"The Università Urbaniana, which is attended by students from every continent, is the best venue to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the birth of Saint Francis Xavier, the patron saint of the Missions". This was said this morning by card. Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, on the occasion of the closing of Xavier’s year. The missionary work, recalled the cardinal, has been "the most extraordinary and grand work ever made by the Society of Jesus". Grand, "in the number of countries in which Jesuits have been present with their apostolic commitment" as well as "in the difficulties they had to tackle". Extraordinary, "in the boldness of the projects of the missionary work". And "he who started and boosted this commitment was Saint Francis Xavier". Comparing Xavier’s time with today’s, the cardinal said that nowadays the possibility of "taking part in situations that are enormously distant from us" goes hand in hand with the contradiction of "a cultural and political tendency that promotes the interest of some people instead of the dignity of everyone". Now, just like then, he added, "we need a new Christian spring", we need "to let ourselves be guided by the Spirit, outside the boundaries of the Church", to "proclaim the Gospel with an optimism that is not naïve, that does not denies problems but tackles them".
