During his first Mass in Bucharest, Francis stressed the value of “walking together”, noting that “Often problems of faith have little to do with a shortage of means and structures, of quantity, or even the presence of those who do not accept us; they really have to do with a shortage of joy.” What is more, “we reduce everything to our own problems. We forget that we are not orphans, for we have a Father in our midst, a powerful saviour.”
Fr Sergio Targa founded the Kisori Ghoton Prokolpo (Teenage Project) with which he has fought child marriage for 15 years. Early marriages underpin society’s patriarchal structures. For the priest, "We want girls to understand their value. We wish to make them dream.”
The meeting with the Patriarch and the Orthodox Synod the focus of the first day of Francis's visit: remembering not wrongs and prejudices, but common roots. In the meeting with the political and civil authorities the search for the common good to "build an inclusive society" where "the weak, the poor and the least are no longer seen as undesirables".
More than 10 per cent of elementary school pupils don't even have a friend to play with. The issue is common to both cities and countryside. In part, this is due to the drop in the country's birth rate. For the scholar who carried out the research, the country needs a "social intervention ".
The government is vetting 88 associations, accusing them of using foreign funds for "forced conversions". The inquiry began last year after a scandal involving the Sisters of Mother Teresa. Poor women and children are at risk. For Archbishop Toppo, "the inquiry does not worry us."
Pope Francis gives the green light to the process of beatification and canonization of the former street child. The documentation for the cause will be collected by the French Dominican Fr. Thomas de Gabory. Mons. Ongtioco: "Darwin is an example of holiness". Born in 1994, he discovered the Catholic faith in 2006. Since then, the disease has become his "mission".
