Overwhelmed by his dramatic encounter with Christ on the way to Damascus cf. Acts ; Gal , he was moved to leave everything behind to follow Jesus cf.

Phil Saint Paul was truly one open to being changed by a crisis. For this reason, he was to be the author of the crisis that led the Church to pass beyond the borders of Israel and go forth to the very ends of the earth. We could continue with this list of biblical figures, in which each of us could find his or her own place.

There are so many of them Yet the most eloquent crisis was that of Jesus. The Synoptic Gospels point out that he began his public life by experiencing the crisis of temptation. It might seem that the central character in this situation was the devil with his false promises, yet the real protagonist was the Holy Spirit. The Evangelists stress that the forty days Jesus spent in the desert were marked by the experience of hunger and weakness cf. Mt ; Lk Yet in that man weak from fasting the tempter experienced the presence of the Son of God who could overcome temptation by the word of God, and not his own.

Jesus never enters into dialogue with the devil. We need to learn from this. There can be no dialogue with the devil. Jesus either casts him out or forces him to reveal his name. With the devil, there can be no dialogue. Jesus was then to face an indescribable crisis in Gethsemane: solitude, fear, anguish, the betrayal of Judas and abandonment by his Apostles cf. Finally, there was the extreme crisis on the cross: an experience of solidarity with sinners even to the point of feeling abandoned by the Father cf.

Lk His complete and trusting surrender opened the way to the resurrection cf. Heb Brothers and sisters, this reflection on crisis warns us against judging the Church hastily on the basis of the crises caused by scandals past and present.

The prophet Elijah can serve as an example. Often our own assessments of ecclesial life also sound like tales of hopelessness. Yet a hopeless reading of reality cannot be termed realistic. Hope gives to our assessments an aspect that in our myopia we are often incapable of seeing. It was not true that Elijah was alone; he was in crisis. God continues to make the seeds of his kingdom grow in our midst.

Here in the Curia, there are many people bearing quiet witness by their work, humble and discreet, free of idle chatter, unassuming, faithful, honest and professional.

So many of you are like that, and I thank you. Our times have their own problems, yet they also have a living witness to the fact that the Lord has not abandoned his people. The only difference is that problems immediately end up in the newspapers; this has always been the case, whereas signs of hope only make the news much later, if at all. Those who fail to view a crisis in the light of the Gospel simply perform an autopsy on a cadaver.

They see the crisis, but not the hope and the light brought by the Gospel. We are troubled by crises not simply because we have forgotten how to see them as the Gospel tells us to, but because we have forgotten that the Gospel is the first to put us in crisis. Instead, we will keep trusting that things are about to take a new shape, emerging exclusively from the experience of a grace hidden in the darkness.

Finally, I would urge you not to confuse crisis with conflict. They are two different things. Crisis generally has a positive outcome, whereas conflict always creates discord and competition, an apparently irreconcilable antagonism that separates others into friends to love and enemies to fight.

In such a situation, only one side can win. When the Church is viewed in terms of conflict — right versus left, progressive versus traditionalist — she becomes fragmented and polarized, distorting and betraying her true nature. She is, on the other hand, a body in continual crisis, precisely because she is alive.

She must never become a body in conflict, with winners and losers, for in this way she would spread apprehension, become more rigid and less synodal, and impose a uniformity far removed from the richness and plurality that the Spirit has bestowed on his Church. The newness born of crisis and willed by the Spirit is never a newness opposed to the old, but one that springs from the old and makes it continually fruitful.

The dying of a seed is ambivalent: it is both an end and the beginning of something new. We see an end, while at the same time, in that end a new beginning is taking shape. In this sense, our unwillingness to enter into crisis and to let ourselves be led by the Spirit at times of trial condemns us to remaining forlorn and fruitless, or even in conflict.

If a certain realism leads us to see our recent history only as a series of mishaps, scandals and failings, sins and contradictions, short-circuits and setbacks in our witness, we should not fear. Nor should we deny everything in ourselves and in our communities that is evidently tainted by death and calls for conversion.

Everything evil, wrong, weak and unhealthy that comes to light serves as a forceful reminder of our need to die to a way of living, thinking and acting that does not reflect the Gospel. Only by dying to a certain mentality will we be able to make room for the newness that the Spirit constantly awakens in the heart of the Church. Every crisis contains a rightful demand for renewal and a step forward.

If we really desire renewal, though, we must have the courage to be completely open. We need to stop seeing the reform of the Church as putting a patch on an old garment, or simply drafting a new Apostolic Constitution. The reform of the Church is something different. The Church is always an earthen vessel, precious for what it contains and not for how it looks.

Later, I will have the pleasure of giving you a book, a gift of Father Ardura, which shows the life of one earthen vessel that radiated the greatness of God and the reforms of the Church. These days it seems evident that the clay of which we are made is chipped, damaged and cracked. We have to strive all the more, lest our frailty become an obstacle to the preaching of the Gospel rather than a testimony to the immense love with which God, who is rich in mercy, has loved us and continues to love us cf.

Eph If we cut God, who is rich in mercy, out of our lives, our lives would be a lie, a falsehood. In times of crisis, Jesus warns us against certain attempts to emerge from it that are doomed from the start.

No historical form of living the Gospel can exhaust its full comprehension. Like a parliament, for example: and this is not synodality.

Only the presence of the Holy Spirit makes the difference. What should we do during a crisis? It is essential not to interrupt our dialogue with God, however difficult this may prove. Praying is not easy. We must not tire of praying constantly cf. Lk ; 1 Thess We know of no other solution to the problems we are experiencing than that of praying more fervently and at the same time doing everything in our power with greater confidence. Rom For this reason, it would be good for us to stop living in conflict and feel once more that we are journeying together, open to crisis.

Journeys always involve verbs of movement. A crisis is itself movement, a part of our journey. Conflict, on the other hand, is a false trail leading us astray, aimless, directionless and trapped in a labyrinth; it is a waste of energy and an occasion for evil.

The first evil that conflict leads us to, and which we must try to avoid, is gossip. Let us be attentive to this! Talking about gossip is not an obsession of mine; it is the denunciation of an evil that enters the Curia. Here in the Palace, there are many doors and windows, and it enters and we get used to this. Gossip traps us in an unpleasant, sad and stifling state of self-absorption. It turns crisis into conflict. Herod, on the other hand, closed his heart before the story told by the Magi and turned that closed-heartedness to deceit and violence cf.

Each of us, whatever our place in the Church, should ask whether we want to follow Jesus with the docility of the shepherds or with the defensiveness of Herod, to follow him amid crisis or to keep him at bay in conflict. Allow me to ask expressly of all of you, who join me in the service of the Gospel, for the Christmas gift of your generous and whole-hearted cooperation in proclaiming the Good News above all to the poor cf.

Let us remember that they alone truly know God who welcome the poor, who come from below in their misery, yet as such are sent from on high. For the poor, who are the centre of the Gospel.

I think of what that saintly Brazilian bishop [ Ed. Let no one willfully hinder the work that the Lord is accomplishing at this moment, and let us ask for the gift to serve in humility, so that he can increase and we decrease cf.

Jn I offer my best wishes to each and all of you, and to your families and friends. Thank you, thank you for your work, thank you so very much. And please, continue to pray for me, so that I can have the courage to remain in crisis. Happy Christmas! Thank you. Though the insignia will be sent to them and received in local ceremonies, they will have full membership in the Pope's "Senate" when their names are read out by the Pope alongside the others, thus "publishing" the list of his choices.

Among other concessions in the name of safety, the traditional evening "courtesy visits" to the incoming class will not take place, nor will the sign of peace among the cardinals after the new picks are invested.

However, the standard close of the event — the Pope's concelebrated Mass with the new cardinals — will be held Sunday morning. The road. The road is the setting of the scene just described by the Evangelist Mark Jerusalem always lies ahead of us. This Gospel passage has often accompanied consistories for the creation of new Cardinals. For he is our strength, who gives meaning to our lives and our ministry. Consequently, dear brothers, we need carefully to consider the words we have just heard.

Because they knew what lay ahead of them in Jerusalem. Palmo said his professors at Penn also enjoyed how he would work church politics into papers he wrote for class. Less than three years later, Mr. Palmo believes visitors to his site have a median age of about Whenever he pitches for funds Whispers is freely available like most blogs, and no one pays Mr. Palmo to write it. Earlier stories were more vitriolic.

I would float names in the first year with less of a guard and just kind of let it fly. Lori Biography of Archbishop William E. Strong communities made a strong Church. If the Church here fails, the city fails. And what will it mean for you?

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