Messages

Natalis Domini, natalis est pacis: “The Lord’s birth is the birth of peace” (St. Leo the Great, Serm. 26, 5).

As every year, this year too, the Church experiences the wonder of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph and the shepherds of Bethlehem, as they contemplate the new born Child laid in a manger: Jesus, the Saviour.

On this day full of light, the prophetic proclamation resounds: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder; and his name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Is 9:6).

Truly Jesus is our peace. The peace that the world cannot give, the peace that God the Father has bestowed on humanity by sending his Son into the world. However, even as the inspiring message of the birth of the Saviour, the source of true peace, resounds in our hearts and in the whole world, we continue to witness a great number of disagreements, violence, armed conflicts and war. Hence, the world is starving for peace.

May the Lord come to the aid of our world torn by so many skirmishes, violence which stain the earth with an enormous humanitarian crises including severe suffering, displacement of inhabitants and innumerable deaths of innocent people.

May the Prince of Peace grant peace and stability to those Lands which experience constant conflict and division. May the birth of Christ be a source of hope for everyone whose dignity is offended and violated, since he came to set every man and woman free from all oppression. May every nation strive to foster peacebuilding efforts and create conditions to foster lasting peace. And may each of us do our part to promote justice and peace in society.

Let us turn our gaze to the babe of Bethlehem and renew the joyous proclamation of the heavenly hosts saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those whom he favours” (Luke 2:14). The Child whom we contemplate is our eternal hope. He has brought to the world a universal message of reconciliation and peace. Let us open our hearts to him, receive him into our lives and bow down to adore him.

On this joyful Christmas Day, may Jesus bring his radiance to all, brighten the darkness of this world and shine in your hearts and in your homes always.

Address of the Apostolic Nuncio, H.E. Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli

to the Standing Committee of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India

Friday 17th September 2021

Your Eminence Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay and President of the CBCI,

Your Beatitude, Cardinal George Alencherry, Major Archbishop of the Syro-Malabar Church,

Your Beatitude, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, Major Archbishop-Catholicos of the Syro-Malankara Church,

Your Graces, Your Lordships, Reverend Fathers,

I am pleased to have this opportunity today to greet the Standing Committee of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

Some of you I have already had the chance to meet in person, others I hope to encounter soon.

In the letter I addressed to you following my accreditation as Nuncio in India and Representative of the Holy Father to the Church in this beloved land, I alluded to various aspects of a Bishop’s responsibility and also some of the specifics of my own mission. Allow me to recall that it is my intention to walk with you fraternally to help you in your ministry as Pastors of this beloved local Church, in all its complexity and richness.

Whilst I shall, of course, relate with each Bishop individually, it is you, the Archbishops and members of the Commissions of the Bishops’ Conference, who will be my privileged interlocutors.

It takes some time to grasp the enormity of everything in India: the size of the population and geographical extension of the country; the variety of languages and cultures; the history and politics; the richness (and challenges) of a Catholic community composed of three rites. I ask your understanding if some of my interventions give the impression that I am suffering under the ignorance of the beginner. But I wish also to reiterate, as I wrote in my letter addressed to you, that “when I speak in certain specific contexts, I do not simply express my own opinion, but instead articulate indications given directly by the Apostolic See, or at least ensure that the general orientation desired by the Holy See is made known”.

Indeed, I am now addressing forty-two Bishops who are members of the Standing Committee, a committee which alone is larger than all but fifteen other Bishops’ Conferences worldwide. In such a setting, your counsel will be invaluable to me in fulfilling my mission.

I have read with interest the programme for your three-day virtual encounter, and I note some of the themes you have addressed: the ongoing pandemic; the activity of Caritas; social communications; education policy; Dalit policy; safeguarding; asset management; dialogue. Each of those themes would merit a lengthy reflection in its own right, and now is not the time. I simply wish to encourage you in your open and frank deliberations, hoping that the action that ensues will be for the good of the Church and for Indian society as a whole.

I wish to touch briefly upon a theme that has been the focus of your attention this morning: the forthcoming Synod.

We are but a few weeks from the solemn opening of the Synod, a process which will profoundly mark the life of the Church for the next two years. We will be called to walk together as we explore the theme “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.” These three dimensions of synodality – communion, participation and mission – are profoundly interrelated, and we are invited to examine the dynamic relationship between them, bearing in mind that all three must be articulated together:

Communion: gathered together in God’s grace as diverse peoples of one faith, through the covenant that he offers to his people.

Participation: All those who belong to his People – laity, consecrated and ordained – are called to engage in the exercise of respectful listening to one another.

Mission: We cannot be centred on ourselves, but, as members of the Church, are called to evangelize. Our mission is to witness to the love of God in the midst of the whole human family.

In short, Synodality is the modus vivendi and operandi with which the Church prepares all its members (laity, religious and clergy) to share responsibility, develops their charisms and ministries, intensifies their bonds of fraternal love (cf. POPE FRANCIS in Florence, November 2015).

I am grateful to Archbishop Machado for his preparatory note on the Synod. Allow me to draw a quotation from it: “what the Synod is looking for is the sensus fidei”, that “‘inner voice of the faithful’ or ‘common conscience’ of the baptized concerning the faith of the Church which each baptized person professes”. The Holy Father, in giving renewed impetus to the doctrine of the sensus fidei fidelium, (Evangelii Gaudium (EG), 119) makes it clear that walking the path of synodality is essential for infusing the Church with a renewed missionary impulse: all the members of the Church are active subjects of evangelization and ‘missionary disciples’ (EG, 120).

The first phase of the synodal journey will be at diocesan level. This will be followed by a continental phase from September 2022 to March 2023, leading on to the “universal phase”, to be celebrated in Rome in October 2023.

I should like to encourage you to engage fully with all stages of this synodal process, starting in your own dioceses, but also in your regional and national conferences. We shall all walk on this journey together, and it will doubtless afford us many opportunities to share our reflections and enrich one another.

Be assured of my prayer and support for your ministry in this beloved country.

Your Eminence Card. Baselios Cleemis, President of the CBCI,

Your Eminence Card. Charles Maung Bo, S.D.B., Archbishop of Yangoon,

Your Eminences Card. Oswald Gracias, Card. George Alencherry, Card. Telesphore Toppo;

Most. Reverend Archbishops Felipe Neri Ferrao and Andrews Thazath, Vice-Presidents of the CBCI;

Most. Reverend Bernard Moras, Archbishop of Bangalore;

Right Reverend Theodor Mascarenhas, Secretary General of the CBCI;

Your Graces, Your Lordships,

Distinguished special guests and members of the CBCI and dear friends.

I thank you for the joy to share with you – united in diversity for a mission of mercy and witness – these days of liturgical prayer and of discernment in dialogue. I am honored to be with you on behalf of the Holy Father Francis and I renew my commitment to witness to you his love and prayer for the Church of India.

Venerable Brothers in the theme of your 33rd Body Meeting of the CBCI you have underlined the “diversity” that the Holy Spirit creates. It’s true this diversity is so rich, so beautiful. But then, the same Holy Spirit creates unity, and in this way the Church is one in diversity. And, to use a beautiful word of an Evangelist – that the Holy Father Francis loves so much – a diversity “reconciled” by the Holy Spirit.

He does both these things: he creates the diversity of charismata and then makes harmony of the charismata. For this reason, the theologians of the Church, the first fathers, said: “The Holy Spirit, He is harmony”, because He creates this harmonic unity in diversity.

We are in the epoch of globalization, and we think about what globalization is and what unity would be in the Church: perhaps a sphere, where all points are equidistant from the centre, all equal? No! This is uniformity. And the Holy Spirit doesn’t create uniformity! What shape can we find?

The Holy Father Francis has said that the correct image is a prism. The prism is unity, but all its parts are different; each has its own peculiarity, its charisma. This is unity in diversity. It is on this path that we Christians seek to ensure that this diversity may be more harmonized by the Holy Spirit and become unity; we try to walk before God and be blameless; we try to go and find the nourishment we need to find our brother. This is our path, this is our Christian breath!

The Holy Father invites us to consider that breathing is made up of two stages: inhaling, the intake of air, and exhaling, the letting out of this air. The Christian life is fed, nourished, by prayer and is expressed outwardly through mission: inhaling - prayer - and then exhaling. When we inhale we receive the fresh air of the Holy Spirit. When exhaling this air, we announce Jesus Christ risen by the same Spirit. No one can live without breathing. It is the same for the Church: without inhaling the same Spirit, that is the unique oxygen for the spiritual life, and without mission there is no deep imitation of God our Father.

The Holy Father Francis invites us to this imitation of God through mercy, even if He is aware that it is not easy to understand this willingness to show mercy, because we are accustomed to presenting the bill to others, because we judge, and we fail … to leave space for understanding and mercy.

In order to be ready for the mission of mercy Pope Francis said that “two attitudes are needed”. The first is “self-knowledge” of our sins because “in the presence of a repentant people, God’s justice is transformed into mercy and forgiveness”. And “acknowledging that we have sinned against the Lord, and being ashamed in his presence is a grace”.

The second attitude we need is “an openness to expanding our hearts”. Pope Francis explained what does it mean to open and expand one’s heart. In acknowledging ourselves as sinners and not judging others begins the generosity of heart that the Lord presents through the image of those going to collect grain who enlarged their aprons in order to received more.

A big heart doesn’t get entangled in other peoples lives, it doesn’t condemn but forgives and forgets.

In the Church, dialogue must be developed in the Kairos of mercy. This was an intuition of St. John Paul II, he “sensed” that this was the time of mercy. We think of the Beatification and Canonization of Sr Faustina Kowalska; then he introduced the Feast of Divine Mercy. Little by little he advanced and went forward on this. Through his prayer, he had this intuition.

And finally, mercy has been and continue to be the teaching of two extraordinary women of the history of the Indian Church: Mother Teresa of Calcutta in her luminous transparency of the charity of God, who is a good and merciful Father to all and the sacrifice of life by Blessed Sr Rani Maria who was involved in helping the poor and the marginalized is living example of missionary witness to the Gospel.

“Ecclesia in Asia” quotes the powerful words of St Chrysostom about charity and dialogue: “Do you wish to honour the body of Christ? Then do not ignore him when he is naked. Do not pay him silken honours in the temple only then to neglect him when he goes cold and naked outside. He who said; ‘This is my body’ is the One who also said, ‘You saw me hungry and you gave me no food”... What good is it if the Eucharistic Table groans under the weight of golden chalices, when Christ is dying of hunger? Start by satisfying his hunger, and then with what remains you may adorn the altar as well!’”.

Your Lordship Rt. Rev. Yvon Ambroise,

On behalf of the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro, I have the honor to sent to you the Hearty Congratulations and prayerful Best Wishes on the auspicious occasion of your Golden Jubilee of Priesthood.

Pope Francis begins his famous Encyclical Letter ‘LAUDATO SI’, with the words of praise to the Lord. Keeping in mind the Psalm 148 and the “Canticle of the Sun” of St. Francis Assisi, the Pope writes: “Laudato si’, mi’ Signore’ …‘Praise be to you, my Lord…’”. Here, I write my Words of Jubilee Felicitations with the Caption: ‘Laudato si, mi’ Singnore’ for Your person.

Jubilee celebration according to Leviticus 25: 8-12, denotes to trumpets and joyful celebration. The most prominent promise of the Jubilee is that the Lord will providentially provide safety for his people (De 15:10,18). Dear Bishop Yvon Ambroise, I pray for God’s protection and blessings for you. I make also a reference to the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ in Mathew 5: 12 where Jesus makes a Call “to rejoice and be glad”. His Holiness Pope Francis speaks about ‘the joy of being a priest’, during the Chrism Mass on 17 April 2014. The Holy Father noted that the Lord anoints a priest with the oil of gladness and this anointing invites the priests to accept and to appreciate the great gift: the gladness, the joy of being a priest. The Pope says: “Priestly joy is a priceless treasure, not only for the priest himself but for the entire faithful people of God”. He makes it clear that one is anointed with the oil of gladness so as to anoint others with the oil of gladness.

Dear Bishop Yvon Ambroise, in your priestly life of 50 years, you have all the reasons to rejoice and be glad while the Lord has blessed you with his choicest blessings; while you have experienced the Priestly Joy and while you have done wonderful things for the Diocese of Tuticorin.

As I congratulate you on this day of your Jubilee, I pray to the Lord for your good health and for long life. May God bless you through the intercession of our Blessed Mother.

Yours sincerely in Christ

Msgr. Henryk Jagodzinski

Chargé d’Affaires a.i.

Dear Reverend Father Ignatius D’Costa,

I express my deep gratitude for the courteous letter of November 30, 2017 with the information about the Golden Jubilee of your Priestly Ordination.

I send my Hearty Congratulations and prayerful Best Wishes on the auspicious occasion of the Golden Jubilee of your Sacerdotal Ordination. Jubilee celebration according to Leviticus 25: 8-12, denoted to trumpets and joyful celebration. Let this Jubilee Celebration increase ‘the joy of being a priest’. Holy Father Pope Francis spoke during the Chrism Mass on 17 April 2014: “Priestly joy is a priceless treasure, not only for the priest himself but for the entire faithful people of God”. Kindly do pray for the intentions of our Holy Father Pope Francis.

Dear Fr. D’Costa, in your priestly life of 50 years, you have all the reasons to rejoice while the Lord has blessed you abundantly in all your ministries as a priest.

I gladly avail myself of this opportunity to thank you for all your services to the Church and confirming my blessings I remain in communion of prayers,

Yours sincerely in Christ,

Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro

Apostolic Nuncio

Your Lordship Msgr. K. A. William,

The happy circumstance of celebrating 75th Year of the inception of the comitium of the Queen of Apostles of the Pious Lay Association of Legion of Mary is a glad opportunity to express my closeness in this special moment of joy and Grace that is experiencing the Holy People of God entrusted to your pastoral ministry and your missionary zeal.

On behalf of the Holy Father Francis I would like to manifest my best wishes for this celebration and I ask you to transmit the assurances of my prayers with the encouragement to strengthen the love to Christ for a continuous and dedicate perseverance at the service of the Gospel.

The Church manifests her love for God in the constant commitment for communion that enhances the presence of the Holy Spirit in the heart of all the Disciples of our Lord who on following the steps of our Redeemer, are guided from the example of our Mother Mary.

While I ask prayers for the Church and for the Holy Father Francis, I renew my fraternal congratulations and I remain

Yours cordially in Jesus and Mary,

Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro

Apostolic Nuncio

Dear and Reverend Mother Mary Grace,

On behalf of the Holy Father Francis, it is my joy to congratulate and greet Rev. Mother Mary Grace of the Sacred Heart of O.C.D. on the providential context of your Diamond Jubilee. It is the right time to recollect and thank God for His abundant blessings showered upon you.

Augustine of Hippo said: a “restlessness in his heart which brought him to a personal encounter with Christ, brought him to understand that the remote God he was seeking was the God who is close to every human being, the God close to our heart, who was more inward than our innermost self”. This is an ongoing search. The restlessness of seeking the truth, of seeking God, became restlessness to know him ever better and to come out of himself to make others know him. It is precisely the restlessness of love. And You, Dear Mother, are also called by Jesus to be restless, seeking Him always, everywhere and forever.

I cordially impart the Apostolic Blessing on the occasion of your Diamond Jubilee of the Religious Profession and appreciate your great missionary zeal and committed service to the Church and to the Carmelite Monastery.

May the merciful and loving Lord continue to guide your faithful life and may Mary, Mother of God be your perpetual help. With my prayerful wishes.

I wish to extend my prayerful good wishes and best regards as the Representative of the Holy Father Pope Francis in India to the Parish Priest, Asst. Parish Priest and the Parishioners of Good Shepherd Church, Guduvanchery as you celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Parish and the publication of Souvenir respectively.

Jesus says: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”. Every Church is a home for the lost ones, fragile, broken hearted where they are welcomed. It is here the balm of healing is poured upon the individuals and the innumerable wounds of the soul are dressed with forgiveness, it is here the weary find a shelter without conditions.

Pope Francis encourages the faithful with these words: “Wherever there is a person who suffers, Jesus takes on their burden, and that suffering becomes his own. Jesus does not preach that the condition of suffering must be borne with heroism, in the manner of stoic philosophers. Jesus shares human pain and, when he comes across it, that attitude which characterizes Christianity — mercy — gushes forth from his heart. Jesus feels compassion. Literally: Jesus feels his heart tremble. Many times in the Gospel we meet with this type of reaction. Christ’s heart embodies and reveals the heart of God, who, wherever there is a man or woman suffering, wishes healing, liberation, and full life for him or her”.

May this Year of Golden Jubilee of your Church be a year filled with experience of God’s love and grace. I also pray for the success of the activities and events of your parish. Commending all of you under the protection of the Virgin Mary, I convey the Apostolic Blessing of Pope Francis.

Message of the Apostolic Nuncio, delivered on behalf of him by Rev. Msgr. Henryk M Jagodzinki, to the participants who were present for the National Symposium: ‘Understanding Amoris Laetitia in the Indian Situation’ held in Mumbai from 13-15 October 2017

Your Grace Archbishop Anil Couto, Your Lordships Bishop Gerald Almeida and Bishop Lawrence Pius,

Bishops, Fathers, Sisters and the People of God,

It is with great joy that I extend my best wishes and appreciation to the CBCI Commission for Theology and Doctrine, to the CBCI Office for Justice, Peace and Development and to the CCBI Commission for Family for the organization of a National Symposium, from 13th to 15th October 2017, in Mumbai, on the Topic “Understanding Amoris Laetitia in the Indian Situation”, and for the great service you have been rendering to the Church through the mentioned Offices of CBCI and CCBI.

I express my gratitude to the Chairpersons of these institutions and also to their Executive Secretaries, Fr. Stephen Fernandes and Fr Milton Gonsalves for the preparation of this event.

The product of two Synods on the family convened by Pope Francis in 2014 and 2015, Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), is an Apostolic Exhortation on love, individuality and the family that was signed by the Holy Father on March 19, 2016. The announcement of it gained attention for its call to appreciate the difficulties of married life today, its stress on understanding over condemnation, and concern for the sacramental needs of divorced and remarried Catholics.

Through Amoris Laetitia, Pope Francis is inviting the Church to a renewed process of moral formation and pastoral practice with regard to marriage and family life that is rooted in Sacred Scripture and the Church’s faith. On a broader level, the Holy Father sets out a vision of renewal for the whole Church. Central to that are opportunities for discussion and reflection based upon the model of the synods that bring together the Church.

It is certainly a very commendable task to come together and to reflect on this relevant and meaningful Pontifical document in the context of the life of the Church in India, and to plan for renewal and transformation for the better.

His Holiness Pope Francis reminds us that “the Holy Spirit teaches us to see with the eyes of Christ, to live life as Christ lived, to understand life as Christ understood it…. Let us allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit, let us allow him to speak to our heart” (General Audience, 8 May 2013).

Indeed, you have to cherish first of all faithfulness to Christ and to his Gospel, in order to witness them with your words and your life, witnessing to God’s love with your own love and with your own charity to all, especially in the family life.

I am sure that this National Symposium will help the entire Church in the Country to understand better what it means joy of love (Amoris Letitita) in the Indian situation and to be more and more focused on Christ and his love for all, especially for those more in need because are living the difficulties in their marriage and family life.

My best wishes to all of you. May God continue to be with you during this Three Days National Symposium as you explore and discern the reality of the family in India, in the light of Amoris Letitia. My special prayers are with you and I send you the Apostolic Blessings of His Holiness Pope Francis. God bless you.

Yours sincerely in Christ,

Archbishop Giambattista Diquattro

Apostolic Nuncio

Your Grace Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara, Right Reverend Vicar General, Dear and Reverend Fathers of the diocese of the Eparchy of Faridabad, Dear and Reverend Sisters, Dear Brother and Sisters in the Baptism,

I am very happy to be with you, to be Church with you. Here God is very near; we feel his love; we know his tender mercy, the tender mercy of God.

Your Church does not only celebrate the Eucharist but today solemnly bears it in procession, publicly proclaiming that the Sacrifice of Christ is for the salvation of the whole world.

Grateful for this immense gift, we will gather round the Blessed Sacrament, for that is the source and summit of Church’s being and action. The Church draws her life from the Eucharist and knows that this truth does not simply express a daily experience of faith, but recapitulates the heart of the mystery in which she consists.

Ever since Pentecost, when the Church, the People of the New Covenant, began her pilgrim journey towards her heavenly homeland, the Divine Sacrament has continued to mark the passing of her days, filling them with confident hope.

Through the Eucharist, our Ecclesial Community is built up as a new Jerusalem, a principle of unity in Christ among different persons and peoples. We will carry the Divine Sacrament in procession. Looking at Mary, we will understand better the transforming power that the Eucharist possesses. Listening to her, we will find in the Eucharistic mystery the courage and energy to follow Christ, the Good Shepherd, and to serve him in the brethren.