Pope Francis urges Religious Orders to 'wake up the world'

Pope Francis has told those in Religious Life to “wake up the world”, according to an article appearing in La Civiltà Cattolica, the Rome-based Jesuit weekly. Editor Antonio Spadaro, SJ, has written an article recounting the private meeting last November between Pope Francis and the Union of Superiors General of religious men at the end of their 82nd General Assembly.

The 15-page article (available in English at the La Civiltà Cattolica website - see link below) documents the views of Pope Francis on religious life.

“Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living! It is possible to live differently in this world,” Pope Francis said.

“We are speaking of an eschatological outlook, of the values of the Kingdom incarnated here, on this earth. It is a question of leaving everything to follow the Lord. No, I do not want to say “radical.” Evangelical radicalness is not only for religious: it is demanded of all. But religious follow the Lord in a special was, in a prophetic way. It is this witness that I expect of you. Religious should be men and women who are able to wake the world up.”

The article also revealed he has asked the Congregation for Religious to revise, Mutuae Relationes, the 1978 instruction issued by the Congregation for Religious and by the Congregation for Bishops (concerning the relations between bishops and religious in the Church, which he called “outdated.”

Read the full article here: www.laciviltacattolica.it/articoli_download/extra/Wake_up_the_world.pdf