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Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to participants in the Conference of the “Chair of Welcome”
: “Vulnerability and Community between Acceptance and Inclusion”
Clementine Hall – Friday, 1 March 2024
Dear brothers and sisters,!
In these days you have been gathered at the Fraterna Domus of Sacrofano for the second “Chair of Welcome”. That’s a suitable place! Not only because it is large and equipped: it is suitable because it is welcoming! It is a place where elderly people, families and young people in difficulty, and migrants are welcomed. This is why it is nice that the sisters of the Domus Fraternal Association are the driving force and animators of this initiative. Thank you, dear sisters!
I have seen your program of these days: very rich and very interesting.
You have put vulnerability at the center.
That is, you have made welcome and vulnerability, considered in its various forms, “react” – as we would say in chemistry.
I appreciate this choice, which is typically evangelical, and I would like to leave you with some food for thought and for your journey.
First of all, in order to welcome vulnerable brothers and sisters, I must feel vulnerable and welcomed as such by Christ.
He always precedes us: he made himself vulnerable, even to the Passion; He welcomed our fragility so that, thanks to Him, we can do the same.
Saint Paul writes: “Welcome one another as Christ welcomed you” (cf. Rom 15:7).
If we abide in him, like branches in the vine, we will bear good fruit, even in this vast field of hospitality.
A second point. Jesus spent most of his public ministry, especially in Galilee, in contact with the poor and sick of all kinds.
This tells us that for us, vulnerability cannot be a “politically correct” issue, or a mere organization of practices, no matter how good.
I say this because, unfortunately, the risk is there, it is always lurking, despite all the good will.
Especially in the largest and most structured realities, but also in the small ones, vulnerability can become a category, people faceless individuals, service a “performance” and so on.
So we must remain firmly anchored to the Gospel, to Jesus, who did not teach his disciples to plan for the care of the sick and the poor.
Jesus wanted to form his disciples for a way of life by being in contact with the vulnerable, in their midst.
The disciples saw how he met people, they saw how he welcomed: his closeness, his compassion, his tenderness.
And after the Resurrection, the Holy Spirit impressed on them this way of life.
In this way, the Spirit has always formed men and women who have become saints by loving vulnerable people like Jesus.
Some are canonized and are models for all of us; But how many men and women have sanctified themselves in welcoming the little ones, the poor, the fragile, the marginalized!
And it is important, in our communities, to share in simplicity and gratitude the stories of these hidden witnesses of the Gospel.
One last point, I would like to leave you.
In the Gospel, the poor, the vulnerable, are not objects, they are subjects, they are protagonists together with Jesus in the proclamation of the Kingdom of God.
Let us think of Bartimaeus, the blind man of Jericho (cf. Mk 10:46-52).
That story is emblematic, I invite you to reread it often because it is very rich.
Studying and meditating on this text, we see that Jesus finds in that man the faith he was looking for: only Jesus recognizes him in the midst of the crowd and the noise, he hears his cry full of faith.
And that man, who through his faith in the Lord receives sight again, sets out on a journey, follows Jesus and becomes his witness, so much so that his story has entered the Gospels.
The vulnerable Bartimaeus, saved by the vulnerable Jesus, shares in the joy of being a witness to his Resurrection.
I have mentioned this story, but there would be many others, with different types of vulnerability, not only physical.
Let us think of Mary Magdalene: she, who was tormented by seven demons, became the first witness of the risen Jesus.
In summary: vulnerable people, encountered and welcomed with Christ’s grace and style, can be a presence of the Gospel in the believing community and in society.
Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for your commitment. Go ahead! May Our Lady always accompany you. I bless you all from my heart. And I ask you, please, to pray for me. Thank you.
