UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION

GREETING OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SAN PIETRO CULTURAL CLUB

Clementine Hall
Monday, February 20, 2023

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

I warmly thank the President and I welcome everyone here, near the tomb of Saint Peter, whose name your Association bears. For you it is like returning to the source, to the root from which your charity comes and, even before that, the faith that animates you and carries you forward.

I thank God for all the good you do, thank you! We know it: it is He who gives us the strength to do it. But I also give credit to you, who put all your effort, time, energy, creativity, patience, perseverance into it. It always strikes me to see the numbers of your activities, not because of the numbers themselves, but because there are so many faces behind it, there are stories, there are very often wounds, sores. And so I think of you who meet these brothers and sisters in the canteens, in the counseling centres, in the dormitory, or in the family homes for the little ones hospitalized at the “Bambino Gesù”, and I recognize in you the image of the good Samaritan. The good Samaritan, in the parable of the Gospel of Luke, approaches the wounded man on the side of the road, he approaches moved by compassion. He doesn’t know him, he is a stranger, in a certain sense even an “enemy”, because the Samaritans were frowned upon and despised. But he approaches because his heart is tender, he is not hardened, he is capable of tenderness.

And this is the first thing I want to recommend to you: tenderness. How does God do things? With three attitudes: closeness, mercy and tenderness. So is God: close, merciful and tender. Attention, I’m not talking about sentimentality, no. I am speaking of a trait of God’s love which is needed today more than ever. Sometimes a caress given from the heart does more good than a few coins. In societies often polluted by the culture of indifference and the culture of waste, as believers we are called to go against the current with the culture of tenderness, that is, of taking care of the other as God took care of me, of us, of you, of each of us. We see it in the Gospel: how Jesus approaches the little ones, the marginalized, the least. He is the Good Samaritan who gave his life for us in need of mercy and forgiveness.

And this, dear friends, is the second thing we must never forget: that we truly love others to the extent that we acknowledge ourselves loved by Him, by our Lord and Savior. We help to the extent that we feel we have been helped; we are lifted up if we allow ourselves to be lifted up by him every day. And we can experience this in the silence of prayer, when we strip ourselves of our roles, of our duties – perhaps even of our masks, God forbid – and we remain before Him as we are, without masks . There then he can place his Spirit in our heart, he can give us his compassion and his tenderness. And so we can go on. Not us – as Saint Paul would say – not us, but He with us! This is the secret of the Christian life and, in a particular way, of charitable service.

Dear brothers and sisters, I renew my gratitude and encouragement to you. I cannot physically accompany you on the streets of Rome, but I do it with my heart and with prayer. I ask Our Lady, Salus populi Romani, to look after you and to protect the people you meet and your families. I bless you all and ask you please to pray for me. Thank you!