For the eleventh video-conference

From the Holy See, June 25^th 2002

"The Holy Spirit is communion with Christ". This affirmation by Saint Ireneus (Adversus haereses, III, 24, 1) introduces our theological meditation on the New Testament’s novelty regards to the Holy Spirit: God reveals, in the fullness of time, that His Spirit is the source of the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word and that Redemption will take place through Christ in the Spirit.

The Council’s writings and the following Teachings of the Church have proclaimed and studied in depth this dogmatic truth, with its important moral and pastoral aspects: the Holy Spirit is a personal place in which both the encounter and life between mankind and God becomes possible.

The subject we shall discuss in this eleventh video-conference, within the framework of the permanent formation of priests, is: "Pneumatology from the Second Vatican Council to our times":

The Spirit, protagonist of the preparation and coming of the Word in history, is entrusted with the mission of realizing in the course of time the plan for redemption: from the creation of the universe – when God’s Spirit moved over the waters (see. Gen 1, 2)-, to the parousia of the Word, when all is consigned to God: when God will be all in all (1 Cor 15,28).

Saint Gregory Nazianzene reassumes this truth as follows: "Christ is born and the Spirit precedes Him; he is baptised and the Spirit bears witness; He is tested and the Spirit leads Him back to Galilee; He accomplishes miracles and the Spirit accompanies Him; He ascend to heaven and the Spirit succeeds Him" (Discourses, XXXI, 29).

In the fullness of the divine plan, the unification with mankind and its deification therefore takes place in Christ, He who bestows the Spirit and "He who gives life" (1 Cor 15, 45): hence one may state that Christ, in the power of the Spirit, is the perfect union of God and mankind.

The Holy Father in his Encyclical Dominum et vivificantem, reminds us that Redemption "is totally carried out by the Son as the Anointed One, who came and acted in the power of the Holy Spirit, offering himself finally in sacrifice on the wood of the Cross. And this Redemption is, at the same time, constantly carried out in human hearts and minds-in the history of the world-by the Holy Spirit, who is the "other Counsellor." (n.24)

This will be developed in a variety of ways during this international conference by the theologians who have been invited to speak, and to whom I address my heartfelt thanks. The speeches are broadcast live from ten different countries on the five continents.

The three twenty minute speeches, divided into three parts, will be held respectively by H.E. Professor Rino Fisichella from the Seat of the Congregation for the Clergy in Rome; by Professor Stuart Bate in Johannesburg; and by Professor Silvio Cajiao in Bogotá .

These speeches will be alternated with the three minute speeches, respectively presented by Professor Alfonso Carrasco Rouco from Madrid, by Professor Michael Hull from New York, by Professor Gregory Gaston from Manila, by Professor Jean Galot from Rome, by Professor Gary Devery from Sydney, by H.E. Mons. Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz from Moscow, by Professor Gerard Müller from Munich, by Professor Louis Aldrich from Taipei and by Professor Bruno Forte from Rome.

I hope you all enjoy the conference.