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Illustration: Portico of Glory of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral.
Pope Francis’ address to the mayors of the Spanish World Heritage cities:
Alcalá de Henares, Avila, Baeza, Cáceris, Córdoba, Cuenca, Eivissa, Mérida, Salamanca, San Cristóbal de La Lagaauna, Santiago de Compostela, Segovia, Tarragona, Toledo, Úbeda.
Saturday, 13 April 2024
Dear brothers and sisters,
I am pleased to be able to receive you in this Vatican “City”, which, just like those you represent, preserves a rich heritage of which we are the guardians.
It is a great responsibility, but also a beautiful vocation.
In this regard, I believe that our interest in heritage cannot be limited to the artistic and cultural field, but must be a broader perspective, embracing the whole of the person who receives this heritage and of the peoples who have handed it down.
Historical situations – with their lights and shadows – speak to us of real men and women, with authentic feelings, who should be lessons of life, before they become museum pieces.
They are the sufferings and aspirations of people who, in the course of time, have built their own cities, the cross-fertilization of cultures and civilizations that have succeeded one another in them, and of course their faith in God, which makes their hearts beat with passion.
I ask the Lord to grant you, together with the beauty of your cities, the grace to transmit the faith, the hope and the charity of your people.
May the contemplation of the various monuments enable those who live there and those who visit to reflect on the wisdom and strength that made their creation possible.
May they feel called upon by the lessons of justice and temperance that each historical situation holds.
In this way, we will speak of peoples, of people, of a history that is not contemplated, but lived,
with one eye on the past and the other on the future,
in order to always have our hands in the present that questions us every day.
God bless you. Thank you.
