Currents News Staff

During his General Audience, Pope Francis spoke of his trip to Kazakhstan where he participated in the Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. He said that the gathering and its final document is “one more step forward on the path of inter-religious dialogue.”

The Pope also discussed his meeting with Kazakhstan’s Catholic community, which he said is a “small yet faithful flock, fortified by the example of its saints, especially during the years of persecution.”

SUMMARY OF THE POPE’S CATECHESIS IN ENGLISH:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Following my recent Apostolic Journey to Kazakhstan, I once more express my gratitude to the President of the Republic, the civil authorities, Bishops and lay faithful, and the many volunteers for their warm welcome. The primary purpose of my visit was to attend the Seventh Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, whose aim is to promote peace and human fraternity in our world. This gathering, together with its Final Declaration, is one more step forward on the path of inter-religious dialogue, and continues a journey that began with the historic meeting in Assisi in 1986.

This path also includes the Document on Human Fraternity signed in Abu Dhabi in 2019. When speaking of these noble efforts, we must also remember the many martyrs of diverse nationalities and backgrounds who have borne faithful witness in their daily lives to God’s desire for peace and fraternity among his children. In addition to encouraging the nation in its vocation as a Country of Encounter, I was able to meet members of the local Church. This small yet faithful flock, fortified by the example of its saints, especially during the years of persecution, is open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, it was fitting that we could celebrate Mass together on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, an instrument of suffering and death turned into the ultimate sign of hope and salvation. Let us pray that God will abundantly bless the people of Kazakhstan and the life of the pilgrim Church in that land.

Currents News Staff

During his General Audience, Pope Francis shared what his envoy to Ukraine, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, has seen in the country. He was visibly moved and worried.

“Yesterday he called me. He is spending time there helping around Odessa and nearby. He told me of the pain of these people. The savagery, the monstrosities, the tortured bodies they find. We join ourselves to this noble and martyred people,” said Pope Francis.

During the audience, the Pope recalled his trip to Kazakhstan to participate in a congress with interfaith leaders. There, he signed its final declaration which asks the international community to commit itself to peace and condemned religious extremism—efforts Pope Francis says the Church has long supported.

“I like to see this as a step forward, a fruit of a path that began long ago. Naturally, I think of the historic interfaith meeting for peace called for by Saint John Paul II in Assisi in 1986,” said the Holy Father.

The Pope also spoke of his meeting with Kazakhstan’s Catholic community, a land of martyrs that suffered greatly under the Soviet regime, and which remains very small, despite now living in peace.

“Catholics are few in this vast country, but this condition, when lived with faith, can bear evangelical fruits. Above all, the beatitude of smallness, of being yeast, salt and light, depending only on the Lord and not on any human strength,” he continued.

After the audience, the crowd fell silent to listen to members of the Croatian navy who sang Marian hymns before the Pope greeted the crowds.