On Thursday 13 April 2023, Pope Francis received the Union of Major Superiors of Italy in the Clementine Hall. There were 300 participants in the 70th General Assembly of the Union of Major Superiors of Italy (USMI).
Theme of the meeting: On the synodal path, women witnesses of the Risen Lord.
“If a consecrated woman does not bear witness to the Risen One, her life ends there”.
The Pope’s invitation was to walk together in the Church, always returning to the Gospel to find new ways and words for today’s world.
Pope Francis invited the participants to be generators of hope, leaven of God in the midst of humanity.
The Pope recalled that women, as disciples, were the first to bear witness to the Resurrection.
Always go with courage, seek the Lord what he is saying to us today; not what he said to us yesterday. It is true that each one of you has your own charisma, and this is the spirit with which you want to ask the question: with that spirit of the founders that you have in your heart, ask the question today: “Lord, today what am I to do? What must we do?” And women are good for this, they know how to create new paths, they know how to give… they are courageous.
The women’s running from the tomb to announce what they had seen is, for Pope Francis, an inspiration for an authentic synodal conversion.
Let us not forget that the synodal path is the Holy Spirit: He is the head of the synodal path, He is the protagonist. And women, in this dynamic, go forward.
Download the pope’s speech to USMI General Assembly participants here
