VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Leo XIV praised representatives from a missionary society, a branch of the Franciscans and an order devoted to serving and accompanying infirm priests, saying they reflect the “harmonious beauty” of the mystical body of Christ.
The three groups represent “three luminous dimensions of the church’s beauty: commitment to conversion, enthusiasm for mission and the warmth of mercy,” he told them during an audience at the Vatican June 6.
“I pray that you may be ever more docile instruments of the Holy Spirit, in accordance with God’s plans,” he said.
The pope met with the general superiors, members of governing bodies and others representing the Society of African Missions, the Third Order Regular of St. Francis and formators and members of the Servants of the Paraclete. Some of the groups were holding their general chapters in Rome.
“You represent three charismatic realities that emerged at different times in the church’s history and in response to various specific needs,” he said. “Yet you are united with and complementary to each other, within the harmonious beauty of the mystical body of Christ.”
Speaking to Franciscan friars, whose order is also known as the Third Order Regular of St. Francis of Penance, Pope Leo encouraged them to address the themes of community life, formation and vocations “in the light of your ‘penitential’ charism.”
It is only “through a constant journey of conversion can we offer our brothers and sisters ‘the fragrant words'” of Christ, he said.
The Society of African Missions, Pope Leo said, “is a sign of that missionary spirit which is at the very heart of the church’s life.”
“Fidelity to your mission, by which your communities have over time surmounted countless difficulties from within and without, has enabled you to grow and even draw from adversity the inspiration to set out for new apostolic horizons in Africa and other parts of the world,” the pope said.
Pope Leo said their founder, Venerable Melchior-Marie-Joseph de Marion-Bresillac, had timely advice: “be faithful to the simplicity of the apostolic preaching”; be ready to embrace the “‘folly of the cross’ with sincerity and peace, even in the face of the world’s incomprehension and derision”; and be men filled with Christ, “and thus capable of bringing your brothers and sisters to an encounter with him.”
“What a great sign for the entire church and the world,” the pope said.
The Servants of the Paraclete is a group of priests and religious brothers dedicated to the contemplative life and care of aged, infirm and “troubled priests,” he said.
“In various parts of the world, you have carried out your ministry of humble, patient, delicate and discreet closeness to the deeply wounded, offering them therapeutic paths combining a simple and intense spiritual life — both personal and communal — with highly qualified professional assistance suited to their needs,” the pope said.
Their ministry is a reminder that even the “ministers of Christ, the physician of souls,” are also “frail and in need of healing” and mercy, he said.
