CNA Staff, Mar 22, 2021 / 17:00 pm
Pope Francis on Monday encouraged students at Rome’s Pontifical Filipino College to welcome “the opportunities that the Lord gives you to follow him,” even when they live far from the Philippines.
Speaking in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall March 22, the pope congratulated the college, which hosts diocesan priests from the Philippines studying at pontifical universities in Rome, on its 60th anniversary.
He also highlighted the 500th anniversary of the first Mass in the Southeast Asian country, which took place on March 31, 1521.
In a reflection on the nature of time, released by the Vatican inItalianandSpanish, the pope urged students to embrace “the opportunities that the Lord gives you to follow him and to configure your lives to him, even when you are far from your beloved Philippines.”