Translation of the article into Italian
On October 11, in the liturgical memory of St. John XXIII, Pope Francis will celebrate a Holy Mass on the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Vatican II Ecumenical Council. It will undoubtedly be an opportunity to revive the impetus for renewal in the Church, which came only a few decades ago thanks to the will of a far-sighted Pontiff, who was not afraid to undertake a general mobilization that at the time could only seem revolutionary: John XXIII.
It is somewhat the same reforming dynamism that Pope Francis has also impressed on the Church since his election, faithful in any case to the requests that had come from the general congregations of Cardinals before the vote in the Sistine Chapel.
Since his appearance in the loggia of St. Peter's Square, the mission of the Pope "coming almost from the end of the world" has made use of many small pieces that have placed the protagonism of each baptized person, the joy of evangelization, the attention to the last ones, the interreligious dialogue, the denunciation of the many contradictions of our time and the convocation of the whole ecclesial community in a state "...".synodal" permanent.
Grafted on the roots of the past
Francis has always made it clear that it is not important "occupy spaces" but "initiate processes".The dynamic that characterized the work of the Second Vatican Council for three years is something like the one that characterized the work of the Second Vatican Council. Not all the processes initiated there have been completed, indeed, after 60 years there are probably several things that even today may appear to be avant-garde if interpreted in the right light and with proper discernment.
Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the beginning of the Council's journey will probably allow the Pontiff to relive the ardor of that time and to relive the solemnity of the opening of the Council, which was undoubtedly, in line with previous history, a sign of a vitality that is still present.
No conciliar initiative in the Church has ever sought to erase the past; on the contrary, it has always been grafted onto those solid roots that have allowed Christ to continue to be present throughout the centuries.
John XXIII himself affirmed this on October 11, 1962: "After almost twenty centuries, the situations and the most serious problems of humanity have not changed, because Christ always occupies the central place in history and in life. Men either adhere to him and to his Church, and thus enjoy the light, the good, the just order and the goodness of peace; or they live without him or fight against him and deliberately remain outside the Church, and so there is confusion among them, mutual relations become difficult, the danger of bloody wars looms, and so on.".
How much foresight in those words, how much truth and how much correspondence with the very turmoil we live in today, including the bloody wars. Surely you will want to go back with your mind and heart to that unity of purpose that sixty years later is still alive and well. There is another aspect that is echoed today in the re-reading of the Council's opening speech, and that is the many "doomsayers" that "in the current conditions of human society" just come "ruin and problems", behaving "as if they had nothing to learn from history".
In a perpetual state of mission
Rather, Pope Roncalli already asked, we must rediscover "the mysterious designs of Divine ProvidencePope Francis would say, "to discern what the Holy Spirit wants to communicate to us for our good and that of the Church.
A bit like what we have been trying to do for some time now through the instrument of the Synod of Bishops, which is, among other things, a concrete fruit of the Second Vatican Council, and which the current Pope considers fundamental and indispensable for design a Church and a community of faith that is in a perpetual state of mission and that knows how to fruitfully spread the light and beauty of the Gospel, showing and witnessing to the living presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then will come the Jubilee of Hope?
Two new saints for the Church today
Two figures born in the nineteenth century, who dealt with the existential peripheries who, to tell the truth, were never lacking in the life of humanity, will be canonized by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square on October 9, as announced during the last Consistory in August. They are the two Italians, Giovanni Battista Scalabrini and Artemide Zatti.
The first was bishop of Piacenza and founder of the Congregations of the Missionaries and the Missionaries of St. Charles (Scalabrinians), with the mission of serving migrants. It was Pope Francis himself who last May authorized the dispensation of the second miracle for his canonization.
His pastoral work has been judged by many to be a "prophecy of a Church close to the people and their concrete problems". His episcopal ministry, lived in direct contact with the people, left indelible marks on the faithful. Among other things, he initiated the reform of diocesan life, became close to his presbyterate, with a constant concern for the teaching of Christian doctrine and works of charity for the most needy.
The impetus to care for emigrants came when, at the beginning of the century, he realized that almost 9 million Italians had left the country for Brazil, Argentina and then the United States. But his concern for these faithful was not only material, but also pastoral: he believed, in fact, that uprooted from their cultural context, many emigrants had lost their faith. This gave rise to the idea of the Missionary Congregation, which today has three institutes: religious, religious sisters and secular.
Compassion and mercy
The second to become a saint was Artemide Zatti, a Salesian curate who worked mainly for the sick in Argentina, emigrating with his parents from Emilia Romagna. He wanted to become a priest, remained a nurse and associated himself with the sufferings of his patients, even contracting tuberculosis, only to recover later thanks to the intercession of Mary Help of Christians.
"A living sign of God's compassion and mercy for the sick"Pierluigi Cameroni, Postulator General of the Salesians, described him on several occasions. And his vocation as a Salesian curate also characterized him completely: he remained a lay to all intents and purposes, although he professed the vows of charity, chastity and obedience as a religious, also sharing community life.
"His greatness was not in accepting, but in choosing the plan God had for him." -continued the postulator, "and the evangelical radicalism with which he set out to follow Christ, in the spirit of Don Bosco, that is, without ever lacking the joy and the smile that comes from an encounter with the Lord".".
In the Consistory with which he announced the canonization, Pope Francis described them as "examples of Christian life and holiness"to propose them to the whole Church".especially in view of the situation of our times". It is not by chance that the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints highlighted how his testimony "brings the issue of migrants back to the attention of believers in Christ"which, as the Pope has said on several occasions, "is the most important thing in the world.if integrated, they can help to breathe the air of a diversity that regenerates unity"..
