Pope Francis to Catholic Charismatic Renewal: Tell Them I Love Them Very Much

Rome, April 30, 2013 (Zenit.org) Rocio Lancho Garcia |

On Saturday, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, celebrated the Eucharist that ended the second day of the Rimini Fair of the 36th National Assembly of Catholic Charismatic Renewal. After the sign of the cross, Archbishop Fisichella gave an unexpected message, which was received with joy by the 15,000 present: an affectionate greeting from Pope Francis.
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“Before beginning this celebration, I bring you a greeting. Before I left this morning, I was with Pope Francis, and I told him: “Holy Father, I have to leave soon. I’m going to Rimini where there are thousands upon thousands of faithful of the Charismatic Renewal: men, women and young people.” With a great smile, the Pope said: “Tell them that I love them very much!” Upon leaving the Holy Father, Archbishop Fisichella recounted, the Holy Father added: “Look, tell them that I love them very much because I was responsible for Charismatic Renewal in Argentina, and that’s why I love them very much.”
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During the homily, Archbishop Fisichella addressed the faithful with affectionate words, thanking them for the great work of the New Evangelization “which you have been carrying out for some time” but which now, “with the National Plan for the New Evangelization which has been given to you, calls for the commitment of all of you and which, from this moment, becomes the compass with which to work and act in the heart of the Church.”

In a brief and very concrete homily, the president of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization spoke primarily of the endeavor of the New Evangelization and of Jesus as the Teacher, who accompanies us and does not abandon us in a world in which often the Christian must go against the current.
He continued adding that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, the “revelation” that indicates the path that God has designed for us. “Thomas’ question is ours: Lord, you are the way, but how can we know it?” he asked.
“The secret of our existence, the full realization of happiness, lies in the degree that we know God’s plan for us and that we put it into practice. However, what the heart understands does not always finds its full and concrete realization.”
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This “realization” can only come about in Christ, who never leaves us alone, he added. “The journey enables us to know who we are, where we are going, and point out the end. The New Evangelization  calls us to make our own the certainty of faith, to found our life on Jesus.” Therefore, our witness cannot lack the proclamation of hope, of the resurrection which opposes the tendency to the culture of death, in which the lack of God robs us of prospects and orientation to the future. “We must become pilgrims: He, Jesus, is the end. And in this end we must find ourselves.”