Speechs 2007 - TO THE CONGREGATION FOR THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES
Your Beatitude,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The day has come for visiting the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, to which the Pope has also been looking forward. Today is also important because it is the day on which the calendar of the Latin Church commemorates St Ephrem, the great Doctor of the Syrian Church. I am grateful to the Lord and to all of you for this very cordial meeting. I greet the Prefect, Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud, and thank him for his kind tribute. I extend my thoughts to Archbishop Antonio Maria Vegliň, the Secretary, to the Undersecretary, to the collaborators and to everyone present.
My first thought is of Pope Benedict XV, of happy memory, who established the "Sacred Congregation for the Oriental Church" 90 years ago. Blessed Pius IX had constituted the "Oriental Section" in Propaganda Fide. However, "to forestall the fear that the Orientals might not be held in proper consideration by the Roman Pontiffs", Pope Benedict wished the new Dicastery to be completely autonomous, making arrangements for all that was necessary for it to function best. And he himself took on its government. As the "Motu Proprio" Dei Providentis testifies, he wished to show clearly that "in Ecclesia Ieus Christi, ut quae non latina sit, non graeca, non slavonica, sed catholica, nullum inter eius filios intercedere discrimen" (AAS, 9-1917, PP 529-531).
Exactly at that time a dramatic phase of history began, especially for Eastern Europe. The times that followed were to confirm how providential the Papal Provision had been. It aimed, through a specific Congregation, to assure Eastern Catholics of the Church's concern, which was later to accompany many of them in the long period of persecution. After the silence came liberation, and the life and mission of the Church could be resumed, developed and consolidated.
On this occasion, I thank the Lord once again for the design of his divine goodness. However, as a father and Pastor, I feel it is my duty to raise a fervent prayer to God and to address a heartfelt appeal to everyone in charge so that everywhere, from the East to the West, the Church may profess the Christian faith in full freedom. May the sons and daughters of the Church everywhere be granted to live in personal and social tranquillity: individuals and groups should be guaranteed dignity, respect and a future without any prejudice to their rights as believers and citizens.
From my lips comes an equally heartfelt plea for peace in the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon and all the territories placed under the jurisdiction of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, as well as for the other regions involved in the spiral of what seems inexorable violence.
May the Churches and disciples of the Lord remain there where divine Providence has placed them in the beginning; there where they deserve to remain, as a presence which dates back to the birth of Christianity. They have been distinguished down the centuries by a love that is undeniable and inseparable from their own faith, their own people and their own land.
This Visit places me in the footsteps of my venerable Predecessors, the Servant of God John Paul II and Blessed John XXIII, who came in person to meet the Superiors and Officials of the Dicastery. With this Visit, I also intend symbolically to continue the pilgrimage to the heart of the East which Pope John Paul II proposed in his Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen. Since the venerable and ancient tradition of the Eastern Churches is an integral part of the full patrimony of the Church of Christ (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio UR 17), he urged people to become acquainted with her, saying: "The members of the Catholic Church of the Latin tradition must also be fully acquainted with this treasure and thus feel, with the Pope, a passionate longing that the full manifestation of the Church's catholicity be restored to the Church and to the world" (Orientale Lumen, n. 1).
I began this pilgrimage in spirit by taking the name of a Pope who so loved the East. And in officially inaugurating the Petrine Service of the Bishop of Rome, I meditated at the tomb of the Apostle, gathering round me those Oriental Patriarchs who are in communion with the Successor of Peter.
Thus, before the whole Church, I was spiritually immersed in the ceaseless flow from the source of the Apostolic Creed, making my profession of faith as the Fishermen of Galilee in the "Son of the living God" (Mt 16,16). I was aware of the comforting promise of the Lord Jesus: "You are Peter" (ibid., 18). I had the certainty of having sons and daughters of the East beside me, with their Pastors who, faithful to their own tradition, also enjoy the benefit of the charism of communion conferred by Jesus upon Peter and his Successors.
Lastly, my Apostolic Visit to Turkey, unforgettable because of the moving embrace with the Catholic community and its ecumenical and interreligious importance, was another moment of special fruitfulness in my pilgrimage to the heart of the East.
Today, the Pope once again thanks the Eastern-rite Catholics for their fidelity paid with blood, concerning which wonderful pages have remained down the centuries until the contemporary martyrology! He assures them in turn that he wishes to stay at their side. And he reaffirms his profound esteem for the Eastern Catholic Churches, for their special role as "living witnesses to this tradition", (cf. Orientalium Ecclesiarum OE 1).
Without a constant relationship with the tradition of her origins, in fact, there is no future for Christ's Church. It is the Eastern Churches in particular which preserve the echo of the first Gospel proclamation; the most ancient memories of the signs worked by the Lord; the first reflections of the Easter light and the flickering flame of Pentecost that was never extinguished.
Their spiritual patrimony, rooted in the teaching of the Apostles and Fathers, has given rise to venerable liturgical, theological and disciplinary traditions, demonstrating the capacity of the "thought of Christ" for making cultures and history fruitful.
For this very reason, like my Predecessors, I regard the Churches of Orthodoxy with esteem and affection: "A particularly close link already binds us. We have almost everything in common; and above all, we have in common the true longing for unity" (Orientale Lumen, n. 3). The hope that wells up from the depths of the heart is that this yearning may soon find its complete fulfilment.
The universal Church also finds in the patrimony of her origins the capacity for speaking unanimously and convincingly to the men and women of today: "The words of the West need the words of the East, so that God's word may ever more clearly reveal its unfathomable riches" (Orientale Lumen, n. 28).
It was the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council which expressed the hope that the Eastern Churches might "flourish and fulfil with new apostolic strength the task entrusted to them" (Orientalium Ecclesiarum OE 1) "of fostering the unity of all Christians, in particular of Eastern Christians, according to the... Decree "On Ecumenism', by prayer above all, by their example [of life], by their scrupulous fidelity to the ancient traditions of the East, by better knowledge of each other, by working together, and by a brotherly attitude towards persons and things" (ibid., n. 24).
Thanks to a centuries-old way of life, they will first have to take on the interreligious challenge in a spirit of truth, respect and reciprocity, so that different cultures and traditions may find mutual hospitality in the name of the one God (cf. Acts Ac 2,9-11).
The Congregation has clearly-defined tasks which it carries out with competent dedication. I am pleased to be able to express my grateful appreciation to it and to encourage it to place its every action within the framework of the mission proper to the Eastern Churches and to that component of the Latin Church that is entrusted to it.
I reaffirm the irreversibility of the ecumenical option and the inevitability of the interreligious encounter. I praise the most correct application of synodal collegiality and the regular ascertainment of ecclesial growth inspired by the new-found religious freedom.
The Pope has very much at heart the priority of formation as well as the renewal of the family, youth and vocational ministries and the appreciation of the pastoral care of culture and of charity. The charitable movement, which the Congregation is supervising by the Pope's mandate so that the Holy Land and other Eastern regions can receive in an orderly and balanced manner the necessary spiritual and material support for their ordinary ecclesial life and special needs, must continue, indeed, must grow.
Finally, an intelligent effort is also required to deal with the serious phenomenon of migration, which sometimes deprives the sorely-tried communities of their best resources. It is essential to guarantee migrants a satisfactory welcome in their new context and the indispensable link with their own religious tradition.
With these concerns the Congregation stands beside the Eastern Churches to encourage the process, with respect for their prerogatives and responsibilities. In this far-from-easy task it knows that it can always count on the Pope, on the Bodies of the Roman Curia in accordance with their respective functions, and on the Institutions associated with it. I am thinking above all of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, which furthermore is commemorating its 90th anniversary and to which I address my gratitude for its irreplaceable and highly qualified ecclesial service.
I entrust these hopes to Blessed John XXIII. The East affected him so deeply that it led him to convoke the "new Pentecost of the Council" in docility to the Spirit and cordial openness to all peoples.
Close to us is the Most Holy Mother of God, whom I venerated in your Byzantine chapel before the Holy Icons surrounded by the cloud of Witnesses.
Trusting in the All Holy, may the Eastern Churches foster that variety which does not harm but rather exalts unity, so that the whole Church may be the intimate "sacrament... of communion with God and of unity among all men" (cf. Lumen Gentium LG 1).
Dear friends, I consign to you my greetings for the brothers and sisters of the East so that they may feel, also through the daily work of the Congregation, that they always have a place in the heart of the Pope of Rome.
I therefore impart to each one my Apostolic Blessing, which I willingly extend to your loved ones and to all the Eastern Catholic Churches.
* * *
Your Beatitude,
As I said in the personal Letter which I addressed to you, I have decided today to accept your resignation from the office of Prefect of this Dicastery which you presented to me some time ago.
I am also pleased to take this occasion to express all my gratitude to you for the work you have carried out with generous dedication in such a delicate task.
I am comforted, however, by the thought that I shall still be able to avail myself of your competence in the collaboration you will continue to offer to me as a Member of various Dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and from this moment I also warmly thank you for this.
At the same time, as I have already had the opportunity to communicate to you, today, 9 June, the day on which the calendar of the Latin Church commemorates St Ephrem, the great Saint of your Country, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri succeeds you in your office as Prefect for the Oriental Churches; until now he has been Substitute of the Secretariat of State for the First Section of General Affairs.
At this moment, I also address my thanks to him for the help he has given me in his previous office, while at the same time I offer him my most cordial good wishes for success in the sensitive tasks which I am entrusting to him with this appointment.
I have asked Archbishop Fernando Filoni, currently Apostolic Nuncio in the Philippines, to assume the office of Substitute in the First Section for General Affairs of the Secretariat of State, and I cordially greet him as I await his arrival at the Vatican this July.
Consistory Hall
Monday, 11 June 2007
Dear Friends,
I am pleased to greet the faculty and students of the Eleventh Vatican Observatory Summer School, and I thank the Director, Father José Funes, for his kind words of greeting in your name. Since its establishment in 1891, the Vatican Observatory has sought to demonstrate the Church’s desire to embrace, encourage and promote scientific study, on the basis of her conviction that "faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth" (Fides et Ratio, Proemium). The Jesuit Fathers and Brothers who staff the Observatory are not only involved in astronomical research, but are also committed to offering educational opportunities for the next generation of astronomers. The Vatican Observatory Summer School is a concrete sign of that commitment.
Your programme this month is devoted to the study of Extrasolar Planets. In addition to your demanding research, however, you will have a precious opportunity to learn together with students from twenty-two different countries. The wide variety of your backgrounds and cultural traditions can be a source of great enrichment to you all. I encourage you to make the most of this experience, and I offer my prayerful good wishes that your small international community may become a promising sign of greater scientific collaboration for the benefit of the entire human family.
In the days to come, may you find spiritual consolation in the study of the stars that "shine to delight their Creator" (Ba 3,34). Upon you and your families I cordially invoke God’s blessings of wisdom, joy and peace
Basilica of Saint John Lateran
Monday, 11 June 2007
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
For the third consecutive year our diocesan Convention gives me the possibility of meeting and speaking to you all, addressing the theme on which the Church of Rome will be focusing in the coming pastoral year, in close continuity with the work carried out in the year now drawing to a close.
I greet with affection each one of you, Bishops, priests, deacons, men and women religious, lay people who generously take part in the Church's mission. I thank the Cardinal Vicar in particular for the words he has addressed to me on behalf of you all.
The theme of the Convention is "Jesus is Lord: educating in the faith, in the "sequela', in witnessing": a theme that concerns us all because every disciple professes that Jesus is Lord and is called to grow in adherence to him, giving and receiving help from the great company of brothers and sisters in the faith.
Nevertheless, the verb "to educate", as part of the title of the Convention, suggests special attention to children, boys and girls and young people, and highlights the duty proper first of all to the family: thus, we are continuing the programme that has been a feature of the pastoral work of our Diocese in recent years.
It is important to start by reflecting on the first affirmation, which gives our Convention its tone and meaning: "Jesus is Lord". We find it in the solemn declaration that concludes Peter's discourse at Pentecost, in which the head of the Apostles said: "Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Ac 2,36). The conclusion of the great hymn to Christ contained in Paul's Letter to the Philippians is similar: "every tongue [should] confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (2: 11).
Again, in the final salutation of his First Letter to the Corinthians, St Paul exclaimed: "If any one has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Maranŕ tha: Our Lord, come!" (1Co 16,22), thereby handing on to us the very ancient Aramaic invocation of Jesus as Lord.
Various other citations could be added: I am thinking of the 12th chapter of the same Letter to the Corinthians in which St Paul says: "No one can say "Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit" (1Co 12,3).
Thus, the Apostle declares that this is the fundamental confession of the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit. We might think also of the 10th chapter of the Letter to the Romans where the Apostle says, "if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord" (Rm 10,9), thus reminding the Christians of Rome that these words, "Jesus is Lord", form the common confession of the Church, the sure foundation of the Church's entire life.
The whole confession of the Apostolic Creed, of the Nicene Creed, developed from these words. St Paul also says in another passage of his First Letter to the Corinthians: "Although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth..." - and we know that today too there are many so-called "gods" on earth - for us there is only "one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist" (1Co 8,5-6).
Thus, from the outset the disciples recognized the Risen Jesus as the One who is our brother in humanity but is also one with God; the One who, with his coming into the world and throughout his life, in his death and in his Resurrection, brought us God and in a new and unique way made God present in the world: the One, therefore, who gives meaning and hope to our life; in fact, it is in him that we encounter the true Face of God that we find what we really need in order to live.
Educating in the faith, in the sequela, and in witnessing means helping our brothers and sisters, or rather, helping one another to enter into a living relationship with Christ and with the Father. This has been from the start the fundamental task of the Church as the community of believers, disciples and friends of Jesus. The Church, the Body of Christ and Temple of the Holy Spirit, is that dependable company within which we have been brought forth and educated to become, in Christ, sons and heirs of God.
In the Church, we receive the Spirit through whom "we cry, "Abba! Father!'" (cf. Rom Rm 8,14-17). We have just heard in St Augustine's homily that God is not remote, that he has become the "Way" and the "Way" himself has come to us. He said: "Stand up, you idler, and start walking!". Starting to walk means moving along the path that is Christ himself, in the company of believers; it means while walking, helping one another to become truly friends of Jesus Christ and children of God.
Daily experience tells us - as we all know - that precisely in our day educating in the faith is no easy undertaking. Today, in fact, every educational task seems more and more arduous and precarious. Consequently, there is talk of a great "educational emergency", of the increasing difficulty encountered in transmitting the basic values of life and correct behaviour to the new generations, a difficulty that involves both schools and families and, one might say, any other body with educational aims.
We may add that this is an inevitable emergency: in a society, in a culture, which all too often make relativism its creed - relativism has become a sort of dogma - in such a society the light of truth is missing; indeed, it is considered dangerous and "authoritarian" to speak of truth, and the end result is doubt about the goodness of life - is it good to be a person? is it good to be alive? - and in the validity of the relationships and commitments in which it consists.
So how would it be possible to suggest to children and to pass on from generation to generation something sound and dependable, rules of life, an authentic meaning and convincing objectives for human existence both as an individual and as a community?
For this reason, education tends to be broadly reduced to the transmission of specific abilities or capacities for doing, while people endeavour to satisfy the desire for happiness of the new generations by showering them with consumer goods and transitory gratification. Thus, both parents and teachers are easily tempted to abdicate their educational duties and even no longer to understand what their role, or rather, the mission entrusted to them, is.
Yet, in this way we are not offering to young people, to the young generations, what it is our duty to pass on to them. Moreover, we owe them the true values which give life a foundation.
However, this situation obviously fails to satisfy; it cannot satisfy because it ignores the essential aim of education which is the formation of a person to enable him or her to live to the full and to make his or her own contribution to the common good. However, on many sides the demand for authentic education and the rediscovery of the need for educators who are truly such is increasing.
Parents, concerned and often worried about their children's future, are asking for it, many teachers who are going through the sad experience of the deterioration of their schools are asking for it, society overall is asking for it, in Italy as in many other nations, because it sees the educational crisis cast doubt on the very foundations of coexistence.
In a similar context, the Church's commitment to providing education in the faith, in discipleship and in witnessing to the Lord Jesus is more than ever acquiring the value of a contribution to extracting the society in which we live from the educational crisis that afflicts it, clamping down on distrust and on that strange "self hatred" that seems to have become a hallmark of our civilization.
However, none of this diminishes the difficulties we encounter in leading children, adolescents and young people to meet Jesus Christ and to establish a lasting and profound relationship with him. Yet precisely this is the crucial challenge for the future of the faith, of the Church and of Christianity, and it is therefore an essential priority of our pastoral work: to bring close to Christ and to the Father the new generation that lives in a world largely distant from God.
Dear brothers and sisters, we must always be aware that we cannot carry out such a task with our own strength but only with the power of the Spirit. We need enlightenment and grace that come from God and act within hearts and consciences. For education and Christian formation, therefore, it is above all prayer and our personal friendship with Jesus that are crucial: only those who know and love Jesus Christ can introduce their brothers and sisters into a living relationship with him. Indeed, moved by this need, I thought: it would be helpful to write a book on Jesus to make him known.
Let us never forget the words of Jesus: "I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide" (Jn 15,15-16).
Our communities will thus be able to work fruitfully and to teach the faith and discipleship of Christ while being in themselves authentic "schools" of prayer (cf. Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 33), where the primacy of God is lived.
Furthermore, it is education and especially Christian education which shapes life based on God who is love (cf. 1Jn 4,8), and has need of that closeness which is proper to love. Especially today, when isolation and loneliness are a widespread condition to which noise and group conformity is no real remedy, personal guidance becomes essential, giving those who are growing up the assurance that they are loved, understood and listened to.
In practice, this guidance must make tangible the fact that our faith is not something of the past, that it can be lived today and that in living it we really find our good. Thus, boys and girls and young people may be helped to free themselves from common prejudices and will realize that the Christian way of life is possible and reasonable, indeed, is by far the most reasonable.
The entire Christian community, with all its many branches and components, is challenged by the important task of leading the new generations to the encounter with Christ: on this terrain, therefore, we must express and manifest particularly clearly our communion with the Lord and with one another, as well as our willingness and readiness to work together to "build a network", to achieve with an open and sincere mind every useful form of synergy, starting with the precious contribution of those women and men who have consecrated their lives to adoring God and interceding for their brethren.
However, it is very obvious that in educating and forming people in the faith the family has its own fundamental role and primary responsibility. Parents, in fact, are those through whom the child at the start of life has the first and crucial experience of love, of a love which is actually not only human but also a reflection of God's love for him.
Therefore, the Christian family, the small "domestic Church", and the larger family of the Church must take care to develop the closest collaboration, especially with regard to the education of children (cf. Lumen Gentium LG 11).
Everything that has matured in the three years in which our diocesan pastoral ministry has devoted special attention to the family should not only be implemented but also further increased.
For example, the attempts to involve parents and even godparents more closely, before and after Baptism, in order to help them understand and put into practice their mission as educators in the faith have already produced appreciable results and deserve to be continued and to become the common heritage of each parish. The same applies for the participation of families in catechesis and in the entire process of the Christian initiation of children and adolescents.
Of course, many families are unprepared for this task and there is no lack of families which - if they are not actually opposed to it - do not seem to be interested in the Christian education of their own children: the consequences of the crisis in so many marriages are making themselves felt here.
Yet, it is rare to meet parents who are wholly indifferent to the human and moral formation of their children and consequently unwilling to be assisted in an educational task which they perceive as ever more difficult.
Therefore, an area of commitment and service opens up for our parishes, oratories, youth communities and above all for Christian families themselves, called to be near other families to encourage and assist them in raising their children, thereby helping them to find the meaning and purpose of life as a married couple.
Let us now move on to other subjects concerning education in the faith.
As children gradually grow up, their inner desire for personal autonomy naturally increases. Especially in adolescence, this can easily lead to them taking a critical distance from their family. Here, the closeness which can be guaranteed by the priest, Religious, catechist or other educators capable of making the friendly Face of the Church and love of Christ concrete for the young person, becomes particularly important.
If it is to produce positive effects that endure in time, our closeness must take into account that the education offered is a free encounter and that Christian education itself is formation in true freedom. Indeed, there is no real educational proposal, however respectful and loving it may be, which is not an incentive to making a decision, and the proposal of Christianity itself calls freedom profoundly into question, calling it to faith and conversion.
As I said at the Ecclesial Convention in Verona: "A true education must awaken the courage to make definitive decisions, which today are considered a mortifying bind to our freedom. In reality, they are indispensable for growth and in order to achieve something great in life, in particular, to cause love to mature in all its beauty: therefore, to give consistency and meaning to freedom itself" (Address, 19 October 2006; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 25 October 2006, p. 9).
When they feel that their freedom is respected and taken seriously, adolescents and young people, despite their changeability and frailty, are not in fact unwilling to let themselves be challenged by demanding proposals: indeed, they often feel attracted and fascinated by them.
They also wish to show their generosity in adhering to the great, perennial values that constitute life's foundations. The authentic educator likewise takes seriously the intellectual curiosity which already exists in children and, as the years pass, is more consciously cultivated. Constantly exposed to, and often confused by, the multiplicity of information, and by the contrasting ideas and interpretations presented to them, young people today nevertheless still have a great inner need for truth. They are consequently open to Jesus Christ who, as Tertullian reminds us, "called himself truth, not custom" (De virginibus velandis, I, 1).
It is up to us to seek to respond to the question of truth, fearlessly juxtaposing the proposal of faith with the reason of our time. In this way we will help young people to broaden the horizons of their intelligence, to open themselves to the mystery of God, in whom is found life's meaning and direction, and to overcome the conditioning of a rationality which trusts only what can be the object of experiment and calculation. Thus, it is very important to develop what last year we called "the pastoral care of intelligence".
The task of education passes through freedom but also requires authority. Therefore, especially when it is a matter of educating in faith, the figure of the witness and the role of witnessing is central. A witness of Christ does not merely transmit information but is personally involved with the truth Christ proposes and, through the coherency of his own life, becomes a dependable reference point.
However, he does not refer to himself, but to Someone who is infinitely greater than he is, in whom he has trusted and whose trustworthy goodness he has experienced. The authentic Christian educator is therefore a witness who finds his model in Jesus Christ, the witness of the Father who said nothing about himself but spoke as the Father had taught him (cf. Jn Jn 8,28). This relationship with Christ and with the Father is for each one of us, dear brothers and sisters, the fundamental condition for being effective educators in the faith.
Our Convention very rightly speaks of education not only in faith and discipleship but also in witnessing to the Lord Jesus. Bearing an active witness to Christ does not, therefore, concern only priests, women religious and lay people who as formation teachers have tasks in our communities, but children and young people themselves, and all who are educated in the faith.
Therefore, the awareness of being called to become witnesses of Christ is not a corollary, a consequence somehow external to Christian formation, such as, unfortunately, has often been thought and today too people continue to think. On the contrary, it is an intrinsic and essential dimension of education in the faith and discipleship, just as the Church is missionary by her very nature (cf. Ad Gentes AGD 2).
If children, through a gradual process from the beginning of their formation, are to achieve permanent formation as Christian adults, the desire to be and the conviction of being sharers in the Church's missionary vocation in all the situations and circumstances of life must take root in the believers' soul. Indeed, we cannot keep to ourselves the joy of the faith. We must spread it and pass it on, and thereby also strengthen it in our own hearts.
If faith is truly the joy of having discovered truth and love, we inevitably feel the desire to transmit it, to communicate it to others. The new evangelization to which our beloved Pope John Paul II called us passes mainly through this process.
A concrete experience that will increase in the youth of the parishes and of the various ecclesial groups the desire to witness to their own faith is the "Young People's Mission" which you are planning, after the success of the great "City Mission".
By educating in the faith, a very important task is entrusted to Catholic schools. Indeed, they must carry out their mission on the basis of an educational project which places the Gospel at the centre and keeps it as a decisive reference point for the person's formation and for the entire cultural programme.
In convinced synergy with families and with the Ecclesial Community, Catholic schools should therefore seek to foster that unity between faith, culture and life which is the fundamental goal of Christian education. State schools too can be sustained in their educational task in various ways by the presence of teachers who are believers - in the first place, but not exclusively, teachers of Catholic religion - and of students with a Christian formation, as well as by the collaboration of many families and of the Christian community itself.
The healthy secularism of schools, like that of the other State institutions, does not in fact imply closure to Transcendence or a false neutrality with regard to those moral values which form the basis of an authentic formation of the person. A similar discourse naturally applies for universities and it is truly a good omen that university ministry in Rome has been able to develop in all the Athenaeums, among teachers as much as students, and that a fruitful collaboration has developed between the civil and Pontifical academic institutions.
Today, more than in the past, the education and formation of the person are influenced by the messages and general climate spread by the great means of communication and which are inspired by a mindset and culture marked by relativism, consumerism and a false and destructive exaltation, or rather, profanation, of the body and of sexuality.
Therefore, precisely because of the great "yes" that as believers in Christ we say to the man loved by God, we certainly cannot fail to take interest in the overall orientation of the society to which we belong, in the trends that motivate it and in the positive or negative influence that it exercises on the formation of the new generations.
The very presence of the community of believers, its educational and cultural commitment, the message of faith, trust and love it bears are in fact an invaluable service to the common good and especially to the children and youth who are being trained and prepared for life.
Dear brothers and sisters, there is one last point to which I would like to draw your attention: it is supremely important for the Church's mission and requires our commitment and first of all our prayer. I am referring to vocations to follow the Lord Jesus more closely in the ministerial priesthood and in the consecrated life.
In recent decades, the Diocese of Rome has been gladdened by the gift of many priestly ordinations which have made it possible to bridge the gap in the previous period, and also to meet the requests of many Sister Churches in need of clergy; but the most recent indications seem less favourable and prompt the whole of our diocesan community to renew to the Lord, with humility and trust, its request for labourers for his harvest (cf. Mt Mt 9,37-38 Lc 10,2).
With delicacy and respect we must address a special but clear and courageous invitation to follow Jesus to those young men and women who appear to be the most attracted and fascinated by friendship with him. In this perspective, the Diocese will designate several new priests specifically to the care of vocations, but we know well that prayer and the overall quality of our Christian witness, the example of life set by priests and consecrated souls, the generosity of the people called and of the families they come from, are crucial in this area.
Dear brothers and sisters, I entrust to you these reflections as a contribution to the dialogue of these evenings, and to the work of the next pastoral year. May the Lord always give us the joy of believing in him, of growing in his friendship, of following him in the journey of life and of bearing witness to him in every situation, so that we may be able to pass on to those who will come after us the immense riches and beauty of faith in Jesus Christ. May my affection and my blessing accompany you in your work. Thank you for your attention!
Consistory Hall
Thursday, 14 June 2007
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I am very pleased to welcome and greet with affection the members of the Administrative Board of the "Populorum Progressio" Foundation for Latin America and the Caribbean Countries on the occasion of the annual meeting. This year we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Encyclical of my Predecessor Paul VI which gave the Foundation its name.
I would like to thank Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, the President, for his kind words on behalf of you all. I am also grateful for the presence of Cardinal Juan Íńiguez Sandoval and of various Bishops who come from the "Continent of Hope", some of whom I was able to greet on my recent Apostolic Visit to Brazil.
I likewise greet the representatives of the Italian Bishops' Conference, who contribute so generously to making St Ignatius of Antioch's words: the Church of Rome "presides in charity" (Epistula ad Romanos, I, 1), come true. I am especially grateful to all those who help us to carry out this most important mission.
Lastly, I would like to greet the collaborators of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" who are also attending this meeting with the Successor of Peter. Thank you for your constant work for the poorest people.
Ever since my beloved Predecessor John Paul II established the "Populorum Progressio" Foundation 15 years ago and put the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" in charge of it, the Foundation has been dedicated to promoting the Church's mission, supporting in particular projects for the indigenous peoples, the campesinos and the African Americans of the Latin American and Caribbean Countries.
In establishing this Foundation, the Pope had in mind the people whose ancestral customs are threatened by a post-modern culture and who are seeing the destruction of their traditions which are so open to accepting the truth of the Gospel.
The Foundation is the fruit of the great sensitivity that John Paul II showed to the men and women in our society who suffer most. This endeavour, embarked upon 15 years ago, must continue in accordance with the principles that have marked its commitment to promote the dignity of every human being and the fight against poverty.
Here, I would like to underline two characteristics of the Foundation.
In the first place, the development of peoples must maintain as a pastoral principle a global and anthropological vision of the human person. Article 2 of the Foundation's Statutes describes this aspect as "complete development". In this regard, Pope Paul VI said in his Encyclical, defining the concept: "What must be aimed at is complete humanism. And what is that if not the fully-rounded development of the whole man and of all men? A humanism closed in on itself, and not open to the values of the spirit and to God who is their source, could achieve apparent success.... There is no true humanism but that which is open to the Absolute and is conscious of a vocation which gives human life its true meaning" (n. 42).
This complete development takes into account the social and material aspects of life, such as the proclamation of faith which gives man's being full meaning. Man's true poverty is often the lack of hope and the absence of a Father who gives meaning to human existence itself: "Often the deepest cause of suffering is the very absence of God" (Deus Caritas ).
The second characteristic is the exemplarity of the Foundation's working method, a model for every aid structure. The projects are studied by an Administrative Board that consists of Bishops from different regions of Latin America who evaluate them. Thus, the decisions are taken by those who are familiar with the problems of those people and their material needs.
Likewise, this avoids on the one hand a certain paternalism, which is always humiliating for the poor and dampens their initiative; and on the other, it means that the total sum of the allocated funds reaches the neediest, without being wasted on unwieldy bureaucratic processes.
As I said on my recent Pastoral Visit to Aparecida, the Church in these nations is facing enormous challenges. At the same time, however, she is the "Church of Hope", which feels the need to fight for the dignity of every person and for true justice, and against the wretched condition of our fellow human beings.
Latin America is a part of the world, rich in natural resources, where differences in the standard of living must give way to this spirit of sharing goods, as can be seen in the conversion and subsequent attitude of Zacchaeus, the publican of the Gospel: "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold" (Lc 19,8).
In the face of secularization, the proliferation of sects and the poverty of so many of our brethren, it is urgently necessary to form communities united in faith like the Holy Family of Nazareth, where the joyful witness of those who have encountered the Lord may be the light that illumines those in search of a more dignified life.
I entrust the work of this Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" and of the "Populorum Progressio" Foundation to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of all America. May she help you and guide you always!
As an expression of these warm good wishes, I affectionately impart my Apostolic Blessing to you all, to your relatives and to your collaborators.
Friday, 15 June 2007
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
I meet you with great joy on the occasion of the ad limina visit that you are making in these days. I address to each one of you my cordial greeting and willingly extend it to your respective diocesan Communities.
Through you, I would like to convey my greeting to all the Slovak People, evangelized by Sts Cyril and Methodius, who in the last century were obliged to undergo deep suffering and persecution by the totalitarian Communist regime.
I am pleased to recall that among the Bishops, priests, Religious and lay people who bore a heroic witness in those comparatively recent years is also Cardinal Ján Chryzostom Korec, to whom I ask you to convey my fraternal embrace.
John Paul II had close ties with your beloved Nation. On his third Pastoral Visit to Slovakia, in September 2003, he chose as his motto: "Faithful to Christ, faithful to the Church". This motto continues to be an authentic apostolic and missionary programme, not only for the Church in Slovakia but for all the People of God, subjected as they are, especially in Europe, to an insistent ideological pressure that would like to reduce Christianity to a merely "private" dimension.
In fact, from the religious and cultural viewpoints, Slovakia is entering ever more deeply into the typical dynamic of other European countries with an ancient Christian tradition, heavily marked in our time by a widespread process of secularization.
Today, after emerging from the tunnel of persecution, the Christian communities which have preserved their ancient and deeply-rooted Catholic religious practices find themselves following the path of renewal that was promoted by the Second Vatican Council.
They are rightly concerned to preserve their own precious spiritual patrimony and at the same time to update it; and they are striving to remain faithful to their roots and to share their experiences with the other Churches in Europe, in a fraternal "exchange of gifts" that tends to enrich all.
Slovakia and Poland, the two Countries in Eastern Europe which have inherited the greatest riches of Catholic tradition, are currently exposed to the risk of seeing this patrimony, which the Communist regime did not manage to destroy, under heavy attack by the characteristic trends of Western societies: consumerism, hedonism, secularism, relativism, etc.
In the past few days I have heard your reports and learned, for example, that many rural parishes - those which have best preserved the Christian culture and spirituality - are seeing their population dwindling as people go in search of greater well-being and more profitable employment in the larger cities where they stay.
Dear and venerable Brothers, this is the situation in which the Lord calls you to carry out your episcopal ministry. I know that precisely in order to respond to the changed pastoral requirements, you have for some time been involved in drafting the Plan for Pastoral Care and Evangelization of the Catholic Church in Slovakia for the years 2007-13, which will be approved next October.
With a view to 2013, the year when you will commemorate the 1,150th anniversary of the beginning of the mission in your Region of Sts Cyril and Methodius, you have therefore decided to revive and bring up to date the evangelizing action of the two Brother Saints from Thessalonica. And you have started on this unanimous missionary mobilization with the rediscovery of tradition and of the strong and deep roots of Christianity in your people.
This pastoral undertaking intends to embrace all the social milieus and to respond to the expectations of the Slovak People, paying special attention to the spiritual requirements of young people and families. This is why you pay special attention to the youth apostolate in the contexts of both school and parish.
Experience tells you that a good quality training in the scholastic environment is particularly useful for the future of the new generations and in this regard, Catholic schools, numerous in Slovakia, make a precious contribution. Starting with nursery schools and extending to secondary classes, they endeavour to assure students a high-quality instruction and, at the same time, an integral spiritual, moral and human education.
With regard to the pastoral care of youth in the parishes, I know that you are able to rely on the ministry of numerous young priests to offer to boys and girls, in addition to the proper preparation for the Sacraments of Christian Initiation, a true and proper process of spiritual and community growth.
I warmly recommend that every decision always be incorporated in organized programmes of formation so as to teach young people always to connect faith with life. Only in this way, in fact, will you be able to help them forge a Christian conscience capable of resisting the enticements of consumerism, which are ever more insidious and invasive.
With regard to the reality of families, I have learned that Slovakia too is beginning to be affected by the crisis of marriage and the birth rate. This is first and foremost due to financial considerations which induce young engaged couples to postpone their marriage.
In addition, the dwindling social esteem of the value of marriage is being recorded, combined with a weakness in the new generations who are often afraid to make permanent decisions and lifelong commitments.
Another destabilizing factor is undoubtedly the systematic attack on marriage and the family conducted by certain areas of culture and by the mass media. In this framework, what should the Church do other than intensify prayer and continue to be strongly committed to supporting families as they face the challenges of the present time?
Thanks be to God, the pastoral care in your Country of the sacraments connected with the family, is well structured: Marriage, the Baptism of children, First Communion and Confirmation have obligatory preparation periods, and it is a constant commitment for you as Pastors and for the priests who assist you to help families start out on an authentic journey of faith and of Christian life as a community.
The groups, movements and lay ecclesial associations involved on the front line in the promotion of conjugal and family life and in the dissemination of the Church's teaching on matrimony, the family, sexual morals and bioethical themes, can be an effective source of help in your pastoral action.
At the crossroads between the pastoral care of the family and that of young people is the pastoral care of vocations.
Slovakia is a Nation which subsequent to 1990 experienced a vigorous flourishing of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life.
In addition to the only seminary that stayed open under the dictatorship, five others have come into being in these years, and today almost all parishes are provided with their own pastor.
We thank the Lord for this wealth of priests, and especially of young priests. However, as was foreseeable, this springtime could not last long, so today every Christian community is encouraged to give priority to a careful pastoral vocations promotion.
The formation of altar servers is a good step in this direction. Many parishes are taking it, in collaboration with the seminaries.
Of course, the increase in the number and quality of vocations also depends on the spiritual life of families: working for and with families is therefore a particularly appropriate way to encourage the birth and consolidation of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.
Nor should it be forgotten that this must all be nourished by constant and intense prayer.
Dear and venerable Brothers, continue to foster fatherly and open relations with your priests; seek to share the burden of their difficulties, support them and be concerned with their spiritual formation, organizing suitable pastoral meetings, retreats and spiritual exercises for them.
I rejoice because in accordance with the directives of the Second Vatican Council, every single one of your Dioceses has worked out a formation plan that provides for wise collaboration between elderly and young priests in order to meet the different needs of each one.
Take my cordial greeting back to your first collaborators, and assure them of my remembrance in prayer.
Then please convey my spiritual affection to all the faithful entrusted to your pastoral care, especially the sick and those in greatest need. Upon each one I invoke the heavenly protection of Our Lady of Sorrows, Patroness of Slovakia.
With these sentiments, I cordially impart to you, dear Confreres, a special Apostolic Blessing, which I gladly extend to the faithful of your Christian Communities and to all the inhabitants of your beloved Country.
Hall of the Popes
Friday, 15 June 2007
Your Eminences,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I meet you with great pleasure today, on an especially significant occasion. Indeed, you are intending to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, created by the Servant of God John Paul II on 20 May 1982 with his Letter addressed to Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, the then Secretary of State.
I greet all those present and I thank you, Cardinal Paul Poupard, in the first place, for your courteous words interpreting the common sentiments. I address to you, venerable Brother who has headed the Pontifical Council since 1988, a special thought of gratitude and appreciation for the important work you have carried out during this long period. At the Dicastery's service, you have devoted and profitably continue to devote your human and spiritual gifts, always witnessing enthusiastically to the attention which prompts the Church to establish dialogue with the cultural movements of our time.
Your participation in numerous congresses and international meetings, many of which were organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture, has enabled you to be ever more thoroughly acquainted with the interest the Holy See takes in the vast and variegated world of culture. I thank you once again for all this and extend my gratitude to the Secretary, Officials and Consultors of the Dicastery.
The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council paid great attention to culture, and the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes dedicated a special chapter to it (cf. nn. 53-62). The Council Fathers were concerned to point out the perspective in which the Church views and addresses the promotion of culture, considering this task as one of the "more urgent problems deeply affecting the human race" (ibid., n. 46).
In her relations with the world of culture, the Church always places man at the centre, both as the author of cultural activity and the one to whom it is destined. Servant of God Paul VI had very much at heart the Church's dialogue with culture and personally took charge of it during the years of his Pontificate.
The Servant of God John Paul II, who had taken part in the Council and made his own special contribution to the Constitution Gaudium et Spes, followed in his footsteps.
On 2 June 1980, in his memorable Discourse to UNESCO, he witnessed in the first person how much he had at heart to meet man on the cultural plane in order to transmit the Gospel Message to him. Two years later he established the Pontifical Council for Culture, destined to give a new impetus to the Church's commitment to assist the plurality of cultures' encounter with the Gospel in the different parts of the world (cf. Letter to Cardinal Casaroli, 20 May 1982; L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 28 June, p. 7).
In instituting this new Dicastery, my venerable Predecessor emphasized that it was to pursue its aims by establishing dialogue with all, without distinction of culture or religion, "in a joint search for cultural communication with all men of good will" (ibid.).
This aspect of the service carried out by the Pontifical Council for Culture has been confirmed in the past 25 years, since the world has become even more interdependent due to the formidable development of the means of communication and the consequent extension of the social relations network.
It is therefore even more urgent for the Church to promote cultural development, targeting the human and spiritual quality of its messages and content, since culture today is also inevitably affected by the globalization which, unless constantly accompanied by vigilant discernment, can turn against man, ending by impoverishing him instead of enriching him. And what great challenges evangelization has to face in this field!
Twenty-five years after the creation of the Pontifical Council for Culture, it is therefore appropriate to reflect on the reasons and goals that motivated its birth in the social and cultural context of our time. To this end, the Pontifical Council has desired to organize a Study Convention, on the one hand, as a pause for meditation on the existing relationship between evangelization and culture, and on the other, to take stock of this relationship as it appears today in Asia, America and Africa.
How is it possible not to find a special cause of satisfaction in seeing that the three "continental" reports have been entrusted to three Cardinals who are respectively Asian, Latin American and African? Is this not an eloquent confirmation of how the Catholic Church has journeyed on, blown by the "Wind" of Pentecost, as a Community capable of conversing with the entire family of peoples, indeed, shining out among it as a "prophetic sign of unity and peace" (Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer V-D)?
Dear brothers and sisters, the history of the Church is also inseparably the history of culture and art. Works such as the Summa Theologiae by St Thomas Aquinas, the Divine Comedy, Chartres Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel or Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantatas are unparalleled syntheses of Christian faith and human expression.
However, if these are, so to speak, the peaks of such syntheses between faith and culture, their convergence is brought about daily in the life and work of all the baptized, in that hidden art which is the love story of each one with the living God and with his brethren, in the joy and effort of following Jesus Christ in the daily routine of life.
Today more than ever, reciprocal openness between the cultures is a privileged context for dialogue between people committed to seeking an authentic humanism, over and above the divergences that separate them. In the cultural arena too, Christianity must offer to all a most powerful force of renewal and exaltation, that is, the Love of God who makes himself human love.
Precisely in his Letter establishing the Pontifical Council for Culture, Pope John Paul II wrote: "Love is like a great force hidden deep within cultures in order to urge them to overcome their incurable finiteness by opening themselves to him who is their Source and End, and to give them, when they do open themselves to his grace, enriching fullness" (Letter, 20 May 1982).
May the Holy See, thanks to the service carried out especially by your Dicastery, continue to promote throughout the Church that evangelical culture which is the leaven, salt and light of the Kingdom in humanity's midst.
Dear brothers and sisters, once again I express my deep gratitude for the work done by the Pontifical Council for Culture and I assure all of you who are present here of my remembrance in prayer, and as I invoke the heavenly intercession of Mary Most Holy, Sedes Sapientiae, I willingly impart a special Apostolic Blessing to you, Your Eminence, to your venerable confreres, and to all those who in various capacities are involved in the dialogue between the Gospel and contemporary cultures.
Saturday, 16 June 2007
Speechs 2007 - TO THE CONGREGATION FOR THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES