In an audience this morning with the Pauline Family, Pope Francis encouraged them to renew their commitment to living and communicating faith through multimedia. The Pauline Family includes the groups and institutions run by the Society of St. Paul and the Daughters of St. Paul.
Those present at the private audience were five religious congregations, four aggregated institutes and an association of lay collaborators. The Pauline Family were present in Rome for a pilgrimage to celebrate the 100th anniversary of their founding by Blessed Giacomo Alberione.
Recalling the life of Blessed Alberione, the Pope called on them to continue his example, who he said always kept his “gaze on broader horizons.”
“We must never forget that “‘evangelization is connected, essentially, with the proclamation of the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus Christ or who have always rejected him,” he said.
“Everyone has the right to receive the Gospel. Christians have the duty of announcing it without excluding anyone. This impulse to move towards the people, but also to existential peripheries, this ‘Catholic’ impulse, is something you have in the blood, in your DNA, for the very fact that your founder was inspired by the figure and the mission of the apostle Paul.”
The Pope also reflected on the role of consecrated persons in the Pauline Family, who said are special witnesses of a “lifestyle marked by joy.”
“The presence of religious is a sign of joy – that joy that flows from a profound experience of God, who fills our heart and makes us truly happy, so much so that we have no need to seek our joy elsewhere,” he said.
Commenting on the life of Blessed Giacomo Alberione, the Holy Father said that the beatified founder of the Paulines saw the announcement of the Gospel as the most necessary form of charity to those seeking truth and justice.
“You too are called to serve the people of today, to whom the Spirit sends you, with creativity and dynamic fidelity to your charism, identifying the most appropriate ways of announcing Jesus,” the Pope said.
Concluding his address, Pope Francis encouraged the Pauline Family to continue their apostolate, which he said was essential in a world that is in “urgent need” of an evangelizing witness.
“Such an urgent mission requires incessant personal and communal conversion. Only hearts totally open to the action of Grace are able to interpret the signs of the times and to respond to the appeals of humanity in need of hope and peace,” he concluded.
