Vatican Congress - A Marist Sister meets Pope Francis!

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09/11/2017 - Italy

Re-thinking Europe

Monica O'Brien of the Unit of England was one of eight delegates
invited by the Conference of Bishops of England and Wales
to take part in the congress ‘re-thinking Europe’
which took place in the Vatican from 27 – 30th October 2017.

Monica writes:

For me, the highlight of the Congress was our session with Pope Francis! During it he shared with us a veritable agenda to enable a new start for Europe and the role of the Church in its unfolding.

“Now is not the time to dig trenches” he said, “but instead to work courageously to realise the founding fathers’ dream of a united and harmonious Europe, a community of peoples who desire to share in a future of development and peace”.

Pope Francis went on to list the values to be upheld and cherished if that dream is to be realised:

Care for the most vulnerable as against the ‘Me First!' mentality
Promotion of human rights as against nationalism
Tolerance of diversity as against dogmatism
Integral human development as against capitalism …

Thank you, Monica! We are thrilled you could be there. Now it remains for each of us to do what we can to uphold and cherish the values put before us by Pope Francis - they are so clearly what Mary would be on about in today's world.

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