Some 15,000 people participated in this Sunday's Angelus with the pope at St. Peter's.
Pope Francis talked about the episode in the Gospel where Jesus heals a deaf mute. He said there is another evil that we must be cured of, in addition to illness and suffering.
POPE FRANCIS
“... it is the healing of fear. Our fear. The healing of fear that drives us to marginalize the sick, to marginalize the suffering, the disabled. And there are many ways of marginalizing, also with a pseudo-piety or with the removal of the problem; one remains deaf and dumb in face of the pains of people marked by illnesses, anguishes, and difficulties.”
According to the pope, fear is overcome by “opening ourselves to the needs of our suffering brothers in need of help, avoiding egoism and closure of the heart.”
Pope Francis recalled that in Strasbourg the nun Alfonsa Maria Eppinger, founder of the Sisters of the Divine Redeemer, a congregation founded in 1849 to care for the sick or wounded, also on the battlefield, had just been beatified.
POPE FRANCIS
“An applause all together for the new Blessed!”.
Before leaving, as every Sunday, he bid farewell to the pilgrims with an informal wish: “Have a good lunch!”
