Today Pope Francis gave a short talk to the participants in the National Assembly of the Italian Conference of Major Superiors (CISM). As of yet, the text of his talk is only in Italian on the Vatican Website but my crude translation of one of the paragraphs in his talk can be found below. A reminder to me and all of us in Religious Life, the importance of fraternal love in our community.
"A clear sign that the religious life is called to make today is the fraternal life. Please, do not let there be a gossip of terrorism among you! Cast it out! There is brotherhood. And if you have something against the brother, you say it to his face... Sometimes you'll end up with fists, which is a problem but is better than the terrorist gossip. Today, the dominant culture is individualistic, centered on individual rights. It's a culture that eats away at society which the primary cell is the family. The consecrated life can help the Church and society as a whole by giving testimony of fraternity, that you can live together as brothers in diversity: this is important! Because there in the community that you chose, you are with people of different character, age, education, feelings ... and yet you try to live as brothers. Not always possible, as you well know. Many times you are wrong, because we are all sinners, but you can acknowledge that you made a mistake, ask for forgiveness and offer forgiveness. And this is good for the Church; it circulates within the body of the Church, the lifeblood of the fraternity. It is also good for the whole society."
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