The Weekly Benedict

Introduction

The Weekly Benedict is a compilation of documents, speeches, and other texts brought into an ebook format.

The Weekly Benedict was inspired by Catholic Apologist Jimmy Akin who came up with the idea to create a weekly link page to the words of the Holy Father.

All texts are © Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Considering the increasing prevalence of electronic book readers and their ease in reading textual documents this provides an ideal format in making available the wonderful and insightful words of Pope Benedict XVI. This ebook compilation is provided as a public service with no associated fees.

Jeff Miller The Curt Jester blog

Catholic Apologist Jimmy Akin's blog can be found at JimmyAkin.org

While this ebook publication take it's cue from Jimmy Akin's weekly post with links, it is done without association and any copyright problems or formatting mistakes are entirely my own.

Index of Source Links

List of direct document links on Vatican.va used.

Angelus

- 21 October 2012

General Audiences

- 17 October 2012

Homilies

- 28 October 2012 - Holy Mass for the closing of the Synod of Bishops

Messages

- 16 October 2012 - Message on the occasion of World Food Day 2012

Speeches

- 20 October 2012 - Awarding of the “Ratzinger Prize”

Angelus

Angelus, 21 October 2012, Benedict XVI

BENEDICT XVI

ANGELUS

St. Peter's Square

Sunday, 21 October 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Before concluding this celebration, let us address the Virgin Mary, the One who is Queen of all saints, with a thought for Lourdes, hit by the severe flooding of the Gave that has also inundated the Grotto of the Apparitions of Our Lady. In particular, let us entrust today to the motherly protection of the Virgin Mary the missionaries â€” men and women, priests, religious and lay people â€” who sow the good seed of the Gospel in every part of the world. Let us also pray for the Synod of Bishops which in these weeks is taking on the challenge of new evangelization for the transmission of the Christian faith.

In French: I cordially greet the French-speaking pilgrims, especially the official delegations of Canada, Madagascar and France that have come to Rome for the canonization of Fr Jacques Berthieu and Kateri Tekakwitha. May the example of these new saints encourage you to welcome Christâ€™s love into your life and to bear witness to it around you! Through their prayers may numerous young people respond to the Lordâ€™s call to live and proclaim the Gospel! As I entrust the Church in your countries to their protection, I wholeheartedly bless you all as well as your families! I wish you all a good pilgrimage!

In English: On the happy occasion of the canonizations today, I greet the official delegations and all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors, especially those from the Philippines, Canada and the United States of America. May the holiness and witness of these saints inspire us to draw closer to the Son of God who, for such great love, came to serve and offer his life for our salvation. God bless you all!

In German: I address a warm â€œGrÃ¼ss Gottâ€ to all the German-speaking guests, especially the official delegation from Bayern and the many pilgrims from the Diocese of Regensburg. Looking into Godâ€™s heart is what St Anna SchÃ¤ffer learned in her â€œworkshop of sufferingâ€. She was thereby able to know that Godâ€™s love brings comfort, which becomes even greater when it is given to others. May the new saints strengthen us and help us through their example and their prayers of intercession, so that with faith we too may become witnesses and heralds of the Gospel.

In Spanish: I cordially greet the Spanish-speaking pilgrims, and in particular Spainâ€™s official delegation, as well as the pastors and faithful present here for the canonization of Mother Carmen SallÃ©s y Barangueras. From heaven, she continues to urge everyone, but especially her daughters, the Conceptionist Missionary Sisters of Teaching, to welcome and meditate on the word of God faithfully in their hearts, putting it into practice with a spirit of service, trust and humility, after the example of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. Aided by the intercession of the new saint, may an ever increasing number of people courageously proclaim and bear witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, especially among the young. Have a happy Sunday!

In Polish: I cordially greet the Poles. Today the new saints usher us into Mission Week. In a special way let us sustain spiritually and materially those who proclaim Christ on the different continents. I thank all those who, through the Pontifical Mission Societies, care for the missions throughout the world. May the Year of Faith rekindle in Poland the missionary enthusiasm both of clerics and of the lay faithful! I warmly bless you.

In Italian: I address my cordial greeting to the official Italian Delegation and to all the pilgrims, who have come to celebrate the canonization of Giovanni Battista Piamarta, and in particular the members of the Institutes he founded. May you, as he did, him, always combine intense prayer with generous service to your neighbour.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Homilies

Holy Mass for the closing of the Synod of Bishops, Homily of Benedict XVI, 28 October 2012

HOLY MASS FOR THE CLOSING OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI

Vatican Basilica

Sunday, 28 October 2012

Dear Brother Bishops,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The miracle of the healing of blind Bartimaeus comes at a significant point in the structure of Saint Mark’s Gospel.  It is situated at the end of the section on the “journey to Jerusalem”, that is, Jesus’ last pilgrimage to the Holy City, for the Passover, in which he knows that his passion, death and resurrection await him.  In order to ascend to Jerusalem from the Jordan valley, Jesus passes through Jericho, and the meeting with Bartimaeus occurs as he leaves the city – in the evangelist’s words, “as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude” (10:46).  This is the multitude that soon afterwards would acclaim Jesus as Messiah on his entry into Jerusalem.  Sitting and begging by the side of the road was Bartimaeus, whose name means “son of Timaeus”, as the evangelist tells us.  The whole of Mark’s Gospel is a journey of faith, which develops gradually under Jesus’ tutelage.  The disciples are the first actors on this journey of discovery, but there are also other characters who play an important role, and Bartimaeus is one of them.  His is the last miraculous healing that Jesus performs before his passion, and it is no accident that it should be that of a blind person, someone whose eyes have lost the light.  We know from other texts too that the state of blindness has great significance in the Gospels.  It represents man who needs God’s light, the light of faith, if he is to know reality truly and to walk the path of life.  It is essential to acknowledge one’s blindness, one’s need for this light, otherwise one could remain blind for ever (cf. Jn 9:39-41).

Bartimaeus, then, at that strategic point of Mark’s account, is presented as a model.  He was not blind from birth, but he lost his sight.  He represents man who has lost the light and knows it, but has not lost hope: he knows how to seize the opportunity to encounter Jesus and he entrusts himself to him for healing.  Indeed, when he hears that the Master is passing along the road, he cries out: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mk 10:47), and he repeats it even louder (v. 48).  And when Jesus calls him and asks what he wants from him, he replies: “Master, let me receive my sight!” (v. 51).  Bartimaeus represents man aware of his pain and crying out to the Lord, confident of being healed.  His simple and sincere plea is exemplary, and indeed – like that of the publican in the Temple: “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Lk 18:13) – it has found its way into the tradition of Christian prayer.  In the encounter with Christ, lived with faith, Bartimaeus regains the light he had lost, and with it the fullness of his dignity: he gets back onto his feet and resumes the journey, which from that moment has a guide, Jesus, and a path, the same that Jesus is travelling.  The evangelist tells us nothing more about Bartimaeus, but in him he shows us what discipleship is: following Jesus “along the way” (v. 52), in the light of faith.

Saint Augustine, in one of his writings, makes a striking comment about the figure of Bartimaeus, which can be interesting and important for us today.  He reflects on the fact that in this case Mark indicates not only the name of the person who is healed, but also the name of his father, and he concludes that “Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, had fallen from some position of great prosperity, and was now regarded as an object of the most notorious and the most remarkable wretchedness, because, in addition to being blind, he had also to sit begging. And this is also the reason, then, why Mark has chosen to mention only the one whose restoration to sight acquired for the miracle a fame as widespread as was the notoriety which the man’s misfortune itself had gained” (On the Consensus of the Evangelists, 2, 65, 125: PL 34, 1138).  Those are Saint Augustine’s words.

This interpretation, that Bartimaeus was a man who had fallen from a condition of “great prosperity”, causes us to think.  It invites us to reflect on the fact that our lives contain precious riches that we can lose, and I am not speaking of material riches here.  From this perspective, Bartimaeus could represent those who live in regions that were evangelized long ago, where the light of faith has grown dim and people have drifted away from God, no longer considering him relevant for their lives.  These people have therefore lost a precious treasure, they have “fallen” from a lofty dignity – not financially or in terms of earthly power, but in a Christian sense – their lives have lost a secure and sound direction and they have become, often unconsciously, beggars for the meaning of existence.  They are the many in need of a new evangelization, that is, a new encounter with Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God (cf. Mk 1:1), who can open their eyes afresh and teach them the path.  It is significant that the liturgy puts the Gospel of Bartimaeus before us today, as we conclude the Synodal Assembly on the New Evangelization.  This biblical passage has something particular to say to us as we grapple with the urgent need to proclaim Christ anew in places where the light of faith has been weakened, in places where the fire of God is more like smouldering cinders, crying out to be stirred up, so that they can become a living flame that gives light and heat to the whole house.

The new evangelization applies to the whole of the Church’s life.  It applies, in the first instance, to the ordinary pastoral ministry that must be more animated by the fire of the Spirit, so as to inflame the hearts of the faithful who regularly take part in community worship and gather on the Lord’s day to be nourished by his word and by the bread of eternal life.  I would like here to highlight three pastoral themes that have emerged from the Synod.  The first concerns the sacraments of Christian initiation.  It has been reaffirmed that appropriate catechesis must accompany preparation for Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.  The importance of Confession, the sacrament of God’s mercy, has also been emphasized.  This sacramental journey is where we encounter the Lord’s call to holiness, addressed to all Christians.  In fact it has often been said that the real protagonists of the new evangelization are the saints: they speak a language intelligible to all through the example of their lives and their works of charity.

Secondly, the new evangelization is essentially linked to the Missio ad Gentes.  The Church’s task is to evangelize, to proclaim the message of salvation to those who do not yet know Jesus Christ.  During the Synod, it was emphasized that there are still many regions in Africa, Asia and Oceania whose inhabitants await with lively expectation, sometimes without being fully aware of it, the first proclamation of the Gospel.  So we must ask the Holy Spirit to arouse in the Church a new missionary dynamism, whose progatonists are, in particular, pastoral workers and the lay faithful.  Globalization has led to a remarkable migration of peoples.  So the first proclamation is needed even in countries that were evangelized long ago.  All people have a right to know Jesus Christ and his Gospel: and Christians, all Christians – priests, religious and lay faithful – have a corresponding duty to proclaim the Good News.

A third aspect concerns the baptized whose lives do not reflect the demands of Baptism.  During the Synod, it was emphasized that such people are found in all continents, especially in the most secularized countries.  The Church is particularly concerned that they should encounter Jesus Christ anew, rediscover the joy of faith and return to religious practice in the community of the faithful.  Besides traditional and perennially valid pastoral methods, the Church seeks to adopt new ones, developing new language attuned to the different world cultures, proposing the truth of Christ with an attitude of dialogue and friendship rooted in God who is Love.  In various parts of the world, the Church has already set out on this path of pastoral creativity, so as to bring back those who have drifted away or are seeking the meaning of life, happiness and, ultimately, God.  We may recall some important city missions, the “Courtyard of the Gentiles”, the continental mission, and so on.  There is no doubt that the Lord, the Good Shepherd, will abundantly bless these efforts which proceed from zeal for his Person and his Gospel.

Dear brothers and sisters, Bartimaeus, on regaining his sight from Jesus, joined the crowd of disciples, which must certainly have included others like him, who had been healed by the Master.  New evangelizers are like that: people who have had the experience of being healed by God, through Jesus Christ.  And characteristic of them all is a joyful heart that cries out with the Psalmist: “What marvels the Lord worked for us: indeed we were glad” (Ps 125:3).  Today, we too turn to the Lord Jesus, Redemptor hominis  and lumen gentium, with joyful gratitude, making our own a prayer of Saint Clement of Alexandria: “until now I wandered in the hope of finding God, but since you enlighten me, O Lord, I find God through you and I receive the Father from you, I become your coheir, since you did not shrink from having me for your brother.  Let us put away, then, let us put away all blindness to the truth, all ignorance: and removing the darkness that obscures our vision like fog before the eyes, let us contemplate the true God ...; since a light from heaven shone down upon us who were buried in darkness and imprisoned in the shadow of death, [a light] purer than the sun, sweeter than life on this earth” (Protrepticus, 113: 2 – 114:1).  Amen.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Messages

Message for World Food Day 2012, Benedict XVI

1. This year World Food Day is being celebrated while the effects of the economic crisis are increasingly affecting primary needs — including the fundamental right of each person to sufficient and healthy food — and are aggravating in particular the situation of those who live in conditions of poverty and underdevelopment. It is a context similar to the one that inspired the creation of the FAO and which demands the commitment of national and international institutions to free humanity from hunger through agricultural development and the growth of rural communities. The gradual disengagement and excessive competition that are in fact being brought to bear on malnutrition, risk causing people to forget that only shared, common solutions can provide adequate responses to the expectations of people and peoples.

I consequently greet with special pleasure the decision to dedicate this Day to reflection on the theme “Agricultural Cooperatives: Key to Feeding the World”. It is not only a matter of supporting cooperatives as an expression of a different form of economic and social organization, but also of perceiving them as a real means of international action. The experience of many countries shows, in fact, that in addition to the impetus they give to farming, cooperatives are a means to enable farmers and rural populations to intervene at crucial moments and at the same time are an effective way to achieve this integral development, of which the person is both the foundation and the goal.

Indeed guaranteeing freedom from hunger means being aware that the activity of institutions and the contribution of committed men and women can achieve satisfactory results only through actions and structures inspired by solidarity and geared to participation. In this regard agricultural cooperatives are a practical example, since they are required to achieve not only the required standards of production and distribution but also a more general growth of rural areas and of the communities that live in them.

2. Cooperation in its deepest sense indicates the individual person’s need to associate with others in order to pursue new goals with them in the social, economic, cultural and religious spheres. It is a question of a dynamic and varied situation, called not only to respond to immediate material needs but also to contribute to the prospects of each community.

Given the priority that is due to the human dimension, agricultural cooperatives can surmount the exclusively technical aspect of farming by reassessing their centrality in economic activity and thereby encouraging responses adapted to the real local needs. It is a question of an alternative view to that determined by internal and international measures, which seem to have as their sole aim profit, the defence of markets, the non-alimentary use of farming products and the introduction of new production techniques without the necessary precautions.

In the face of an ever increasing demand for food which necessarily combines the quality and quantity of foodstuffs, the work of agricultural cooperatives can represent something more than a mere aspiration by actually showing a possible way to satisfy the demands of a growing world population. Their increasingly consolidated presence can moreover put an end to the speculative trends that are now even affecting basic staples destined for human nourishment and can contain the monopolization of cultivable areas which in various regions is forcing farmers to abandon their land since, as individuals, they have no possibility of imposing their rights.

3. The Catholic Church, as is known, also considers work and cooperative enterprises as ways to live an experience of unity and solidarity that can overcome differences and even social conflicts between individual people and between the various groups. For this reason she has always supported the model of cooperatives with her teaching and her action because she is convinced that their activity is not limited solely to the financial dimension but also contributes to the human, social, cultural and moral growth of those who belong to them and of the community into which they are integrated.

Indeed cooperatives are not a practical expression of barren complementarity but rather of true subsidiariety; a principle that the Church’s social doctrine places as the foundation of a correct relationship between people, society and institutions. Subsidiariety, in fact, guarantees the person’s ability and original contribution while preserving his or her aspirations in the spiritual and material dimension, by keeping in the right perspective the promotion of the common good and the protection of the individual’s rights.

Looking at situations where conflicts or natural disasters limit agricultural work, the irreplaceable role of women deserves a special thought: they are often required to direct the cooperatives’ activities, to maintain family ties and to safeguard their precious knowledge and skills proper to the rural world.

In a world that is seeking the appropriate interventions to overcome the difficulties of the economic crisis and to give globalization an authentically human meaning, the experience of cooperatives certainly represents this new type of economy at the service of the person, namely, that can encourage forms of sharing and of free-giving which are the fruits, respectively, of solidarity and brotherhood (Caritas in Veritate, n. 39). For this reason it is indispensable that public authorities, working at the national and international levels, prepare the legislative and financial instruments to ensure that in rural areas cooperatives may be effective tools for agricultural production, food security, social change and a greater improvement of living conditions. In this new context it is desirable that the young generations be able to look to their future with fresh confidence, while preserving their links with work in the fields, with the rural world and with the traditional values.

In renewing the attention of the Church and the commitment of her institutions so that humanity may truly be free from hunger, I invoke upon you, Mr Director-General, on the representatives of the nations accredited to the FAO, and on all those who work in the Organization and contribute to obtaining its goals, the most abundant blessings of Almighty God.

From the Vatican, 16 October 2012

Speeches

Discourse at the conferral of the Ratzinger Prize 2012

CONFERRAL OF THE "RATZINGER PRIZE 2012"

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Clementine Hall

Saturday, 20 October 2012

Venerable Brothers,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am pleased to address my greeting to all of you who have gathered at this ceremony. I thank Cardinal Ruini for his address, as well as Mons. Scotti who has introduced this meeting. I warmly congratulate Fr Daley and Prof. Brague who with their personalities add distinction to this initiative that is taking place for the second time. And I mean “personalities” in the full sense: the aspect of research and of all scientific work; the valuable service of teaching that they have both carried out for many years; and also, in different ways of course — one is a Jesuit, the other a married layman — their being committed in the Church, actively making their qualified contribution to the Church’s presence in today’s world.

In this regard I noticed something which made me think; namely, that both the prizewinners this year are competent in and involved in two aspects crucial to the Church in our times. I am referring to ecumenism and to the comparison with other religions. Fr Daley, with his in-depth study on the Fathers of the Church, has chosen the best school for knowing and loving the one and undivided Church, also in the wealth of her different traditions; for this reason in addition he is carrying out a responsible service in our relations with the Orthodox Churches. And Prof. Brague is a great scholar of the philosophy of religions, in particular of Judaism and of Islam in the Middle Ages. Thus 50 years after the beginning of the Second Vatican Council I would like to reinterpret with them two of the Council documents: the Declaration Nostra Aetate on the Relations of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, and the Decree Unitatis Redintegratio on Ecumenism, to which, however, I would add another document that has proven to be of extraordinary importance: the Declaration Dignitatis Humanae on Religious Liberty. It would certainly be most interesting, dear Father and dear Professor, to hear your thoughts and your experiences in these areas where an important part of the Church’s dialogue with the contemporary world takes place.

Actually, on reading your publications, some of which are available in various languages, makes this ideal encounter and comparison already take place. I feel it is my duty to express special appreciation of and gratitude for this effort to communicate the fruits of such research. It is a commitment that is difficult but of value to the Church and to all who work in the academic and cultural milieu. In this regard, I would simply like to emphasize the fact that both prizewinners are university professors, deeply committed to teaching. This aspect deserves to be highlighted because it illustrates the consistent policy and work of the Foundation which, in addition to the Prize, sponsors scholarships for those working on doctorates in theology, as well as study symposiums at university level, such as the one held this year in Poland and the one that will take place in Rio de Janeiro in three weeks’ time.

Scholars such as Fr Daley and Prof. Brague are exemplary figures for the transmission of a knowledge that combines science and wisdom, scientific rigour and a passion for man, so that one may discover the “art of living”. And this is a feature of people who, through an enlightened faith and life bring God close and credible to the people of today. This is what we need: people who keep their gaze fixed on God, drawing from this source true humanity to help those whom the Lord sets on our path to understand that Christ is the way of life; people whose intellect is illuminated by God’s light, so that they may also speak to the mind and heart of others.

Working in the Lord’s vineyard, where he calls us, so that the men and women of our time may discover and rediscover the true “art of living”: this was another great passion of the Second Vatican Council and one which increasingly forms part of the commitment to the new evangelization.

I warmly renew my congratulations to the prizewinners, as well as to the Scientific Committee of the Foundation and to all the co-workers. Many thanks.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

General Audiences

General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI, 17 October 2012

BENEDICT XVI

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Saint Peter's Square

Wednesday, 17 October 2012

The Year of Faith. Introduction

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today I would like to introduce the new series of Catecheses that will develop throughout the Year of Faith that has just begun and will interrupt — during this period — the series on the school of prayer. I announced this special Year in the Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei, precisely so that the Church might renew the enthusiasm of believing in Jesus Christ the one Saviour of the world, revive the joy of walking on the path he pointed out to us and bear a tangible witness to the transforming power of faith.

The 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council is an important opportunity to return to God, to deepen our faith and live it more courageously, and to strengthen our belonging to the Church, “teacher of humanity”. It is through the proclamation of the Word, the celebration of the sacraments and works of charity that she guides us to meeting and knowing Christ, true God and true man. This is not an encounter with an idea or with a project of life, but with a living Person who transforms our innermost selves, revealing to us our true identity as children of God.

The encounter with Christ renews our human relationships, directing them, from day to day, to greater solidarity and brotherhood in the logic of love. Having faith in the Lord is not something that solely involves our intelligence, the area of intellectual knowledge; rather, it is a change that involves our life, our whole self: feelings, heart, intelligence, will, corporeity, emotions and human relationships. With faith everything truly changes, in us and for us, and our future destiny is clearly revealed, the truth of our vocation in history, the meaning of life, the pleasure of being pilgrims bound for the heavenly Homeland.

However — let us ask ourselves — is faith truly the transforming force in our life, in my life? Or is it merely one of the elements that are part of existence, without being the crucial one that involves it totally? With the Catecheses of this Year of Faith let us make a journey to reinforce or rediscover the joy of faith, in the knowledge that it is not something extraneous, detached from daily life, but is its soul. Faith in a God who is love, who makes himself close to man by incarnating himself and by giving himself on the Cross, who saves us and opens the doors of Heaven to us once again, clearly indicates that man’s fullness consists solely in love.

This must be unequivocally reasserted today, when the cultural transformations under way frequently display so many forms of barbarity, passed off as “conquests of civilization”. Faith affirms that there is no true humanity except in the places, actions, times and forms in which the human being is motivated by the love that comes from God. It is expressed as a gift and reveals itself in relationships full of love, compassion, attention and disinterested service to others. Wherever there is domination, possession, exploitation and the taking advantage of the other for selfish reasons wherever there is the arrogance of the ego withdrawn into the self, the human being is impoverished, debased and disfigured. The Christian faith, active in charity and strong in hope, does not limit but rather humanizes life, indeed, makes it fully human.

Faith means taking this transforming message to heart in our life, receiving the revelation of God who makes us know that he exists, how he acts and what his plans for us are. Of course, the mystery of God always remains beyond our conception and reason, our rites and our prayers. Yet, through his revelation, God actually communicates himself to us, recounts himself and makes himself accessible. And we are enabled to listen to his Word and to receive his truth. This, then, is the wonder of faith: God, in his love, creates within us — through the action of the Holy Spirit — the appropriate conditions for us to recognize his Word. God himself, in his desire to show himself, to come into contact with us, to make himself present in our history, enables us to listen to and receive him. St Paul expresses it with joy and gratitude in these words: “And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers” ( 1 Thess 2:13).

God has revealed himself with words and works throughout a long history of friendship with mankind which culminated in the Incarnation of the Son of God and in the Mystery of his death and Resurrection. God not only revealed himself in the history of a people, he not only spoke through the Prophets but he also crossed the threshold of his Heaven to enter our planet as a man, so that we might meet him and listen to him. And the proclamation of the Gospel of salvation spread from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. The Church, born from Christ’s side, became the messenger of a new and solid hope: Jesus of Nazareth Crucified and Risen, the Saviour of the world who is seated at the right hand of the Father and is the judge of the living and the dead. This is the kerygma the central, explosive proclamation of faith. However the problem of the “rule of faith” has been posed from the outset, in other words the problem of believers’ faithfulness to the truth of the Gospel, which to be firmly anchored, to the saving truth about God and man that must be preserved and passed down. St Paul wrote: “I preached to you the Gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast — unless you believed in vain” (1 Cor 15:2).

But where can we find the essential formula of faith? Where can we find the truths that have been faithfully passed down to us and that constitute the light for our daily life? The answer is simple. In the Creed, in the Profession of Faith or Symbol of Faith, we are reconnected with the original event of the Person and history of Jesus of Nazareth; what the Apostle to the Gentiles said to the Christians of Corinth happens: “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-5).

Today too the Creed needs to be better known, understood and prayed. It is important above all that the Creed be, so to speak, “recognized”. Indeed, knowing might be merely an intellectual operation, whereas “recognizing” means the need to discover the deep bond between the truth we profess in the Creed and our daily existence, so that these truths may truly and in practice be — as they have always been — light for our steps through life, water that irrigates the parched stretches on our path, life that gets the better of some arid areas of life today. The moral life of Christians is grafted on the Creed, on which it is founded and by which it is justified.

It is not by chance that Blessed John Paul II wanted the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a reliable norm for teaching the faith and a dependable source for a renewed catechesis, to be based on the Creed. It was a question of confirming and preserving this central core of the truths of the faith and of rendering it in a language that would be more comprehensible to the people of our time, to us. It is a duty of the Church to transmit the faith, to communicate the Gospel, so that the Christian truths may be a light in the new cultural transformations and that Christians may be able to account for the hope that is in them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15). Today we are living in a society in constant movement, one that has changed radically, even in comparison with the recent past.

The processes of secularization and a widespread nihilistic mentality in which all is relative have deeply marked the common mindset. Thus life is often lived frivolously, with no clear ideals or well-founded hopes, and within fluid and temporary social ties. Above all the new generations are not taught the truth nor the profound meaning of existence that surmounts the contingent situation, nor permanent affections and trust. Relativism leads, on the contrary, to having no reference points, suspicion and volubility break up human relations, while life is lived in brief experiments without the assumption of responsibility.

If individualism and relativism seem to dominate the minds of many of our contemporaries, it cannot be said that believers are completely immune to these dangers, with which we are confronted in the transmission of the faith. The investigation promoted on all the continents through the celebration of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, has highlighted some of them: a faith lived passively and privately, the rejection of education in the faith, the gap between life and faith.

Christians often do not even know the central core of their own Catholic faith, the Creed, so that they leave room for a certain syncretism and religious relativism, blurring the truths to believe in as well as the salvific uniqueness of Christianity. The risk of fabricating, as it were, a “do-it-yourself” religion is not so far off today. Instead we must return to God, to the God of Jesus Christ, we must rediscover the Gospel message and make it enter our consciences and our daily life more deeply.

In the Catecheses of this Year of Faith I would like to offer some help for achieving this journey for taking up and deepening knowledge of the central truths of our faith, concerning God, man, the Church, about the whole social and cosmic reality, by meditating and reflecting on the affirmations of the Creed. And I would like it to be clear that this content or truth of faith (fides quae) bears directly our life; it asks for a conversion of life that gives life to a new way of believing in God (fides qua). Knowing God, meeting him, deepening our knowledge of the features of his face is vital for our life so that he may enter into the profound dynamics of the human being.

May the journey we shall be making this year enable us all to grow in faith, in love of Christ, so that in our daily decisions and actions we may learn to live the good and beautiful life of the Gospel. Many thanks.

To special groups:

I offer a warm welcome to the Muslim and Catholic study group from the Diocese of Broken Bay in Australia. I also greet the representatives of the Jewish Federation of North America and the participants in the European Conference of the American Bankruptcy Institute. I thank the Cathedral Choir from Oslo and the Hawaiian dancers for their performances. Upon all the English-speaking visitors present, including those from England, Scotland, Ireland, Jersey, Norway, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Canada and the United States, I invoke God’s abundant blessings.

Lastly, I address a special thought to the sick, the newlyweds and the young people, among whom I greet in particular the confirmands of the Diocese of Faenza-Modigliana, accompanied by Bishop Claudio Stagni. Thank you. Thank you for your enthusiasm! The liturgy today has us celebrate the Memorial of St Ignatius of Antioch, a Pastor on fire with love for Christ. May this feast help everyone to rediscover the joy of being Christian. I pray that the Lord’s goodness and mercy may comfort your hope, young people, that it may console your suffering, sick people and strengthen your mutual love, newlyweds.

My thanks to you all.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Table of Contents

Introduction

Index of Source Links

Angelus

Angelus, 21 October 2012, Benedict XVI

Homilies

Holy Mass for the closing of the Synod of Bishops, Homily of Benedict XVI, 28 October 2012

Messages

Message for World Food Day 2012, Benedict XVI

Speeches

General Audiences

General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI, 17 October 2012