Here is a translation of the address Pope Francis gave today, before praying the midday Angelus with the faithful of the Archdiocese of Camerino-San Severino Marche.
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Before the Angelus:
Proclaimed Blessed yesterday at Pozzomaggiore, in Sardinia, was Edvige Carboni, a simple woman of the people, who in humble everyday life embraced the Cross, giving witness of faith and of charity. We give thanks for this faithful disciple of Christ, who spent her whole life at the service of God and of her neighbor. An applause by all for the new Blessed!
Today we wish to remember refugees in a particular way, on the United Nations World Day dedicated to them. This Day invites all to solidarity with the men, women, and children fleeing from war, persecutions, and violations of their fundamental rights. May our ecclesial and civil communities be close to them and attentive to their needs and their sufferings.
Moreover, I follow with concern about the growing tensions in the Persian Gulf. I invite all to make use of the instruments of diplomacy to resolve the complex problems of the conflicts in the Middle East. I also renew to the International Community a heartfelt appeal to make every possible effort to foster dialogue and peace.
At the end of this celebration, I greet warmly all of you present here. I extend my greeting with affection to the sick, the elderly, the imprisoned and all those that, through radio and television, united themselves spiritually to this Holy Mass. I express my heartfelt gratitude to all those – institutions, entities, associations and individual persons — who worked for this, my brief but intense visit, collaborating generously with the Archdiocese of Camerino-San Severino Marche. I wish to send a special greeting and encouragement to the inhabitants of San Severino Marche, whom I will greet from on high, flying over their city in a helicopter.
Dear brothers and sisters, may you be able to walk united and joyful in the way of faith, of hope and of charity, faithful to the numerous testimonies of sanctity, of which your land is rich. I am thinking, among others, of Saint Venanzio, Saint Severino, Saint Ansovino Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, Saint Pacifico and Blessed Battista Varano. I am also thinking of the numerous figures of “next door saints,” not Beatified or Canonized, but who sustained — and sustain — and transformed families and communities with the strength of their Christian life.
And now we recite together the Angelus prayer. I entrust the entire Diocesan Community to the Holy Virgin, whom you venerate in numerous Shrines and whom you invoke especially with the title Santa Maria in Via. May She, who with her maternal presence animated the first community of Jesus’ disciples, also help today’s Church to give good witness of the Gospel.
Angelus Domini . . .
[Original text: Italian] [ZENIT’s translation by Virginia M. Forrester]
© Libreria Editrice Vatican
