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

- 18 November 2012

General Audiences

- 14 November 2012

Homilies

- 24 November 2012 - Ordinary Public Consistory for the creation of new Cardinals

- 25 November 2012 - Holy Mass with new Cardinals

Messages

- 13 November 2012 - Message to participants in "Court of the Gentiles" Meeting in Portugal [Guimarães, 16-17 November 2012]

- 14 November 2012 - Message to His Holiness Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark on the occasion of his enthronement

Speeches

- 12 November 2012 - Visit to the Community of Sant'Egidio’s home for the elderly "Viva gli Anziani" (Rome)

- 15 November 2012 - To participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity

- 17 November 2012 - To participants in the International Congress organized by the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers (Health Pastoral Care)

- 22 November 2012 - To participants in the XVII Council of Europe Conference of Directors of Prison Administration

Angelus

Visit to the Community of Sant'Egidio's home for the elderly, Benedict XVI, 12 November 2012

VISIT TO THE COMMUNITY OF SANT'EGIDIO'S

HOME FOR THE ELDERLY "VIVA GLI ANZIANI"

WORDS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Rome, Monday 12 November 2012

Dear Brothers and Dear Sisters,

I am really glad to be with you in this “casa-famiglia” of the Sant’Egidio Community for the elderly. I thank Prof. Marco Impagliazzo, your President, for his friendly words. With him, I greet Prof. Andrea Riccardi, Founder of the community. I thank you for coming, Bishop Matteo Zuppi, Auxiliary for the Historical Centre, and Archbishop Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Council for the Family and all the friends of the Sant’Egidio Community.

I come to you as Bishop of Rome, but also as an old man visiting his peers. It would be superfluous to say that I am well acquainted with the difficulties, problems and limitations of this age and I know that for many these difficulties are more acute due to the economic crisis. At times, at a certain age, one may look back nostalgically at the time of our youth when we were fresh and planning for the future. Thus at times our gaze is veiled by sadness, seeing this phase of life as the time of sunset. This morning, addressing all the elderly in spirit, although I am aware of the difficulties that our age entails I would like to tell you with deep conviction: it is beautiful to be old! At every phase of life it is necessary to be able to discover the presence and blessing of the Lord and the riches they bring. We must never let ourselves be imprisoned by sorrow! We have received the gift of longevity. Living is beautiful even at our age, despite some “aches and pains” and a few limitations. In our faces may there always be the joy of feeling loved by God and not sadness.

In the Bible longevity is considered a blessing of God; today this blessing is widespread and must be seen as a gift to appreciate and to make the most of. And yet frequently society dominated by the logic of efficiency and gain does not accept it as such: on the contrary it frequently rejects it, viewing the elderly as non-productive or useless. All too often we hear about the suffering of those who are marginalized, who live far from home or in loneliness. I think there should be greater commitment, starting with families and public institutions, to ensure that the elderly be able to stay in their own homes. The wisdom of life, of which we are bearers, is a great wealth. The quality of a society, I mean of a civilization, is also judged by how it treats elderly people and by the place it gives them in community life. Those who make room for the elderly make room for life! Those who welcome the elderly welcome life!

From the outset the Community of Sant’Egidio has supported so many elderly people on their way, helping them to stay in their own living milieus and opening various “casa-famiglia” in Rome and throughout the world. Through solidarity between the young and the old it has helped people to understand that the Church is effectively a family made up of all the generations, where each person must feel “at home” and where it is not the logic of profit and of possession that prevails but that of giving freely and of love. When life becomes frail, in the years of old age, it never loses its value and its dignity: each one of us, at any stage of life, is wanted and loved by God, each one is important and necessary (cf. Homily for the beginning of the Petrine Ministry, 24 April 2005).

Today’s visit fits into the European Year of Active Aging and of Solidarity between the Generations. And in this very context I would like to reaffirm that the elderly are a value for society, especially for the young. There can be no true human growth and education without fruitful contact with the elderly, because their life itself is like an open book in which the young generations may find precious indications for their journey through life.

Dear friends, at our age we often experience the need of the help of others; and this also happens to the Pope. In the Gospel we read that Jesus told the Apostle Peter: “when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go” (Jn 21:18). The Lord was referring to the way in which the Apostle was to witness to his faith to the point of martyrdom, but this sentence makes us think about that fact that the need for help is a condition of the elderly. I would like to ask you to seek in this too a gift of the Lord, because being sustained and accompanied, feeling the affection of others is a grace! This is important in every stage of life: no one can live alone and without help; the human being is relational. And in this case I see, with pleasure, that all those who help and all those who are helped form one family, whose lifeblood is love.

Dear elderly brothers and sisters, the days sometimes seem long and empty, with difficulties, few engagements and few meetings; never feel down at heart: you are a wealth for society, even in suffering and sickness. And this phase of life is also a gift for deepening the relationship with God. The example of Blessed Pope John Paul II was and still is illuminating for everyone. Do not forget that one of the valuable resources you possess is the essential one of prayer: become interceders with God, praying with faith and with constancy. Pray for the Church, and pray for me, for the needs of the world, for the poor, so that there may be no more violence in the world. The prayers of the elderly can protect the world, helping it, perhaps more effectively than collective anxiety. Today I would like to entrust to your prayers the good of the Church and peace in the world. The Pope loves you and relies on all of you! May you feel beloved by God and know how to bring a ray of God’s love to this society of ours, often so individualistic and so efficiency-oriented. And God will always be with you and with all those who support you with their affection and their help.

I entrust you all to the motherly intercession of the Virgin Mary, who always accompanies us on our journey with her motherly love and I willingly impart my blessing to each one of you. I thank you all!

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Homilies

Holy Mass with the new Cardinals, Homily of Benedict XVI, 25 November 2012

ORDINARY PUBLIC CONSISTORY

FOR THE CREATION OF NEW CARDINALS

HOLY MASS WITH THE NEW CARDINALS

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Vatican Basilica

Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Sunday, 25 November 2012

Your Eminences,

Dear Brother Bishops and Priests,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today’s Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe, the crowning of the liturgical year, is enriched by our reception into the College of Cardinals of six new members whom, following tradition, I have invited to celebrate the Eucharist with me this morning.  I greet each of them most cordially and I thank Cardinal James Michael Harvey for the gracious words which he addressed to me in the name of all.  I greet the other Cardinals and Bishops present, as well as the distinguished civil Authorities, Ambassadors, priests, religious and all the faithful, especially those coming from the Dioceses entrusted to the pastoral care of the new Cardinals.

In this final Sunday of the liturgical year, the Church invites us to celebrate the Lord Jesus as King of the Universe.  She calls us to look to the future, or more properly into the depths, to the ultimate goal of history, which will be the definitive and eternal kingdom of Christ.  He was with the Father in the beginning, when the world was created, and he will fully manifest his lordship at the end of time, when he will judge all mankind.  Today’s three readings speak to us of this kingdom.  In the Gospel passage which we have just heard, drawn from the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus appears in humiliating circumstances – he stands accused – before the might of Rome.  He had been arrested, insulted, mocked, and now his enemies hope to obtain his condemnation to death by crucifixion.  They had presented him to Pilate as one who sought political power, as the self-proclaimed King of the Jews.  The Roman procurator conducts his enquiry and asks Jesus: “Are you the King of the Jews?” (Jn 18:33).  In reply to this question, Jesus clarifies the nature of his kingship and his messiahship itself, which is no worldly power but a love which serves.  He states that his kingdom is in no way to be confused with a political reign: “My kingship is not of this world … is not from the world” (v. 36).

Jesus clearly had no political ambitions.  After the multiplication of the loaves, the people, enthralled by the miracle, wanted to take him away and make him their king, in order to overthrow the power of Rome and thus establish a new political kingdom which would be considered the long-awaited kingdom of God.  But Jesus knows that God’s kingdom is of a completely different kind; it is not built on arms and violence.  The multiplication of the loaves itself becomes both the sign that he is the Messiah and a watershed in his activity: henceforth the path to the Cross becomes ever clearer; there, in the supreme act of love, the promised kingdom, the kingdom of God, will shine forth.  But the crowd does not understand this; they are disappointed and Jesus retires to the mountain to pray in solitude, to pray with the Father (cf. Jn  6:1-15).  In the Passion narrative we see how even the disciples, though they had shared Jesus’ life and listened to his words, were still thinking of a political kingdom, brought about also by force.  In Gethsemane, Peter had unsheathed his sword and began to fight, but Jesus stopped him (cf. Jn 18:10-11).  He does not wish to be defended by arms, but to accomplish the Father’s will to the end, and to establish his kingdom not by armed conflict, but by the apparent weakness of life-giving love.  The kingdom of God is a kingdom utterly different from earthly kingdoms.

That is why, faced with a defenceless, weak and humiliated man, as Jesus was, a man of power like Pilate is taken aback; taken aback because he hears of a kingdom and servants. So he asks an apparently odd question: “So you are a king?”  What sort of king can such a man as this be?  But Jesus answers in the affirmative: “You say that I am a king.  For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.  Every one who is of the truth hears my voice” (18:37).  Jesus speaks of kings and kingship, yet he is not referring to power but to truth.  Pilate fails to understand: can there be a power not obtained by human means?  A power which does not respond to the logic of domination and force?  Jesus came to reveal and bring a new kingship, that of God; he came to bear witness to the truth of a God who is love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8,16), who wants to establish a kingdom of justice, love and peace (cf. Preface).  Whoever is open to love hears this testimony and accepts it with faith, to enter the kingdom of God.

We find this same perspective in the first reading we heard.  The prophet Daniel foretells the power of a mysterious personage set between heaven and earth: “Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.  To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (7:13-14).  These words present a king who reigns from sea to sea, to the very ends of the earth, possessed of an absolute power which will never be destroyed.  This vision of the prophet, a messianic vision, is made clear and brought to fulfilment in Christ: the power of the true Messiah, the power which will never pass away or be destroyed, is not the power of the kingdoms of the earth which rise and fall, but the power of truth and love.  In this way we understand how the kingship proclaimed by Jesus in the parables and openly and explicitly revealed before the Roman procurator, is the kingship of truth, the one which gives all things their light and grandeur.

In the second reading, the author of the Book of Revelation states that we too share in Christ’s kingship.  In the acclamation addressed “to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood”, he declares that Christ “has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father” (1:5-6).  Here too it is clear that we are speaking of a kingdom based on a relationship with God, with truth, and not a political kingdom.  By his sacrifice, Jesus has opened for us the path to a profound relationship with God: in him we have become true adopted children and thus sharers in his kingship over the world.  To be disciples of Jesus, then, means not letting ourselves be allured by the worldly logic of power, but bringing into the world the light of truth and God’s love.  The author of the Book of Revelation broadens his gaze to include Jesus’ second coming to judge mankind and to establish forever his divine kingdom, and he reminds us that conversion, as a response to God’s grace, is the condition for the establishment of this kingdom (cf. 1:7).  It is a pressing invitation addressed to each and all: to be converted ever anew to the kingdom of God, to the lordship of God, of Truth, in our lives.  We invoke the kingdom daily in the prayer of the “Our Father” with the words “Thy kingdom come”; in effect we say to Jesus: Lord, make us yours, live in us, gather together a scattered and suffering humanity, so that in you all may be subjected to the Father of mercy and love.

To you, dear and venerable Brother Cardinals – I think in particular of those created yesterday – is is entrusted this demanding responsibility: to bear witness to the kingdom of God, to the truth.  This means working to bring out ever more clearly the priority of God and his will over the interests of the world and its powers.  Become imitators of Jesus, who, before Pilate, in the humiliating scene described by the Gospel, manifested his glory: that of loving to the utmost, giving his own life for those whom he loves.  This is the revelation of the kingdom of Jesus.  And for this reason, with one heart and one soul, let us pray: Adveniat regnum tuum – Thy kingdom come.  Amen.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Papal Mass on the occasion of the Ordinary Public Consistory for the creation of new cardinals, Homily of Benedict XVI, 24 November 2012

ORDINARY PUBLIC CONSISTORY

FOR THE CREATION OF NEW CARDINALS

PAPAL MASS

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Vatican Basilica

Saturday, 24 November 2012

“I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church”

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

These words, which the new Cardinals are soon to proclaim in the course of their solemn profession of faith, come from the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed, the synthesis of the Church’s faith that each of us receives at baptism.  Only by professing and preserving this rule of truth intact can we be authentic disciples of the Lord.  In this Consistory, I would like to reflect in particular on the meaning of the word “catholic”, a word which indicates an essential feature of the Church and her mission.  Much could be said on this subject and various different approaches could be adopted: today I shall limit myself to one or two thoughts.

The characteristic marks of the Church are in accordance with God’s plan, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us: “it is Christ who, through the Holy Spirit, makes his Church one, holy, catholic and apostolic, and it is he who calls her to realize each of these qualities” (no. 811).  Specifically, what makes the Church catholic is the fact that Christ in his saving mission embraces all humanity.  While during his earthly life Jesus’ mission was limited to the Jewish people, “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mt 15:24), from the beginning it was meant to bring the light of the Gospel to all peoples and lead all nations into the kingdom of God.  When he saw the faith of the centurion at Capernaum, Jesus cried out: “I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 8:11).  This universalist perspective can be seen, among other things, from the way Jesus applied to himself not only the title “Son of David”, but also “Son of Man” (Mk 10:33), as in the Gospel passage that we have just heard.  The expression “Son of Man”, in the language of Jewish apocalyptic literature inspired by the vision of history found in the book of the prophet Daniel (cf. 7:13-14), calls to mind the figure who appears “with the clouds of heaven” (v. 13).  This is an image that prophesies a completely new kingdom, sustained not by human powers, but by the true power that comes from God.  Jesus takes up this rich and complex expression and refers it to himself in order to manifest the true character of his Messianism: a mission directed to the whole man and to every man, transcending all ethnic, national and religious particularities.  And it is actually by following Jesus, by allowing oneself to be drawn into his humanity and hence into communion with God, that one enters this new kingdom proclaimed and anticipated by the Church, a kingdom that conquers fragmentation and dispersal.

Jesus sends his Church not to a single group, then, but to the whole human race, and thus he unites it, in faith, in one people, in order to save it.  The Second Vatican Council expresses this succinctly in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium: “All men are called to belong to the new people of God. Therefore this people, while remaining one and unique, is to be spread throughout the whole world and through every age, so that the design of God's will may be fulfilled” (no. 13).  Hence the universality of the Church flows from the universality of God’s unique plan of salvation for the world.  This universal character emerges clearly on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fills the first Christian community with his presence, so that the Gospel may spread to all nations, causing the one People of God to grow in all peoples.  From its origins, then, the Church is oriented kat’holon, it embraces the whole universe.  The Apostles bear witness to Christ, addressing people from all over the world, and each of their hearers understands them as if they were speaking his native language (cf. Acts 2:7-8).  From that day, in the “power of the Holy Spirit”, according to Jesus’ promise, the Church proclaims the dead and risen Lord “in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).  The Church’s universal mission does not arise from below, but descends from above, from the Holy Spirit: from the beginning it seeks to express itself in every culture so as to form the one People of God.  Rather than beginning as a local community that slowly grows and spreads outwards, it is like yeast oriented towards a universal horizon, towards the whole: universality is inscribed within it.

Our Lord proclaims: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation” (Mk 16:15); “make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19).  With these words, Jesus sends the Apostles to all creation, so that God’s saving action may reach everywhere.  But if we consider the moment of Jesus’ ascension into heaven, as recounted in the Acts of the Apostles, we see that the disciples are still closed in their thinking, looking to the restoration of a new Davidic kingdom.  They ask the Lord: “will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).  How does Jesus answer?  He answers by broadening their horizons and giving them both the promise and a task: he promises that they will be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and he confers upon them the task of bearing witness to him all over the world, transcending the cultural and religious confines within which they were accustomed to think and live, so as to open themselves to the universal Kingdom of God.  At the beginning of the Church’s journey, the Apostles and disciples set off without any human security, purely in the strength of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel and the faith.  This is the yeast that spreads round the world, enters into different events and into a wide range of cultural and social contexts, while remaining a single Church.  Around the Apostles, Christian communities spring up, but these are “the” Church which is always the same, one and universal, whether in Jerusalem, Antioch, or Rome.  And when the Apostles speak of the Church, they are not referring to a community of their own, but to the Church of Christ, and they insist on the unique, universal and all-inclusive identity of the Catholica that is realized in every local church.  The Church is one, holy, catholic and apostolic, she reflects in herself the source of her life and her journey: the unity and communion of the Trinity.

Situated within the context and the perspective of the Church’s unity and universality is the College of Cardinals: it presents a variety of faces, because it expresses the face of the universal Church.  In this Consistory, I want to highlight in particular the fact that the Church is the Church of all peoples, and so she speaks in the various cultures of the different continents.  She is the Church of Pentecost: amid the polyphony of the various voices, she raises a single harmonious song to the living God.

I cordially greet the official Delegations of the different countries, the bishops, priests, consecrated persons, and lay faithful of the various diocesan communities and all those who share in the joy of the new members of the College of Cardinals – their family, friends and co-workers.  The new Cardinals, who represent different dioceses around the world, are henceforth associated by a special title with the Church of Rome, and in this way they reinforce the spiritual bonds that unite the whole Church, brought to life by Christ and gathered around the Successor of Peter.  At the same time, today’s rite expresses the supreme value of fidelity.  Indeed, the oath that you are about to take, venerable brothers, contains words filled with profound spiritual and ecclesial significance: “I promise and I swear, from now on and for as long as I live, to remain faithful to Christ and his Gospel, constantly obedient to the Holy Apostolic Roman Church”.  And when you receive the red biretta, you will be reminded that it means “you must be ready to conduct yourselves with fortitude, even to the shedding of your blood, for the increase of the Christian faith, for the peace and well-being of the people of God”.  Whereas the consignment of the ring is accompanied by the admonition: “Know that your love for the Church is strengthened by your love for the Prince of the Apostles”.

In these gestures and the words that accompany them, we see an indication of the identity that you assume today in the Church.  From now on, you will be even more closely and intimately linked to the See of Peter: the titles and deaconries of the churches of Rome will remind you of the bond that joins you, as members by a very special title, to this Church of Rome, which presides in universal charity.  Particularly through the work you do for the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, you will be my valued co-workers, first and foremost in my apostolic ministry for the fullness of catholicity, as Pastor of the whole flock of Christ and prime guarantor of its doctrine, discipline and morals.

Dear friends, let us praise the Lord, who “with manifold gifts does not cease to enrich his Church spread throughout the world” (Oration), and reinvigorates her in the perennial youth that he has bestowed upon her.  To him we entrust the new ecclesial service of these our esteemed and venerable Brothers, that they may bear courageous witness to Christ, with a lively growing faith and unceasing sacrificial love. Amen.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Messages

Message to His Holiness Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark on the occasion of his enthronement, 14 November 2012

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI

TO HIS HOLINESS TAWADROS II, POPE OF ALEXANDRIA AND PATRIARCH OF THE SEE OF SAINT MARK

ON THE OCCASION OF HIS ENTHRONEMENT

To His Holiness Tawadros II

Pope of Alexandria

Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark

“Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal 1:3)

It is with fraternal joy that I send greetings to Your Holiness on the happy occasion of your enthronement as Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark. To my Venerable Brother Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, I have entrusted the task of conveying these greetings to you, together with assurances of my closeness in prayer as you assume the high office of chief shepherd of the Coptic Orthodox Church. May the Almighty grant Your Holiness abundant spiritual gifts to strengthen you in your new ministry, as you guide the clergy and laity along the paths of holiness, for the good of your people and the peace and harmony of the whole of society.

My thoughts turn at this time to your venerable predecessor, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, whose long and devoted service to the Lord will surely continue to inspire you and all the faithful. His concern for improving relations with other Christian Churches reinforces our hope that one day all the followers of Christ will find themselves united in that love and reconciliation which the Lord so earnestly desires (cf. Jn 17:21).

Your Holiness, I pray that the Holy Spirit will sustain you in your ministry, so that the flock entrusted to your care may experience the teaching of the Good Shepherd. May they be blessed with the serenity to offer their valuable contribution to the good of society and the well-being of all their fellow-citizens.

I pray too that relations between the Catholic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church will continue to grow closer, not only in a fraternal spirit of collaboration, but also through a deepening of the theological dialogue that will enable us to grow in communion and to bear witness before the world to the saving truth of the Gospel.

Conscious of the great challenges which accompany the spiritual and pastoral ministry that Your Holiness is about to undertake, I assure you of my prayers and personal good wishes. With fraternal esteem and affection I implore God’s blessings upon you and upon all the faithful entrusted to your care.

From the Vatican, 14 November 2012

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Speeches

To participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Benedict XVI, 15 November 2012

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE PLENARY ASSEMBLY OF

THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN UNITY

Clementine Hall

Thursday, 15 November 2012

Your Eminences,

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am pleased to meet you all, Members and Consultors of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, on the occasion of your Plenary Meeting. I address my cordial greeting to each one, and in particular to the President, Cardinal Kurt Koch — whom I thank for the courteous words with which he has interpreted your common sentiments — to the Secretary and to the Co-Workers at the Dicastery, with my appreciation of their work at the service of a cause crucial to the life of the Church.

This year your Plenary Assembly focuses attention on: “The Importance of Ecumenism for the New Evangelization”. By choosing this theme you are appropriately following up what was examined at the recent Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops and, in a certain sense, you wish to give a practical form, in accordance with the Dicastery’s particular outlook to the results of that meeting. Further, the reflection you are making fits very well into the context of the Year of Faith which I called for as a favourable moment to repropose to all the gift of faith in the Risen Christ, during the year in which we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Second Vatican Council. As is known, the Council Fathers intended to stress the very close link that exists between the task of evangelization and overcoming the existing divisions between Christians. “Such division”, one reads at the beginning of the Decree Unitatis Redintegratio, “openly contradicts the will of Christ, scandalizes the world, and damages that most holy cause, the preaching of the Gospel to every creature” (n. 1). The affirmation of the conciliar Decree reechoes the “priestly prayer” of Jesus when, addressing the Father, he asks that his disciples “may all be one... so that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21). Four times in this important prayer he invokes unity for the disciples of that time and for those of the future and twice he points out that the purpose of this unity is that the world may believe, that it may “recognize” him as the One sent by the Father. There is consequently a close link between the destiny of evangelization and the Christians’ witness to unity.

An authentic ecumenical path cannot be followed without considering the faith crisis that vast regions of the planet are going through. These include those that first received the Gospel proclamation and in which Christian life flourished for centuries. Moreover the many signs that testify to the continuing need for spirituality and that are demonstrated in various ways, cannot be ignored. The spiritual poverty of many of our contemporaries, who no longer perceive the absence of God from their life as a deprivation, constitutes a challenge to all Christians. In this context, we believers in Christ are asked to return to the essential, to the heart of our faith, to bear witness together to the world to the living God, that is, to a God who knows and loves us, under whose gaze we live; of a God who expects the response of our love in everyday life. The commitment of Churches and ecclesial Communities to a renewed proclamation of the Gospel to today’s people is thus a cause of hope. Indeed, bearing witness to the living God who made himself close in Christ, is the most urgent imperative for all Christians, and it is also an imperative that unites us, in spite of the incomplete ecclesial communion that we still feel. We must not forget what unites us, namely, faith in God, Father and Creator, who revealed himself in the Son, Jesus Christ, pouring out the Spirit who gives life and sanctifies. This is the faith of Baptism that we have received, and is the faith that we can profess together in hope and charity. In the light of the priority of faith we also understand the importance of theological dialogue and conversations with the Churches and ecclesial Communities to which the Catholic Church is committed. Even when the possibility of the reestablishment of full communion cannot be glimpsed in an immediate future, they make it possible to perceive, as well as resistance and obstacles, also a wealth of experiences, of spiritual life and theological reflections that become an incentive for a witness ever more profound.

We must not, however, forget that the goal of ecumenism is the visible unity among divided Christians. This unity is not a work that we human beings can simply achieve. We must strive with all our might, but we must also recognize that, ultimately, this unity is a gift of God, it can only come from the Father through the Son, because the Church is his Church. In this perspective the importance of praying the Lord for visible unity appears but it also becomes clear that this goal important for the New Evangelization.

Walking together towards this goal is a positive reality on condition, however, that the Churches and Ecclesial Communities do not stop along the way, accepting the contradictory differences as something normal or as the best that can be obtained. Instead it is in full communion in faith, in the sacraments and in the ministry, that will become concretely evident the present and active power of God in the world. Through the visible unity of Jesus’ disciples, humanly inexplicable, God’s action that overcomes the world’s tendency to disintegration.

Dear friends, I would like to express my hope that the Year of Faith will also contribute to the progress of the ecumenical journey. Unity is on the one hand a fruit of faith and, on the other, a means and almost a presupposition for proclaiming the faith ever more credibly to those who do not yet know the Lord or who, although they have received the Gospel proclamation, have almost forgotten this precious gift. True ecumenism, recognizing the primacy of divine action, demands, first of all, patience, humility, and abandonment to the Lord’s will. Lastly, ecumenism and the New Evangelization both require the dynamism of conversion, understood as a sincere desire to follow Christ and to adhere fully to the Father’s will. As I thank you once again, I gladly invoke upon you all the Apostolic Blessing. Many thanks.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

To participants in the International Congress organized by the Pontifical Council for Health Care, Benedict XVI, 17 November 2012

Your Eminences,

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I offer you a warm welcome! I thank the President of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, (Health Pastoral Care), Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, for his courteous words; I greet the distinguished speakers and all those present. The theme of your Conference — “The Hospital, a Place of Evangelization: a Human and Spiritual Mission” — gives me an opportunity to extend my Greeting to all the health-care workers, and in particular to the members of the Italian Catholic Doctors’ Association and of the European Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, which has examined the subject “Bioethics and Christian Europe” at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. I also greet the sick people present, their relatives, the chaplains and the volunteers, the members of the associations, and in particular of the Italian National Union for the Transport of the Sick to Lourdes and International Shrines (UNITALSI), the students at the Faculties of Medicine and Surgery and those who are taking degree courses in the health-care professions.

The Church always turns with the same brotherly spirit of sharing to all who are suffering, enlivened by the Spirit of the One who, with the power of love has restored meaning and dignity to the mystery of suffering. The Second Vatican Council said to these people “know that you are not... abandoned or useless” (cf. Message to the Poor, the Sick and the Suffering, 8 December 1965).

And in these same tones of hope, the Church also reassures health-care professionals and volunteers. Yours is a special vocation that requires study, sensitivity and experience. Nevertheless, a further skill which goes beyond academic qualifications is demanded of those who choose to work in the world of suffering, living their work as a “human and spiritual mission”. It is “the Christian science of suffering”, explicitly pointed out by the Council as “the only one that can respond to the mystery of suffering” and of bringing to the sick “relief without illusion”. The Council says: “it is not within our power to bring you bodily help nor the lessening of your physical sufferings.... But we have something deeper and more valuable to give you.... Christ did not do away with suffering. He did not even wish to unveil to us entirely the mystery of suffering. He took suffering upon Himself and this is enough to make you understand all its value” (ibid.). May you be qualified experts in this “Christian science of suffering”! Your being Catholics, without fear, gives you a greater responsibility in the context of society and of the Church: it is a real vocation, as has recently been witnessed by exemplary figures such as St Giuseppe Moscati, St Riccardo Pampuri, St Gianna Beretta Molla, St Anna Schäffer and the Servant of God Jérôme Lejeune.

This is also a commitment of the New Evangelization in the times of an economic crisis that are cutting funds for health care. In this very context hospitals and structures for assistance must rethink their role to prevent health, first and foremost a universal good to be guaranteed and defended from becoming a mere “product” subjected to the laws of the market, hence accessible to few. The special attention owed to the dignity of the suffering can never be forgotten, applying also in the context of health-care policies the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity (cf. Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, n. 58).

Today, although on the one hand because of the progress in technology and science the ability to heal the sick physically is increasing, on the other, the ability to “care for” the patient, seen in his integrity and uniqueness, appears to be weakening. Thus the ethical horizons of medical science that risks forgetting that its vocation is to serve every person and the whole person, in the various phases of his or her life, seem to be dulled. It is to be hoped that the language of the “Christian science of suffering” — to which belong compassion, solidarity, sharing, self-denial, giving freely, the gift of self — become the universal lexicon of those who work in the sector of health-care assistance.

It is the language of the Good Samaritan of the Gospel parable, which — according to Blessed Pope John Paul II — may be considered as “one of the essential elements of moral culture and universally human civilization” (Apostolic Letter Salvifici Doloris, n. 29). In this perspective, hospitals assume a privileged position in evangelizing, because wherever the Church is the “bearer of the presence of God” it becomes at the same time “the instrument of the true humanization of man and the world” (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Doctrinal Note on Some Aspects of Evangelization, n. 9). “Only by being very clear that at the heart of medical and health-care assistance is the well-being of the human person in his frailest and most defenceless state, of man in search of meaning in the face of the unfathomable mystery of suffering, can one conceive of the hospital as “a place in which the relationship of treatment is not a profession but a mission; where the charity of the Good Samaritan is the first seat of learning and the face of suffering man is Christ’s own Face” (Discourse, Visit to the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, 3 May 2012).

Dear friends, this healing and evangelizing assistance is the task that always awaits you. Now more than ever our society needs “Good Samaritans” with generous hearts and arms wide open to all, in the awareness that “The true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer” (Spe Salvi, n. 38). This “going beyond” the clinical approach opens you to the dimension of transcendence, for which the chaplains and religious assistants play a fundamental role. It is their primary task to make the glory of the Crucified Risen One shine out in the rich panorama of health care and in the mystery of suffering.

I would like to reserve a last word for you, dear sick people. Your silent witness is an effective sign and instrument of evangelization for the people who look after you and for your families, in the certainty that “no tear, neither of those who are suffering nor of those who are close to them, is lost before God” (Angelus, 1 February 2009). You “are the brothers of the suffering Christ, and with him, if you wish, you are saving the world!” (Second Vatican Council, Message to the Poor, the Sick and the Suffering, 8 December 1965).

As I entrust you to the Virgin Mary, Salus Infirmorum [Health of the Sick], so that she may guide your footsteps and always make you hardworking and tireless witnesses of the Christian science of suffering, I warmly impart to you the Apostolic Blessing.

To participants in the XVII Council of Europe Conference of Directors of Prison Administration, Benedict XVI, 22 November 2012

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

TO PARTICIPANTS IN THE XVII COUNCIL OF EUROPE

CONFERENCE OF DIRECTORS OF PRISON ADMINISTRATION

Clementine Hall

Thursday, 22 November 2012

Your Excellency,

Deputy Secretary General,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am glad to be able to receive you on the occasion of your Conference and I would like, first of all, to thank the Justice Minister of the Italian Government, Professor Paola Severino, and the Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Dr Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, for their words of greeting, addressed to me on behalf of all present.

Matters of criminal justice are continually being brought to the attention of the public and of governments, especially at a time when economic and social inequalities and increasing individualism are feeding the roots of criminality. There is a tendency, though, to limit the debate to the legislative aspect of the question of crime and punishment or to the judicial process – how best to arrive swiftly at a sentence that corresponds as closely as possible to the true facts. Less attention is given to the way custodial sentences are carried out. In this regard, alongside the parameter of “justice”, another essential element is respect for human dignity and human rights. Yet this too, while indispensable and unfortunately still far from being observed in many countries, is not enough to safeguard fully the rights of the individual. A concrete commitment is needed, not just a statement of principle, in order to bring about the offender’s effective re-education, which is required both for the sake of his own dignity and with a view to his reintegration into society. The prisoner’s personal need to undergo in prison a process of rehabilitation and maturation is actually a need of society itself, both because it stands to regain someone who can make a useful contribution to the common good, and also because such a process makes the prisoner less likely to reoffend and thus endanger society. In recent years there has been considerable progress, even if there is still a long way to go. It is not just a question of releasing sufficient financial resources to make the prison environment more dignified and to ensure more effective means of support and paths of formation for prisoners: a change in mentality is also needed, so as to link the debate regarding respect for the human rights of prisoners with the broader debate concerning the actual implementation of criminal justice.

If human justice in this area is to look to divine justice and be shaped by that higher vision, the re-educational purpose of the sentence must be regarded not as an ancillary or secondary aspect of the penal system, but rather as its culminating and defining feature. In order to “practise justice”, it is not enough that those found guilty of crimes be simply punished: it is necessary that in punishing them, everything possible be done to correct and improve them. When this does not happen, justice is not done in an integral sense. In any event, it is important to avoid giving rise to a situation where imprisonment that fails in its re-educational role becomes counter-educational and paradoxically reinforces rather than overcomes the tendency to commit crime and the threat posed to society by the individual.

As Directors of Prison Administration, you can make a significant contribution, together with all those responsible for the administration of justice in society, towards promoting this “more genuine” justice that is “open to the liberating power of love” (John Paul II, Message for the Jubilee in Prisons, 9 July 2000) and is tied to human dignity. Your role, in a certain sense, is even more crucial than that of the legislators, since even when adequate structures and resources are in place, the effectiveness of re-educational strategies always depends on the sensitivity, ability and attentiveness of those called to put into practice what is prescribed on paper. The task of prison officers, at whatever level they operate, is by no means easy. That is why today, through you, I would like to pay tribute to all those in prison administration who carry out their duties with diligence and dedication. Contact with offenders paying the price for what they have done and the commitment needed to restore dignity and hope to people who in many cases have already suffered marginalization and scorn call to mind the mission of Christ himself, who came to call not the just, but sinners (cf. Mt 9:13; Mk 2:17; Lk 5:32), the privileged recipients of divine mercy. Everyone is called to become his brother’s keeper, transcending the homicidal indifference of Cain (cf. Gen 4:9). You in particular are asked to take custody of people who, in prison conditions, are at greater risk of losing their sense of life’s meaning and the value of personal dignity, yielding instead to discouragement and despair. Profound respect for persons, commitment to the rehabilitation of prisoners, fostering a genuinely educational community: these things are all the more urgent, in view of the growing number of “foreign prisoners”, whose circumstances are often difficult and precarious. Clearly, it is essential that the role of prison institutions and staff be matched by a corresponding willingness on the part of the prisoner to undergo a period of formation. Yet it is not enough simply to wait and hope for a positive response: this should be solicited and encouraged by means of initiatives and programmes capable of overcoming idleness and breaking the isolation in which prisoners are often trapped. Particularly important in this regard is the promotion of forms of evangelization and spiritual care, capable of drawing out the most noble and profound side of the prisoner, awakening his enthusiasm for life and his desire for beauty, so characteristic of people who discover anew that they bear within them the indelible image of God.

Where there is confidence in the possibility of renewal, prison can perform its re-educational function and become the occasion for the offender to taste the redemption won by Christ through the Paschal Mystery, which guarantees victory over all evil.

Dear friends, I thank you sincerely for this meeting and for all that you do, and I invoke upon you and your work abundant divine blessings.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

General Audiences

General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI, 14 November 2012

BENEDICT XVI

GENERAL AUDIENCE

Paul VI Audience Hall

Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Year of Faith. The ways that lead to knowledge of God

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Last Wednesday we reflected on the desire for God that human beings carry deep within them. Today I would like to continue to examine this aspect, meditating briefly with you on some of the ways to attain knowledge of God. I wish to recall, however, that God’s initiative always precedes every human initiative and on our journey towards him too it is he who first illuminates us, who directs and guides us, ever respecting our inner freedom. It is always he who admits us to intimacy with him, revealing himself and giving us the grace to be able to accept this revelation in faith. Let us never forget St Augustine’s experience: it is not we who possess the Truth after having sought it, but the Truth that seeks us out and possesses us.

Nonetheless there are ways that can open the human heart to knowledge of God, there are signs that lead to God. Of course, we often risk being dazzled by the glare of worldliness that makes us less able to follow these paths and to read these signs. Yet God never tires of seeking us, he is faithful to the human being whom he created and redeemed, he stays close to us in our life because he loves us. This is a certainty that must accompany us every day, even if a certain widespread mentality makes it harder for the Church and for Christians to communicate to every creature the joy of the Gospel and to lead everyone to the encounter with Jesus, the one Saviour of the world.

However, this is our mission. It is the mission of the Church and every believer must carry it out joyously, feeling it his own, through an existence truly enlivened by faith, marked by charity, by service to God and to others, and that can radiate hope. This mission shines out above all in the holiness to which we are all called.

Today — as we know — faith, which is all too often not properly understood and contested or rejected, encounters no lack of difficulties and trials. St Peter said to his Christians: “Always be prepared to make a defence to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence” (1 Pt 3:15). In the past, in the West, in a society deemed Christian, faith was the context in which people acted; the reference and adherence to God were part of daily life for the majority. Rather, it was the person who did not believe who had to justify his or her own incredulity. In our world the situation has changed and, increasingly, it is believers who must be able to account for their faith. In his Encyclical Fides et Ratio Blessed John Paul II stressed that faith is also put to the test in our day, riddled with subtle and captious forms of atheism, both theoretical and practical (cf. nn. 46-47). Ever since the Enlightenment the criticism of religion has been gathering momentum; history has also come to be marked by the presence of atheistic systems in which God was seen as a mere projection of the human mind, an illusion and the product of a society already misled by so many alienating factors. Moreover the past century experienced a strong process of secularization under the banner of the absolute autonomy of the human being, considered as the measure and architect of reality, but impoverished by being created “in the image and likeness of God”. A particularly dangerous phenomenon for faith has arisen in our times: indeed a form of atheism exists which we define, precisely, as “practical”, in which the truths of faith or religious rites are not denied but are merely deemed irrelevant to daily life, detached from life, pointless. So it is that people often believe in God in a superficial manner, and live “as though God did not exist” (etsi Deus non daretur). In the end, however, this way of life proves even more destructive because it leads to indifference to faith and to the question of God.

In fact human beings, separated from God, are reduced to a single dimension — the horizontal — and this reductionism itself is one of the fundamental causes of the various forms of totalitarianism that have had tragic consequences in the past century, as well as of the crisis of values that we see in the current situation. By obscuring the reference to God the ethical horizon has also been obscured, to leave room for relativism and for an ambiguous conception of freedom which, instead of being liberating, ends by binding human beings to idols. The temptations that Jesus faced in the wilderness before his public ministry vividly symbolize which “idols” entice human beings when they do not go beyond themselves. Were God to lose his centrality man would lose his rightful place, he would no longer fit into creation, into relations with others. What ancient wisdom evokes with the myth of Prometheus has not faded: man thinks he himself can become a “god”, master of life and death.

With this picture before her, the Church, faithful to Christ’s mandate, never ceases to affirm the truth about man and about his destiny. The Second Vatican Council affirms it concisely: “The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. The invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and unless he entrusts himself to his Creator” (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, n. 19).

What answers, therefore, is faith required to give, “with gentleness and reverence” to atheism, to scepticism, to indifference to the vertical dimension, in order that the people of our time may continue to ponder on the existence of God and take paths that lead to him? I want to point out several paths that derive both from natural reflection and from the power of faith itself. I would like to sum them up very briefly in three words: the world, man, faith.

The first word: the world. St Augustine, who spent much of his life seeking the Truth and was grasped by the Truth, wrote a very beautiful and famous passage in which he said: “Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky... question all these realities. All respond: ‘See, we are beautiful’. Their beauty is a profession [confessio]. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One [Pulcher] who is not subject to change?” (Sermo 241, 2: pl 38, 1134).

I think we should recover — and enable people today to recover — our capacity for contemplating creation, its beauty and its structure. The world is not a shapeless mass of magma, but the better we know it and the better we discover its marvellous mechanisms the more clearly we can see a plan, we see that there is a creative intelligence. Albert Einstein said that in natural law is revealed “an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection” (The World As I See It, 1949). Consequently a first path that leads to the discovery of God is an attentive contemplation of creation.

The second word: man. Again, St Augustine was to write a famous sentence in which he says that God is more intimate to me than I am to myself (cf. Confessions III, 6, 11).

Hence he formulates the invitation, “do not go outside yourself, return to yourself: the truth is higher than my highest and more inward than my innermost self” (De Vera Religione, 39, 72). This is another aspect that we risk losing in the noisy and dispersive world in which we live: the ability to pause and look deeply into ourselves and to reinterpret the thirst for the infinite that we bear within us, that impels us to go further and to refer to the One who can quench it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: “with his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God's existence” (n. 33).

The third word: faith. We must not forget, especially in the situation of our time, that the life of faith is a path which leads to the knowledge of and encounter with God. Those who believe are united to God and open to his grace, to the power of his love. Thus their existence becomes a witness, not of themselves but of the Risen One, and their faith does not hesitate to shine out in daily life, open to dialogue that expresses deep friendship for the journey of every human being and can bring hope to people in need of redemption, happiness, a future. Faith, in fact, is an encounter with God who speaks and works in history and converts our daily life, transforming within us mentalities, value judgements, decisions and practical actions. Faith is not an illusion, a flight of fancy, a refuge or sentimentalism; rather it is total involvement in the whole of life and is the proclamation of the Gospel, the Good News that can set the whole of the person free. A Christian and a community that are active and faithful to the plan of God who loved us first, are privileged paths for those immersed in indifference or in doubt about their life and action. However, this asks each and every one to make their testimony of faith ever more transparent, purifying their life so that it may be in conformity with Christ. Many people today have a limited idea of the Christian faith, because they identify it with a mere system of beliefs and values rather than with the truth of a God who revealed himself in history, anxious to communicate with human beings in a tête-à-tête, in a relationship of love with them. In fact, at the root of every doctrine or value is the event of the encounter between man and God in Jesus Christ. Christianity, before being a moral or an ethic, is the event of love, it is the acceptance of the Person of Jesus. For this reason the Christian and Christian communities must first look and make others look to Christ, the true Way that leads to God.

To special groups:

I greet the participants in the Conference of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. I also greet the El Shaddai European Convention. I welcome the Westminster Cathedral Choir and I thank them, and the other choirs present, for their praise of God in song. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims present at today’s Audience, including those from England, Denmark, Gibraltar, South Africa, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States, I cordially invoke God’s abundant blessings.

I address an affectionate welcome to the Italian-speaking pilgrims, especially the parish groups, associations and students. I greet the participants of the Forum organized by Caritas Internationalis and the missionaries, priests and lay people who are taking part in the course organized by the Pontifical Salesian University: may your visit to the See of Peter encourage spiritual renewal and the commitment to evangelization in everyone.

Lastly, a thought for the young people, the sick and the newlyweds. Tomorrow we shall be celebrating the Memorial of St Albert the Great, Patron of all who cultivate the natural sciences. Dear young people, may you know how to reconcile strict study with the demands of faith; dear sick people, trust in the help of medicine, but to an even greater extent in God’s mercy; and you, dear newlyweds, with love and reciprocal esteem, witness to the beauty of the sacrament you have received.

© Copyright 2012 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

Table of Contents

Introduction

Index of Source Links

Angelus

Visit to the Community of Sant'Egidio's home for the elderly, Benedict XVI, 12 November 2012

Homilies

Holy Mass with the new Cardinals, Homily of Benedict XVI, 25 November 2012

Papal Mass on the occasion of the Ordinary Public Consistory for the creation of new cardinals, Homily of Benedict XVI, 24 November 2012

Messages

Message to His Holiness Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of Saint Mark on the occasion of his enthronement, 14 November 2012

Speeches

To participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Benedict XVI, 15 November 2012

To participants in the International Congress organized by the Pontifical Council for Health Care, Benedict XVI, 17 November 2012

To participants in the XVII Council of Europe Conference of Directors of Prison Administration, Benedict XVI, 22 November 2012

General Audiences

General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI, 14 November 2012