Pope Francis met with local church groups at Nur-Sultan Cathedral and encouraged them to cooperate with people of different faiths and work together for a cause that benefits everyone. The Pope also encouraged them to give more space to the laity, admonishing priests that “pastors should be close to the people, not the gendarmerie who only cares whether religious norms are being followed”.
(Vatican News Network)The first public event of Pope Francis’ visit to Kazakhstan on September 15 was to receive bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, seminarians and pastoral workers of Kazakhstan at the Cathedral of Nur-Sultan. The Pope urged local churches not to fall into corruption and falsehoods, but to give laymen more space to avoid falling into “clericalism”.
a musician’s family
Pope Francis arrived in the cathedral in a wheelchair to meet the local church community amid applause, flowers, and music played by violin, flute, harp and dombra. The music was performed by a large family of musicians in fur headdresses and traditional costumes. There were 23 people in total, including three biological children. The rest were adopted, including a girl who overcame a disability through music.
The allure of retreat
Pope Francis recalls the beginnings of Christianity in Central Asia, where many evangelists and missionaries shed light on the Gospel, founding communities, places of pilgrimage, monasteries and worship in the first centuries place. “During our spiritual and ecclesiastical journey, we must never forget those who preach the faith to us,” the Pope said. “However, we must be careful not to look backward with nostalgia, still dwelling on the past, allowing ourselves Paralyzed by stagnation: this is the lure of retreatism.”
Faith, an event that is always relevant
What the Pope is talking about is a “living memory” without which faith, devotion and pastoral activities “are in danger of receding, like straw, burning quickly and extinguishing at once”. “When we lose our memory, we run out of joy. We also lose our gratitude to God and our brothers and sisters, because we fall into the temptation to think that everything is up to us”. Looking at the legacy of the past, the Pope added, we see that “faith is not a set of things to understand and do, passed on from generation to generation as a once-and-for-all fixed code. No, faith needs to be passed on with life”. Therefore, “faith is not a beautiful display of things from the past, but an event that is always present”.
smallness and dialogue
Faced with the many challenges of faith, as well as the difficulties and hardships of life, looking at our numbers, you may feel “small” and “insufficient” in such a vast country. And the Gospels just subvert the logic of numbers. The Pope said: “It is a blessing to be a small man, a poor man.” The Pope pointed out that our small number also reminds us that “we cannot be self-sufficient”; that is, we need God and others, including brothers and sisters of other faiths, and everyone of good will. “Only by working together, in dialogue and mutual acceptance, can we truly make a cause that benefits everyone.”
“This is the special mission of the Church in this country,” said the Pope: “Don’t think of yourself as just a group doing things according to the old rules, or feel small and shut yourself in a nutshell, but become a future to God. An open community, ignited by the fire of the Holy Spirit.”
More space for lay people
The Pope also urged everyone to give the laity more room to play. “It’s good for you, so that groups don’t become rigid and dogmatic,” the Pope said. “On the way to a future led by the Holy Spirit, a Church that walks together is a Church that is engaged and responsible. It is a Church that can go out to meet the world because she is in communion,” said the Pope Get trained. “
Therefore, the Pope invites everyone to “become men and women of communion and peace, sowing good wherever they are”. People who practice and deliver joy, reject “fear and complaining,” and are not “stified by dogmatism and moralism.”
At the end of his speech, Pope Francis recalled the Blessed Father Bukovinsky, noting that he spent his life caring for the sick, the poor and the marginalized, paying prison terms and forced labor for his fidelity to the Gospel. The Pope also mentioned the Greek-Catholic martyrs Bishop Budka, Fr Zaritsky and Fr Gertrude Dezer, whose ordination process has already begun.
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