APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS TO LUXEMBOURG AND BELGIUM

Your Royal Highnesses, Mr Prime Minister, Distinguished Representatives of Civil Society, Esteemed Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Eminences!
I am pleased to make this visit to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and I thank Your Royal Highness and the Prime Minister most sincerely for the cordial expressions of welcome you have extended to me. I am likewise grateful for the welcome given by the members of the Grand Duke’s family.
Because of its particular geographical ...

Words of His Holiness Pope Francis after the Testimonies at the Meeting with the Catholic Community
 
I would like to take up what you said about the drama of migration.  Let us not forget a refrain that in the Bible, in the Old Testament, appears again and again: the widow, the orphan and the stranger.
Already in the Old Testament, the Lord says ‘have compassion on those who have been abandoned’. In those times, widows were abandoned, orphans too, and so were foreigners and ...

Your Majesty, Mr Prime Minister, Brother Bishops, Distinguished Authorities, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I thank Your Majesty for your cordial welcome and kind words of greeting. I am very pleased to be visiting Belgium. When I think of this country, what comes to mind is something small yet great; a country in the west that at the same time is also at the centre, as if Belgium were the beating heart of an enormous organism.
Indeed, it would be a mistake to judge the quality of a country by its ...

Distinguished Rector, Esteemed Professors, Dear brothers and sisters, good afternoon!
I am pleased to be here among you. I thank the Rector for his words of welcome in which he reflected on the tradition and historical roots of the University, and on the principal challenges we all face today. Indeed, the first task of a university is to offer integral formation so that students may be equipped with the tools needed for interpreting the present and planning for the future.
Yet cultural ...

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
I am happy to be here with you. I thank Archbishop Terlinden for his words and for reminding us of the importance of proclaiming the Gospel. Thanks to all of you.
Belgium is very much a crossroads, and you are a Church “on the move”. Indeed, for some time you have been trying to transform the presence of the parishes in this region, and to reinvigorate the formation of the laity. Above all, you strive to be a community that is close to the people, and ...

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Thank you, Madame Rector, for your kind words. Dear students, I am pleased to meet you and listen to your reflections. I can sense in your words passion and hope, a desire for justice and the search for truth.
Among the issues you raised, I was struck by the one concerning the future and anxiety. It is easy to see how a violent and arrogant wickedness is destroying people and the environment. It seems to know no limits and is most brutally expressed by ...

“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea” (Mk 9:42). With these words, directed to the disciples, Jesus warns of the danger of scandal, that is, of hindering the path and hurting the lives of the “little ones”. It is a stern warning that calls us to pause and reflect. I would like to do so with you, in the light of the other Sacred Texts, by ...

I thank the Archbishop for his kind words. I express heartfelt gratitude to Their Majesties the King and Queen, as well as to Their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, for their presence and hospitality in these days.
Likewise, I extend my gratitude to all who, in many ways, have worked together to organize this Visit. In a special way, I thank the elderly and the sick who have offered their prayers.
Today we are celebrating the World Day of Migrants and Refugees ...