“It is possible to build unity in diversity,” Pope Francis told some 40,000 Latvians in his homily at Mass at the shrine of the Mother of God in Aglona, in south-east Latvia, on the third day of his visit to the Baltic states.
It was an important message for the 2.2 million people of Latvia, which regained independence in 1991 and where today 37 percent of the population are Russian. Tensions exist, sometimes very strong ones, between the Russians and the native Latvians because 28 percent of the Russians do not have Latvian citizenship, many only speak Russian and, moreover, they are all constantly bombarded with propaganda from Moscow. Indeed, the situation could become more complex if “Saskana” (“harmony”), an all-Russian political party, becomes the main party in the October national elections; the latest polls have given it 40.9 percent of the vote.
Francis repeated the message again and again in the four talks he gave in this land that suffered Russian and later Soviet domination for much of the 20th century and also occupation by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945. He did so, for example, in his speech to the political and civic authorities at the presidential palace in Riga, soon after arriving in this city where 44 percent of its one million inhabitants are Latvian nationals, but the mayor, who is also leader of the “Saskana” party, and 37 percent of its population are Russian.
It was an important message for the 2.2 million people of Latvia, where today 37 percent of the population are Russian.
Pope Francis came for the centenary celebration of Latvia’s declaration of independence and, in his speech, recalled the great sacrifices people had made to gain their freedom, and emphasized that the present generation too must be willing to make sacrifices, to bring about a more integrated society where no one is excluded or marginalized.
Underlining “how important it is to treasure Latvia’s freedom and independence,” he told them “to work for liberty is to commit oneself to the integral and integrating development of individuals and the community.” Having gained their freedom, he said, they too today have “a responsibility to open a door to the future by looking to everything that stands at the service of life, of generating life.”
This reference to generating life was also significant because of the low birth-rate in this country (1.7 percent), where many young people (20 percent of the population) have left the country in recent years and moved to member-states of the European Union. (Latvia joined the European Union in 2004.)
Pope Francis emphasized the role that Christians can play in bringing harmony and justice to all the people of this country when they work together. He made this point when he spoke at an ecumenical ceremony in the Lutheran Cathedral in Riga, which is called Regas Doms.
Christianity came to Latvia in the 12th century when the German Augustinian monk, St. Meihard of Segeberg (his tomb is in Rigas Doms) began his missionary work here. But following the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, the nation embraced Lutheranism. Czarist Russia occupied the country in the 18th century and brought the Russian Orthodox here. The Soviet occupation in Latvia brought persecution, as happened also in Lithuania and Estonia. Forty percent of the Catholic priests in Latvia were killed or imprisoned, the teaching of religion was prohibited, the seminaries were closed and diplomatic relations with the Holy See, which had been established in 1922, were broken. When Latvia again regained its independence in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, religious life became possible again and the country re-established diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
The regaining of independence opened the door to great “collaboration and cooperation” between all the Christian churches in Latvia, as Pope Francis recognized in his homily in the cathedral, which dates back to the 13th century.
He praised the “lived ecumenism” that has prevailed in this predominantly Christian country since 1991, where today Lutherans count for 25 percent of the population, Catholics for 21 percent and Russian Orthodox for 11 percent. Representatives of all these and other Christian denominations, including Anglicans, Baptists, Methodists and Pentecostals, were present in the cathedral as he spoke.
Francis prayed that the Holy Spirit may help them to “continue to weave bonds of communion between us and so make us weavers of unity in our cities, lest our differences turn into divisions” and that he may “arm us with the weapons of dialogue, understanding and desire for mutual recognition and fraternity.”
He told these Christian leaders, “the only path possible for all ecumenism: that of confronting the cross of suffering experienced by so many young people, elderly persons and young children all too often exploited, lacking meaning in life, deprived of opportunities and suffering from loneliness.”
After the ecumenical meeting, Francis went to St. James’s Cathedral in Riga, where he met bishops, elderly priests, bishops and sisters. He recalled how they had remained “steadfast” in the faith in times of great trials.
He told them: “those of you who are present were subjected to any number of trials: the horror of war, then political repression, persecution and exile, as your Archbishop has described. Yet you remained steadfast; you persevered in faith. Neither the Nazi regime, nor the Soviet regime could extinguish the faith in your hearts. Neither could they stop some of you from becoming priests, religious sisters, catechists, or from serving the Church in other ways that put your lives at risk. You fought the good fight; you ran the race, you kept the faith.”
Pope Francis told his audience, “your work, however perfect in those days, must also tend to perfection in today’s new situations. You, who devoted body and soul, who have given your life to winning freedom for your native land, now often find yourselves cast aside.”
It seems paradoxical, he said, that “nowadays, in the name of freedom, free men and women subject the elderly to solitude, abandonment, lack of assistance, social exclusion and even poverty.” If that is the case, he added, “then the so-called train of freedom and progress has ended up with the very people who fought to gain those rights as its last car, onlookers at other people’s party, honored in words but forgotten in daily life.”
Later in the day, he traveled by helicopter to the country’s most venerated Marian shrine at Aglona, in the south east of the country, less than 500 miles from Moscow. In his homily, he encouraged them to be like Mary and to “stand near the cross” of so many suffering people in their homeland. He called them to show a firm solidarity, and not engage in what he described as a “tourism of solidarity.”
He told them, “when we open ourselves to others, we can get badly hurt. In political life, too, past conflicts between peoples can painfully come to the fore.” But they should take Mary as their model, because she showed herself “to be a woman open to forgiveness, to setting aside resentment and suspicion. She does not dwell on ‘what might have been,’ had her Son’s friends, or the priests of his people and their rulers, acted differently. She does not give in to frustration or helplessness.”
He recalled one of the Latvian bishops who had suffered, “Bishop Sloskans, who rests here, after being arrested and sent away, wrote to his parents: ‘I beg you from the bottom of my heart: do not let vengeance or exasperation find a way into your hearts. If we permitted that to happen, we would not be true Christians, but fanatics.’”
Pope Francis told them, “harmony is always difficult when we are different, when our differences of age, life experiences and circumstances lead us to feel, think and act in ways that, at first sight, seem opposed.” But, he said, “when, in faith, we listen to the command to receive and be received, it becomes possible to build unity in diversity, for differences neither restrain nor divide us, but allow us to look more deeply and to see others in their most profound dignity, as sons and daughters of the same Father.”
His message was strong and timely in this Baltic state at a difficult moment in history when it seeks to build a new future for all its inhabitants.
After Mass, Francis returned to Vilnius, which has been the base of his visit to the Baltic States. Tomorrow, he visits the last of these states, when he travels to Estonia, after which he will return to Rome.
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