Franco Pisano

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.”

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".

Participants will hear important environmental (Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant) theologians and discuss how ecological awareness can be fostered and promoted in Orthodox institutions of higher education in the world through courses and other programmes related to the protection of creation.

Francis issued a video-message to the people of Romania on the eve of his visit to the country (31 May- 2 June). On Sunday, seven bishops martyred by the former communist regime will be beatified.

Starting a series of catechesis dedicated to the Acts of the Apostles, Francis emphasizes that "the Risen One invites his own people not to live the present anxiously, but to make an alliance with time, to know how to wait for the unraveling of a sacred history that has not been interrupted but that advances". Wait "praying in unity and with perseverance".

The exhibition presents works of secular, Buddhist and Catholic art as a “concrete gesture with a high symbolic value". For Vatican Museums director Barbara Jatta, this is a form of “diplomacy of art" grafted onto "the centuries-long tradition of the Church”, which is “what the Holy Father expects of ‘his’ Museums!”

"A sad Christian - Francis said at Mass celebrated this morning - is a sad Christian: he does not go". "Never this pagan sadness". In life there are difficult moments but in these moments “we feel that the Spirit helps us to move forward (...) and to overcome difficulties. Even martyrdom”.

At the opening the Bishops’ Assembly, Francis referred to a “possible" synod of the Italian episcopate. He called on its members to reflect on "any lack of collegiality and participation in the condition of the Conference".

With his "new commandment" to "love one another as I love you", Jesus "asks us to love each other not only and not so much with our love, but with his, which the Holy Spirit infuses in our hearts if we invoke him with faith. This way - and only this way - we can love each other not only as we love ourselves, but as He loves us, that is immensely more.”

On the fifth anniversary of Amoris Laetitia, the chosen theme "aims to bring out family love as a vocation and way of holiness, to understand and share the profound and salvific meaning of family relationships in everyday life".

Receiving the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Francis recalls the ideals that moved St. John the Baptist de La Salle. "His vision of the school led him to develop ever more clearly the persuasion that education is a right for everyone, including the poor."

With the invocation "deliver us from evil" which is in the Our Father, "Jesus teaches his friends to put the invocation of the Father before everything, even and especially at times when the evil one makes his threatening presence felt".