Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

I am very happy to be here with you. I greet all of you, particularly the President of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference, whom I thank for his kind words of introduction. I also thank Mimi and Andrew for what they shared with us. It is very fitting that the Indonesian Bishops have chosen to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of their national Conference with you. Thank you! Thank you for making this decision. Thank you to the President! I can tell that your Carthusian spirit helps us to do these things.

You are shining stars in the sky of this archipelago, the most precious members of this Church, its “treasures”, in the words of the deacon and martyr Saint Lawrence, from the earliest days of the Church. Let me begin by saying that I fully agree with what Mimi told us: God “created human beings with unique abilities to enrich the diversity of our world”. You spoke well, Mimi, thank you. She went on to show us this by speaking beautifully of Jesus as “our beacon of hope”. Thank you for this!

The experience of facing difficulties together, all doing our best, each of us making his or her specific contribution, enriches us and helps us to discover anew each day how important it is for us to work together: in the world, in the Church, in our families, as Andrew reminded us. Let us congratulate him for having taken part in the Paralympic Games! Bravo! A round of applause for Andrew! While we are at it, let us also give ourselves a round of applause, since all of us are called to become, together, “champions of love” in the great “Olympics” of life! A round of applause to all of us!

Dear friends, we all need one another, and that is not a bad thing.  It helps us to understand more and more that the most important thing in our lives is love (cf. 1 Cor 13:13) and to realize how many good people there are, all around us. It also reminds us how much the Lord loves us, each and every one of us, even with our limitations and difficulties (cf. Rom 8:35-39). Each one of us is unique in his eyes and he never forgets us, never. Let us always remember that, to keep our hope alive and to strive in turn, without ever tiring, to make of our lives become a gift for others (cf. Jn 15:12-13).

Thank you for this meeting and for everything that you do, all together. I bless you and I pray for you. And I ask you too, please, not to forget to pray for me. Thank you. Today I would like to wish a happy birthday to that mother who could not attend, she is in bed, but she turns 87 years old today. From all of us here, we send her best wishes.