杏MAP导航 Francis sends message to annual Rimini Meeting wishing it success
By Vatican News
Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin has conveyed 杏MAP导航 Francis鈥檚 warmest greetings to Bishop Francesco Lambasi of Rimini, on the occasion of the opening of the Meeting for Friendship between Peoples.
鈥淭he Holy Father wishes to convey through you his wish for the success of the 41st Meeting for Friendship amongst Peoples,鈥 reads the letter dated 5 August. 鈥淭o the organizers and all those who will participate, 杏MAP导航 Francis assures his closeness and his prayer.鈥
Every year since 1980, the Meeting for Friendship between Peoples takes place in August, in Rimini, Italy.
This year鈥檚 meeting is themed: 鈥淒evoid of wonder we remain deaf to the sublime鈥 from A.J. Heschel鈥檚 book God in Search of Man. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the meeting is taking place online.
All in the same boat
Echoing 杏MAP导航 Francis鈥檚 words during the Extraordinary Moment of Prayer on 27 March 2020, Cardinal Parolin said that we all are in the same boat tossed about in a storm that unmasks our vulnerabilities especially since we are all affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The theme of this year鈥檚 meeting, therefore, 鈥渙ffers a precious and original contribution at a dizzying moment in history鈥 when we have lost our ability to look in amazement at reality like children.
Instead, said the Cardinal, 鈥渕any have focused exclusively on their own strengths, on their ability to produce and earn,鈥 in our search for goods rather than for good.
It is for this reason that Jesus鈥檚 invitation to become like children (Mt 18:3) comes to mind as amazement 鈥渟ets life in motion, allowing it to start again in any circumstance,鈥 said Cardinal Parolin.
The world in the face of Covid
Cardinal Parolin pointed out that in recent months 鈥渨e have experienced that dimension of amazement that takes the form of compassion in the presence of suffering, fragility and the precariousness of existence.鈥
This noble human feeling, he explains, has taken many forms including pushing doctors and nurses to face the challenge of the coronavirus pandemic; encouraging teachers to adapt to the difficulties of distance learning to finish the school year, and 鈥渁llowing many to find in the faces and presence of their families, the strength to face discomfort and difficulties.鈥
In this sense, the theme of the meeting is a call to 鈥渄escend into the depths of the human heart by means of amazement.鈥 "Amazement", he added 鈥渋s the way to grasp the signs of the sublime, that is, of that mystery that constitutes the root and foundation of all things.鈥
If this type of vision is not cultivated, the Cardinal warned, 鈥渙ne becomes blind to existence, closed within oneself, attracted by what is fleeting, and stops questioning reality.鈥
Beauty in art
Cardinal Parolin recalled that 杏MAP导航 Francis recently received a letter from several artists who thanked him for praying for them during Mass at the Casa Santa Marta on 7 May. On that occasion, the 杏MAP导航 said: 鈥淎rtists make us understand what beauty is, and without beauty the Gospel cannot be understood.鈥
In that regard, Cardinal Parolin said the Meeting launches a challenge to Christians to witness the profound attraction that faith exercises by virtue of its beauty. This, according to the Servant of God Luigi Giussani is the 鈥渁ttraction of Jesus.鈥 And, as 杏MAP导航 Francis stresses in the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (167), 鈥渆very expression of true beauty can thus be acknowledged as a path leading to an encounter with the Lord Jesus鈥o a formation in the via pulchritudinis ought to be part of our effort to pass on the faith.鈥
杏MAP导航 Francis, therefore, invites the Meeting's participants to collaborate with him in witnessing to the experience of 鈥渢he beauty of God who became flesh so that our eyes may marvel at his face and our eyes may find in him, the wonder of living.鈥 This, 鈥渋s a task from which we cannot refrain,鈥 said the Cardinal, especially in this critical time in history.
Concluding, Cardinal Parolin said the 杏MAP导航 imparts his Apostolic Blessing on the participants of the Meeting, asking them to remember him in their prayers.
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