Dear brother, ladies and gentlemen,

In welcoming you in this house of the Apostle, I wanted to join in your thanksgiving for the sixty years of service in charity in the Church of Toledo. A commitment that, as I have been able to observe, goes well beyond the concrete good that can be done for a person, accepting the challenge of being a motor of change in society through the spread of the spirit of charity and justice, to reawaken a more fraternal conscience in all people of good will. Or rather, our fraternity sometimes wanes or does not grow. And when one fosters a more fraternal conscience, it is to reawaken it and make it grow.

In so doing, you are not only an example of civic-mindedness and philanthropy, but you also become instruments of evangelization, through the universal language of works of charity. It is curious: works of charity do not need a translator, there is no dictionary to translate the universal language of works of charity, everyone understands it. Because it is a language understood by everyone, written with the testimony and effort of all Caritas agents, committed to Jesus Christ and his Gospel.

A goal, undoubtedly a lofty one, which is achieved through the craftsmanship of each and every one of those responsible for social and charitable action, starting with a human and spiritual formation that enables them to deal firmly with ever-changing social problems in the light of the Social Doctrine of the Church, without forgetting the spirit of collaboration and synodality with the many pastoral realities that make up the diocesan Church as a whole.

SIsters, brothers, I encourage you to go forward in this endeavour, always learning from the Lord, in the living book of prayer and in the reading of his Word, in the living book of the experience of the sacraments and attentive listening to the voice of his pastors and his presence in the Eucharist and in those you serve. One thing I ask of you is to be teachers of that wisdom the world so greatly needs. Foolishness is shocking: foolishnes is bought and sold, and not at bargain prices, sale prices; they are high prices, steep prices. And please, I ask you to pray for me.

May Jesus, in every person who has nowhere to lay his or her head, bless you, and may the Holy Virgin, in those who have not found someone to take them in, accompany you always.

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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 5 December 2024