Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - On Thursday, February 7, the Holy Father Benedict XVI held a meeting in the Hall of Blessings, with the pastors and clergy from the Diocese of Rome in their traditional visit at the start of Lent. The meeting was held as a colloquium with the Holy Father and the participants. We offer here some of the Pope’s commentaries on the various themes discussed.
The Deaconate
“I would also like to express my joy and gratitude to the [Second Vatican] Council, for revitalising this ministry in the universal Church...which can be a link between the world of the laity, the professional world, and the priestly ministry, as many deacons continue to carry on their professional careers and maintain their work positions, both important and simple, while Saturdays and Sundays are dedicated to work in the Church. In this way, they offer a testimony, to today’s world and in the working world, of the presence of the faith, the sacramental ministry, and the deaconal dimension of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. This seems very important to me: the visibility of the deaconate. Of course, every priest continues to be a deacon and should always think in this manner, because the Lord Himself became our minister, our deacon...I believe that a characteristic of this ministry of the deacons is precisely in the plurality of the applications of the deaconate.”
The Youth
“We are all aware of how difficult it is for a young person today to live as a Christian. The cultural context, the media; they offer everything except the way that leads to Christ. It seems that it is almost impossible to see Christ as the centre of their life and live life as Jesus taught us. However, I also think that many of them increasingly experience the lack of satisfaction left by all these offers, by this lifestyle that in the end leaves one empty... Sincerity is fundamental. Young people should feel that we do not preach words that we do not ourselves live, but rather, that we speak because we have found and continue trying to find in a renewed manner, every day, the truth about our lives...The question remains: how to find life, what to choose, how to choose life...the fundamental choice is clear: chose God. We must understand that the person who lives without God, in the end finds himself in darkness, although there may be moments in which it seems that he has found life. Later, the next step is how to find God, how to choose God. Here we come to the Gospel: God is not something unknown, an uncertain hypothesis about how the cosmos began. God has flesh and bones. He is one of us. We know Him with His face and His name. It is Jesus Christ who speaks to us in the Gospel...I think that this is the fundamental point in our pastoral attention to the youth, valid for all, but especially for the young people: reminding them of the choice for God, who is the Life; reminding them that God exists. And He exists in a very concrete way. Show them friendship with Jesus. There is also a third step. This friendship with Jesus is not a friendship with a make-believe person, with someone who belongs to the past or who is distant to mankind, seated at God’s right hand. He is present in His Body, that is still a body of flesh and bone: it is the Church, the communion of the Church. We should contribute to the building of and access to the communities of prayer, that are the reflection of the great community of the living Church.”
Sin and the 4 Last Things
“I think that we all are still perplexed by the Marxist claim that Christians only spoke of the supernatural world, with a lack of attention to the earthly world. We want to show that we truly are committed to working at the service of the world and we are not people who speak of distant realities that do nothing to help the world. Although it is right to show that Christians work for the world - and all of us are called to work so that this world may truly become a city for God and of God - we should not forget the other dimension. Without having it in mind, we cannot work well for the world...When one does not know of God’s judgement, he does not know of the possibility of Hell, of the radical and ultimate failure of life, he does not know of the possibility and necessity of purification...We should speak as well, with precision, of sin as the possibility of destroying oneself and other people in other places in the world...Nowadays, we have grown accustomed to the thought: ‘What is sin?, God is immense, He knows us, so sin doesn’t count for anything; in the end, God will be good to everyone.’ It is a beautiful hope. However, justice and real guilt exist. Those who have destroyed man and the earth will not be allowed to sit at God’s table together with the victims. God makes justice. We should be aware of this...the need to follow the path of the Commandments, of which we should more frequently speak. These are truly guides on the path, and they teach us how to live well, how to choose life. Therefore, we should also speak of sin and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. A sincere man knows he is guilty, that he should start over, that he is in need of purification. And this is the marvellous reality that the Lord offers us: there is a possibility of renewal, of becoming new persons...”
Silence and contemplation
“We live amidst an overabundance of words, images...I believe that the time of Lent can also be a time of fasting from words and images. We need a bit of silence. We need a space in time without being constantly bombarded with images. In this sense, today we need to make accessible and understandable the meaning of forty days of interior and exterior discipline, which is so important in helping us to understand that one of the purposes of our Lent, of this corporal and spiritual discipline, is to create spaces of time in silence, without images so as to open our hearts once again to the True Image and the True Word.”
Dialogue and Mission
“On the one hand, dialogue is absolutely necessary, this need to know one another, show respect and try to collaborate in any way possible in the great objectives of mankind, or its great needs, in order to overcome fanaticism and create a spirit of love and peace. And this is also the spirit of the Gospel, whose meaning is found in that the spirit of love, that we have learned from Jesus, and the peace that He gives us through the Cross, may be universally present in the world. In this sense, dialogue should be true dialogue, respecting the other and accepting his differences. But it must also be evangelical, in the sense that its fundamental objective be to help men to live in love and spread this love throughout the entire world. This dimension of dialogue, which is so necessary - that is, the respect for the other, tolerance, co-operation - does not exclude the other - that is, the Gospel as gift, the gift of the greatest love, the greatest truth, that we cannot keep only to ourselves, but that we should offer to all, seeing as God gives them the freedom and the light they need to find the truth. This is the truth. And, therefore, this is also my path. The mission is not imposition, but rather it is an offering of the gift of God, allowing His goodness to enlighten people so they may find this gift of a real friendship with the God with a human face...I do not know if I have explained myself well: dialogue and mission - not only are they not opposed, but they also complement each other.” (1 - continues) (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 12/2/2008; righe 104, parole 1345)
