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 Homepage | The person | The family | The friends | Sitemap | Search | Contact  News  Year 2001 ROME 2002 : the International Meeting Français | English | Español |  PrintThe audience with the Holy Father, at Castelgandolfo  At his summer residence at Castelgandolfo, on 26th September, Pope John-Paul II received in private audience, all the participants of the meeting as well as persons with intellectual disabilities from the Faith and Light communities and L’Arche of Rome. In blessing the movement, it is each of its members throughout the world, that John-Paul II has blessed! Greetings addressed to the Holy Father by Jean Vanier during a special audience, Thursday 26th September 2002 Holy Father, We are here before you, the little people of Faith and Light, a little people who have suffered and who seek ways to respond to the suffering of humanity. Gathered around you now are the international and national coordinators and chaplains of Faith and Light, representing thousands of people with a mental handicap, their parents and their friends who meet regularly in nearly one thousand five hundred communities in 75 countries. We belong to different hristian denominations because the same suffering which draws human hearts together also becomes a source of unity. We are gathered together in Rome –very near here- to give thanks to Jesus for having changed our weeping and our tears into shouts of joy. The wounded person is so often the source of division, of scandals, of conflicts, of sadness. So often he or she is rejected, even before birth. Thanks to Jesus and his Good News, in Faith and Light we discover together that these people can become a source of life and of unity; they call out the compassion hidden in our hardened hearts which are full of fear; they transform us, they call us to live in communities of friendship and solidarity.They lead us to the wounded Lamb who is gentle and humble of heart. Yes, like Jesus and with Jesus, the person with a mental handicap is the stone rejected by the builders which has become the cornerstone. Faith and Light was born in 1971 in Lourdes near the grotto where our Lady appeared to the young Bernadette, herself one of the little poor. When Marie-Helene Mathieu and myself began Faith and Light, our only idea was to organise a pilgrimage to help people with a mental handicap be better inserted in the Church. But Jesus had other ideas. It is He, with his beloved Mother, who are our founders. They wanted to remind us that God has chosen what is foolish and weak to confond the wise and powerful of our world and that the renewal of humanity and the Church will come through the poor, the weak, the little. Holy Father, we are profoundly grateful that you were willing to welcome us here, in Castelgandolfo. We are very aware of your handicap and your tiredness. We are also aware that it is in your very weakness that the power of God continues to be revealed. In Toronto, you called us to be Salt of the Earth and Light of the Word. Thank you Holy Father, that you are yourself this Light, that you are like the wounded Lamb of God, the shepherd of a vast flock who seeks always to lead us to the Waters of Life and who reveals to us the God who wipes away every tear from our eyes (Revelations 7:17) Marie-Hélène Mathieu's welcome speech to the Holy Father  Holy Father,We bring to you all of the families, persons with intellectual disabilities, and friends who belong to communities and who would so like to be a source of peace. But we also bring you all those who are in hospitals and institutions; all those who are hidden away in their houses because the world doesn't accept them and whose parents do not know that their child, especially, carries Jesus within him. We would so like to reach out and join those who are extremely lonely, in solitude and who will never hear anyone talking about Love. Holy Father, people with intellectual disabilities are especially close to Jesus, and ever more closer to you; they love you because they feel that you love them wholely, just as Jesus does, as he wished to reveal his mysteries to the weak of spirit. Holy Father, we pray for you, with you and we love you. Holy-Father's speech, 26th September 2002 Dear Friends, I am particularly happy to welcome you, you who represent the international Association Faith and Light, and I greet in a special way Marie-Hélène Mathieu and Jean Vanier, its founders. Born in Lourdes, your movement has received a great deal from the grace of this special place, where the sick and the handicapped are given the first place. By welcoming all these “little ones” with a mental handicap, you have seen in them special witnesses of God’s tenderness, from whom we have a lot to learn and who have a specific place in the Church. In fact, their participation in the ecclesial community paves the way for simple and fraternal relationships, and their filial and spontaneous prayer invites each one of us to turn towards our Heavenly Father. My thoughts also go to their parents who, thanks to you, feel supported in their suffering and who see their distress transformed into hope, to welcome in humanity and in faith their handicapped children. They discover the road of conversion that the Gospel opens to men and women : by the Cross, expression of the “greatest love” of the Lord for his friends, each one receives the power to participate in the life of God, which is love. I would like to give thanks once again for your witness in our society, called to discover, in an ever greater way, the dignity of handicapped people ; welcoming them and enabling them to participate in society, even if there is a long way to go so that the dignity of every human being be respected, and that the gift of life may never be undermined, especially where the lives of handicapped children are concerned. You work with generosity and competence. I also appreciate the courage of families and associations who take care of handicapped people, they remind us of the meaning and value of human existence. Dear friends, as I entrust your session to Our Lady, I wish that your work may bear fruit, so that the strength of your commitment to such a beautiful and noble cause will be renewed. To each one of you, and to all of those whom you represent, I warmly impart a special Apostolic blessing. (Translation Faith and Light International, 26/09/02)
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