Pope on evangelisation
During the general audience on February 15, Pope Francis continued his catechesis on evangelisation: “Before sending the disciples on mission, Christ, the Gospel says, “calls them to himself”. The proclamation is born from the encounter with the Lord; every Christian activity, especially the mission, begins from there. Not from what is learnt in an academy. No, it begins from the encounter with the Lord. …So only the person who remains with him can bring the Gospel of Jesus. Someone who does not remain with him cannot bear the Gospel. He will bring ideas, but not the Gospel.”
Renew ethics of common good
Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, the Vatican’s Permanent Observer to the UN, addressed a UN session on work held between February 6 and 15:
“Renewed ethics of the common good and respect for the inherent and transcendent dignity of every human person are necessary to reshape labour markets in a way that promotes both economic growth and integral human development. The recognition that the human person is the measure of the dignity of work should form the basis for policymaking capable of both tackling the structural inequalities of today’s global economy and restoring the authentic meaning of work.”
Cardinal Grech on synodality
In a homily during the European assembly of the Synod on Synodality, Synod secretary-general Cardinal Mario Grech prayed that “our endeavour does not become an exercise in exclusive distinction, between those who are in and those who are out”. He also spoke against a tendency to “blur the distinction between what is within the Catholic tradition and what is outside”. While saying that “the Synod is not there to destroy distinctions, to destroy the Catholic identity”, he objected to “an opposite and equally problematic way of reading the Synod as a way to “eliminate all distinctions”.
(Compiled by Fr Joe Borg)