The Vatican Information Service is reporting on a powerful address to the sisters given by Pope Francis in which he denounced those who use the consecrated life as a stepping stone in a Church career.
"The men and women of the Church who are careerists and social climbers, who 'use' people, the Church, their brothers and sisters—whom they should be serving—as a springboard for their own personal interests and ambitions … are doing great harm to the Church,” he said.
Instead, he asked them to be obedient, to listen to God's will "in the interior motion of the Holy Spirit authenticated by the Church, accepting that obedience also passes through human mediations . . . "
The poverty they embrace must be more than just theoretical, he continued.
"Theoretical poverty doesn't do anything. Poverty is learned by touching the flesh of the poor Christ in the humble, the poor, the sick, and in children.”
He also encouraged them to embrace the precious charism of chastity.
"Chastity for the Kingdom of Heaven shows how affection has its place in mature freedom and becomes a sign of the future world, to make God's primacy shine forever. But, please, [make it] a 'fertile' chastity, which generates spiritual children in the Church. The consecrated are mothers: they must be mothers and not 'spinsters'! Forgive me if I talk like this but this maternity of consecrated life, this fruitfulness is important! May this joy of spiritual fruitfulness animate your existence. Be mothers, like the images of the Mother Mary and the Mother Church. You cannot understand Mary without her motherhood; you cannot understand the Church without her motherhood, and you are icons of Mary and of the Church.”
He went on to remind them that true power is service, "which has its bright summit upon the Cross . . ."
In light of the problems within American religious orders that sparked a Vatican investigation several years ago, he called for fidelity to the Magisterium and the need to remain in communion with the bishops and successor of Peter. Citing Paul VI, he said: “It is an absurd dichotomy to think of living with Jesus but without the Church, of following Jesus outside of the Church, of loving Jesus without loving the Church. Feel the responsibility that you have of caring for the formation of your Institutes in sound Church doctrine, in love of the Church, and in an ecclesial spirit.”
He left them with three suggestions to consider: “The centrality of Christ and his Gospel, authority as a service of love, and 'feeling' in and with the Mother Church."
Finally, he added: "What would the Church be without you? She would be missing maternity, affection, tenderness! A Mother's intuition.”
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
