“Those of you who are present were subjected to any number of trials: the horror of war, then political repression, persecution and exile. Yet you remained steadfast; you persevered in faith”. Pope Francis paid this tribute to the Lutheran Catholics on his visit to the Cathedral of St James. “Neither the Nazi regime nor the Soviet regime could extinguish the faith in your hearts. Neither could they stop some of you from becoming priests, religious sisters, catechists, or from serving the Church in other ways that put your lives at risk”, Pope Francis continued: “You fought the good fight; you ran the race, you kept the faith”. James the Apostle, Pope Francis noted, “stresses that this constancy in faith overcomes trials and produces perfect works”: “Your work, however perfect in those days, must also tend to perfection in today’s new situations”. “You, who devoted body and soul, who have given your life to winning freedom for your native land, now often find yourselves cast aside”, the Pope denounced. “Paradoxical as it may seem, nowadays, in the name of freedom, free men and women subject the elderly to solitude, abandonment, lack of assistance, social exclusion and even poverty. If that is the case, then the so-called train of freedom and progress has ended up with the very people who fought to gain those rights as its last car, onlookers at other people’s party, honoured in words but forgotten in daily life”.