Today Let Us All Ask Ourselves Whether

At The First Meeting I Had With The (italian) Bishops In May 2013, One Of The Three Things I Said Was: With The Italian Government You're On Your Own. Because The Pope Is For Everybody And He Can't Insert Himself In The Specific Internal Politics Of A Country. This Is Not The Role Of The Pope, Right?

The Disciple Of Jesus Gives Up All He Has, All His Goods, Because He Has Found In Him The Greatest Good From Which Every Other Good Receives Its Full Value And Meaning: Family Bonds, Other Relationships, Work, Cultural And Economic Goods And So On... The Christian Detaches Himself From Everything And Rediscovers All Of It In The Logic Of The Gospel, The Logic Of Love And Service.

Whenever People Listen To One Another Humbly And Openly, Their Shared Values And Aspirations Become All The More Apparent. Diversity Is No Longer Seen As A Threat, But As A Source Of Enrichment.

When We Walk Without The Cross, When We Build Without The Cross And When We Proclaim Christ Without The Cross, We Are Not Disciples Of The Lord. We Are Worldly. We May Be Bishops, Priests, Cardinals, Popes, All Of This, But We Are Not Disciples Of The Lord.

Today, Elderly People Are Discarded When, In Reality, They Are The Seat Of Wisdom Of The Society...the Right To Life Means Allowing People To Live And Not Killing, Allowing Them To Grow, To Eat, To Be Educated, To Be Healed, And To Be Permitted To Die With Dignity.