Stay Hopeful!

THE ENTIRE world was focussed on Brazil this summer. Stunning images of Pope Francis greeting millions of young people at World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro – under the outstretched arms of Jesus on Corcovado mountain – were broadcast around the globe. More than 3.5 million young people attended the Night Vigil and Final Mass on Copacabana Beach.

Everything about Brazil is big. Brazil is the largest country in South America. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, with a coastline of 7,492km, Brazil is bordered by ten of Latin America’s twelve countries, occupying nearly half the continent. This economic giant, one of the world’s biggest democracies, is the world’s fifth largest country, both in geographical area and population. It also has the largest Catholic community in the world. Out of 193 million people, nearly 65 percent of Brazilians are baptised. But there are also massive problems of poverty and inequality. Brazil’s huge rainforests in Amazonia – the lungs of the world, are threatened by deforestation and development. 

Christianity was brought to Brazil by Portuguese Jesuit missionaries. According to tradition, the first Mass there was celebrated on Easter Sunday in 1500. By 1551 the first diocese was established. The missionaries set about converting the indigenous population and also giving them the chance of a good education and teaching them many practical skills including music, sculpture, carpentry and printing. This approach set them against the government who wanted to use the natives as cheap or slave labour. In 1782 the Jesuits were expelled from Brazil although the country remained officially Catholic. Since the Constitution of 1891, the government has been secular, but the Church remained an important influence on policies. In the late 19th and 20th centuries the Catholic population was reinforced by an influx of Italian, Polish and German Catholic migrants. In recent years however, the Evangelical churches have been making many converts, while the government has been introducing more and more secular legislation including legalising abortion and gay marriage. 

In May 2007, Pope Benedict visit Brazil and canonised the country’s first native-born saint, Friar Antonio Galvao, who lived from 1739 to 1822. Pope Benedict praised St. Antonio’s life of simplicity and concern for the poor, “in an age so full of hedonism.” At the Canonisation Mass there were prayers for the dawn of a new era for the Church in Brazil. Judging by the crowds who greeted Pope Francis this summer, those prayers are bearing fruit.

 

Francis’ first trip

 

In his five day visit, the first overseas trip of his pontificate, Pope Francis received a tumultuous welcome. During an intensive schedule he reached out to people from all walks of life – meeting Church, political, civic, arts and sports leaders, as well as visiting prisoners, the sick, the poor and the elderly, and finally millions of World Youth Day pilgrims. 

On his first day, Pope Francis visited one of the most important shrines in Latin America, Our Lady of Aparecida. During his homily there, he urged Catholics to keep their values of faith, generosity and fraternity. “It is true that nowadays, to some extent, everyone feels attracted by the many idols which take the place of God and appear to offer hope: money, success, power, pleasure,” he said. 

The Church in Latin America is struggling to keep Catholics from straying to evangelical Churches that often promise material wealth. Teacher Marcia Cecilia de Souza, who was at Aparecida, said: “I’ve seen people in my own congregation leave because the evangelicals offer them something new and exciting, while the Catholic Church was seen as kind of old and stuffy.” But she said, “Francis is such an inspiration, so humble and giving, I think he’s going to bring people back into the fold.”

 

Knock on every door

 

Back in Rio, Pope Francis visited a hospital for recovering drug addicts. Before he spoke, several patients stood up and told their stories. Pope Francis listened intently and gave each person a hug. He then blasted the ‘dealers of death’ who sell drugs, and said the scourge of drug-trafficking requires of society “an act of courage.” Addiction would not be reduced by liberalising drug laws, rather, he said, it was important to confront the problems that lead people to drugs in the first place.

Next day Pope Francis went to one of the largest favelas in the city. After the official welcomes and prayers in the parish church, he visited one family in their home. Pope Francis told them, “I would have liked to knock on every door, to say ‘good morning,’ to ask for a glass of cold water, to take a cafezinho… to speak as one would to family friends, to listen to each person pouring out his or her heart… but Brazil is so vast! It is impossible to knock on every door!” 

Pope Francis again thanked all Brazilians for welcoming him with “such love, generosity, and joy.” He remarked that when we are “generous in welcoming people and sharing… not only do we no longer remain poor: we are enriched.”

The Pope then spoke of the importance of integrating all members of society, saying, “We must never allow the throwaway culture to enter our hearts, because we are brothers and sisters. No one is disposable! The measure of the greatness of a society is found in the way it treats those most in need, those who have nothing apart from their poverty!”

 

No liquidised faith

 

That day Pope Francis added an extra visit to the official programme, going to Rio Cathedral to greet an exuberant crowd of young Argentinians. He told them, “I want the Church to go out into the streets, I want us to defend ourselves against all worldliness, opposition to progress, from that which is comfortable, from that which is clericalism, from all that which means being closed up in ourselves. Parishes, schools, institutions are made in order to come out… if they do not do this, they become a non-governmental organisation, and the Church must not be an NGO.”

The Holy Father criticised modern society which he said excludes the elderly with a kind of “cultural euthanasia” and neglects the young – so many of whom are unemployed. He went on, “It is a scandal that God made Himself one of us. It is a scandal that he died on a cross… but it is the only sure path: the Cross, the path of Jesus, the incarnation of Jesus. Please, do not ‘liquidise’ your faith in Jesus Christ. We liquidise oranges, apples, bananas, but please – do not drink liquidised faith. Do not neglect the elderly or the young.”

 

On the Cross

 

Arriving at Copacabana beach on Friday evening, Pope Francis was greeting by huge crowds. Walking on stage he asked 35 unemployed Argentine ‘cartoneros’ to join him there. These young people once had regular jobs, but are now forced to live with 100,000 others in the Argentine favelas, surviving by rummaging through rubbish dumps.

A dramatic Stations of the Cross, re-enacted by artists and volunteers that evening, took place on the beachfront promenade of Viale Atlantico. Pope Francis told the crowds, “No one can approach and touch the Cross of Jesus without leaving something of himself or herself there, and without bringing something of the Cross of Jesus into his or her own life.” 

“On the Cross, Jesus is united with every person who suffers from hunger in a world where on the other side we permit ourselves the luxury of throwing away tons of food each day.

“On the Cross, Jesus is united with the many mothers and fathers who suffer, seeing their children become victims of the artificial paradise offered by drugs.

“On the Cross, Jesus is united with those who are persecuted for their religion, for their beliefs or simply for the colour of their skin; on the Cross, Jesus is united with so many young people who have lost faith in political institutions, because they see in them only selfishness and corruption; he unites himself with those young people who have lost faith in the Church, or even in God because of the counter-witness of Christians and ministers of the Gospel. 

“The Cross of Christ bears the suffering and the sin of mankind, including our own. Jesus accepts all this with open arms, bearing on His shoulders our crosses and saying to us: ‘Have courage! You do not carry your cross alone! I carry it with you. I have overcome death and I have come to give you hope, to give you life.’”

 

Rebuilding the Church

 

An estimated three and a half million young people camped in tents and sleeping bags on Copacabana Beach for the Night Vigil before the final morning Mass. In his final homily, Pope Francis urged pilgrims not to be part-time Christians, but to lead full, meaningful lives. Recalling the story of Saint Francis of Assisi who heard the voice of Jesus saying to him, “Francis, go, rebuild my house”, Pope Francis said, “Today too, as always, the Lord needs you, young people, for his Church. Today too, he is calling each of you to follow him and to be missionaries.”

 

New Springtime

 

Francis concluded, “Dear friends, never forget… You are Christ’s athletes! You are called to build a more beautiful Church and a better world. Let us lift our gaze to Our Lady. Mary helps us to follow Jesus, she gives us the example by her own ‘yes’ to God: ‘I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me as you say’.

In his farewell speech at Rio’s Galeao Airport, Pope Francis thanked everyone for making that week “a splendid celebration of the richness and joy of our faith in Jesus Christ”. He told the young people, “Many of you came here as disciples. I have no doubt that all of you will leave as missionaries.”

He urged them to help build a civilization of love: “Show, by your life, that it is worth giving your time and talents in order to attain high ideals; it is worth recognizing the dignity of each human person, and it is worth taking risks for Christ and the Gospel.”

“I will always place my hopes in the young people of Brazil,” Pope Francis said, “and in the young around the world: through them, Christ is preparing a new springtime all over the earth.”