00:00To Cordoba, Argentina, Pope Leo XIV continues his tour through this territory in the second leg of his papacy of
00:11the peace, apostolic visit and journey to Latin America.
00:15Let's listen to some of his statements.
00:22Decades later, Saint Joseph Gabriel of the Rosary made them a central part of his ministry.
00:38He crossed the mountain ranges alongside his fellow countrymen all the way to this city so they may encounter God
00:49personally.
00:50More recently, an Argentine Jesuit, Pope Francis.
01:07Pope Francis brought with him the richness of Ignatian spirituality and shared it with the Universal Church.
01:20Even today, priests, seminarians, religious communities and lay people set aside time to observe silence and ask themselves anew before
01:31God what he wants from their lives.
01:34I would therefore like to allow some of the questions from the exercises to accompany us this afternoon.
01:45Saint Ignatius begins with the principle and foundation.
01:50The first question is this.
01:54Why are we here?
01:57Before we undertook any responsibility, ministry or task, there was a call.
02:04Christ passed through our lives one day and called us, and we realized that it was worthwhile to follow him.
02:21Everything that comes afterward should continue to spring from that first yes.
02:28Over the years, something paradoxical could happen.
02:34We work hard for God, yet spend less and less time with him.
02:42We continue serving, celebrating, and attending to so many necessary tasks, but we may end up relying more on what
02:51we do than on the one for whom we do it.
03:05The principle and foundation then puts everything back in its proper place.
03:12Our life belongs to God and finds its order only when everything else has him as its center.
03:23Let us therefore simply return to the Eucharist, to listening to the Word, and to that relationship with the Lord
03:33that sustains everything else.
03:36Let us tend to the fire that once kindled our vocation, and not allow the pressures of daily life, wariness,
03:45or routine, eventually to extinguish it.
03:52During the exercises, we are faced with questions we cannot avoid.
03:59What has become disordered within us?
04:03In what ways have we failed God?
04:08After a few or many years of having said yes to the Master,
04:12we may have grown accustomed to things that would have once troubled us,
04:18such as harshness towards others, resistance to being corrected,
04:25rivalries, attachments, sins, or clinging to things that gradually rob us of our freedom.
04:33Something even more serious can happen that we learn to justify everything,
04:40finding pastoral reasons, or communal or personal motives for doing what we know is wrong.
04:51We also fail when we do not do the good that is required of us,
04:55when we do not listen, when we do not listen patiently,
04:59when we choose comfort, or when we remain silent in the face of something we should address.
05:08There is no age at which conversion is unnecessary.
05:14We need to examine our consciences,
05:17go to confession,
05:19and be humble enough
05:21to allow ourselves to be corrected.
05:25Dear brothers and sisters,
05:28let us have the courage,
05:30clearly, to acknowledge
05:31where we have been unfaithful to God
05:35and to place this
05:36before His mercy.
05:40It is precisely
05:41only after we have
05:43clearly confronted our own sin
05:45that Saint Ignatius
05:47places us before Christ,
05:50the Eternal King,
05:51who continues to call
05:53and to send us forth.
05:56The Lord knows of what we were made,
05:59and yet
06:00He still chooses
06:02to count on us.
06:04The question, therefore,
06:06is not how much we have failed Him,
06:10but whether we remain
06:12available to Him.
06:14At the start of our vocation,
06:16we tend to offer everything.
06:18Then, the years go by,
06:22and our own preferences set in.
06:25We find the places
06:26where we feel comfortable,
06:28and we adopt a certain idea
06:30of how our own story should unfold.
06:34Can the Lord still send us
06:36where we had not planned to go?
06:39Can He ask us
06:41to leave behind
06:42something to which
06:44we have devoted years,
06:46or to accept a task
06:47we would never have chosen?
06:51It is this freedom
06:53that is purified
06:54through the meditations
06:56on the two standards,
06:59the three classes of persons,
07:02and the election.
07:05We learn to recognize
07:07what binds us,
07:08what conditions
07:09our decisions,
07:11and to what extent
07:13we are willing
07:14to let God work
07:15in our lives.
07:17Indeed,
07:18we have been sent
07:19to a people,
07:22and we must ask ourselves
07:24what we are called
07:26to offer them.
07:29Dear seminarians,
07:30learn to see
07:32through God's eyes
07:33and to allow yourselves
07:35to be evangelized
07:37by His people.
07:39Even those who have the least
07:41can teach us a great deal,
07:43as Julian discovered
07:45at Mass.
07:47The Pilgrim Church
07:48in Argentina
07:48is enriched
07:50by a deep sensitivity
07:52to the social needs
07:53of its children.
07:55From this sensitivity
07:58have sprung
07:59so many generous efforts
08:01to stand alongside
08:02those who suffer.
08:04However,
08:04this closeness
08:05must take us
08:07even further,
08:08because every person
08:10we serve
08:11is called
08:12to encounter Christ
08:13and to be
08:15transformed by Him.
08:18Pope Francis
08:20expressed this
08:21in words
08:22that deserve
08:23to be remembered.
08:25The worst discrimination
08:26which the poor suffer
08:28is the lack
08:29of spiritual care.
08:42hunger and injustice
08:45are pressing
08:46and demand
08:47a response.
08:49So too
08:51do illness,
08:52loneliness,
08:54unemployment
08:54and the lack
08:56of dignified housing.
08:58Christian charity
08:59is deeply committed
09:00to addressing
09:01all of these.
09:02At the same time,
09:04we must not forget
09:06that those who suffer
09:07need to receive
09:08from us
09:08the greatest gift
09:10the Church possesses,
09:11Jesus Christ.
09:14My beloved predecessor
09:15expressed this
09:16with particular clarity.
09:19The Church
09:20is not a business.
09:22It is not
09:23a humanitarian agency.
09:25The Church
09:26is not an NGO.
09:29The Church
09:30is sent
09:30to bring Christ
09:32and His gospel
09:33to everyone.
09:35If,
09:36hypothetically,
09:37it were ever
09:38to happen
09:39that the Church
09:39did not bring Jesus,
09:41we are listening
09:41at this hour
09:42to statements
09:43from Pope Leo XIV
09:45during a meeting
09:46with local clerges
09:48at the Cathedral
09:49of Our Lady
09:50of the Church.
