0
0
Pope Francis’ message to mark the 1500th anniversary of the cult of the
venerated image of St. Mary in Portico
Romanae Portus Securitatis (i.e. Roman Port Security)
‘Christ is the only medicine that can cure the ills of the Church and of humanity‘
To the Most Reverend Fr. Antonio Piccolo Rector General of the Order of Clerics Regular of the Mother of God
The happy anniversary of the 1500 years of the cult of the veneration of the image of Saint Mary in Portico –Romanae Portus Securitatis, Patroness of the Eternal City, is for me a joyful occasion to unite in prayer with your Religious Family, which has been entrusted with its care since 1601, and who wish to raise praise to her, loving and caring Mother, luminous beacon who has led her children to safe harbour.
I therefore address my affectionate thoughts to each one of you and to all those who are taking part in this very important event for the entire Church of Rome.
By a providential coincidence 2024, the year of preparation for the Jubilee of Hope, is a time of special grace since you will also be celebrating the 450th anniversary of your foundation by St. John Leonardi, a devotee of the Heavenly Mother, who was chosen as the faithful guardian of the Leonardine charism.
The cult of Saint Mary in Portico in Campitelli was born after a miraculous apparition of the Mother of God on 17 July 524, in the house of St. Galla, a Roman patrician, in the presence of Pope, St. John I.
Since then, the portico where the noble Galla welcomed the poor and pilgrims has became a Marian sanctuary and hospice of charity.
This is an invitation to you, the spiritual heirs of St. Leonardi, to cultivate and promote the value of welcoming the poor and the least, so that the places where we live and the churches themselves may be a portico open to the world, offering consolation and relief to the many forms of need that characterise our lives.
Moreover, the Blessed Virgin manifested herself at a particularly difficult moment for the Church, when she gave her mantle to Pope John I, who suffered and died for peace, without renouncing the faith, taken hostage by political intrigues and fratricidal violence.
Faced with the current situation, how can we fail to understand the urgency of promoting peace, of praying for peace?
Pray for peace and be peacemakers, especially in your reconciled and reconciling communities.
May the example of fraternal life be evangelically attractive to the faithful to whom you direct your pastoral care.
I urge you to look to Mary as a sign of consolation and sure hope, as the maternal face of God and as a place of refuge: in fact, she continually offers her on as the only source of concord, hope of salvation, way for peace, absolute imperative of the human aspiration.
It was in this spirit the saint pharmacist, John Leonardi, founded the “Congregation of Reformed Priests of the Blessed Virgin Mary”, precisely to restore to the Church the apostolic luster of its origins.
He said: “Christ before all else”; Christ at the centre of everything; Christ the measure of everything!
Christ is the only medicine that can cure the ills of the Church and of humanity.
This commitment with Mary, which lovingly accompanies the journey of the Congregation dedicated to her, is renewed again today and calls you all to an ever greater missionary zeal and to continuous progress in the spiritual life, accepting the exhortation of the holy Founder, who emphatically recalled, “Before the eyes of the mind and of the heart, there is only the honor and glory of Christ and of these crucified”
(St. John Leonardi, Hymn to the Cross).
Finally, the Jubilee celebrations which you are preparing to live under the gaze of the Virgin of the Portico, recalls the evangelizing work of St. John Leonardi, who also wrote the first Constitutions of the Urban College of Propaganda Fide, in order to form priests capable of facing the missionary challenges of the time.
I therefore encourage you too to take to heart the integral formation of religious brothers, in a journey of progressive conformation to the Crucified and Risen One, the first fruit of redeemed humanity (1 Cor 15:20 – But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.) and, looking to Mary, disciple of Christ and Mother of the Church, may your apostolate be a channel of grace and an instrument for the joyful proclamation of the Gospel.
With these hopes, entrusting you all to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, fondly invoked as Romanae Portus Securitatis, and of St. John Leonardi, I gladly impart my paternal blessing, trusting in your prayers for me.
Fraternally,
Rome, from Saint John Lateran, 29 June 2024
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
Patrons of the beloved City of Rome
FRANCIS
