On the grassy shores of Lake Sant’Anna, about 72 km west of Edmonton, the destination of a Catholic pilgrimage every year since the end of the 19th century precisely on today’s feast of the saint, Pope Francis launches a multiple appeal to listen to the “maternal heartbeat. “of the earth, to a fraternity based on the union” of the distant “, to a Church that does not entrench itself in the defense of the institution in spite of the” search for truth “. And to his “indigenous brothers” he says: “You are precious to me and to the Church”.
There are many members of the indigenous communities, in fact, among the approximately ten thousand who participate in this traditional “Lac Ste. Anne Pilgrimage”, and, in a ‘country’ festival atmosphere, join the pilgrims coming mainly from Canada and the United States. Northwestern United, who come to this lake to bathe in its waters considered holy and pray. It is a place that has also been sacred to the natives for millennia: called Wakamne, “Lake of God”, by the Nakota Sioux and “Lake of the Spirit” by the Cree people, known to the natives as a place of healing.
The Pope, accompanied by the traditional sounds of the drum, celebrates the Liturgy of the Word, preceded by an unprecedented “blessing of the lake”. “Here, immersed in creation, there is another heartbeat that we can hear, the maternal one of the earth – he says in the homily in Spanish – and just as the heartbeat of babies, right from the womb, is in harmony with that of mothers, so to grow as human beings we need to set the rhythms of life to those of the creation that gives us life “.
Then recalling the Lake of Galilee where Jesus preached, Francis emphasizes that “precisely that lake, ‘mixed with diversity’, became the seat of an unprecedented announcement of fraternity; of a revolution without dead or wounded, that of love”. And here, “on the shores of this lake, the sound of the drums that cross the centuries and unite different peoples, brings us back to that time. It reminds us that fraternity is true if it unites those who are distant, that the message of unity that Heaven sends in the earth is not afraid of differences and invites us to communion, to start afresh together, because we are all pilgrims on the way “.
The Pontiff also touches on the theme of “healing” from the many traumas of the past, in particular of the colonizing work. But he warns that “now all of us, as a Church, need healing: to be healed from the temptation to close in on ourselves, to choose the defense of the institution rather than the search for truth, to prefer worldly power to evangelical service”. “Let us help each other, dear brothers and sisters, to make our contribution to build with God’s help a mother Church as he pleases – he exhorts – capable of embracing every son and daughter; open to all and that speaks to each one; that does not go against someone, but meet anyone “.
Furthermore, “if we want to take care of and heal the life of our communities, we can only start with the poor, the most marginalized”. It is necessary “to look more at the peripheries and listen to the cry of the least; knowing how to listen to the pain of those who, often in silence, in our crowded and depersonalized cities, cry out: ‘Don’t leave us alone!'”.
It is the cry “of elderly people who risk dying alone at home or abandoned in a structure, or of uncomfortable patients who, in place of affection, are administered death”. It is the “muffled cry of boys and girls more questioned than listened to, who delegate their freedom to a mobile phone, while in the same streets other peers wander lost, anesthetized by some amusement, prey to addictions that make them sad and intolerant” . “Do not leave us alone – the Pope complains – it is the cry of those who want a better world, but he does not know where to start”.
And finally addressing his “dear indigenous brothers and sisters” – at the center these days in Canada of his requests for forgiveness for the policies of assimilation of the natives and for the abuses in Catholic residential schools – Francis says he “came as a pilgrim also to tell you how precious you are for me and for the Church “. “I want the Church to be intertwined with you, as tight and united are the threads of the colored bands that so many of you wear – he concludes – the Lord help us to move forward in the healing process, towards an ever more healed and renewed future”.
Source: Ansa
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