Excerpt below for the full transcript click on the picture link above

Dear sisters and brothers,

It is a joy for me to be with you in this region that has suffered so greatly. As your testimonies have just demonstrated, the lived experience of suffering by your community has only made stronger your conviction that God has never abandoned us! In God, in his peace, we can always begin anew!

His Excellency the Archbishop mentioned the prophecy that exclaims: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace!” (Is 52:7). He welcomed me with these words, and now I would like to respond: how beautiful are your feet as well, dusty from this bloodstained yet fertile land that has been mistreated, yet is rich in vegetation and fruit. Your feet have brought you this far, and despite the difficulties and obstacles, they have remained on the path of goodness. May we all continue on the path of goodness which leads to peace. I am grateful for your words of welcome, because it is true: I am here to proclaim peace. Yet I find it is you who are proclaiming peace to me, and to the entire world. As one of you observed, the crisis impacting these regions of Cameroon has brought Christian and Muslim communities closer than ever before. Indeed, your religious leaders have come together to establish a Movement for Peace, through which they seek to mediate between the opposing sides.

I wish this would happen in so many other places of the world. Your witness, your work for peace can be a model for the whole world! Jesus told us: Blessed are the peacemakers! But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic or political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth. Yes, my dear sisters and brothers, you who hunger and thirst for justice, who are poor, merciful, meek, and pure of heart, you who have wept — you are the light of the world! (cf. Mt 5:3-14). Bamenda, today you are the city on the hill, resplendent in the eyes of all! Sisters and brothers, be the salt that continuously gives flavour to this land. Do not lose your flavour, even in the years to come! Cherish all the shared moments that have brought you together in these times of sorrow. Let us all cherish this day when we have come together to work for peace! Be like oil poured out upon the wounds of your brothers and sisters.

In this regard, I would like to express gratitude to all those, particularly the lay and religious women, who care for individuals traumatized by violence. It is an enormous task that goes unseen day by day, and as Sister Carine reminded us, it is also dangerous. The masters of war pretend not to know that it takes only a moment to destroy, yet a lifetime is often not enough to rebuild. They turn a blind eye to the fact that billions of dollars are spent on killing and devastation, yet the resources needed for healing, education and restoration are nowhere to be found. Those who rob your land of its resources generally invest much of the profit in weapons, thus perpetuating an endless cycle of destabilization and death. It is a world turned upside down, an exploitation of God’s creation that must be denounced and rejected by every honest conscience. We must make a decisive change of course — a true conversion — that will lead us in the opposite direction, onto a sustainable path rich in human fraternity. The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters! They are the descendants of Abraham, as numerous as the stars in the sky and the grains of sand on the seashore. Let us look into each other’s eyes: we are this immense people! Peace is not something we must invent: it is something we must embrace by accepting our neighbour as our brother and as our sister. We do not choose our brothers and sisters: we simply must accept one another! We are one family, inhabiting the same home: this wonderful planet that ancient cultures have cared for across millennia.

16.04.26 pm

Excerpt below for the full transcript click on the picture link above

Dear brothers and sisters,

The divine Word pervades history and renews it through the human voice of the Saviour. Today we listen to the Gospel, the Good News for all time, in this Basilica in Annaba dedicated to Saint Augustine, Bishop of the ancient city of Hippo. Over the centuries, the names of the places that welcome us have changed, but the saints continue to serve as our patrons and faithful witnesses of a connection to the land that comes from heaven. It is precisely this dynamic that the Lord revealed at night to Nicodemus: this is the strength that Christ instills in the weakness of his faith and the tenacity of his search.

Sent by the Spirit of God, which “you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (Jn 3:8), Jesus is a special guest for Nicodemus. In fact, he calls him to a new life, entrusting to his interlocutor — and to us as well — a surprising task: “You must be born from above” (v. 7). Such is the invitation for every man and woman who seeks salvation! Jesus’ invitation gives rise to the mission of the whole Church, and consequently to the Christian community in Algeria: to be born again from above, that is, from God. In this perspective, faith overcomes earthly hardships and the Lord’s grace makes the desert blossom. Yet the beauty of this exhortation also brings with it a challenge, which the Gospel calls us to face together.

As a matter of fact, Christ’s words contain all the force of a command: you must be born again from above! Such a command rings in our ears as a feat that would be impossible. However, when we listen attentively to the one who gives the order, we come to understand that this is neither a harsh imposition nor a constraint, and much less a condemnation to failure. On the contrary, the obligation expressed by Jesus is a gift of freedom for us, because it reveals an unexpected possibility: we can be born anew from above thanks to God. We should do so, then, according to his loving will, which desires to renew humanity by calling us to a communion of life that begins with faith. While Christ invites us to renew our lives completely, he also gives us the strength to do so. Saint Augustine attests to this well when praying in this way, “Give, O Lord, what you command and command what you will” (Confessions, X, 29, 40).

Therefore, when we ask ourselves how a future of justice, peace, harmony and salvation will be possible, we must remember that we are asking God the same question that Nicodemus asked: can our story truly change? We are so weighed down by problems, hardships and tribulations! Can we truly start our lives over again? Yes! The Lord’s response, so full of love, fills our hearts with hope. No matter how weighed down we are by pain or sin: the crucified One carries all these burdens with us and for us. No matter how discouraged we are by our own weaknesses: it is precisely then that God manifests his strength, the God who has raised Christ from the dead in order to give life to the world. Each one of us can experience the freedom of new life that comes from faith in the Redeemer. Once again, Saint Augustine offers us an example of this: we revere him for his conversion even more than for his wisdom. In this rebirth, providentially accompanied by the tears of his mother, Saint Monica, he found himself, exclaiming: “I could not therefore exist, could not exist at all, O my God, unless you were in me. Or should I not rather say, that I could not exist unless I were in you” (Confessions, I, 2).

Christians are truly born from above, regenerated by God as brothers and sisters of Jesus, and the Church that nourishes them with the sacraments is the welcoming bosom for all peoples. As we have just heard, the Acts of the Apostles bears witness to this by describing the lifestyle that characterizes humanity when it has been renewed by the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 4:32-37). Even today, we must embrace this apostolic rule and put it into practice, meditating on it as an authentic criterion for ecclesial reform: a reform that must begin in the heart, if it is to be genuine, and must encompass everyone if it is to be effective.

First, “the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul” (v. 32). This spiritual unity is a concordia: a word that signifies well the communion of hearts that beat as one because they are united with the heart of Christ. The early Church, therefore, was not based on a social contract, but rather on the harmony of faith, affections, ideas and life decisions centered on the love of God who became man to save all the peoples of the earth.

Second, let us admire the tangible effects of the spiritual unity among believers: “everything they owned was held in common” (v. 32). Everyone has everything, sharing in one another’s goods as members of a single body. No one is deprived of anything, because everyone shares what they have. Since possession can be transformed into gift, this fraternal dedication does not represent a utopia. Only hearts divided against one another and souls consumed by greed believe that it is. On the contrary, faith in the one God, Lord of heaven and earth, unites people according to perfect justice, which calls everyone to charity — that is, to love every creature with the love that God gives us in Christ. Therefore, in the face of poverty and oppression, the guiding principle above all for Christians is charity: let us do to those around us, as we would have them do to us (cf. Mt 7:12). Inspired by this law, inscribed in our hearts by God, the Church is continually reborn, for where there is despair she kindles hope, where there is misery she brings dignity, and where there is conflict she brings reconciliation.

Third, the passage from Acts shows us the foundation of this new life, which embraces peoples of every language and culture: “With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all” (v. 33). The charity that motivates them is more than a moral commitment; it is a sign of salvation: the Apostles proclaim that our lives can change because Christ has risen from the dead. The primary task of pastors as ministers of the Gospel is therefore to bear witness to God before the world with one heart and one soul, not permitting our concerns to lead us astray through fear, nor trends to undermine us through compromise. Together with you, brothers in the Episcopate and the Priesthood, let us constantly renew this mission for the sake of those entrusted to us, so that through her service, the whole Church may be a message of new life for those we encounter.

Dearest Christians of Algeria, you remain a humble and faithful sign of Christ’s love in this land. Bear witness to the Gospel through simple gestures, genuine relationships and a dialogue lived out day by day: in this way, you bring flavour and light to the places where you live. Your presence in this country is like incense: a glowing grain that spreads fragrance because it gives glory to the Lord and joy and comfort to so many brothers and sisters. 

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