{"id":327114,"date":"2015-03-04T09:45:10","date_gmt":"2015-03-04T08:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/pope-francis-to-the-bishop-friends-of-the-focolare\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T14:59:43","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T12:59:43","slug":"pope-francis-to-the-bishop-friends-of-the-focolare","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/pope-francis-to-the-bishop-friends-of-the-focolare\/","title":{"rendered":"Pope Francis to the Bishop-Friends of the Focolare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Papa vescovi Movimento Focolari 04-03-2015\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/G4_LozKslxk?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Bishop does not gather the population around himself as a person or his ideas, but around Christ, Pope Francis said in the meeting with the Bishop-Friends of the Movement. The charism of unity which is the Focolare Movement\u2019s main characteristic \u2013 the Pope said \u2013 \u201cis strongly anchored to the Eucharist, which confers it a Christian and ecclesiastic feature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWithout the Eucharist unity would lose its attraction pole and be just a sentiment <\/strong>and a solely human, psychological and sociological dynamics. Instead the Eucharist ensures that all centres around Christ, his Spirit, it is the Holy Spirit that guides our steps and our initiatives towards encounter and communion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The fundamental service of the bishops \u2013 Pope Francis went on \u2013 is to gather \u201cthe communities around the Eucharist, at the dual banquet of the Word and the Bread of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cThe Bishop is a principle of unity in the Church but this would not occur without the Eucharist: <\/strong>the Bishop does not gather the population around himself as a person, or his own ideas, but around Christ present in his Word and in the Sacrament of his Body and Blood.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this way the Bishop, one with Christ\u2013 the Pope affirmed \u2013 becomes a living Gospel, become Bread shared to give life to many with his preaching and testimony. Whoever partakes of Christ the Living bread with faith is spurred by his love to lay down his life for his brothers, and go out, towards an encounter with those who are outcast and despised.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And then the Pope thanked especially the bishops who came from \u201c<strong>the bloodstained lands of Syria and Iraq, and also from Ukraine.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-120245\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/20150304VescoviAmiciFocolar.jpg\" alt=\"20150304VescoviAmiciFocolar\" width=\"350\" height=\"166\" \/>\u201cIn the sufferings you are undergoing with your people you experience the strength <\/strong>that comes from Jesus Eucharist, the strength to go ahead in faith and hope. In our daily celebrations of the Mass we are one with you, we pray for you and offer the Sacrifice of Christ, which also strengthens and gives a meaning to the many initiatives of solidarity for the benefit of your Churches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pope Francis concluded by encouraging the Bishop-Friends of the Focolare to continue with their commitment to enhance ecumenism and interreligious dialogue\u201d and thanked them for contributing to \u201cgreater communion between the various ecclesiastical movements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/news\/2015\/01\/13\/la-thailandia-ha-un-nuovo-cardinale\/\">Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij,<\/a> the new Cardinal who is the Archbishop of Bangkok and the moderator of the Bishops\u2019 meeting, addressed Pope Francis on behalf of the group. Among other things he said: \u00abWe feel that in today\u2019s world, we and our particular churches must be able to listen and to dialogue. It is not just by accident that God has put us in contact with people who suffer from the wounds of many evils. Even today, we bring before you the signs of so many tears, cries of despair and search signals which we carry in our hearts\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p><strong>He continued:<\/strong> \u201cWhen facing today\u2019s enormous challenges, we feel small and at times helpless, but we confide in a greater love that called us and loved us so much that gave us the divine measure of love, which is ready to give one\u2019s life for others, and, if necessary, to die for them. This is what our brother, Bishop-friend of Libya,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/news\/2015\/02\/20\/libia-nel-caos-una-voce-coraggiosa\/\"> Mons. Innocenzio Martinelli<\/a> is doing;he is not here with us because he wants to remain there despite the real danger of death. This was the step taken by Mor Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, Syrian Orthodox and Metropolitan Boulos Yazigi, Greek Orthodox of the Patriarchate of Antioch, two Bishop-friends of Syria, seized about two years ago and almost forgotten by the public\u00bb.<\/p>\n<p>Pope Francis greeted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/news\/2014\/09\/15\/maria-voce\/\">Maria Voce<\/a>, president of the Focolare Movement, who was present with the Bishops at Paul VI Audience Hall. Having just returned from a meeting in Germany with 150 representatives of evangelical movements, she brought to the Pope their greetings and their hope in a common commitment towards unity. The Pope thanked her saying: \u00ab<em>Good! The ecumenical work you do is very important\u00bb.<br \/> <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pope Francis had before him a glimpse of the world <\/strong>because these Bishops come from 35 countries; from Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, India), from the Middle East ( Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Algeria), from Africa (Cameroon, Ethiopia, Uganda, Madagascar, Tanzania, South Africa), from the Americas (USA, Haiti, Panama, Ecuador, Brazil, Uruguay), from Europe (Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Rep., Rep. Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine).<\/p>\n<p>The president of the Focolare Movement, Maria Voce and the co-president Jes\u00fas Mor\u00e1n will also intervene during the Bishops\u2019 meeting that is currently taking place (3-6 March 2015) at Castelgandolfo. They will also listen to experiences and projects about pastoral work that promotes more attention to the relationship between bishops and the faithful, commitment towards unity between various movements that exist both in the Catholic Church and in other Churches, and dialogue with other Christians and with different religions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the Paolo VI Hall in the Vatican, Pope Francis met up with a group of sixty Bishops from various parts of the world, gathered in Rome for a meeting on the theme \u201cThe Eucharist, a mystery of communion.\u201d Maria Voce, President of the Movement was also present.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-327114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}