Praying for the souls in purgatory. (News in Brief: Vatican).

Vatican--A Papal message addressed on September 14, to the Minim Sisters of Our Lady of Suffrage who were holding their general chapter in Rome, emphasized the importance of the Congregation's charism. It consists in remembering the profound communion between the living and the dead.

The message stressed suffrage for the souls in purgatory. "The first and highest form of charity for others," the Pope said, "is the ardent desire for their eternal salvation. Christian love knows no boundaries and goes beyond the limits of space and time enabling us to love those who have already left the earth."

The Catechism of the Catholic Church in Nos. 1030 and 1031 states in part, "All who die in God's grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect."

The Holy Father also urged the religious to be "tireless and joyful heralds of hope to the humanity of our time, which too often seems darkened by violence and injustice, enclosed in merely earthly horizons."

The Minim Sisters of Our Lady of Suffrage, founded by Italian Blessed Francesco Faa di Bruno (1825-1888), number 210 nuns and novices around the world. They see their mission as "to pray" (in union with Christ), "to act" (in favour of men especially the weak, poor, and excluded); and "to suffer" (in offering their lives for the souls in purgatory).