Bangalore 16 January 2023 (CCBI): Totum Amoris Est- Apostolic Letter on the Fourth Centenary of the Death of Saint Francis de Sales by Pope Francis was released by Msgr. Wolfgang Huber, President of The International Catholic Mission Society MISSIO, Munich, Germany, in an event held at CCBI General Secretariat on Monday 16 January 2023. The first copy of the book was presented to Rev. Fr. Baptist Pais, SVD, Executive Secretary of the CCBI Commission for Ecumenism, in the presence of Rev. Dr. Stephen Alathara, Deputy Secretary General, CCBI and Mr. Peter Purdue.
This Apostolic Letter Totum amoris est, (‘Love is Everything’) marks the fourth centenary of the death of this Bishop of Geneva who was declared a Doctor of the Church and patron of journalists and communicators. The great vocation of Saint Francis was to ask ‘in every situation in life where the greatest love is to be found’. In his outstanding Treatise on the Love of God, he first and foremost bore outstanding witness to that love. ‘At the very thought of God, one immediately feels a certain delightful emotion of the heart, which testifies that God is God of the human heart.’ Faith is not ‘a passive and emotionless abandonment to a doctrine stripped of the flesh and history’ but is ‘first and foremost an attitude of the heart’, that is born from the contemplation of the life of Jesus.
This Apostolic Letter prompts a revisiting of the works of St Francis de Sales that have inspired many generations to reflect again on faith, hope and especially on charity. For copies kindly contact the CCBI General Secretariat or call Mobile no. +91-9886730224.
Rev. Dr. Stephen Alathara
Deputy Secretary General, CCBI