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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis addressed Heads of State and Heads of Government of European Union countries on Friday afternoon, the eve of the 60° anniversary of the signing of the treaties creating the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community – the first major structural steps toward creating the European Union.

Below, please find the full text of the Holy Father’s prepared remarks, in their official English translation

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Address of His Holiness Pope Francis
to European Heads of State and Government
24 March 2017

Distinguished Guests,

I thank you for your presence here tonight, on the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of the signing of the Treaties instituting the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community.  I convey to each of you the affection of the Holy See for your respective countries and for Europe itself, to whose future it is, in God’s providence, inseparably linked.  I am particularly grateful to the Honourable Paolo Gentiloni, President of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Italy, for his respectful words of greeting in your name and for the efforts that Italy has made in preparing for this meeting.  I also thank the Honourable Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament, who has voiced the aspirations of the peoples of the Union on this anniversary.

Returning to Rome, sixty years later, must not simply be a remembrance of things past, but the expression of a desire to relive that event in order to appreciate its significance for the present.  We need to immerse ourselves in the challenges of that time, so as to face those of today and tomorrow.  The Bible, with its rich historical narratives, can teach us a basic lesson.  We cannot understand our own times apart from the past, seen not as an assemblage of distant facts, but as the lymph that gives life to the present.  Without such an awareness, reality loses its unity, history loses its logical thread, and humanity loses a sense of the meaning of its activity and its progress towards the future.

25 March 1957 was a day full of hope and expectation, enthusiasm and apprehension.  Only an event of exceptional significance and historical consequences could make it unique in history.  The memory of that day is linked to today’s hopes and the expectations of the people of Europe, who call for discernment in the present, so that the journey that has begun can continue with renewed enthusiasm and confidence.

This was very clear to the founding fathers and the leaders who, by signing the two Treaties, gave life to that political, economic, cultural and primarily human reality which today we call the European Union.  As P.H. Spaak, the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs stated, it was a matter “indeed, of the material prosperity of our peoples, the expansion of our economies, social progress and completely new industrial and commercial possibilities, but above all… a particular conception of life that is humane, fraternal and just”.[1]

After the dark years and the bloodshed of the Second World War, the leaders of the time had faith in the possibility of a better future.  “They did not lack boldness, nor did they act too late.  The memory of recent tragedies and failures seems to have inspired them and given them the courage needed to leave behind their old disputes and to think and act in a truly new way, in order to bring about the greatest transformation… of Europe”.[2]

The founding fathers remind us that Europe is not a conglomeration of rules to obey, or a manual of protocols and procedures to follow. It is a way of life, a way of understanding man based on his transcendent and inalienable dignity, as something more than simply a sum of rights to defend or claims to advance.  At the origin of the idea of Europe, we find “the nature and the responsibility of the human person, with his ferment of evangelical fraternity…, with his desire for truth and justice, honed by a thousand-year-old experience”.[3]  Rome, with its vocation to universality,[4] symbolizes that experience and was thus chosen as the place for the signing of the Treaties.  For here – as the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, J. Luns, observed – “were laid the political, juridical and social foundations of our civilization”.[5]

It was clear, then, from the outset, that the heart of the European political project could only be man himself.  It was also clear that the Treaties could remain a dead letter; they needed to take on spirit and life.  The first element of European vitality must be solidarity.  As the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, J. Bech stated, “the European economic community will prove lasting and successful only if it remains constantly faithful to the spirit of European solidarity that created it, and if the common will of the Europe now being born proves more powerful than the will of individual nations”.[6]  That spirit remains as necessary as ever today, in the face of centrifugal impulses and the temptation to reduce the founding ideals of the Union to productive, economic and financial needs.

Solidarity gives rise to openness towards others.  “Our plans are not inspired by self-interest”,[7] said the German Chancellor, K. Adenauer.  The French Minister of Foreign Affairs, C. Pineau, echoed this sentiment: “Surely the countries about to unite… do not have the intention of isolating themselves from the rest of the world and surrounding themselves with insurmountable barriers”.[8]  In a world that was all too familiar with the tragedy of walls and divisions, it was clearly important to work for a united and open Europe, and for the removal of the unnatural barrier that divided the continent from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic.  What efforts were made to tear down that wall!  Yet today the memory of those efforts has been lost.  Forgotten too is the tragedy of separated families, poverty and destitution born of that division.  Where generations longed to see the fall of those signs of forced hostility, these days we debate how to keep out the “dangers” of our time: beginning with the long file of women, men and children fleeing war and poverty, seeking only a future for themselves and their loved ones.

In today’s lapse of memory, we often forget another great achievement of the solidarity ratified on 25 March 1957: the longest period of peace experienced in recent centuries.  “Peoples who over time often found themselves in opposed camps, fighting with one another… now find themselves united and enriched by their distinctive national identities”.[9]  Peace is always the fruit of a free and conscious contribution by all.  Nonetheless, “for many people today, peace appears as a blessing to be taken for granted”,[10] one that can then easily come to be regarded as superfluous.  On the contrary, peace is a precious and essential good, for without it, we cannot build a future for anyone, and we end up “living from day to day”.

United Europe was born of a clear, well-defined and carefully pondered project, however embryonic at first.  Every worthy project looks to the future, and the future are the young, who are called to realize its hopes and promises.[11]  The founding fathers had a clear sense of being part of a common effort that not only crossed national borders, but also the borders of time, so as to bind generations among themselves, all sharing equally in the building of the common home.

Distinguished Guests,

I have devoted this first part of my talk to the founding fathers of Europe, so that we can be challenged by their words, the timeliness of their thinking, their impassioned pursuit of the common good, their certainty of sharing in a work greater than themselves, and the breadth of the ideals that inspired them.  Their common denominator was the spirit of service, joined to passion for politics and the consciousness that “at the origin of European civilization there is Christianity”,[12] without which the Western values of dignity, freedom and justice would prove largely incomprehensible.  As Saint John Paul II affirmed: “Today too, the soul of Europe remains united, because, in addition to its common origins, those same Christian and human values are still alive.  Respect for the dignity of the human person, a profound sense of justice, freedom, industriousness, the spirit of initiative, love of family, respect for life, tolerance, the desire for cooperation and peace: all these are its distinctive marks”.[13]  In our multicultural world, these values will continue to have their rightful place provided they maintain a vital connection to their deepest roots.  The fruitfulness of that connection will make it possible to build authentically “lay” societies, free of ideological conflicts, with equal room for the native and the immigrant, for believers and nonbelievers.

The world has changed greatly in the last sixty years.  If the founding fathers, after surviving a devastating conflict, were inspired by the hope of a better future and were determined to pursue it by avoiding the rise of new conflicts, our time is dominated more by the concept of crisis.  There is the economic crisis that has marked the past decade; there is the crisis of the family and of established social models; there is a widespread “crisis of institutions” and the migration crisis.  So many crises that engender fear and profound confusion in our contemporaries, who look for a new way of envisioning the future. Yet the term “crisis” is not necessarily negative.  It does not simply indicate a painful moment to be endured.  The word “crisis” has its origin in the Greek verb kríno, which means to discern, to weigh, to assess.  Ours is a time of discernment, one that invites us to determine what is essential and to build on it.  It is a time of challenge and opportunity.

So what is the interpretative key for reading the difficulties of the present and finding answers for the future?  Returning to the thinking of the founding Fathers would be fruitless unless it could help to point out a path and provide an incentive for facing the future and a source of hope.  When a body loses its sense of direction and is no longer able to look ahead, it experiences a regression and, in the long run, risks dying.  What, then, is the legacy of the founding fathers?  What prospects do they indicate for surmounting the challenges that lie before us?  What hope do they offer for the Europe of today and of tomorrow?

Their answers are to be found precisely in the pillars on which they determined to build the European economic community.  I have already mentioned these: the centrality of man, effective solidarity, openness to the world, the pursuit of peace and development, openness to the future.  Those who govern are charged with discerning the paths of hope, identifying specific ways forward to ensure that the significant steps taken thus far have not been wasted, but serve as the pledge of a long and fruitful journey.

Europe finds new hope when man is the centre and the heart of her institutions.  I am convinced that this entails an attentive and trust-filled readiness to hear the expectations voiced by individuals, society and the peoples who make up the Union.  Sadly, one frequently has the sense that there is a growing “split” between the citizenry and the European institutions, which are often perceived as distant and inattentive to the different sensibilities present in the Union.  Affirming the centrality of man also means recovering the spirit of family, whereby each contributes freely to the common home in accordance with his or her own abilities and gifts.  It helps to keep in mind that Europe is a family of peoples[14] and that – as in every good family – there are different sensitivities, yet all can grow to the extent that all are united.  The European Union was born as a unity of differences and a unity in differences.  What is distinctive should not be a reason for fear, nor should it be thought that unity is preserved by uniformity.  Unity is instead harmony within a community.  The founding fathers chose that very term as the hallmark of the agencies born of the Treaties and they stressed that the resources and talents of each were now being pooled.  Today the European Union needs to recover the sense of being primarily a “community” of persons and peoples, to realize that “the whole is greater than the part, but it is also greater than the sum of its parts”,[15] and that therefore “we constantly have to broaden our horizons and see the greater good which will benefit us all”.[16]  The founding fathers sought that harmony in which the whole is present in every one of the parts, and the parts are – each in its own unique way – present in the whole.

Europe finds new hope in solidarity, which is also the most effective antidote to modern forms of populism.  Solidarity entails the awareness of being part of a single body, while at the same time involving a capacity on the part of each member to “sympathize” with others and with the whole.  When one suffers, all suffer (cf. 1 Cor 12:26).  Today, with the United Kingdom, we mourn the victims of the attack that took place in London two days ago.  For solidarity is no mere ideal; it is expressed in concrete actions and steps that draw us closer to our neighbours, in whatever situation they find themselves.  Forms of populism are instead the fruit of an egotism that hems people in and prevents them from overcoming and “looking beyond” their own narrow vision.  There is a need to start thinking once again as Europeans, so as to avert the opposite dangers of a dreary uniformity or the triumph of particularisms.  Politics needs this kind of leadership, which avoids appealing to emotions to gain consent, but instead, in a spirit of solidarity and subsidiarity, devises policies that can make the Union as a whole develop harmoniously.  As a result, those who run faster can offer a hand to those who are slower, and those who find the going harder can aim at catching up to those at the head of the line.

Europe finds new hope when she refuses to yield to fear or close herself off in false forms of security.  Quite the contrary, her history has been greatly determined by encounters with other peoples and cultures; hers “is, and always has been, a dynamic and multicultural identity”.[17]   The world looks to the European project with great interest.  This was the case from the first day, when crowds gathered in Rome’s Capitol Square and messages of congratulation poured in from other states.  It is even more the case today, if we think of those countries that have asked to become part of the Union and those states that receive the aid so generously offered them for battling the effects of poverty, disease and war.  Openness to the world implies the capacity for “dialogue as a form of encounter”[18] on all levels, beginning with dialogue between member states, between institutions and citizens, and with the numerous immigrants landing on the shores of the Union.  It is not enough to handle the grave crisis of immigration of recent years as if it were a mere numerical or economic problem, or a question of security. The immigration issue poses a deeper question, one that is primarily cultural.  What kind of culture does Europe propose today?  The fearfulness that is becoming more and more evident has its root cause in the loss of ideals.  Without an approach inspired by those ideals, we end up dominated by the fear that others will wrench us from our usual habits, deprive us of familiar comforts, and somehow call into question a lifestyle that all too often consists of material prosperity alone.  Yet the richness of Europe has always been her spiritual openness and her capacity to raise basic questions about the meaning of life.  Openness to the sense of the eternal has also gone hand in hand, albeit not without tensions and errors, with a positive openness to this world.  Yet today’s prosperity seems to have clipped the continent’s wings and lowered its gaze.  Europe has a patrimony of ideals and spiritual values unique in the world, one that deserves to be proposed once more with passion and renewed vigour, for it is the best antidote against the vacuum of values of our time, which provides a fertile terrain for every form of extremism.  These are the ideals that shaped Europe, that “Peninsula of Asia” which stretches from the Urals to the Atlantic.

Europe finds new hope when she invests in development and in peace.  Development is not the result of a combination of various systems of production.  It has to do with the whole human being: the dignity of labour, decent living conditions, access to education and necessary medical care.  “Development is the new name of peace”,[19]  said Pope Paul VI, for there is no true peace whenever people are cast aside or forced to live in dire poverty.  There is no peace without employment and the prospect of earning a dignified wage.  There is no peace in the peripheries of our cities, with their rampant drug abuse and violence.

Europe finds new hope when she is open to the future.  When she is open to young people, offering them serious prospects for education and real possibilities for entering the work force.  When she invests in the family, which is the first and fundamental cell of society.  When she respects the consciences and the ideals of her citizens.  When she makes it possible to have children without the fear of being unable to support them.  When she defends life in all its sacredness.

Distinguished Guests,

Nowadays, with the general increase in people’s life span, sixty is considered the age of full maturity, a critical time when we are once again called to self-examination.  The European Union, too, is called today to examine itself, to care for the ailments that inevitably come with age, and to find new ways to steer its course.  Yet unlike human beings, the European Union does not face an inevitable old age, but the possibility of a new youthfulness.  Its success will depend on its readiness to work together once again, and by its willingness to wager on the future.  As leaders, you are called to blaze the path of a “new European humanism”[20] made up of ideals and concrete actions.  This will mean being unafraid to take practical decisions capable of meeting people’s real problems and of standing the test of time.

For my part, I readily assure you of the closeness of the Holy See and the Church to Europe as a whole, to whose growth she has, and always will, continue to contribute.  Invoking upon Europe the Lord’s blessings, I ask him to protect her and grant her peace and progress.  I make my own the words that Joseph Bech proclaimed on Rome’s Capitoline Hill: Ceterum censeo Europam esse aedificandam – furthermore, I believe that Europe ought to be built.

Thank you.

[1] P.H. SPAAK, Address on the Signing of the Treaties of Rome, 25 March 1957.

[2] Ibid.

[3] A. DE GASPERI. La nostra patria Europa.  Address to the European Parliamentary Conference, 21 April 1954, in Alcide De Gasperi e la politica internazionale, Cinque Lune, Rome, 1990, vol. III, 437-440.

[4] Cf. P.H. SPAAK, loc. cit.

[5] J. LUNS, Address on the Signing of the Treaties of Rome, 25 March 1957.

[6] J. BECH, Address on the Signing of the Treaties of Rome, 25 March 1957.

[7] K. ADENAUER, Address on the Signing of the Treaties of Rome, 25 March 1957.

[8] C. PINEAU, Address on the Signing of the Treaties of Rome, 25 March 1957.

[9] P.H. SPAAK, loc. cit.

[10] Address to Members of the Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See, 9 January 2017.

[11] Cf. P.H. SPAAK, loc. cit.

[12] A. DE GASPERI, loc. cit.

[13] JOHN PAUL II, European Act, Santiago de Compostela, 9 November 1982: AAS 75/1 (1983), 329.

[14] Cf. Address to the European Parliament, Strasbourg, 25 November 2014: AAS 106 (2014), 1000.

[15] Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 235.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Address at the Conferral of the Charlemagne Prize, 6 May 2016: L’Osservatore Romano, 6-7 May 2016, p. 4.

[18] Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 239.

[19] PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio, 26 March 1967, 87: AAS 59 (1967), 299.

[20] Address at the Conferral of the Charlemagne Prize, loc. cit., p. 5.

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(Vatican Radio) In his address to European leaders, Pope Francis spoke about embracing the past, but also looking to the future with hope.

Referring to the 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaties – the occasion for the meeting – Pope Francis said “Returning to Rome, sixty years later, must not simply be a remembrance of things past, but the expression of a desire to relive that event in order to appreciate its significance for the present.” He said, “We cannot understand our own times apart from the past, seen not as an assemblage of distant facts, but as the lymph that gives life to the present.”

Calling attention to the founding fathers of the European project, whom he quoted repeatedly, the Pope said Europe is not “a conglomeration of rules to obey” but “a way of life, a way of understanding man based on his transcendent and inalienable dignity.” And so, he said, it was clear from the outset “that the heart of the European political project could only be man himself.” But this outlook, he continued, depends on solidarity.

Turning to a vision of the future, Pope Francis notes that Europe today faces many crises – crises of the economy, the family, a crisis of institutions, the migration crisis.

The answers to these crises, the Pope said, “are to be found precisely in the pillars on which they determined to build the European economic community”: “the centrality of man, effective solidarity, openness to the world, the pursuit of peace and development, openness to the future.”

Concluding his remarks, Pope Francis said the European Union, at 60, “is called today to examine itself, to care for the ailments that inevitably come with age, and to find new ways to steer its course.” The success of the European Union, he said, “will depend on its readiness to work together once again, and by its willingness to wager on the future.” And he called on Europe’s leaders “to blaze the path of a ‘new European humanism’ made up of ideals and concrete actions.” 

Read the full text of Pope Francis' address on our website.

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Washington D.C., Mar 24, 2017 / 12:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch received a strong voice of support Thursday from a lawyer at a major religious liberty firm, who said that he shows a record of consensus building and protecting religious freedom for all.

In addition to ruling on some high profile cases, Gorsuch also defended the religious freedom of religious minorities and prisoners, “some of the most politically powerless in our society,” said Hannah Smith, senior counsel with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.

Smith testified about Gorsuch before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Gorsuch sits on the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was nominated by President Donald Trump in February to be an associate justice at the U.S. Supreme Court.

In her testimony, Smith pointed to Gorsuch’s ruling in favor of a Native American inmate’s request to have access to a sweat house at his prison, for religious use.

Gorsuch wrote in that Yellowbear case, “While those convicted of crime in our society lawfully forfeit a great many civil liberties, Congress has (repeatedly) instructed that the sincere exercise of religion should not be among them – at least in the absence of a compelling reason. In this record we can find no reason like that.”

He also was “a remarkable consensus-builder,” Smith added, “in an area of jurisprudence that can be quite contentious.”

Smith said she studied 40 religious freedom cases where Gorsuch, appointed to the Tenth Circuit by President George W. Bush, either wrote an opinion or took a position. She found that “judges appointed by a Democratic president agreed with him in 80 percent of those cases.”

Where Gorsuch authored an opinion in a religious freedom case, she added, he “produced a unanimous decision every single time.”

“My assessment is that Judge Gorsuch, as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, would be a jurist committed to protecting this vital freedom,” Smith said of religious liberty. “None of his religious liberty opinions has ever been reversed by the Supreme Court.”

Judge Gorsuch was a Marshall Scholar who received his doctorate in philosophy from Oxford University, studying under Natural Law scholar John Finnis while there. He clerked for Supreme Court justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy before working as the principal deputy associate attorney general at the Justice Department under President George W. Bush.

In 2006, President Bush appointed Gorsuch to the Tenth Circuit. In his time on the circuit, he weighed in on major religious freedom cases including those of Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor against the Obama administration’s contraceptive mandate.

He was nominated by President Trump on Feb. 1 to fill the vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. Senate Democrats, however, have announced their intent to hold up his confirmation through filibuster, which would require the votes of 60 senators to override.

Republicans, who hold the majority in the Senate, have not yet announced if they will invoke the “nuclear option” where the Senate rules would be altered to allow for a simple majority vote in the 100-seat chamber rather than a three-fifths, or 60-seat, vote.

Smith, in her testimony on Thursday, also pointed to Gorsuch’s rulings in recent prominent religious freedom cases.

As a judge, Gorsuch wrote a concurrence with the majority decision in favor of Hobby Lobby, and joined the dissent in the case that went against the Little Sisters of the Poor.

Ultimately, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby, saying they were exempt from the contraceptive mandate, which “substantially burdened” their religious exercise and was not the “least-restrictive” means of ensuring access to contraceptives.

Later, in the middle of deciding the Little Sisters case, the Court called for the nuns and the government to outline alternative ways of allowing cost-free coverage of contraceptives while respecting the religious freedom of the nuns. After both parties submitted their answers, the Court sent the case back to the lower courts and instructed the parties to come to an agreement.

Ultimately, Smith said, Gorsuch’s record makes it clear that he will uphold the religious liberty of all people.

“His jurisprudence demonstrates an even-handed application of the principle that religious liberty is fundamental to freedom and to human dignity,” she said, “and that protecting the religious rights of others – even the rights of those with whom we may disagree – ultimately leads to greater protections for all of our rights.”

 

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Vatican City, Mar 24, 2017 / 01:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Being disconnected from the values of the past – which upheld the human person and the family – has placed us in a new era of crises, Pope Francis told European leaders. However, he noted, there is hope.

“Europe finds new hope when man is the center and the heart of her institutions,” he said March 24. “I am convinced that this entails an attentive and trust-filled readiness to hear the expectations voiced by individuals, society and the peoples who make up the Union.”
 
“Affirming the centrality of man also means recovering the spirit of family,” he continued, “whereby each contributes freely to the common home in accordance with his or her own abilities and gifts.”

Europe finds this new hope, he emphasized, “When she invests in the family, which is the first and fundamental cell of society. When she respects the consciences and the ideals of her citizens. When she makes it possible to have children without the fear of being unable to support them. When she defends life in all its sacredness.”

Pope Francis met with 27 European Union Heads of State and Government, as well as Antonio Tajani, President of the European Parliament; Donald Tusk, President of the European Council; and Jean-Claude Junker, President of the European Commission at the Vatican.

The leaders met in Rome for celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community and is one of the two most important treaties in the modern-day European Union (EU).

In the speech, the Pope warned against having a short memory about Europe’s past – both the good and the bad – and as in previous speeches, urged a return to the roots, in this case the fundamental and founding values of the EU.

In a change from previous meetings of a similar nature, however, Francis took a very hopeful attitude toward Europe’s future, saying that while Europe is undergoing its own modern crises – in economics, migration, the institution, and the family – these don’t have to be solely destructive.

“The term ‘crisis’ is not necessarily negative,” he said. “It does not simply indicate a painful moment to be endured.”

“The word ‘crisis’ has its origin in the Greek verb krino, which means to discern, to weigh, to assess. Ours is a time of discernment, one that invites us to determine what is essential and to build on it. It is a time of challenge and opportunity.”

For Europe to move past these present crises, leaders must refocus around the centrality of the human person, solidarity, the pursuit of peace, and openness to the future and the world, he said.

The spiritual and human values present in Europe’s past are the way forward in what is becoming an increasingly valueless society, one that is very different from even just 60 years ago.

“Europe has a patrimony of ideals and spiritual values unique in the world, one that deserves to be proposed once more with passion and renewed vigor, for it is the best antidote against the vacuum of values of our time, which provides a fertile terrain for every form of extremism,” Francis said.

The Pope gave several examples of how Europe’s hope can be renewed. One major way is by investing in the future through opportunities for young people to receive a good education and to have real possibilities in the work force, he said.

In the speech, the Pope referenced at length the history of Europe, such as the “tragedy of walls and divisions,” and the efforts made to “tear down that wall” that “divided the continent from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic,” separating families as well.

He also quoted at length from addresses of founding fathers of the EU at the signing of the Treaties of Rome in 1957, including Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Paul-Henri Spaak; Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joseph Luns; Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Joseph Bech; German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer; and French Minister of Foreign Affairs Christian Pineau.

Addressing “the grave crisis of immigration,” Francis said that the issue poses deep question, that is primarily cultural, and that is: “What kind of culture does Europe propose today?”

“The fearfulness that is becoming more and more evident has its root cause in the loss of ideals. Without an approach inspired by those ideals, we end up dominated by the fear that others will wrench us from our usual habits, deprive us of familiar comforts, and somehow call into question a lifestyle that all too often consists of material prosperity alone.”

“Yet the richness of Europe,” he continued, “has always been her spiritual openness and her capacity to raise basic questions about the meaning of life. Openness to the sense of the eternal has also gone hand in hand, albeit not without tensions and errors, with a positive openness to this world.”

The Pope had strong words against modern forms of populism, which he said solidarity is the antidote to. He defined solidarity as entailing “the awareness of being part of a single body” while also involving “a capacity on the part of each member to ‘sympathize’ with others and with the whole.”

“When one suffers, all suffer,” he said, referencing 1 Corinthians 12:26.

Without Christianity, the Western values of dignity, freedom and justice “would prove largely incomprehensible,” Francis said. “In our multicultural world, these values will continue to have their rightful place provided they maintain a vital connection to their deepest roots.”

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IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Cindy Wooden

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- As the Vatican Secretariat for Communication works to unify Vatican media efforts, a key pastoral concern is to keep open all the channels that allow Pope Francis to speak to the world.

"With a pope who is so naturally communicative, if we don't put obstacles in his way, we already are doing our job," said Natasa Govekar, director of the secretariat's theological-pastoral department.

While every large organization and government has a communications apparatus, the Vatican may be unique in having a department like Govekar's. Her office focuses on the theological and pastoral implications of communications in general, as well as in the faith content of what the Vatican communicates.

The number of page views, clicks, followers and "likes" on Vatican websites and social media accounts is, of course, tracked by the Secretariat for Communication, but those statistics are not the key factor in determining success, she said. The secretariat fulfills its mission when the Gospel message shines through the social media posts, photographs, videos and news stories.

"The church has never had a problem with its content; the challenge is how to communicate the content in the best way for it to be heard and welcomed," Govekar said. For the Vatican, "the art of communicating today lies precisely in rediscovering the essence of who we are and what we have to communicate to the world and, then, how to do it. Creativity is always part of the process. You can never just cut and paste from the past and, even less, from the world."

The statistics from the main Vatican accounts -- including the more than 33 million followers on the @Pontifex Twitter accounts and about 3.7 million followers on the "Franciscus" Instagram account -- are the object of pastoral attention, she said. "It tells us if there is someone out there listening or reading. It would be wrong if we didn't ask ourselves why so few people read a certain article or were interested in a particular subject."

Govekar's thesis for her doctorate in missiology at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University looked at "The Transmission of Faith through Images," so it is no surprise that she has a particular interest in the pope's Instagram account, which celebrated its first anniversary March 19.

She monitors the account, which regularly garners more than 100,000 likes a day and consistently prompts 800-1,000 comments. She collects the comments and prayers from the account to share with Pope Francis.

The most common comment is simply, "Amen," she said. "But sometimes there are comments that are very profound and requests for prayers that are very moving; people turn to the pope even though they write, 'I know that you won't read this post, but I still feel the need to ask you ...' Clearly, many have an illness. But many also say something like, 'I have done so many bad things in my life that I know I am not worthy to pray, so I beg you to pray for me.'"

"People turn to the pope in a personal way and find in him a reference point and a welcome even though they have never met him," she said.

Her thesis on transmitting the faith through images is confirmed regularly by people's reactions to Pope Francis.

"Pope Francis -- and this is confirmed from the feedback I read, and not just in the comments on social media, but from speaking to people, who say, 'I don't go to church, but I love this pope' -- is able to reach people, even those far from the church, because he is simply transparent," Govekar said.

"It seems his heart is readable on his face. The whole world is able to see his spiritual life from his expression. Every little thing -- his gestures, his smile -- speaks," she said. "For me, this is a great lesson on where we should focus our work: on the heart, on the profundity of Christian spirituality and the spiritual lives of Christians so that it is revealed in everything we do."

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Follow Wooden on Twitter: @Cindy_Wooden.

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By Carol Glatz

ROME (CNS) -- There is absolutely no excuse for not implementing concrete measures to protect minors and vulnerable adults from sexual abuse, said Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston.

"Let there be no doubt about it: Pope Francis is thoroughly committed to rooting out the scourge of sex abuse in the church," he said, and "effectively making our church safe for all people demands our collaboration on all levels."

The cardinal gave the opening prayer and address at a daylong seminar March 23 at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University. The seminar was sponsored by the papal advisory body Cardinal O'Malley heads, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.

A representative of every office of the Roman Curia attended, including: Cardinals Pietro Parolin, secretary of state; Kevin Farrell of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life; Joao Braz de Aviz of the Congregation for Institutes for Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; Marc Ouellet of the Congregation for Bishops; and Peter Turkson of the Dicastery for Integral Human Development. Also in attendance were rectors of pontifical universities and colleges, and representatives from the Italian state police and the Vatican gendarmes.

After leading a prayer calling for a greater love for God and his creation, especially "your little ones," Cardinal O'Malley said holding a study day was an important part of fighting complacency and knowing "we must continue to learn from our experiences, including our mistakes," and to better share resources and knowledge.

"There is simply no justification in our day for failures to enact concrete safeguarding standards for our children, young men and women and vulnerable adults," he said. The church not only needs to "reform and renew" its own institutions, but its members also must be "witnesses and strong advocates" in society.

He said he told cardinals and the pope during a consistory in Rome two years ago that the church "must address the evil of sexual abuse by priests."

While abuse by any kind of perpetrator is a problem, when the abuser is a priest, "the damage is even more profound." Also, given "today's world of instantaneous communications" Catholics are much more aware, and quickly, of the problem of abuse in the church and are "demanding that we, who are their pastors, take all necessary steps" to safeguard those in their care.

The papal commission, which was founded in 2014, is guided by a "victims-first" approach, he said, because all the best protection programs and policies "will be to no avail if we fail to put the victims and survivors first."

While the cardinal did not mention the recent resignation of Marie Collins, the last active member who is a survivor of clerical abuse, he said the commission would be discussing during its closed-door plenary meeting, "How can victim/survivors continue to have a powerful voice in our work and help to guide us?" Collins, who was a member of the commission since its inception, stepped down citing a chronic lack of cooperation from some in the Roman Curia in following recommendations that had the pope's support.

"It's not enough to say 'We are putting victims first'" or that the church is seeking to listen to survivors, said Francis Sullivan, head of the Truth, Justice and Healing Council, which was established by the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference and Catholic Religious Australia. The council oversees the church's engagement with a state inquiry into clerical sexual abuse.

"Words are not going to do it. Actions do it," he said in his presentation.

The "intense scrutiny" the church in Australia has been through shows that the entire church must confront "the miserable reality that sex abuse happened in our church."

He urged everyone present to not "distract church leaders" by pointing attention to all the other places and people in the world guilty of abusing children.

"Sure it may happen in other places," he said, "but the fact that it happened in the Catholic Church says something about the corruption in our church" and about how its members have "lost the plot" and are no longer being true to their beliefs.

"Somehow we've not only enabled abusers to exist," Sullivan said, the church has allowed them "to continue to abuse."

Keep the spotlight on "Why. Why did it happen in our church?" he said, and "come to terms with that cancer."

Otherwise, the risk remains that victims and survivors will never be fully listened to or that their experience will never truly impact people's lives.

Don't smother what a victim has to say, by countering with a laundry list of "Yes, but" and all the ways the church is doing the right thing, he said. "The 'but' part drowns out the voice of the victim." The church needs to "be humble" recognize all the "baggage" in its past and "humbly face failures."

Until leaders couple a genuine recognition of past wrongs with concrete action in best practices, Catholics and others will not believe any of the talk and the church won't regain its credibility, he said.

Sullivan said when the pope and others talk about the need for a reform of the heart, people need to realize "that the decisions our leaders made in order to facilitate and cover up actually broke the heart of what it meant to be Catholic."

"We need to go back and confront that," he said.

Cardinal Braz de Aviz told Catholic News Service that the meeting showed "the conscience of the church" and a "very important" shift in perspective, or in other words, "the recovery of humanity."

While abuse is a problem throughout society, he said it took a lot of courage from the church to recognize its role in the problem.

There is no longer any place for the "old way of doing things" with abusive clergy or religious -- such as moving them from one assignment to another, the cardinal said. "We have to totally change the way of doing" things.

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