St Joseph is the perfect model of listening to the Lord and quietly putting his word and plan into action, Pope Francis said yesterday. Source: CNS.
“Joseph trusts in God, he accepts God’s dream for his life and that of his betrothed. He thus enters into the grace of one who knows how to live the divine promise with faith, hope and love,” the Pope said during his weekly general audience in the Paul VI Audience Hall.
Also during the audience, Pope Francis spoke to Polish visitors about International Holocaust Remembrance Day, offered his best wishes to Chinese visitors and others celebrating the Lunar New Year and pleaded for an end to violence in Congo.
The Pope remembered the many Poles, “who together with members of other nations, were victims of extermination in German concentration camps during World War II”.
The world marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27 each year, the anniversary of the day in 1945 when Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex.
The camp was the largest of the Nazi work and death camps; an estimated 1.1 million of the more than 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust died there.
As people remember the anniversary, the Pope asked his Polish visitors to “be custodians of the truth and memory of this tragedy and its victims, including many Christian martyrs”.
It is a reminder of the need for “a constant commitment to peace and defence of the dignity of human life in every nation and every religion,” he said.
When greeting Chinese-speaking visitors in the audience hall, the Pope expressed his hopes that Lunar New Year celebrations would offer “an occasion to experience family and friendships with greater intensity.”
The Pope also expressed his concern over the worsening situation in Congo, which has also seen violent demonstrations in the capital, Kinshasa, protesting a lack of intervention by the international community regarding the deadly conflict in Goma.
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At audience, pope talks about St. Joseph, comments on world events (CNS)
