Most Reverend Father, dear brothers,
I am pleased to send you this message on the occasion of your 140th General Chapter. I address a special greeting to the Superior General of the Order and the Councilors.
You have chosen as the theme for your work the motto: “Courage, no fear! You have offered yourselves to Christ. Witness and fraternity.” It refers to the words in which the prophet Haggai encouraged Zerubbabel, Joshua and all the people of Israel who had returned from exile to rebuild the Temple of the Lord [cf. Hag 2:4-5]. He then also recalls the contents of a letter from St. Jerome Emiliani, in which he, addressing some of the brethren, reminded them of the commitments of their consecration and urged them not to give in to the temptations of relaxation and mediocrity (cf. Letter to Ludovico Viscardi in Bergamo, Somasca, January 11, 1537).
More than two millennia after the Prophet’s time, and about five centuries after the Founder’s, this dual message remains valid: do not be discouraged and do not let go, for the Lord continues to call and sustain! However, the challenges are changing, and so I would like to take this opportunity to reflect with you on two of them: inculturation and mission.
Inculturation. With so many years of history behind it, the Order of Clerics Regular of Somasca today presents itself as a large international and multicultural family, in which diversities are harmonized and united by the same charism and common vocation. This makes you a mirror of a world, ours, increasingly characterized by the enriching interaction of civilizations and traditions, in which people move around and meet each other much more than in the past, “a society which, sometimes without realizing it, has a deep yearning for a fraternity without frontiers” [St. John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation Vita consecrata, 85). Unfortunately, there is no shortage of serious and painful contradictions: for example, there are those who can afford to travel comfortably for the pleasure of knowing and exploring, and those who are forced to do so in appalling conditions because of the desperate need to survive.
In this reality, which is rich in both opportunities and problems, your presence of communities in which we welcome each other as God’s gift for the growth and good of all, is a prophetic sign and a powerful Gospel proclamation. And precisely so that this message grows and resonates loudly, I encourage you to cultivate among your- selves and with everyone a style of fraternity: to receive with love and openness those who arrive and to approach with humility, respect, and gratitude the realities to which you are sent. Only in this way, wherever you work, can you build – and, where necessary, rebuild – the “temple of the Lord,” as a place of peace [cf. Hag 2:9] and a home for all peoples [cf. Is 56:7]. Here, then, are four important ways of inculturation for your journey: welcome, value, respect and love.
And we come to the second point: mission. From the very beginnings of his work, St. Jerome experienced service to the needy as an opportunity to offer them, along with material assistance and intellectual formation, the proclamation of the Gospel and the gift of grace, turning in particular to the poorest of the poor: orphans, street boys and girls, the “incurable,” the plague-ridden. You were born as missionaries for the redemption and salvation of the least of these, and there is no time, no people or human reality that does not have its poverty. We see it all around us, too, in a range of miseries from the need for justice and redemption of those deprived of the necessities, afflicted by hunger and war, to the desperate loneliness of those who have too much but have lost the meaning of life, as is often the case in so-called “developed” countries.
Wherever Providence sends you, then, I encourage you to be true “missionary servants of the poor,” as your name implies, attentive in listening and diligent in responding, taking charge of the needs of the people the Lord places in your path. And to this end I encourage you to accept the Church’s invitation to religious to “reflect on their own charisms and traditions, in order to put them […] at the service of the new frontiers of evangelization” [CIVCSVA, Starting Afresh from Christ, May 19, 2002, 36].
Dearly beloved, as I thank you for the much work you do, I entrust you to the intercession of Mary Mother of Orphans, imparting on all of you, on the Order and on the people connected to it the Apostolic Blessing. And I commend you: do not forget to pray for me.
Rome, Policlinico Gemelli, March 5, 2025
Francis