Sri Lanka

A remorseful conscience is not "just a simple reminder of something", but a "wound". "A wound that we have when we have done wrong in our life, it hurts." It is therefore "a grace to feel our conscience pricking us, telling us something". "I am remorseful about this, I have a guilty conscience because I did this, concrete; concreteness. And this is the true humility before God and God is moved by this concreteness. "

Francis invites people to join the campaign launched today by Caritas Internationalis in favor of migrants. "It is not true that 'as long as there is life there is hope,' as we used to say. The opposite is true: it is hope that sustains life, which protects, preserve and nourishes it. " "Sometimes, having everything from life is a misfortune. Just think of a young man who "does not have to sweat for anything" and at just twenty years of age "is destined to the worst punishment: that of no longer wanting anything."

Familiarity with God and Jesus "is something more than being" disciples "or" friends "; it is not a "formal" or "educated" or "diplomatic" attitude. It is "being with him, watching him, listening to his Word, trying to practice it, talking to him."

Sister Rasika Pieris expresses her thoughts about the Preparatory Paper of the Synod of Bishops on Youth, set for October 2018. The Church is “Euro-centric in its thinking,” she writes. The challenges faced by young people in Asia are different from those in Europe.

The Lord brings "consolation" that "moves you and increases in you the gifts of charity, of faith, of hope." "This is the real consolation. It's not fun - fun is not bad when it's good, we're human, we have to have it - but consolation takes you and the very presence of God feels and recognizes: this is the Lord. "

During the Angelus, Pope Francis explained the parable of the day workers called up at different times but paid the same remuneration. "Jesus wants to open our hearts to the logic of the love of the Father, which is free and generous.” US missionary Stanley Francis Rother, killed in 1981 by death squads in Guatemala, is beatified.

In his audience with the participants in the General Chapter of Order, Pope Francis urges them to continue their "assiduous prayer" as “lovers of prayer” dedicated to "sobriety" to overcome today's cultural context that exalts "ephemeral goods and illusory artificial paradises.” Monasteries are places of charity and hospitality, a "school of prayer, and a school of charity for all". Cistercian communities are present in Asia and the rest of the world.

This is the goal of a document released 50 years after the encyclical ‘Populorum progressio’, which was presented today in the Vatican. Humanising education and promoting a culture of meeting and dialogue are urgent and necessary.

Francis met today with members of Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He acknowledged that the Church was late in dealing with these crimes, but insisted that her policy now was “zero tolerance”. More importantly, “we can listen with interest to the voices of the victims and the survivors, as we have much to learn from them and their personal stories of courage and perseverance.”

Organised crime is fought at the political and economic levels against a financial system that “is now sovereign over democratic rules”. This requires “the construction of a new civil conscience [. . .] and working towards a new way of being citizens, including care and responsibility for others and for the common good”.

The scandals, "There are so many, many ... And always, even in the Church today. They say, 'No, you can not, it's all clear, it's all, no, no ... Those are sinners, we have to turn them away.' Many saints have also been persecuted or suspected. " "The door that leads to encounter with Jesus is recognizing ourselves as we are, the truth. Sinners ".

At a general audience devoted to hope, Francis urges us to believe in the future: "God does not disappoint: if He has put hope in our hearts, He does not want to aggravate it with continued frustrations. Everything is born to bloom in an eternal spring. " A prayer for the victims of the earthquake that struck Mexico.