VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI grants special audience to men and women religious: “The Church needs your witness, she needs consecrated persons to face the challenges of the present day with courage and creativity”

Vatican City (Fides Service) - This morning in the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican Pope Benedict XVI granted a special audience to about 8,000 men and women religious working in the Rome diocese to whom he expressed his gratitude for the “much appreciated service” in social and pastoral realities. The Pope also mentioned “men and women in enclosed orders” and persons of consecrated life from Africa, Latin America and Asia in Rome for study or for work.
“Men and women religious have always been a much appreciated presence for the diocese of Rome” the Holy Father said, thanking those present for striving to meet the challenges to evangelisation in Rome’s “complex social e cultural context ”. “May your first and main purpose be to bear witness to God who must be listened to and loved with heart and soul and strength more than any other person or object. Do not be afraid to show yourselves visibly as consecrated persons and strive in every way to make it known that you belong to Christ, the hidden treasure for whom you have left everything”.
The Holy Father praised religious men and women who collaborate in various fields of pastoral in the diocese. “Continue along this path - said Benedict XVI - ever more faithful to your commitments, to the charisma of your institutes and guidelines of the local Church. This fidelity, you are aware, is possible if we are faithful in the small but indispensable daily commitments: fidelity to prayer and listening to the Word of God; fidelity to the service of the men and women of our day, according to one’s charisma; fidelity to Church teaching, beginning with the teaching on consecrated life; fidelity to the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist which sustain us in the difficult situations of life”.
Pope Benedict XVI encouraged those present “to build communities of brotherhood”, to demonstrate that “with the Gospel human relations can change, that love is not a utopia, indeed it is the secret for building a more fraternal world”… “the Church needs your witness, she needs persons of consecrated life who face the challenges of the present day with courage and creativity. In the face of spreading hedonism you are called to offer courageous witness of chastity as an expression of a heart which recognises the beauty and the value of God’s love. In the face of a thirst for money your simple life style and your readiness to service the most needy are a reminder that God is the true treasure which does not perish. In the face of individualism and relativism which lead people to be a norm unto themselves, you live a life of brotherhood and sisterhood ready to be co-ordinated and therefore obedient and this confirms that you confide in God for your realisation”.
Mentioning the Perfectae caritatis Decree on religious life issued 40 years ago by the Second Vatican Council the Pope said “for men and women of today often absorbed in worldly things consecrated persons who live in time but with their hearts projected beyond time are a sign that God himself is humanity’s final destiny”. At the end of his address the Holy Father thanked all men and women religious for the service to the Gospel, love for the poor and the suffering, commitment in the field of education and culture and unceasing prayer in monasteries and convents and all their multiform activities. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 10/12/2005, righe 40, parole 563)