Here is a translation of the transcript of the Holy Father's session with the priests of the dioceses of Belluno-Feltre and Treviso at the church of Santa Justina Martyr in Auronzo di Cadore on Tuesday, 7/25/07. There were 10 questions and 10 answers. This part has Questions 1-3.

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#1
Holiness, I am Don Claudio. I would like to ask you about the formation of conscience, particularly for the young generations, because today, to shape a conscience that is coherent and correct seems even more difficult. The idea of good and bad is confused with the idea of feeling good or feeling bad about anything, on the subjective aspects. I would appreciate your advice. Thank you.

The Pope: Excellencies, dear brothers first of all, let me express my joy and gratitude for this meeting. I thank your two Bishops, Your Excellency Andrich and Your Excellency Mazzocato, for this invitation. And my heartfelt thanks to all of you who have come in such numbers during the vacation break.

To see a church full of priests is encouraging, because it shows us there are priests. The Church lives, even if its problems have grown in our time and especially here in the West.

The Church is always alive and well, and with priests who truly desire only to announce the Kingdom of God, it will grow and withstand the complications which we see arising from the cultural situation today.

So this first question reflects some of this problem, because the concept of conscience in the past two centuries has changed profoundly. Today, the idea prevails that only that which is quantifiable is rational, and that other things - like religion and morals - do not come into (the sphere of) common reason because they are not verifiable, nor as they say, can they be proven false by experimentation.

In such a situation where morality and religion are virtually expelled from (the sphere of) reason, then the only ultimate criterion for morality and even of religion is the subject, the subjective conscience which does not recognize any other judgment.

In the end, only the subject himself, with his feelings, his experiences, any criteria he may have found, decides. But in this manner, he becomes an isolated reality, and therefore, the parameters for conscience change from day to day, as you remarked.

In the Christian tradition, conscience means 'with-knowledge', which means, our being is open, we are open and can hear the voice of Being itself, the voice of God. So, the voice (that proclaims) the great values is inscribed in our very being. The greatness of man is precisely that he is not self-enclosed, he is not reduced to material and quantifiable things, but he has an interior opening for the essential things, the possibility of listening.

In the profundity of our being, we can listen not only to the needs of the moment, but the voice of the Creator himself, and so we know what is good and what is bad.

But of course, this capacity to listen must be educated and developed. And that is the commitment we make with what the Church announces: to develop this elevated capacity given by God to man to listen to the voice of truth, which is the voice of values.

So I would say that the first step would be to make young people aware that our very human nature carries with it a moral message, a divine message, which must be deciphered, and which we can gradually know better if our inner hearing is open and developed.

Now the concrete question is how to educate for listening, how to make man capable of listening, notwithstanding all kinds of modern deafness, that the 'Effata' (Be opened!) of Baptism may become actual through an opening of our interior senses.

Seeing the situation in which we find ourselves I would propose a combination of secular and religious ways, the way of faith. We see today that man is capable of destroying the very basis of his existence, the earth itself. But we cannot do with the earth whatever we want and what might appear useful and promising for the moment; rather we should respect the interior laws of creation, the laws of nature - we should learn them and obey them if we wish to survive.

So this obedience to the voice of the earth itself, the`voice of being, is more important for our future happiness than the voices of the moment, the desires of the moment.

That should be the first criterion to learn: 'Being' in itself, our earth, speaks to us, and we should listen to it. But if we must be obedient to the voice of the earth, then we must listen even more to the voice of human life.

Not only should we take care of the earth, we should also respect the other person, all others: the other in his personal uniqueness as my neighbor, as well as all others as a community that inhabits this world and who should live together. And we see that only absolute respect for this creature of God, this image of God who is man, only with respect for our living together on this earth, can we move forward.

So we come to the point where we need the great moral experiences of mankind - which are experiences born from the encounter of one person with another or with the community. [And this experience shows that] human freedom is always a shared freedom and can only work if we share our freedom by respecting the values that are common to us all.

With these steps, I think we can make clear why it is necessary to obey the very voice of being, the obey the dignity of others, to obey the need for living together in one shared freedom, and through all these, to know the values that will allow a worthy communion of life among men.

The voice of being expresses itself in the great experiences of humanity, above all in this great historical pilgrimage of the people of God, beginning with Abraham, in which we find not only all the fundamental human experiences, but through these experiences, hear the voice of the Creator himself who loves us and who has spoken to us.

In this context, with respect to the human experiences which can show us the path today as well as tomorrow, I think the Ten Commandments always have a priority value as the major directions to take. The Ten Commandments re-read and relived in the light of Christ, in the light of the life of the Church and its experiences, indicate fundamental and essential values.

The fourth and sixth commandments together show us the importance of our body, to respect the laws of the body, of sexuality and of love, the value of faithful love and the family. The fifth commandment shows us the value of (individual) life, as well as communal life. The seventh teaches the value of sharing the fruits of the earth and their just distribution, how to administer God's creation. The eighth tells us the great value of truth.

If in the fourth, fifth and sixth commandments, we find love for our neighbor, in the seventh, we find love for the truth.

But all this will not work without communion with God, without respect for God and his presence in the world. A wold without God is, in any case, a world of arbitrariness and selfishness. Only with God is there light and hope.

Our life has a sense that we do not produce - it precedes us, it carries us along. I would therefore say, let us take the obvious ways which even a secular conscience can easily see, and let us then try to guide consciences to more profound voices, to the true voice of conscience which we can communicate through prayer and the moral life of the Church.

Thus, through patient education, I think we can all teach and learn how to live and to find the true life.



#2
I am Don Mauro. Holiness, in carrying out our pastoral ministry, we are increasingly aggravated by too many burdens. The administrative duties in the parishes are increasing, likewise the pastoral structure and the attention to people in difficult situations. What should our priorities be as priests and parish priests to avoid fragmentation as well as dispersion of our efforts? Thank you.

That's a very realistic question. Even I know something of this problem, with so many practical things one has to attend to daily, so many audiences that are necessary, so much to do. Nevertheless, we must find the right priorities and not forget the essential: announcing the Kingdom of God.

This question reminds me of the Gospel two weeks ago about the mission of the 72 disciples. For this first great mission that Jesus set forth to realize, the Lord gave three imperatives to the 72 disciples. It seems to me that even today, these are substantially the great priorities for any disciple of Christ. These are - pray, minister, announce.

We should try to strike a balance among these three great imperatives but always have them in mind as the heart of our work.

First, pray. Without a personal relation with God, all the rest cannot work, because we cannot really bring God and the divine reality and the truth of human life to others unless we ourselves live in a true and profound relation of friendship with God, in Jesus Christ.

That is why we celebrate the Holy Eucharist daily, as our fundamental encounter - where the Lord speaks to me and I to him, who gives himself into my hands. Next, without the liturgy of the hours, in which we join the great prayer of the entire People of God, starting with the Psalms of the ancient people renewed in the faith of the Church, and without our own personal prayers, we cannot be good priests, we would lose the substance of our ministry.

Therefore, to be a man of God, in the sense of a man in friendship with Christ and his saints, is the first imperative.

The second, Jesus said, is to minister to the sick, the lost, those who are in need. It is the love of the Church for whoever is marginalized, for whoever suffers. Even rich people can be interiorly marginalized and suffer.

'To minister', to care for, refers to all human needs, which are always needs that ultimately lead to God. And so we need to know our flock, have personal relations with the people entrusted to us, keep this human contact and not lose our humanity - because God became man and in that way, he validated all the dimensions of human 'being'.

But the divine and the human always go together. And I so, I think, that our sacramental ministry is part of this ministering or caring in its multiple forms. The sacrament of reconciliation is an act of extraordinary care and healing, which man needs in order to feel healthy to the core.

Thus, these sacramental ministries, starting with Baptism, which is the fundamental renewal of our existence, passing through Reconciliation, to Extreme Unction of the sick. Of course, all the Sacraments, including the Eucharist, involve healing for the soul.
We should minister to the physical person, but above all - and this is our mandate - we should care for their souls.

We should think of all the moral and spiritual needs and illnesses that exist today- we should face them, guiding people to encounter Christ in the sacraments, helping them to discover prayer and meditation, or just staying in Church silently to feel the presence of God.

Finally, to announce. What do we announce? We announce the Kingdom of God. But not as a distant utopia of a better world that one might perhaps see in 50 years or who knows when. The Kingdom of God is God himself, God who has come to us and has become very close to us in Jesus Christ.

The Kingdom of God is this: God himself is close to us, and we should get closer to a God who is close to us because he became man. He remains someone who is always with us in his Word, in the Most Holy Eucharist, and in every believer.

So to announce the Kingdom of God means to speak about God today, make his Word present, the Gospel which is the presence of God, and of course, to make present God who is in the Eucharist.

In the weaving together of the three priorities, taking into account all its human aspects, knowing our own human limitations, we can best realize our priesthood.

This humility to recognize the limit of our powers is important. Because what we cannot do, then the Lord will do. Similarly, it teaches us to delegate and to collaborate. Never forgetting these three fundamental imperatives, to pray, to minister and to announce.



#3
I am Don Daniele. Holiness, the Veneto is a land with a high influx of immigrants, with the consistent arrival of non-Christians. This situation gives our dioceses a new mission of internal evangelization. This becomes more effortful because we have to reconcile the needs of announcing the Gospel with those of having a respectful dialog with other religions. What pastoral indications could you give us? Thank you.

Of course, you are all much closer to this situation, so perhaps I will not be able to give you much practical advice. But I can say that in all the ad-limina visits - whether from Asian bishops, African, Latin American or Italian - I always find myself faced with this situation.

There is no longer a uniform world. In the West today, all the other continents, other religions, other ways of human living, are represented. We are experiencing a permanent challenge, somewhat like the early Church which faced the same situation.

Christians then were a small minority, a mustard seed which was growing, in an environment of diverse religions and conditions of life. So we have to learn what the first Christian generations experienced.

St. Peter in his first Letter says in Chapter 3: "Always be ready to give the reason for the hope that you carry in you." That is how he formulated it for the average person of that time, for the average Christian, the need of combining announcement with dialog. He did not say, "Announce the Gospel to everyone." He said, you must be ready and able to give a reason for your hope. I think that is the necessary synthesis between announcement and dialog.

First of all, we ourselves should always keep in mind 'the reason for our hope'. We should live our faith and think of our faith, know it interiorly so that within us ourselves, faith becomes reason, becomes reasonable.

Meditating on the Gospel, namely its announcement, homilies, catechesis - to enable man to think his faith - are fundamental elements in thee fabric of proclamation and dialog.

We ourselves should think the faith, live the faith, and as priests, find different ways of making the faith actual, so that our Catholic Christians may find the conviction, the readiness and the capacity to give reason to their faith.

And the way of announcement that will transmit the faith to the consciences of today should take many forms. Without a doubt, the homily and catechesis are two principal forms, but there are so many ways of meeting together - seminars on the faith, lay movements, etc, - where people can speak about the faith and learn about the faith.

All this makes us capable, above all, of truly living as neighbors to non-Christians - in Italy, mainly with Orthodox Christians, Protestants and Muslims. First in living with them, we recognize them as our neighbor. Therefore, love of neighbor as an expression of our faith. This in itself is already a very powerful testimony to that faith and therefore, a form of announcing it: because by truly living with them as the neighbor we love, they can see that "This 'love of neighbor' is for me!"

If they see that, then it will be much easier for us to present the source of our behavior, to show that love of neighbor is an expression of our faith.

In dialog, one cannot pass directly to the great mysteries of the faith, especially since the Muslims, for instance, have a different idea of Christ which rejects his divinity but recognizes him as a great prophet. They also venerate the Virgin. These are common elements which can be the starting point for dialog.

But something practical and realizable, also necessary, is above all to find a fundamental agreement on the values by which one lives. Even here we have a common treasure, because such values come from the religion of Abraham, re-interpreted and re-lived by them in ways that we should learn and to which we should eventually respond.

But the great substantial experience - the Ten Commandments - is there, and I think this is a point we should pursue. To dialog on the great mysteries of the faith is not easy, and it cannot be done in big meetings. The seed should enter the heart, and perhaps the response of faith in more specific points of dialog may mature here and there.

But that which we can and should do is to seek a consensus on fundamental values, expressed in the Ten Commandments - and summarized as love of God and love of neighbor - which are both very easy to interpret in various aspects of living.

We are all on a common path to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God who ultimately became God with a human face, God in Jesus Christ.

But if this last step (towards Christ) is to be taken in intimate encounters - individual or in small groups - the way to God, from whom all these values come that make living together possible, seems feasible even in larger meetings. I think that in this way, we can realize a form of humble announcement, one that is patient, that can wait, but which already makes concrete how we live according to a conscience enlightened by God.

Continuing the translation of the transcript of the Holy Father's session with the priests of the dioceses of Belluno-Feltre and Treviso at the church of Santa Justina Martyr in Auronzo di Cadore on Tuesday, 7/25/07. There were 10 questions and 10 answers. This part begins with Question #4.
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#4
I am Don Samuele. We welcome your invitation for us to pray, to minister and to announce. So we already took the liberty of taking it seriously on ourselves to minister to your person, and so as a sign of affection, we brought you some bottles of healthy wine from our land which we have asked our bishop to give you.

Let me come to my question. We are increasingly faced with a growing number of divorced persons who remarry, or who live together and seek assistance from us priests for their spiritual life. Very often, their problem is how to avail of the sacraments. These are realities that ask us not only to face them but also to share the suffering that accompanies them. I ask you, Holy Father, what human, spiritual and pastoral attitudes could bring them both mercy and truth. Thank you.

It is a very sad problem, and there is no simple formula to resolve it. We all suffer from this problem, because we all know people in such situations, and we know that for them it is a sorrow and a suffering because they wish to stay in full communion with the Church.

But the bond of the previous marriage reduces their participation in the life of the Church. What should we do? I would say that the first point should be prevention, as much as that is possible.

Therefore, preparing couples for matrimony becomes even more fundamental and necessary. Canon Law assumes that man as such, even without need for special instruction, means to enter into matrimony according to human nature, as indicated in the first chapters of Genesis. He is a man, he has human nature, and therefore he knows what matrimony is. So he means to do what human nature tells him.

Canon Law starts with that premise: man is man, his nature is human, and this is what it tells him. But today, this axiom according to which man means to do what is in his human nature - namely a single faithful matrimony - has been transformed into something else.

"Volunt contrahere matrimonium sicut ceteri homines" - they want to contract matrimony like everybody else. It is no longer human nature that speaks, but 'ceteri homines' - other men, what everybody does. And what everybody does today is no longer natural matrimony, according to the Creator, according to creation.

What 'ceteri homines' do is to get married with the idea that one day, the marriage could fail, but one could then pass on to another, and perhaps even a third and a fourth marriage, and so on. This model of 'as everyone does' is something that is opposed to what human nature says.

But now it has become normal to get married, divorce, remarry - and no one thinks it is contrary to human nature, or at any rate, it is hard to find people who think that.

Therefore, in order to help our people prepare for matrimony, not only in the sense of the Church, but of the Creator, we should repair man's capacity to listen to nature, as we said in the first question today. Beyond what everybody else is doing, let us listen to nature itself, which speaks differently from this modern attitude.

Human nature invites us to matrimony for life, to faithfulness for life, which includes suffering through growing together in love. Therefore, these lessons to prepare for marriage should be addressed to rediscovering this voice of human nature, of the voice of the Creator in us, rediscovering beyond 'what everybody else does' what our own human 'being' tells us intimately.

So between what everyone does and what our being tells us, these preparatory courses should be a way of rediscovery, of re-learning what our human nature tells us, and helping persons arrive at a true decision about matrimony according to the Creator and our Savior. These preparatory courses for 'knowing ourselves', for learning what is genuine matrimony, are of great importance.

Of course, the preparation is not enough, because the great crises come after marriage. So it is also very important that we accompany these couples, at least for the first 10 years. In the parishes, we must also be concerned about what happens afterwards, how the couple stays together and must be together, helping each other.

Not only priests, but even families who have been through similar experiences, who know these sufferings and temptations, should be with couples who are undergoing crisis. A network of families or a movement which is there for them can be a great help.

So the first part of my answer has to do with prevention, not only by preparing couples, but of accompanying them later, having a network of families that can counteract the modern situation in which everything speaks against faithfulness for life. Couples must be helped to find such faithfulness, to learn it, even at the cost of some suffering.

But in case of actual failure, when the spouses are incapable of keeping the matrimonial commitment, then we can always investigate whether the original will to matrimony was genuine in the sacramental sense. This is when there is a possibility of annulment.

But if it was a true matrimony - which therefore prohibits remarrying - then the real continuing presence of the Church will aid those concerned to endure the sad consequences.

In the first case, the suffering is that of overcoming crisis, of learning faithfulness through suffering and maturity. In the second case, the suffering consists of being in a new relationship which is not sacramental, and which therefore does not allow full communion with the sacraments of the Church. Here, it is a question of teaching and learning how to live with this consequence.

This also applies to the first question raised. In general, in this generation and this culture, we have to rediscover the value of suffering, to learn that suffering can be very positive in that it helps us to mature, both to become more ourselves and at the same time, bring us closer to our Lord who suffered for us and suffers with us.

So even in the second situation [subject of this question], the presence of the priest, of other families, of movements - communion with individuals and with the community, the help that 'love of neighbor' offers, a love that is very specific in this case, are of great importance.

I think that feeling this love from the Church, which is shown in multiple ways, can help these persons feel they are loved by Christ, they are members of the Church even if they are in a difficult situation, and thus continue to live the faith.




#5
Holiness, I am Don Saverio (Xavier), and so my question has to do with missions. This year, we mark the 50th anniversary of the encyclical Fidei donum. Responding to the Pope's invitation, many priests, even in our diocese, including me, have lived and are living the experience of mission ad gentes. It is an experience that is doubtless extraordinary, and in my humble opinion, something many priests could have in the perspective of an exchange between sister churches.

However, given the shortaqe of priests in our country, how are the directives of the encyclical still applicable today, and how should they be carried out, both on the part of the invited priests as well as on the diocese? Thank you.

Thank you. I would like, first of all, to say Thank you to all these fidei donum priests and to their dioceses. As I said earlier, I have now received ad-limina visits from so many bishops from Asia, Africa and Latin America, and everyone tells me: "We all have such need of these fidei donum priests, and we are most grateful for the work they do, making real, in situations which are often most difficult, the catholicity of the Church, the visibility of the fact that we are a great universal communion, and that love for the neighbor who is far away becomes love for a close neighbor through the fidei donum priests."

This great gift which has been a reality these past 50 years is something I have felt almost in a palpable way in all my conversations with priests. For instance, they tell me, "Please do not think that we Africans are now self-sufficient. We will always have need of the visibility of the great communion represented by the universal Church."

I would say we all need this visibility of our Catholicism, of the love for neighbor which calls us from afar and then becomes literal truth. Now the situation has changed in that in Europe, we have been getting priests coming from Africa, Latin America and other parts of Europe itself. This allows us to see the beauty of this exchange of gifts - we all need each other. This is the way that the mystical Body of Christ grows.

This has been and is a great gift, perceived as such by the Church. In so many situations which I cannot now describe - in which there are social problems, problems of development, problems of announcing the faith, problems of isolation, the need for the presence of others - the fidei donum priests are a gift in which the dioceses and the local churches recognize the presence of Christ who gives himself for us, and they also realize that Eucharistic communion is not only a supernatural event, but also becomes a concrete communion in this gift of diocesan priests who help out in other remote dioceses, in which the network of local churches truly becomes a network of love.

The Church thanks all those who make this gift. I can only encourage bishops and priests to continue the practice. I know that today, with the shortage of vocations, it has become more difficult to do so, but we have been having the experience that priests from other continents, for instance, from India, and above all, from Africa, have also been sending us their priests.

Reciprocity always remains very important, and this experience that we are a Church for the world in which everyone loves each other is very necessary - it gives strength to our message. This way, it becomes visible that the mustard seed bears fruit, that it has become and will always renew itself as that great tree in which even the birds of heaven find refuge. Thank you, and more power to you!


#6
I'm Don Alberto. Holy Father, the youth are our future and our hope, but many now see in life not an opportunity but difficulty; not a gift to them and to others, but something to consume right away; not a project to build, but to wander about without a direction.

Today's mentality imposes on the young the obligation to be always happy, always 'perfect', so that every small failure, every difficulty, is no longer seen as an opportunity for growth but as a defeat. All this sometimes leads to irreparable gestures like suicide, which breaks the hearts of those who love them and burdens society itself. What could you tell us educators who often feel helpless, with hands bound and without answers? Thank you.


I think you have given a precise description of a life in which God does not appear. At first glance, it seems like the world today does not have any need of God, and even that, without God, we would all be more free and the world would be a wider place.

But after some time, even among our new generations, they see what happens when God disappears. Nietzsche said, "The great light has been extinguished, the sun has gone out." Life then becomes something casual, a 'thing', and one seeks to make the most of this thing and use life as a thing to gain happiness which is immediate, tangible and realizable.

But the great problem is that if there is no God, and there is no Creator of my life, then life becomes nothing but a part of evolution and has no sense in and of itself. Instead, I should seek to make sense of this piece of being.

Today I see in Germany, and even in the United States, a rather dogged debate between so-called creationism and evolutionism, presented as though they were alternatives which are mutually exclusive. This opposition is an absurdity, because on the one hand, there are so many scientific proofs in favor of evolution that seem to be a reality that we must look at, and which can enrich our knowledge of life and of being.

But the doctrine of evolution does not answer all the questions, and above all, does not answer the great philosophical question: Where does everything come from? And how did everything converge into a path that finally arrived at man?

I think it is very important - and this is what I wanted to convey in my lecture at Regensburg - that reason opens up increasingly, that it should see all this knowledge, but that it also sees that it is not enough to explain all reality. It is not enough - and our reason can be widened to see that even our own reason is not something irrational, not the product of irrationality, but that reason precedes everything, Creative Reason does - and that we are the reflections of that Creative Reason.

We are all preconceived and willed - there is an idea that preceded my being, a sense that came before me, and which I should discover and follow because it ultimately gives significance to my life.

So that should be the first point: to truly discover that my being is rational, it was thought, it has a sense, and my great mission is to discover this sense, live it, and that way, add a new element to the great cosmic harmony planned by the Creator.

If that is so, then even the elements of difficulty will become moments of maturation, of process, of progress in my being, which has a sense from the moment of conception up to the last moment of life. And we can know this reality of the sense that preceded us all, just as we can rediscover the sense of suffering and pain.

Of course, there is one pain that we should avoid and which we should eliminate from the world: all the many useless sufferings provoked by dictatorships, by mistaken systems, by hate and by violence. But even pain has a profound sense, and our life can only mature when we can give sense to our pain and suffering.

I would even say that love is not possible without some pain, because love always implies renouncing something in me, leaving something of myself, accepting the other in his or her otherness, and therefore implies giving myself, going out of myself. All this can be painful, but in this suffering of losing myself for the other, for the loved one and therefore for God, I become something more. And my life finds sense in that love.

So even this inseparability of love and pain, of love and God, are elements that should enter into the modern consciousness and help modern man to live.

In this sense, therefore, it is important to help the youth discover God, make them discover true love that becomes greater in renunciation, make them discover the interior value of suffering that can make one more free, a bigger person.

And to make young people discover these elements, they will always need companions and providers, be it Catholic Action or a movement. Together with their contemporaries, the new generations will find it easier to discover this wide dimension of being.

This is the third and last part of a translation of the transcript of the Holy Father's session with the priests of the dioceses of Belluno-Feltre and Treviso at the church of Santa Justina Martyr in Auronzo di Cadore on Tuesday, 7/25/07. There were 10 questions and 10 answers. This part begins with Question #7.
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#7
I am Don Francesco. Holy Father, there is one sentence in your book JESUS OF NAZARETH which struck me very much: "What did Jesus really bring if not world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God." I find that a statement with truly disarming clarity and truth.

My question is this. One speaks of the new evangelization, of a new announcement of the Gospel - this was also the principal theme of the Synod in our diocese of Belluno-Feltre. But what can we do so that God, the only treasure brought by Jesus but who often appears to so many people shrouded in haze, may shine again in our homes and can be water to quench the thirst even of those who seem not to have that thirst any more? Thank you.

Thank you. It's a fundamental question. It is fundamental for our pastoral work - how to bring God to the world, to our contemporaries. Obviously, bringing God to the world is a multi-dimensional undertaking. Already in the Gospel, in the life and death of Jesus, we see how the Singular develops in so many dimensions.

But we must keep the essentials in mind. The Christian message, Christianity itself, is not a very complicated package of dogmas that no one can possibly know all of it. It is not something only for academics who can study these things.

It is a simple thing: God is, and God is near us in Jesus Christ. And so Jesus Christ himself said in summary, the Kingdom of God is at hand. This is what we announce. Basically, a simple thing.

All the other dimensions are but aspects of the Singular - we don't all have to know these - but they are certainly part of the essential, and so there is growing joy as these other dimensions open up to us.

Now what to do concretely? I think, in terms of pastoral work today, we have already touched the essential points. But to continue with the question, to bring God to people implies on the one hand, love, and on the other, faith and hope.

Therefore, the dimension of the life we live, the best testimony we can give for Christ, the best announcement we can make is a true Christian life. If we see families nourished by faith who live in joy, how they live in joy even through suffering, how they help others, loving God and their fellowmen, I think that is the best announcement we can make.

Even for me, the most comforting testimony is always to see Catholic families or Catholic individuals who are thoroughly permeated by faith: God's presence really shines in them, they bring the 'living water' that you speak of. Therefore the fundamental announcement is that of the lives of Christians themselves.

Of course, there is also the announcement of the Word. We should do everything so that the Word is heard and is known. Today, there are many courses and seminars on the Word and on conversing with God through Sacred Scriptures, a conversation which necessarily becomes prayer - because a purely theoretical study of Scriptures is a purely intellectual hearing of the Gospel, not a true and adequate encounter with the Word of God.

If it is true that in the Scriptures and in the Gospel, it is the living God himself who speaks to us, demands a response and elicits prayer, then the schools of Scripture should also be schools of prayer, of dialog with God, of an intimate approach to God.

Then, I would say, the Sacraments. With God come all the saints. It is important - because we are told this by Scriptures from the beginning: God never comes by himself, he is always accompanied and surrounded by his angels and saints.

In the great stained-glass window at St. Peter's which shows the Holy Spirit, I like it very much that God is surrounded by a crowd of angels and living beings who are expressions and emanations, so to speak, of the love of God.

With God, with Christ, with the man who is God and the God who is man, comes Our Lady. This, too, is very important. God, the Lord, has a mother, and in that Mother, we recognize the maternal goodness of God.

Our Lady, the Mother of God, is 'the help of Christians', she is our permanent comfort, our great helper. From my conversations with the bishops of the world, from Africa and from Latin America, I see how love for Our Lady is a great force for Catholicism. In Our Lady, we all recognize the kindness of God. Therefore, to cultivate and live this joyous love for Our Lady, for Mary, is a great gift for Catholicism.

Then, there are the saints. Every place has its saints. This is good because this way, we can see the multiple colors of the one light of God and his love which has come down to us. To discover the saints in their beauty, in how they bring the Word of God closer to me, so that even in one particular saint, I find a translation of God's inexhaustible word.

Next, all the aspects of parish life, including the human. We cannot always be in the clouds, in the highest levels of mystery - we should also have our feet on the ground and live together the boy of being one big family: the small 'big family' of the parish; the bigger family of the diocese; and the great family of the universal Church.

In Rome, I can see all this. I can see how persons coming from all parts of the world and who do not know each other, nevertheless recognize each other because they are all parts of the family of God. They are together because they have everything in common: the love of God, love of Mary, love of the saints, the apostolic succession, the Successor of Peter, the bishops.

I would say that this joy of Catholicism, with its multiple colors, is also the joy of beauty. It is the beauty of a great organ, or a beautiful Church, the beauty that has accumulated in the Church. These seem to me a wondrous testimonial for teh presence and the truth of God.

Truth is expressed in beauty, and we should be grateful for this beauty, and do everything possible so that it is always there, that it develops and continue to grow.

These are the ways, I think, in which very concretely, God comes among us.



#8
I am Don Lorenzo. Holy Father, the faithful expect of priests only one thing: that they be specialists in promoting man's encounter with God. These are, of course, not my words, but those of Your Holiness in a meeting with other priests.

My spiritual father at the seminary, during those very difficult sessions of spiritual guidance, used to tell me, "Lorenzino, on the human level, we're OK, but...", and what he meant by the 'but' was that I liked playing football more than I did being at Eucharistic Adoration. And he also said it was not good to question lessons in morals and in law because the professors knew better than me. Now, I believe he is in heaven, but nevertheless I often say a Requiem for him.

Despite all this, I have been a priest for 34 years and I am happy about that. I have not performed miracles, but neither have I had disasters, unless unknown to me. "On the human level, we're OK" was, for me, a great compliment. But to bring man to God and God to man - does that necessarily pass through what we call our humanness, which even priests cannot avoid?

Thank you. I would simply say Yes to what you said at the end. Catholicism, to be somewhat simplistic, was always considered the religion of the great 'and-and', that is to say, not one of great exclusions but of synthesis.

In fact, catholic means 'synthesis.' Therefore I would be against choosing between playing football or studying Scriptures or canon law. Let us do both.

It is good to do sports - I am not a sports person myself - but I loved to take walks in the mountains when I was younger; now I can only do easy walks, but I have always found it good to walk on this beautiful earth which the Lord has given us.

We cannot always live in exalted meditation, as perhaps a saint on the last step of his earthly journey may do, but normally, we should live with our feet on the ground and our eyes raised to heaven. Both have been given to us by the Lord, and therefore to love human things, to love the beauties of his earth, is not only very human but very Christian and very Catholic.

I would say - and I think I referred to this earlier - that a good ministry that is truly Catholic should also have this aspect: live in the 'and-and' - live man's humanity and humanism, all the gifts which the Lord has given us and which we have developed, but at the same time, not to forget god, because ultimately, the great light comes from God, only from him comes the light that gives joy to all things.

So I would simply commit myself to this great Catholic synthesis of the 'and-and': to be truly a man, and each of us, according to our own gifts and personal charism, loving the earth and the beautiful things the Lord has given us, and being grateful that on this earth shines the light of God, who gives splendor and beauty to everything. In this way, we will live our Catholicity joyously. That would be my answer.

[Applause]



#9
I am Don Arnaldo. Holy Father, pastoral and ministerial demands, as well as the reduced number of priests, have caused our bishops to review the distribution of priests, often resulting in more tasks and parishes assigned to one person. This can be a sensitive point to many communities, as well as to our willingness as priests to live together the pastoral ministry with lay people. How should we live this change in pastoral organization in favor of the spirituality of the Good Shepherd? Thank you, Holiness...

Yes, this brings us back to the question of pastoral priorities and how to be a parish priest today. Not too long ago, a French bishop, who is with an order and therefore has never been a parish priest, asked me, "I would like you to tell me exactly what a parish priest is. In France, we have these big pastoral units with 5-7 parishes, and the parish priest becomes a coordinator of parts, or of various tasks." It seemed to him that if a parish priest was so occupied by coordinating all these various entities he was responsible for, he would never have the opportunity for personal encounters with his flock, and he, as a bishop and therefore, a super parish-priest, was wondering whether this system was right, and whether we should find a way whereby a parish priest is a parish priest who is a shepherd of his flock.

Of course, I could not immediately prescribe something to resolve such a situation as he described, but the problem is nevertheless a general one. The parish priest, notwithstanding new situations and new forms of responsibility, should not lose his closeness to his people, as the person who is truly the shepherd of this flock entrusted to him by the Lord.

Everyone has a different situation. But bishops should look after how to assure that the parish priest remains a pastor and not a holy bureaucrat.

In any case, I think that the first opportunity in which we can be present in the lives of the people entrusted to us is in the sacramental life: in the Eucharist, we are all together, and we can and should make it a point of encounter. The Sacrament of penance and reconciliation is a very personal encounter, just like Baptism is - which is a personal encounter and not just the conferment of a Sacrament.

I would say each Sacrament has its context. Baptism means first to catechize this young family, talk to them so that Baptism becomes a personal encounter and an occasion for a very concrete catechesis. So is preparation for the First Communion, for Confirmation, and for Matrimony - these are all occasions when the parish priest meets his parishioners one on one. He is the preacher and administrator of the Sacraments in a way that always involves the human dimension. A Sacrament is never just a ritual act, but the ritual sacramental act is a condensation of the human context in which the parish priest acts.

It is also important to find the right way to delegate work. It is not right that only the parish priest can coordinate various organisms - he should be able to delegate in various ways, and certainly the Synods - and you recently had your diocesan synod - should find a way to free the parish priest enough so that he has part of the responsibility, just enough to keep the essential reins in hand, but has collaborators.

I think this is one of the important and positive results of the Vatican Council: the co-responsibility of the entire parish - it is no longer just the parish priest who should animate everything, but because we are altogether the parish, we should all work together so that the parish priest does not remain isolated above us as a coordinator, but finds himself shoulder to shoulder with us in the common work that makes up the life of the parish.

So I would say that on the one hand, this coordination and vital responsibility for parish life, and on the other, the sacramental life and announcing the Word as the center of parish life, will allow us, even today, and in difficult circumstances, to be a parish priest who may not perhaps know every parishioner by name, as the Lord describes the Good Shepherd, but utterly knows his flock and is the shepherd who calls them together and leads them.



#10
I have the last question and I am very tempted to put it aside, because it is a small question, and after nine times during which Your Holiness has found a way to speak to us of God and elevate us, what I am about to ask seems almost banal, but I will ask it anyway.

Could you say a word for my generation, for those of us who were formed at the time of the Council, from which we all came away with enthusiasm and perhaps even with the presumption that we would change the world. We even worked hard afterwards, and today, we are in difficulty because we are tired, because many dreams have not been realized, and we even feel somewhat isolated. The older ones tell us, "You see how right we were to be more prudent", and the younger ones dismiss our 'nostalgia for the Council'.

Our question is this: Can we still bring something to the Church, especially with our attachment to those people who we think distinguished themselves in the Council? Could you help us to regain hope and serenity....

Thank you. It is an important question and one I know well. Even I lived the time of the Council, being in St. Peter's Basilica, with great enthusiasm, and seeing how new doors were opened, and it really seemed like a new Pentecost, when the Church could convince humanity anew, after it had distanced itself from the world in the 18th and 19th centuries. It seemed as if the Church and the world were encountering each other again, that a new Christian world would arise in a Church that was truly open to the world.

We had such hopes, but in reality, things proved to be difficult. Still, the great legacy of the Council remains. It opened a new way. It will always be a Magna Carta for the way of the Church, very essential and fundamental. Why then did things turn out the way they have?

Let me start with a historical observation. Post-Conciliar times are almost always very difficult. After the great Council of Nicaea - which for us really formulated the foundation of our faith, and we still recite the Creed formulated in Nicaea - there did not follow a situation of peace and reconciliation as Constantine had hoped for in promoting the Council. It was followed by a truly chaotic situation in which everyone was quarreling with everybody else.

St. Basil in his book on the Holy Spirit compared the situation of the Church after the Council of Nicaea to a naval battle at night in which no one could recognize each other but everyone was fighting each other. So it was truly a situation of total chaos - and that is how St. Basil described the post-Conciliar drama, in appropriately dramatic terms.

Fifty years later, for the first Council of Constantinople, the emperor invited St. Gregory Nazianzene to participate, and St. Gregory said, "No, I won't come because I know how these things go. I know that all the Councils have been followed only by confusion and quarrels. So I won't come." And he did not.

Therefore, in retrospect, it is not now so surprising as it was at the beginning, how to digest this Council, its great message. To introduce it into the life of the Church, to accept it so that it becomes part of the life of the Church, to assimilate it in the different realities of the Church, does not take place without suffering, but one can only grow through suffering. Growth is always also a suffering, because it is passing from one stage to another.

Moreover, in the concrete reality of the post-Council years, we must take note that there were two great historical interruptions. First, the caesura of 1968 - the start, or I daresay, the explosion of the great cultural crisis of the West.

The postwar era was over, with a generation that after all the destruction and seeing the horrors of war, of fighting, of realizing the tragedy of these great ideologies that had led the world into the abyss of war, had rediscovered the Christian roots of Europe and had begun to reconstruct Europe according to these great inspirations.

But as that generation passed, then all the failures, the gaps of that reconstruction, were also exposed, the great poverty in the world. Thus exploded the crisis of Western culture - I would say a cultural revolution which wanted to change it radically.

They said: 2000 years of Christianity have not produced a better world. We should start from scratch in an absolutely new way - and Marxism seems to be the scientific formula for finally creating a new world.

It was in this serious and great clash between the new healthy modernity desired by the Council and the crisis of modernity itself, that everything became as difficult as it was after the
Council of Nicaea.

One side was of the opinion that such a cultural revolution was what the Council intended, and identified this new Marxist cultural revolution with the will of the Council; the side that said, "This is the Council. The texts are literally somewhat antiquated but behind those written words, this is the Spirit, this is what the Council wanted, this is what we should do."

From the other side naturally, the reaction was: No, this way, you will destroy the Church. The reaction which we might call absolute to anti-Conciliarity was a timid, humble attempt to realize the true spirit of the Council. As the proverb goes, "If a tree falls, it makes a big noise, but if a forest grows, you don't hear anything because it is a silent process".

Therefore, during all those big noises of mistaken progressivism, of anti-Conciliarity, the Church proceeded to grow silently, with much suffering and even with much loss, in constructing a new cultural path.

Then came the second interruption, that of 1989: the collapse of the Communist regimes, after which the response was not a return to the faith, as we perhaps had reason to expect. It was not the rediscovery of faith that the Church through the authentic Council would have thought appropriate.

The response was total skepticism, what has been called post-modernism: Nothing is true, everyone should determine for himself how to live. Materialism was affirmed, a pseudo-rationalist and blind skepticism which led to drugs and all these other problems we know today, once again closing off the way to faith. It was so simple that way, so obvious, they said. Nothing is true. Truth is intolerant, and we cannot go that way.

In the context of these two great cultural interruptions - the first, the cultural revolution of 1968, and the second, the fall of nihilism after 1989 - the Church made its own way humbly, between the passions of the world and the glory of the Lord.

It is on this road that we should grow patiently and we should learn anew what it means to renounce triumphalism. The Council said so - it was thinking of the baroque, of the great cultures of the Church.
It said, let us start anew, in a modern way.

But a new triumphalism emerged, that of thinking "We will now take charge, we have found the way that will lead us to the new world." But the humility of rhe Cross, and of the Crucified One, excludes even that triumphalism. We must renounce any triumphalism which says this is how the great Church of the future will be born.

The Church of Christ is always humble, and because of that, it is is great and joyous. It is very important that we should now see, with open eyes, the positive things that have been achieved after the Council: the renewal of the liturgy, the Synods - Roman, universal, diocesan, parochial structures, the collaboration and new responsibilities of laymen, a great inter-cultural and intercontinental co-responsibility, a new experience of the cahtolicity of the Church, of that unanimity which grows humbly but is the true hope of the world.

I think that is how we should rediscover the great heritage of the Council, which is not a spirit reconstructed beyond the texts, but is composed of the actual great Council texts re-read through the expereiences we have had and which have borne fruit in so many movements and new religious communities.

I went to Brazil knowing how much Protestant sects had expanded and how the Catholic Church may have seemed to have sclerosed. But when I got there, I saw that it wasn't just the other sects that were growing, that everyday, there was a new religious community or movement born [within the Catholic Church].

The Church is growing, with new realities that are full of vitality, not perhaps to set new statistics - this is a false hope, statistics is not our god - but they are growing in the souls of our faithful, they create joy in the faith, they make the Gospel present, and thus help create true development in the world and in society.

So we should combine the great humility of the Crucified Lord with the humility of a Church that has always been opposed by great economic and military forces, and let us learn together with this humility, the true triumph of Catholicism which has grown through the centuries.

Even today, the presence of the Crucified Lord who was resurrected, grows, though he keeps his wounds. He is wounded, and that is how he renews the world. His breath renews the Church despite our poverty. Together, with the humility of the Cross and the joy of the resurrected Lord who has given us a great road map in the Council, we can move ahead joyously and full of hope.

It's very surprising that the Vatican waited 6 weeks to release only today an English message, which was moreover, rather pertinent, at the time it was written, to the fact that the Holy Father had just been to Assisi the week before! A great relevant communications opportunity missed!

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER
TO THE VENERABLE KAHJUN HANDA
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE RELIGIOUS SUMMIT MEETING
ON MOUNT HIEI IN JAPAN


To Venerable KAHJUN HANDA:

I am glad to greet you and all the religious leaders gathered on the occasion of the Twentieth Anniversary of the Religious Summit Meeting on Mount Hiei.

I wish also to convey my best wishes to Venerable Eshin Watanabe, and to recall your distinguished predecessor as Supreme Head of the Tendai Buddhist Denomination, Venerable Etai Yamada.

It was he who, having participated in the Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi on that memorable day of 27 October 1986, initiated the "Religious Summit Meeting" on Mount Hiei in Kyoto in order to keep the flame of the spirit of Assisi burning.

I am also happy that Cardinal Paul Poupard, President of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, is able to take part in this meeting.

From the supernatural perspective we come to understand that peace is both a gift from God and an obligation for every individual. Indeed the world’s cry for peace, echoed by families and communities throughout the globe, is at once both a prayer to God and an appeal to every brother and sister of our human family.

As you assemble on the sacred Mount Hiei, representing different religions, I assure you of my spiritual closeness. May your prayers and cooperation fill you with God’s peace and strengthen your resolve to witness to the reason of peace which overcomes the irrationality of violence!

Upon you all I invoke an abundance of divine blessings of inspiration, harmony and joy.



From the Vatican, 23 June 2007

This comes from the convention website of the Knights of Columbus.


Greetings from Pope Benedict XVI
to the 125th Supreme Council Meeting
Aug. 7-9, 2007, in Nashville, Tennessee


To Mr. Carl A. Anderson
Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus

On the occasion of the 125th Supreme Convention of the Knights of Columbus, being held in Nashville, Tennessee, from August 7 – 9, 2007, I send my best wishes to you and to all those gathered with you for this important event.

I am especially pleased that His Eminence Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Secretary of State, has been able to travel to the United States in person in order to be with you and to convey my greetings. Please be assured of my prayers for all of you during this Convention and for the fruitfulness of your deliberations.

As Saint Paul wrote in his Second Letter to the Corinthians, “The Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you … was not Yes and No; but in him it is always Yes” (2 Cor 1:19).

You have chosen as the theme for your meeting: “Celebrating 125 Years of Faith in Action: Witnessing to the ‘Yes’ of Jesus Christ.” How important it is to emphasize that the message of the Gospel is one that answers “Yes” to all the deepest hopes and aspirations of humanity.

Without God, the human person remains restless and unfulfilled – in Saint Augustine’s classic formulation, our hearts were made for the Lord and they find no peace until they rest in him (cf. Confessions, 1:1). Yet when we acknowledge God and welcome him into our lives, the Spirit comes to dwell within us, enkindling our hearts with divine love. Then we begin to understand the greatness of our vocation to become children of God, and we marvel at the irrevocable “Yes” that God has spoken to us in his Son Jesus Christ.

For 125 years, the Knights of Columbus have sought to respond to that “Yes” by wholeheartedly accepting the summons to discipleship. The Second Vatican Council teaches that “as sharers in the mission of Christ, priest, prophet and king, the lay faithful have an active part to play in the life and activity of the Church” (Apostolicam Actuositatem, 10.)

This includes the mission of proclaiming the Gospel, especially by means of catechetical instruction and by leading to the Church people who are perhaps far removed from her (cf. Christifideles Laici, 33.)

It includes service to society through acts of charity, care of the poor and the sick, and assistance to those in need of any kind, in the spirit of your founder, Father Michael McGivney.

It includes the faithful witness of Christian marriage and family life, whereby the sanctifying presence of the “domestic Church” transforms society from within.

In all these ways, and many more, the Knights of Columbus have actively built up the Kingdom of God on earth, and I know you will continue to devote your energies and your apostolic zeal to promoting the Church’s mission wherever you may be.

At the same time I urge you to be ever mindful of the need to draw sustenance for the missionary endeavor from your fidelity to prayer. As Blessed Teresa of Calcutta taught her followers, time devoted to God in prayer not only does not detract from effective and loving service to our neighbor, but is in fact its inexhaustible source (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 36).

By drinking ever more deeply from the wellsprings of God’s love, you will be transformed ever more perfectly into the likeness of Christ, so that you in turn can proclaim his “Yes” to the world around you.

Your Convention is taking place in the days immediately following the feast of the Lord’s Transfiguration. May the light which shone so gloriously from the face of Christ on Mount Tabor fill your minds and hearts with the knowledge and love of God, inspiring you to bear joyful witness to him in everything you do.

Commending you and the work of the 125th Convention to the loving intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing to you, to the members of the Supreme Council, to all the Knights and to your families, as a pledge of lasting peace and joy in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

From Lorenzago, 23 July 2007


Benedictus PP XVI

The foll
owing is a translation of the extemporaneous homily delivered by the Holy Father at the Mass of the Solemnity of the Assumption yesterday at the parish church of St. Thomas Villanova in Castel Gandolfo:

Dear brothers and sisters,

In his great work The City of God, St. Augustine says that the story of man, the story of the world, is a battle between two loves: the love of God expressed to the limit by the 'loss' of himself, the gift of himself; and love of oneself to the point of contempt for God and hatred of others.

This interpretation of history as a battle between two loves - between love and selfishness - also appears in the Reading taken from the Apocalypse which we just heard.

In this reading, these two loves are represented by two major figures. First, there is a very powerful red dragon, with an impressive manifestation of power without grace, without love, of absolute selfishness, of terror and violence.

At the time John wrote the Apocalypse, this dragon was for him embodied in the power of the anti-Christian Roman emperors, from Nero to Domitian. This power appeared limitless - the military, political and propagandistic power of the Roman empire was such that before such power, the faith, the Church, appeared like a helpless woman, with no chance of survival, much less of winning.

Who could oppose an omnipresent power that appeared to be able to do anything? Nevertheless, we know that ultimately, the 'helpless woman' triumphed - neither selfishness or hatred prevailed. The love of God won out, and the Roman empire itself opened up to the Christian faith.

The words of Sacred Scripture always transcend the historical moment. Thus, the dragon indicates not only the anti-Christian power of the persecutors of the Church at that time, but the materialistic anti-Christian dictatorships in every age.

We saw this power, this force of the red dragon, manifested in the great dictatorships of the past century: the dictatorship of Nazism and that of Stalin had all the powers - they penetrated every corner, to the very last. It seemed impossible that, in the long run, the faith could survive before a dragon so strong that it wanted to devour the God who had made himself into a baby, and the woman, the Church. But in the end, even in these cases, love proved stronger than hate.

Today the dragon exists in new ways, many different ways. It exists in the form of materialistic ideologies which tell us: "It is absurd to think of God; it is absurd to observe the commandments of God; those are things of the past. All that matters is to live life for itself. To take from this brief spell of life everything that we can get from it. The only things that matter are consumerism, selfishness, entertainment. That is life, that is how we should live."

And again, it may seem absurd and impossible to oppose this dominant mentality, with all its mediatic and propagandistic power. It may seem impossible today to think about a God who created man and who made himself a baby who would be the true lord of the world.

Even today the dragon appears invincible, but even today, it remains true that God is more powerful than the dragon, that it is love that triumphs, not selfishness.

Having thus considered the various historical configurations of the dragon, let us look at the other image [from the Reading]: the woman clothed with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, surrounded by twelve stars. This image too is multi-dimensional.

A first interpretation without question is that it is Our Lady, Mary, clothed totally in the sun, namely God - Mary who lives in God totally, surrounded and penetrated by the light of God. Surrounded by 12 stars, namely, the 12 tribes of Israel, of all the People of God, the communion of saints. And at her feet, the moon - image of death and mortality.

Mary has left death behind her. She is completely clothed in life. She was assumed body and soul to the glory of God, and thus, raised to glory, having triumphed over death, she tells us: "Have courage. In the end, love always wins. My life was to say, I am the handmaid of the Lord, I lived my life for God and for my neighbor. And now this life of service has arrived into true life. Be confident, have the courage to live the same way, against all the menaces of the dragon."

That is the first meaning of the woman that Mary has come to personify. The 'woman clothed with the sun' is the great sign of the victory of love, of the victory of goodness, of the victory of God. A great sign of comfort.

But then this woman of the vision who suffers, who must flee, who gives birth with a cry of pain, is also the Church, the pilgrim Church of all time. In every generation, it must give birth to Christ again, bring him into the world all over in great pain, in suffering. Persecuted in all ages, it lives almost in a desert always chased by the dragon.

But in all this time, the Church, the People of God, continues to live in the light of the Lord, and is nourished, as the Gospel says, by God, fed by the bread of the Holy Eucharist.

Thus, in all its tribulations, in all the diverse situations that the Church has found itself in the course of time, in different parts of the world, it triumphs in suffering. The Church is the presence, the guarantee of God's love, against all the ideologies of hate and selfishness.

We certainly see that today, the dragon wants to devour God, the God who made himself a baby. Do not fear for this apparently helpless God. The battle has been won. Even today, this God is strong - he is the true strength.

Thus, the feast of the Assumption is an invitation to trust in God and an invitation to imitate Mary in what she herself has said - I am the handmaid of the Lord, I am at the disposition of the Lord.

This is the lesson: let us move along. let us give our life, not take life. This way we are on the path of love, which is losing oneself, but a losing oneself that is really to truly find oneself, to find true life.

Let us look at Mary, the Assunta [Assumed One]. Let us be encouraged in our faith and in a celebration of joy that God wins. The faith which may seem weak is a true force on earth. And let us say with Elizabeth: "Blessed are you among all women." We pray to you with all the Church: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

The following is a translation of the extemporaneous homily delivered by the Holy Father at the Mass of the Solemnity of the Assumption yesterday at the parish church of St. Thomas Villanova in Castel Gandolfo:

Dear brothers and sisters,

In his great work The City of God, St. Augustine says that the story of man, the story of the world, is a battle between two loves: the love of God expressed to the limit by the 'loss' of himself, the gift of himself; and love of oneself to the point of contempt for God and hatred of others.

This interpretation of history as a battle between two loves - between love and selfishness - also appears in the Reading taken from the Apocalypse which we just heard.

In this reading, these two loves are represented by two major figures. First, there is a very powerful red dragon, with an impressive manifestation of power without grace, without love, of absolute selfishness, of terror and violence.

At the time John wrote the Apocalypse, this dragon was for him embodied in the power of the anti-Christian Roman emperors, from Nero to Domitian. This power appeared limitless - the military, political and propagandistic power of the Roman empire was such that before such power, the faith, the Church, appeared like a helpless woman, with no chance of survival, much less of winning.

Who could oppose an omnipresent power that appeared to be able to do anything? Nevertheless, we know that ultimately, the 'helpless woman' triumphed - neither selfishness or hatred prevailed. The love of God won out, and the Roman empire itself opened up to the Christian faith.

The words of Sacred Scripture always transcend the historical moment. Thus, the dragon indicates not only the anti-Christian power of the persecutors of the Church at that time, but the materialistic anti-Christian dictatorships in every age.

We saw this power, this force of the red dragon, manifested in the great dictatorships of the past century: the dictatorship of Nazism and that of Stalin had all the powers - they penetrated every corner, to the very last. It seemed impossible that, in the long run, the faith could survive before a dragon so strong that it wanted to devour the God who had made himself into a baby, and the woman, the Church. But in the end, even in these cases, love proved stronger than hate.

Today the dragon exists in new ways, many different ways. It exists in the form of materialistic ideologies which tell us: "It is absurd to think of God; it is absurd to observe the commandments of God; those are things of the past. All that matters is to live life for itself. To take from this brief spell of life everything that we can get from it. The only things that matter are consumerism, selfishness, entertainment. That is life, that is how we should live."

And again, it may seem absurd and impossible to oppose this dominant mentality, with all its mediatic and propagandistic power. It may seem impossible today to think about a God who created man and who made himself a baby who would be the true lord of the world.

Even today the dragon appears invincible, but even today, it remains true that God is more powerful than the dragon, that it is love that triumphs, not selfishness.

Having thus considered the various historical configurations of the dragon, let us look at the other image [from the Reading]: the woman clothed with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, surrounded by twelve stars. This image too is multi-dimensional.

A first interpretation without question is that it is Our Lady, Mary, clothed totally in the sun, namely God - Mary who lives in God totally, surrounded and penetrated by the light of God. Surrounded by 12 stars, namely, the 12 tribes of Israel, of all the People of God, the communion of saints. And at her feet, the moon - image of death and mortality.

Mary has left death behind her. She is completely clothed in life. She was assumed body and soul to the glory of God, and thus, raised to glory, having triumphed over death, she tells us: "Have courage. In the end, love always wins. My life was to say, I am the handmaid of the Lord, I lived my life for God and for my neighbor. And now this life of service has arrived into true life. Be confident, have the courage to live the same way, against all the menaces of the dragon."

That is the first meaning of the woman that Mary has come to personify. The 'woman clothed with the sun' is the great sign of the victory of love, of the victory of goodness, of the victory of God. A great sign of comfort.

But then this woman of the vision who suffers, who must flee, who gives birth with a cry of pain, is also the Church, the pilgrim Church of all time. In every generation, it must give birth to Christ again, bring him into the world all over in great pain, in suffering. Persecuted in all ages, it lives almost in a desert always chased by the dragon.

But in all this time, the Church, the People of God, continues to live in the light of the Lord, and is nourished, as the Gospel says, by God, fed by the bread of the Holy Eucharist.

Thus, in all its tribulations, in all the diverse situations that the Church has found itself in the course of time, in different parts of the world, it triumphs in suffering. The Church is the presence, the guarantee of God's love, against all the ideologies of hate and selfishness.

We certainly see that today, the dragon wants to devour God, the God who made himself a baby. Do not fear for this apparently helpless God. The battle has been won. Even today, this God is strong - he is the true strength.

Thus, the feast of the Assumption is an invitation to trust in God and an invitation to imitate Mary in what she herself has said - I am the handmaid of the Lord, I am at the disposition of the Lord.

This is the lesson: let us move along. let us give our life, not take life. This way we are on the path of love, which is losing oneself, but a losing oneself that is really to truly find oneself, to find true life.

Let us look at Mary, the Assunta [Assumed One]. Let us be encouraged in our faith and in a celebration of joy that God wins. The faith which may seem weak is a true force on earth. And let us say with Elizabeth: "Blessed are you among all women." We pray to you with all the Church: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

This translation also appears in the PASTORAL VISITS...thread.

PASTORAL VISIT TO LORETO, Sept. 1-2, 2007






Here is a translation of the Pope's address at the Encounter with the youth of Agora 2007 early tonight:


My dear young people who make up the hope of the Church in Italy!

I am happy to meet you in this quite singular place, on this special evening, rich with prayers, song, silences, hopes and profound emotions.

This valley, where in the past, even my beloved predecessor John Paul II met most of you probably, has become your agora, your public square, without walls or barriers, in which thousands of roads converge and depart.

I have listened with attention to those who spoke in the name of all of you. In this place of peaceful, authentic and joyous encounter, you have arrived for thousands of different reasons: some because you belong to a group, some invited by friends, some because of intimate conviction, some with some doubts in your hearts, some out of simple curiosity.

But whatever reason led you here, I can say that it is the Holy Spirit who brought us here together. Yes, the Spirit guided you here. You have come here with your doubts and certainties, your joys and concerns. And now, it is up to you to open your hearts and offer everything to Jesus.

Tell him: "Here I am - certainly not yet as you would want me to be, I cannot even understand all of me myself, but with your help, I am ready to follow you. Lord Jesus, tonight, I wish to speak to you, adopting the interior attitude and the trustful abandon of that young girl who, more than 2000 years ago, said Yes to the Father who chose her to be your Mother."

The Father chose her because she was meek and obedient to His will. Like her, like the young Mary, each of you, my dear young friends, must tell God with faith: "Here I am - be it done to me according to your word."

What an amazing spectacle of young and engaged faith we are living tonight! Tonight Loreto has become, thanks to you, the spiritual capital of the youth - the center of convergence for the multitudes of young people who inhabit the five continents.

At this moment, we feel surrounded by the expectations and hopes of millions of young people of the whole world. Right now, some are staying up, some are sleeping, some are studying or working. Some are hopeful and others are desperate; some believe, and others cannot get themselves to believe; some love life while others are wasting it.

I would like my words to reach everyone: the Pope is close to you, he shares your joys and your pains; above all, I share your most intimate hopes; and for each of you, I ask the Lord the gift of a full and happy life, a life that is rich in sense, a true life.

Unfortunately today, not unusually, a full and happy existence is seen by many young people as a difficult dream, and sometimes almost unrealizable. So many of your contemporaries look at the future with apprehension and ask themselves many questions.

They are concerned about how to fit themselves into a society marked by numerous and grave injustices and sufferings. How to react to the selfishness and violence which often seem to predominate. How to give a sense of fullness to life.

With love and conviction, I repeat to you, who are present here, and through you, to your contemporaries around the world: Do not be afraid! Christ can fulfill the most intimate aspirations of your heart. Are there are unreliable dreams when it is the Spirit of God who inspires and cultivates them in the heart? Is there anything that could dampen our enthusiasm if we are united with Christ? Nothing and no one, the Apostle Paul would say, can ever separate us from the love of God, in Jesus Christ, our Lord (cf Rom 8,35-39).

Allow me to repeat this to you tonight: if yo0u stay one with Christ, each of you can do great things. That is why, dear friends, you should not be afraid to dream with open eyes about great plans for good, and you should not allow yourselves to be discouraged by difficulties.

Christ has confidence in you and he wants you to realize each of your noble dreams for authentic happiness. Nothing is impossible for whoever trusts in God and entrusts himself to him.

Look at the young Mary! The Angel proposed to her something truly inconceivable: to participate in the most intimate way possible in God's greatest plan, the salvation of humanity. Before such a proposal, Mary was troubled, aware of the smallness of her being compared to God's omnipotence, and so she asked: How is it possible, why me? But she was willing to fulfill the divine will, and readily gave her Yes, which changed her life and the story of all mankind. Thanks to that Yes, we are here together tonight.

I ask myself and you: Can the requests that God makes of us - no matter how demanding they may seem to be - ever equal that which God asked of the young Mary? Dear boys and girls, let us learn from Mary to say Yes, because she knows what it means to answer generously to the requests of the Lord.

Dear young people, Mary knows your most noble and deepest aspirations. Above all, she knows your great desire for love, your need to love and be loved. Looking at her, following her obediently, you will discover the beauty of love - not a throwaway love, fleeting and deceptive, imprisoned in a selfish and materialistic mentality - but true and profound love.

In the most intimate part of the heart, every boy and girl who faces life, cultivates the dream of a love which can give full sense to one's future. For many, this finds fulfillment in the choice of matrimony and forming a family in which the love between a man and a woman is lived as a reciprocal gift of faithfulness, as a definitive gift, sealed by the Yes pronounced before God on the day of matrimony, a Yes for all of one's life.

I know that this dream is becoming even more difficult to realize. How many failures of love surround us! How many couples give up and separate! How many families are breaking up! How many children, even among you, have seen the separation and divorce of their parents!

To whoever finds themselves in such sensitive and complex situations, I would like to say tonight: the Mother of God, the community of believers, the Pope, are near to you and pray that the crisis which threatens the family in our time does not become an irreversible failure.

May Christian families, with the help of Divine grace, stay faithful to that solemn pledge of love taken with such joy before the priest and the Christian community on the solemn day of matrimony.

In the face of such failures, this question is not infrequent: am I better than my friends and my parents who have tried and failed? Why should I succeed where others have given up? This human fear can hamper even the most courageous spirit, but on this night before you, at the foot of her Holy House, Mary repeats to each of you, dear young friends, the words which she herself heard the angel address to her: Have no fear! Do not be afraid! The Holy Spirit is with you and will never abandon you. Nothing is impossible to whoever trusts in God.

And this is valid for those who are destined for married life, and even more for those to whom God proposes a life of total detachment from earthly goods in order to dedicate themselves fulltime to his Kingdom.

Among you, there are those who are headed to the priesthood, towards the consecrated life, perhaps some who wish to be missionaries, even knowing what risks and how much risk this means. Think of the priests, the religious and the lay missionaries who have fallen in the trenches of love in the service of the Gospel.

About that life, Fr. Giancarlo Bossi can tell you so many things, he for whom we all prayed during his period of captivity in the Philippines, and whom we joyously welcome among us today. In him, I wish to greet and thank all those who spend their existence for Christ on the frontiers of evangelization.

Dear young people, if the Lord calls you to live more intimately in his service, then respond generously. You may be certain that a life dedicated to God is never spent in vain.

Dear young people, I end my words tonight, not without first embracing you with the heart of a father. I embrace you one by one, and I greet each of you from the heart.

I also greet the bishops present, starting with Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, president of the CEI, and Archbishop Gianni Danzi who is our welcoming host in his ecclesial community.

I greet the priests, the religious, the spiritual advisers who accompanied you here. I greet the civilian authorities and all who were in charge of realizing this event.

A little later tonight, we shall once again be reunited 'virtually' and we will see each other again tomorrow morning, after this night of vigil, for the high point of our encounter, when Jesus himself will be present in the Word and the mystery of the Eucharist.

I would also like to make an appointment to see you in Sydney, where within a year the next World Youth Day will be held. I know - Australia is very far away, and for Italians it is literally at the other end of the world.

Let us pray that the Lord who can work every wonder may grant to many of you the gift of being there. That he may grant it to me, and grant it to you. This is one of so many dreams that tonight, praying together, we will entrust to Mary.

THE TEXTS OF ALL THE POPE'S ADDRESSES, HOMILIES AND DISCOURSES DURING HIS 'APOSTOLIC VOYAGE TO AUSTRIA' ARE FOUND IN THAT THREAD.

His Excellency Jozef Dravecky presented his credentials to the Holy Father as the new Ambassador from the Republic of Slovakia to the Holy See, at the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo on September 13. The Holy Father spoke in English.

THE HOLY FATHER'S ADDRESS
TO THE NEW AMBASSADOR FROM SLOVAKIA


Your Excellency,

I am very pleased to welcome you to the Vatican and to accept the Letters of Credence by which you are appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Slovak Republic to the Holy See.

I thank you for the cordial greetings which you have brought to me from President Gašparovič, and I ask you kindly to convey to him my own respectful greetings, together with my prayerful good wishes for the well-being and prosperity of the Republic.

Indeed, the bonds uniting the Bishop of Rome to the people of your country stretch back to the time of Saints Cyril and Methodius, and your presence here today is but another example of the mutual respect and affection the Holy See and Slovakia have for one another.

Next year will mark the Fifteenth Anniversary of diplomatic relations between the Slovak Republic and the Holy See. This cooperation has been especially fruitful in recent years, as evidenced by your Government’s ratification of two of the four items contained in the Basic Agreement signed in 2000.

I am grateful for Your Excellency’s reassurance that the Republic is committed to fulfilling the other two points of the Basic Agreement regarding conscientious objection and the financing of Church activities. In this regard, I reaffirm the Holy See’s readiness to assist you and your colleagues in whatever way possible to bring these important matters to a successful conclusion.

A key approved item of the Basic Agreement, as noted by Your Excellency, concerns education. It is important that States continue to guarantee the Church the freedom to establish and administer Catholic schools, affording parents the opportunity to choose a means of education that fosters the Christian formation of their children.

As they grasp Christian teaching, young people appreciate their personal dignity as creatures made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:27), and thus recognize a purpose and direction for their lives. Indeed, a solid education that nourishes all the dimensions of the human person, including the religious and spiritual, is in the interest of both Church and State. In this way, young people can acquire habits that will enable them to embrace their civic duties as they enter adulthood.

The combined efforts of Church and civil society to instruct young people in the ways of goodness are all the more crucial at a time when they are tempted to disparage the values of marriage and family so vital to their future happiness and to a nation’s social stability.

The family is the nucleus in which a person first learns human love and cultivates the virtues of responsibility, generosity and fraternal concern. Strong families are built on the foundation of strong marriages. Strong societies are built on the foundation of strong families.

Indeed, all civic communities should do what they can to promote economic and social policies that aid young married couples and facilitate their desire to raise a family.

Far from remaining indifferent to marriage, the State must acknowledge, respect and support this venerable institution as the stable union between a man and a woman who willingly embrace a life-long commitment of love and fidelity (cf. Familiaris Consortio, 40).

The members of your National Council are engaged in serious discussions on how to promote marriage and foster family life. The Catholic Bishops, too, in your country are worried about increases in the rate of divorce and the number of children conceived out of wedlock.

Thanks to the efforts of the Council for Family and Youth, the Conference of Bishops has expanded educational initiatives that raise awareness of the noble vocation to marriage, thus preparing young people to assume its responsibilities. Such programmes open the door to further collaboration between Church and State and help to ensure a healthy future for your country.

As the Republic strives to achieve social progress at home, she also looks beyond her borders towards the wider international community. The rich cultural and spiritual heritage of Slovakia holds great potential for revitalizing the soul of the European continent.

Your Excellency has drawn attention to the heroic sacrifices made by countless men and women in your nation’s history who, in times of persecution, laboured at great cost to preserve the right to life, religious liberty, and the freedom to place oneself at the charitable service of one’s neighbour (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 28). Such essential values are imperative to building a peaceful and just European Union.

I am confident that the celebrations marking the 1150th Anniversary of Saints Cyril and Methodius will renew Slovakia’s vigour to bear witness to these timeless values. In this way, she will inspire other member States of the European Union to strive for unity while recognizing diversity, to respect national sovereignty while engaging in joint activity, and to seek economic progress while upholding social justice.

Your Excellency, I am confident that the diplomatic ties between the Slovak Republic and the Holy See, which already enjoy a spirit of goodwill and mutual esteem, will continue to support the integral development of your nation.

I assure you that the various offices of the Roman Curia are eager to assist you in the fulfilment of your duties. With my sincere good wishes, I invoke upon you, your family and all the beloved people of the Slovak Republic abundant divine blessings.



Likewise, the Holy Father received the credentials of the new ambassador from Ireland, H.E. Noel Fahey, on September 15. Again, the Pope delivred his address in English.


THE HOLY FATHER'S ADDRESS
TO THE NEW AMBASSADOR FROM IRELAND


Your Excellency,

1. It is with particular pleasure that I welcome you to the Vatican and accept the Letters of Credence by which you are appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ireland to the Holy See.

I would ask you kindly to convey to your President, Mrs Mary McAleese, and to the Government and people of your country my gratitude for their good wishes. I warmly reciprocate them and assure the citizens of your nation of my prayers for their spiritual well-being.

2. As Your Excellency has observed, for over sixteen hundred years, Christianity has shaped the cultural, moral and spiritual identity of the Irish people. This is not simply a matter of historical importance. It lies at the heart of Irish civilization and it remains as a ‘leaven’ in the life of your nation.

Indeed, the Christian faith has lost nothing of its significance for contemporary society since it touches "man’s deepest sphere" and gives "meaning to his life in the world" (Redemptor Hominis, 10), enabling both civic and religious leaders to uphold the absolute values and ideals inherent in the dignity of every person and necessary for every democracy.

3. In recent years Ireland has enjoyed unprecedented economic growth. This prosperity has undoubtedly brought material comfort to many, but in its wake secularism has also begun to encroach and leave its mark.

Against the backdrop of these developments, I was interested to learn of the recent launch of a ‘structured dialogue’ between the Church and the Government. I applaud the initiative.

Some might question whether the Church is entitled to make a contribution to the governance of a nation. In a pluralist democratic society should not faith and religion be restricted to the private sphere?

The historical rise of brutal totalitarian regimes, contemporary scepticism in the face of political rhetoric, and a growing uneasiness with the lack of ethical points of reference governing recent scientific advances – one need only think of the field of bio-engineering – all point to the imperfections and limitations found within both individuals and society.

Recognition of those imperfections indicates the importance of a rediscovery of moral and ethical principles, and the need both to recognize the limits of reason and to understand its essential relationship of complementarity with faith and religion.

The Church, in articulating revealed truth, serves all members of society by shedding light on the foundation of morality and ethics, and by purifying reason, ensuring that it remains open to the consideration of ultimate truths and draws upon wisdom.

Far from threatening the tolerance of differences or cultural plurality, or usurping the role of the State, such a contribution illuminates the very truth which makes consensus possible and keeps public debate rational, honest and accountable.

When truth is disregarded, relativism takes its place: instead of being governed by principles, political choices are determined more and more by public opinion, values are overshadowed by procedures and targets, and indeed the very categories of good and evil, and right and wrong, give way to the pragmatic calculation of advantage and disadvantage.

4. The Northern Ireland Peace Process has been a long and arduous endeavour. At last, there is hope that it will bear enduring fruit. Peace has been achieved through widespread international support, determined political resolve on the part of both the Irish and the British Governments, and the readiness of individuals and communities to embrace the sublime human capacity to forgive.

The entire international human family has taken heart from this outcome and welcomes this wave of hope sent across the world that conflict, no matter how engrained, can be overcome. It is my fervent prayer that the peace which is already bringing renewal to the North will inspire political and religious leaders in other troubled zones of our world to recognize that only upon forgiveness, reconciliation and mutual respect can lasting peace be built.

To this end, I welcome your own Government’s commitment to deploy both experience and resources in the prevention and resolution of conflict, as well as its pledge to increase various forms of assistance to developing countries.

5. Your Excellency, like many nations around the globe, Ireland has in recent years made care of the environment one of its priorities in both domestic policy and international relations.

The promotion of sustainable development and particular attention to climate change are indeed matters of grave importance for the entire human family, and no nation or business sector should ignore them.

As scientific research demonstrates the worldwide effects that human actions can have on the environment, the complexity of the vital relationship between the ecology of the human person and the ecology of nature becomes increasingly apparent (cf. Message for the 2007 World Day of Peace, 8).

The full understanding of this relationship is found in the natural and moral order with which God has created man and endowed the earth (ibid., 8-9).

Curiously, while the majesty of God’s hand in creation (cf. Ps 8:3) is readily recognized, the full acknowledgement of the glory and splendour with which he has specifically crowned man (cf. Ps 8:5) is at times less readily understood. A kind of split morality ensues.

The great and vital moral themes of peace, non-violence, justice, and respect for creation do not in themselves confer dignity on man. The primary dimension of morality stems from the innate dignity of human life - from the moment of conception to natural death - a dignity conferred by God himself. God’s loving act of creation must be understood as a whole.

How disturbing it is that not infrequently the very social and political groups that, admirably, are most attuned to the awe of God’s creation pay scant attention to the marvel of life in the womb. Let us hope that, especially among young people, emerging interest in the environment will deepen their understanding of the proper order and magnificence of God’s creation of which man and woman stand at the centre and summit.

6. Your Excellency, I am sure that your appointment will further strengthen the bonds of friendship which already exist between Ireland and the Holy See. As you take up your new responsibilities you will find that the various offices of the Roman Curia are most ready to assist you in the fulfilment of your duties. Upon you, your family and your fellow citizens I cordially invoke the abundant blessings of Almighty God.

RESERVED FOR POPE'S ADDRESS TO THE POOR CLARES OF ALBANO LAZIALE -
DELIVERED IN ITALIAN

RESERVED FOR THE POPE'S MESSAGE TO THE ECUMENICAL SYMPOSIUM IN TINOS, GREECE -
TEXT IN ITALIAN

RESERVED FOR THE POPE'S ADDRESS TO THE PONTIFICAL COMMISSION ON JUSTICE AND PEACE - DELIVERED IN ITALIAN

RESERVED FOR THE POPE'S ADDRESS TO THE BISHOPS OF BENIN ON AD-LIMINA VISIT-
DELIVERED IN FRENCH

The Vatican simultaneously provided this English translation of the text delivered today by the Holy Father in Italian.

Mister President,
Honourable Members of Parliament,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am pleased to welcome you during the conference of the Executive Committee of Centrist Democratic International, and I extend cordial greetings to the Delegates present from many nations throughout the world.

I thank your President, the Honourable Pier Ferdinando Casini, for the kind words of greeting he has offered to me on your behalf.

Your visit gives me an opportunity to bring to your attention some of the values and ideals that have been moulded and deepened in a decisive way by the Christian tradition in Europe and throughout the world.

Notwithstanding your different backgrounds, I know that you share several basic principles of this tradition, such as the centrality of the human person, a respect for human rights, a commitment to peace and the promotion of justice for all. You appeal to fundamental principles, which, as history has shown, are closely interconnected.

In effect, when human rights are violated, the dignity of the human person suffers; when justice is compromised, peace itself is jeopardized. On the other hand, justice is truly human only when the ethical and moral vision grounding it is centred on the human person and his inalienable dignity.

Ladies and Gentlemen, your activity, inspired by these principles, is subject to increasing challenges today due to the profound changes taking place in your respective communities. For this reason, I wish to encourage you to persevere in your efforts to serve the common good, taking it upon yourselves to prevent the dissemination and entrenchment of ideologies which obscure and confuse consciences by promoting an illusory vision of truth and goodness.

In the economic sphere, for example, there is a tendency to view financial gain as the only good, thus eroding the internal ethos of commerce to the point that even profit margins suffer.

There are those who maintain that human reason is incapable of grasping the truth, and therefore of pursuing the good that corresponds to personal dignity. There are some who believe that it is legitimate to destroy human life in its earliest or final stages.

Equally troubling is the growing crisis of the family, which is the fundamental nucleus of society based on the indissoluble bond of marriage between a man and a woman. Experience has shown that when the truth about man is subverted or the foundation of the family undermined, peace itself is threatened and the rule of law is compromised, leading inevitably to forms of injustice and violence.

Another cause highly esteemed by all of you is the defence of religious liberty, which is a fundamental, irrepressible, inalienable and inviolable right rooted in the dignity of every human being and acknowledged by various international documents, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The exercise of this freedom also includes the right to change religion, which should be guaranteed not only legally, but also in daily practice. In fact, religious liberty corresponds to the human person’s innate openness to God, who is the fullness of truth and the supreme good.

An appreciation for religious freedom is a fundamental expression of respect for human reason and its capacity to know the truth. Openness to transcendence is an indispensable guarantee of human dignity since within every human heart there are needs and desires which find their fulfilment in God alone.

For this reason, God can never be excluded from the horizon of man and world history! That is why all authentically religious traditions must be allowed to manifest their own identity publicly, free from any pressure to hide or disguise it.

Moreover, due respect for religion helps to counter the charge that society has forgotten God: an accusation shamelessly exploited by some terrorist networks in an attempt to justify their threats against global security.

Terrorism is a serious problem whose perpetrators often claim to act in God’s name and harbour an inexcusable contempt for human life. Society naturally has a right to defend itself, but this right must be exercised with complete respect for moral and legal norms, including the choice of ends and means.

In democratic systems, the use of force in a manner contrary to the principles of a constitutional State can never be justified. Indeed, how can we claim to protect democracy if we threaten its very foundations? Consequently, it is necessary both to keep careful watch over the security of civil society and its citizens while at the same time safeguarding the inalienable rights of all.

Terrorism needs to be fought with determination and effectiveness, mindful that if the mystery of evil is widespread today, the solidarity of mankind in goodness is an even more pervasive mystery.

In this regard, the social teaching of the Catholic Church offers some points for reflection on how to promote security and justice both at the national and international levels. This teaching is based on reason, natural law and the Gospel: that is, principles that both accord with and transcend the nature of every human being.

The Church knows that it is not her specific task to see to the political implementation of this teaching: her objective is to help form consciences in political life, to raise awareness of the authentic requirements of justice, and to foster a greater readiness to act accordingly, even when this might involve conflict with situations of personal interest (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 28).

In this her mission, the Church is moved only by love for humanity and the desire to work together with all people of goodwill to build a world in which the dignity and inalienable rights of all persons will be safeguarded.

For those of you who share a faith in Christ, the Church asks you to bear witness to that faith today with even greater courage and generosity. The integrity of Christians in political life is indeed more necessary than ever so that the "salt" of apostolic zeal does not lose its "flavour", and so that the "lamp" of Gospel values enlightening the daily work of Christians is not obscured by pragmatism or utilitarianism, suspicion or hate.

Your Excellencies, I thank you once again for this welcome opportunity to meet with you. Wishing you success in your respective missions, I assure all of you of a remembrance in my prayers, that Almighty God may bless you and your families, and that you may receive the wisdom, integrity and moral strength to serve the great and noble cause of human dignity.

Here is a translation of the address given by the Holy Father today to participants in this week's meeting of recently nominated bishops, whom he met at the Sala degli Svizseri (Swiss Hall) of the Apostolic Palace in Castel Gandolfo.


Dear brothers in the episcopate,

It has become customary for the past several years that recently nominated bishops gather in Rome for a meeting that is primarily a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter. I welcome you with particular affection.

This experience for you, besides stimulating you to reflect on the responsibilities and duties of a bishop, allows you to revive the awareness that you are not alone in guiding the Church of God, but, along with his grace, you have the support of the Pope and your brother bishops.

Being in the center of Catholicism, in the Church of Rome, opens up your spirit to a more vivid perception of the universality of the People of God and inspires you to greater concern for the whole Church.

I thank Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re for the words he expressed in your behalf, and I address a special thanks to Mons. Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for Eastern Churches. I greet each of you and extend my wishes to your respective dioceses.

On the day of episcopal ordination, before the imposition of hands, the Church asks the candidate to take on certain commitments, among which - besides announcing the Gospel faithfully and protecting the faith - is to "persevere in prayer to omnipotent God for the good of his holy people."

I would like to dwell, with you, on the apostolic and pastoral character of the bishop's prayer.

The evangelist Luke writes that Jesus Christ chose the twelve Apostles after spending the whole night on the mountain, praying (Lk 6,12); and the evangelist Mark specifies that the Twelve were chosen so that "they could stay with him and he could command them" O(Mk 3,14).

Like the Apostles, we too, dearest brothers, as their successors, are called above all to be with Christ, to know him more profoundly, and to be participants in his mystery of love and his relationship of full confidence with the Father.

In the intimate personal prayer of the bishop, more than that of the faithful, he is called on to grow in filial spirit toward God, learning from Jesus himself the confidence, trust and loyalty which marked his relations with the Father.

The Apostles themselves understood well that listening in prayer and announcing the things they heard this way should have primacy over many other things to do, and so they decided: "We will dedicate ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the Word" (Acts 6,4). This apostolic program is even more relevant in our time.

Today, in a bishop's ministry, the organizational aspects are demanding, the commitments are multiple, the needs always so many, but the first place in the life of a successor to the Apostles should be reserved for God. We help our faithful best that way.

St. Gregory the Great in his "Pastoral rule" noted that the pastor "should, in a singular manner, be capable of raising himself above all others by prayer and by meditation (II,5). Tradition eventually formulated this in the well-known expression "Comtemplata aliis tradere" ['Hand down the fruits of contemplation'](cfr St. Thomas, Summa Theologiae, IIa-IIae, q. 188, art. 6).

In the encyclical Deus caritas est, referring to the Biblical episode of Jacob's ladder, I wanted to show how, precisely through prayer, the pastor becomes sensitive to the needs of others and merciful to all (cfr n. 7). And I recalled St. Gregory the Great, who said that the pastor who is rooted in meditation knows how to grasp the needs of others which become his in prayer: "per pietatis viscera in se infirmitatem caeterorum transferat" (Regola pastorale, ibid.).

Prayer educates us in love and opens the heart to pastoral charity, in order to welcome all those who seek the help of the bishop. He, formed interiorly by the Holy Spirit, comforts others with the balm of divine grace, enlightens with the light of the Word, reconciles and strengthens his flock in brotherly communion.

In your prayers, dear brothers, your priests must have a special place, that they may always persevere in their vocation and remain faithful to the priestly mission entrusted to them. It is much more satisfying for every priest to know that the bishop, from whom he received the gift of priesthood or who is, in any case, his father and friend, is close to him in prayer and in affection, and is always ready to welcome him, listen to him, support and encourage him.

Likewise, a bishop's prayer should never lack a plea for new vocations. We should ask God for these insistently, so that he may call 'those whom he wants' to the sacred ministry.

The munus santificandi (sanctifying function) that you have received commits you as well to inspire prayer in society. In the cities where you live and work, often feverish and noisy, where people are running around and losing their way, where they live as if God does not exist, you must learn how to create places and occasions for prayer, where - in silence, in listening to God through lectio divina, in personal and community prayer - man can encounter God and have a living experience of Jesus Christ who shows us the authentic face of God.

Never tire in working so that parishes and sanctuaries, places for education and for the care of the suffering, and even families, become places of communion with the Lord.

Most specially, I ask you to make of your Cathedral an exemplary house of prayer, especially liturgical prayer, where the diocesan community gathers together with its bishop to praise and thank God for the work of salvation and to intercede for all men.

St. Ignatius of Antioch reminds us of the power of community prayer: "If the prayer of one or two has such power, how much more would be that of the bishop and the whole Church!" (Letter to the Ephesians, n. 5).

In brief, dearest bishops, be men of prayer! "The spiritual fruitfulness of the bishop's ministry depends on the intensity of his union with the Lord. It is from prayer that the bishop draws light, strength and comfort in his pastoral activity," it is written in the Instructions for the pastoral ministry of bishops (Apostolorum successores, n. 36).

In turning to God for yourselves and your faithful, have the trustfulness of children, the audacity of a friend, and the perseverance of Abraham, who was tireless in his intercessions.

Like Moses, raise your hands to heaven, while your faithful soldier on for the faith. Like Mary, learn to praise God every day for the salvation which he brings to the Church and the world, with the conviction that nothing is impossible to God (Lk 1,37).

With these sentiments, I impart to each of you, to your priests, religious, seminarians and faithful of your dioceses, a special Apostolic Blessing.

Here is my translation of the Holy Father's homily in Velletri yesterday. Earlier today, I posted the Vatican's official English translation in the PASTORAL VISITS IN ITALY thread, and it had a line at the beginning that perplexed me enough to make a parenthetical note about it. PaxVobiscum subsequently called my attention to the fact that the Vatican translation appeared to be sloppy and very likely incomplete, so I will proceed to translate the homily now, as I would have done anyway if I had not seen the 'official' translation.


Dear brothers and sisters!

I have returned gladly among you to preside at this solemn Eucharistic Celebration, responding to your repeated invitations. I have returned joyfully to meet your diocesan community, which for many years was also, in a particular way, my community, and which will always remain dear to me.

I greet, first of all, Cardinal Francis Arinze, who succeeded me as Titular Cardinal of this diocese. I greet your Pastor, our dear Mons. Vincenzo Apicella, whom I thank for the beautiful words of welcome which he made in your behalf.

I greet the other bishops, priests, religious, pastoral workers, young people and all those who are active in the parishes, movements, associations and various diocesan activities.

I greet the Prefectual Commissar of Velletri, the mayors of the municipalities in the Velletri-Segni diocese, and the other civilian and military authorities who honor us with their presence.

I also greet those who have come from elsewhere, in particular, those from Bavaria, to join us on this day of celebration. Links of friendship link my native land to yours - proof of this is the bronze column given to me in Marktl am Inn last September, during my apostolic voyage to Germany. Recently, I was given - as mentioned earlier [by Mons. Apicella] - by 100 towns and cities of Bavaria,almost a twin of that column which will be erected here in Velletri, as an additional sign of my affection and goodwill. It will be the sign of my spiritual presence among you.

In this connection, I wish to thank the donors, the sculptor, and the mayors of Bavaria whom I see present here with so many friends. Thanks to you all!

Dear brothers and sisters, I know that you prepared yourselves for this visit of mine today through an intense spiritual journey, adopting as a motto a significant passage from the First Letter of John: "We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him"(4,16).

Deus caritas est, God is love. My first encyclical starts with these words, which concern the center of our faith: the Christian image of God and the consequent image of man and his journey.

I am happy that you have chosen this statement to guide the spiritual and pastoral itinerary of the diocese: "We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us."

We have come to believe in love: this is the essence of Christianity. And our liturgical assembly today cannot do other than focus on this essential truth, on God's love, which is capable of imprinting our human existence with an absolutely new orientation and value.

Love is the essence of Christianity, which makes the believer and the Christian community a ferment for hope and peace in every area, being especially attentive to the poor and the neediest. This is our common mission: to be a ferment for hope and peace because we believe in love.

Love keeps the Church alive, and because it is eternal, then faith itself will survive to the end of times.

In the past several Sundays, St. Luke, the evangelist who more than the others was concerned with showing us the love that Jesus had for the poor, has offered us different occasions for reflection on the dangers of excessive attachment to money, to material goods, and to everything that keeps us from fully living our vocation to love God and our brothers.

Even today, through a parable which arouses in us a certain perplexity because it is about a dishonest administrator who gets praise (cfr Lk 16,1-13), on closer look, the Lord gives us here a serious and more than ever salutary teaching for us.

As always, the Lord takes off from the facts of daily life. He tells us of a steward who is about to be dismissed because of his dishonest management of his master's affairs, and in order to save his future, tries cunningly to settle with his master's debtors.

Certainly, the man was dishonest, but astute. The Gospel does not present him as a model to follow in his dishonesty, but as an example to imitate for his shrewd prudence. The brief parable, in fact, ends with these words: "The master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently" (Lk 16,8).

But what did Jesus wish to tell us with this parable? With this surprising conclusion? The evangelist follows the parable with a brief series of statements and admonitions on the relationship that we should have with money and earthly goods.

They are small statements which invite us to a choice that assumes radical decision-making, a constant interior tension. Life is, in fact, always about choice: between honesty and dishonesty, between fidelity and infidelity, between selfishness and altruism, between good and evil.

The concluding words of the Gospel passage are incisive and peremptory: "No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other."

And finally, Jesus says, one must decide: "You cannot serve God and mammon." Mammon is a term of Phoenician origin which connotes economic security and business success; we could say that wealth is considered the idol to which everything is sacrificed in order to attain one's own material success, so that this economic success becomes one's true god.

Therefore, a fundamental decision between God and mammon is necessary: a choice between the logic of profit as the ultimate criterion for our actions, and the logic of sharing and solidarity.

If the logic of profit prevails, it will increase the gap between rich and poor as well as ruinous exploitation of the planet. But when instead, the logic of sharing and solidarity prevails, then it is possible to correct course in order to orient ourselves towards equitable development for the common good of all.

Basically, it is a choice between selfishness and love, between justice and dishonesty, and finally, between God and Satan. If loving Christ and our brothers is not to be considered as merely accessory and superficial, but rather the true and ultimate purpose of our existence, we should know how to make these basic choices, to be ready for radical renunciations, up to martyrdom if need be.

Today, as yesterday, the life of a Christian demands the courage to proceed against the current, to love like Jesus who reached the point of sacrificing himself on the Cross.

We can then say, paraphrasing St. Augustine, that by means of earthly riches, we should obtain those that are true and eternal. If indeed there are people ready for any kind of dishonesty to assure themselves of material wellbeing, which is always uncertain, then all the more we Christians should concern ourselves with providing for our eternal happiness through the resources of this earth ()cfr Discorsi 359,10).

Now, the only way to make our endowments and personal abilities fruitful, like the wealth which we have, is to share them with our brothers, showing ourselves in this way to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us.

Jesus said, "The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones; and the person who is dishonest in very small matters is also dishonest in great ones" (Lk 16, 10).

In the first Reading today, the prophet Amos also speaks of this fundamental choice that we must make day to day. With strong words, he stigmatizes a lifestyle typical of someone who allows himself to be absorbed in a selfish quest for profit in every possible way, which translates into a thirst for gain, in contempt for the poor and in an exploitation of their situation to one's own advantage (cfr Am 4,5).

The Christian should resist all this with energy, and instead, open his heart to sentiments of authentic generosity. A generosity that, as the Apostle Paul exhorts us in his second Letter, is expressed in sincere love for all and is manifested in prayer.

Indeed, to pray for others is a great gesture of charity. The Apostle invites us, in the first place, to pray for those who carry positions of responsibility in the civilian community, so that - he explains - their decisions, if intended to do good, will bring positive consequences, assuring peace and "a calm and tranquil life in full piety and dignity" for all (1 Tm 2,2).

We can never minimize what our prayers can do - as a spiritual contribution to the edification of an ecclesial community that is faithful to Christ and to the construction of a more just and fraternal society.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us pray in particular that your diocesan community - which is undergoing a series of changes because of the arrival of many young families coming from Rome, the development of tertiary services, and the settlement of historic centers by many immigrants - may conduct pastoral activity that is increasingly organic and shared, following the indications that your bishop, with marked pastoral sensitivity, will be giving you.

In this respect, his Pastoral Letter of December 2006 is proving even more timely, in which he invites all to listen with attention and perseverance to the Word of God, to the teachings of Vatican-II, and the Magisterium of the Church.

Let us place every proposal and pastoral plan that you have into the hands of the Madonna of Graces, whose image is kept and venerated in your beautiful Cathedral. May the maternal protection of Mary accompany you, as well as those who were unable to take part in our eucharistic celebration today.

In a special way, may the Virgin Mary watch over the sick, the aged, the children, whoever feels alone and abandoned, or is in particular need. May Mary free us from the greed of wealth so that we may raise clean and pure hands to the heavens, rendering glory to God with our whole life (cfr Collect). Amen!

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Here is the Vatican translation of the homily delivered by the Holy Father at the Mass yesterday.

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Dear brothers and sisters!

I have returned with great pleasure in your midst to preside over this solemn Eucharistic celebration, in response to you repeated invitations. I return with joy to meet your diocesan community, which for many years was also mine in a special way, and which is still very dear to me today. I greet you all with great affection.

First of all I would like to greet Cardinal Francis Arinze, who succeeded me as titular cardinal of this diocese; I greet your pastor, Monsignor Vincenzo Apicella, whom I would like to thank for the courteous words of welcome with which he welcomed me in your name.

I greet the other bishops, priests, men and women religious, and pastoral workers, the youth and all those at work in parishes, movements, associations and various diocesan activities. I greet the prefectorial commissioner of Velletri, the mayors of towns of the Diocese of Velletri-Segni and the other civil and military authorities, who honor us with their presence.

I also greet all those who have come from other places, Germany in particular, to unite themselves to us in this day of celebration. Bonds of friendship link my native land to yours: This bronze column from Marktl am Inn, given to me in September last year in honor of my apostolic trip to Germany, is a testimony of that, and I wished it to remain here, as a further sign of my affection and my goodwill.
[Surely, the Pope must know it is another column, and that it was commissioned for his birthday! I could not hear his words yesterday under the chatter of the EWTN commentator during the homily so I do not know if he actually said what this statement says!]

I know you have prepared for my visit here today with an intense spiritual journey, adopting as the motto a meaningful verse from the First Letter of John: "So we know and believe in the love that God has for us" (4:16). Deus Caritas Est, God is love: My first encyclical begins with these words, which pertain to the core of our faith - the Christian image of God and the resulting image of man and his journey.

I rejoice in the fact that you have chosen as your guide for the diocese's spiritual and pastoral journey this very expression: "We have known the love that God has for us and we have believed."

Today's liturgy cannot but focus on this essential truth, on the love of God, able to impress upon human existence an absolutely new orientation and value. Love is the essence of Christianity, which renders the believer and the Christian community yeast of hope and peace in every situation, especially attentive to the necessities of the poor and needy. Love brings the Church into existence.

For the past few Sundays, St. Luke, the Gospel writer who more than the others is concerned to show the love Jesus has for the poor, he offered different ideas for reflection on the dangers of an excessive attachment to money, to material goods and to all that impedes us from loving the fullness of our vocation to love God and our brethren.

Also today, through the parable that provokes a certain wonder in us because it speaks of a dishonest manager who ends up being praised (cf. Luke 16:1-13), and the Lord is offering is a salutary teaching.

As he often does, he draws from current events: He speaks about a manager on the verge of being fired for his dishonest management of the affairs of his master and, to guarantee his own future, he tries to slyly come to agreements with his debtors. He is dishonest, but astute: The Gospel does not present him as a model to follow in his dishonesty, but as an example to imitate for his cautious craftiness. In fact, the brief parable ends with these words: "The master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly."

What does Jesus want to say to us? The Evangelist follows the parable of the unfaithful steward with a brief series of sayings and admonitions about the relationship we should have with money and the goods of this earth. Brief phrases that invite us to a choice that presupposes a radical decision, a constant interior tension.

Life is in truth always a choice: between honesty and dishonesty, between faithfulness and unfaithfulness, between egoism and altruism, between good and evil. The conclusion of the Gospel selection is incisive and authoritative: "No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke 16:13).

Mammon is the original Phoenician term that evokes economic security and success in business; we could say that in wealth is found the idol in which one sacrifices everything to reach personal success.

Therefore a fundamental decision is necessary - the choice between the logic of profit as the ultimate criteria of our action and the logic of sharing and solidarity. The logic of profit, if it prevails, increases not only the disproportion between poor and rich, but also the devastating exploitation of the planet.

When, on the other hand, the logic of sharing and solidarity prevails, it is possible to correct the course of action and orient it toward proportional development, for the common good of all. In the end it is a decision between egoism and love, between justice and dishonesty, and a final choice between God and Satan.

If loving Christ and our brethren is not considered as something accessorial and superficial, but moreover the true and final scope of our existence, we must know how to make fundamental choices, to be open to radical renunciations, even martyrdom if necessary. Today, like yesterday, the Christian life demands courage to go against the tide, to love as Jesus did, who ended up sacrificing himself on the cross.

We can say therefore, paraphrasing St. Augustine, that through earthly riches we should obtain those that are true and eternal: If in fact there are people who are ready for any kind of dishonest action to ensure material well-being, which isn't sure, how much more we Christians must try to provide for our eternal happiness with the goods of this earth (cf. "Discourses" 359:10).

Now, the only way our personal gifts and abilities will be fruitful along with the wealth we possess is to share them with our brethren, showing ourselves to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us. Jesus says: "Whoever is faithful in little, is faithful also in much; and he who is dishonest in little will be dishonest also in much" (Luke 16:10-11).

The prophet Amos speaks about this fundamental choice to be performed day after day in today's first reading. With strong words, he stigmatizes a typical style of life of someone who lets themselves be drawn in by a selfish search for profit in every possible way and is transformed into a thirst for gain, a contempt for the poor and in exploitation of the poor for their own advantage (cf. Amos 4:5).

The Christian must energetically reject all of this, opening his heart, on the contrary, to feelings of authentic generosity. A generosity that, as St. Paul tells us in today's second reading, is expressed in a sincere love for all and is manifested in the first place in prayer. A grand gesture of charity is to pray for others.

The Apostle invites us first of all to pray for those who carry out tasks of responsibility in the civil community, because - he explains - from their decisions, if they tend toward the common good, result in positive consequences, ensuring peace and "a calm and tranquil life with piety and dignity" for all (1 Timothy 2:2).

Our prayer is just as valuable, a spiritual support for the edification of an ecclesial community faithful to Christ and to the construction of a more just and supportive society.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us pray, in a special way so that your diocesan community, that is undergoing a series of transformations, because of the transfer of many young families out of Rome, the development of the service industry and the arrival of many immigrants in town centers, may lead to an ever increasingly organic and shared pastoral action, following the indications that your bishop is offering with outstanding pastoral sensitivity.

To this end, his pastoral letter of last December proved to be very opportune with an invitation to attentive and persevering listening to God's word, to the teachings of the Second Vatican Council and the magisterium of the Church.

We place in the Madonna of Grace's hands, whose image is kept and venerated in this your beautiful cathedral, all of your intentions and pastoral projects. May the maternal protection of Mary accompany the journey of all of you present here and of those who were unable to participate in today's Eucharistic celebration.

In a special way, may the Holy Virgin watch over the sick, the elderly, the children and anyone who feels alone or abandoned or is in particular need.

Free us, Mary, from the greed of wealth, and make it so that lifting our free and pure hands, we can give glory to God with our life (cf. Offertory Prayer). Amen!

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Place holder for addresses to ambassador from Nicaragua and to the Ukranian bishops.

The Vatican released the text ofthe address given by Mons. Pietro Parolin, Under-Scretary for foreign relations, at the 'high-level event' called "The future is in our hands: addressing the leadership challenge of climate change" - held at the UN in New York City, in connection with the 62nd session of the General Assembly.


Mr. Chairman,

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to express some considerations of the Holy See in light of what we have heard today from the preceding distinguished speakers.

Climate change is a serious concern and an inescapable responsibility for scientists and other experts, political and governmental leaders, local administrators and international organizations, as well as every sector of human society and each human person.

My delegation wishes to stress the underlying moral imperative that all, without exception, have a grave responsibility to protect the environment.

Beyond the various reactions to and interpretations of the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the best scientific assessments available have established a link between human activity and climate change.

However, the results of these scientific assessments, and the remaining uncertainties, should neither be exaggerated nor minimized in the name of politics, ideologies or self-interest. Rather they now need to be studied closely in order to give a sound basis for raising awareness and making effective policy decisions.

In recent times, it has been unsettling to note how some commentators have said that we should actually exploit our world to the full, with little or no heed to the consequences, using a world view supposedly based on faith. We strongly believe that this is a fundamentally reckless approach.

At the other extreme, there are those who hold up the earth as the only good, and would characterize humanity as an irredeemable threat to the earth, whose population and activity need to be controlled by various drastic means. We strongly believe that such assertions would place human beings and their needs at the service of an inhuman ecology.

I have highlighted these two extreme positions to make my point, but similar, though less extreme attitudes, would also clearly impede any sound global attempts to promote mitigation, adaptation, resilience and the safeguarding of our common future.

Mr. Chairman, sce no country alone can solve the problems related to our common environment, we need to overcome self-interest through collective action.

On the part of the international community, this presupposes the adoption of a coordinated, effective and prompt international political strategy capable of responding to such a complex question. It would identify ways and means of mitigation and adaptation which are economically accessible to most, enhance sustainable development and foster a healthy environment.

The economic aspect of such ways and means should be seriously taken into account, considering that poor nations and sectors of society are particularly vulnerable to the adverse consequences of climate change, due to lesser resources and capacity to mitigate their effects and adapt to altered surroundings.

It is foreseeable that programmes of mitigation and adaptation would meet a series of barriers and obstacles, not so much of a technological nature, but more so of a social nature, such as consumer behaviour and preferences, and of a political nature, like government policies.

We must look at education, especially among the young, to change inbred, selfish attitudes towards consumption and exploitation of natural resources.

Likewise, government policies giving economic incentives and financial breaks for more environmentally friendly technologies will give the private sector the positive signal they need to programme their product development in such direction.

For instance, present-day research into energy mixes and improving energy efficiency would be made more attractive if accompanied by public funding and other financial incentives.

Mr. Chairman, woften hear in the halls of the United Nations of "the responsibility to protect". The Holy See believes that applies also in the context of climate change. States have a shared "responsibility to protect" the world’s climate through mitigation/adaptation, and above all a shared "responsibility to protect" our planet and ensure that present and future generations be able to live in a healthy and safe environment.

The pace of achieving and codifying a new international consensus on climate change is not always matched by an equally expeditious and effective pace of implementation of such agreements.

States are free to adopt international conventions and treaties, but unless our words are matched with effective action and accountability, we would do little to avert a bleak future and may find ourselves gathering again not too long from now to lament another collective failure.

We sincerely hope that States will seize the opportunity that will be presented to them shortly at the next Conference on the Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bali.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

RESERVED FOR ADDRESS TO UKRAINIAN BISHOPS, 9/27/07 (ITALIAN)