Speeches 2005-13 6079
Mr Ambassador,
I am pleased to receive you, Your Excellency, at this solemn ceremony at which you are presenting to me the Letters which accredit you as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Mexican States to the Holy See. I warmly thank you for your respectful words. At the same time I ask you kindly to convey to your President, Mr Felipe de Jesús Caldéron Hinojosa, to your Government and to all the noble people of your Country my best wishes, which I accompany with my fervent prayers that the beloved Mexican People, facing the vicissitudes of the present time with courage, determination and unity, may advance on the paths of freedom, solidarity and social progress.
You have come, Your Excellency, as the Representative of a great nation whose identity has been forged over the centuries in a fruitful relationship with the message of salvation that the Catholic Church proclaims. This is evident in many of its popular traditions and festivals. Faith in Jesus Christ has engendered in Mexico a culture that offers a specific and complete meaning of life and a vision of existence that is full of hope. At the same time, it illustrates a series of essential principles for the harmonious development of the whole of society, such as the promotion of justice, work for peace and reconciliation, the fostering of honour and transparency, the fight against violence, corruption and crime, the constant protection of human life and the safeguard of the dignity of the person.
The celebration of the World Meeting of Families in Mexico City several months ago has further highlighted the importance of this institution, so highly esteemed by the Mexican People. In fact, the family, a community of life and love founded on indissoluble marriage between a man and a woman, is the fundamental nucleus of the entire social fabric. Accordingly, it is of supreme importance that it be given satisfactory assistance so that homes do not cease to be schools of respect and mutual understanding, seedbeds of human virtues and a cause of hope for the rest of society. In this context, I would like to repeat to you how pleased I am with the fruits of this important ecclesial meeting, as once again I thank the Authorities of your country and all Mexicans for the visible hardwork they devoted to its organization.
I am pleased to note the good relations that exist between the Holy See and Mexico. They are part of the important progress achieved in recent years in a healthy atmosphere of reciprocal autonomy and collaboration. This must motivate and strengthen us to make them even closer in the future, bearing in mind the important place of religion in the specific character and history of your country. Precisely on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between your country and the Holy See, a series of commemorative events were organized in Mexico City in which various topics of common interest were examined, such as the correct way of understanding an authentic democratic state and its duty to safeguard and encourage religious freedom in all the dimensions of the nation's public and social life. Indeed, religious freedom is not merely one right among the many, nor is it a privilege demanded by the Catholic Church. It is the rock on which human rights are firmly founded, since this freedom reveals in a particular way the transcendent dimension of the human person and the absolute inviolability of his dignity. Religious freedom therefore belongs to the essence of every person, of every people and nation. The central meaning of religious freedom does not allow it to be limited to the mere coexistence of citizens who practise their religion in private. Nor may it be restricted to the free exercise of worship; on the contrary, believers must be offered the full guarantee that they may publicly express their own religion and make their own contribution to building the common good and to a correct social order in every walk of life, without any kind of restriction or coercion. In this regard the Catholic Church supports and encourages this positive view of the role of religion in society and has no wish to interfere in the proper autonomy of civil institutions. Faithful to the mandate received from her divine Founder, she seeks to encourage initiatives that benefit the human person, that fully promote his dignity and that recognize his spiritual dimension, in the knowledge that the best service Christians can offer society is the proclamation of the Gospel, which illuminates a genuine democratic culture and guides them in the search for the common good. It is thus obvious that the Church and the political community are and must feel, though in their different capacities, at the service of the personal and social vocation of human beings themselves (cf. Gaudium et spes GS 76).
Many steps are being taken by the various institutions of your nation to encourage a more just and supportive social order and to get the better of the contradictions that continue to hold the country in their grip. In this regard, it is worth emphasizing the attention and commitment with which the Authorities of your country are confronting such serious matters as violence, the drug trade, inequalities and poverty, which are a breeding ground for crime. It is well known that for an effective and lasting solution to these problems, technical or security measures do not suffice. What this requires is a broad vision and an effective joining of forces, in addition to encouraging the necessary moral renewal, educating consciences and creating a true culture of life. In this task, the Authorities and the various forces of Mexican society will always encounter the solidarity of the Catholic Church.
One can never sufficiently insist that the right to life must be recognized in its full breadth. In fact every person deserves respect and solidarity from the moment of his conception to his natural death. This noble cause, in which many men and women are courageously involved, must also be supported by the civil authorities in the promotion of just laws and effective public policies that take into account the very great value that every human being possesses at every moment of his life. In this regard, I would like to acknowledge joyfully the initiative of Mexico which, in 2005, eliminated capital punishment from its legislation, as well as the recent measures that some of its States have adopted to protect human life from its origins. These measures regarding such a fundamental issue must be an emblem of your country, of which you must feel justifiably proud since upon the recognition of right to life "every human community and the political community itself are founded" (John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae, n. 2).
Mr Ambassador, before concluding this meeting, I want to congratulate you, Your Excellency, your family and the other members of this diplomatic Mission and also to remind you that in my collaborators you will always find the cooperation you may need in the lofty office of representing your beloved nation to the Apostolic See.
I implore God, through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, Our Lady of Guadalupe, to bless, protect and accompany all Mexicans, so close to the Pope's heart, so that in your country harmony, brotherhood and justice may ceaselessly shine.
11079
PROMOTED BY THE UNIVERSITY-SECTION OF THE CATECHESIS-SCHOOL-UNIVERSITY (CSU) COMMISSION OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPEAN BISHOP'S CONFERENCES (CCEE)
Your Eminence,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I warmly thank you for your visit that is taking place on the day of the Feast of St Benedict, Patron of Europe, on the occasion of the first European Meeting of University Students, organized by the Catechesis-School-University Commission of the Council of European Bishops' Conferences (CCEE). I extend my most cordial welcome to each one of you present here. I greet first of all Bishop Marek Jedraszewski, Vice-President of the Commission, and I thank him for the words he addressed to me in your name. I greet in a special way the Cardinal Vicar Agostino Vallini, and express to him all my gratitude for the precious service that the university ministry of Rome renders to the Church in Europe. Also I cannot but praise Mons. Lorenzo Leuzzi, the tireless animator of the Diocesan Office, and I greet with deep gratitude Prof. Renato Lauro, Rector Magnificent of the University of Rome Tor Vergata. I address my thoughts especially to you, dear young people: welcome to Peter's house! You belong to some 31 nations and are preparing to take on important roles and tasks in the Europe of the third millennium. May you always be aware of your potential and, at the same time, of your responsibilities.
What does the Church expect of you? It is the very theme on which you are reflecting that suggests the appropriate response: "New Disciples of Emmaus: Being Christians in the University". After the meeting of European professors that took place two years ago, now you students are also coming together to offer the Bishops' Conferences of Europe your willingness to continue on the path of cultural elaboration that St Benedict intuited would be necessary for the human and Christian maturation of the European peoples. This can happen if, like the disciples of Emmaus, you encounter the Risen Lord in a practical experience of Church and, in particular, in the Eucharistic celebration. As I reminded your peers a year ago during the World Youth Day held in Sydney, "At each Mass, in fact, the Holy Spirit descends anew, invoked by the solemn prayer of the Church, not only to transform our gifts of bread and wine into the Lord's body and blood but also to transform our lives, to make us, in his power, "one body, one spirit in Christ' (World Youth Day Mass, Randwick Race Course, Sydney, Australia). Your missionary commitment in the university context therefore consists in witnessing to the personal encounter you have had with Jesus Christ, the Truth that illuminates the path of every person. That "newness of heart" capable of giving a new sense of direction to personal existence originates from the encounter with him; and it is only in this way that one becomes a ferment and leaven of a society enlivened by evangelical love.
Therefore it is easy to understand why pastoral ministry within the university must be expressed with its full theological and spiritual value, helping young people to ensure that communion with Christ leads them to perceive the deepest mystery of mankind and of history. And, precisely because of their specific evangelizing action, the ecclesial communities involved in this missionary action such as for example the university chaplaincies can be the place for the formation of mature believers, men and women aware of being loved by God and called, in Christ, to become animators of university ministry. The Christian presence within universities becomes increasingly demanding and at the same time fascinating, because faith, as in past centuries, is called to offer its irreplaceable service to knowledge, which in contemporary society is the true driving force behind development. It is on knowledge, enriched with the contribution of faith, that a people's ability to know how to look to the future with hope overcoming the temptations of a purely materialistic vision of our essence and of history depends.
Dear young people, you are the future of Europe. Immersed in these years of study in the world of knowledge you are called to make use of your best resources not only intellectual in order to build your characters and to contribute to the common good. Working for the development of knowledge is the specific vocation of universities and, in the face of the vastness and complexity of knowledge available to humanity, it requires a higher and higher moral and spiritual quality. The new cultural synthesis being formed in our time in Europe and the globalized world needs the contribution of intellectuals who can present the subject of God anew in academic lecture halls, or rather regenerate that human desire to seek God "quaerere Deum" which I have mentioned on other occasions.
As I thank all those who work in the field of university ministry, under the guidance of the institutions of the CCEE, I hope that the fruitful journey begun several years ago may continue, and I express my deepest encouragement and appreciation of it. I am sure that your meeting in Rome in these days will propose further stages on the journey toward more integral planning, which will foster involvement and communion among the different practices already operative in many countries. Dear young people, together with your teachers you help to create laboratories of faith and culture, sharing the efforts of study and research with all the friends whom you meet at university. Love your universities, which are training grounds for virtue and service. The Church in Europe places deep trust in all of your generous apostolic commitment, aware of the challenges and difficulties but also of the great potential of pastoral action in the university sphere. As for me, I assure you of my support in prayer and I know that in turn I can count on your enthusiasm, on your testimony, above all on your friendship which you have expressed to me today and for which I thank you wholeheartedly. May St Benedict, Patron of Europe and my personal Patron in the Pontificate, and above all the Virgin Mary, whom you call upon as Sedes Sapientae, accompany you and guide your steps. My Blessing to you all.
10809
ORGANIZED BY THE INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING FEDERATION (FINA) Courtyard of the Papal Summer Residence, Castel Gandolfo
Dear Friends,
I accepted with deep pleasure the invitation to meet you on the occasion of the World Swimming Championships. Thank you for your appreciated visit; I gladly offer my cordial welcome to each and every one of you! I address a respectful thought first of all to Mr Julio Maglione, President of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), and to the Hon. Mr Paolo Barelli, President of the Italian Swimming Federation (FIN), while I also thank them for their kind words on behalf of all.
I greet the Authorities present, the directors and those in charge, the technicians, delegates, journalists and mass media operators, the volunteers, the organizers and all who have contributed to putting on this world sports event. I extend my most affectionate greeting specially to you, dear athletes of various nationalities who are competing in these World Swimming Championships. With your competitions you offer the world a fascinating spectacle of discipline and humanity, of artistic beauty and tenacious determination. You show what goals the vitality of youth can achieve when young people submit to the effort of a demanding training and are willing to accept numerous sacrifices and deprivations. All this is also an important lesson for life for your peers.
As has just been recalled, sports, practised with enthusiasm and an acute ethical sense, especially for youth become a training ground of healthy competition and physical improvement, a school of formation in the human and spiritual values, a privileged means for personal growth and contact with society. Watching these swimming championships and admiring the results achieved make it easy to understand the great potential with which God has endowed the human body and the interesting objectives of perfection it is able to achieve. One then thinks of the Psalmist's wonder who in contemplating the universe, praises the glory of God and the greatness of man: "when I behold your heavens", we read in Psalm 8, "the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have set in place what is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him?" (vv. 3-4). Then, how can one fail to thank the Lord for having endowed the human body with such perfection; for having enriched it with a beauty and harmony that can be expressed in so many ways?
The sports disciplines, each in a different way, help us to appreciate this gift which God has made to us. The Church follows and encourages sport, practised not as an end in itself, but as a means, as a precious instrument for the perfection and balance of the whole person. In the Bible we also find interesting references to sport as an image of life. For example, the Apostle Paul, considered sports an authentic human value and used them not only as a metaphor to illustrate lofty ethical and ascent ideals but also as a means for human formation and as an element of human culture and civilization.
Dear athletes, you are models for your peers, and your example can be crucial to them in building their future positively. So be champions in sports and in life! John Paul II who was mentioned earlier, met representatives of the world of sports in October of the Jubilee Year 2000. He stressed the great importance of practising sport, precisely since "it can encourage young people to develop important values such as loyalty, perseverance, friendship, sharing and solidarity". Furthermore, sports events like yours, thanks to the modern means of social communication, have a considerable impact on public opinion, given that the language of sports is universal and reaches out in particular to the young generations. Therefore, the use of sport as a vehicle for positive messages contributes to building a more fraternal world with greater solidarity.
Dear French-speaking athlete friends, I am happy to receive you and to offer you a cordial greeting on the occasion of the World Swimming Championships. The sport you practise is a school of generosity, loyalty and respect for others. May it encourage the development of the values of friendship and sharing between people and among peoples. May God bless you!
I am pleased to greet the English-speaking athletes taking part in the International Swimming Federation World Championships, together with the many officials, support staff, volunteers and friends who have joined you here in Rome during these days. May your pursuit of excellence be accompanied by gratitude for your God-given gifts and a desire to help others to use their own gifts in building a better and more united world. Upon you and your families I invoke God's Blessings of joy and peace.
I warmly greet the German-speaking participants in the World Swimming Championships here in Rome. Dear friends, as sports competitors you offer performances of a very high-standard and are an example for many young people. Be committed to all that is good and lasting in the world in which you live, so that sport may serve to develop the gifts that God has made to humankind. May the Lord bless you as you journey onwards.
I cordially greet all the Spanish-speaking people present here: athletes, directors and all who have taken part in various ways in the World Swimming Championships. I ask you to continue to practice your sport in harmony with the highest human values, so that it may encourage the healthy physical development of those who practise it and thereby set an example to children and young people for their integral formation. Thank you.
Dear Portuguese-speaking friends who are taking part in these World Swimming Championships. I warmly greet you all and take this opportunity to thank you for the lesson of life that you offer to the world, consisting of discipline and humanity, of artistic beauty and of a strong determination to win and, especially, to get the better of yourselves. I invoke God's help upon you and upon your families, as I impart to you the Apostolic Blessing.
Dear friends, and especially you, dear athletes, as I thank you once again for this cordial meeting, I express the hope that you will "swim" towards ever more incomparable ideals.
I assure you of my remembrance in prayer and, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, I invoke God's Blessing upon you, upon your families and upon all your loved ones.
Dear Deacon Kemmer,
Dear Musicians,
Dear Friends,
Today, after such a beautiful concert, for the first time I was unable to clap vigorously! I am therefore especially pleased to be able to express to Mr Albrecht Mayer and the musicians of the "Bayerischen Kammerorchester Bad Brückenau" the thanks and the admiration of everyone present. I likewise thank Deacon Cilian Kemmer for his words of greeting and all those who organized this concert at Castel Gandolfo and made it possible.
For us, of course, the great fascination this evening was the sound of the oboe that you, dear Mr Mayer, masterfully offered to us.
It was moving to observe that from a piece of wood, from this instrument, an entire universe of music flows: the unfathomable and the joyful, the serious and the humorous, the grandiose and the humble, an inner dialogue of melodies.
I thought how magnificent it is that such promise is hidden in a small creative piece which the conductor can liberate, and this means that the whole creation is full of promises and that the human being receives the gift of leafing through this book of promises, at least for a while. I think that this evening we are not only invited to cherish the natural forces that help us to express our physical energy that is a promise of creation, but also to cherish the deepest, greatest promises that this music has pointed out to us, in the vigilance of our hearts which also enables us to understand this piece of creation.
The programme with the description of the concert has as it were introduced us to the works of the composers. I believe that it is moving for all of us that these maestros acted like the good father of a family in the Gospel of which the Lord speaks. They not only draw the old and the new from their riches. With the incentive of their tasks, not only can they always create new things, but they can also take old things into consideration and therefore new potentials, which were present in the earlier work, become visible. This concert with the oboe solos has fulfilled the task of expressing new potentials in which the music continues, lives on and is reborn at every performance, just as it is now.
It springs to my mind that today, in the Church, is the Day of the Porziuncola Indulgence, which commemorates St Francis' miraculous vision. In the little church of the Porziuncola at Assisi, he saw the Lord and his mother surrounded by Angels. The Lord granted him to express a desire and St Francis asked to be able to take a pardon home. The request was accepted, the Saint went home and announced joyfully to his brethren: "friends, the Lord wants to have us all in Heaven". Today I think we should spend this moment as an hour of paradise, observing and listening to paradise, and the incorrupt beauty and goodness of the creation. It is not an escape from the miseries of this world and of daily life, because we can continue to counter evil and darkness only if we ourselves believe in goodness and we can believe in goodness only if we experience and live it as reality. Here, our hearts have brushed against the beautiful.
Dear friends, I have spoken in German because the musicians and the majority of the participants are German. Unfortunately after the events of the Tower of Babel languages separate us, they create barriers. But we have just seen and felt that a part of the world exists that was not destroyed, even after the Tower and the pride of Babel, and it is music: the language we can all understand, because it moves all our hearts. This is not only a guarantee to us that goodness and beauty of God's creation have not been destroyed but that we are called and are capable of working for the good and the beautiful, and they are also a promise that the future world will see that God wins, that the beautiful and the good win.
For this consolation, for this comfort in our daily work we are grateful to you musicians. Our thanks to you all, and I wish you a good evening and a good week.
20909
REMARKS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Dear friends,
At the end of this great spiritual journey that is portrayed in the film that we have just seen, I feel the need to say "thank you" to all who have offered us this viewing. Thank you to the Bavarian Television for its generous commitment it is a great joy that a casual observation I made three years ago, began a journey that has led to this grand representation of the life of St Augustine. Thank you to Lux Vide and the RAI for this achievement.
Actually, I think that the film is a spiritual journey on a spiritual continent very distant from us, yet very close, because human drama is always the same. We have seen how, in a context so remote from ours, the reality of human life is portrayed with all its problems, its sorrows, its failures, as well as the fact that in the end the Truth is stronger than any obstacle and finds man. This is the great hope we are left with: we cannot find the Truth on our own, but the Truth, who is a Person, finds us. Externally St Augustine's life appears to end tragically: the world for which and in which he lived is destroyed. But, as the film affirms, his message has lived on and even in the ever-changing world, endures, because it comes from the Truth and it leads to Love, which is our common destination.
Thank you to everyone. Let us hope that many, in seeing this human drama, may be found by the Truth and may find Love.
60909
MEETING WITH THE LOCAL PEOPLE
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
My Pastoral Visit to your Diocesan Community began in Viterbo this morning with the solemn Eucharistic celebration and our meeting here in Bagnoregio more or less brings it to a close. I greet you all with affection: religious, civil and military authorities, priests, religious, pastoral workers, youth and families, and I thank you for your cordial welcome. I renew my thanks in the first place to your Bishop for his affectionate words that recalled my connections with St Bonaventure. And I greet with respect the Mayor of Bagnoregio, grateful for his courteous welcome on behalf of the whole city.
Giovanni Fidanza, who was to become Friar Bonaventure, linked his name with that of Bagnoregio in the well-known presentation of himself in the Divine Comedy. In saying: "Bonaventure of Bagnoregio's life am I, who always in great offices postponed considerations sinister" (Dante, Paradise XII, 127-129), he stresses that in the important tasks he had to do in the Church he always put off dealing with temporal realities, "considerations sinister", for the spiritual good of souls. He spent his childhood and adolescence here in Bagnoregio; he later followed St Francis for whom he felt special gratitude because, as he would later write, St Francis had "snatched him from the jaws of death" when he was a child (Legenda Maior, Prologus, 3,3) and had predicted "good fortune" for him, as your Mayor has just recalled. He established a deep and lasting bond with the Poverello of Assisi, drawing from him ascetic inspiration and ecclesiastical brilliance. You jealously preserve the famous relic of the "holy arm" of your illustrious fellow-citizen; you keep alive his memory and deepen the knowledge of his teaching, especially through the Bonaventure Study Centre founded by Bonaventura Tecchi, which every year organizes specialized congresses devoted to studies on the Saint.
It is not easy to sum up the broad philosophical, theological and mystical doctrine that St Bonaventure bequeathed to us. In this Year for Priests I would like to invite priests especially to learn from this great Doctor of the Church, to deepen their knowledge of his teaching on wisdom rooted in Christ. He oriented every step of his speculation and mystical tension to wisdom, which flourishes in holiness, passing through stages that range from what he calls uniform wisdom, concerning the fundamental principles of knowledge, to multiform wisdom, that consists in the mysterious language of the Bible, then omniform wisdom that sees in every situation the Creator's reflection, to formless wisdom, in other words the experience of intimate mystical contact with God, when the human intellect brushes silently against the infinite Mystery (cf. J. Ratzinger, San Bonaventura e la teologia della storia, Ed. Porziuncola, 2006, pp. 92ff.). In memory of this profound seeker and lover of wisdom, I would also like to express encouragement and esteem for the service in the Ecclesial Community that theologians are called to render to that faith that seeks the intellect, that faith which is "a friend of intelligence", and becomes new life in accordance with God's plan.
I limit myself this evening to drawing from St Bonaventure's rich doctrinal and mystical patrimony some ideas for reflection that may prove useful to your Diocesan Community for its pastoral journey. In the first place, since the time of his studies in Paris, St Bonaventure was a tireless seeker of God, which he continued to be throughout his life. In his writings he points out the path to take. "Because God is on high", he writes, "it is necessary to make every effort to raise one's mind to him (De reductione artium ad theologiam, n. 25). Thus, Bonaventure plots a demanding route of faith on which reading will not suffice "without unction, speculation without devotion, investigation without admiration, observation without exultation, diligence without compassion, industry without piety, knowledge without love, understanding without humility, study without divine grace, the mirror without divinely inspired wisdom" (Itinerarium mentis in Deum, prol. 4). This journey of purification involves the entire person so that through Christ he may attain the transforming love of the Trinity. And given that with his grace, Christ since eternity God and for eternity man brings about a new creation in the faithful, exploration of the divine presence becomes contemplation of him in the soul, "where he dwells through the gift of the most bountiful love" (ibid., iv, 4), until the person is at last transported in him. Faith, therefore, is a perfecting of our cognitive capacities and participation in the knowledge that God has of himself and of the world: we perceive hope as a preparation for the encounter with the Lord that will mark the complete fulfilment of that friendship which binds us to him from this moment. And love introduces us to divine life, making us view all men and women as brothers and sisters, in accordance with the will of our common heavenly Father.
As well as being a seeker of God, St Bonaventure was the seraphic poet of creation who, in the sequela of St Francis, learned "to praise God in all things and through all his creatures", in which "the omnipotence, wisdom and goodness of the Creator are resplendent" (ibid., i, 10). St Bonaventure presents a positive vision of the world, a gift of God's love to men and women. He recognizes in the world a reflection of the supreme Goodness and Beauty which, like St Augustine and St Francis before him, he defines as God himself. It is God who has given us all things. The true, the good and the beautiful come from him, as from the original source. We climb towards God as on the steps of a ladder until we reach and, as it were, grasp the Supreme Good and find in him our happiness and our peace. How useful it would be if today too we were to rediscover the beauty and value of creation in the light of divine goodness and beauty! In Christ, St Bonaventure notes, the universe itself can return to being a voice that speaks of God and urges us to explore it for his presence; it exhorts us to honour him and to glorify him in all things (cf. ibid., i, 15). Here one notes the spirit of St Francis, whose love for all creatures was shared by our Saint.
St Bonaventure was a messenger of hope. We find a beautiful image of hope in one of his sermons for Advent, in which he compares the movement of hope with the flight of a bird that spreads its wings to their maximum capacity and draws on all its strength to flap them. In a certain sense it makes its whole self movement, to soar upwards and fly. Hoping is flying, St Bonaventure says. But hope requires that all our limbs become movement, projected to the true height of our being, towards the promises of God. Whoever hopes, he affirms, "must lift his head, turning his thoughts aloft, to the heights of our existence, namely to God" (Sermo XVI, Dominica I Adv., Opera omnia, IX, 40a).
In his speech Mr Mayor asked the question: "What will Bagnoregio be tomorrow?". Indeed, we all wonder about our future and that of the world, and this question has a lot to do with hope, for which every human heart thirsts. Yet in my Encyclical Spe salvi, I noted that just any kind of hope is not sufficient for facing and overcoming the difficulties of the present time; a "trustworthy hope" is indispensable which, in giving us the certainty of reaching a "great" goal, justifies "the effort of the journey" (cf. n. 1). Only the "great certitude of hope" assures us that despite the personal failures and contradictions of history, overall the "indestructible power of Love" always preserves us. Therefore, when this hope supports us we never risk losing the courage to contribute, as did the Saints, to the salvation of humanity, opening ourselves and the world to allow God to enter: opening ourselves to truth, love and light (cf. n. 35). May St Bonaventure help us "to spread the wings" of hope that urges us to be, like him, ceaseless seekers of God, poet of the beauties of creation and witnesses of that Love and Beauty which "move all things".
Thank you once again, dear friends, for your welcome. While I assure you of my remembrance in prayer, through the intercession of St Bonaventure and especially of Mary, the faithful Virgin and the Star of Hope, I impart a special Apostolic Blessing to you which I willingly extend to all the inhabitants of this beautiful land, rich in saints.
Thank you for your attention.
Speeches 2005-13 6079