Perhaps this was the greatest temptation of the devil: to insinuate in Simon Peter the idea to not feel himself worthy to be a friend of Jesus because he had betrayed Him. But the lord is faithful – always. And He renews His fidelity again and again. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful – for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Timothy 2:13), as Paul says to Timothy, his son in the faith. Friendship has this grace: that a friend who is more faithful can. With his fidelity, make the other faithful who is no so faithful. And if it is about Jesus, He more than any other has the power to make His friends faithful. It is in this faith – the faith in a Jesus faithful friend – that Simon Peter is confirmed and sent to confirm each and all. In this precise sense one can read the threefold mission of feeding the sheep and the lambs. Considering all that pastoral care entails, that of reinforcing others in faith in Jesus, who loves us as friends, is an essential element. It is to this love that Peter refers in his First Letter: it is a faith in Jesus Christ who says: “without having seen Him you love Him; though you do not now see Him you believe in Him,” and this makes us rejoice “with unutterable and exalted joy,” certain of reaching “the end of (our) faith: the salvation of souls” (cf. 1 Peter 1:7-9).
However, another temptation arises — this time against his best friend — the temptation to want to investigate Jesus’ relationship with John, the beloved disciple. The Lord corrects him severely on this point: “What is that to you? Follow me” (John 21:22).
We see how temptation is always present in Simon Peter’s life. He shows us personally how the faith progresses confessing and letting himself be put to the test. And showing others that sin itself also enters in the progress of the faith. Peter committed the worst sin – denying the Lord – and yet he was made Pope. It is important for a priest to be able to insert his temptations and his sins in the ambit of this prayer of Jesus so that our faith does not fail, but matures and serves to reinforce in turn the faith of those that have been entrusted to us.
I like to repeat that a priest or a bishop who does not feel himself a sinner, who does not go to confession, is shut-in on himself, he does not progress in the faith. But it is necessary to be careful that confession and discernment of one’s temptations include and take into account this pastoral intention that the Lord wants to give to them.
A young man was telling me, who was recovering in Father Pepe’s Hogar de Cristo in Buenos Aires, that his mind played against him and aid he should not be there, and that he was fighting against this feeling. And he said that Father Pepe helped him a lot. That one day he told him that he could not anymore, that felt very much the absence of his family, of his wife and of his children, and that he wanted to leave. “And the priest said to me: “And before, when you went around to take drugs and sell drugs, were you missing your own? Were you thinking of them?” I made a sign with my hear to say no, in silence – said the man – and the priest, without saying anything more to me, gave me a slap on the back and said to me: “Go, enough of this.” As if to say to me: realize that what is happening to you and what you are saying. “Thank heaven that you now feel the absence.”
That man said that the priest was great. Who said things to his face. And this helped him to fight, because he was the one who had to put his will to work.
I tell this to make it seen that what helps in the growth of the faith is to have together one’s sin, the desire of the good of other, the help we receive and that which we should give. It is no good to divide: it is not right to feel perfect when we are unwilling <to carry out > the ministry and, when we sin, to justify ourselves by the fact that we are like all the others. It is necessary to unite things: if we reinforce the faith of others, we do so as sinners. And when we sin, we confess as what we are, priests, stressing that we have a responsibility towards persons, we are not like a;;. These two things are well united if we put before people. Our sheep. The poorest especially. It is what Jesus does when He asks Simon Peter if he loves Him, but He does not say anything to him either of the sorrow or of the joy that this love causes Him; He makes him look at his brethren in this way: feed my sheep, confirm your brothers’ faith. Almost saying to him, as to that young man of the Hogar de Cristo “Give thanks if you now feel the absence.”
“Give thanks if you feel you have little faith,” means that you are loving your brothers. “Give thanks if you feel yourself a sinner and unworthy of the ministry,: means that you realize that if you do something it is because Jesus prays for you, and without Him you can do nothing (cf. John 15:5).
Our elderly used to say that faith grows by doing acts of faith. Simon Peter is the icon of the man to whom the Lord Jesus makes him do at every moment acts of faith. When Simon Peter understand this “dynamic” of the Lord, His pedagogy, he does not lose an occasion to discern, at every moment, what act of faith he can make in his Lord. And in this he is not mistaken. When Jesus acts as his Master, giving him the name Peter, Simon lets Him do it. His “so be it: is silent, as that of Saint Joseph, and it will show itself real in the course of his life.
[Original Text: Italian] [Working Translation by ZENIT, by Virginia Forrester]
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On ZENIT’s Web page:
The working translation of Part I can be viewed here: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-address-to-roman-clergy-part-i/
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ANGELUS ADDRESS: Facing the Lenten Spiritual Combat with the Strength of the Word of God for Sunday, 5 March 2017 of Zenit in Roswell, Georgia, United States
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ANGELUS ADDRESS: Facing the Lenten Spiritual Combat with the Strength of the Word of God by ZENIT Staff
Here is a translation of the address Pope Francis gave today before and after praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
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Before the Angelus
Dear Brothers and Sisters, good morning!
In this first Sunday of Lent, the Gospel introduces us on the path towards Easter, showing Jesus, who stays forty days in the desert, subjected to the devil’s temptations (cf. Matthew 4:1-11). This episode is placed in a specific moment of Jesus’ life: immediately after His Baptism in the river Jordan and before His public ministry. He has just received His solemn investiture: the Spirit of God descended on Him, the Father of heaven declared Him: ”This is my beloved Son” (Matthew3:17). Jesus is now ready to begin His mission; and because it has a declared enemy, namely Satan, He confronts him immediately, body to body.” In fact, the devil appeals to His title of “Son of God,” to dissuade Jesus from carrying out His mission: “If you are the Son of God . . .”, he repeats to Him (vv. 3.6), and he suggests that He engage miraculous gestures — to be a “magician” — such as transforming the stones into bread to satiate His hunger, and throwing Himself from the wall of the Temple, having the Angels rescue Him. These two temptations are followed by a third: to adore him, the devil, to have dominion over the world (cf. v. 9).
Through this threefold temptation, Satan wants to divert Jesus from the way of obedience and humiliation – because he knows that, through this way, evil will thus be defeated – and lead Him on the false shortcut of success and glory. However, the devil’s poisonous arrows are all “stopped” with the shield of the Word of God (vv. 4.7.10), which expresses the Father’s will. Jesus does not say a single word of his own: He responds only with the Word of God. And thus the Son, full of the strength of the Holy Spirit, comes out victorious from the desert.
As Christians we are invited, during the forty days of Lent, to follow in Jesus steps and face the spiritual combat against the Evil One with the strength of the Word of God. Not with our word, which is useless. The Word of God: that which has the strength to defeat Satan. Therefore, it is necessary to draw confidence from the Bible: to read it often, meditate on it and assimilate it. The Bible contains the World of God, which is always timely and effective. Someone said: what would happen if we treated the Bible as we treat our mobile phone? If we always carried it with us, or at least a small pocket Bible, what would happen? If we went back when we forgot it: you forgot your mobile phone – O, I don’t have it, I’ll go back to find it; if we opened it several times a day; what would happen if we read God’s messages contained in the Bible as we read our phone messages? The paragon is clearly paradoxical, but it makes us reflect. In fact, if we had the Word of God always in the heart, no temptation would be able to estrange us from God and no obstacle would be able to make us deviate from the path of goodness; we would be able to overcome the daily suggestions of evil that are in us and outside of us; we would be more capable of living a resurrected life according to the Spirit, receiving and loving our brothers, especially the weakest and neediest, and also our enemies.
May the Virgin Mary, perfect icon of obedience to God and of unconditional trust in His will, sustain us on our Lenten journey, so that we place ourselves in docile listening to the Word of God, to undertake a true conversion of the heart.
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
*After the Angelus
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I extend a warm greeting to the families, the parish groups, the Associations and all the pilgrims from Italy and from various countries. I greet the faithful from the dioceses of Madrid, Cordoba and Warsaw, as well as those from Belluno and Mestre. I greet the youngsters of the deanery of Baggio (Milan) and the participants in the meeting promoted by the Maestre Pie Filippini.
A few days ago we began Lent, which is the journey of the People of God toward Easter, a journey of conversion, of struggle against evil with the weapons of prayer, fasting and works of charity. I hope that the Lenten journey is rich in fruits for all; and I ask you to remember me and my collaborators of the Roman Curia in prayer, who this evening will begin the week of Spiritual Exercises — my heartfelt thanks for this prayer.
And please, don’t forget – don’t forget! – what would happen if we treated the Bible as we treat our mobile phone. Think about it — the Bible always with us, close to us!
Have a good Sunday! Have a good lunch and see you soon.
[Original text: Italian] [Translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
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30 Mansell Road, Suite 103
Roswell, Georgia 30076, United States
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