Franco Pisano

Francis visits a refugee center in private. Other children, about fifty, in celebration, awaited the Pope in the church of the Sacred Heart of Rakovsky, for the celebration of the Mass with first Communions.

During Mass in Sofia, Francis said that “A young Church, young not in terms of age but in the grace of the Spirit, is inviting us to testify to the love of Christ, a love that inspires and directs us to strive for the common good. This love enables us to serve the poor and to become protagonists of the revolution of charity and service, capable of resisting the pathologies of consumerism and superficial individualism.”

During his meeting with Patriarch Neofit, Francis mentioned “The wounds [that] opened in the course of history between us Christians” and the persecution under communism. He also noted that “we can discover the joy of forgiveness and enjoy a foretaste of the day when, with God’s help, we can celebrate the Paschal mystery at one altar.”

Upon his arrival in Sofia, Francis stressed the welcoming tradition of the Land of Roses, and its links to the memory of John XXIII and John Paul II. “Here,” Francis noted, “diversity, combined with respect for distinctive identities, is viewed as an opportunity, a source of enrichment, and not as a source of conflict.”

The contradiction of a society that on the one hand, we see the prevalence of purely economic or financial criteria and activities aimed at consumption, and on the other hand , the growing inability to reconcile the just distribution of income with the improvement of development prospects.

"Unfortunately, we have before our eyes situations in which some nation states implement their relations in a spirit more of opposition than of cooperation." "The way in which a nation welcomes migrants reveals its vision of human dignity and its relationship with humanity". Warning over a "new season of nuclear confrontation".

At the general audience Francis speaks of the penultimate invocation of the Our Father and emphasizes that when evil appears in the life of man, God "fights at his side, so that he may be freed from it". "People say why talk about the devil? An ancient thing, the devil does not exist. But Jesus was tempted by the devil and Jesus rejects every temptation and emerges victorious ".

"A Christian life, which calls itself Christian, which leaves no place for the Spirit and does not allow itself to be carried forward by the Spirit, is a pagan life, disguised as a Christian. The Spirit is the protagonist of the Christian life "

The International Theological Commission issues a document highlighting how there is a substantial violation of religious freedom toady even in countries that call themselves liberal and democratic. "The alleged ideological neutrality of the liberal state" leans towards a "soft totalitarianism".

Receiving the participants at the International Congress organized by the Catholic Biblical Foundation, Francis underlined that "in the Church the Word is an irreplaceable injection of life. For this reason homilies are fundamental ", which are not an exercise in rhetoric, but" sharing of the Spirit ".

Meeting of Orthodox primates of the Middle East. Meeting focuses on Ukrainian issue and relations between Antioch and Jerusalem.

"All the Gospels highlight the role of women, Mary of Magdala and the others, as the first witnesses of the resurrection," said the Pope. "Let us allow ourselves, therefore, to reach out from the consoling message of Easter and wrap ourselves in its glorious light, which dissipates the darkness of fear and sadness. The Risen Jesus walks beside us. He manifests himself to those who invoke and love him."