Pope Francis: Beauty urges us to take Christ out into the streets and bring him to people

Pope Francis waves to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square for his Wednesday general audience on Dec. 4, 2024. / Credit: Vatican Media

Vatican City, Dec 5, 2024 / 14:10 pm (CNA).

Pope Francis this week encouraged participants of the second International Congress of Confraternities and Brotherhoods to bring Christ “out into the streets so that he may enter into all hearts.”

In a message to nearly 2,000 people participating in this year’s conference on popular piety in Seville, Spain, from Dec. 4–8, the pope emphasized the significance of “beauty” in attracting others to faith in Jesus Christ and his Church. 

“Above all, it is the beauty of Christ that summons us, calls us to be brothers and sisters and urges us to take Christ out into the streets, to bring him to the people, so that everyone can contemplate his beauty,” the pope wrote in a Dec. 4 message to congress participants.

“Be crazy with love,” the pope added. “Crazy with love for God, so much so to touch the hearts of their people, to bring them to God.” 

Using the expression of Spanish saint Manuel Gonzalez, known for his devotion to the Eucharist and who describes life as a “round trip” that begins and ends in Christ, the Holy Father reminded the congress’ European and Latin American participants that the Church is a “people walking toward God” in the pilgrimage of life. 

“‘The people … are hungry for truth, for affection, for well-being, for justice, for heaven, and, perhaps, without realizing it, for God and ‘the tears of his heart,’” the pope said, sharing the words of St. Manuel.

Besides elaborate acts of piety, such as processions and public liturgies, the pope highlighted the need for people to go “to the tabernacle where the Lord awaits us” to present one’s own and others’ prayers and petitions.   

“This living Bread is the only one that can satisfy the hunger of our society, a Bread that was born to be given, to be consumed, and that from the altar calls us to dialogue with him, to be our consolation and our rest,” the Holy Father wrote. 

This year’s International Congress of Confraternities and Brotherhoods includes separate presentations by the Vatican’s prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Salvatore Rino Fisichella; prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life Cardinal Kevin Farrell; and Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education.

Pope gifts golden rose to Our Lady of Hope of Macarena 

On Dec. 3, the evening before the five-day congress, Pope Francis gifted a golden rose to the image of Our Lady of Hope of Macarena.

Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute for general affairs of the Vatican Secretariat of State, was in charge of granting the golden rose to Our Lady in the Basilica of the Macarena in Seville.

In an interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, Archbishop José Ángel Saiz Meneses of Seville said the pope’s gesture “reinforces the Christian and Marian identity of the city and constitutes a call to spiritual renewal and commitment to the values ​​of the Gospel” and expresses a “deep recognition” of the popular piety found in southern Spain.