"In these days thoughts have turned many times to the railway accident that happened in Greece. Many victims. I pray for the deceased and I am close to the injured and relatives. May Our Lady console them. This is how the Pope began his words after the Marian prayer of the Angelus and giving the Blessing from the window of his study in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, in St. Peter's Square.

The Holy Father then expressed his "sorrow for the tragedy that has occurred in the waters of Cutro (Italy). I pray for the many victims of the shipwreck, for those who survived and for their families. I express my appreciation and gratitude to the local population and to the institutions for their solidarity and welcome to our brothers and sisters". 

The Roman Pontiff then renewed his "appeal that such tragedies not be repeated, that the traffickers of people be stopped, and that they not continue to dispose of the lives of people, of so many people, that the journey of hope not be transformed into the journey of death, that the waters of the Mediterranean not be bloodied by these dramatic incidents. May the Lord give us the strength to understand and to mourn".

It is a message that Pope Francis has launched on numerous occasions, for example on the Greek island of Lesbos, on his apostolic journey to Greece and Cyprus, and in so many other places.

The Holy Father then spent some time in silent reflection and prayer, and then went on to greet Romans and pilgrims from Italy and many other countries. In particular, the Holy Father addressed the Ukrainian community of Milan, which has made a pilgrimage to Rome "on the occasion of the fourth centenary of the martyrdom of Bishop St. Josaphat, who gave his life for the unity of Christians". The Pope thanked them for their "commitment to welcome" and asked that "the Lord, through the intercession of St. Josaphat, may give peace to the martyred people of Ukraine".

The Holy Father also greeted pilgrims from Lithuania, who are celebrating St. Casimir, and communities from Zaragoza and Murcia, and from Burkina Faso, among others. 

With Jesus, "the luminous beauty of love".

In this Angelus of the Second Sunday of Lent, which proclaims the Gospel of the Transfiguration, Pope Francis said that "it is by being with Jesus that we learn to recognize, in his face, the luminous beauty of self-giving love, even when it bears the marks of the cross," and to "grasp the same beauty in the faces" of others."

"Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him on the mountain and reveals himself to them in all his beauty as the Son of God (cf. Mt 17:1-9)," the Pope began. "Let us ask ourselves: In what does this beauty consist, what do the disciples see, a special effect? No, it is not that. They see the light of God's holiness shining on the face and in the garments of Jesus, the perfect image of the Father." 

And then he commented: "But God is Love, and therefore the disciples have seen with their eyes the beauty and splendor of divine Love incarnate in Christ, a foretaste of paradise. What a surprise for the disciples! They had had the face of Love under their eyes for so long and had not realized how beautiful it was! Only now do they realize it, with immense joy."

"The school of Jesus".

"This Gospel also traces for us a path: it teaches us how important it is to be with Jesus, even when it is not easy to understand everything he says and what he does for us." 

"It is by being with him, in fact, that we learn to recognize, in his face, the luminous beauty of self-giving love, even when it bears the marks of the cross," Pope Francis said. "And it is at his school that we learn to grasp the same beauty in the faces of the people who every day walk alongside us: family members, friends, colleagues, those who in various ways care for us. How many luminous faces, how many smiles, how many wrinkles, how many tears and scars speak of love all around us!" 

"Let us learn to recognize them and fill our hearts with them," the Pope encouraged. "And then let us set out, to bring the light we have received also to others, with the concrete works of love (cf. 1 Jn 3:18), immersing ourselves more generously in daily tasks, loving, serving and forgiving with more enthusiasm and availability." 

Francis suggested carrying out a little examination of conscience, as follows: "We can ask ourselves: do we know how to recognize the light of God's love in our lives? Do we recognize it with joy and gratitude in the faces of the people who love us? Do we look around us for the signs of this light, which fills our hearts and opens them to love and service? Or do we prefer the straw fires of idols, which alienate us and close us in on ourselves?" 

"The beauty of Jesus gives them strength."

"Jesus, in reality, with this experience is forming them, he is preparing them for an even more important step. From there in a short time, in fact, they will have to know how to recognize in him the same beauty, when he ascends to the cross and his face is disfigured," the Pope added. 

"Peter finds it hard to understand," he continued. "I would like to stop time, to put the scene on "pause," to be there and extend this wonderful experience; but Jesus does not allow it. His light, in fact, cannot be reduced to a "magic moment". Then it would become something false, artificial, which dissolves in the fog of passing feelings." 

In conclusion, the Holy Father pointed out that "on the contrary, Christ is the light that guides the way, like the pillar of fire for the people in the desert (cf. Ex 13:21). The beauty of Jesus does not turn the disciples away from the reality of life, but gives them the strength to follow him to Jerusalem, to the Cross. May Mary, who guarded the light of her Son in her heart even in the darkness of Calvary, accompany us always on the way of love.

"To achieve an overall vision that embraces Christian existence in its complexity". This is how Romano Guardini explains the meaning of "Freedom, Grace, Destiny," one of his most significant studies. And it is not by chance that Jorge Mario Bergoglio draws much of his magisterium from the Italian thinker and theologian, now Servant of God, to the point of "attributing" to him the interpretative approach of his first Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii GaudiumThe magna carta of his entire pontificate.

In the document, Pope Francis quotes Pope Benedict himself as saying Guardini when he asks how to evaluate the processes that build a people: "The only model for successfully evaluating an epoch is to ask to what extent the fullness of human existence develops in it and attains an authentic raison d'être, in accordance with the particular character and possibilities of the epoch itself" (EG, 222).

These premises open the way to a clear and understandable interpretation of what society is for Pope Francis. He explains Massimiliano PadulaThe sociologist of cultural and communicative processes at the Pastoral Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University, interviewed on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the pontificate of the Argentine Pope.

In your opinion, is it possible to sketch a kind of "sociology of Pope Francis" in these ten years?

-I respond by quoting Romano Guardini and his study "The End of the Modern Age" which, in a way, anticipated the current debate on postmodernity and secularization. Although he was not a sociologist, Guardini outlined sociohistorical categories that have long been at the center of the research of general sociologists and, in particular, those of religion. Pope Francis follows this line, guided (like Guardini) by the light of faith. But he does more: he directs his gaze to the problems of today, incarnated in collective and individual lives.

Can you give us an example?

-Enough to read Laudato si' to understand the extent to which Bergoglio uses a "sociological gaze" to analyze society (he calls it the "human family"). In the Encyclical he highlights the environment as a social fact that generates changes, often not very encouraging for integral human development.

He also manages to capture some of the most urgent instances of our time: among them, acceleration, which he indicates with the Spanish word "rapidación". And which refers to the study by German sociologists Hartmut Rosa and William E. Scheuerman entitled "The high-speed society", a configuration of society which, on the one hand improves our quality of life, and on the other creates new forms of marginalization and exclusion.

In fact, marginalization and exclusion are at the center of the Argentine Pontiff's reflections...

-Of course. They are two interpretative categories of an increasingly stratified, complex and unequal existence. The marginalized and excluded are the poor, the immigrants, the elderly and the sick. But not only. Marginalization and exclusion affect all individuals, all social groups, all micro and macro organizations. It is that of the heart, or rather indifference, which constitutes antisocial and disruptive behavior.

Francis intercepts its various manifestations when, for example, he speaks of a "throwaway culture". But he does not limit himself to a simple diagnosis: he helps us to understand how to fill the gaps, to act and behave with a view to a truly common good.

Apostolic journeys to border areas and countries stricken by war and misery, appeals for peace, the shift from a spatial logic to a processual one, ecumenical dialogue, the proposal of a global educational pact, are some of the signs of his social therapy.

We could say - paraphrasing the characteristics of sociological science - that the Bergoglian magisterium encompasses a descriptive function (providing the keys to access the world) and a prescriptive one (sharing objectives and codes of conduct).

In your opinion, how can sociology relate to Catholicism in the future?

-I believe that their relationship will have to be played out more and more in terms of reciprocity. Sociology will only be able to help religion if the latter is able to rethink itself in the light of society and its changes.

This does not mean abandoning oneself to a sterile relativism, but understanding that social reality is "ontologically" provisional and must be read and lived as such. When Francis insists on abandoning the logic of "it has always been done this way" (he calls it "indietrism"), he demonstrates that he understands well the processes of social morphogenetics.

Among these, two seem to me to be particularly prospective for socio-religious reflection and research in the present and the future. The first is the displacement of the center of gravity of Christianity from a Europe "sick with fatigue" to a southern part of the world that, despite its many problems, demonstrates a fruitful spirituality. The other is the process of personalization of the faith which, while distancing it from tradition, offers new opportunities for evangelization and for vital and creative pastoral care.

In his last audience, before beginning his Lenten spiritual exercises, the Pope spoke of the threat of ideologies explaining that ideologies try to make the Church a political party.

Pope Francis' constant warnings against ideologies have a common thread: instead of getting lost in them, the Church must focus on its mission in the world.

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Related"Form together to evangelize. Report of Roman Pontifical Universities and InstitutionsUniversities, places of openness and peace-building

Commit yourselves to "make a choir! This is what Pope Francis said this morning, receiving in Audience in the Paul VI Hall thousands of students, professors, employees and Rectors of the Roman Pontifical Universities and Institutions belonging to the Pontifical Council for the Laity. CRUIPRO Rectors' Conference.

A "pluriform system of ecclesiastical studies," the Holy Father defined it, which for centuries has accompanied the Church in her evangelizing mission, seeking to intercept and discern the signs of the times and the different cultural traditions.

Concord and consonance

The Pontiff's main concern was to reiterate - in these academies of higher studies - the importance of agreement and consonance "between different voices and instruments", in line also with what St. John Paul II said in his letter to the Pope. John Henry Newman on the university environment: a place "where knowledge and perspectives are expressed in harmony, complement, correct and balance each other," the Pope said.

Cultivating the intelligence of the hands

A harmony that can be achieved by learning to cultivate, for example, the "intelligence of the hands", the most sensory, from which thought and knowledge start, until they mature mutually. It is not by chance that with the hands," Francis reflected, "we 'grasp' and - playing with similar concepts that lend themselves to the Italian language and other neo-Latin languages - we stimulate the mind to 'understand', 'learn', even allowing ourselves to be 'surprised'.

To achieve this, however, we need hands that are neither stingy - 'closed' - nor 'wasteful of time, health and talents' - 'leaky' - or even that refuse to 'give peace, greet and shake other hands'. All attitudes far removed from the possibility of learning and surprise, all the more so if those same hands "have their fingers mercilessly pointed" at those who do wrong or even "do not know how to join together" to reserve moments of prayer.

Harmony in ourselves

"Hands", rather, that must imitate those of Christ, become "Eucharistic" - Pope Francis added - because in this way they will know how to make "harmony in ourselves", amalgamating together with the other two "intelligences that vibrate in the human soul", that of the mind and that of the heart.

This harmony must also be sought within individual communities and among the various institutions that make up the "Pontifical Roman Pontifical Institutes," which the Pope called to "open themselves to courageous and, if necessary, even unprecedented developments." This, certainly, starting from the richness of a secular tradition and always finding the way to "favor the transmission of evangelical joy" in study, teaching and research, overcoming self-referentiality or the spirit of conservation.

Never soloists without a choir

The final invitation of the Pontiff, echoing the image of the choir, was to "never be soloists without a choir", but to think and live academia and research with "constructive complementarity", remaining "docile to the living action of the Spirit", because after all "hope is a choral reality".

Spirit of unity

Luis NavarroPresident of Cruipro and Rector of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, brought greetings on behalf of the 22 Roman Pontifical Universities and Institutions, and reaffirmed the importance of the spirit of union with which these ecclesiastical academic realities are conducting their steps, in the context of the new stage of the Church's mission in today's society.

Report 2022

In anticipation of the desire to "make chorus" expressed by Pope Francis at the Audience, in recent days in Rome a ".unified "report" of the Universities and Institutions The Roman Pontifical Councils, from which emerges a true "cultural laboratory", diversified but animated by the same evangelizing commitment, which wants to measure itself against the challenges and needs of an effective epochal change - as Pope Francis often evokes - that also requires the effort of "a courageous cultural revolution" (Laudato si', 114).

The Roman Pontifical Universities and Institutions currently number 22, distributed in various districts of the City of Rome; the oldest University dates back to 1551 - Pontifical Gregorian Universityentrusted to the Jesuits -, while the youngest one dates from 1984 -, and the most recent - Pontifical University of the Holy Crossentrusted to the Prelature of Opus Dei. There are also 2 Athenaeums, 4 Faculties and 9 Institutes. These academic centers welcome each year about 16,000 students from 125 countries and grant more than 3,000 academic degrees, thanks to the work of no less than 2,000 professors and 450 employees.

Related"Form together to evangelize. Report of Roman Pontifical Universities and InstitutionsUniversities, places of openness and peace-building