Speechs 2008
Ground Zero, New York
Sunday, 20 April 2008
O God of love, compassion, and healing,
look on us, people of many different faiths and traditions,
who gather today at this site,
the scene of incredible violence and pain.
We ask you in your goodness
to give eternal light and peace
to all who died here—
the heroic first-responders:
our fire fighters, police officers,
emergency service workers, and Port Authority personnel,
along with all the innocent men and women
who were victims of this tragedy
simply because their work or service
brought them here on September 11, 2001.
We ask you, in your compassion
to bring healing to those
who, because of their presence here that day,
suffer from injuries and illness.
Heal, too, the pain of still-grieving families
and all who lost loved ones in this tragedy.
Give them strength to continue their lives with courage and hope.
We are mindful as well
of those who suffered death, injury, and loss
on the same day at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Our hearts are one with theirs
as our prayer embraces their pain and suffering.
God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world:
peace in the hearts of all men and women
and peace among the nations of the earth.
Turn to your way of love
those whose hearts and minds
are consumed with hatred.
God of understanding,
overwhelmed by the magnitude of this tragedy,
we seek your light and guidance
as we confront such terrible events.
Grant that those whose lives were spared
may live so that the lives lost here
may not have been lost in vain.
Comfort and console us,
strengthen us in hope,
and give us the wisdom and courage
to work tirelessly for a world
where true peace and love reign
among nations and in the hearts of all.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy International Airport, New York
Sunday, 20 April 2008
Mr. Vice-President,
Distinguished Civil Authorities,
My Brother Bishops,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The time has come for me to bid farewell to your country. These days that I have spent in the United States have been blessed with many memorable experiences of American hospitality, and I wish to express my deep appreciation to all of you for your kind welcome. It has been a joy for me to witness the faith and devotion of the Catholic community here. It was heart-warming to spend time with leaders and representatives of other Christian communities and other religions, and I renew my assurances of respect and esteem to all of you. I am grateful to President Bush for kindly coming to greet me at the start of my visit, and I thank Vice-President Cheney for his presence here as I depart. The civic authorities, workers and volunteers in Washington and New York have given generously of their time and resources in order to ensure the smooth progress of my visit at every stage, and for this I express my profound thanks and appreciation to Mayor Adrian Fenty of Washington and Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York.
Once again I offer prayerful good wishes to the representatives of the see of Baltimore, the first Archdiocese, and those of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Louisville, in this jubilee year. May the Lord continue to bless you in the years ahead. To all my Brother Bishops, to Bishop DiMarzio of this Diocese of Brooklyn, and to the officers and staff of the Episcopal Conference who have contributed in so many ways to the preparation of this visit, I extend my renewed gratitude for their hard work and dedication. With great affection I greet once more the priests and religious, the deacons, the seminarians and young people, and all the faithful in the United States, and I encourage you to continue bearing joyful witness to Christ our Hope, our Risen Lord and Savior, who makes all things new and gives us life in abundance.
One of the high-points of my visit was the opportunity to address the General Assembly of the United Nations, and I thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his kind invitation and welcome. Looking back over the sixty years that have passed since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, I give thanks for all that the Organization has been able to achieve in defending and promoting the fundamental rights of every man, woman and child throughout the world, and I encourage people of good will everywhere to continue working tirelessly to promote justice and peaceful co-existence between peoples and nations.
My visit this morning to Ground Zero will remain firmly etched in my memory, as I continue to pray for those who died and for all who suffer in consequence of the tragedy that occurred there in 2001. For all the people of America, and indeed throughout the world, I pray that the future will bring increased fraternity and solidarity, a growth in mutual respect, and a renewed trust and confidence in God, our heavenly Father.
With these words, I take my leave, I ask you to remember me in your prayers, and I assure you of my affection and friendship in the Lord. May God bless America!
Small Throne Room
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Dear and Venerable Brothers,
"Peace be with you!".
The greeting of the Risen Jesus to his disciples gathered in the Upper Room I address to you whom he has put in charge of the portion of God's People who live in the Caucasus. I am glad to meet you together, after having the opportunity of speaking to each one of you personally on your ad limina visit. They were interesting conversations, thanks to which I was able to become better acquainted with the situations of your respective communities and the hopes and worries that you have on your minds, and I thank the Lord for the apostolic work you carry out with great dedication and love for Christ and for the Church. I greet you with affection, and I would like to extend my cordial thoughts through you to the priests, your first collaborators, the consecrated people and all the faithful of your communities, as well as to the members of the other Christian Denominations and of the other Religions present in the Caucasus, a land rich in history and culture, a melting pot of civilization and the crossroads between East and West. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, who has just returned from his visit to your Churches, spoke enthusiastically to me of your region.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, your peoples underwent important social changes on the road to progress, but difficult situations still endure: there are numerous poor and unemployed people as well as refugees whom war has driven far from their homes, leaving them prey to insecurity. Yet the troubled events of the past century have not extinguished the flame of the Gospel, which in the course of the generations has found fertile ground in the Caucasus, although violent clashes, both internal and external, have not been lacking which have claimed many victims, among whom the Church lists numerous martyrs of the faith.
Your pastoral activity is therefore deployed in a territory where many social and cultural challenges endure and where the Catholic community constitutes a "little flock" which lives its faith in contact with other Christian Confessions and other Religions. Indeed, Catholics of the Armenian, Latin and Chaldean Rites coexist with Orthodox, members of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Jews and Muslims. In such a multi-religious context it is important that Catholics continue and increasingly intensify their collaboration with the other Churches and with the followers of other Religions, as already happens in many places.
Moreover, wherever Communism did not succeed in eroding the Catholic identity, insidious types of pressure must be prevented from weakening the sense of ecclesial belonging in some people. I therefore join in the aspiration of your Catholic communities to obtain recognition of their juridical personality with respect for the Catholic Church's own nature. Subsequent to the dialogue under way between Catholics and Orthodox, I likewise hope that brotherhood, which must characterize mutually respectful relations between the Churches, will grow despite the differences that still exist. May you be guided by the words with which St Paul exhorted the Christians of Rome to remain faithful even in affliction, "knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Rm 5,3-5). Therefore, encourage and sustain your faithful so that in the face of difficulties they do not lack the joy of professing their faith and of belonging to the Catholic Church! It is the joy that wells up in the heart of whoever follows Christ the Lord and is ready to witness to his Gospel.
While I was listening to the experiences of each one of you concerning your respective communities, I remembered Jesus' words: "The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest" (Mt 9,38). Yes, venerable Brothers, pray and have prayers said so that the Lord's vineyard may not be deprived of labourers. Continue to promote vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. It is necessary to ensure that future generations in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia can count on clergy who are holy, live their vocation joyfully and dedicate themselves generously to the care of all the faithful. In the first place, may you yourselves be wise and reliable guides of the People of God; uphold the family, who are its living cells. Because of the mentality inculcated in society and inherited from the Communist period, families today meet with many difficulties and are scarred by the wounds and attacks on human life that are unfortunately recorded in many other parts of the world. May it be your task, as primarily responsible for the pastoral care of the family, to educate Christian spouses to "bear witness to the inestimable value of the indissolubility and fidelity of marriage [which] is one of the most precious and most urgent tasks of Christian couples in our time" (Familiaris Consortio FC 20).
Dear and venerable Brothers, the Pope supports you and is beside you in your demanding mission as Pastors of Christ's flock living in the Caucasus. I know the zeal that burns in your hearts and I know the effort you make to spread the Gospel of hope. I am particularly struck by the attention which, with different charitable activities, you pay to the needs of the poor and of people in difficulty, thanks to the precious contribution of men and women religious and lay people. And I am pleased to emphasize that these activities are carried out with an evangelical spirit, in the awareness that: "For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being" (Deus Caritas Est 25). Ensure that every community always works with this spirit. Teach all the faithful to bear witness with their lives to the love of Christ without a second aim, because for Christians "charity... cannot be used as a means of engaging in what is nowadays considered proselytism. Love is free" (ibid., n. 31c). Your task as educators in the faith and as Pastors of Christ's flock also requires relations of constant collaboration among you, impressed with trust and mutual support. Nor should regular meetings and moments be lacking in order to draw up effective pastoral plans, especially as a preparation for the sacraments. These programmes should focus above all on the formation of the faithful's conscience in accordance with the Gospel ethic and with special attention to youth. Dear Brothers, when you return to your communities convey to all you meet my most cordial greeting, accompanied by the assurance of my constant remembrance in prayer that God will make your ministry fruitful.
May the Virgin Mary watch over you and your communities. May it be she who obtains for you the gift of unity and peace so that, journeying on in Christ's Name, you may build together, over and above diversity, a society in which justice and peace prevail. I impart my Blessing to you who are present here, to the faithful whom the Lord has entrusted to your pastoral care and to all the inhabitants of the Caucasus.
Paul VI Audience Hall
Thursday, 24 April 2008
Mr President,
Your Eminences,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the end of this splendid concert, I am pleased to address a cordial greeting to all of you who have taken part: Civil and Military Authorities, distinguished Figures and friends who have come to share this moment of high cultural value. I would especially like to express my deep gratitude to the Honourable Giorgio Napolitano, President of the Italian Republic, who on the occasion of the third anniversary of my Pontificate has wished to offer me this gift, accompanying it with courteous words which I much appreciated. Thank you, Mr President, for this respectful and caring gesture which I welcomed with deep pleasure! I see it as a further sign of the great affection the Italian People have for the Pope. I extend my greeting to your gracious wife and to your collaborators.
Certain of interpreting the sentiments of everyone present, I address my heartfelt congratulations to the "Giuseppe Verde" Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Milan, beautifully conducted by Mr Oleg Caetani, who have played and sung with extraordinary talent and effectiveness. I likewise extend my appreciation to the conductor of the Choir, Ms Erina Gambarini. I express a cordial thought of gratitude to the directors of the praiseworthy "Giuseppe Verdi" Foundation, encouraging them to continue on the prestigious path of art and culture on which they have set out, whose value, as I know, is also enhanced by their commitment to bring music to alleviate situations of human difficulty, such as those that occur in hospitals and prisons. My gratitude is naturally addressed to all who have contributed to the organization and realization of this evocative event, supporting it in different ways.
We have had the joy of listening with attentive participation to demanding compositions by Luciano Berio, Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven. I would like to emphasize that the music of Brahms enriched with religious trust Hölderlin's "Song of Destiny". This factor introduces consideration of the spiritual value of the art of music, uniquely called to instil hope in the human spirit, so scarred and sometimes wounded by the earthly condition. There is a mysterious and deep kinship between music and hope, between song and eternal life: not for nothing does the Christian tradition portray the Blessed in the act of singing in a choir, in ecstasy and enraptured by the beauty of God. But authentic art, like prayer, is not foreign to everyday reality although it requires us to "water" it and make it germinate if it is to bring forth the fruit of goodness and peace.
The masterful interpretations we have heard also remind us of the value and universal importance of the artistic heritage. I am thinking especially of the young generations, who can approach this heritage with ever new inspiration in order to build the world in accordance with works of justice and solidarity at the service of humanity, by employing the multiform expressions of world culture. I am also thinking of the importance for young peoples' formation of education in authentic beauty. Art overall helps to refine their minds and orients them to building a society open to spiritual ideals.
In this regard, Italy, with its exceptional artistic heritage, can play an important role in the world: in fact, the quantity and quality of the monuments and artworks it possesses make it a universal "messenger" of all the values that art expresses and at the same time promotes. The festivity of song and music are likewise a constant invitation to believers and people of good will to commit themselves to giving humanity a future rich in hope.
Mr President of the Republic, thank you again for the wonderful present you have wished to offer me and for the sentiments that have accompanied it. I reciprocate them, assuring you of my remembrance in prayer that the Lord may protect you, your gracious wife, the Authorities and the entire People of Italy. With these wishes which I entrust to the intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel, I invoke God's Blessing on all those present and on their respective families. Thank you and good evening to you all!
Friday, 2 May 2008
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
I receive you with great joy at the end of this ad limina visit which has brought you to the tombs of the Apostles St Peter and St Paul to strengthen even more the bonds of communion which have always been a feature of the Cuban Bishops' relationship with this Apostolic See. It is a special cause of joy to me to meet you, dear Brothers who look after a Church to which I feel very close in spirit, as I have already had the opportunity to tell you in the Message I sent through the Cardinal Secretary of State during his recent visit to Cuba.
I warmly thank Archbishop Juan García Rodríguez of Camagüey, President of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Cuba, for his friendly words of support and sincere affection on behalf of you all and of your diocesan communities.
I am familiar with the vitality of the Church in your beloved Country, as well as your unity and the gift of yourselves to Jesus Christ. Ecclesial life in Cuba has undergone a profound change, especially since the celebration of the National Ecclesial Meeting of Cuba which took place more than 20 years ago, and most especially with the historic Visit to Cuba of my Venerable Predecessor Pope John Paul II. Intense pastoral work has been carried out; despite the many difficulties and limitations, this has helped to strengthen the missionary spirit in all the Cuban ecclesial communities. I therefore invite you to persevere with your daring and generous evangelizing efforts which bring Christ's light to all contexts and places.
In this historical period the Church in your Country is called to offer the one true hope to Cuban society as a whole: Christ our Lord, who triumphed over sin and death (cf. Spe Salvi, n. 27). This hope is the force that has kept Cuban believers unswervingly on the path of faith and love.
All this requires that the development of spiritual life have a central place in your aspirations and your pastoral projects. Only on the basis of a personal experience of encounter with Jesus Christ and with a sound doctrinal preparation rooted in the ecclesial community can Christians become the salt and light of the world (cf. Mt 5,13-14) and thus appease the thirst for God that is increasingly felt among your fellow citizens.
Priests play a fundamental role in these tasks. I know of the dedication and pastoral zeal with which they give themselves to their brethren, although they are few, even in the midst of great difficulty. I would therefore like to express to all the priests my gratitude and appreciation for their fidelity and their tireless service to the Church and the faithful. I am also confident that the increase in vocations and at the same time the adoption of the proper means in this area will soon enable the Cuban Church to rely on a sufficient number of priests, as well as on the churches and places of worship necessary to carry out her strictly pastoral and spiritual mission. Do not cease to guide and encourage them, for they bear the burden of the day and the scorching heat (cf. Mt Mt 20,12). Help them too, so that with personal meditation, with praying the Liturgy of the Hours, with the daily celebration of the Eucharist as well as with an adequate continuing formation, they may keep ever alive the gift received with the imposition of hands (cf. II Tm 1: 6).
The increase of priestly vocations is a source of hope. Nevertheless, it is necessary to continue promoting a specific vocations ministry which is not afraid to encourage youth to follow in the footsteps of Christ, the only One who can satisfy their longing for love and happiness. At the same time, care of and attention to the Seminary must always occupy a privileged place in the heart of the Bishop (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis PO 5) who must allocate to seminaries the best possible human and material means of his diocesan communities, assuring seminarians, through the competence and dedication of chosen formators, the best possible spiritual, intellectual and human formation so that identifying with the sentiments of the Heart of Christ, they may face the demands of the priestly ministry which they must carry out.
I cannot fail to mention and to acknowledge the exemplary work of so many men and women religious, and I encourage them to continue to enrich the fabric of ecclesial life with the treasure of their own charisms and their generous self-giving.
I would also like to thank in particular the many missionaries who offer the gift of their consecration to the entire Church in Cuba.
One of the priority goals of the Pastoral Plan you have worked out is precisely the promotion of a committed laity, conscious of its vocation and mission in the Church and in the world. I therefore ask you to promote in your particular Churches an authentic process of education in the faith at the various levels, with the help of properly trained catechists. Ensure that all have time for reading and prayerful meditation on the Word of God as well as the frequent reception of the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Thereby, strengthened with an intense spiritual life and relying on a sound religious preparation, especially with regard to the Church's social teaching, the lay faithful will be able to offer a convincing witness of their faith in all the contexts of society, to enlighten them with the light of the Gospel (cf. Lumen Gentium LG 38). In this regard, I express the hope that the Church in Cuba, in conformity with your legitimate aspirations, may avail herself of normal access to the social communications media.
In a special way I would like to entrust the pastoral care of marriage and the family to you. I know how concerned you are about the situation of the family whose stability is threatened by divorce and its consequences, the practice of abortion or financial difficulties, as well as the break-up of families caused by emigration or other reasons. I encourage you to redouble your efforts so that all, especially the young, may understand better and feel increasingly attracted by the beauty of the authentic values of marriage and the family. Likewise, it is necessary to encourage and to offer the appropriate means to ensure that families can exercise their responsibility and fundamental right to the religious and moral education of their children.
I have noticed with joy the generosity with which the Church in your beloved Nation dedicates herself to serving the poorest and most deprived people, for which she receives esteem and gratitude from all Cubans. I warmly urge you to continue to take to all the needy, the sick, the elderly and prisoners, a visible sign of God's love for them, aware that "the best defence of God and man consists precisely in love" (Deus Caritas Est 31).In this way, you offer the whole of Cuba the witness of a Church which shares deeply in its joys, hopes and sufferings.
Dear Brothers, I would like to thank you for all the work you are doing to strengthen the little flock of Cuba and to ensure that it produces increasingly abundant fruits of Christian life, like the grain of wheat that falls to the earth (cf. Jn Jn 12,24). May the upcoming beatification of the Servant of God Fr José Ola-llo Valdés give a new impetus to your service to the Church and the Cuban People, so that it may be at every moment a leaven of reconciliation, justice and peace.
I ask you to convey my affectionate greeting and spiritual closeness to all, and in particular to the Bishops emeritus, to the priests, permanent deacons, religious communities, seminarians and lay faithful, and tell them that the Pope is praying for them while he encourages them to grow in holiness so as to give the best of themselves to God and others.
As you are preparing to celebrate the fourth centenary of the discovery of her venerated image, I entrust you and your intentions to Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre and ask her to protect you and give you strength, while at the same time I impart a special Apostolic Blessing to you all.
Consistory Hall
Saturday, 3 May 2008
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate and the Priesthood,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to have this occasion to meet with you as you gather for the fourteenth Plenary Session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Over the last two decades, the Academy has offered a valuable contribution to the deepening and development of the Church’s social doctrine and its application in the areas of law, economics, politics and the various other social sciences. I thank Professor Margaret Archer for her kind words of greeting, and I express my sincere appreciation to all of you for your commitment to research, dialogue and teaching, so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ may continue to shed light on the complex situations arising in a rapidly changing world.
In choosing the theme Pursuing the Common Good: How Solidarity and Subsidiarity Can Work Together, you have decided to examine the interrelationships between four fundamental principles of Catholic social teaching: the dignity of the human person, the common good, subsidiarity and solidarity (cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 160-163). These key realities, which emerge from the living contact between the Gospel and concrete social circumstances, offer a framework for viewing and addressing the imperatives facing mankind at the dawn of the twenty-first century, such as reducing inequalities in the distribution of goods, expanding opportunities for education, fostering sustainable growth and development, and protecting the environment.
How can solidarity and subsidiarity work together in the pursuit of the common good in a way that not only respects human dignity, but allows it to flourish? This is the heart of the matter which concerns you. As your preliminary discussions have already revealed, a satisfactory answer can only surface after careful examination of the meaning of the terms (cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Chapter 4). Human dignity is the intrinsic value of a person created in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by Christ. The totality of social conditions allowing persons to achieve their communal and individual fulfilment is known as the common good.Solidarity refers to the virtue enabling the human family to share fully the treasure of material and spiritual goods, and subsidiarity is the coordination of society’s activities in a way that supports the internal life of the local communities.
Yet definitions are only the beginning. What is more, these definitions are adequately grasped only when linked organically to one another and seen as mutually supportive of one another. We can initially sketch the interconnections between these four principles by placing the dignity of the person at the intersection of two axes: one horizontal, representing "solidarity" and "subsidiarity", and one vertical, representing the "common good". This creates a field upon which we can plot the various points of Catholic social teaching that give shape to the common good.
Though this graphic analogy gives us a rudimentary picture of how these fundamental principles imply one another and are necessarily interwoven, we know that the reality is much more complex. Indeed, the unfathomable depths of the human person and mankind’s marvellous capacity for spiritual communion – realities which are fully disclosed only through divine revelation – far exceed the capacity of schematic representation. The solidarity that binds the human family, and the subsidiary levels reinforcing it from within, must however always be placed within the horizon of the mysterious life of the Triune God (cf. Jn Jn 5,26 Jn 6,57), in whom we perceive an ineffable love shared by equal, though nonetheless distinct, persons (cf. Summa Theologiae, I, q. 42).
My friends, I invite you to allow this fundamental truth to permeate your reflections: not only in the sense that the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity are undoubtedly enriched by our belief in the Trinity, but particularly in the sense that these principles have the potential to place men and women on the path to discovering their definitive, supernatural destiny. The natural human inclination to live in community is confirmed and transformed by the "oneness of Spirit" which God has bestowed upon his adopted sons and daughters (cf. Eph Ep 4,3 1P 3,8). Consequently, the responsibility of Christians to work for peace and justice, their irrevocable commitment to build up the common good, is inseparable from their mission to proclaim the gift of eternal life to which God has called every man and woman. In this regard, the tranquillitas ordinis of which Saint Augustine speaks refers to "all things": that is to say both "civil peace", which is a "concord among citizens", and the "peace of the heavenly city", which is the "perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God" (De Civitate Dei, XIX, 13).
The eyes of faith permit us to see that the heavenly and earthly cities interpenetrate and are intrinsically ordered to one another, inasmuch as they both belong to God the Father, who is "above all and through all and in all" (Ep 4,6). At the same time, faith places into sharper focus the due autonomy of earthly affairs, insofar as they are "endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order" (Gaudium et Spes GS 36). Hence, you can be assured that your discussions will be of service to all people of good will, while simultaneously inspiring Christians to embrace more readily their obligation to enhance solidarity with and among their fellow citizens, and to act upon the principle of subsidiarity by promoting family life, voluntary associations, private initiative, and a public order that facilitates the healthy functioning of society’s most basic communities (cf. Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, 187).
When we examine the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity in the light of the Gospel, we realize that they are not simply "horizontal": they both have an essentially vertical dimension. Jesus commands us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us (cf. Lk Lc 6,31); to love our neighbour as ourselves (cf. Mat Mt 22,35). These laws are inscribed by the Creator in man’s very nature (cf. Deus Caritas Est 31). Jesus teaches that this love calls us to lay down our lives for the good of others (cf. Jn Jn 15,12-13). In this sense, true solidarity – though it begins with an acknowledgment of the equal worth of the other – comes to fulfilment only when I willingly place my life at the service of the other (cf. Eph Ep 6,21). Herein lies the "vertical" dimension of solidarity: I am moved to make myself less than the other so as to minister to his or her needs (cf. Jn Jn 13,14-15), just as Jesus "humbled himself" so as to give men and women a share in his divine life with the Father and the Spirit (cf. Phil Ph 2,8 Mt 23,12).
Similarly, subsidiarity – insofar as it encourages men and women to enter freely into life-giving relationships with those to whom they are most closely connected and upon whom they most immediately depend, and demands of higher authorities respect for these relationships – manifests a "vertical" dimension pointing towards the Creator of the social order (cf. Rom Rm 12,16). A society that honours the principle of subsidiarity liberates people from a sense of despondency and hopelessness, granting them the freedom to engage with one another in the spheres of commerce, politics and culture (cf. Quadragesimo Anno, 80). When those responsible for the public good attune themselves to the natural human desire for self-governance based on subsidiarity, they leave space for individual responsibility and initiative, but most importantly, they leave space for love (cf. Rom Rm 13,8 Deus Caritas Est 28), which always remains "the most excellent way" (cf. 1Co 12,31).
In revealing the Father’s love, Jesus has taught us not only how to live as brothers and sisters here on earth; he has shown us that he himself is the way to perfect communion with one another and with God in the world to come, since it is through him that "we have access in one Spirit to the Father" (cf. Eph Ep 2,18). As you strive to articulate the ways in which men and women can best promote the common good, I encourage you to survey both the "vertical" and "horizontal" dimensions of solidarity and subsidiarity. In this way, you will be able to propose more effective ways of resolving the manifold problems besetting mankind at the threshold of the third millennium, while also bearing witness to the primacy of love, which transcends and fulfils justice as it draws mankind into the very life of God (cf. Message for the 2004 World Day of Peace).
With these sentiments, I assure you of my prayers, and I cordially extend my Apostolic Blessing to you and your loved ones as a pledge of peace and joy in the Risen Lord.
Speechs 2008