Pope Francis: Rome has a vocation for dialogue

The loss of papal states and the declaration of Rome as the capital of a united Italy 150 years ago was a "providential" event that changed the city and the church, said Pope Francis.

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, read Francis' message on February 3 in an event sponsored by the city to launch the anniversary celebrations.

The pope echoed the words of the then cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini - the future Saint Paul VI - who said in 1962 that the loss of papal states "seemed a catastrophe, and for papal dominion over the territory it was ... But providence - as we can now see - he organized things differently, orchestrating events almost dramatically ".

Since 1929, when Italy and the Holy See signed the Lateran Pacts mutually recognizing their legitimacy and independence, the popes have affirmed that the Catholic Church recognizes the separate roles of church and state, but insists on the need for "healthy secularism" - as retired Pope Benedict XVI.

In his 2012 apostolic exhortation, "The Church in the Middle East", the retired pope explained that this church-state separation "frees religion from the bulk of politics and allows politics to be enriched by the contribution of religion, while maintaining the necessary distance, clear distinction and indispensable collaboration between the two spheres ".

In his message to the celebration of Rome, Francis noted how Rome has become a multiethnic and multireligious city in the past 150 years, but Catholics have always played a key role and the church has "shared the joys and sufferings of the Romans".

Francis then highlighted three key events: the Nazi occupation of the city for nine months in 1943-1944 with the "terrible raid to expel the Jews" on October 16, 1943; the Second Vatican Council; and the 1974 diocesan conference in Rome on the evils of the city, in particular poverty and the lack of services available in its periphery.

The Nazi occupation and persecution of the Jews of Rome, he said, was "the Shoah lived in Rome". In response, "ancient barriers and painful distances" were overcome when Catholics and their institutions hid Jews from the Nazis, he said.

During Vatican II from 1962 to 1965, the city was full of Catholic bishops, ecumenical observers and other observers, he noted. “Rome shone like a universal, catholic, ecumenical space. It has become the universal city of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue and peace. "

And finally, he said, choosing to highlight the diocesan conference of 1974, he wanted to emphasize how the Catholic community of the city listens to the cries of the poor and people in the "suburbs".

"The city must be everyone's home," he said. “Even today it is a responsibility. The modern suburbs are marked by too much misery, inhabited by a great loneliness and without social networks ".

Many poor Italians, not to mention migrants and refugees, look to Rome as a place of salvation, said the pope.

"Often, incredibly, they look at the city with greater expectations and hopes than we Romans do because, due to many daily problems, we look at it in a pessimistic way, almost as if it were destined to fall".

"But no! Rome is a great resource for humanity, "he said, and must seek new ways to renew itself and promote greater inclusion for all who live there.

The holy years proclaimed by the church every 25 years help promote that renewal and openness, he said. "And 2025 isn't all that far."