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Pope pays tribute to 'unknown saints' during cemetery Mass


Verano Cemetery

Verano Cemetery

Pope Francis paid tribute to the "unknown saints" - those who flee war, hunger and poverty, the jobless and the homeless during a special Mass at the Cemetery of Verano in Rome yesterday to commemorate the feast of All Saints.

In his homily, drawing from the Mass’s first reading taken from the book of Apocalypse, he focused on three images, The first was the warning against the devastation of the Earth to the four angels. Pope Francis said that there is a phrase that lies in the hearts of all of us: “we can destroy the world better than you” that is, Man has the capacity to devastate the world worse than the angels. “Devastate life, culture, values, hope.” He said: “how much do we need this strength of the Lord, so that he would sign us with his love, to destroy this insane career of destroying creation.”

Pope Francis then moved on to speak about an innumerable crowd mentioned in the reading. He compared them to the forgotten and thrown away in this life. “It seems that the people, the hungry and sick children do not count. They seem to be of a different species, not even human.This multitude stands before of God”... “Those who come from great tribulation in the many parts of the world. The Lord sanctifies these people through tribulation”, he said.

Finally, Pope Francis offered a third image from the homily, that is God.  “We are sons of God, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. But we have the hope that we will be like Him. The blessing of the Lord is hope. The hope that He will have mercy on His People”.

He reminded the congregation that “in order to journey back to God the Father, in this world of devastation, of wars, of tribulation, we must act according to the beatitudes. It is this path that will save us. This path will lead us through problems and persecution, but only this path will lead us forward.. The people who go forward on the path of the beatitudes will reach God and become saints in that final meeting with Him,” he concluded.

The Communal Monumental Cemetery of Campo Verano is located in the quartiere Tiburtino of Rome, near the Basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le mura. The name verano a refers to the Ancient Roman campo dei Verani that was located here. The zone contained ancient Christian catacombs, but a modern cemetery was not established till the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy during 1807-1812, when the architect Giuseppe Valadier was commissioned designs after the Edict of Saint Cloud required burials to take place outside of the city walls.

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