THE GREATEST THREAT TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND POPE LEO ISN’T THE HETERODOX RIGHT, BUT THE HETERODOX LEFT ESPECIALLY THE POST-CATHOLIC CHURCH IN GERMANY!

Pope Francis and not a few others, thought/think that the rad trads, some of whom spew out right leaning heterodoxy and meanness, are the greatest threat to the Catholic Church’s unity. Some even think that the SSPX are a great threat. Others think that having two forms the one Catholic Mass is the greatest threat.

They are all wrong. It is modernism of the leftist heterodox, organized and with bishops, some who are cardinals, fomenting a true schism built on heresy. They are strident in their divisiveness in a way that no rad trad is. 

Press the Silere non Possum title for the their full article, although I post a money byte below the title that says it all:

  

---

31/08/2025

• Catholic Church

Germany: Synod or Sanhedrin?

• Leggi in italiano
• Read in English

Bonn – There is something profoundly distorted in the way a part of Western Catholicism today lives its relationship with the universal Church. The interview given by Irme Stetter-Karp, president of the Zentralkomitee der deutschen Katholiken (ZdK), to the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger is a striking example. Not so much for the content—already well-worn: structural reforms, women in ministries, revision of celibacy—but for the tone, the stance, the attitude.

Stetter-Karp, sarcastically described in Germany and Austria as a (grantige alte Jungfer) “bitter old spinster,” makes no secret of her desire to measure the work of the new Pope, Leo XIV, against the expectations of the German Synodal Path. “If he supports our demands, fine. If not, we will judge and condemn him as we did with Francis.” That is the message, hardly concealed.

THE DREADED INDIVIDUALISM—FIERCE OR NOT…

As a child, I do not recall from memory scenes like the ones in these photos, where several Masses were going on at the same time except when I was visiting Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome as late as 2016.

If you arrived at the Basilica when it opened at 7 AM, I think, you would see priests at all the side altars of the Basilica celebrating Mass. Some were using the modern Missal and others the 1962 Missal. All were welcome, todas, todas, todas.

But Pope Francis changed all of that. Maybe four or five years ago, no longer are priests allowed to say Mass at side altars as I experienced up until 2016. They have to concelebrate at regularly scheduled Masses. 

Thank God, that with all the liturgical problems that the Church experiences with the wild and individualistic celebrations of the Modern Mass, that Pope Francis saw fit to kill the TLM’s celebration at St. Peter’s and those dastardly priests who like multiple Masses going on at the same time at all the various altars in St. Peter’s.

I can sleep better at night knowing this.

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL OPINION PIECE ON THE TRADITIONAL LATIN MASS AND POPE LEO’S POSSIBLE RELAXATION OF POPE FRANCIS AND CARDINAL ROCHE’S DRACONIAN DICTATES

 YOU CAN READ THE WJS OPINION PIECE HERE AND IT IS A MUST READ. WHY? BECAUSE IT IS FILLED WITH COMMONSENSE SO LACKING IN MUCH OF THE HIERARCHY TODAY EVEN IN THE VATICAN!

Here is a moneybyte from the WJS opinion piece:

By December 2021, Cardinal Arthur Roche, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Divine Worship, was issuing new directives telling recalcitrant bishops who had no interest in alienating their own clergy that this time he really meant it. There would be no more Masses grandfathered in; all celebrations must be approved by Rome. Baptism in the old rite was made nearly impossible, and confirmation was forbidden.

In many places, bishops and priests simply ignored these Roman missives. Other prelates have been more enthusiastic. This summer Bishop Michael Martin of the Diocese of Charlotte, N.C., attempted to limit the celebration of the Latin Mass to a single chapel and ban the use of altar rails and the wearing of veils “when assisting in any official capacity.” Widespread disapprobation checked his ambitions before he could direct his clergy to check bathroom stalls for Latin graffiti.

I don’t think this state of affairs can continue. The ugliest scenes of the past four years—a grieving widow pleading with a cardinal not to shutter her parish, would-be snitches combing through online parish bulletin archives in search of the word “Latin”—won’t be repeated under this papacy.

This isn’t because I believe the rumors that Pope Leo XIV is some kind of crypto-traditionalist. There is no evidence that he is anything except what he seems to be: a decent, sensible man of prayer who understands the “universal” part of being the head of a universal church and sees no reason to cause distress to a growing segment of the faithful who know no other Mass. In the Holy Father’s house there are many mansions.

WHEN DENIGRATING “PRAYERS AND THOUGHTS” BECOMES A DEMOCRAT AND THUS POLITICALLY CHARGED “TALKING POINT”

Catholics know that prayers and thoughts must also be matched by pro-active initiatives. You don’t just pray that a serious illness will go away, you also go and visit a doctor.

But in hopeless situations, prayers and thoughts are all the more needed to assist those in hopeless situations to place their lives into the hands of God and His mercy and the promise of a new and happy life with Jesus after our personal judgement at the moment of our death. 

Yet democrats, beginning with the grandstanding Mayor Jacob Fry of Minneapolis, disgracefully made “prayers and thoughts” into a political talking point to move forward their partisan politics as it concerns their vision how to end gun violence. 

In fact, at a nationwide live broadcast press conference where law enforcement would inform the public for the first time about the details of the tragedy at Annunciation Church and School, this mayor, knowing he had an international platform and to get out front to a world audience, grandstanded before law enforcement made any announcements about what had happened and who had been shot and killed, ridiculed people for their “prayers and thoughts” and then began the democrats’ political talking point, “prayers and thoughts aren’t enough! Those kids were praying and for what?” DISGRACEFUL POLITICAL GRANDSTANDING AS A TRAGEDY IS IN PROGRESS AND THE DEAD STILL IN THE CHURCH!

Even some clergy used democrats talking points for political purposes in the midst of this tragedy!

This is a good article to read to see how horrible this strategy is and democrats should apologize to all praying and thinking Catholics and others who pray and think:

Copied from American Greatness (AG)

Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron Calls Democrats’ Mockery of Prayer After Catholic Church Shooting ‘Completely Asinine’

By Debra Heine

August 29, 2025

Minnesota Bishop Robert Barron slammed Democrat politicians like Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for mocking “thoughts and prayers” following Wednesday’s deadly Catholic church shooting, calling their criticism “completely asinine.”

“Catholics don’t think that prayer magically protects them from all suffering. After all, Jesus prayed fervently from the cross on which he was dying,” Barron told Fox News, Thursday.

Two children, ages 8 and 10, died in the mass shooting and eighteen others were injured Wednesday after trans gunman Robin Westman, 23, opened fire on Catholic school students attending morning Mass at Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, Wednesday morning. After the cowardly attack, Westman killed himself by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

After the horrific shooting rampage, Frey made a point of deriding calls for prayer.

“Don’t say this is about ‘thoughts and prayers’ right now — these kids were literally praying,” he said during a press conference after the tragedy. “It was the first week of school – they were in a church.”

A spokesperson for Frey’s office defended the mayor’s comments in a statement to Fox News Digital: “The mayor has always said that thoughts and prayers alone are not enough. They must be paired with action and solutions. One doesn’t negate the other — but year after year, students are murdered by gun violence. Enough is enough. We must do more.”

Other Democrat notables have parroted the mayor’s messaging, such as Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-FL), former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki (D.), and California Governor Gavin Newsom D.).

Some of the Dems, like Rosa DeLauro dismissed “thoughts and prayers” as “not enough” to stop gun violence and called for congressional action.

Others, like Newsom and Psaki, simply mocked prayer as a pointless endeavor.

“Prayer is not freaking enough. Prayers does not end school shootings. prayers do not make parents feel safe sending their kids to school. Prayer does not bring these kids back. Enough with the thoughts and prayers,” Psaki posted on X, Wednesday.

Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reacted to the post during a White House Press briefing on Thursday: “I saw the comments of Ms. Psaki and frankly I think they’re incredibly insensitive and disrespectful to the tens of millions of Americans of faith across this country who believe in the power of prayer, who believe that prayer works.”

In response, Newsom posted on X: “These children were literally praying as they got shot at,” echoing the trans madman’s taunt scribbled on a magazine, “Where is your God now?”

Barron told Fox News that the Democrats were misunderstanding the purpose of prayer.

“Prayer is the raising of the mind and heart to God, which strikes me as altogether appropriate precisely at times of great pain,” he explained. “And prayer by no means stands in contrast to decisive moral action. Martin Luther King was a man of deep prayer, who also effected a social revolution in our country. This is not an either/or proposition.”

Barron, a popular Catholic prelate who has led the Diocese of Winona-Rochester since 2022, is the founder of the Catholic media organization “Word on Fire.”  His insightful commentaries on faith and culture can be found on the Bishop’s YouTube channel.

He told Fox that the shooting should be recognized as a deliberate act of anti-Catholic violence.

“In the past seven years in our country, there has been a 700 percent increase in violent acts against Christians and Christian churches. Worldwide, Christianity is by far the most persecuted religion. That people are even wondering whether the tragedy in Minneapolis is an instance of anti-Catholic violence is puzzling to me,” he said.

“If someone attacked a synagogue while congregants were praying, would anyone doubt that it was an antisemitic act? If someone shot up a mosque while the devout were praying, would anyone doubt that it was an anti-Islamic attack? So, why would we even hesitate to say that a maniac shooting into a Catholic Church while children are at prayer was committing an anti-Catholic act?” the Bishop added.

The FBI is investigating the attack as both a possible act of domestic terrorism and a hate crime against Catholics, focusing on the anti-religious messages in his manifesto and weaponry.

According to a recent Family Research Council report, there were “at least 415 attacks against 383 churches in 43 states in 2024.”

Barron said he considered the two children slain during Mass to be “martyrs,” and described their deaths “as a tragic but powerful witness of faith.”

He acknowledged that the senseless attack on innocents raises deep questions about why God allows such evil, but pointed to Christ’s death on the cross the ultimate example of an innocent suffering.

“We know that God is all-good and all-powerful, and yet we also know that there are wicked people in the world who do terrible things. And so we must say that the just and merciful God permits some evils so as to bring about a good that we might not be able immediately to see. God is faithful in his love, but the ways of his providence are often inscrutable to us. We also know that, in Jesus, God journeyed all the way to the bottom of our suffering, accepting, as St. Paul said, ‘even death, death on a cross.’ We cannot always understand why God permits evil, but we know for sure that he accompanies us in our suffering,” he said.

I AM SURE THE GOOD BISHOP BELIEVES THAT VATICAN II OPENED PROCESSES THAT ALLOWS HIM TO DO THIS

 Headline from Lifesite News:

Mexican bishop ‘concelebrates’ Mass with lesbian Anglican in homosexual ‘marriage’ who received Eucharist

---

Bishop Raúl Vera López hosted lesbian ‘pastor’ Emilie Teresa Smith for a Mass where she whispered the words of consecration, elevated the chalice, and gave the homily in contradiction to Catholic teaching and canon law.

Please note the “married: Lesbian concelebrant’s arm tattoo too:

Another reason why Pope Leo needs to reform the Modern Mass and make it just like the TLM but allowing some vernacular:

Watch the Mercifully short “X” Video HERE.

Please note that the good Mexican bishop, perhaps old and senile, allows a lay Anglican Lesbian in a civil “marriage” with another woman and who herself claims to be a “priestess” is allowed to concelebrate this Catholic Mass with a Catholic bishop. 

Please note too, how the bishop gives his concelebrant the Host! Very reverent, no?

I have some canonical questions that I can’t answer, so you doctors of the canon law help me out?

1. Would this bishop incur automatic excommunication for profanation of the Holy Eucharist and the Mass itself? Is what he is doing, especially the manner in which he gives a non-Catholic invited to concelebrate the Mass (and without her Anglican vestments to boot) sacrilegious and thus leading to automatic excommunication?

2. We don’t know from the video, but if the good bishop allowed this Anglican lay person who has received an invalid ordination to the Anglican priesthood, to say some portions of the Eucharistic Prayer, would that invalidate the Mass? I know it is certainly illicit, but does her saying a part of the Eucharistic prayer invalidate that prayer? Hopefully it did and thus the Host that the bishop gives her in a flippant way isn’t really the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Glorified and Risen Christ?

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY SOME CATHOLICS WANT THE TLM???

 

It’s because of priests like this who love to entertain and get the applause of people. Here a Jesuit priest, loving the applause of young Catholic High School students is corrupting their understanding of the Mass.

And many Catholics have no problem with these kinds of antics at Mass, especially if they make the priest look like a buffoon. 

Yet when these young Catholics become mature men and women, they will think the Catholic Mass in general is a joke as well as Catholicism:

You can view the Facebook video HERE—IT IS MERCIFULLY BRIEF!

Yet Pope Francis with his TC cracks down on traditionalist clergy and laity, but no word of condemnation or correction for the Jesuit priest in this video.

Nothing like this could happen in the TLM, nothing! The greatest abuse in the TLM might be the priest racing through the Latin prayers, especially those in a low voice. Maybe his alb isn’t properly ironed. That’s about it. 

SHE, HE, THEY, THEM, IT?

It seems that NBC and other networks don’t want to offend Robin whose hate knew no bounds and whose murderous acts have changed the lives of so many innocent people. 

Yet, I just watch the NBC nightly news and the reporter reporting on Robin kept referring to him as she. 

REALLY!? God forbid that NBC offend Robin in death and the LGBTQ+++ideologues. It’s better to offend God  and poke Him in the eye in terms of His creation. 

I note too that law enforcement immediately following this tragedy correctly referred to the perp as he and him.

But yesterday, the same law enforcement representative was screwing up the English language by avoiding using any pronouns for Robin. He is now the gender neutral “shooter” rather than gunman, also. 

And the cycle of enablement of perversion made acceptable continues. 

Yes, gun control will solve the problems. 

EVEN THE WALL STREET JOURNAL IS MAKING A CASE THAT POPE LEO MIGHT BRING BACK SOME FORM OF SUMMORUM PONTIFICUM…

 

GIVING THANKS TO GOD FOR THAT WHICH DID PREVENT THE LOSS OF MORE LIFE AND ADVOCATING FOR THE PREVENTION OF VIOLENCE AND DEATH TOWARD HUMAN LIFE….THAT WHICH MUST YET BE DONE!

The tragic and senseless murder of children and adults and the wounding of many more at Annunciation School in Minneapolis is almost too much to process and we grieve with those who have had someone murdered in the most sacred place and during the most sacred act of worship the Catholic Church has.

As a priest who has celebrated so many school Masses, it brings tears to my eyes.

While we grieve with those who have lost loved ones, we also give thanks to God that steps were taken to mitigate against the loss of life. If not for those steps this tragedy would have been on an unbelievable scale perhaps surpassing the horror of Uvalde, Texas!

What were those pro-active steps the parish and school of Annunciation took? They locked the doors of the church once the children had entered for Mass and adults were stationed at the entrance of the church. The shooter was not allowed to enter the church. That meant he had to go around to the side of the building and start shooting blindly through stained glass windows. He could not see who he was shooting or what horror he was inflicting, but he knew to shoot low to hit children and others. 

You can see from the photos above, that he could not see who he was shooting through those narrow stained glass windows. 

However, if he had been able to get inside, the devastating horror would have been unbelievably greater. We thank God and those who took pro-active steps to prevent a much greater horror than what occurred. 

How do we as a church and country take more pro-active steps to mitigate those who have a death wish for themselves and others through sheer hatred for human life and its sanctity?

WE MUST RESTORE A CULTURE OF PROMOTING THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE!

1. Our culture of promoting the murder of children on demand through abortion must be stopped by law! No more abortion! No more legal euthanasia! No more legal assisted suicide and make suicide illegal!

2. Our culture that succumbs to the corruption of our children’s moral, spiritual and mental health must be stopped especially the ideological colonization of our children’s morals and bodily integrity by the LGBTQ+++ fanatics. 

3. Laws must be enacted that prevents the spiritual, moral, mental and physical abuse of minors by allowing parents or others to determine what gender a child can choose and allowing children to be transvestites and worse undergo chemical and physical castration, and mutilation of genitals. This must be outlawed for minors until a person reaches 21 years old and parents should be prosecuted for allowing children to choose that which they have no right to choose. 

4. Common sense laws to prevent the sale of military type long-guns and other automatic weapons must be strengthened and background checks made and perhaps a simple psychiatric test. But let’s face it, just like during prohibition, alcohol was bootlegged, so too automatic weapons. 

5. As a society we must address the social and moral morass of our country and how ideological groups, often political in nature, colonize so many away from proper morals and mores in society and promote a culture of death, a rejection of natural law and the marginalization of faith and morals.

AND THAT’S THE WAY IT IS…

 

THE BIG PULPIT HAS LINKS TO HELP US GRAPPLE WITH THE DEMONIC TRAGEDY AT ANNUNCIATION CHURCH AND SCHOOL

 

BIG PVLPIT

Note:
Enjoying BIG PVLPIT? Click Here to Donate Now! – Robert “Tito” Edwards

Sorrow and Prayers Following Killings at Catholic School:
A Disturbing Pattern of Trannies & School Shootings – Mt. Archbold at Creative Minority Report
How are Minneapolis Shooting & Association of US Catholic Priests Connected? – Cth Unscripted
Liberal Catholicism is the Way of Death; Mother of Shooter is a ‘Devout’ Catholic – Fr. David J. Nix
Catholics React: Spiritual Understanding After the Minneapolis Attack – Jesse Romero, et al.
FBI Investigating As Hate Crime – Catholic Vote
The Demons Have Taken Hold of Minneapolis – Scott McKay at The American Spectator
After Tragedy: Why Going To Mass Matters More Than Ever – Cerith Gardiner at Aleteia
5th-Grader Says Friend ‘Laid on Top of Me’ to Save His Life During School Shooting – Church Pop
Shooting Came After Bishops’ Pleas for Security Funds Went Unanswered – Jonathan Liedl
Are School Sho*ters Demonically Possessed? (Chief Exorcist) – The Lila Rose Podcast

THE POPE, NOT ACTING LIKE A POLITICIAN USING POLITICAL PARTY TALKING POINTS, CALLS FRENCH POLITICIANS TO EXERCISE THEIR ROLES AS FRENCH POLITICIANS AS ROMAN CATHOLICS AND NOT TO SEPARATE THEIR CATHOLICISM FROM THEIR POLITICS!

The following is a summary of Pope Leo’s remarks to a group of French politicians provided by Silere non possum. My most humble brilliant remarks embedded in their text summary in (red). 

The full text translated into English, is well worth reading, which I post below the summary:

 Vatican City – This morning, Pope Leo XIV received a delegation of French political figures from the Diocese of Créteil, led by Bishop Dominique Blanchet, in the Consistory Hall. The meeting took place in a cordial atmosphere: opening his remarks, Leo joked with his guests, saying in English: "I'm sure many of you speak English, no? I am going to attempt to speak French, counting on your benevolence!", then choosing to address them entirely in their own language.

Politics and Faith: "There Are Not Two Persons in One"

The Pope focused on a crucial theme: the relationship between faith and political responsibility. "Monsignor Blanchet asked me to give you some advice. In reality, I can only give you one, but it is crucial: unite yourselves ever more closely to Jesus, live by Him, and bear witness to Him. There is no public figure divided in two: on one side, the politician, on the other, the Christian. No. There exists the politician who, under the gaze of God and in conscience, lives out his commitments and responsibilities in a Christian manner. (This is what Vatican II asked of all lay Catholics, politicians and otherwise, to bring our Catholic Faith and Morals to the public square, politics, home, work, play!)

Leo XIV thus reiterated that Christianity cannot be relegated to the private or intimate sphere, but must permeate every dimension of life, including the public and legislative spheres.

Social Doctrine and the Courage to Bear Witness

The Pontiff then encouraged the French representatives not to fear applying and defending the Church's social doctrine with conviction, emphasizing its consistency with natural law, recognizable by all, even non-believers: "You are called to strengthen yourselves in faith, to deepen your knowledge of the Church's social doctrine, and to apply it in the exercise of your functions and in the drafting of laws. It is fully in harmony with human nature [...]. You must not be afraid to propose and defend it with conviction: it is a doctrine of salvation, oriented to the good of every person and the construction of peaceful, harmonious, prosperous, and reconciled societies." (This is key and Pope Leo knows it, that in the secular, political realm, we must rely upon Natural Law! It is great hearing a pope, once again, calling us to follow natural law as an antidote to so many of the societal problems today! Calling politicians to defend the doctrine of salvation!) 

The Critique of Sterile Secularism

A particularly relevant passage of the speech concerned the French context. Leo XIV emphasized how, due to an often misunderstood secularism, it is not easy for a self-declared Christian politician to act and decide in accordance with his faith: "Your pilgrimage is not only a personal experience of enrichment, but it has great value and utility for the men and women you serve. And it is even more meritorious because, in France, it is not easy for a public representative—due to an often misunderstood secularism—to act and decide in accordance with his faith." (While this is certainly true of France since the French Revolution, it is also true of the USA and there are few Catholics in elected office in the USA who are doing what Pope Leo is asking! Just think of the most pernicious things that Biden, Pelosi and others have promoted and still claim to be good Catholics proudly receiving Holy Communion!)

Finally, the Pope clearly denounced the ideological pressures, party logic, and "cultural colonization" that make it increasingly difficult to live the Gospel in politics. "Courage is needed: the courage to say 'no, I can't,' when the truth is at stake," he warned. Absolutely! (Thank you Pope Leo and thank you for emphasizing Catholicism, as is your vocation, rather than a particular political party’s talking points, no matter how meritorious those talking points are. As a priest and bishop, you know your vocation and it isn’t political. That’s the vocation of the Catholic layman! Thanks for letting us know Christendom no longer exists and the clergy no longer run the world. The clergy’s role is to call the laity to sanctity and to live the Catholic Faith where they are planted!)

Here is the full text of the pope’s speech to French politicians but a google translate of the Italian text:

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Peace be with you!

I'm sure many of you speak English, right? I am going to attempt to speak French, counting on your benevolence!

I cordially greet His Excellency Archbishop Dominique Blanchet, and I welcome all of you, elected officials and civil leaders of the Diocese of Créteil, on your pilgrimage to Rome.

I am happy to welcome you on your journey of faith: return to your daily commitments strengthened by hope, more steadfast in working to build a more just, more humane, more fraternal world, which can only be a world more imbued with the Gospel. Faced with the various deviations experienced by our Western societies, we, as Christians, cannot do better than turn to Christ and ask for his help in carrying out our responsibilities.

For this reason, your journey, more than simply a matter of personal enrichment, is of great importance and of great benefit to the men and women you serve. This is all the more praiseworthy because, due to a sometimes misunderstood secularism, it is not easy for an elected official in France to act and decide consistently with his faith in the exercise of public responsibilities.

The salvation that Jesus achieved through his death and resurrection encompasses all dimensions of human life, such as culture, economics and work, family and marriage, respect for human dignity and life, health, and even communication, education, and politics. Christianity cannot be reduced to a simple private devotion, because it involves a way of living in society marked by the love of God and neighbor, who, in Christ, is no longer an enemy but a brother.

Your region, the place of your commitments, must address major social issues such as violence in some neighborhoods, insecurity, precariousness, drug networks, unemployment, the disappearance of conviviality… To address these issues, Christian leaders are strengthened by the virtue of charity that has indwelled them since their baptism. Charity is a gift from God, a “power capable of inspiring new ways to address the problems of today's world and profoundly renewing structures, social organizations, and legal systems from within. From this perspective, charity becomes social and political charity: social charity makes us love the common good and effectively seek the good of all people” (Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, n. 207). This is why Christian leaders are better prepared to face the challenges of today's world, naturally to the extent that they live and bear witness to the faith at work within them, their personal relationship with Christ who enlightens them and gives them this strength. Jesus states it forcefully: “Because without me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:5); We should therefore not be surprised that the promotion of “values” — however evangelical they may be — but “emptied” of Christ who is their author, are incapable of changing the world.

So, Monsignor Blanchet asked me for some advice. The first—and only—advice I would give you is to unite yourselves ever more closely to Jesus, to live by him and bear witness to him. There is no separation in the personality of a public figure: there is not the politician on one side and the Christian on the other. But there is the politician who, under the gaze of God and his conscience, lives his commitments and responsibilities in a Christian manner!

You are therefore called to strengthen yourselves in faith, to deepen your knowledge of the doctrine—particularly the social doctrine—that Jesus taught the world, and to put it into practice in the exercise of your functions and in the drafting of laws. Its foundations are essentially in harmony with human nature, the natural law that everyone can recognize, even non-Christians, even non-believers. Therefore, there is no need to be afraid to propose and defend it with conviction: it is a doctrine of salvation that aims at the good of every human being, at the building of peaceful, harmonious, prosperous, and reconciled societies.

I am well aware that the openly Christian commitment of a public official is not easy, especially in certain Western societies where Christ and his Church are marginalized, often ignored, sometimes ridiculed. Nor am I unaware of the pressures, party directives, and "ideological colonizations"—to borrow a fitting expression from Pope Francis—to which politicians are subjected. They must have courage: the courage to say at times, "No, I can't!" when the truth is at stake. Here too, only union with Jesus—Jesus crucified!—will give you the courage to suffer in his name. He said this to his disciples: "In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world!" (Jn 16:33).

Dear friends, I thank you for your visit and assure you of my most sincere encouragement as you continue your work in the service of your fellow citizens. Maintain the hope of a better world; Remain certain that, united with Christ, your efforts will bear fruit and be rewarded. I entrust you and your country to the protection of Our Lady of the Assumption, and I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing to you.