Pope: Exposition is an opportunity for spiritual renewal for the faithful

Panaji: Pope Francis, in a special message for the decennial Exposision of St Francis Xavier’s relics, has said that he hopes that these days of prayer and pilgrimage would provide “an opporunity for spiritual renewal for the faithful of the Archdiocese (of Goa) and throughout India”.

The Pope expressed his hope that through the intercession of this patron of missionaries, many Catholics would be inspired by the same zeal for evangelisation that marked the life of Xavier.

“In this way, the joy of the Gospel may be brought with renewed fervour to people of our time, especially to those who are most vulnerable and on the peripheries of society,” said the Pope’s message, conveyed by the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

“Upon you and those who gather for the veneration of these relics, Pope Francis willingly invokes an abundance of the blessings of Almighty God,” Parolin said in the letter, addressed to Archbishop of Goa, Cardinal Filipe Neri Ferrao, through the Apostolic Nunciature to India and Nepal. The letter was published in the book ‘Stories in Silver’ released after the opening Mass on Thursday.

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