Pope Francis: Christian vocation is to build bridges

Reflecting themes he has emphasized throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis participated Feb. 24 in a webinar with university students from North, Central and South America to discuss Building Bridges North-South.

“This is the Christian vocation, to build bridges. Christ came to be the bridge between God the Father and us. If a Christian does not build bridges, it means they forgot their own baptism, because to build bridges is part of our vocation,” the pope said in his opening remarks for the session.

In the encounter, the pope dialogued with 16 university students in four groups of four, who made presentations on migration, the environment and nonviolence. Pope Francis responded to each group, and could be seen on the video taking copious notes as the students spoke.

The session, sponsored by Loyola University Chicago and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, was interpreted and captioned in English, Spanish and Portuguese. The pope spoke in Spanish.

The session was organized by the Institute of Pastoral Studies, Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage, and the Department of Theology at Loyola University Chicago, a Jesuit university. More than 130 students from 58 universities in 21 countries participated in the discussions in seven regional groups that were held over the last several weeks to prepare for the dialogue with Pope Francis. 

The session also included a welcome message from Cardinal Blase Cupich, archbishop of Chicago, who said the spirit of synodality is uniquely alive in the hearts and minds of young people. 

“Only a synodal vision – rooted in discernment, conversion and reform at every level – can bring to the church the comprehensive action in the defense of the most vulnerable in our midst to which God’s grace is forming us,” the cardinal said.

The pope said universities play an important role in solutions to the problems facing the world. Universities, with a range of disciplines and influence nourish the minds of students with concepts and ideas. 

However, he noted, “A man or woman who just fills their mind with concepts, eventually they are cold, they are heartless, because they have this only in their mind. But university students must follow their studies … so they merge their heart and their hands.

“Formation for students must be lively,” Pope Francis said. “Those who are quiet and who do not have initiatives, they are without soul. … Maybe you get it wrong, but you have to express your concerns that you have within you.”

The pope said he likes to talk to young people, because it makes him feel younger.

The program, scheduled to last an hour, ran for almost two hours. As groups of four students and scholars including representatives from the South and the North were introduced to the pope, they presented their topics in about 90 seconds each. Some of the students asked the pope for his support or advice on how to move forward with their concept, including a request that he make such a dialogue with college students a new tradition for popes. He responded to them by name, referring to points they had made.

In his response to the first group, he noted that the students had several times used the word roots in their discussion about migration issues.

“Everyone takes their energy from the roots,” Francis said, noting that his own family had immigrated to Argentina from Italy when his father was in his 20s. He noted that those who did not learn the language of their new country did not do well.

“They have to learn the language without losing their roots,” he said, adding, “We cannot integrate the migrant by making them forget about their roots.”

In his opening remarks, he said, “Migrants must be received, accompanied, promoted, integrated.” Referring to many nations, he said, “We are countries built by immigrants. My land, Argentina is a cocktail of migrants.”

Another group talked to the pope about poverty and food insecurity, which often forces people to leave their homes, their land and their cultural roots. The students proposed a program to help people remain in place, creating “centers of permanence” which would act as research hubs for technologies and initiatives for sustainable development.

Another student noted that based on an analysis, no U.S. diocese has committed to carbon neutrality and that bishops and priests don’t discuss climate change regularly.

Another student urged more centers to train people on nonviolent direct action to address the climate crisis.

The pope responded to these concerns by saying, “You propose a harmony with nature. Violence always destroys nature, never builds it up. Nonviolence is based on dialogue and respect. …

“We must act in such a way that people don’t have a desire to migrate. They should be able to remain in a good life in harmony with nature. When there is violence, there is no life,” he said.

He recalled a Spanish proverb: “God forgives always, we forgive sometimes, nature never forgives.”

The pope added, “If we destroy nature, then we create a chain of violence.”

A third group of students brought to the pope ideas about pastors not being close to their people; about collaboration and health care, especially in light of the pandemic; and noting the inhumane conditions of migration often exclude migrants from housing and health care.

They encouraged the pope to continue to fight for those who are forgotten or without a voice and asked for advice on how to get corporations and governments to rethink public policy that exploits natural resources.

Pope Francis paused to think before responding and acknowledged that the students had said they wanted to improve the world. “Am I able to leave the world better than the one I am living in now?” the pope asked. To do so, “we have to change from the inside,” he said.

He noted that pastors and priests must be to their flock as God is: close, tender and merciful.

A pastor who is not close to his flock is just a clerk. “Either you are a real pastor, or you are a member of the establishment. … Be like God, be close to the people.

“Get close to your pastors. Tell them that you need to be close to them.

The pope acknowledged the overpopulation of cities that often comes from the movement of people from rural areas when there is a lack of work.

“Often these people are alone. They often don’t have the minimum to survive,” he said. “These people in their own land worked well, lived very well, had a house, had something to eat. Now they live in misery.”

Empathy and brotherhood are the ways to follow. “The leading way is hope. Hope does not deceive if it is a true hope.”

In response to final group of presentations, the pope decried the stigmatization of migrants and immigrants, including physical and psychological violence. 

He complimented Aleja Sastoque, a native of Colombia who recently completed master’s degrees at Loyola, on the fact that she spoke Spanish in her presentation. “The fact you talked in the language of your ancestor means you didn’t forget your roots. These roots became jewels for you,” he told Sastoque, who now serves as a faith formation campus minister at Loyola.

He also noted that a synodal church should not be a closed church, citing the example of a priest in his neighborhood who invited the migrants in his area to the church for a holiday feast if they did not have someone with whom they could celebrate. “If this is the house of God, it is where people feed you and take care of you.”

He recalled the Scripture passage where the Lord calls himself the door and that if someone knocks, he will open the door.

He said that Christ is also knocking on the door to get out. “The church has to get out of the door. This is the synodal aspect,” Pope Francis said.

After concluding remarks, the pope gave a final blessing and said, “Please don’t forget to pray for me.”

In an interview after the event, Sastoque said she appreciated the pope’s point that Jesus is also knocking on the door to get outside the church. 

“I think that’s very powerful and it’s an invitation for him to us to say, OK, let’s work together and let’s go outside because that’s where people need us. There is where the Gospel needs to be proclaimed,” she said.

Sastoque said the regional meetings to prepare for the discussion were originally divided by regions: South, Central and North America, as well as the Caribbean. Her group included members from Central America, the U.S. and Canada. 

The question, “if you had the opportunity to meet the pope, what would you ask?” prompted the brainstorming process.

As the students from a variety of disciplines discussed the topic of migration, they realized it affected not just border crossings but also the environment, economics and political changes.

The process “was a blast,” she recalled, and she was eventually selected as one of the four from her group to make a presentation to the pope.

She was fortunate in her experiences of education and opportunity, but realizes others are not as fortunate, so she spoke from personal experience that is similar to others’. “How can I – in a few words, in 90 seconds – say something that will move Pope Francis to keep continue working with us, and also that represents many other people?”

Sastoque said that if students want to do a revolution, they can. She said Pope Francis would probably use a Spanish phrase that translate to “Let’s do a mess” – a good mess. 

“I think that’s powerful when he encouraged us to keep doing it to look for other kinds of experiences outside of the church, outside of the university, outside of your house,” she said.

She said the next step is for these groups and others inspired by the discussion to continue developing similar projects and proposals. “We don’t want that the projects stuck on paper, but also to be a reality,” Sastoque said.

To that end, Loyola University is extending the Building Bridges Initiative, based for now within the Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage at the university (www.luc.edu/ccih), where people can indicate their interest in being a part of the ongoing work.

Peter Jones, Ph.D., interim dean of Loyola’s Institute for Pastoral Studies graduate program and one of the event’s coordinators, said after the session that the fact that the conversation with the pope happened so quickly was an indication that they had successfully discerned the will of the Holy Spirit.

Several people at the university had been frustrated with the lack of energy in the United States around the synodal process initiated last fall by Pope Francis.

“Even here in Chicago and in the surrounding areas, there are some listening sessions and other things happening, but this has the potential to be a truly transformative moment,” Jones said.

As they discussed how they could engage the students and the university in the synodal process, they saw an opportunity.

At the IPS, they had recently hired Emilce Cuda, Ph.D., as a part-time faculty member, teaching in the online Spanish-language graduate program, who is an Argentine theologian working in Rome at the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

The original plan was to invite Cuda, who had recently been promoted to the head of the office of the PCLA, to give the opening talk for a synodal series. Instead, she suggested that instead of talking about synodality, the university should model it by facilitating a synodal encounter among students. In February, Cuda was appointed secretary of the commission and is now one of the highest-ranking women at the Vatican.

Jones noted that in her role at the PCLA, Cuda’s charge is to connect people between North and South. “Our societies are intertwined in ways that we often take for granted, especially here in the North. We have to build those bridges in order to listen and understand what’s actually happening, to people everywhere. We don’t have a clear view of the reality unless we’re in relationship with one another,” Jones said.

He said as they discussed the project, he’s not sure who first suggested it but that as kind of a joke they said they should invite Pope Francis.

“This is his jam, this is exactly what he wants people to be doing,” Jones said. Cuda approached the pope and described the idea, and around Christmas time, he agreed.

“We didn’t come into this with a goal or an objective to get the pope on a Zoom call with students,” he said. They hoped to create a pathway to facilitate an authentic encounter among students across borders. 

“We wanted them to talk and we wanted to listen and we wanted to walk with them as faculty and as advisors to help them enter into the process with a desire for connection, not with a desire to win an argument.”

The pope’s involvement changed everything because of the way he described encountering, listening and discerning in his Oct. 9, 2021, homily when he launched the synod process. 

The initiative grew to include 130 students from 58 universities in 21 countries who met in work groups.

He said he was facilitating a group from the Central U.S. and Canada. On the group message boards, they realized their group’s work resonated with the one from Brazil. “So, we had a meeting with the Brazil group and the students got to listen to each other and further expand their imaginations for what their own desires or their own visions were,” he said.

The involvement of the pope altered the vision for what was possible. 

“Our imagination expanded and we became far more ambitious and with the help of various conferences, congregations and (Vatican) dicasteries,” Jones said. “We pulled it off, but I will say in the future if I had we’re able to do this over again, we need more time.”

Since this program was focused on “Building Bridges North-South,” Jones said the next logical step is to build bridges between East and West. 

“There is a large population of students from various parts of Asia in the program at the Institute of Pastoral Studies, and we’re already discerning a deep need for that kind of connection and encounter and that’s just one example,” he said.

“I don’t know if that’s what we’ll do first, but the goal is to establish an initiative that trains people and facilitates synodal encounters, and when I say training people, I mean forming people and demonstrating concretely the virtues necessary to authentically encounter and to deeply listen to each other and commit to a noncompetitive, open process of discernment that leads to shared commitment and action,” Jones said.

The video sessions with Pope Francis are available on YouTube in English, Spanish and Portuguese at https://www.youtube.com/user/LoyolaChicago.

Email Christopher Gunty at editor@catholicreview.org

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