The Pope brings out his summertime cappello romano, or the saturno. Fr. Z. reports there were 50,000 present at the General Audience today. Teresa translates the message, which recapped the Brazil trip:

My trip was, above all, an act of praise to God for the ‘wonders’ he has worked among the peoples of Latin America, for the faith which has animated their life and their culture for more than 500 years. In this sense, it was a pilgrimage which culminated in the Sanctuary of Our Lady Aparecida, principal patron of Brazil.

The theme of the relationship between faith and culture was always dear to the heart of my venerated predecessors Paul VI and John Paul II. I wanted to take it up again in confirming the Church of Latin America and the Caribbean in the path of faith which made and which is making the history they live, their popular piety and art, in a dialog with the rich pre-Colombian traditions, and later with the multiple influences from Europe and other continents.

Of course, the remembrance of a glorious past cannot ignore the shadows that accompanied the work of evangelization in the Latin American continent. Indeed, it is not possible to forget the sufferings and injustices inflicted by the colonizers on the indigenous populations, whose fundamental human rights were often trampled upon.

But the necessary mention of such unjustifiable crimes – which were condemned by the early missionaries themselves like Bartolome de las Casas, and theologians like Francesco da Vitoria of the University of Salamanca – should not keep us from grateful acknowledgment of the wondrous work of divine grace among these populations in the course of these centuries.

The Gospel has been for the continent the common bearer of a dynamic synthesis which, with different aspects in different nations, expresses the identity of the Latin American peoples. Today, in the epoch of globalization, this Catholic identity still presents itself as the most appropriate response when it is animated by serious spiritual formation and the principles of the social doctrine of the Church.

Brazil is a great nation which has kept profoundly rooted Christian values but also has enormous social and economic problems. To contribute to their solution, the Church should mobilize all the spiritual and moral forces of its communities, finding the appropriate convergences with other healthy forces in the country.

Among the positive elements one must certainly note the creativity and fecundity of the Church in Brazil, where new movements and new institutes for consecrated life are continually being born. And not less praiseworthy is the generous dedication of so many lay faithful who have been very active in the various activities promoted by the Church.

Brazil is a nation that can offer the world a new model of development. The Christian culture indeed can inspire a ‘reconciliation’ between men and creation, starting with the recovery of personal dignity through his relation with God the Father.

snip

The term ‘disciples and missionaries" corresponds to what the Gospel of Mark says about the calling of the Apostles: "(Jesus) appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach" (Mk 3, 14-15).

The word ‘disciples’ recalls the formative dimension and the consequences of communion and friendship with Jesus. The term ‘missionaries’ expresses the fruit of discipleship, namely, the witness and communication of the experience one has loved, of the truth and love that one has learned and assimilated.

To be disciples and missionaries involves a close link to the Word of God, to the Eucharist and other Sacraments; it means living in the Church with obedient attention to its teachings. To renew with joy this desire to be disciples of Christ, of ‘being with him’, is the fundamental condition to become his missionaries, with Christ as the starting point, as Pope John Paul II urged the whole Church during the Jubilee Year 2000.

My venerated predecessor always insisted on an evangelization that is "new in its ardor, in its methods, in its expression", as he stated when he addressed the CELAM assembly on March 9, 1983, in Haiti(cfr Insegnamenti VI/1 [1983], 698).

With my apostolic voyage, I wanted to call on everyone to proceed on this path, offering the unifying perspective of the encyclical Deus caritas est, an inseparably theological and social perspective that can be summarized in these words: it is love which gives life.

More photos here.