Angelus

Angelus - 11 March 2012, Benedict XVI

BENEDICT XVI

ANGELUS

St. Peter's Square

Sunday, 11 March 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

On this Third Sunday of Lent the Gospel — in St John’s version — refers to the famous episode of Jesus who drives the animal dealers and the money-changers out of the Temple of Jerusalem (cf. Jn 2:13-25). The event, recorded by all the Evangelists, happened in the Passover Feast and made a deep impression on both the crowd and the disciples. How should we interpret Jesus’ action?

First of all it should be noted that it did not provoke any repression from the keepers of public order because it was seen as a typical prophetic action: indeed, in God’s name prophets often reported abuse and sometimes did so with symbolic gestures. The problem, if there was one, concerned their authority. For this reason the Jews asked Jesus: “What sign have you to show us for doing this?” (Jn 2:18), show us that you are truly acting in God’s name.

The expulsion of the dealers from the Temple has also been interpreted in a political and revolutionary sense, placing Jesus on a par with the zealots’ movement. The zealots were, precisely, “zealous” for God’s law and prepared to use violence to enforce respect for it. In Jesus’ day they were awaiting a Messiah who would free Israel from Roman domination. But Jesus did not fulfil this expectation, so much so that some disciples abandoned him and Judas Iscariot even betrayed him.

In fact it is impossible to interpret Jesus as violent: violence is contrary to the Kingdom of God, it is a tool of the antichrist. Violence is never useful to humanity but dehumanizes it.

Let us, therefore, listen to the words that Jesus spoke while he was carrying out this action. “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade”. And the disciples then remembered that in a Psalm is written: “zeal for your house has consumed me” (69[68]:10).

This Psalm is a call for help in a situation of extreme danger, because of the hatred of enemies: the plight that Jesus was to live through in his Passion. Zeal for the Father and for his house was to bring him to the cross: his was the zeal of love that pays in person, not the zeal that would like to serve God through violence.

In fact the “sign” that Jesus was to give as proof of his authority would be his very death and Resurrection. “Destroy this temple”, he said, “and in three days I will raise it up”. And St John recorded: “he spoke of the temple of his body” (Jn 2:20-21). With the Pasch of Jesus a new form of worship begins, the cult of love, and a new temple which is he himself, the Risen Christ, through whom every believer can worship God “in spirit and truth” (Jn 4:23).

Dear friends, the Holy Spirit began to build this new temple in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Let us pray through his intercession that every Christian may become a living stone of this spiritual building.

After the Angelus:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

My thoughts turn first of all to the beloved populations of Madagascar who were recently hit by violent natural disasters with serious damage to people, structures and farming. While I offer the assurance of my prayers for the victims and for the most severely tried families, I hope for and encourage the generous aid of the international community.

I greet the English-speaking visitors present for this Angelus prayer, including the Neocatechumenal Community from Bristol. In today’s Gospel Jesus foretells his Resurrection and points to the temple which is his body, the Church. May our meditation on these mysteries deepen our union with the Lord and his body, the Church. Upon all of you I invoke God’s blessings!

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week. Thank you. Have a good Sunday!

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Angelus 19 February 2012, Benedict XVI

BENEDICT XVI

ANGELUS

St. Peter's Square

Solemnity of the Chair of St. Peter

Sunday, 19 February 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This Sunday is particularly festive here in the Vatican because of the Consistory held yesterday at which I created 22 new Cardinals. This morning I have had the joy of concelebrating the Eucharist with them in St Peter’s Basilica, around the tomb of the Apostle whom Jesus called the “rock” on which to build his Church (cf. Mt 16:18).

I therefore invite all of you to join in with your prayers too for these venerable Brothers, who are now more committed to working with me in the guidance of the universal Church and to bearing witness to the Gospel, even to the point of sacrificing life. This is what the red colour of their habits means: the colour of blood and love.

Some of them work in Rome at the service of the Holy See, others are Pastors of important diocesan Churches; yet others are distinguished by their long and appreciated work of study and teaching. They now belong to the College that more closely assists the Pope in his ministry of communion and evangelization: let us welcome them with joy, remembering what Jesus said to the Twelve Apostles: “Whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:44-45).

This ecclesial event is set against the liturgical backdrop of the Feast of the Chair of St Peter, brought forward to today because next 22 February — the date of this Feast — will be Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The “chair” [in Latin: cattedra] is the seat reserved to the bishop. From this term comes the name “cathedral”, given to the church in which, precisely, the bishop presides at the liturgy and teaches the people.

The Chair of St Peter, represented in the apse of the Vatican Basilica is a monumental sculpture by Bernini. It is a symbol of the special mission of Peter and his Successors to tend Christ’s flock, keeping it united in faith and in charity. At the beginning of the second century St Ignatius of Antioch attributed a special primacy to the Church which is in Rome, greeting her in his Letter to the Romans as the one which “presides in charity”. It is because the Apostles Peter and Paul, together with many other martyrs, poured out their blood in this City, that this special task of service depends on the Community of Rome and on its Bishop. Let us, thus, return to the witness of blood and of charity. The Chair of Peter is therefore the sign of authority, but of Christ’s authority, based on faith and on love.

Dear friends, let us entrust the new Cardinals to the motherly protection of Mary Most Holy, so that she may always help them in their ecclesial service and sustain them in their trials. May Mary, Mother of the Church, help me and my co-workers to work tirelessly for the unity of the People of God and to proclaim to all peoples the message of salvation, humbly, valiantly carrying out the service of truth in charity.

After the Angelus:

I welcome all the English-speaking visitors present for this Angelus prayer, especially those accompanying the new Cardinals. In today’s Gospel, Jesus grants healing and life in body and soul in response to faith. May we too believe and trust in Christ, and seek from him both forgiveness of sin and the power to live a new life of grace. Upon all of you I invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace!

I wish you all a good Sunday, a good week. Have a good Sunday everyone!

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Angelus 26 February 2012, Benedict XVI

BENEDICT XVI

ANGELUS

St. Peter's Square

Sunday, 26 February 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

On this First Sunday of Lent we meet Jesus who, after receiving Baptism from John the Baptist in the River Jordan (cf. Mk 1:9), is subjected to temptation in the wilderness (cf. Mk 1:12-13). St Mark’s concise narrative lacks the details we read in the other two Gospels of Matthew and Luke. The wilderness referred to has various meanings. It can indicate the state of abandonment and loneliness, the “place” of human weakness, devoid of support and safety, where temptation grows stronger.

However, it can also indicate a place of refuge and shelter — as it was for the People of Israel who had escaped from slavery in Egypt — where it is possible to experience God’s presence in a special way. Jesus “was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan” (Mk 1:13). St Leo the Great comments that “The Lord wanted to suffer the attack of the tempter in order to defend us with his help and to instruct us with his example (Tractatus XXXIX,3 De ieiunio quadragesimae: CCL 138/A, Turnholti 1973, 214-215).

What can this episode teach us? As we read in the book The Imitation of Christ, “There is no man wholly free from temptations so long as he lives... but by endurance and true humility we are made stronger than all our enemies” (Liber I, C. XIII, Vatican City 1982, 37), endurance and the humility of following the Lord every day, learning not to build our lives outside him or as though he did not exist, but in him and with him, for he is the source of true life.

The temptation to remove God, to arrange things within us and in the world by ourselves, relying on our own abilities, has always been present in human history.

Jesus proclaims that “the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mk 1:15), he announces that in him something new happens: God turns to the human being in an unexpected way, with a unique, tangible closeness, full of love; God is incarnate and enters the human world to take sin upon himself, to conquer evil and usher men and women into the world of God.

However, this proclamation is accompanied by the request to measure up to such a great gift. In fact Jesus adds: “Repent, and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15). It is an invitation to have faith in God and to convert all our actions and thoughts to goodness, every day. The season of Lent is a favourable moment for renewing and reinforcing our relationship with God, through daily prayer, acts of penance and works of brotherly charity.

Let us fervently beg Mary Most Holy to accompany us on our Lenten journey with her protection and to help us to impress the words of Jesus Christ in our hearts and in our lives so as to convert to him. In addition, I entrust to your prayers the week of Spiritual Exercises which I shall begin this evening with my co-workers in the Roman Curia.

After the Angelus:

I am pleased to greet all the English-speaking visitors and pilgrims present for this moment of prayer. In these first days of Lent, I invite you to embrace the spirit of this holy season, through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. As we do so, may the Lord accompany us, so that, at the end of Lent, we may worthily celebrate his victory on the cross. God bless all of you abundantly! I wish you all a good Sunday.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Angelus - 4 March 2012, Benedict XVI

BENEDICT XVI

ANGELUS

St. Peter's Square

Sunday, 4 March 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This Sunday, the Second Sunday of Lent, is known as the Transfiguration of Christ. Indeed in the Lenten itinerary, having invited us to follow Jesus into the wilderness to face and overcome the temptations with him, the Liturgy now proposes that we climb the “mountain” of prayer with him to contemplate God’s glorious radiance on his human face. The episode of the Transfiguration of Christ is unanimously attested by the Evangelists Matthew, Mark and Luke. There are two essential elements: first of all, Jesus leads the disciples Peter, James and John up a high mountain and there “he was transfigured before them” (Mk 9:2) and his face and his garments shone with dazzling light while Moses and Elijah appeared beside him; the second, a cloud overshadowed the mountain peak and from it came a voice saying: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (Mk 9:7). Thus, light and the voice: the divine radiance on Jesus’ face, and the voice of the heavenly Father that witnesses to him and commands that he be listened to.

The mystery of the Transfiguration must not be separated from the context of the path Jesus is following. He is now decisively oriented to fulfilling his mission, knowing all too well that to arrive at the Resurrection he must pass through the Passion and death on the Cross. He had spoken openly of this to his disciples; but they did not understand, on the contrary they rejected this prospect because they were not reasoning in accordance with God, but in accordance with men (cf. Mt 16:23).

It is for this reason that Jesus takes three of them with him up the mountain and reveals his divine glory, the splendour of Truth and of Love. Jesus wants this light to illuminate their hearts when they pass through the thick darkness of his Passion and death, when the folly of the Cross becomes unbearable to them. God is light, and Jesus wishes to give his closest friends the experience of this light which dwells within him.

After this event, therefore, he will be an inner light within them that can protect them from any assault of darkness. Even on the darkest of nights, Jesus is the lamp that never goes out. St Augustine sums up this mystery in beautiful words, he says: “what this sun is to the eyes of the flesh, that is [Christ] to the eyes of the heart” (Sermones 78, 2: PL 38, 490).

Dear brothers and sisters, we all need inner light to overcome the trials of life. This light comes from God and it is Christ who gives it to us, the One in whom the fullness of deity dwells (cf. Col 2:9). Let us climb with Jesus the mountain of prayer and, contemplating his face full of love and truth, let us allow ourselves to be filled with his light. Let us ask the Virgin Mary, our guide on the journey of faith, to help us to live out this experience in the season of Lent, finding every day a few moments for silent prayer and for listening to the Word of God.

After the Angelus:

I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present at this Angelus prayer, especially students from the United States of America. In today’s Gospel, Jesus is transfigured, and shows his disciples that his Passion will lead to the Resurrection. By God’s grace, may our Lenten observance lead to a renewal of his radiance within us. Upon you and your loved ones, I invoke God’s abundant blessings!

I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week. Thank you for coming. Have a good Sunday!

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Homilies

Pastoral Visit to the Roman Parish of San Giovanni Battista de La Salle al Torrino, Homily of Benedict XVI, 4 March 2012

PASTORAL VISIT TO THE ROMAN PARISH OF

ST. JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE AT TORRINO

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Sunday, 4 March 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Parish of St John Baptist de La Salle,

First of all I would like to say a heartfelt thank you for this most cordial and warm welcome. I am grateful to the good Parish Priest for his beautiful words, and for the spirit of familiarity that I am encountering. We really are a family of God and the fact that you also see the Pope as a father is something very lovely that encourages me! However we must now remember that the Pope is not the highest authority to appeal to. The highest is the Lord and let us look to the Lord in order to perceive, to understand — as far as we can — something of the message of this Second Sunday of Lent.

Today’s liturgy prepares us both for the mystery of the Passion — as we heard in the First Reading — and for the joy of the Resurrection.

The First Reading refers us to the episode in which God puts Abraham to the test (cf. Gen 22:1-18). He had an only son, Isaac, who was born to him in his old age. He was the son of the promise, the son who would also bring salvation to the peoples. Nevertheless one day Abraham received from God the order to sacrifice him as an offering.

The elderly patriarch found himself facing the prospect of a sacrifice which for him, as a father, was without any doubt the greatest imaginable. Yet not even for a moment did he hesitate and having made the necessary preparations, he set out with Isaac for the arranged place.

And we can imagine this journey toward the mountaintop, and what happened in his own heart and in his son’s. He builds an altar, lays the wood upon it and having bound the boy, grasps the knife, ready to sacrifice him. Abraham trusts totally in God, to the point of being ready even to sacrifice his own son and, with his son the future, for without a child the promised land was as nothing, ends in nothing. And in sacrificing his son he is sacrificing himself, his whole future, the whole of the promise. It really is the most radical act of faith. At that very moment he is restrained by an order from on high: God does not want death, but life, the true sacrifice does not bring death but life, and Abraham’s obedience became the source of an immense blessing to this day. Let us end here now, but we can meditate upon this mystery.

In the Second Reading, St Paul says that God himself has made a sacrifice: he has given us his own Son, he gave him on the Cross to triumph over sin and death, to triumph over the Evil One and to overcome all the evil that exists in the world. And God’s extraordinary mercy inspires the Apostle’s admiration and profound trust in the power of God’s love for us; indeed, St Paul says: “He [God] who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?” (Rom 8:32).

If God gives himself in the Son, he gives us everything. And Paul insists on the power of Christ’s redeeming sacrifice against every other force that can threaten our life.

He wonders: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us?” (vv. 33-34).

We are in God’s heart, this is our great trust. This creates love and in love we go towards God. If God has given his own Son for all of us, no one can accuse us, no one can condemn us, no one can separate us from his immense love. Precisely the supreme sacrifice of love on the Cross, which the Son of God accepted and chose willingly, becomes the source of our justification, of our salvation. Just think that this act of the Lord’s endures in the Blessed Eucharist, and in his heart, for eternity, and this act of love attracts us, unites us with him.

Lastly, the Gospel speaks to us of the episode of the Transfiguration (cf. Mk 9:2-10): Jesus manifests himself in his glory before the sacrifice of the Cross and God the Father proclaims his beloved Son, the one he loves, and commands the disciples to listen to him. Jesus goes up a high mountain and takes three Apostles with him — Peter, James and John — who will be particularly close to him in his extreme agony, on another mountain, the Mount of Olives.

A little earlier the Lord had announced his Passion and Peter had been unable to understand why the Lord, the Son of God, should speak of suffering, rejection, death, a Cross, indeed he had opposed the prospect of all this with determination.

Jesus now takes the three disciples with him to help them to understand that the path to attaining glory, the path of luminous love that overcomes darkness, passes through the total gift of self, passes through the folly of the Cross. And the Lord must take us with him too ever anew, at least if we are to begin to understand that this is the route to take.

The Transfiguration is a moment of light in advance, which also helps us see Christ’s Passion with a gaze of faith. Indeed, it is a mystery of suffering but it is also the “blessed Passion” because — in essence — it is a mystery of God’s extraordinary love; it is the definitive exodus that opens for us the door to the freedom and newness of the Resurrection, of salvation from evil. We need it on our daily journey, so often also marked by the darkness of evil.

Dear brothers and sisters, as I have said, I am very happy to be with you today to celebrate the Lord’s Day. I cordially greet the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishop of the Sector, Fr Giampaolo Perugini, your parish priest, whom I thank once again for his kind words on behalf of you all and also for the pleasing gifts you have offered me.

I greet the Parochial Vicars. And I greet the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who have been here for so many years. They deserve praise for having fostered the life of this parish, because their house immediately offered generous hospitality to it, during the first three years of its life.

I then extend my greeting to the Brothers of the Christian Schools, who are naturally attached to this parish church dedicated to their Founder. I greet in addition all those who are active in the parish context. I am referring to the catechists, the members of the associations and movements, as well as the various parish groups. Lastly I would like to embrace in spirit all the inhabitants of the district, and especially the elderly, the sick, and people who are lonely or in difficulty.

In coming to you today I noticed the special position of this church, set at the highest point in the district and endowed with a slender spire, as if it were a finger or an arrow pointing towards heaven. It seems to me that this is an important indication: like the three Apostles of the Gospel, we also need to climb the mountain of the Transfiguration to receive God’s light, so that his Face may illuminate our face. And it is in personal and community prayer that we encounter the Lord, not as an idea or a moral proposal but, rather, as a Person who wishes to enter into a relationship with us, who wants to be a friend and to renew our life to make it like his.

This encounter is not solely a personal event; your church, set at the highest point in the neighbourhood, reminds you that the Gospel must be communicated and proclaimed to all. We do not expect others to bring different messages, that do not lead to true life. Make yourselves missionaries of Christ to your brothers and sisters wherever they live, work, study or just spend their leisure time.

I know about the many important evangelization projects that you undertake, in particular through the after-school prayer and recreation centre called “Pole-star” — I am also glad to wear this shirt (the centre’s shirt) — where, thanks to the volunteer work of competent and generous people and the involvement of families, the gathering of young people through sports is encouraged, without however neglecting their cultural formation, through art and music. Above all the relationship with God, the Christian values and an increasingly aware participation in the Sunday Eucharistic celebration, are inculcated in them here.

I rejoice that the sense of belonging to the parish community has continued to develop and been consolidated down the years. Faith must be lived together and the parish is a place in which we learn to live our own faith in the “we” of the Church. And I would like to encourage you to promote pastoral co-responsibility too, in a perspective of authentic communion among all the realities present, which are called to walk together, to live complementarity in diversity, to witness to the “we” of the Church, of God’s family.

I know how committed you are in preparing the children and young people for the sacraments of Christian life. May the upcoming “Year of Faith” be a favourable opportunity also for this parish to increase and to reinforce the experience of catechesis on the great truths of the Christian faith, so as to enable the whole neighbourhood to know and to deepen its knowledge of the Church’s Creed, and to surmount that “religious illiteracy” which is one of the greatest difficulties of our day.

Dear friend, yours is a young community — it is made up of young families and, thanks be to God, of the numerous children and youth who live in it. In this regard, I would like to recall the task of the family and of the entire Christian community to educate in faith, assisted in this by the theme of the current Pastoral Year, by the Pastoral Guidelines proposed by the Italian Episcopal Conference and without forgetting the profound and ever up to date teaching of St John Baptist de La Salle.

You in particular, dear families, are the environment in which the first steps of faith are taken; may you be communities in which one learns to know and love the Lord more and more, communities in which each enriches the other in order to live a truly adult faith.

Lastly, I would like to remind all of you of the importance and centrality of the Eucharist in personal and community life. May the heart of your Sunday be Holy Mass which should be rediscovered and lived as a day of God and of the community, a day on which to praise and celebrate the One who died and was raised for our salvation, a day on which to live together the joy of an open community, ready to receive every person who is lonely or in difficulty.

Indeed, gathered around the Eucharist in fact, we more easily realize that the mission of every Christian community is to bring the message of God’s love to everyone. This is why it is important that the Eucharist always be at the heart of the faithful’s life, just as it is today.

Dear brothers and sisters, from Mount Tabor, the mountain of the Transfiguration, the Lenten journey takes us to Golgotha, the hill of the supreme sacrifice of love of the one Priest of the new and eternal Covenant. That sacrifice contains the greatest power of transformation of both the human being and of history. Taking upon himself every consequence of evil and sin, Jesus rose the third day as the conqueror of death and of the Evil One. Lent prepares us to take part personally in this great mystery of faith which we shall celebrate in the Triduum of the Passion, death and Resurrection of Christ.

Let us entrust our Lenten journey and likewise that of the whole Church to the Virgin Mary. May she, who followed her Son Jesus to the Cross, help us to be faithful disciples of Christ, mature Christians, to be able to share with her in the fullness of Easter joy. Amen!

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Vespers on the occasion of the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio, Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI, 10 March 2012

VESPERS ON THE OCCASION OF THE VISIT

OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Basilica of "San Gregorio al Celio"

Saturday, 10 March 2012

Your Grace,

Dear Brother Bishops and Priests,

Dear Monks and Nuns of Camaldoli,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It gives me great joy to be here today in this Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio for Solemn Vespers on the liturgical commemoration of the death of Saint Gregory the Great. With you, dear Brothers and Sisters of the Camaldolese family, I thank God for the thousand years that have passed since the foundation of the Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli by Saint Romuald. I am delighted to be joined on this occasion by His Grace Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. To you, my dear Brother in Christ, and to each one of you, dear monks and nuns, and to everyone present, I extend cordial greetings.

We have listened to two passages from Saint Paul. The first, taken from the Second Letter to the Corinthians, is particularly appropriate for the current liturgical season of Lent. It contains the Apostle’s exhortation to seize the favourable moment for receiving God’s grace. The favourable moment is naturally when Jesus Christ came to reveal and to bestow upon us the love that God has for us, through his incarnation, passion, death and resurrection. The “day of salvation” is the same reality that Saint Paul in another place describes as the “fullness of time”, the moment when God took flesh and entered time in a completely unique way, filling it with his grace. It is for us, then, to accept this gift, which is Jesus himself: his person, his word, his Holy Spirit. Moreover, in the first reading, Saint Paul tells us about himself and his apostolate – how he strives to remain faithful to God in his ministry, so that it may be truly efficacious and may not prove instead a barrier to faith. These words make us think of Saint Gregory the Great, of the radiant witness that he offered the people of Rome and the whole Church by a blameless ministry full of zeal for the Gospel. Truly, what Saint Paul wrote of himself applies equally to Gregory: the grace of God in him has not been fruitless (cf. 1 Cor 15:10). This, indeed, is the secret for the lives of every one of us: to welcome God’s grace and to consent with all our heart and all our strength to its action. This is also the secret of true joy and profound peace.

The second reading was taken from the Letter to the Colossians. We heard those words – always so moving for their spiritual and pastoral inspiration – that the Apostle addressed to the members of that community in order to form them according to the Gospel, saying to them: “whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Col 3:17). “Be perfect”, the Master said to his disciples; and now the Apostle exhorts his listeners to live according to the high measure of Christian life that is holiness. He can do this because the brothers he is addressing are “chosen by God, holy and beloved”. Here too, at the root of everything, is the grace of God, the gift of the call, the mystery of the encounter with the living Jesus. But this grace demands a response from those who have been baptized: it requires the commitment to be reclothed in Christ’s sentiments: tenderness, goodness, humility, meekness, magnanimity, mutual forgiveness, and above all, as a synthesis and a crown, agape, the love that God has given us through Jesus, the love that the Holy Spirit has poured into our hearts. And if we are to be reclothed in Christ, his word must dwell among us and in us, with all its richness and in abundance. In an atmosphere of constant thanksgiving, the Christian community feeds on the word and causes to rise towards God, as a song of praise, the word that he himself has given us. And every action, every gesture, every service, is accomplished within this profound relationship with God, in the interior movement of Trinitarian love that descends towards us and rises back towards God, a movement that finds its highest expression in the eucharistic sacrifice.

This word also sheds light upon the happy circumstances that bring us together today, in the name of Saint Gregory the Great. Through the faithfulness and benevolence of the Lord, the Congregation of Camaldolese monks of the Order of Saint Benedict has completed a thousand years of history, feeding daily on the word of God and the Eucharist, as their founder Saint Romuald taught them, according to the triplex bonum of solitude, community life and evangelization. Exemplary men and women of God, such as Saint Peter Damian, Gratian – author of the Decretum – Saint Bruno of Querfurt and the five brother martyrs, Rudolph I and II, Blessed Gherardesca, Blessed Giovanna da Bagno and Blessed Paolo Giustiniani; men of art and science like Brother Maurus the Cosmographer, Lorenzo Monaco, Ambrogio Traversari, Pietro Delfino and Guido Grandi; illustrious historians like the Camaldolese Annalists Giovanni Benedetto Mittarelli and Anselmo Costadoni; zealous pastors of the Church, among whom Pope Gregory XVI stands out, have revealed the horizons and the great fruitfulness of the Camaldolese tradition.

Every phase of the long history of the Camaldolese has produced faithful witnesses of the Gospel, not only in the hidden life of silence and solitude and in the common life shared with the brethren, but also in humble and generous service towards others. Particularly fruitful was the hospitality offered by Camaldolese guest-houses. In the days of Florentine humanism, the walls of Camaldoli witnessed the famous disputationes, in which great humanists such as Marsilio Ficino and Cristoforo Landino took part. In the turbulent years of the Second World War, those same cloisters were the setting for the birth of the famous Codex of Camaldoli, one of the most significant sources of the Constitution of the Italian Republic. Nor were the years of the Second Vatican Council any less productive, for at that time individuals of high calibre emerged among the Camaldolese, enriching the Congregation and the Church and promoting new initiatives and new houses in the United States of America, Tanzania, India and Brazil. In all this activity, a guarantee of fruitfulness was the support of monks and nuns praying constantly for the new foundations from the depths of their “withdrawal from the world”, lived at times to a heroic degree.

On 17 September 1993, during his meeting with the monks of the Sacred Hermitage of Camaldoli, Blessed John Paul II commented on the theme of their imminent General Chapter, “Choosing hope, choosing the future”, with these words: “Choosing hope and the future in the last analysis implies choosing God ... It means choosing Christ, the hope of every human being.” And he continued, “This particularly occurs in that form of life which God himself brought about in the Church, inspiring Saint Romuald to found the Benedictine family of Camaldoli, with its characteristic complementarity of hermitage and monastery, solitary life and cenobitic life in harmony with each other.” Moreover, my blessed Predecessor emphasized that “choosing God also means humbly and patiently cultivating, according to God’s design, ecumenical and interreligious dialogue”, always on the basis of fidelity to the original charism received from Saint Romuald and transmitted through a thousand years of varied tradition.

Encouraged by the visit from the Successor of Peter, and by his words, all of you Camaldolese monks and nuns have pursued your path, constantly seeking the right balance between the eremitical and the cenobitic spirit, between the need to dedicate yourselves totally to God in solitude, the need to support one another in communal prayer, and the need to welcome others so that they can draw upon the wellsprings of spiritual life and evaluate the events of the world with a truly Gospel-formed conscience. In this way you seek to attain that perfecta caritas that Saint Gregory the Great considered the point of arrival of every manifestation of faith, a commitment that finds confirmation in the motto of your coat of arms: “Ego Vobis, vos mihi”, a synthesis of the covenant formula between God and his people, and a source of the perennial vitality of your charism.

The Monastery of San Gregorio al Celio is the Roman setting for our celebration of the millennium of Camaldoli in company with His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury who, together with us, recognizes this Monastery as the birthplace of the link between Christianity in Britain and the Church of Rome. Today’s celebration is therefore marked by a profoundly ecumenical character which, as we know, is part and parcel of the modern Camaldolese spirit. This Roman Camaldolese Monastery has developed with Canterbury and the Anglican Communion, especially since the Second Vatican Council, links that now qualify as traditional. Today, for the third time, the Bishop of Rome is meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury in the home of Saint Gregory the Great. And it is right that it should be so, because it was from this Monastery that Pope Gregory chose Augustine and his forty monks and sent them to bring the Gospel to the Angles, a little over 1,400 years ago. The constant presence of monks in this place, over such a long period, is already in itself a testimony of God’s faithfulness to his Church, which we are happy to be able to proclaim to the whole world. We hope that the sign of our presence here together in front of the holy altar, where Gregory himself celebrated the eucharistic sacrifice, will remain not only as a reminder of our fraternal encounter, but also as a stimulus for all the faithful – both Catholic and Anglican – encouraging them, as they visit the glorious tombs of the holy Apostles and Martyrs in Rome, to renew their commitment to pray constantly and to work for unity, and to live fully in accordance with the “ut unum sint” that Jesus addressed to the Father.

This profound desire, that we have the joy of sharing, we entrust to the heavenly intercession of Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Romuald. Amen.

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Ash Wednesday, 22 February 2012 - Homily of Benedict XVI

"STATIO" AND PENITENTIAL PROCESSION

FROM THE CHURCH OF ST ANSELM

TO THE BASILICA OF ST SABINA ON THE AVENTINE HILL

HOLY MASS, BLESSING AND IMPOSITION OF THE ASHES

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Basilica of St Sabina

Ash Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Venerable Brothers,

Dear Brothers and Sisters

With this day of penance and fasting — Ash Wednesday — we are beginning a new journey to the Resurrection at Easter: the journey of Lent. I would like to reflect briefly on the liturgical symbol of Ashes, a material sign, a natural element, which in the liturgy becomes a sacred symbol, very important on this day which marks the beginning of the Lenten journey. In ancient times, in the Jewish culture, it was common practice to sprinkle ashes on one’s head as a sign of penance, and often also to dress in sack-cloth or rags. Instead, for us Christians this is a special moment which has considerable ritual and spiritual importance.

Firstly, ashes are one of the material signs that bring the cosmos into the Liturgy. The most important signs are those of the Sacraments: water, oil, bread and wine, which become true sacramental elements through which we receive the grace of Christ which comes among us. The ashes are not a sacramental sign, but are nevertheless linked to prayer and the sanctification of the Christian people. In fact, before the distribution of ashes on the heads of each one of us — which we will soon do — they are blessed according to two possible formulas: in the first, they are called “austere symbols”, in the second, we invoke a blessing directly upon them, referring to the text in the Book of Genesis which can also accompany the act of the imposition: “Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (cf. Gen 3:19).

Let us reflect for a moment on this passage of Genesis. It concludes with a judgement God delivered after the original sin. God curses the serpent who caused man and woman to sin. Then he punishes the woman telling her that she will give birth with great pain and will have a biased relationship with her husband. Then he punishes the man, saying he will toil and labour and curses the ground saying “cursed is the ground because of you” (Gen 3:17) because of your sin. Therefore, the man and woman are not cursed directly as the serpent is, but because of Adam’s sin; cursed is the ground from which he was taken. Let us reread the magnificent account of how God created man from the Earth. “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed” (Gen 2:7-8); taken from the Book of Genesis.

Thus the sign of the Ashes recalls the great fresco of creation which tells us that the human being is a singular unity of matter and of the Divine breath, using the image of dust moulded by God and given life by the breath breathed into the nostrils of the new creature.

In Genesis, the symbol of dust takes on a negative connotation because of sin. Whereas before the fall the soil was a totally good element, irrigated by spring water (cf. Gen 2:6) and through God’s work was capable of producing “every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food” (Gen 2:9).

After the fall and the divine curse it was to produce only “thorns and thistles”, and only in exchange for the “toil” and the “sweat of your face” would it bear fruit (cf. Gen 3:17-19). The dust of the earth no longer recalls the creative hand of God, one that is open to life, but becomes a sign of an inexorable destiny of death: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen 3:19).

It is clear in this Biblical text that the earth participates in man’s destiny. In one of his homilies, St John Chrysostom says: “See how after his disobedience, everything is imposed on man in a way that is contrary to his previous style of life” (Sermones in Genesis 17:9: PG 53, 146). This cursing of the ground has a “medicinal” function for man who learns from the earth’s “resistance” to recognize his limitations and his own human nature (ibid.).

Another ancient commentary summarizes this beautifully, saying: “Adam was created pure by God to serve him. All creatures were created for the service of man. He was destined to be lord and king over all creatures. But when he embraced evil he did so by listening to something outside himself. This penetrated his heart and took over his whole being. Thus ensnared by evil, Creation, which had assisted and served him, was ensnared together with him” (Pseudo-Macarius, Homily 11, 5: PG 34, 547).

As we said earlier, quoting St John Chrysostom, the cursing of the ground has a “medicinal” function: meaning that God’s intention is always good and more profound than the curse. The curse, indeed, does not come from God but from sin. God cannot avoid inflicting it, because he respects man’s freedom and its consequences, even when they are negative. Thus, within the punishment and within the curse of the ground, there is a good intention that comes from God. When he says to man, “you are dust, and to dust you shall return”, together with the just punishment, he also intends to announce the way to salvation, which will pass precisely through the earth, through that “dust”, that “flesh” which will be assumed by the [Incarnate] Word.

It is in this salvific perspective that the words of Genesis are repeated in the Ash Wednesday Liturgy: as an invitation to penance, humility, and to have an awareness of our mortal state, not to end in despair, but rather to welcome in this mortal state of ours the unthinkable closeness of God who beyond death, opens the way to resurrection, to paradise finally regained. There is a similar text by Origen that says: “What was initially flesh, from the earth, a man of dust (cf. 1 Cor 15:47), and was destroyed by death and returned to dust and ashes — as is written: you are dust, and to dust you shall return — is made to rise again from the earth. Later, according to the merits of the soul that inhabits the body, the person advances towards the glory of a spiritual body” (Sui Prìncipi 3, 6, 5: S.Ch, 268, 248).

The “merits of the soul” of which Origen speaks, are necessary; the merits of Christ, the efficacy of his Paschal Mystery are fundamental. St Paul has summed it for us in the Second Letter to the Corinthians, today’s Second Reading: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:11). Our possibility of receiving divine forgiveness depends essentially on the fact that God himself, in the person of his Son, wished to share in our human condition, but not in the corruption of sin.

The Father raised him through the power of his Holy Spirit and Jesus, the new Adam, became, as St Paul says: “a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45), the first fruits of the new creation.

The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead can turn our hearts from hearts of stone into hearts of flesh (cf. Ezek 36:26). We invoked him just now in the Psalm Miserere: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your holy Spirit from me” (Ps 51[50]:10, 11). That same God who banished our first parents from Eden, sent his own Son to this earth, devastated by sin, without sparing him, so that we, as prodigal children might return, repentent and redeemed through his mercy, to our true homeland. So may it be for all of us, for all believers, and for all those who humbly recognize their need for salvation. Amen.

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Messages

Message to the International Convention "Jesus, Our Contemporary"

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

TO THE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION

"JESUS, OUR CONTEMPORARY"

[ROME, 9-11 FEBRUARY 2012]

To My Venerable Brother

Cardinal ANGELO BAGNASCO

Metropolitan Archbishop of Genoa

President of the Italian Episcopal Conference

On the occasion of the International Convention “Jesus, Our Contemporary”, which is taking place in Rome from 9 to 11 February 2012 at the initiative of the Italian Episcopal Conference’s Committee for the Cultural Project, I address a cordial greeting to you, Venerable Brother, to the Cardinals and Bishops present, to the Relators, to the organizers and to all those who are taking part in such an important event.

I am very glad and grateful for the opportunity to dedicate to the Person of Jesus a few days of close interdisciplinary study with a cultural approach, destined to have an impact on the Italian ecclesial and social communities. Many signs, in fact, reveal that the Name and message of Jesus of Nazareth, despite such disoriented and rapid times, frequently spark interest and exert a strong attraction, even on those who do not succeed in adhering to his word of salvation. We are therefore impelled to evoke an increasingly profound and thorough understanding, in ourselves and everywhere, of the real figure of Jesus Christ. This can only spring from the hermeneutic of faith placed in a fruitful relationship with historical reason. It was for this purpose that I wrote my two books on Jesus of Nazareth.

It is indeed significant that in elaborating the culture of the Christian community, a topic should have been chosen that cannot be considered an exclusive object of the sacred disciplines as is clearly shown by the vast range of the abilities and the plurality of the voices called to attend the Convention. The evangelization of culture, to which the Cultural Project of the Italian Episcopal Conference aspires, is based on the conviction that the life of a person and of a people can be enlivened and transformed by the Gospel in all its dimensions, in order fully to achieve its purpose and its truth.

On several occasions in the course of my Pontificate, I have recalled the need to give priority to opening a pathway to God in human hearts and lives. “With him or without him everything changes”, the incisive title of the previous Convention of the Committee for the Cultural Project incisively affirmed. We cannot entrust our lives to an indefinite superior body or to a cosmic force, but to God whose Face as Father has been made familiar by the Son, “full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14).

Jesus is the key that opens the door of wisdom and love to us, that dispels our loneliness and keeps hope alive in the face of the mystery of evil and death. The life of Jesus of Nazareth, in whose Name many believers in various countries of the world still today face suffering and persecution, cannot, therefore, be confined to a distant past but is crucial to our faith today.

What does it mean to say that Jesus of Nazareth, who lived between Galilee and Judaea 2,000 years ago, is a “contemporary” of every man and woman alive today, and in every epoch? Romano Guardini explains it to us in words that remain as timely as when they were written: “His earthly life entered into eternity and in this way is related to every hour of earthly time, redeemed by his sacrifice…. An ineffable mystery is brought about in the believer: Christ who is ‘above’, ‘seated at the right hand of God’ (Col 3:1), is also ‘in’ this man, with the fullness of his redemption, for in every Christian the life of Christ is brought about once again: his growth, his maturity, his Passion, death and resurrection, which constitute true life” (Il testamento di Gesù, Milan 1993, p. 141).

Jesus entered human history for ever and lives on in it with his beauty and power, in that frail body — ever in need of purification but also infinitely full of divine love — which is the Church. To him she turns in the Liturgy, to praise him and to receive authentic life.

The contemporaneity of Jesus is revealed in a special way in the Eucharist, in which he is present with his passion, death and Resurrection. It is this that makes the Church contemporaneous with every human being, capable of embracing all people and all epochs because she is guided by the Holy Spirit in order to perpetuate the work of Jesus in history.

In entrusting these thoughts to you, Venerable Brother, I warmly send you and all the participants in the Convention my cordial greeting, together with my good wishes for its success. I accompany your work with prayer and with my Apostolic Blessing, to favour an ever closer communion with Jesus and with the Father who sent him to us.

From the Vatican, 9 February 2012

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

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Message on the occasion of the Lenten ecumenical Brotherhood Campaign in Brazil

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

TO BRAZILIAN BISHOPS

FOR THE 2012 BROTHERHOOD CAMPAIGN

To my Venerable Brother

CARDINAL RAYMUNDO DAMASCENO ASSIS

Archbishop of Aparecida, SP

President of the CNBB

Fraternal greetings in Christ the Lord!

I willingly join the National Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Brazil which is launching a new Brotherhood Campaign with the motto “May Health on this Earth Increase” (cf. Sir 38:8), aimed at awakening — on the basis of reflection on the real situation of health in Brazil — a more brotherly and community spirit in regard to the sick and to ensure society guarantees more people the right of access to the means necessary for good health.

The biblical saying reminds Christians in particular that health goes beyond mere physical well-being. In the episode of the healing of a paralytic (cf. Mt 9:2-8), before enabling the man to walk, Jesus forgave his sins, teaching that perfect healing is the forgiveness of sins and that health par excellence is that of the soul, because “for what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life?” (Mt 16:26).

In fact the words “health” and “salvation” originate in the same Latin term: “salus”, and for the same reason we see in the Gospel the action of humanity’s Saviour associated with various forms of healing: “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people” (Mt 4:23).

With his example before our eyes, in accordance with the real Lenten spirit, may this Campaign inspire in the hearts of the faithful and of people of good will an ever deeper solidarity with the sick, who all too often suffer more from loneliness and neglect than from their illness. And may we remember that Jesus himself chose to identify with them: “I was sick and you visited me” (Mt 25:36).

May he help them at the same time to discover that if on the one hand illness is a painful trial, on the other, in union with the Crucified and Risen Christ it can be a participation in the mystery of his suffering for the world’s salvation. For “by offering our pain to God through Christ, we can collaborate in the victory of good over evil, because God makes our offering, our act of love fruitful” (Benedict xvi, Meeting with the Sick, Turin, 2 May 2010).

Therefore by joining in this initiative of the cnbb and making my own the joys and the hopes, the sorrows and the anxieties of each one, I greet fraternally all those who are taking part, physically or spiritually in the “Brotherhood and Public Health” Campaign. I invoke for everyone — through the intercession of Nossa Senhora Aparecida — but in a special way for the sick, the comfort and empowerment of God in the fulfilment of the duties proper to one’s individual, family and social state, a source of health and of progress for Brazil making it fertile in holiness, prosperous in the economy, just in the sharing of riches, joyful in public service, impartial in power and brotherly in development. Further, to strengthen everyone in these good resolutions, I impart to you a propitious Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, 11 February 2012

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

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General Audiences

General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI, 22 February 2012

BENEDICT XVI

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Paul VI Audience Hall

Wednesday, 22 February 2012

Ash Wednesday

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In this Catechesis, I would like to reflect briefly upon the season of Lent which begins today with the Ash Wednesday Liturgy. It is a 40-day journey that will bring us to the Easter Triduum — the memorial of the Lord’s Passion, death and Resurrection, the heart of the mystery of our salvation. In the first centuries of the Church’s life this was the time when those who had heard and received the proclamation of Christ set out, step by step, on their journey of faith and conversion in order to receive the sacrament of Baptism. For the catechumens — namely, those who wished to become Christian and to be incorporated into Christ and into the Church — it was a matter of drawing closer to the living God and an initiation to faith which was to take place gradually, through inner transformation.

Subsequently, penitents and then all the faithful were also asked to make this journey of spiritual renewal and increasingly to conform their lives to Christ’s. The participation of the whole community in the various stages of the Lenten journey emphasizes an important dimension of Christian spirituality: Christ’s death and Resurrection does not bring the redemption of a few but of all. For this reason everyone, both those who were making a journey of faith as catechumens to receive Baptism and those who had drifted away from God and from the community of faith and were seeking reconciliation, as well as those who were living their faith in full communion with the Church, knew that the season which precedes Easter is a time of metanoia; that is, of a change of heart, of repentance; it is the season that identifies our human life and the whole of history as a process of conversion that starts now, to encounter the Lord at the end of time.

Using an expression that has become characteristic in the liturgy, the Church calls the season we have entered today “Quadragesima”, namely, a 40-day period and, with a clear reference to Sacred Scripture, in this way introduces us into a precise spiritual context. In fact, 40 is the symbolic number with which both the Old and the New Testaments represent the salient moments in the experience of faith of the People of God.

It is a number that stands for the time of waiting, of purification, of the return to the Lord, of the knowledge that God keeps his promises. This number does not represent an exact chronological period, marked by the sum of its days. Rather, it suggests patient perseverance, a long trial, a sufficient length of time in which to perceive God’s works, a time within which one must resolve to assume one’s responsibilities with no further postponement. It is the time for mature decisions.

The number 40 first appears in the story of Noah. Because of the flood this righteous man spends 40 days and 40 nights in the Ark, with his family and with the animals that God had told him to take with him. And he waits another 40 days, after the flood, before touching dry land, saved from destruction (cf. Gen 7:4,12; 8:6).

Then, the next stage: Moses remains in the Lord’s presence on Mount Sinai for 40 days and 40 nights to receive the Law. He fasts throughout this period (cf. Ex 24:18). The journey of the Jewish people from Egypt to the Promised Land lasts for 40 years, an appropriate span of time to experience God’s faithfulness.

“You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness … your clothing did not wear out upon you, and your foot did not swell, these forty years”, Moses says in Deuteronomy at the end of the 40 years’ migration (8:2, 4). The years of peace that Israel enjoys under the Judges are 40 (cf. 3:11, 30); but once this time has passed, forgetfulness of God’s gifts and the return to sin creep in.

The Prophet Elijah takes 40 days to reach Mount Horeb, the mountain where he encounters God (cf. 1 Kings 19:8). For 40 days the inhabitants of Ninevah do penance in order to obtain God’s forgiveness (cf. Jon 3:4). Forty is also the number of years of the reigns of Saul (cf. Acts 13:21), of David (cf. 2 Sam 5:4-5) and of Solomon (cf. 1 Kings 11:42), the first three kings of Israel.

The Psalms also reflect on the biblical significance of the 40 years; for example, Psalm 95[94], a passage of which we have just heard: “O that today you would hearken to his voice! Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people who err in heart, and they do not regard my ways’” (vv. 7c-10).

In the New Testament, before beginning his public ministry, Jesus withdraws into the wilderness for 40 days, neither eating nor drinking (cf. Mt 4:2); his nourishment is the Word of God, which he uses as a weapon to triumph over the devil. Jesus’ temptations recall those that the Jewish people faced in the desert, but which they were unable to overcome. It is for 40 days that the Risen Jesus instructs his disciples before ascending into Heaven and sending the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:3).

This recurring number of 40 describes a spiritual context which is still timely and applicable, and the Church, precisely by means of the days of the Lenten season, wishes to preserve their enduring value and show us their effectiveness. The purpose of the Christian liturgy of Lent is to encourage a journey of spiritual renewal in the light of this long biblical experience and, especially, to learn to imitate Jesus, who by spending 40 days in the wilderness taught how to overcome temptation with the word of God.

The 40 years that Israel spent wandering through the wilderness reveal ambivalent attitudes and situations. On the one hand they are the season of the first love with God and between God and his people, when he speaks to their hearts, continuously pointing out to them the path to follow. God had, as it were, made his dwelling place in Israel’s midst, he went before his people in a cloud or in a pillar of fire; he provided food for them every day by bringing down manna from heaven and making water flow from the rock. The years that Israel spent in the wilderness can thus be seen as the time of God’s predilection, the time when the People adhered to him: a time of first love.

On the other hand, the Bible also shows another image of Israel’s wanderings in the wilderness: the time of the greatest temptations and dangers too, when Israel mutters against its God and, feeling the need to worship a God who is closer and more tangible, would like to return to paganism and build its own idols. It is also the time of rebellion against the great and invisible God.

In Jesus’ earthly pilgrimage we are surprised to discover this ambivalence, a time of special closeness to God — a time of first love — and a time of temptation — the temptation to return to paganism, but of course without any compromise with sin. After his Baptism of penance in the Jordan, when he takes upon himself the destiny of the Servant of God who renounces himself, lives for others and puts himself among sinners to take the sin of the world upon himself, Jesus goes into the wilderness and remains there for 40 days in profound union with the Father, thereby repeating Israel’s history, with all those cadences of 40 days or years which I have mentioned. This dynamic is a constant in the earthly life of Jesus, who always seeks moments of solitude in order to pray to his Father and to remain in intimate communion, in intimate solitude with him, in an exclusive communion with him, and then to return to the people. However in this period of “wilderness” and of his special encounter with the Father, Jesus is exposed to danger and is assaulted by the temptation and seduction of the Evil One, who proposes a different messianic path to him, far from God’s plan because it passes through power, success and domination rather than the total gift of himself on the Cross. This is the alternative: a messianism of power, of success, or a messianism of love, of the gift of self.

This situation of ambivalence also describes the condition of the Church journeying through the “wilderness” of the world and of history. In this “desert” we believers certainly have the opportunity for a profound experience of God who strengthens the spirit, confirms faith, nourishes hope and awakens charity; an experience that enables us to share in Christ’s victory over sin and death through his sacrifice of love on the Cross. However the “wilderness” is also a negative aspect of the reality that surrounds us: aridity, the poverty of words of life and of values, secularism and cultural materialism, which shut people into the worldly horizons of existence, removing them from all reference to transcendence.

This is also the environment in which the sky above us is dark, because it is covered with the clouds of selfishness, misunderstanding and deceit. In spite of this, for the Church today the time spent in the wilderness may be turned into a time of grace, for we have the certainty that God can make the living water that quenches thirst and brings refreshment gush from even the hardest rock.

Dear brothers and sisters, in these 40 days that will bring us to the Resurrection at Easter, we can find fresh courage for accepting with patience and faith every situation of difficulty, affliction and trial in the knowledge that from the darkness the Lord will cause a new day to dawn. And if we are faithful to Jesus, following him on the Way of the Cross, the clear world of God, the world of light, truth and joy will be, as it were, restored to us. It will be the new dawn, created by God himself. A good Lenten journey to you all!

To special groups:

I greet all the English-speaking visitors present at today’s Audience, especially those from England, Belgium, Norway, Canada and the United States. I offer a special welcome to the faithful of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham on the occasion of their pilgrimage to the See of Peter. I greet the pilgrim group from the Diocese of Antwerp, and I thank the choirs for their praise of God in song. With prayerful good wishes for a spiritually fruitful Lent, I invoke upon all of you God’s abundant blessings!

Lastly I greet the young people, the sick and the newlyweds. Lent is a favourable time for intensifying your spiritual life; may the practice of fasting help you, dear young people, to acquire ever greater self-control. May prayer be for you, dear sick people, the way to entrust your sufferings to God and to feel him always close to you; lastly, may works of mercy help you, dear newlyweds, while living your married life, to open it to the needs of your brothers and sisters. A good Lent to you all!

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General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI, 7 March 2012

BENEDICT XVI

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Saint Peter's Square

Wednesday, 7 March 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the preceding series of Catecheses I have spoken of Jesus’ prayer and I would not like to conclude this reflection without briefly considering the topic of Jesus’ silence, so important in his relationship with God.

In the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, I spoke of the role that silence plays in Jesus’ life, especially on Golgotha: “here we find ourselves before ‘the word of the cross’ (cf. 1 Cor 1:18). The word is muted; it becomes mortal silence, for it has ‘spoken’ exhaustively, holding back nothing of what it had to tell us” (n. 12). Before this silence of the Cross, St Maximus the Confessor puts this phrase on the lips of the Mother of God: “Wordless is the Word of the Father, who made every creature which speaks, lifeless are the eyes of the one at whose word and whose nod all living things move!” (Life of Mary, n. 89: Testi mariani del primo millennio, 2, Rome, 1989, p. 253).

The Cross of Christ does not only demonstrate Jesus’ silence as his last word to the Father but reveals that God also speaks through silence: “the silence of God, the experience of the distance of the almighty Father, is a decisive stage in the earthly journey of the Son of God, the Incarnate Word. Hanging from the wood of the cross, he lamented the suffering caused by that silence: ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Mk 15:34; Mt 27:46). Advancing in obedience to his very last breath, in the obscurity of death, Jesus called upon the Father. He commended himself to him at the moment of passage, through death, to eternal life: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’ (Lk 23:46)” (Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini, n. 21).

Jesus’ experience on the cross profoundly reveals the situation of the person praying and the culmination of his prayer: having heard and recognized the word of God, we must also come to terms with the silence of God, an important expression of the same divine Word.

The dynamic of words and silence which marks Jesus’ prayer throughout his earthly existence, especially on the cross, also touches our own prayer life in two directions.

The first is the one that concerns the acceptance of the word of God. Inward and outward silence are necessary if we are to be able to hear this word. And in our time this point is particularly difficult for us. In fact, ours is an era that does not encourage recollection; indeed, one sometimes gets the impression that people are frightened of being cut off, even for an instant, from the torrent of words and images that mark and fill the day.

It was for this reason that in the above mentioned Exhortation Verbum Domini I recalled our need to learn the value of silence: “Rediscovering the centrality of God’s word in the life of the Church also means rediscovering a sense of recollection and inner repose. The great patristic tradition teaches us that the mysteries of Christ all involve silence. Only in silence can the word of God find a home in us, as it did in Mary, woman of the word and, inseparably, woman of silence” (n. 66). This principle — that without silence one does not hear, does not listen, does not receive a word — applies especially to personal prayer as well as to our liturgies: to facilitate authentic listening, they must also be rich in moments of silence and of non-verbal reception.

St Augustine’s observation is still valid: Verbo crescente, verba deficiunt “when the word of God increases, the words of men fail” (cf. Sermo 288, 5: pl 38, 1307; Sermo 120, 2: pl 38, 677). The Gospels often present Jesus, especially at times of crucial decisions, withdrawing to lonely places, away from the crowds and even from the disciples in order to pray in silence and to live his filial relationship with God. Silence can carve out an inner space in our very depths to enable God to dwell there, so that his word will remain within us and love for him take root in our minds and hearts and inspire our life. Hence the first direction: relearning silence, openness to listening, which opens us to the other, to the word of God.

However, there is also a second important connection between silence and prayer. Indeed it is not only our silence that disposes us to listen to the word of God; in our prayers we often find we are confronted by God’s silence, we feel, as it were, let down, it seems to us that God neither listens nor responds. Yet God’s silence, as happened to Jesus, does not indicate his absence. Christians know well that the Lord is present and listens, even in the darkness of pain, rejection and loneliness.

Jesus reassures his disciples and each one of us that God is well acquainted with our needs at every moment of our life. He teaches the disciples: “In praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Mt 6:7-8): an attentive, silent and open heart is more important than many words. God knows us in our inmost depths, better than we ourselves, and loves us; and knowing this must suffice.

In the Bible Job’s experience is particularly significant in this regard. In a short time this man lost everything: relatives, possessions, friends and health. It truly seems that God’s attitude to him was one of abandonment, of total silence. Yet in his relationship with God, Job speaks to God, cries out to God; in his prayers, in spite of all, he keeps his faith intact, and in the end, discovers the value of his experience and of God’s silence. And thus he can finally conclude, addressing the Creator: “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you” (Job 42:5): almost all of us know God only through hearsay and the more open we are to his silence and to our own silence, the more we truly begin to know him.

This total trust that opens us to the profound encounter with God developed in silence. St Francis Xavier prayed to the Lord saying: I do not love you because you can give me paradise or condemn me to hell, but because you are my God. I love you because You are You.

As we reach the end of the reflections on Jesus’ prayer, certain teachings of the Catechism of the Catholic Church spring to mind: “The drama of prayer is fully revealed to us in the Word who became flesh and dwells among us. To seek to understand his prayer through what his witnesses proclaim to us in the Gospel is to approach the holy Lord Jesus as Moses approached the burning bush: first to contemplate him in prayer, then to hear how he teaches us to pray, in order to know how he hears our prayer” (n. 2598).

So, how does Jesus teach us to pray? We find a clear answer in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Jesus teaches us to pray not only with the Our Father” — certainly the high point of his instruction on how to pray — “but also when he prays. In this way he teaches us, in addition to the content, the dispositions necessary for every true prayer: purity of heart that seeks the Kingdom and forgives enemies, bold and filial faith that goes beyond what we feel and understand, and watchfulness that protects the disciple from temptation” (n. 544).

In going through the Gospels we have seen that concerning our prayers the Lord is conversation partner, friend, witness and teacher. The newness of our dialogue with God is revealed in Jesus: the filial prayer that the Father expects of his children. And we learn from Jesus that constant prayer helps us to interpret our life, make our decisions, recognize and accept our vocation, discover the talents that God has given us and do his will daily, the only way to fulfil our life.

Jesus’ prayer points out to us, all too often concerned with operational efficacy and the practical results we achieve, that we need to pause, to experience moments of intimacy with God, “detaching ourselves” from the everyday commotion in order to listen, to go to the “root” that sustains and nourishes life.

One of the most beautiful moments of Jesus’ prayer is precisely when — in order to deal with the illnesses, hardships and limitations of those who are conversing with him — he turns to the Father in prayer and thereby teaches those around him where to seek the source of hope and salvation.

I have already recalled as a moving example Jesus’ prayer at the tomb of Lazarus. The Evangelist John recounts: “So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you hear me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that you sent me’. When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come out’” (Jn 11:41-43).

However Jesus reaches the most profound depths in prayer to the Father at the moment of his Passion and his death when he says the extreme “yes” to God’s plan and shows how the human will finds its fulfilment precisely in full adherence to the divine will rather than in opposition to it.

In Jesus’ prayer, in his cry to the Father on the cross, are summed up “all the troubles, for all time, of humanity enslaved by sin and death, all the petitions and intercessions of salvation history.... Here the Father accepts them and, beyond all hope, answers them by raising his Son. Thus is fulfilled and brought to completion the drama of prayer in the economy of creation and salvation” (Catechism of the Catholic Church n. 2606).

Dear brothers and sisters, let us trustingly ask the Lord to grant that we live the journey of our filial prayer learning daily from the Only-Begotten Son, who became man for our sake, what should be our way of addressing God.

St Paul’s words on Christian life in general also apply to our prayers: “I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:38-39).

* * *

Greeting of the Holy Father to the Armenian Synod:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I would now like to greet, with brotherly affection, His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, Patriarch of Cilicia for Armenian Catholics, and the Bishops gathered in Rome from various continents for the celebration of the Synod. I express to them my sincere gratitude for fidelity to the patrimony of their venerable Christian tradition and to the Successor of the Apostle Peter, faithfulness which they have always maintained throughout the innumerable trials of history. I accompany the Synod’s work with earnest prayer and with my Apostolic Blessing, hopeful that it will encourage ever greater communion and understanding among Pastors, so that they may guide the Armenian Catholics with renewed evangelical impetus on the path of a generous and joyful witness to Christ and to the Church. As I entrust the Armenian Synod to the motherly intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God, I extend my prayerful thought to the Regions of the Middle East, encouraging the Pastors and all the faithful to persevere with hope amid the grave suffering that afflicts these beloved peoples. May the Lord bless you. Thank you.

To special groups:

I welcome the many student groups present at today’s Audience, including those from the United States Coast Guard Academy, the Catholic University of America, Saint Mary’s Seminary and the Franciscan University of Steubenville. My greetings and prayerful good wishes also go to the participants in the Congress of the International Society of Plastic Regenerative Surgery. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors, including those from England, Denmark and the United States, I invoke God’s abundant blessings.

Lastly, my thoughts turn to the young people, the sick and the newlyweds. May the Lenten journey we are making lead you, dear young people, to maturity of faith in Christ; may it increase in you, dear sick people, hope in him, the One who always sustains us in trial; may he help you, dear newlyweds, to make your family life a mission of faithful and generous love.

.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Letters

Letter to Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Preacher of the Lenten Spiritual Exercises, 3 March 2012 - Benedict XVI

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

TO CARDINAL LAURENT MONSENGWO PASINYA,

PREACHER OF THE LENTEN SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

To my Venerable Brother

Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya

Archbishop of Kinshasa

At the end of the Week of Spiritual Exercises in which you proposed the meditations on the theme of fellowship with God, I would like to express to you, Venerable Brother, my cordial gratitude for the precious service you have offered to me and to my co-workers.

In commenting on certain passages from St John’s First Letter you have guided us on the route of a discovery of the mystery of communion into which we are integrated with our Baptism. I also thank you for this itinerary which you wisely prepared. The silence and prayer of these days and, in a special way, the Eucharistic adoration, were filled with profound gratitude to God for the “great love” (1 Jn 3:1) he has given us and with which he bound us to himself in a filial relationship which from this moment constitutes our deepest reality and will be fully manifested when “our eyes will see his face and we will be like him” (Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer III).

To be able to grasp in your very presence and in your style, Venerable Brother, the particular witness of faith of the Church which believes, hopes and loves on the African continent gave me special joy: a spiritual patrimony that constitutes a great wealth for the entire People of God and for the whole world, especially in the perspective of the New Evangelization. As a son of the Church in Africa, you enabled us to experience once again that exchange of gifts which is one of the most beautiful aspects of ecclesial communion, in which the variety of geographical and cultural provenances finds a way to express itself harmoniously in the unity of the Mystical Body.

As I invoke for you, dear Brother, an abundance of divine rewards, and express every good wish for your demanding ministry, I warmly impart to you a special Apostolic Blessing which I willingly extend to the priests and faithful entrusted to your pastoral care.

From the Vatican, 3 March 2012

BENEDICTUS P P. XVI

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Speeches

Audience with the parish priests of Rome - 23 February 2012

MEETING OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

WITH THE PARISH PRIESTS OF THE ROME DIOCESE

LECTIO DIVINA

Paul VI Audience Hall

Thursday, 23 February 2012

Dear Brothers,

Every year it gives me great joy to see my clergy, the clergy of Rome, at the beginning of Lent and it is splendid to see how numerous we are today. I was thinking that our group might almost be lost in this capacious hall, but I see we are a strong army of God and can enter with strength the necessary battles in our time to promote, to extend the Kingdom of God.

Yesterday we crossed the threshold of Lent, the annual renewal of our Baptism; let us, as it were, repeat our catechumenate, going back to the essence of our existence as baptized people, recovering it, returning to our being baptized and thereby incorporated into Christ. In this way we may also seek to guide our communities anew in this intimate communion with Christ’s death and Resurrection to be ever more closely conformed to Christ, to become ever more truly Christian.

The passage we have heard from St Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (4:1-16) is one of the great ecclesial texts of the New Testament. It begins with the author’s introduction of himself: “I [Paul] therefore, a prisoner for the Lord” (v. 1). The Greek word desmios means “bound”: Paul, like a criminal, is in chains, a prisoner for Christ and so he begins to be in communion with Christ’s Passion. This is the first element in the way he presents himself: he speaks as a prisoner in chains, he speaks of being in communion with Christ’s Passion and is thus also in communion with Christ’s Resurrection, with his new life. When we speak we must always speak of being in communion with his Passion and hence accept our own “passion”, our own sufferings and trials. In this sense: they are truly proof of Christ’s presence, proof that he is with us and that by being in communion with his Passion we are journeying on towards newness of life, towards Resurrection.

Therefore “bound” is first a word of the theology of the Cross, of the necessary communion of every evangelizer, of every pastor with the supreme Pastor, who redeemed us by “giving himself”, suffering for our sake. Love is suffering, it is giving oneself, it is losing oneself and in this very way is fruitful. Yet, another aspect appears and shines through the external element of the chains, of freedom no longer present: namely, that the true chain which binds Paul to Christ is the bond of love. “A prisoner for love”: a love that gives freedom, a love that enables him to make Christ’s Message and Christ himself present. And for all of us too, this must be the ultimate chain that sets us free, bound to Christ by the chain of love. Thus we find freedom and the true path of life and, with Christ’s love, we can also guide to this love which is joy and freedom, the people entrusted to our care.

And then he says I “beg you” (Eph 4:1); to exhort is his task, but this is not a moralistic warning. I beg from communion with Christ. It is ultimately Christ himself who begs, who invites with the love of a father and a mother. “Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (v. 1); in other words the first element: we have been called. I am not anonymous or meaningless in the world: there is a call, there is a voice that has called me, a voice that I follow. And my life must penetrate ever more deeply into the development of the call, following this voice and thereby finding the true way and guiding others on this path.

I am “called... with a calling”. I would say that our first important call is Baptism, to be with Christ; the second important call is to be pastors in his service and we must listen ever more intently to this call so as to be able to call, or better, to help others too so that they may hear the voice of the Lord who calls. A cause of great suffering to the Church today in Europe and in the West is the lack of priestly vocations, but the Lord always calls; it is listening that is lacking. We have heard his voice and must also pay attention to the Lord’s voice on behalf of others, we must help make his call heard and thus ensure that it is accepted and that a path is opened to the vocation to be pastors with Christ.

St Paul goes back to this word “call” at the end of the first paragraph, and speaks of a vocation, a call that is to hope — the call itself is hope. In this way he demonstrates the dimensions of the call: it is not only individual, the call is already a dialogical phenomenon, a phenomenon in the “we”; in the “I and you” and in the “us”. “Called to the one hope”. In this way we see the dimensions of the call; they are three.

A call, ultimately, according to this text, to God. God is the aim; in the end we arrive simply in God and the whole of our journey is a journey towards God. However this journey to God is never isolated, it is never a journey solely in the “I”, but it is a journey towards the future, toward the renewal of the world, and a journey in the “we” of those called who call others, who enable them to hear this call. Therefore the call is always also a vocation in the Church. Being faithful to the Lord’s call entails discovering this “we” in which and for which we are called, as well as journeying on together to attain the necessary virtues. The “call” involves ecclesiality, hence the vertical and horizontal dimensions which are inseparable from each other; it involves ecclesiality in the sense of letting ourselves be helped by the “we”, and building this “we” of the Church. In this regard, St Paul illustrates the call with this aim: one God alone but in this direction towards the future; hope is in the “we” of those who have hope, who love within hope with several virtues which constitute the very elements of journeying on together.

The first is “with all lowliness” (Eph 4:2). I would like to reflect a little longer on this because it is a virtue that does not appear on the list of pre-Christian virtues. It is a new virtue, the virtue of the “sequela” of Christ. Let us think of chapter two of the Letter to the Philippians: Christ, being equal to God, humbled himself and accepted the form of a servant, obedient even to the Cross (cf. Phil 2:6-8). This is the path of humility taken by the Son which we must imitate. Following Christ means entering into this journey of humility.

The Greek text says tapeinophrosyne (Eph 4:2): Let us not think boastfully of ourselves, let us keep things in proportion. Humility. The opposite of humility is pride, the root of all sin. The pride which is arrogance, which above all claims power, appearance, making a good impression on others, being someone or something, does not seek to please God but to please itself, likes being accepted by others and, let us say, being venerated by others.

The “self” is the centre of the world: it is a matter of my proud, all-knowing self. Being Christian means overcoming this original temptation which is also the core of original sin: being like God but without God; to be Christian is to be true, sincere and realistic. Humility is above all truth, living in truth, learning truth, learning that my smallness is actually greatness, because in this way I am important in the great web of God’s history with humanity. Precisely by recognizing that I am a thought of God, in the building of his world, and that I am irreplaceable, in this very way, in my littleness, and only in this way am I great. This is the beginning of being Christian: it is living truth. And only by living truth, the realism of my vocation for others, with others, in the Body of Christ do I live well.

Living against the truth is always living poorly. Let us live the truth! Let us learn this realism: not to want to appear, but to want to please God and do what God has conceived of for me, and thus also accept the other.

Acceptance of the other, who may perhaps be greater than I, implies this very realism and love of the truth; it implies accepting myself as “a thought of God” just as I am, with my limitations and, in this way my greatness. Accepting myself and accepting the other go hand in hand: only by accepting myself in the vast divine fabric, can I also accept others, who with me form the great symphony of the Church and of Creation. I think the small humiliations that we must contend with day after day are healthy, because they help each one to recognize his own truth and thus to be free from pride that is opposed to the truth and cannot make me either happy or good.

By accepting and learning this, by learning to accept my position in the Church, my small service is great in God’s eyes. And this humility itself, this realism, sets us free. If I am arrogant, if I am proud, I always want to please and if I fail to do so I am wretched, I am unhappy and must constantly seek this satisfaction. When on the contrary I am humble, I dispose of the freedom to oppose a prevalent opinion, with thoughts of others, because humility gives me the ability to do so, the freedom of truth. And thus, I would say, we pray the Lord to help us, to help us truly build the community of the Church; may she grow, may we grow in a broad vision of God, of the “we”, and be members of the Body of Christ, thus belonging in unity to the Son of God.

The second virtue — but let us be briefer — is “gentleness”, says the Italian translation (Eph 4:2), in Greek it is praus, that is, “meekness”, “patience”; and this too is a Christological virtue like humility, that is following Christ on this way of humility. Thus praus, being meek, being patient, is following Christ who says: Come to me, I am gentle and lowly in heart (cf. Mt 11:29). This does not mean weakness. Christ can also be hard, if necessary, but always with a good heart, his goodness, his patience are always visible. In Sacred Scripture “the meek” is sometimes simply the name given to believers, to the little flock of the poor who, in every trial, remain humble and firm in communion with the Lord; seeking this meekness, which is the opposite of violence.

The third Beatitude. The Gospel according to St Matthew says “blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth” (Mt 5:5). It is not the violent who possess the earth, in the end it is the meek who remain. The great promise was made to them and so we must be truly sure of God’s promise, of meekness that is stronger than violence. The contrast with violence is concealed in this term “meekness”. Christians are not violent, they are against violence.

St Paul continues: “with patience” (Eph 4:2): God is patient. Despite our weaknesses and our sins, he begins with us over and over again. He forgives me, even though he knows that tomorrow I shall once again lapse into sin; he distributes his gifts, even though he knows that we are often inadequate stewards. God is patient and great-hearted, he entrusts his goodness to us. And this patience, this generosity, are once again part of following Christ.

Lastly, “forbearing one another in love” (Eph 4:2); it seems to me that this ability to accept others stems precisely from this humility. The otherness of others is always a burden. Why is the other different? But this diversity itself, this otherness, is necessary to the beauty of God’s symphony. And, with the humility with which I recognize my own limitations, my own otherness in the exchange with others, the burden that I am for others, I must become capable not only of tolerating the other but lovingly find in his very otherness also the riches of his being, as well as of the ideas and creativity of God.

All this therefore serves as an ecclesial virtue for building up the Body of Christ, which is the Spirit of Christ, so that it may once again become an example, a new Body, and grow. Then Paul actually says so, affirming that this whole variety of gifts, of temperaments, of being a person, serves to attain unity (cf. Eph 4:11-13).

All these virtues are also virtues of unity. For example, I find it highly significant that the first Letter after the New Testament, the First Letter of Clement, should be addressed to a community, the Corinthians, which was divided and was suffering from its division (cf. PG 1, 201-328). In this Letter, the very word “humility” is a key word: the Corinthians are divided because they lack humility and the absence of humility destroys unity. Humility is a fundamental virtue of unity. Thus only in this way does the unity of the Body of Christ grow and we become really united and receive the riches and beauty of unity. It is therefore logical that the list of these virtues, which are ecclesial and Christological and virtues of unity, should move towards explicit unity: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph 4:5). One faith and one Baptism, as concrete realities of the Church which is under the one Lord.

Baptism and faith are inseparable. Baptism is the sacrament of faith and faith has a twofold aspect. It is a profoundly personal act: I know Christ, I encounter Christ and I put my trust in him. Let us think of the woman who touches the hem of his garment in the hope of being healed (cf. Mt 9:20-21); she entrusts herself totally and the Lord says: your faith has made you well (cf. Mt 9:22). He also says to the lepers, to the only one who turns back: your faith has made you well (cf. Lk 17:19). Thus faith is initially and especially a personal encounter, it is touching Christ’s garment, being touched by Christ, being in touch with Christ, to trust in Christ, to have and to find Christ’s love; and the key to truth, to universality, is Christ’s love.

Yet for this very reason, because it is the key to the universality of the one Lord, this faith is not only a personal act of trust, but an act that has a content. The fides qua demands the fides quae, the content of faith, and Baptism expresses this content: the Trinitarian formula is the essential element of the Christians’ creed. In itself it is a “yes” to Christ, and hence to the Trinitarian God, with this reality, with this content that unites me to this Lord, to this God, who has this Face: he lives as the Son of the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit and in the communion of the Body of Christ. This consequently seems to me to be very important: faith has a content and it is not sufficient, it is not an element of unification unless this content of the one faith is lived and professed.

Therefore “The Year of Faith”, the Year of Catechism — to be very practical — are linked inseparably. We shall renew the Council only by renewing the content — later summed up again — of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. A serious problem for the Church today is the lack of knowledge of the faith, “religious illiteracy”, as the Cardinals described this situation last Friday. “Religious illiteracy” and with this illiteracy we are unable to grow, unity is unable to grow. We ourselves must therefore recover this content, as a wealth of unity, not a packet of dogmas and orders but a unique reality which is revealed in its depths and beauty.

We must do our utmost for a catechetical renewal, so that the faith may be known and in this way God may be known, Christ may be known, the truth may be known, so that unity may develop in truth.

Then all these forms of unity converge in “one God and Father of us all”. All that is not humility, all that is not common faith, destroys unity, destroys hope and makes God’s Face invisible. God is One and Only. Monotheism was the great privilege of Israel, which recognized the one God and remains a constitutive element of the Christian faith. The Trinitarian God — as we know — is not three divinities but one God. And we see better what oneness means, oneness is unity of love. And therefore: precisely because he is a circle of love God is One and Only.

For Paul, as we have seen, God’s oneness is identified with our hope. Why? In what way? Because God’s oneness is hope, because this guarantees us that, in the end, there are no different powers, in the end there is no dualism between different and clashing powers, in the end there is no dragon’s head left which could be raised against God, the filth of evil and sin is no more.

In the end all that is left is light! God is the one and only God: there is no other power against him! We know that today, with the ever increasing evils we experience in the world, many doubt in God’s Almightiness; indeed, various theologians — even good ones — say that God cannot be Almighty because what we see in the world is incompatible with almightiness. And in this way they wish to create a new apology, to excuse God and to “exculpate” God from these evils.

However this is not the right way, because if God is not Almighty, if other powers exist and endure he is not truly God and is not truly hope, because in the end there would be polytheism, in the end there would be fighting, the power of evil. God is Almighty, the one God. Of course, in history a limit has been set on his omnipotence, recognizing our freedom. However, in the end everything returns and no other power is left; this is the hope: that the light wins, that love wins! In the end the power of evil does not endure, only God endures! And thus we journey on in hope, walking towards the oneness of the one God, revealed to us by the Holy Spirit in the One Lord, Christ. Then from this great vision St Paul gives a few details, and says of Christ: “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men” (Eph 4:8).

The Apostle quotes Psalm 68[67], which describes poetically God’s ascent to the heights with the Ark of the Covenant, to the top of Mount Zion, toward the temple: God as the conqueror who overcomes others who are prisoners and, as a true conqueror, distributes gifts. Judaism saw in this an image of Moses who climbs Mount Sinai to receive on its summit God’s will, the Commandments, that were not deemed a burden but as it were the gift of knowing the Face of God, the will of God. Paul, in the end, sees here an image of the ascent of Christ who ascends after he has descended; he ascends and draws humanity towards God, he makes room for flesh and blood in God himself; he draws us towards the heights of his being Son and frees us from the prison of sin, he sets us free us because he is a conqueror. Being a conqueror, he gives gifts. And thus from the ascent of Christ we have reached the Church. The gifts are charis as such, grace: being in grace, in God’s love. And then the charisms that concretize the charis in individual functions and missions: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers thereby to build up the Body of Christ (cf. Eph 4:11).

I would not like here to go into a detailed exegesis. What apostles and prophets mean has been widely discussed.... In any case, we can say that the Church is built on the foundations of apostolic faith which continues to be ever present: the Apostles, in apostolic succession, are present in the pastors, whom we are, by the grace of God and in spite of our poverty. And let us all be grateful to God who has wished to call us to be in the apostolic succession and continue to build up the Body of Christ.

Here an element that I think important appears: the ministries — the so-called “ministries” — they are called “gifts of Christ”, they are charisms; that is, this opposition does not exist: on the one hand the ministry, as a juridical component, on the other charisms, as a prophetic, lively and spiritual gift, as a presence of the Spirit and of his newness. No! The ministries themselves are a gift of the Risen One and are charisms, they are articulations of his grace; one cannot be a priest without being charismatic. It is a charism to be a priest.

It seems to me that we must bear this in mind. Being called to the priesthood, being called with a gift of the Lord, with a charism of the Lord. And thus, inspired by his Spirit, we must seek to live this charism of ours. I think it is only in this way that it is possible to understand that the Church in the West has bound inseparably priesthood and celibacy: being in an eschatological existence towards the ultimate destination of our hope, towards God.

This is precisely because the priesthood is a charism and must also be bound to a charism: were it not so, were it merely a juridical element, it would be absurd to impose a charism, which is a true charism; but if the priesthood itself is a charism it is normal that it should coexist with the charism, with the charismatic condition of eschatological life.

Let us pray the Lord that he help us to understand this increasingly, to live increasingly in the charism of the Holy Spirit and thus also to live this eschatological sign of fidelity to the One Lord, which is necessary precisely for our time, with the disintegration of marriage and the family which can only be pieced together in the light of this fidelity to the Lord’s one call.

One last point. St Paul speaks of the growth of the perfect man, who reaches the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. We will no longer be children at the mercy of the waves, tossed to and fro and carried about by any wind of doctrine (cf. Eph 4:13-14). “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him” (Eph 4:15). It is not possible to live in spiritual infancy, in an infantile faith: unfortunately, in this world of ours we see this infancy. Many have made no further progress after the first catechesis; perhaps the nucleus has remained, or perhaps it too has been destroyed. And, moreover, they are on the waves of the world and nothing else; they cannot, as adults, with skill and with profound conviction, explain and make present the philosophy of faith — so to speak — the great wisdom, the rationality of faith which also opens the eyes of others, which actually opens eyes to what is good and true in the world. Adulthood in faith is lacking and what remains is infancy in faith.

Of course in recent decades we have also experienced another use of the term, “adult faith”. People speak of an “adult faith”, namely, emancipated from the Magisterium of the Church. As long as I am under the mother I am a child, I must emancipate myself; emancipated from the Magisterium, I have finally reached adulthood. But the result is not an adult faith, the result is dependence on the waves of the world, on the opinion of the world, on the dictatorship of the media, of the opinion which is in all minds and which all want. This is not true emancipation, emancipation from the communion of the Body of Christ!

On the contrary, it is falling under the dictatorship of the wind and waves of the world. True emancipation is, precisely, freeing oneself from this dictatorship, in the freedom of God’s children who believe together in the Body of Christ, with the Risen Christ, and thus see reality and are able to respond to the challenges of our time.

It seems to me that we must pray the Lord often to help us to be emancipated in this sense, free in this sense, with a really adult faith which sees, which enables others to see and can also help them arrive at true perfection, and at true adulthood, in communion with Christ.

In this context there is the beautiful expression, aletheuein en te agape, being true in charity, living the truth, being truth in charity. The two concepts go hand in hand. Today the concept of truth is somewhat under suspicion, because truth is combined with violence. Unfortunately in history there have also been episodes in which an effort was made to defend truth with violence. But the two are in opposition.

Truth is not imposed with other means than itself! Truth can only come through itself, through its own light. However, we stand in need of truth; without truth we do not know the true values and how could we order the kosmos of values? Without truth we are blind in the world, we have no path. The great gift of Christ is precisely that we see the Face of God and, even though we see it enigmatically, very insufficiently, we know its basis, the essential of truth in Christ, in his Body. And in knowing this truth, we also grow in charity, which is the legitimation of the truth and shows us that it is truth.

I would say precisely that charity is the fruit of truth — the tree is known by its fruit — and if there is no charity, then truth is not adopted or lived either; and where truth is, charity comes into being. Thanks be to God, we see this in all the centuries; despite the negative factors, the fruit of charity has always been present in Christianity and still is today! We see it in the martyrs, we see it in numerous sisters, friars and priests, who humbly serve the poor and the sick, who are a presence of Christ’s charity. And in this way they are the great sign that the truth lies here.

Let us pray the Lord that he may help us to bear fruits of charity and thereby to be witnesses of his truth. Many thanks.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

To a delegation from St. Peter's Circle, Benedict XVI, 24 February 2012

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

TO A DELEGATION FROM ST. PETER'S CIRCLE

Hall of the Popes

Friday, 24 February 2012

Dear Members of St Peter’s Circle,

I am happy to welcome you at this meeting which is taking place in the proximity of the Feast of the Chair of St Peter, an occasion which enables you to show the special fidelity to the Apostolic See which has always distinguished your praiseworthy Circle. I greet you all with warmth and cordiality. I greet the President General, Duke Leopoldo Torlonia, and thank him for his affectionate and devoted words to me, interpreting the sentiments of you all, and I greet your Chaplain.

We have just begun the Lenten journey and, as I recalled in my recent Message (cf. L’Osservatore Romano English edition, 8 February 2012, pp. 6-7), this liturgical time invites us to reflect on the heart of Christian life: charity. Lent is a favourable time for renewing our faith and love, with the help of the word of God and the sacraments, at both the personal and community levels. It is a journey marked by prayer and by sharing, by silence and by fasting, in the expectation of experiencing the joy of Easter. The Letter to the Hebrews exhorts us with these words: “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” (10:24).

Dear friends, today as in the past, the witness of charity touches people’s hearts in a special way; the New Evangelization, particularly in a cosmopolitan city like Rome, requires great openness of spirit and wise availability to all. The network of projects you carry out every day to assist those in need fits into this context well. I am pleased to recall the generous work you do in the Soup Kitchens, the Night Shelter, the Family House and the Polyfunctional Centre, as well as your witness — silent, but all the more eloquent — in support of the sick and their relatives at the Fondazione Roma Hospice, without forgetting your missionary commitment in Laos and your distance adoptions.

We know that the authenticity of our fidelity to the Gospel is also proven by the consideration and material help we endeavour to show to our neighbour and, especially, to the weakest and most marginalized. Attention for the other entails seeking his/her good in every dimension: physical, moral and spiritual. Even though today’s culture seems to have lost its sense of good and evil, it must be forcefully reaffirmed that good exists and wins through.

Responsibility for our neighbour therefore means desiring and doing good for others, in the hope that they may be opened to the logic of goodness; being concerned for our brothers and sisters means opening our eyes to their needs, overcoming hardness of heart which blinds us to the suffering of others. Thus charitable service becomes a privileged form of evangelization in the light of the teaching of Jesus, who will consider as done to him what we do for our brethren, especially for those who are lowly and neglected (cf. Mt 25:40).

It is necessary to attune our hearts to the heart of Christ, so that the loving support offered to others may be expressed in participation and conscious sharing in their suffering and their hopes, thereby making visible on the one hand the infinite mercy of God for every human being, which shines on Christ’s face, and on the other, our faith in him. The encounter with the “other” and opening our hearts to his/her needs are an opportunity for salvation and happiness.

Dear members of St Peter’s Circle, you have come here today, as you do every year, to offer me the Peter’s Pence Collection for the Pope’s charity that you have collected in the parishes of Rome. It is practical assistance offered to the Successor of Peter, to enable him to respond to the innumerable requests that come to him from every part of the world, especially from the poorest countries.

I warmly thank you for all the work you carry out so generously in a spirit of sacrifice that is born from your faith, from your relationship with the Lord, nurtured every day. May faith, charity and witness continue to be the guidelines of your apostolate.

Then how can I fail to mention your presence during the liturgical celebrations in St Peter’s Basilica? This is especially to your credit, since with it you demonstrate the constant attention and devout fidelity that unite you with the See of the Apostle Peter. May the Lord reward you and bestow his blessing upon your Circle; may he help each one of you to fulfil your Christian vocation, in the family, at work and within your Association.

Dear friends, as I express my appreciation of your service to the Church once again, I entrust you, together with your families, to the motherly care of the Virgin Mary Salus Populi Romani and to your Holy Patrons. For my part, I assure you of my remembrance in prayer for you, for all those who support you in your various initiatives and for those whom you meet in your daily apostolate, while I impart to to everyone with affection a special Apostolic Blessing.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

To participants in the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Benedict XVI, 25 February 2012

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

OF THE PONTIFICAL ACADEMY FOR LIFE

Clementine Hall

Saturday, 25 February 2012

Your Eminences,

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am glad to meet you on the occasion of the 18th General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life. I greet and thank all of you for your generous pro-life service, and Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, your President, in particular for his words to me also on your behalf. The orientation you have given your work reflects the trust that the Church has always placed in the possibilities of human reason and in strictly conducted scientific work, which always takes the moral aspect into account.

The theme you have chosen this year, “Diagnosis and Treatment of Infertility”, in addition to its human and social importance, it has a particular scientific value and expresses the concrete possibility of fruitful dialogue between the ethical dimension and biomedical research. With regard to the problem of the infertility of couples you have in fact chosen to recall and to consider attentively the moral dimension, seeking to find a correct diagnostic evaluation and treatment that corrects the causes of infertility. This approach is not only prompted by the wish to give the couple a child but also to restore to the spouses their fertility and the full dignity of being responsible for their own procreative decisions, in order to cooperate with God in begetting a new human being.

Research for diagnosing the condition and appropriate treatment is the correct scientific approach to the question of infertility, and also the one that best respects the integral humanity of those involved. Indeed, the union of the man and the woman in the community of love and life, which is marriage, constitutes the only worthy “place” to call into existence a new human being, who is always a gift.

I therefore wish to encourage intellectual honesty in your work. It is an example of a science that retains its spirit in seeking the truth at the service of the authentic good of the human being and that avoids the risk of being a merely functional practice. The human and Christian dignity of procreation, in fact, does not consist in a “product”, but in its link to the conjugal act, an expression of the love of the husband and wife, of their union, which is not only biological but also spiritual.

The Instruction Donum Vitae reminds us in this regard that “by its intimate structure, the conjugal act, while most closely uniting husband and wife, capacitates them for the generation of new life, according to laws inscribed in the very being of man and of woman” (B 4a). The couple’s legitimate aspirations to parenthood who experience a condition of infertility, must therefore — with the help of science — find an answer that fully respects their dignity as people and as spouses. The humility, precision and depth with which you study these problems, deemed superseded by some of your colleagues in the face of the fascination of artificial fertilization technology, deserves encouragement and support.

On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Encyclical Fides et Ratio, I recalled that “easy earnings or, even worse, the arrogance of replacing the Creator, at times play a decisive role. This is a form of the hybris of reason, which can acquire characteristics that are dangerous to humanity itself” (Discourse to the Participants in the International Congress organized by the Pontifical Lateran University, 16 October 2008: L’Osservatore Romano English edition, 22 October 2008, p. 43). Scientism and the logic of profit seem effectively to dominate the field of infertility and human procreation today, even to the point of limiting many other areas of research.

The Church pays great attention to the distress of infertile couples, she cares for them and for this very reason encourages medical research. Science, however, is not always able to respond positively to the desires of numerous couples. I would therefore like to remind spouses in a condition of infertility, that this does not thwart their matrimonial vocation. Spouses are always called by their baptismal and matrimonial vocation itself to cooperate with God in the creation of a new human life. The vocation to love is in fact a vocation to the gift of self, and this is a possibility that no physical condition can prevent. Therefore, whenever science finds no answer, the answer that gives light comes from Christ.

I would like to encourage all of you gathered here for these study days and who at times work in a medical and scientific context where the dimension of truth is obscured: persevere on the way on which you have set out with an intellectually honest science, fascinated by the constant search for the good of the human being. On your intellectual journey, do not disdain the dialogue with faith. I address to you the heartfelt appeal expressed in the Encyclical Deus Caritas Est: “if reason is to be exercised properly, it must undergo constant purification, since it can never be completely free of the danger of a certain ethical blindness caused by the dazzling effect of power and special interests…. Faith enables reason to do its work more effectively and to see its proper object more clearly” (n. 28).

On the other hand, the cultural matrix Christianity created — rooted in the affirmation of the existence of the Truth and of the intelligibility of the real in the light of the Supreme Truth — I mean, the cultural matrix — made possible in Medieval Europe the development of modern scientific knowledge, a knowledge that in previous cultures had remained only in embryo.

Distinguished scientists and all of you, members of the Academy engaged in promoting the life and dignity of the human person, may you always also bear in mind the fundamental cultural role you play in society and the influence you have in forming public opinion. My Predecessor, Bl. John Paul II, recalled that “scientists, therefore, precisely because they ‘know more’, are called to ‘serve more’” (Discourse to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 11 November 2002: L’Osservatore Romano 20 November 2003, p. 4).

People trust in you who serve life, they trust in your commitment to support those in need of comfort and hope. Never give in to the temptation to treat the good of the person by reducing him or her to a mere technical problem! The conscience’s indifference to the true and the good is a dangerous threat to authentic scientific progress.

I would like to conclude by renewing the hope that the Second Vatican Council addressed to men of thought and science: “Happy are those who, while possessing the truth, search more earnestly for it in order to renew it, deepen it, and transmit it to others” (Message to Men of Thought and Science, 8 December 1965: AAS 58 [1966], 12). With these hopes I impart the Apostolic Blessing to all of you present here and to your loved ones. Many thanks.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Pastoral Visit to the Roman Parish of St. John Baptist de La Salle at Torrino, Benedict XVI, 4 March 2012

PASTORAL VISIT OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

TO THE ROMAN PARISH

OF ST. JOHN BAPTIST DE LA SALLE AT TORRINO

Sunday, 4 March 2012

Greetings to the Children before Mass

Dear Children,

I wish you a good Sunday, I wish you a good day!

It gives me great joy to see so many children. Therefore Rome is alive and will also be alive tomorrow! You are on your way in catechesis: learn about Jesus, learn what he did said and suffered; learn in this way about the Church, the Sacraments and in this way you will also learn how to live because living is an art and Jesus shows us this art.

I wish you all a good Sunday. And then already today I also wish you a Happy Easter. Thank you for your warmth!

* * *

Greetings to the Faithful after Mass

Dear Friends,

Thank you for this beautiful celebration and for the church, with Our Lady and the Saints. We are a family with all the saints.

Last Sunday the Lord guided us through the wilderness. This Sunday, to the mountain: they are always privileged places for being a little closer to God, to come out of all the everyday things and perceive that God is there, that he is the centre of our life.

I hope you feel the closeness of God and that he guides you every day. A good Sunday, a good Lent to you all!

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

To the Bishops of the United States of America (Region III) on their ad Limina Visit, Benedict XVI, 9 March 2012

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

TO THE BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

FROM REGION VIII ON THEIR "AD LIMINA" VISIT

9 March 2012

Dear Brother Bishops,

I greet all of you with fraternal affection on the occasion of your visit ad limina Apostolorum. As you know, this year I wish to reflect with you on certain aspects of the evangelization of American culture in the light of the intellectual and ethical challenges of the present moment.

In our previous meetings I acknowledged our concern about threats to freedom of conscience, religion and worship which need to be addressed urgently, so that all men and women of faith, and the institutions they inspire, can act in accordance with their deepest moral convictions. In this talk I would like to discuss another serious issue which you raised with me during my Pastoral Visit to America, namely, the contemporary crisis of marriage and the family, and, more generally, of the Christian vision of human sexuality. It is in fact increasingly evident that a weakened appreciation of the indissolubility of the marriage covenant, and the widespread rejection of a responsible, mature sexual ethic grounded in the practice of chastity, have led to grave societal problems bearing an immense human and economic cost.

Yet, as Blessed John Paul II observed, the future of humanity passes by way of the family (cf. Familiaris Consortio, 85). Indeed, “the good that the Church and society as a whole expect from marriage and from the family founded on marriage is so great as to call for full pastoral commitment to this particular area. Marriage and the family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misrepresentation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them is injurious to society itself” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 29).

In this regard, particular mention must be made of the powerful political and cultural currents seeking to alter the legal definition of marriage. The Church’s conscientious effort to resist this pressure calls for a reasoned defense of marriage as a natural institution consisting of a specific communion of persons, essentially rooted in the complementarity of the sexes and oriented to procreation. Sexual differences cannot be dismissed as irrelevant to the definition of marriage. Defending the institution of marriage as a social reality is ultimately a question of justice, since it entails safeguarding the good of the entire human community and the rights of parents and children alike.

In our conversations, some of you have pointed with concern to the growing difficulties encountered in communicating the Church’s teaching on marriage and the family in its integrity, and to a decrease in the number of young people who approach the sacrament of matrimony. Certainly we must acknowledge deficiencies in the catechesis of recent decades, which failed at times to communicate the rich heritage of Catholic teaching on marriage as a natural institution elevated by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament, the vocation of Christian spouses in society and in the Church, and the practice of marital chastity. This teaching, stated with increasing clarity by the post-conciliar magisterium and comprehensively presented in both the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, needs to be restored to its proper place in preaching and catechetical instruction.

On the practical level, marriage preparation programs must be carefully reviewed to ensure that there is greater concentration on their catechetical component and their presentation of the social and ecclesial responsibilities entailed by Christian marriage. In this context we cannot overlook the serious pastoral problem presented by the widespread practice of cohabitation, often by couples who seem unaware that it is gravely sinful, not to mention damaging to the stability of society. I encourage your efforts to develop clear pastoral and liturgical norms for the worthy celebration of matrimony which embody an unambiguous witness to the objective demands of Christian morality, while showing sensitivity and concern for young couples.

Here too I would express my appreciation of the pastoral programs which you are promoting in your Dioceses and, in particular, the clear and authoritative presentation of the Church’s teaching found in your 2009 Letter Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan. I also appreciate all that your parishes, schools and charitable agencies do daily to support families and to reach out to those in difficult marital situations, especially the divorced and separated, single parents, teenage mothers and women considering abortion, as well as children suffering the tragic effects of family breakdown.

In this great pastoral effort there is an urgent need for the entire Christian community to recover an appreciation of the virtue of chastity. The integrating and liberating function of this virtue (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2338-2343) should be emphasized by a formation of the heart, which presents the Christian understanding of sexuality as a source of genuine freedom, happiness and the fulfilment of our fundamental and innate human vocation to love. It is not merely a question of presenting arguments, but of appealing to an integrated, consistent and uplifting vision of human sexuality. The richness of this vision is more sound and appealing than the permissive ideologies exalted in some quarters; these in fact constitute a powerful and destructive form of counter-catechesis for the young.

Young people need to encounter the Church’s teaching in its integrity, challenging and countercultural as that teaching may be; more importantly, they need to see it embodied by faithful married couples who bear convincing witness to its truth. They also need to be supported as they struggle to make wise choices at a difficult and confusing time in their lives. Chastity, as the Catechism reminds us, involves an ongoing “apprenticeship in self-mastery which is a training in human freedom” (2339). In a society which increasingly tends to misunderstand and even ridicule this essential dimension of Christian teaching, young people need to be reassured that “if we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, absolutely nothing, of what makes life free, beautiful and great” (Homily, Inaugural Mass of the Pontificate, 24 April 2005).

Let me conclude by recalling that all our efforts in this area are ultimately concerned with the good of children, who have a fundamental right to grow up with a healthy understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human relationships. Children are the greatest treasure and the future of every society: truly caring for them means recognizing our responsibility to teach, defend and live the moral virtues which are the key to human fulfillment. It is my hope that the Church in the United States, however chastened by the events of the past decade, will persevere in its historic mission of educating the young and thus contribute to the consolidation of that sound family life which is the surest guarantee of intergenerational solidarity and the health of society as a whole.

I now commend you and your brother Bishops, with the flock entrusted to your pastoral care, to the loving intercession of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. To all of you I willingly impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of wisdom, strength and peace in the Lord

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Table of Contents

Angelus

Angelus - 11 March 2012, Benedict XVI

Angelus 19 February 2012, Benedict XVI

Angelus 26 February 2012, Benedict XVI

Angelus - 4 March 2012, Benedict XVI

Homilies

Pastoral Visit to the Roman Parish of San Giovanni Battista de La Salle al Torrino, Homily of Benedict XVI, 4 March 2012

Vespers on the occasion of the visit of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Basilica of San Gregorio al Celio, Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI, 10 March 2012

Ash Wednesday, 22 February 2012 - Homily of Benedict XVI

Messages

Message to the International Convention "Jesus, Our Contemporary"

Message on the occasion of the Lenten ecumenical Brotherhood Campaign in Brazil

General Audiences

General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI, 22 February 2012

General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI, 7 March 2012

Letters

Letter to Cardinal Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, Preacher of the Lenten Spiritual Exercises, 3 March 2012 - Benedict XVI

Speeches

Audience with the parish priests of Rome - 23 February 2012

To a delegation from St. Peter's Circle, Benedict XVI, 24 February 2012

To participants in the General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Benedict XVI, 25 February 2012

Pastoral Visit to the Roman Parish of St. John Baptist de La Salle at Torrino, Benedict XVI, 4 March 2012

To the Bishops of the United States of America (Region III) on their ad Limina Visit, Benedict XVI, 9 March 2012