ADDRESSES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 6, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the Good Friday sermon delivered today by Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa during the Celebration of the Lord's Passion in St. Peter's Basilica, and in the presence of Benedict XVI.

* * *

There were also some women

"Standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene" (John 19:25). Let us leave Mary his mother aside this time. Her presence on Calvary needs no explanation. She was his mother, and this by itself says everything; mothers do not abandon their children, not even one condemned to death. But why were the other women there? Who were they and how many were there?

The Gospels tell us the names of some of them: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, Salome, the mother of the sons of Zebedee, a certain Joanna and a certain Susanna (Luke 8:3). Having come with Jesus from Galilee, these women followed him, weeping, on the journey to Calvary (Luke 23:27-28). Now, on Golgotha, they watched "from a distance" (that is from the minimum distance permitted them), and from there, a little while later, they accompanied him in sorrow to the tomb, with Joseph of Arimathea (Luke 23:55).

This fact is too marked and too extraordinary to hastily pass over. We call them, with a certain masculine condescension, "the pious women," but they are much more than "pious women," they are "mothers of courage"! They defied the danger of openly showing themselves to be there on behalf of the one condemned to death. Jesus said: "Blessed is he who is not scandalized by me" (Luke 7:23). These women are the only ones who were not scandalized by him.

There has been animated discussion for quite some time about who it was that wanted Jesus' death: Was it the Jews or Pilate? One thing is certain in any case: It was men and not women. No woman was involved, not even indirectly, in his condemnation. Even the only pagan woman named in the accounts, Pilate's wife, dissociated herself from his condemnation (Matthew 27:19). Certainly Jesus died for the sins of women too, but historically they can say: "We are innocent of this man's blood" (Matthew 27:24).

This is one of the surest signs of the honesty and the historical reliability of the Gospels: The poor showing of the authors and inspirers of the Gospels and the marvelous figure cut by the women. Clearly the authors and inspirers of the Gospels saw the story they were telling as infinitely greater than their own miserableness and were thus drawn to be faithful to it. Otherwise, who would have allowed the ignominy of their own fear, flight, and denial -- which was made to look worse by the very different conduct of the women -- recorded for posterity.

It has always been asked why it was the "pious women" who were the first to see the Risen Christ and receive the task of announcing it to the apostles. This was the more certain way of making the Resurrection credible. The testimony of women had no weight and much less that of a woman, like Mary Magdalene, who had been possessed by demons (Mark 16:9). It is probably for this reason that no woman figures in Paul's long list of those who had seen the Risen Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:5-8). The same apostles took the words of the women as "an idle tale," an entirely female thing, and did not believe them (Luke 24:11).

The ancient authors thought they knew the answer to this question. Romanos the Melode exhorts the apostles to not be offended by the precedence accorded to the women. They were the first to see the Risen Christ, he said, because a woman, Eve, was the first to sin![1] The real answer is different: The women were the first to see him because they were the last to leave him for dead after his death when they came to bring spices to his tomb to anoint him (Mark 16:1).

We must ask ourselves about this fact: Why were the women untroubled by the scandal of the cross? Why did they stay when everything seem finished, and when even his closest disciples had abandoned him and were secretly planning to go back home?

Jesus had already given the answer to this question when, replying to Simon, he said of the woman who had washed and kissed his feet: "She has loved much" (Luke 7:47)! The women had followed Jesus for himself, out of gratitude for the good they had received from him, not for the hope of getting some benefit from him or having a career from following him. "Twelve thrones" were not promised to them, nor had they asked to sit at his right hand in his kingdom. They followed him, it is written, "to serve him" (Luke 8:3; Matthew 27:55); they were the only ones, after Mary his mother, to have assimilated the spirit of the Gospel.

They followed the reasoning of the heart and this had not deceived him. In this there presence near to the crucified and risen Christ contains a vital teaching for today. Our civilization, dominated by technology, needs a heart to survive in it without being dehumanized. We have to give more room to the "reasons of the heart," if humanity is not to fail in this ice age.

In this, quite differently than in other areas, technology is of little help to us. For a long time now there has been work on a computer that "thinks" and many are convinced that there will be success. But (fortunately!) no one has yet proposed inventing a computer that "loves," that is moved, that meets man on the affective plane, facilitating love, as computers facilitate the calculation of the distance between the stars, the movement of atoms, and the memorizing of data.

The improvement of man's intelligence and capacity to know does not go forward at the same rate as improvement in his capacity to love. The latter does not seem to count for much and yet we know well that happiness or unhappiness on earth does not depend so much on knowing or not-knowing as much as it does on loving or not loving, on being loved or not being loved. It is not hard to understand why we are so anxious to increase our knowledge but not so worried about increasing our capacity to love: Knowledge automatically translates into power, love into service.

One of the modern idolatries is the "IQ" idolatry, of the "intelligence quotient." Numerous methods of measuring intelligence have been proposed, even if all have so far proved to be in large part unreliable. Who is concerned with the "quotient of the heart"? And yet what Paul said always remains true: "Knowledge puffs up, love builds up" (1 Corinthians 8:1). Secular culture is no longer able to draw this truth from its religious source, in Paul, but perhaps it is ready to underwrite it when it returns in literary garments. Love alone redeems and saves, while science and the thirst for knowledge, by itself, is able to lead Faust and his imitators to damnation.

After so many ages had spoken of human beings by taking names from man -- "homo erectus," "homo faber," and today's "homo sapiens-sapiens" -- it is good for humanity that the age of woman is finally dawning: an era of the heart, of compassion, of peace, and this earth ceases to be "the threshing floor which makes us so fierce."[2]

From every part there emerges the exigency to give more room to women in society and in religion. We do not believe that "the eternal feminine will save us."[3] Everyday experience shows us that women can "lift us up," but they can also cast us down. She too needs to be saved, neither more nor less than man. But it is certain that once she is redeemed by Christ and "liberated" on the human level from ancient subjugations, woman can contribute to saving our society from some profound evils that threaten it: inhuman cruelty, will to power, spiritual dryness, disdain for life.

But we must avoid repeating the ancient gnostic mistake according to which woman, in order to save herself, must cease to be a woman and must become a man.[4] Pro-male prejudice is so deeply rooted in society that women themselves have ended up succumbing to it. To affirm their dignity, they have sometimes believed it necessary to minimize or deny the difference of the sexes, reducing it to a product of culture. "Women are not born, they become," as one of their illustrious representatives has said.[5]

This tendency seems to have been overcome. In postmodern thought the ideal is no longer indifference but equal dignity. Difference in general is beginning to be seen as creative, whether for men or for women. Each of the two sexes represents "the other" and stimulates openness and creativity, since what defines the human person is precisely his being in relation. "Man is prideful," writes the poet Claudel; "There was no other way to get him to understand his neighbor, to get inside his skin; there was no other way to get him to understand dependence, necessity, the need for another than himself, than through the law of being different [a man or a woman]."[6]

How grateful we must be to the "pious women"! Along the way to Calvary, their sobbing was the only friendly sound that reached the Savior's ears; while he hung on the cross, their gaze was the only one that fell upon him with love and compassion.

The Byzantine liturgy honored the pious women, dedicating a Sunday of the liturgical year to them, the second Sunday after Easter, which has the name "Sunday of the Ointment Bearing Women." Jesus is happy that in the Church the women who loved him and believed in him when he was alive are honored. Of one of them -- the woman who poured the perfumed oil on his head -- he made this prophecy that has come true over the centuries: "Wherever in the whole world this Gospel is preached what she has done will be told in memory of her" (Matthew 26:13).

The pious women must not only be admired and honored, but imitated. St. Leo the Great says that "Christ's passion is prolonged to the end of ages"[7] and Pascal wrote that "Christ will be in agony until the end of the world."[8] The passion is prolonged in members of the Body of Christ. The many religious and lay women are the heirs of the "pious women" who today are at the side of the poor, those sick with AIDS, prisoners, all those rejected by society. To them, believers and nonbelievers, Christ repeats: "You have done this for me" (Matthew 25:40).

The pious women are examples for Christian women today not only for the role they played in the Passion but also for the one they played in the Resurrection. From one end of the Bible to the other we meet the "Go!" of the missions ordered by God. It is the word addressed to Abraham and Moses ("Go, Moses, into the land of Egypt"), to the prophets, to the apostles: "Go out to all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."

They are all "Go's!" addressed to men. There is only one "Go!" addressed to women, the one addressed to the ointment bearers the morning of the resurrection: "Jesus said to them, 'Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me'" (Matthew 28:10). With these words they were made the first witnesses of the resurrection.

It is a shame that, because of the later erroneous identification of Mary Magdalene with the sinful woman who washed Jesus' feet (Luke 7:37), she ended up giving rise to numerous ancient and modern legends and she has entered into the devotions and art in "penitent" garments, instead of as the first witness of the resurrection, the "apostolorum apostola" (apostle of the apostles), according to St. Thomas Aquinas' definition.[9]

"The women departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples" (Matthew 28:8). Christian women, continue to bring the successors of the apostles and to us priests, who are their collaborators, the good news: "The Master lives! He has risen! He precedes you into Galilee, that is, wherever you go!" Continue to give us courage, continue to defend life. Together with the other women of the world you are the hope of a more human world.

To the first among the "pious women," and their incomparable model, the mother of Jesus, we repeat this ancient prayer of the Church: "Holy Mary, succor of the miserable, support of the fearful, comfort of the weak: pray for the people, intervene for the clergy, intercede for the devoted female sex" (Ora pro populo, interveni pro clero, intercede pro devoto femineo sexu).[10]


References:
[1] Romanos the Melode, "Hymns," 45, 6.
[2] Dante Alighieri, Paradiso, 22, v.151.
[3] W. Goethe, "Faust," finale, part II.
[4] Cf. Coptic Gospel of Thomas, 114; Excerpts of Theodotus, 21,3.
[5] Simone de Beauvoir, "The Second Sex," 1949.
[6] P. Claudel, "The Satin Slipper," act III, scene 8.
[7] St. Leo the Great, Sermon 70, 5 (PL 54, 383).
[8] B. Pascal, "Pensées," n. 553 Br.
[9] St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Gospel of John, XX, 2519.
[10] Antiphon to the Magnificat, Common of Virgins.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 07/04/2007 17.11]

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's words to the faithful gathered at the Roman Colosseum and those who followed the ritual on worldwide radio and television last night:

Dear brothers and sisters,

Following Jesus along the way of His Passion, we see not only the passion of Jesus, but all those who suffer in the world, and this is the profound intention of prayer in the Via Crucis: to open our hearts and help us to see with the heart.

The Fathers of the Church considered that the greatest sin of the pagan world was insensitivity and hardness of heart, and they loved the prophecy of the prophet Ezekiel: "I will take away your heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh" (cf Ez 32,26).

To convert to Christ, to become a Christian, meant to receive a heart of flesh, a human heart sensitive to the passions and sufferings of others.

Our God is not a remote god, untouchable in His beatitude; our God has a heart. He has a heart of flesh. He took on flesh precisely to be able to suffer ith us and be with us in our sufferings. He became man to give us a heart of flesh and to awaken in us love for those who suffer and are needy.

Let us pray to the Lord at this time for all those who suffer in the world. Let us pray to the Lord that He may truly give us a heart of flesh, and that He may make us messengers of His love not only with words but with all our life. Amen.

The Vatican Press Office released the text in all the official languages of the Vatican. Here is the English version.

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Saint Peter's Basilica
Holy Saturday, 7 April 2007


Dear Brothers and Sisters!

From ancient times the liturgy of Easter day has begun with the words: Resurrexi et adhuc tecum sum – I arose, and am still with you; you have set your hand upon me. The liturgy sees these as the first words spoken by the Son to the Father after his resurrection, after his return from the night of death into the world of the living. The hand of the Father upheld him even on that night, and thus he could rise again.

These words are taken from Psalm 138, where originally they had a different meaning. That Psalm is a song of wonder at God’s omnipotence and omnipresence, a hymn of trust in the God who never allows us to fall from his hands. And his hands are good hands.

The Psalmist imagines himself journeying to the farthest reaches of the cosmos – and what happens to him?

“If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, ‘Let only darkness cover me’…, even the darkness is not dark to you…; for darkness is as light with you” (Ps 138[139]:8-12).

On Easter day the Church tells us that Jesus Christ made that journey to the ends of the universe for our sake. In the Letter to the Ephesians we read that he descended to the depths of the earth, and that the one who descended is also the one who has risen far above the heavens, that he might fill all things (cf. 4:9ff.). The vision of the Psalm thus became reality.

In the impenetrable gloom of death Christ came like light – the night became as bright as day and the darkness became as light. And so the Church can rightly consider these words of thanksgiving and trust as words spoken by the Risen Lord to his Father: “Yes, I have journeyed to the uttermost depths of the earth, to the abyss of death, and brought them light; now I have risen and I am upheld for ever by your hands.”

But these words of the Risen Christ to the Father have also become words which the Lord speaks to us: “I arose and now I am still with you,” he says to each of us. My hand upholds you. Wherever you may fall, you will always fall into my hands. I am present even at the door of death. Where no one can accompany you further, and where you can bring nothing, even there I am waiting for you, and for you I will change darkness into light.

These words of the Psalm, read as a dialogue between the Risen Christ and ourselves, also explain what takes place at Baptism. Baptism is more than a bath, a purification. It is more than becoming part of a community. It is a new birth. A new beginning in life.

The passage of the Letter to the Romans which we have just read says, in words filled with mystery, that in Baptism we have been “grafted” onto Christ by likeness to his death. In Baptism we give ourselves over to Christ – he takes us unto himself, so that we no longer live for ourselves, but through him, with him and in him; so that we live with him and thus for others.

In Baptism we surrender ourselves, we place our lives in his hands, and so we can say with Saint Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”

If we offer ourselves in this way, if we accept, as it were, the death of our very selves, this means that the frontier between death and life is no longer absolute. On either side of death we are with Christ and so, from that moment forward, death is no longer a real boundary.

Paul tells us this very clearly in his Letter to the Philippians: “For me to live is Christ. To be with him (by dying) is gain. Yet if I remain in this life, I can still labour fruitfully. And so I am hard pressed between these two things. To depart – by being executed – and to be with Christ; that is far better. But to remain in this life is more necessary on your account” (cf. 1:21ff.).

On both sides of the frontier of death, Paul is with Christ – there is no longer a real difference. Yes, it is true: “Behind and before you besiege me, your hand ever laid upon me” (Ps 138 [139]: 5).

To the Romans Paul wrote: “No one … lives to himself and no one dies to himself… Whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom 14:7ff.).

Dear candidates for Baptism, this is what is new about Baptism: our life now belongs to Christ, and no longer to ourselves. As a result we are never alone, even in death, but are always with the One who lives for ever.

In Baptism, in the company of Christ, we have already made that cosmic journey to the very abyss of death. At his side and, indeed, drawn up in his love, we are freed from fear. He enfolds us and carries us wherever we may go – he who is Life itself.

Let us return once more to the night of Holy Saturday. In the Creed we say about Christ’s journey that he “descended into hell.” What happened then? Since we have no knowledge of the world of death, we can only imagine his triumph over death with the help of images which remain very inadequate. Yet, inadequate as they are, they can help us to understand something of the mystery.

The liturgy applies to Jesus’ descent into the night of death the words of Psalm 23[24]: “Lift up your heads, O gates; be lifted up, O ancient doors!” The gates of death are closed, no one can return from there. There is no key for those iron doors.

But Christ has the key. His Cross opens wide the gates of death, the stern doors. They are barred no longer. His Cross, his radical love, is the key that opens them. The love of the One who, though God, became man in order to die – this love has the power to open those doors. This love is stronger than death.

The Easter icons of the Oriental Church show how Christ enters the world of the dead. He is clothed with light, for God is light. “The night is bright as the day, the darkness is as light” (cf. Ps 138[139]12).

Entering the world of the dead, Jesus bears the stigmata, the signs of his passion: his wounds, his suffering, have become power: they are love that conquers death. He meets Adam and all the men and women waiting in the night of death. As we look at them, we can hear an echo of the prayer of Jonah: “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice” (Jn 2:2).

In the incarnation, the Son of God became one with human beings – with Adam. But only at this moment, when he accomplishes the supreme act of love by descending into the night of death, does he bring the journey of the incarnation to its completion. By his death he now clasps the hand of Adam, of every man and woman who awaits him, and brings them to the light.

But we may ask: what is the meaning of all this imagery? What was truly new in what happened on account of Christ? The human soul was created immortal – what exactly did Christ bring that was new?

The soul is indeed immortal, because man in a unique way remains in God’s memory and love, even after his fall. But his own powers are insufficient to lift him up to God. We lack the wings needed to carry us to those heights. And yet, nothing else can satisfy man eternally, except being with God. An eternity without this union with God would be a punishment. Man cannot attain those heights on his own, yet he yearns for them.

“Out of the depths I cry to you…” Only the Risen Christ can bring us to complete union with God, to the place where our own powers are unable to bring us.

Truly Christ puts the lost sheep upon his shoulders and carries it home. Clinging to his Body we have life, and in communion with his Body we reach the very heart of God. Only thus is death conquered, we are set free and our life is hope.

This is the joy of the Easter Vigil: we are free. In the resurrection of Jesus, love has been shown to be stronger than death, stronger than evil. Love made Christ descend, and love is also the power by which he ascends. The power by which he brings us with him.

In union with his love, borne aloft on the wings of love, as persons of love, let us descend with him into the world’s darkness, knowing that in this way we will also rise up with him.

On this night, then, let us pray: Lord, show us that love is stronger than hatred, that love is stronger than death. Descend into the darkness and the abyss of our modern age, and take by the hand those who await you. Bring them to the light! In my own dark nights, be with me to bring me forth!

Help me, help all of us, to descend with you into the darkness of all those people who are still waiting for you, who out of the depths cry unto you! Help us to bring them your light! Help us to say the “yes” of love, the love that makes us descend with you and, in so doing, also to rise with you. Amen!

URBI ET ORBI MESSAGE
OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE BENEDICT XVI
EASTER 2007


Dear Brothers and Sisters throughout the world,
Men and women of good will!

Christ is risen! Peace to you!

Today we celebrate the great mystery, the foundation of Christian faith and hope: Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified One, has risen from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures.

We listen today with renewed emotion to the announcement proclaimed by the angels on the dawn of the first day after the Sabbath, to Mary of Magdala and to the women at the sepulchre: “Why do you search among the dead for one who is alive? He is not here, he is risen!” (Lk 24:5-6).

It is not difficult to imagine the feelings of these women at that moment: feelings of sadness and dismay at the death of their Lord, feelings of disbelief and amazement before a fact too astonishing to be true.

But the tomb was open and empty: the body was no longer there.
Peter and John, having been informed of this by the women, ran to the sepulchre and found that they were right.

The faith of the Apostles in Jesus, the expected Messiah, had been submitted to a severe trial by the scandal of the cross. At his arrest, his condemnation and death, they were dispersed. Now they are together again, perplexed and bewildered.

But the Risen One himself comes in response to their thirst for greater certainty. This encounter was not a dream or an illusion or a subjective imagination; it was a real experience, even if unexpected, and all the more striking for that reason. “Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘peace be with you!’” (Jn 20:19).

At these words their faith, which was almost spent within them, was re-kindled. The Apostles told Thomas who had been absent from that first extraordinary encounter: Yes, the Lord has fulfilled all that he foretold; he is truly risen and we have seen and touched him! Thomas however remained doubtful and perplexed.

When Jesus came for a second time, eight days later in the Upper Room, he said to him: “put your finger here and see my hands; and put out your hand and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing!” The Apostle’s response is a moving profession of faith: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:27-28).

“My Lord and my God!” We too renew that profession of faith of Thomas. I have chosen these words for my Easter greetings this year, because humanity today expects from Christians a renewed witness to the resurrection of Christ; it needs to encounter him and to know him as true God and true man.

If we can recognize in this Apostle the doubts and uncertainties of so many Christians today, the fears and disappointments of many of our contemporaries, with him we can also rediscover with renewed conviction, faith in Christ dead and risen for us.

This faith, handed down through the centuries by the successors of the Apostles, continues on because the Risen Lord dies no more. He lives in the Church and guides it firmly towards the fulfilment of his eternal design of salvation.

We may all be tempted by the disbelief of Thomas. Suffering, evil, injustice, death, especially when it strikes the innocent such as children who are victims of war and terrorism, of sickness and hunger, does not all of this put our faith to the test?

Paradoxically the disbelief of Thomas is most valuable to us in these cases because it helps to purify all false concepts of God and leads us to discover his true face: the face of a God who, in Christ, has taken upon himself the wounds of injured humanity.

Thomas has received from the Lord, and has in turn transmitted to the Church, the gift of a faith put to the test by the passion and death of Jesus and confirmed by meeting him risen. His faith was almost dead but was born again thanks to his touching the wounds of Christ, those wounds that the Risen One did not hide but showed, and continues to point out to us in the trials and sufferings of every human being.

“By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pt 2:24). This is the message Peter addressed to the early converts. Those wounds that, in the beginning were an obstacle for Thomas’s faith, being a sign of Jesus’ apparent failure, those same wounds have become in his encounter with the Risen One, signs of a victorious love.

These wounds that Christ has received for love of us help us to understand who God is and to repeat: “My Lord and my God!” Only a God who loves us to the extent of taking upon himself our wounds and our pain, especially innocent suffering, is worthy of faith.

How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world! Natural calamities and human tragedies that cause innumerable victims and enormous material destruction are not lacking.

My thoughts go to recent events in Madagascar, in the Solomon Islands, in Latin America and in other regions of the world.

I am thinking of the scourge of hunger, of incurable diseases, of terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons.

I look with apprehension at the conditions prevailing in several regions of Africa. In Darfur and in the neighbouring countries there is a catastrophic, and sadly to say underestimated, humanitarian situation.

In Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo the violence and looting of the past weeks raises fears for the future of the Congolese democratic process and the reconstruction of the country.

In Somalia the renewed fighting has driven away the prospect of peace and worsened a regional crisis, especially with regard to the displacement of populations and the traffic of arms.

Zimbabwe is in the grip of a grievous crisis and for this reason the Bishops of that country in a recent document indicated prayer and a shared commitment for the common good as the only way forward.

Likewise the population of East Timor stands in need of reconciliation and peace as it prepares to hold important elections.

Elsewhere too, peace is sorely needed: in Sri Lanka only a negotiated solution can put an end to the conflict that causes so much bloodshed.

Afghanistan is marked by growing unrest and instability;.

In the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestinian authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees.

In Lebanon the paralysis of the country’s political institutions threatens the role that the country is called to play in the Middle East and puts its future seriously in jeopardy.

Finally, I cannot forget the difficulties faced daily by the Christian communities and the exodus of Christians from that blessed Land which is the cradle of our faith. I affectionately renew to these populations the expression of my spiritual closeness.

Dear Brothers and sisters, through the wounds of the Risen Christ we can see the evils which afflict humanity with the eyes of hope.

In fact, by his rising the Lord has not taken away suffering and evil from the world but has vanquished them at their roots by the superabundance of his grace. He has countered the arrogance of evil with the supremacy of his love.

He has left us the love that does not fear death, as the way to peace and joy. “Even as I have loved you – he said to his disciples before his death – so you must also love one another” (cf. Jn 13:34).

Brothers and sisters in faith, who are listening to me from every part of the world! Christ is risen and he is alive among us. It is he who is the hope of a better future.

As we say with Thomas: “My Lord and my God!”, may we hear again in our hearts the beautiful yet demanding words of the Lord: “If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honour him” (Jn 12:26).

United to him and ready to offer our lives for our brothers (cf. 1 Jn 3:16), let us become apostles of peace, messengers of a joy that does not fear pain – the joy of the Resurrection.

May Mary, Mother of the Risen Christ, obtain for us this Easter gift. Happy Easter to you all.



THE POPE'S EASTER GREETINGS TO ALL THE NATIONS

He said it in 62 languages, but since many of these languages have alphabets not supported by the ffz-system, here is the link to teh Vatican text:

212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/20011.php?index=20011...



In English, he said:

May the grace and joy
of the Risen Christ be with you all!

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/04/2007 17.01]

At 10:00 a.m. today, the Second Sunday of Easter, the Sunday of Divine Mercy, the Holy Father Benedict XVI presided at the Eucharistic Celebration on the occasion of his 80th birthday. at St. Peter's Square.



Sixty cardinals concelebrated with the Pope, along with archbishops and bishops, heads of the Roman dicasteries, the Auxiliary Bishops and representatives of the clergy of he Diocese of Rome.

Present was a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople led by His Eminence Ioannis (Zizioulias), Metropolitan of Pergamum, as personal envoy of His Holiness
Bartholomew I.

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's homily:


Dear brothers and sisters,

According to an old tradition, today's Sunday is called White Sunday, Domenica in albis. On this day, the neophytes baptized at the Easter vigil donned once again their white garments, symbol of the light the Lord had given them at Baptism.

They would later take off these garments, but the new light that had been communicated to them they would now have to introduce into their day-to-day routine. The delicate flame of truth and goodness that the Lord had lit in them they would now have to guard diligently in order to bring into the world something of the truth and goodness of God.

The Holy Father John Paul II wished that this Sunday should be celebrated as the Feast of Divine Mercy. In the word 'mercy' , he found the entire mystery of Redemption summarized and interpreted anew for our time.

He lived under two dictatorial regimes, and in contact with poverty, need and violence, he experienced profoundly the power of darkness, which continues to beset our world today.

But he also experienced, and not less strongly, the presence of God which opposes itself to all these forces of darkness with a power totally different and divine: with the power of mercy. It is mercy which sets a limit to evil. In it is expressed God's unique nature - his sacredness, the power of truth and love.

Two years ago, after the first Vespers of this Feast, John Paul II's earthly existence came to an end. In dying, he entered into the light of Divine Mercy, from which, beyond death and from his place with God, he speaks to us today in a new way.

Have trust, he tells us, in Divine Mercy. Become day after day men and women who bear God's mercy. Mercy is the garment of light that the Lord has given us in Baptism. We should not let this light go out. On the contrary, it should grow in us day after day and thus bring to the world the happy news of God.

And on these days that are particularly illuminated by the light of Divine Mercy is a coincidence that is significant to me: I can now look back at 80 years of life.

I greet all who are here today to celebrate this occasion with me. I greet above all the Lord Cardinals, with a special thought of gratitude to the dean of the College of Cardinals, His Eminence Angelo Sodano, who has expressed sentiments on behalf of all.

I greet the Archbishops and Bishops, among them the auxiliaries of the Diocese of Rome, my diocese. I greet the priests and other members of the clergy, the religious and all the faithful present.

I address respectful and grateful greetings to the political personalities and members of the Diplomatic Corps who have honored me with their presence.

And I greet with fraternal affection the personal envoy of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, His Eminence Ioannis, Metropolitan of Pergamum, expressing my appreciation for this kind gesture and the wish that the Catholic-Orthodox theological dialog may progress with renewed pace.

We are gathered to reflect on the completion of a not-brief period of my existence. Obviously, the liturgy should not be used to speak of one's own self, but one's life can serve to proclaim the mercy of God.

"Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what He has done for me," says a Psalm (63[66],16). I have always considered it a great gift of Divine Mercy that my birth and rebirth were granted to me together, as it were, on the same day, in the sign of the Easter Vigil. And so on the same day, I was born into my own family and into the family of God.

And I thank God because I have experienced what 'family' means. I have experienced what 'fatherhood' means, such that I have been made to understand the word of God the Father internally. Human experience has given me access to the great and benevolent Father who is in heaven.

Before Him, we carry a responsibility, but at the same time, He gives us confidence because in His justice, there is always that mercy and goodness with which He accepts our weaknesses and supports us, so that gradually, we may learn to walk straight.

I thank God because I experienced profoundly what maternal goodness means, being always open to whoever seeks shelter, and as such, able to give me my freedom. I thank God for my sister and brother who, with their help, were faithfully beside me throughout my life.

I thank God for the companions I met along the way, for the advisers and friends that He has given me. I am thankful in particular because from the very first day, I was able to enter and to grow in the great community of believers, among whom the frontiers between life and death, heaven and earth, have been thrown open.

I thank God for having learned so many things by drawing from the wisdom of this community, which encompasses not only all human experience from the most remote times: Their wisdom is not only human wisdom, but unites itself to God's own wisdom, eternal wisdom.

In the first Reading of this Sunday, we are told that in the early days of the nascent Church, people brought their sick to the public squares, so that when Peter passed by, his shadow could fall on them. To that shadow, they attributed a healing power.

Indeed, the shadow came from the light of Christ and therefore, it carried in it something of the power of Divine goodness. Peter's shadow, through the Catholic church, has fallen across my life from the very beginning, and I learned that it is a good shadow - a healing shadow because, precisely, it ultimately comes from Christ Himself.

Peter was a man with all the weaknesses of a human being, but above all, he was a man full of passionate faith in Christ, full of love for Him. Through his faith and his love, Christ's healing power, his unifying force, has reached all men even through all the weaknesses of Peter. So let us look for Peter's shadow even today, in order that we may be in the light of Christ.

Birth and rebirth. Earthly family and the family of God. This is the great gift of God's many mercies, the foundation on which we depend. But proceeding through life, I received another new but demanding gift: the call to priesthood.

On the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul in 1951 when we - there were 40 others - found ourselves in the Cathedral of Freising prostrate on the ground and on us were invoked all the saints, the consciousness of the poverty of my existence in the face of this new mission weighed on me. So it was a consolation that the protection of God's saints, living and dead, was invoked over us.

I knew I would not be left alone. And what trust was instilled by the words of Jesus, who during the liturgy of Ordination, we could hear from the lips of our Bishop: "I no longer call you servants, but friends"!

And I have been able to experience that profoundly. He, the Lord, is not just the Lord, but also a friend. He has placed His hand on me and He will not leave me. These words were pronounced later at the conferment of power to administer the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and therefore, in the name of Christ, to pardon sins.

It is the same thing we heard today in the Gospel: the Lord breathes on His disciples. He grants them his Spirit - the Holy Spirit: "Their sins will be remitted to whom you give remission..."

The Spirit of Jesus is the power of forgiveness. It is the power of Divine Mercy, which makes it possible to begin again, always anew. The friendship of Jesus is the friendship of Him who makes us forgiving, of Him who forgives even us, who raises us continuously from our weaknesses and that way, teaches us, instills in us the consciousness of our internal duty to love, the duty to reciprocate His trust with our loyalty.

In today's Gospel, we also heard the story of the encounter between the Apostle Thomas and the Risen Lord. The Apostle was allowed to touch His wounds and so to recognize Him. And he recognizes Him, beyond the human identity of Jesus of Nazareth, in his true and profound identity: "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20,28).

The Lord carries His wounds through eternity. He is a wounded God; He allowed Himself to be wounded out of love for us. The wounds are for us the sign that He understands us and that He allowed Himself to be wounded out of love for us. These wounds of His - how much we can touch them in the story of our times!

Indeed, the Lord is always allowing Himself to be wounded for us! What better guarantee of His mercy and what consolation that means for us! And what certainty it gives us about who He is: "My Lord and my God!" These words constitute for us a duty to allow ourselves to be wounded in turn for Him.

God's mercies accompany us every day. It is enough that we have a vigilant heart to perceive it. We are too inclined to take note only of the daily cares that are imposed on us, as sons of Adam. But if we open our hearts, then even immersed in our daily concerns, we can continuously see how God is good with us, how He thinks of us in the small things, thus helping us to deal with larger problems.

And with the growing weight of responsibility, the Lord also brought new help to my life. Repeatedly I see with grateful joy the ranks of those who sustain me with their prayers; who with their faith and their love help me to carry out my ministry; who are indulgent with my weaknesses, recognizing even in the shadow of Peter the beneficent light of Christ.

For this I give my heartfelt thanks to God and to you all. I would like to end this homily with a prayer by Saint Pope Leo the Great, that prayer which, 30 years ago, I wrote on the commemorative card of my episcopal ordination: "Pray to our good God, so that in our day, He may reinforce the faith, multiply love and increase the peace. May he make me, His poor servant, adequate for His work and useful for your edification, and grant that I may render service so that, along with the time I am given, my dedication should grow." Amen.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/04/2007 18.57]

Here is a translation of the German remarks addressed by the Holy Father to a delegation from the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising who had come to Rome with their Archbishop, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, to participate inthe celebration of the Pope's 80th birthday. The Pope met them in audience at the Sala Clementina yesterday.


Dear Cardinal, dear Canon, and dear friends!

There is so much to thank for that I do not know where to begin. And when the heart is full, sometimes words can come in a torrent, but one can also be dumbstruck. And at this moment, I lack the words to tell you the gratitude that I wish to express.

I would like first to thank you, dear brother, for all that you have given in these years as Archbishop of Munich - all your strength, your faith, your love, your knowledge and courage, your friendship. I believe the Archdiocese feels this, too, and knows that they have been led by a good shepherd. And let us pray to the dear Lord that He may help us find the right man who will take into his hands the shepherd's staff of St. Corbinian.

I wish especially to thank you all for everything that I experienced during those beautiful days of my visit to Bavaria, especially in Munich and Freising - for the love, the attention, the thoughtful preparations, the dedication, and of course, our praying together.

Those days - from the start, at the airport, at Marienplatz especially, in the Cathedral of Munich, in Freising Catehdral later, at the Mass and at the Bishop's Palace itself - remain luminous in my memory. Man needs helpful memories, and I will always make grateful wanderings through the landscape of memory, revisiting in particular those blessed days.

I thank all of you, my brother priests, with each of whom I am bound some way in a personal relationship, something I need not and cannot now recount. I know how you all - each in his own way - are rendering service for the Archdiocese, for the Church of God, in profound communion with him who has been chosen to be the Successor of Peter.

I know how, so to speak, an entire way of life and the offering of one's life, the interior struggle and effort of existence, are woven into your commitment that then radiates into the Archdiocese, so that you can live the faith in communion with the Church, in communion with the Lord and with our beloved Lady of Munich, and joyously set its course for the future.

You are indeed the Metropolitan Capital of our Lady - what a beautiful name, which binds the Metropolis, the mother-city of faith, with the Mother of Faith herself - bearing in this way all the warmth and heartiness of the faith characteristic of our Bavarian homeland.

I had two encouraging concersations this morning, first with the Minister-President of Bavaria, then with the Minister-President of Scleswig-Holstein. and both of them - though each with different origins and of wholly different temperaments - expressed the inner wisdom that faith opens up the future, and that in this time of an encounter of cultures and even the threat of conflict between cultures, it is very important that the inner strength of Christian faith, which is conciliatory and healing, should remain alive and steadfast in our people, to be a power for good in the future.

I had another fruitful encounter this morning, and that was with Metropolitan Ioannis Zizioulas of Pergamom, who was here as representative of the Patriarch of Constantinople and who is one of the greatest advocates of Catholic-Orthodox dialog. He is deeply convinced that rapprochement between Rome and the Orthodox Church has fundamental significance for the European continent and for the future of world history, that we should all do what we can so that this rapprocehment leads to brotherly communion from which the blessing of a communion of faith would follow: the blessing that mankind can see that we are 'one' Church, and on this basis, that everyone may come to believe in Christ.

I think that is our common mission: that each one in his own way commits himself to make the power of faith work in this world as a joy, as source of confidence, and as a gift.

I thank you once again for our encounter in Munich and for this meeting. Let us pray together that the Lord helps us, each of us, to do right so that our history may be blessed. A very sincere Vergelt's gott [=Thank you, but literally, "God will reward you"] for everything, and greet Bavaria for me!

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/04/2007 12.21]

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's remarks yesterday at the end of the luncheon given in his honor at the Sala Ducale of the Apostolic Palace by the cardinals present in Rome.


Dear brothers and friends,

At this time I can only say thank you with all my hear. Above all, thanks to the Dean of the Sacred College, for the words of exquisite kindness that he addressed to me yesterday, as well as for what he wrote in '30 Giorni', and then for all the thought that went into planning this beautiful meal, during which we have all experienced real collegiality and affection - I would say, not just collegiality, but authentic brotherhood.

We have experienced how beautiful it is to be together. ""Ecce quam bonum et quam iucundum / habitare fratres in unum" How good it is, how pleasant, where the people dwell as one! (Ps 133/132, 1).

I am grateful for this experience of brotherhood which I feel even in my daily life. Even if we do not see each continuously, I always know and acknowledge the collaboration of all those who help me. Thhe College of Caridnals really offers great and effective support to the work of the Successor of Peter.

I would also like to thank all the cardinals who wrote such beautiful things for 30 Giorni or for the special of Avvenire, and for other publications. and I thank those who did not write but who have thought about me and prayed for me.

The true gift of this day for me is the prayer which gives me the certainty that I am accepted from within, and above all, that I am helped and sustained in carrying out the Petrine ministry, a ministry I cannot carry out by myself but only in communion with all who help me, even just by praying that the Lord be with us all and be with me, too.

Today,in the Office of Readings we recited the words of a psalm which has the particular taste of truth and which are, to me, very invaluable. "In manibus tuis sortes meae" (Ps 31/30, 16); in the Italian translation we say,"My days are in your hands"
and in Greek, we say kairo nou.

All these words reflect the only truth, that our time, every day, the events of our life, our destinies, whatever we do, is in the hands of the good Lord. and it is with this great confidence that I can proceed, knowing that the hands of the Lord are also sustained by the hands and hearts of so many cardinals. And that, for me, is the reason for the great joy of today. I thank you all and wish you the best.


Earlier, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals, delivered thse words in behalf of the other cardinals:


Holiness, today the College of Cardinals is tempted to deny the Psalmist words according to which, upon reaching 80 years, all that's left is work and pain, 'labor et dolor.'

Actually, the Psalmist was already belied by Deuteronomy which tells us that Moses reahed the age of 120 in full vigor. Rather, Sacred Scripture telld us that not even his vision was clouded: Non caligavit oculus eius - No cloud ever reached his eye (Dt 34,7).

And thus today it seems to us that the verse has been fully overcome when we admire the vigor and the serenity with which you are at the helm of the boat of Peter

Today, the cardinals in the city have wantred to bne with you to show you their closeness on such an important day in your life. Thre are 48 cardinals present, and another 9 are here in spirit. They are unable, for various reasons, to be with us, First mong them being Cardinal Sticler, who is 97.

The others who have asked to be excused and wish to present their greeting to Your Holiness, are Cardinals Lourdusamy, Innocenti, Deskur, Felici, Sánchez, Noè and Angelini.

Holy Father, please accept our most fervent best wishes from us and those who are absent on this beawutiful day. Among those present, the oldest is our dear Cardinal Mayer at 96, and the youngest is cArdinal Tauran, at 64.

So you see, Holy Father, today everyone is showing not ingravescentem aetatem, a weighing down by age, but rather a florescentem aetatem, a flowering with age.

I have invited to join us who are here from the Curia our venerated brother Cardinal Friedrish Wetter, your successor in the See of Munich and Freising which is so dear to you.

Together we all took part yesterday in the Mass of tTanksgiving at St. Peter's Square, and now, we wanted to be with you again to show our closeness at such a significant moment of your life.

On this occasion, the Cardinals of the Curia have entrusted me wtih delivering to you an offering that they have put togeether among themselves to contribute to your works of charity. And so I am very glad to present you with this check for 100,000 euros with our prayers that this may be given to the needs of Christians in the Holy Land.

It is a small sign of fratenal agape, of that charity which You,Holy Father, have often called for. I was with you in Regensburg last September 12 when in your homily in that beautiful cathedral, you said that in love everything is enclosed (avvilupato) but then, that this love should develop (sciluppato), unfold into our eberyday lie.

Today we want to unfold that love by putting at your disposal this small gesture of charity for our suffering brothers in the Land of Jesus of Nazareth.

With these sentiments,Holy Father, I reiterate the greetings in the name of all the Cardinals present, as well as in the name of the members of the Pontifical Family who are with us, and I wish you from the heart, in the name of all, ad multos annos, ad multos felicissimos annos. Thank you.

Here is the Vatican's official translation of the remarks delivered by the Holy Father at the end of the concert in his honor on April 16, released 4/17/07 through ZENIT. The Holy Father spoke in German and Italian.

CONCERT FOR THE HOLY FATHER'S 80th BIRTHDAY
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Paul VI Audience Hall
Monday, 16 April 2007

Your Eminences,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,

At the end of this marvellous concert at which the Stuttgart Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra have offered us a gift by uplifting our hearts, I would like to greet you all warmly.

I thank Minister Willi Stächele and Prof. Peter Voss, Director of the Südwestrundfunk, for their courteous words to me at the beginning.

I willingly and joyfully accepted your musical gift, this marvellous birthday present from Southwest Germany, especially because the Baden-Württemberg Land is linked to an important and formative phase of my life. The Minister has already mentioned my roots.

In fact, I willingly think back to my years at Tübingen, to the intellectual and scientific exchange in that university and the many precious meetings with people which I had there and which continued for years and decades and are still taking place.

Above all, I would now like to thank the musicians of this evening's event, the members of the Stuttgarter Radio-Sinfonieorchesters, the SWR, who with their skill have offered us all an authentic experience of the inspiring power of great music.

I thank Gustavo Dudamel, the conductor, and Hilary Hahn, the soloist, and all of you, Ladies and Gentlemen. Since the language of music is universal, we see people from completely different cultural and religious backgrounds who let themselves be gripped and likewise guided by it and who also interpret it.

Today, this universal aspect of music is given special emphasis, thanks to the electronic and digital instruments of communications. How many people there are in the most diverse countries who are able to take part in this musical performance at home, or experience it later!

I am convinced that music - and here I am thinking in particular of the great Mozart and this evening, of course, of the marvellous music by Gabrieli and the majestic "New World" by Dvorák-- really is the universal language of beauty which can bring together all people of good will on earth and get them to lift their gaze on high and open themselves to the Absolute Good and Beauty whose ultimate source is God himself.

In looking back over my life, I thank God for placing music beside me, as it were, as a travelling companion that has offered me comfort and joy. I also thank the people who from the very first years of my childhood brought me close to this source of inspiration and serenity.

I thank those who combine music and prayer in harmonious praise of God and his works: they help us glorify the Creator and Redeemer of the world, which is the marvellous work of his hands.

This is my hope: that the greatness and beauty of music will also give you, dear friends, new and continuous inspiration in order to build a world of love, solidarity and peace.

For this I invoke upon us who are gathered this evening in the Vatican and upon everyone who is linked to us via radio and television the constant protection of God, of that God of love who desires to kindle ceaselessly in our hearts the flame of good, and to feed it with his grace. May he, the Lord and Giver of new and definitive life, whose victory we are joyfully celebrating in this Easter Season, bless you all!

I thank you once again for your presence and for your good wishes.

A Happy Easter Season to everyone!

Thank you!

[Translation issued by the Holy See]
© Copyright 2007 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/04/2007 0.41]

Here are the remarks the Holy Father delivered in English to members of the Papal Foundation at the Sala Clementina today:


Dear Friends,

I am pleased to greet the members of The Papal Foundation on the occasion of your annual pilgrimage to Rome. This year our meeting is once again filled with the joy of the Easter season, in which the Church commemorates Christ’s passover from death to life, the dawn of the new creation and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

May the same Spirit fill your hearts with gifts of wisdom, joy and peace, and may your pilgrimage to the tombs of the apostles and martyrs renew your love of the Lord and his Church.

Since its inception, The Papal Foundation has sought to advance the Church’s mission by supporting specific charities close to the heart of the Successor of Peter in his solicitude for all the Churches (cf. 1 Cor 11:28).

I willingly take this occasion to express my gratitude not only for the assistance which the Foundation has given to developing countries through grants supporting a variety of educational and charitable projects, but also through the many scholarships provided to Pontifical Universities here in Rome for lay faithful, priests and religious.

In this way, you are making a significant contribution to the formation of future leaders whose minds and hearts are shaped by the teaching of the Gospel, the wisdom of Catholic social teaching and a profound sense of communion with the universal Church in her service to the entire human family.

During this Easter season I encourage all of you to discover ever more fully in the Eucharist, the sacrament of Christ’s sacrificial love, the inspiration and strength needed to work ever more generously for the spread of God’s Kingdom and the growth of the civilization of love (cf. Sacramentum Caritatis, 90).

With great affection I commend you and your families to the loving intercession of Mary, Mother of the Church, and cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of joy and peace in the Lord.

================================================================

Not having posted any report on this activity, let me add here a backgrounder on the foundation, from Rocco Palmo who is familiar with it as it is based in his home city of Philadelphia:

Speaking of the John Krol legacy, one of its more prominent fruits is back in the Roman spotlight this week as the trustees and members of the Papal Foundation undertake their annual pilgrimage to the Eternal City.

Established by Krol shortly after the late Pharaoh's 1988 retirement, the Philly-based foundation aids the Holy See in its ability to lend a hand to worthy ecclesial projects (e.g. churches, seminaries, schools and hospitals) in struggling local churches, with a particular focus on the countries of the former Eastern Bloc.

Its grants are decided on the basis of requests sent to the Vatican and green-lighted by the Pope, which are then forwarded to the foundation by the Secretariat of State.

Dubbed the "Stewards of St Peter," the group's members - price of admission: $1 million... eternal reward: priceless - converge for the weeklong pilgrimage led by its two-tiered board, the top half of which is comprised of all the US' resident cardinals as ex officio members.

Like his predecessor, the foundation is the prime work of Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua's retirement; he chairs it, and Washington's archbishop-emeritus Cardinal Theodore McCarrick serves as its president.

The ecclesiastical fund-raiser of the epoch, it's become part of his rainmaking legend that McCarrick - who was instrumental in the effort's beginnings - once scored a cool $15 million for it... in one night.

With an eye to the next generation of what, at last year's pilgrimage-capping audience, no less than B16 himself lauded as "the help you give me in carrying out my mission to care for Christ’s flock in every corner of the world," the board recently welcomed to its number Bishops Michael Bransfield of Wheeling-Charleston and Michael Burbidge of Raleigh, native Philadelphians both.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/04/2007 15.58]

Here is a translation of the remarks given by the Holy Father to the people of Vigevano, particularly the youth and the sick, from the balcony of the Bishop's Palace shortly after his arrival this afternoon.




Dear brothers and sisters,

I am happy to be among you and I thank you for your heartwarming and festive welcome. Getting off the helicopter, I could almost hear the echo of all the bells that rung in unison at noon in all your churches as a greeting to me, and I thank you for that gesture of affection.

My first meeting was with children from schools and sports associations who came to welcome me at the communal stadium. Then, along the route coming here, I saw so many people. I thank all of you and each of you.

Here at Vigevano, the only Lombard diocese not visited by my venerated predecessor John Paul II, I wished to begin my pastoral pilgrimage in Italy. It is like taking up where he left off in proclaiming to the men and women of our beloved Italy the news, ancient but ever new, that resounds with particular vigor during this Easter season: Christ is risen! Christ lives! Christ is with us today for always!

I greet the mayor of this city, whom I thank for the warm words of greeting that he addressed to me in the name of the community. I also thank from the heart all who cooperated in various ways to the preparation and realization of this visit, for which you prepared specially with prayer.

I address a special thought to the Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament whom I met shortly before arriving here - their prayerful presence constitutes for the entire diocese a perennial reminder to increasingly consider the importance of the Eucharist, center and summit of the life of the Church. To these dear sisters who have consecrated all their existence to the Lord, I send my encouragement and my appreciation.

And now I greet those who are sick, and although I am addressing you who are present today, I extend my thought to all those in the towns and cities of the Diocese who are in difficulty or who find themselves marginalized. May the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin be support and comfort for each one.

I address a special greeting to you, dear young people gathered in this Piazza today, and spiritually, I embrace all the youth of Vigevano and the Lomellina region.

Dear friends, the risen Christ renews to each of you His invitation to follow Him. Do not hesitate to trust in Him. Meet Him, listen to Him, love Him with all your heart. In friendship with Him, you will experience true joy which gives value and sense to existence.

Dear brothers and sisters, I would gladly have agreed to the invitation to stay longer in your Diocese, but it was not possible, so permit me now to draw into a great embrace every inhabitant of this city and the Vicariates of Mortara, Garlasco, Mede and Cava Manara.

In a short while, when we shall all be reunited around the altar for the solemn Eucharistic concelebration, let us pray that the Risen Lord grant that this visit by the Successor of Peter may inspire in every member of your diocesan community a renewed spiritual fervor.

With this wish for everyone, I impart to all a special Apostolic Blessing.


And here is a translation of the homily delivered by the Holy Father during the Mass at Vigevano's Piazza Ducale:

HOMILY AT VIGEVANO MASS





Dear brothers and sisters!

"Cast the net...and you will see!" We have just heard again these words of Jesus in the Gospel passage that was just read. These words are found in the account of the Risen Lord's third apparition to His disciples by the banks of the lake of Tiberias, with its tale of the miraculous catch.

After the 'scandal' of the Cross, they had returned to their land and their work as fishermen, that which they used to do before they met Jesus. They had returned to their previous life, and this makes us see the atmosphere of dispersion and of disorientation that reigned in their community.

But while everything seemed over, once again, as at the road to Emmaus, it is Jesus who comes to His friends. This time, he meets them at sea, a place that brings to mind the difficulties and tribulations of life. He meets them there as day breaks after futile work during the whole night.

Their net was empty. In some way, this appears like the sum total of their experience with Jesus: they came to know Him, they were beside Him, and He had promised them so many things. And now, here they were with no fish in their net.

But Jesus comes at dawn to meet them, although they do not recognize Him right away. The 'dawn' in the Bible often indicates a moment of extraordinary intervention by God.

In the book of Exodus, for example, 'at the break of dawn' the Lord intervenes f3rom 'the column of fire and smoke' to save His people in flight from Egypt.

Again, it was daybreak when Mary Magdalene and the other women who had come to the sepulcher met the Risen lord.

Even in the Gospel passage we are meditating on, the night has passed, and to the disciples who were fatigued and disappointed at not having found any fish, the Lord says: "Cast the net from the right side of the boat, and you will find fish."

Normally, fish fall into the nets at night when it is dark, and not in daylight, when the water is transparent. But the disciples trusted Jesus, and the result was a miraculously abundant catch, such that they could not pull the net in for the great number of fish it had gathered.

At this point, John, enlightened by love, turns to Peter and says: "It is the Lord!" The perspicacious look of the disciple Jesus loved - icon of the believer - recognizes the Master on the shore. This spontaneous profession of faith is also an invitation for us to proclaim that the risen Christ is the Lord of our life.

Dear brothers and sisters, may the Church in Vigevano repeat with John's enthusiasm: Jesus Christ "is the Lord' and may your diocesan commnity listen to the Lord who, through me, repeats to you: "Cast the net, church of Vigevano, and you will find."

Indeed I have come among you to encourage you, above all, to be ardent witnesses for Christ. It is faithful adherence to His words that makes your pastoral efforts fruitful.

Whenever the work in the vineyard of the Lord seems to be in vain, as was the nocturnal effort of the Apostles, you must not forget that Jesus can change everything in a moment.

The Gospel page that we have heard reminds us, on the one hand, that we should commit ourselves totally to pastoral activities as though the outcome depended completely on our efforts.

On the other hand, it makes us understand that the true success of our mission is totally a gift of grace. In the mysterious deisgns of His wisdom, God knows when He must intervene. Thus, just as obedient compliance to the words of the Lord filled their net with fish, so also, in all times, even ours, the Spoirit of the Lord can make the mission of the Church effective in the world.

Dear brothers and sisters, it is with great joy that I am among you today - I thank and greet everyone from the heart. I greet you as representatives of the People of God gathered in this particular Church, which has its spiritual center in the Cathedral on whose front steps we are celebrating the Mass.

I greet affectionately your bishop, Mons. Claudio Baggini, and I thank him for the cordial words he addressed me to me at the start of the celebration. With him, I also greet the Metropolitan, Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, the Lombard bishops and the other prelates.

I address a specially warm greeting to the priests, for the generosity with which they carry out their ecclesial service, not minding hard work and inconveniences. I extend my greeting to all consecrated persons, to pastoral workers and the lay faithful whose invaluable collaboration is indispensable to the community. Obviously, I cannot omit expressing an affectionate thought for the seminarians who are the hope of the Diocese.

I respectfully greet the civil authorities to whom I am grateful for the significant message of courtesy that their presence expresses.

Finally, my thought goes to all the faithful gathered together in the various parishes to follow this event on television and to all those taking part in this Eucharistic assembly in the piazzas and in the streets adjacent to this evocative Piazza Ducale with the beautiful facade of the Cathedral as background.

This had been an idea of that illustrious Bishop of Vigevano, Mons. Juan Caramuel, a scientist of European renown, whose fourth birth centenary you commemorated these past few months.

This facade, with its singular architecture, harmoniously unites the church to the piazza and to the castle with its tower, thereby symbolizing the wonderful synthesis of a tradition which weaves together the two essential dimensions of your city: the civic and the religious.

"Cast the net - and you shall see!" Dear ecclesiastical community of Vigevano, what concretely does Christ's invitation to 'cast the net' mean?

It means, in the first place, as for the disciples, to believe in Him and to trust His words. With you as with them, Jesus asks to follow Him with sincere and firm faith. Meanwhile, keep listening attentively to His words and meditate on them daily.

Such obedient listening finds concrete realization for you in the decisions of your last diocesan Synod concluded in 1999. At the end of that Synodal journey, the beloved John Paul II, who met you in special audience on April 17 1999, had exhorted you "to put out to sea and not be afraid to venture into open waters."

Never extinguish in your hearts that missionary enthusiasm inspired in your diocesan commuinity by those providential sessions which had ardently hoped for a papal visit to Vigevano. Following the fundamental orientations of the Synod and the directives of your present Bishop, remain united among yourselves and open up to the vast horizons of evangelization.

Let these words of the Lord be your constant guide: "Everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love each other" (Jn 13,35). To help carry each other's burden, to share, to work together, to feel yourselves co-responsible, is the spirit which should constantly animate your community.

This kind of communion requires the contribution of all: Bishop and priests, religious and laity, associations and various groups with ecclesiastical commitment.

The individual parishes, like tiles in a mosaic, in full harmony among themselves, make up a Church that is particularly alive, organically part of the entire People of God.

An indispensable contribution can be offered to evangelization by the associations, communities and lay groups, both for formation as well as for spiritual, charitable, social and cultural inspiration, always working in harmony with the diocesan ministry according to your Bishop's indications.

I encourage you to continue taking particular care of the youth, those who are 'near' as well as those who are considered 'far' or alienated. In this context, be untiring in promoting, in an organic and detailed way, a vocational ministry which helps young people to find the true significance to their own existence.

Finally, what must we say about the family? It is the fundamental element of social life, and only by working in the interests of the family can we renew the fabric of the ecclesiastical community and civic society itself.

[All the newspaper reports say that the Pope's words on the family were greeted wieth great applause, which made him add, "I see that we are in agreement!"]

Your land is rich in religious traditions, in spiritual ferment and in hard-working Christian life. In the course of centuries, faith has forged your thought, art and culture, promoting solidarity and respect for the human person. Eloquent examples of your rich Christian patrimony are the exemplary priests and laymen who, with lives rooted in the Gospel and the teachings of the Church, have given witness - espceially in the social turmoil of the late 19th century and the first decades of the 20th - of authentic evangelical values as the valid support for a just and free way of living together, with particular attention to the most needy.

This luminous spiritual legacy, rediscovered and nourished, can only represent a reference point for effective service to men in our time, for a way of civilization and authentic progress.

"Cast the net - and you will see!" This command by Jesus has been obediently welcomed by the saints, thus experiencing in their lives the miracle of an abundant spiritual catch. I think in particular of your Patrons: St. Ambrose, St. Charles Borromeo, Blessed Matteo Carreri.

I am also thinking of two illustrious sons of this land whose beatification process is under way: the venerable Francesco Pianzola, a priest inspired by an ardent evangelical spirit, who knew how to face the spiritual poverty of his time with a courageous missionary style, attentive to those who were most alienated, particularly the young; and the Servant of God Teresio Olivelli, a layman of Catholic Action, who died at 29 in the Hersbruck concentration camp, sacrificial victim of brutal violence, which he tenaciously opposed with the ardor of charity.

These two exceptional figures of faithful disciples of Christ constitute n eloquent sign of the wonders worked by the Lord in the Church of Vigevano. Model yourselves after these men who make manifest the action of grace and who are an encouragement for the People of God to follow Christ on the demanding road of holiness.

Dear brothers and sisters of the Diocese of Vigevano! My thoughts go finally to the Mother of God whom you venerate under the title of Our Lady of Bozzola. To her I entrust each of your communities that int his dear Diocese, you may obtain a new effusion of the Holy Spirit.

The difficult but fruitless nocturnal fishing by the disciples is a perennial admonition for the Church at all times: by ourselves, without Jesus, we cannot do anything! In the apostolic mssion, our powers alone do not suffice: without divine grace, our work, even if it is well organized, can be ineffective.

Let us pray together that your diocesan commmunity will receive with joy the mandate of Christ, and with renewed generosity, be ready to 'cast' the nets. It will certainly experience a miraculous catch, sign of the dynamic power of the words and the presence of the Lord, who ceaselessly confers on His people a "renewed youthfulness of the Spirit." Amen.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/04/2007 19.07]

The Holy Father arrived by helicopter in Pavia at 8 PM and proceeded to the Piazza del Duomo for a meeting with the diocesan youth. After welcome speeches by Mayor Piera Capitelli and Justice Minister Clemente Mastella, who represented the Italian government, the Pope delivered this address, translated here:





Dear brothers and sisters,

After having spent the afternoon in Vigevano, here I am among you in Pavia with the majestic and imposing 15th century Cathedral as our backdrop.

For centuries, this Church has zealously guarded, as in a precious casket, the remains of St. Cyrus, first Bishop of the III-IV century, although these relics are presently kept provisionally in the Church of Carmel.

I thank you all for having waited for me and welcoming me with such warmth. In this our first meeting, I wish to greet the Honorable Madame Mayor and the representative of the Italian government, to whom I am grateful for their kind words.

I also greet the other civilian authorities present. And I address a special greeting to the pastor of this Diocese, Bishop Giovanni Giudici, and together with him, all the priests, religious, and everyone who is actively dedicated to pastoral work.

But I wish to direct a particularly affectionate greeting to you, dear young people, who have assembled in such great numbers for this, my first contact with your Diocese. For the Diocese, you represent hope and the future, and so I am happy to begin my visit by meeting with you.

I come tonight to renew to you the news that is always fresh, to entrust to you a message which, when received, changes our existence, renews it and fills it. The Church proclaims this message with particular joy in this Easter period: Christ is risen and lives among us!

How many persons of your age, dear young people, have met Him and become His friends in the course of history. They followed Him faithfully and many gave witness of their love with their own lives!

Do not therefore be afraid to give your life to Christ: He never disappoints our expectations because He knows what is in our hearts.

Following Him faithfully, it will not be difficult for you to find answers to the questions you carry in your spirit: "What should I do? What mission awaits me in life?"

The Church, which needs your commitment to bring the evangelical message to your contemporaries, sustains you in the journey of knowledge in the faith and love for God and your brothers.

Society, which in our time is marked by numerous social changes, awaits your contribution to construct a common existence, a living together, which is less selfish and more harmonious, truly animated by the great ideals of justice, freedom and peace.

And that is your mission, dear young people! May the Risen Christ accompany you, and together with Him, the Virgin Mary, His mother and ours. With her example and her constant intercession, may Our Lady help you not to be discouraged in times of failure and to trust always in the Lord.

I thank you again for your presence, and I bless you all with affection.

Good night, and arrivederci till tomorrow.


The Holy Father then proceeded to the Bishop's palace for dinner and to spend the night.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/04/2007 19.12]

At 9 a.m. today, the Holy Father left the Bishop's Palace to visit the St. Matthew Polyclinic in Pavia, where he met with hospital officials, medical personnel and patients in the internal courtyard.



After a welcome from the hospital director and a representative of the patients, the Holy Father delivered the following remarks, translated here:


Dear brothers and sisters,

In the program for this pastoral visit to Pavia, I could not have omitted a visit to this hospital to meet you all, dear patients, who come not only from the province of Pavia but from all Italy.

I express to each of you my personal closeness and solidarity, while I spiritually embrace all those who are sick, suffering or in difficulty in this diocese, as well as all those who provide you with loving care. I wish to send each of you my words of encouragement.

I address a respectful greeting to the President of the Polyclinic, Alberto Guglielmo, and I thank him for the cordial greetings which he offered me earlier. I thank all the doctors, nurses and all the personnel who work here.

I am grateful to Father Camilliani, who, with ardent pastoral zeal, brings the comfort of the faith daily to the patients, and to all the Sisters of Providence engaged in generous service following the charism of their founder, St. Luigi Scrosoppi.

I express heartfelt thanks to the spokesman for the patients, and my affectionate thoughts for the families of patients, who share the times of trepidation and trustful waiting with their loved ones.

A hospital is a place which we could say is in some way 'sacred' - where one experiences the fragility of the human being, but also the enormous potential and ingenious resources of man and of technology in the service of life.

The life of man! This great gift, no matter how much it has been explored, remains always a mystery.

I know that your hospital, the St. Matthew Polyclinic, is well known in this city and the rest of Italy, above all for some avant-garde (health) interventions.

Here, you seek to alleviate the suffering of persons in an attempt at full recovery of their health, and very often, thanks to modern scientific discoveries, this takes place. Here you have obtained truly comforting results.

My sincere wish is that necessary scientific and technological progress be constantly accompanied by the awareness of promoting - along with the good of the patient - also those fundamental values like respect for and defense of life at every stage, on which the authentically human quality of any life depends.

Finding myself among you, I think spontaneously of Jesus who, in the course of His earthly existence, always showed particualr attention to the suffering, healing them and giving them the possibility to return to their life of family and social relationships which illness had compromised.

I also think of teh first Christian community where, as we read these days in the Acts of the Apostles, many healings and wonders accompanied the preaching of the Apostles.

The Church, following the example of its Lord, has always shown particular concern for those who suffer, and does not cease to offer to the ailing the necessary assistance, conscious that she is called on to show the love and concern of Christ towards then and those who care for them.

Thus, in this place, Jesus's words have a particular echo when He said: "What you have done for the least of my brothers, you have done for Me" (Mt 28,40,45). In every person afflicted with disease, it is He Himself who awaits our love.

Certainly, suffering is repugnant to the human soul; but it is also true that when it is welcomed with love and illuminated by faith, it becomes an invaluable occasion that unites us mysteriously to Christ the Redeemer, the Man of suffering, who on the Cross took on Himself man's pain and death. With the sacrifice of His life, he redeemed human suffering and made it a fundamental means to salvation.

Dear patients, entrust to the Lord the discomforts and suffering that you must face, so that according to His plan, they may become a means of purification and redemption for the entire world.

Dear friends, I assure each of you a remembrance in my prayers, and while I invoke the Most Blessed Mary, Salus infirmorum - Health of the infirm - to protect you and your families, the officials, the doctors and the entire community of tehePolyclinic, I impart to all affectionately a special Apostolic Blessing.


At the end of the address, the Holy Father met with representatives of the staff and the patients.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/04/2007 18.37]

After leaving St. Matthew Polyclinic, the Holy Father proceeded to the Almo Collegio Borromeo, where at 10:30, he presided at the celebration of Holy Mass with the bishops of Lombardy, the priests of the Diocese and representatives of the Augustinian fathers.



Here is a translation of the homily that the Holy Father gave at the Mass:


Dear brothers and sisters!

Yesterday afternoon I met the diocesan community of Vigevano, and the heart of my pastoral visit there was the Eucharistic concelebration at the Piazza Ducale.

Today, I have the joy of visiting your Diocese, and the culminating moment of our encounter is also this Holy Mass.

I affectionately greet my brothers who are concelebrating with me: Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, Archbishop of Milan; the Pastor of your Diocese, Bishop Giovanni Giudici; your emeritus Pastor, Bishop Giovanni Volta; and the other Prelates of Lombardy.

I am grateful for the presence of the representatives of government and of the local administrations. I address my greeting to the priests, deacons, religious officials of lay associations, the young, the ailing, all the faithful, and the whole population of this ancient and noble city and diocese.

In the Easter season, the Church presents us every Sunday with some excerpts of the preaching with which the Apostles, particularly Peter, after Easter, invited Israel to faith in Jesus Christ, thus founding the Church.

In today's Reading, the Apostles are brought before the Sanhedrin, that institution which, having declared Jesus guilty of a crime that merited death, could not tolerate that this Jesus, through the preaching of the Apostles, would now begin to 'act' again. It could not tolerate that His healing power should make itself felt again and that in His name people would gather who believed in Him as the promised Redeemer.

The apostles were under accusation. The reproach was: "You want to have the blood of this man on our hands." To this charge, Peter replied with a brief catechesis on the essence of the Christian faith: "No, we don't want to have His blood on your hands. The effect of the death and resurrection of Christ is totally different. God has made him 'leader and savior' of everyone, even you, his people of Israel."

And to where does this 'leader' lead? What does this 'savior' carry? He leads to conversion - he creates the possibility of examining ourselves, of repenting, of starting again. And He gives forgiveness of sins - He introduces us to the right relationship with God.

This brief catechesis by Peter does not apply only to the Sanhedrin. It speaks to all of us. Because Jesus, the Risen One, lives even today. And for all generations, for all men.

He is the 'leader' who precedes us along the way and the 'savior' who makes our lives right. The two words 'conversion' and 'forgiveness of sins', corresponding to the two titles of Christ as 'leader' and 'savior', are the key words in Peter's catechesis, words that even today should reach our hearts.

The journey which we must make - the journey Jesus points to us - is called 'conversion.' But what is it? What do we have to do? In every life, conversion takes its own form, because every man is something new, and no one is simply a copy of another.

But in the course of Christian history, the Lord has sent us models of conversion, looking at whom we may find orientation. We could look at Peter himself, to whom, at the Cenacle, the Lord said: "Once you have turned back, confirm your brothers" (Lk 22,32). We could look at Paul, who was a great convert.

The city of Pavia has one of the greatest converts in the history of the Church: Saint Aurelius Augustine. He died on August 28, 430, in the port city of Hippo, at that time surrounded and besieged by the Vandals.

After a lot of confusion in a long and detailed story, the king of the Longobards acquired his mortal remains for the city of Pavia, so that now he belongs in a particular way to this city, and speaks to us all in a special way.

In his book of "Confessions", Augustine illustrated very movingly the journey of his conversion, which reached its goal when he was baptized in the Cathedral of Milan by Bishop St. Ambrose.

Whoever reads the Confessions can share the journey that Augustine, through a long interior struggle, had to traverse in order to receive finally at the baptismal font, on the night of Easter in 387, the Sacrament which marked the great turning-point of his life.

If we follow attentively the course of St. Augustine's life, we can see that conversion is not the event of a single moment, but precisely, a journey. And it can be seen that the journey had not ended at the baptismal font.

Before Baptism, as after it, the life of Augustine remained, although in a different way, a journey of conversion - up to his final illness, when he had the penitential Psalms appended to the walls so that he would always have them before his eyes; when he excluded himself from receiving the Eucharist so that he could once more take the path of penitence and receive salvation from the hands of Christ as a gift of God's mercy.

So we can talk of the 'conversions' of Augustine, which in fact, were one great conversion in search of the Face of Christ in order to be able to walk together with Him.

I would like to talk of the three great stages in this journey of conversion, of three conversions. The first and fundamental conversion was the interior journey towards Christianity, towards the Yes to the faith and to baptism.

What was the essential aspect of this conversion? On the one hand, Augustine was a child of his times, profoundly conditioned by the habits and passions that were dominant then, as well as with all the questions and problems of a young man.

He lived like everybody else, but still, there was something in him that was different: he was always a person in search. He was never contented with life as it presented itself and as everyone lived it.

He was always tormented by the question of truth. He wanted to find the truth. He wanted to succeed in finding out what is man, where does the world come from, where do we come from ourselves, where are we going, and how can we find true life? He wanted to find the right life and not simply to live blindly without sense and without purpose. the passion for truth is the key-word of his life.

He had one other distinction: Everything that did not bear the name of Christ was not good enough for him. His love for this name, he tells us, is something he drank with his mother's milk (cfr Conf 3, 4,8). And he always believed - quite vaguely sometimes, at times more clearly - that God exists and that He takes care of us.

But to truly know this God, to familiarize himself thoroughly with Jesus Christ, and to arrive at saying Yes to Him, with all its consequences - that was the great interior struggle of his youthful years.

He tells us that, through Platonic philosophy, he learned and accepted that "in the beginning as the Word" - Logos, creative reason. But philosophy did not show him any way to reach it. This Logos remained remote and intangible. Only in the faith of the Church did he find later the second essential truth: the Word became Flesh. That is why it touches us, and we can touch it.

To the humility of the incarnation of God corresponds the humility of our faith, which sets aside presumptuous pride and bows down to become a part of that community which is the Body of Christ, which lives with the Church and only thus, enters into concrete communion, even corporeal, with the living God.

I don't have to say how much all this concerns us: that we should remain persons who search, not to be content with that which everybody else says and does. Not to take off our eyes from the eternal God and Jesus Christ. To learn ever anew the humility of faith in the corporeal Church of Jesus Christ.

Augustine describes his second conversion for us in the end of the second book of his Confessions, with the words: "Oppressed by my sins and the weight of my misery, I considered in my heart and meditated an escape in solitude. But you hindered me, comforting me with these words, 'Christ died for all, so that all may live no longer for themselves, but for Him who dies for everyone'" (2 Cor 5,15; Conf 10,43,.70).

What had happened? After his baptism, Augustine decided to return to Africa, and there, he founded with some friends a small monastery. Now his life would be dedicated completely to conversing with God and to reflection and contemplation of the beauty and truth of His words.

And so, he spent three happy years, during which he believed he had reached the goal of his life. That period saw the birth of a series of invaluable philosophical works.

In 391, he went to the city of Hippo to see a friend whom he wanted to win over to monastic life. But at the Sunday liturgy, which he attended in the cathedral, he was recognized.
The Bishop of the city, who was of Greek origin, who did not speak Latin well and found it difficult to preach, said in his homily, and not by chance, that he intended to choose a priest to whom he could entrust the task of preaching.

Immediately, the people near him took hold of Augustine and led him forward forcibly so that he could be consecrated a priest in the service of the city. Shortly after this forced consecration, Augustine wrote Bishop Valerius: "I felt like someone who did not know how to row, who nevertheless, was suddenly made second in command of the boat...and that is why I shed the tears that some of my brothers saw at the time of my ordination"(cfr Ep 21,1f).

His beautiful dream of a contemplative life vanished, and Augustine's life was fundamentally changed. Now he had to live with Christ for everyone. He had to translate his knowledge and his sublime thoughts into the thinking and language of the simple folk of his city.

The great philosophical work of his life that he had dreamed about would never be written. In its place, we have been given something much more precious: the Gospel translated into the language of everyday.

What from then on constituted his daily routine, he describes for us: "To correct the undisciplined, comfort the cowardly, support the weak, refute opponents...stimulate the negligent, curb the litigious, aid the needy, liberate those who are oppressed, show approval of the good ones, tolerate the bad ones, and love everyone" (cfr Serm 340,3). "To continuously preach, discuss, summarize, edify, be available to all - it is a demanding task, a great weight, an immense labor" (Serm 339. 4).

This was the second conversion that this man, struggling and suffering, had to continuously realize: ever anew to be there for everyone; ever anew, together with Christ, to give his own life so that others could find Him, who is the true life.

And there was still a third decisive stage in St. Augustine's journey of conversion. After his ordination, he had requested for time off to be able to study Sacred Scriptures in depth. His first cycle of homilies, after this pause for reflection, was about the Sermon on the Mount. In them, he explained the way to the right life, of the 'perfect life' indicated by Christ in a new way. He presented it as a pilgrimage up the sacred mountain of the Word of God.

In these homilies one can still perceive all the enthusiasm of a faith that has just been discovered and experienced: the firm conviction that the baptized person, by living completely according to the message of Christ, could become, precisely, 'perfect.'

About 20 years later, Augustine wrote a book called The Retractions, in which he reviews critically all the works he had written up to that point, making corrections wherever, in the meantime, he had learned new things.

With regard to the ideal of perfection in his homilies about the Sermon on the Mount, he notes: "Meanwhile I have understood that only one is truly perfect and that the words of the Sermon on the Mount are completely realized only in one person: in Jesus Christ Himself. The whole church - all of us, including the Apostles - should pray daily: 'forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors' (cfr Retract. I 19,1-3).

Augustine had learned one last degree of humility - not only the humility of situating his great thought within the faith of the Church, not only the humility of translating his great knowledge into simple statements, but also the humility to recognize that he himself and the entire pilgrim Church are continuously in need of the merciful goodness of a God who forgives; and we, he adds, "make ourselves similar to Christ, the Perfect, in the greatest measure possible, when we become, like Him, persons of mercy."

At this time, let us thank God for the great light that shines from the wisdom and humility of St. Augustine and let us pray to the Lord so that He may give all of us, day after day, the conversion that we need and this way, lead us towards true life. Amen.




REMARKS PRECEDING REGINA CAELI

At the end of the Mass, the Pope introduced the noon Regina Caeli with the following words. here is a translation:

Dear brothers and sisters!

Before concluding this celebration, I wish to thank all those who prepared and enlivened this event with such care and attention. I address an affectionate greeting to the older persons and the afflicted who followed the Holy Mass on radio and television, as well as to all the cloistered communities and those who for various reasons were unable to be with us here but are with us spiritually. I wish to cite in particular the wards of the district house of Torre del Gallo who wrote me a beautiful letter.

Among those present, I wish to greet the young people, those from Pavia as well as those from nearby dioceses. Dear boys and girls, I wish that you will discover more and more the joy of following Jesus and becoming His friends.

It is the joy of Peter and the other Apostles, and of the saints of all time. It is the same joy that urged me to write the book Gesu di Nazaret, which has just been published. For the younger ones, it will be a bit demanding, but ideally, I would recommend it to accompany the journey of faith of this new generation.

Thinking of you, I am also happy to remind you that today in Italy, we celebrate a day dedicated to the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. It is a significant event because the Catholic University is a reference point for the ecclesial community and offers invaluable scientific, cultural and formative contributions to the entire nation.

And now let us turn our minds and hearts to the Virgin Mary. To her I entrust the entire Diocese of Pavia which venerates her in so many sanctuaries and places of prayer. To her maternal protection, I commend every single community, every family, especially those who find themselves in great difficulty. May the Most Blessed Mary obtain peace and comfort for all.

Let us invoke her by singing together the antiphon for Eastertide.

At the end of the celebration, the Holy Father returned to the Bishop's Palace for lunch with the bishops of Lombardy.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/04/2007 18.47]

On Sunday afternoon, the Holy Father came to the University of Pavia where he met with the city's 'world of culture' at the Cortile Teresiano. Here is a translation of the remarks he delivered:




Rector Magnificus,
Illustrious professors, dear students!

My pastoral visit to Pavia, although brief, could not omit a visit to this university which has been for centuries one of the characteristic elements of your city. I am moreover glad to be with you today for an encounter to which I attribute particular value since I myself came from an academic world.

I greet with great respect the professors, and especially, your Rector, Prof. Angiolino Stella, whom I thank for the kind words he addressed me. I greet the students, especially the young man who was your spokesman today. He has reassured me about your courage and dedication to the truth, the courage to search beyond the limits of the known, and not to yield to weak reasoning. I am indeed very grateful for those words.

I extend my well wishes to everyone who is part of your academic community but who is not able to be here today.

Yours is one of the oldest and most illustrious Italian universities and it counts - I repeat what the Rector said - among the many personalities it has produced, names like Alessandro Volta, Camillo Golgi and Carlo Forlanini.

It makes me happy to recall also that professors and students who reached eminent spiritual stature have passed through these portals - like Michele Ghislieri who became Pope St. Pius V, St. Charles Borromeo, St. Alessandro Sauli, St. Riccardo Pampuri, St. Gianna Beretta Molla, Blessed Contardo Ferrini and the Servant of God Teresio Olivelli.

Dear friends, every university has an innate community calling: it is in fact, universitas, a community of professors and students engaged in the search for truth and the acquisition of superior cultural and professional competence.

The centrality of the person and the community dimension are the two co-essential poles for a valid formulation of the universitas studiorum.

Every University should always keep the profile of a center of studies 'in the measure of man', in which the individual student is saved from anonymity and can cultivate a fecund dialog with the professors, drawing incentives for cultural and human growth.

This formulation gives rise to some applications which are interconnected. First of all, it is only placing the person in the center and properly valuing dialog and interpersonal relationships that can overcome the specialistic fragmentation of disciplines and recover the unitarian perspective of knowledge.

Academic disciplines tend naturally, and even rightly so, towards increasing specialization, whereas the human being needs unity and synthesis.

In the second place, it is of fundamental importance that the commitment to scientific research can open up itself to the existential question of the sense of life for the individual person.

Research tends towards gaining knowledge, whereas a person also needs wisdom, that science which is expressed in knowing how to live.

In the third place, it is only by placing value on the person and inter-personal relationships that the didactic relationship can become an educational relationship, a path of human maturation. The structure favors communication, since persons aspire to sharing.

I know that this attention to the individual, to his integral experience of life, and to his communal relationships are well present in the Church of Pavia's pastoral program for culture. This is manifest in the work of the university colleges with Christian inspiration.

I would like to point out the Collegio Borromeo, founded by a Papal Bull of Pope Pius V, and the Collegio Santa Caterina, founded by the Diocese of Pavia at the instance of Paul VI with an important contribution from the Holy See.

Equally important in this sense is the work of the parishes and the ecclesiastical movements, particularly the Diocesan university center and the FUCI [Italian acronmy for Federation of Italian Catholic Universities]. Their activities are directed towards welcoming each student in his totality, in order to propose harmonious paths of human, cultural and Christian formation, with appropriate spaces for sharing, confrontation and communion.

I wish to take this occasion to invite students and professors not to simply be the objects of pastoral attention, but to participate actively and offer your contributions to the Christian-inspired cultural project which the church is promoting in Italy and in Europe.

This meeting with you, dear friends, spontaneously brings to mind Saint Augustine, who is co-patron of this university along with St. Catherine of Alexandria.

The cultural and intellectual course of Augustine's life is proof of the fecund interaction between faith and culture. St. Augustine was a man animated by a tireless desire to find the truth, to find out what life is, to know how to live, to know man.

Precisely because of his passion for man, he necessarily sought God, because can man's greatness, the beauty of the human adventure, can only be appreciated fully in the light of God.

This God first appeared remote to him. Then he found Him: this great and inaccessible God had come close to us, became one of us. The great God is our God, a God with a human face. But the faith of Christ did not bring an end to his philosophy, nor to his intellectual daring. On the contrary, it urged him to search even further into the depths of human existence, and to help others to live well, to find life and the art of living.

That for him was philosophy: to know how to live, with all our reason, with all the depth of our thought, of our will, and allow oneself to be guided on the journey to truth, which is a journey of courage, of humility, and of permanent purification.

Faith in Christ satisfied all of Augustine's searching. But a fulfillment nevertheless that kept him constantly on that journey. Indeed, our search will not end even in eternity, because it will be an eternal adventure to discover new grandeur, new beauty.

He interpreted the words of the Psalm "Always look for his face" and he said: This means for eternity, because the beauty of eternity is that it is not a static reality but immense progress in the immense beauty of God.

And so he was able to find God, not just as the founding cause, but also as the love that embraces us all, who guides us and gives a sense to history and to our personal life.

This morning, I had occasion to say that Augustine's love for Christ gave shape to his personal commitment. From a life oriented towards research and study, he passed on to a life totally dedicated to Christ, and therefore, to a life for others.

He discovered - and this was his second conversion - that to convert oneself to Christ means not to live for oneself but to be truly at the service of all.

May St. Augustine be for us, especially for the academic community, a model of the dialog between reason and faith, model of that broad and open dialog which is the only way to search for the truth and therefore, for peace.

As my venerated predecessor John Paul II noted in the encyclical Fides et ratio, "the Bishop of Hippo succeeded in producing the first great synthesis of philosophical and theological thought, in which currents of Greek and Latin thought flowed together. Even in him, the great unity of knowledge based on Biblical thinking was confirmed and sustained by the profundity of philosophical speculation" (n. 40).

I invoke then the intercession of St. Augustine so that the University of Pavia may always distinguish itself for its special attention towards the individual, for a marked communitarian dimension in scientific research, and for a fecund dialog between faith and culture.

I thank you all for your presence, and with every good wish for your studies, I give you all my Apostolic Blessing, extending it to your families and to those who are dear to you.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 24/04/2007 17.01]

Here is a translation of the Pope's homily at the Vespers celebrated Sunday evening at the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia, with the Bishops of Lombardy, the priests, deacons, religious and seminarians of the Diocese of Pavia.

Before the Vespers, the Pope blessed the cornerstone of the proposed Benedict XVI Augustinian Cultural Center being set up by the Augustinian order.

During the liturgy (second Vespers of the the Third Sunday in Easter), the Pope incensed the urn containing Augustine's relics that had been brought out for veneration on this occasion, and lit a votive candle which also symbolizes the 750th anniversary of the Augustinian order.




Before the Pope delivered his homily, there were greetings from the Bishop of Pavia, Giovanni Giudici, and from Fr. Robert Francis Prevost, Prior-General of the Augustinians.


Dear brothers and sisters,

In this its concluding event, my visit to Pavia takes on the form of a pilgrimage. It was the form in which I originally conceived it, desiring to come and venerate the mortal remains of S. Augustine, to express both the homage of the entire Catholic Church to one of its greatest 'Fathers' as well as my personal devotion and acknowledgement of him who has played such a great part in my life as a theologian and as pastor, but I would say, above all, as a man and a priest.

I renew affectionately my greeting to Bishop Giovanni Giudici, and I give special greetings to the Prior General of the Augustinians, Fr. Robert Francis Prevost, to the Father Provincial, and to the entire Augustinian community. And it is with joy that I greet all of you, dear priests, religious, consecrated laymen and seminarians.

As Providence would have it, my trip has acquired the character of a true pastoral visit, and therefore, in this pause for prayer, I would like to reflect, here at the tomb of the 'Doctor gratiae', on a message that is significant for the journey of the Church.

This message comes to us from the encounter of the Word of God and the personal experience of the great Bishop of Hippo. We heard the brief Biblical reading for the second Vespers of the Third Sunday of Easter. The Letter to the Hebrews has placed before us Christ as the supreme and eternal Priest, exalted to the glory of the Father, after having offered Himself as the unique and perfect Sacrifice of the New Alliance, in which the work of Redemption is completed.

St. Augustine focused his attention on this mystery and in it he found the truth that he had been looking for: Jesus Christ, Word incarnate, immolated Lamb, resurrected, is the revelation of the face of God-Love to every human being journeying along the paths of time towards eternity.

The apostle John writes in a passage that one might consider parallel to that proclaimed today in the Letter to the Hebrews: "This is love: it is not us who loved God , but God who has loved us and has sent His son as the expiatory victim for our sins."

Here is the heart of the Gospel, the nucleus of Christianity. The light of this love opened the eyes of Augustine, made him encounter the 'ancient beauty that is always new" - that alone in which the heart of man can find peace.

Dear brothers and sisters, here before the tomb of St. Augustine, I would like to symbolically re-consign to the Church and to the world my first Encyclical which contains this central message of the Gospel, Deus caritas est, God is love.

This encyclical, especially its first part, owes a great part to the thought of St. Augustine, who was a passionate lover of the Love of God, which he sang, meditated and preached in all his writings, but above all, gave witness to in his pastoral ministry.

I am convinced, placing myself in the wake of my venerated predecessors John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II, that mankind today needs this essential message incarnated in Jesus Christ: God is love. Everything should proceed from this, and everything should lead to it: every pastoral action, every theological treatise.

As St. Paul said: 'If I do not have love, I gain nothing' (cfr 1 Cor 13,3): all charisms lose sense and value without love, thanks to which, instead, everything concurs to build the mystical Body of Christ.

Here then is the message that St. Augustine even today repeats to the whole Church, and, in particular, to this diocesan community which guards his relics with such veneration: Love is the soul of the life of the Church and of its pastoral action.

We heard it today in the dialog between Christ and Simon Peter: "Do you love me? Feed my lambs" (cfr Jn 21, 15-17). Only he who lives in a personal experience of the love of the Lord is able to exercise the task of guiding and accompanying others on the journey in the footsteps of Christ.

At the school of St. Augustine, I repeat this truth for you as Bishop of Rome, while with joy that is ever new, I welcome it with you as a Christian."

To serve Christ is above all a question of love. Dear brothers and sisters, may your membership in the Church and your apostolate shine always through freedom from every individual interest and through an adherence without reservation to the love of Christ.

The youth, in particular, need to receive this news of freedom and joy, whose secret is in Christ. It is Him who is the truest answer to the expectations in their uneasy hearts for all the many questions that they carry within them. Only in Him - the Word pronounced by the Father for us - is that marriage of truth and love in which is found the true sense of life.

Augustine lived first-hand and explored to the very depth the questions that man carries in his heart, and he has sounded the capacity that man has to open up to God's infinity. Following in the footsteps of Augustine, may you also be a Church that announces frankly the 'good news' of Christ, His proposition of life, His message of reconciliation and forgiveness.

I see that your first pastoral objective is to lead persons to Christian maturity. I appreciate this priority you give to personal formation, because the Church is not just a simple organization of collective manifestations, nor on the opposite end, the sum of individuals who each live a private religiosity.

The Church is a community of persons who believe in God, the God of Jesus Christ, and who are committed to live in the world the commandment of love which He left us. It is, therefore, a community in which its members are educated in love, and this education takes place not despite but through the events of life. So it was with Peter, for Augustine, and for all the saints. So it is for us.

Personal maturation, inspired by ecclesial charity, also permits growth in community discernment, that is, in the capacity to read and interpret the present in the light of the Gospel, to respond to the Lord's call.

I encourage you to proceed in bearing personal and community witness of hard-working love. The service of charity, which you rightly conceive as always linked to the announcement of the Word and to the celebration of the Sacraments, calls you, and at the same time, stimulates you to be attentive to the material and spiritual needs of your brothers.

I encourage you to follow the high road of the Christian life, which finds in charity the link to perfection and which should translate itself in a moral lifestyle inspired by the Gospel - inevitably countercurrent with respect to worldly criteria - but to bear witness to always in a humble, respectable and cordial way.

Dear brothers and sisters, it has been a gift for me, really a gift, to share with you this pause at the tomb of St. Augustine: your presence has given my pilgrimage a more concrete ecclesial sense.

Let us leave from here bearing in our hearts the joy of being disciples of Love. May the Virgin Mary always accompany us, to whose maternal protection I entrust each of you and your loved ones, while with great affection, I impart to you the Apostolic Blessing.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/04/2007 18.21]

On April 29, fourth Sunday of Easter, the Church will observe the 44th World Day of Prayer for Vocations. On that occasion, the Holy Father will preside at an Ordination Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, during which 22 deacons of the Diocese of Rome will receive Holy Orders.

Here is the text of the Holy Father's message for that day, dated February 10, 2007, but only released today by the Vatican in all its 6 official languages.




Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate,
Dear brothers and sisters!

The annual World Day of Prayer for Vocations is an appropriate occasion for highlighting the importance of vocations in the life and mission of the Church, as well as for intensifying our prayer that they may increase in number and quality.

For the coming celebration, I would like to draw the attention of the whole people of God to the following theme, which is more topical than ever: the vocation to the service of the Church as communion.

Last year, in the Wednesday general audiences, I began a new series of catechesis dedicated to the relationship between Christ and the Church. I pointed out that the first Christian community was built, in its original core, when some fishermen of Galilee, having met Jesus, let themselves be conquered by his gaze and his voice, and accepted his pressing invitation: "Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men!" (Mk 1: 17; cf. Mt 4: 19).

In fact, God has always chosen some individuals to work with him in a more direct way, in order to accomplish his plan of salvation. In the Old Testament, in the beginning, he called Abraham to form a "great nation" (Gn 12: 2); afterwards, he called Moses to free Israel from the slavery of Egypt (cf. Ex 3: 10). Subsequently, he designated other persons, especially the prophets, to defend and keep alive the covenant with his people.

In the New Testament, Jesus, the promised Messiah, invited each of the Apostles to be with him (cf. Mk 3: 14) and to share his mission. At the Last Supper, while entrusting them with the duty of perpetuating the memorial of his death and resurrection until his glorious return at the end of time, he offered for them to his Father this heart-broken prayer: "I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them" (Jn 17: 26). The mission of the Church, therefore, is founded on an intimate and faithful communion with God.

The Second Vatican Council’s Constitution Lumen gentium describes the Church as "a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" (n. 4), in which is reflected the very mystery of God. This means that the love of the Trinity is reflected in her.

Moreover, thanks to the work of the Holy Spirit, all the members of the Church form "one body and one spirit" in Christ. This people, organically structured under the guidance of its Pastors, lives the mystery of communion with God and with the brethren, especially when it gathers for the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is the source of that ecclesial unity for which Jesus prayed on the eve of his passion: "Father…that they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (Jn 17: 21).

This intense communion favours the growth of generous vocations at the service of the Church: the heart of the believer, filled with divine love, is moved to dedicate itself wholly to the cause of the Kingdom.

In order to foster vocations, therefore, it is important that pastoral activity be attentive to the mystery of the Church as communion; because whoever lives in an ecclesial community that is harmonious, co-responsible and conscientious, certainly learns more easily to discern the call of the Lord.

The care of vocations, therefore, demands a constant "education" for listening to the voice of God. This is what Eli did, when he helped the young Samuel to understand what God was asking of him and to put it immediately into action (cf. 1 Sam 3: 9).

Now, docile and faithful listening can only take place in a climate of intimate communion with God which is realized principally in prayer.

According to the explicit command of the Lord, we must implore the gift of vocations, in the first place by praying untiringly and together to the "Lord of the harvest". The invitation is in the plural: "Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest" (Mt 9: 38).

This invitation of the Lord corresponds well with the style of the "Our Father" (Mt 6: 9), the prayer that he taught us and that constitutes a "synthesis of the whole Gospel" according to the well-known expression of Tertullian (cf. De Oratione, 1,6: CCL I, 258).

In this perspective, yet another expression of Jesus is instructive: "If two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven (Mt 18: 19). The Good Shepherd, therefore, invites us to pray to the heavenly Father, to pray unitedly and insistently, that he may send vocations for the service of the Church as communion.

Harvesting the pastoral experience of past centuries, the Second Vatican Council highlighted the importance of educating future priests to an authentic ecclesial communion. In this regard, we read in Presbyterorum ordinis: "Exercising the office of Christ, the shepherd and head, according to their share of his authority, the priests, in the name of the Bishop, gather the family of God together as a brotherhood enlivened by one spirit. Through Christ they lead them in the Holy Spirit to God the Father" (n. 6).

The post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores dabo vobis echoes this statement of the Council, when it underlines that the priest is "the servant of the Church as communion because – in union with the Bishop and closely related to the presbyterate – he builds up the unity of the Church community in harmony of diverse vocations, charisms and services" (n. 16).

It is indispensable that, within the Christian people, every ministry and charism be directed to full communion; and it is the duty of the Bishop and priests to promote this communion in harmony with every other Church vocation and service.

The consecrated life, too, of its very nature, is at the service of this communion, as highlighted by my venerable predecessor John Paul II in the post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Vita consecrata: "The consecrated life can certainly be credited with having effectively helped to keep alive in the Church the obligation of fraternity as a form of witness to the Trinity. By constantly promoting fraternal love, also in the form of common life, the consecrated life has shown that sharing in the Trinitarian communion can change human relationships and create a new type of solidarity" (n. 41).

At the centre of every Christian community is the Eucharist, the source and summit of the life of the Church. Whoever places himself at the service of the Gospel, if he lives the Eucharist, makes progress in love of God and neighbour and thus contributes to building the Church as communion.

We can affirm that the "Eucharistic love" motivates and founds the vocational activity of the whole Church, because, as I wrote in the Encyclical Deus caritas est, vocations to the priesthood and to other ministries and services flourish within the people of God wherever there are those in whom Christ can be seen through his Word, in the sacraments and especially in the Eucharist.

This is so because "in the Church’s Liturgy, in her prayer, in the living community of believers, we experience the love of God, we perceive his presence and we thus learn to recognize that presence in our daily lives. He loved us first and he continues to do so; we too, then, can respond with love" (n. 17).

Lastly, we turn to Mary, who supported the first community where "all these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer" (Acts 1: 14), so that she may help the Church in today’s world to be an icon of the Trinity, an eloquent sign of divine love for all people.

May the Virgin, who promptly answered the call of the Father saying, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord" (Lc 1: 38), intercede so that the Christian people will not lack servants of divine joy: priests who, in communion with their Bishops, announce the Gospel faithfully and celebrate the sacraments, take care of the people of God, and are ready to evangelize all humanity.

May she ensure, also in our times, an increase in the number of consecrated persons, who go against the current, living the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience, and give witness in a prophetic way to Christ and his liberating message of salvation.

Dear brothers and sisters whom the Lord calls to particular vocations in the Church: I would like to entrust you in a special way to Mary, so that she, who more than anyone else understood the meaning of the words of Jesus, "My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it" (Lk 8: 21), may teach you to listen to her divine Son.

May she help you to say with your lives: "Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God" (cf. Heb 10: 7). With these wishes, I assure each one of you a special remembrance in prayer and from my heart I bless you all.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

From the Vatican, 10 February 2007.

The Vatican today released the annual message from the Catholic Church, through the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog, to the Buddhists of the world for the coming Vesakh, their most important festival commemorating the principal events in the life of the Buddha.

Vesakh will be celebrated this year between May 2 to May 31in most Buddhist countries (except Japan and Taiwan which marked it on April 8).

Here is the message in its English original:



Christians and Buddhists:
educating communities
to live in harmony and peace


Dear Buddhist Friends,

1. On the occasion of the festival of Vesakh, I am writing to Buddhist communities in different parts of the world to convey my own good wishes, as well as those of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.

2. We, Catholics and Buddhists, enjoy a good relationship and our contacts, collaboration and implementation of diverse programmes have helped to deepen our understanding of each other. Dialogue is the sure path to fruitful inter-religious relations. It deepens respect and nurtures the desire to live in harmony with others.

3. The Second Vatican Council teaches that the entire human race shares a common origin and a common destiny: God, our Creator and the goal of our earthly pilgrimage.

Similarly, Pope Benedict XVI, in his 2007 Message for the World Day of Peace, observed: "As one created in the image of God, each individual human being has the dignity of a person; he or she is not just something, but someone, capable of self-knowledge, self-possession, free self-giving and entering into communion with others" (n. 2).

4. Building a community requires concrete gestures which reflect the respect for the dignity of others. Furthermore, as religious people, we are convinced that "there is a moral logic which is built into human life and which makes possible dialogue between individuals and peoples" (ibid, n. 3).

Yet, there are people today who still need to learn about others and other people’s beliefs in order to overcome prejudices and misunderstandings. This sad reality, if it is to be overcome, demands much effort on the part of both civic and religious leaders.

Even in places where people experience daily the ravages of war, fuelled by sentiments of hatred and vengeance, trust can be restored. Together we can help to create the space and the opportunities for people to talk, listen, share regrets and offer forgiveness for each other’s past mistakes.

5. Education for peace is a responsibility which must be borne by all sectors of society. Of course, this starts in ordinary homes where the family, the fundamental pillar of society, strives to transmit traditional and sound values to children by a deliberate effort to inform their consciences.

The younger generations deserve and indeed thrive upon value-based education which reinforces respect, acceptance, compassion and equality. It is important therefore that schools, both government and faith-based, do all possible to support parents in the delicate but satisfying task of raising children to appreciate all that is good and true.

6. The media’s power to shape minds, especially of the young, cannot be underestimated. While the irresponsible elements within it are increasingly being recognized for what they are, it is also the case that much good can be effected through quality productions and educational programmes.

When people working within the media exercise their moral conscience, it is possible to dispel ignorance and impart knowledge, preserve social values, and portray the transcendental dimension of life which arises from the spiritual nature of all people. Religious believers serve society admirably by collaborating in such projects for the common good.

7. Ultimately, the aim of true education is to bring the individual to encounter the ultimate purpose of life. This motivates the person to serve broken humanity.

Together may we continue to contribute towards peace and harmony in our society and the world. We Catholics join you with our heartfelt greetings as you celebrate this feast and I wish you once again a happy Vesakh.

Paul Cardinal Poupard
President
Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog

Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata
Secretary

PLACE HOLDER - ADDRESS TO SYRIAN CATHOLICS

The Holy Father presided this morning at a concelebrated Mass on the Fourth Sunday of Easter and 44th World Day of Prayer for Vocations, during which he conferred priestly ordination on 22 deacons of the Diocese of Rome. Here is a translation of his homily:



Venerated brothers in the Episcopate and priesthood,
dear candidates for ordination,
dear brothers and sisters!

Today's Fourth Sunday of Easter, traditionally called the Sunday of the Good Shepherd, has a particular significance for us who are gathered here today.

It is an absolutely singular day especially for you, dear Deacons, to whom, as Bishop and Pastor of Rome, I am happy to confer Ordination into the priesthood. Thus you will now be part of our 'presbyterium.'

Together with the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishops and the priests of the diocese, I thank the Lord for the gift of your priesthood which will enrich our community with 22 new pastors.

The theological density of the brief Gospel passage which was proclaimed just now helps us to better understand the sense and the value of this solemn celebration.

Jesus speaks of Himself as the Good Shepherd who gives eternal life to His sheep (cfr Jn 10,28). The image of the shepherd is well rooted in the Old Testament and dear to the Christian tradition. The title 'shepherd of Israel' is given by the Prophets to the future descendant of David, and also has an undoubted messianic relevance (cfr Ez 34,23).

Jesus is the true Shepherd of Israel, in that He is the Son of He who wished to share the condition of human beings to give them new life and lead them to salvation.

Significantly, to the term 'shepherd', the evangelist adds the adjective kalos, 'beautiful', which he uses only to refer to Jesus and His mission.

Even in the account of the marriage at Cana, the adjective kalos is used twice to describe the wine offered by Jesus, and it is easy to see in that the symbol of the good wine of messianic times (cfr Jn 2,10).

"I give you [my sheep] eternal life, and you will never perish" (Jn 10,28), Jesus says, having said earlier, "The good shepherd offers his life for his sheep" (cfr Jn 10,11).

John uses the verb tithenai- to offer - which he repeats in the next verses (15,17,18). We find the same verb in the account of the Last Supper, when Jesus 'takes off' His outer garments and later 'puts them back on' (cr Jn 13,4.12)

It is clear that this is meant to affirm that the Redeemer disposes of His life in absolute freedom, to be able to offer it and then take it back again freely.

Christ is the true Good Shepherd who gave His life for His sheep - us - sacrificing Himself on the Cross. He knows His sheep, and His sheep know Him, as the Father knows Him and he knows the Father (cfr Jn 10,14-15).

This refers not to mere intellectual knowledge but to a profound personal relationship - a knowledge of the heart, that of one who loves and is loved; of one who is faithful and one who knows in turn to have faith; a knowledge of love by virtue of which the Shepherd invites His flock to follow Him, and which is manifested fully in the gift of eternal life that He offers them (cfr Jn 10,27-28).

Dear candidates for ordination, may the certainty that Christ does not abandon us and that no obstacle can block the realization of His universal design for salvation be for you a constant consolation - even in difficult days - and of unshakeable hope.

The goodness of the Lord is always with you and is powerful. The Sacrament of Holy Orders which you are about to receive will make you participants in Christ's own mission. You will be called on to spread the seed of His word - the seed that carries in it the Kingdom of God, to dispense divine mercy and to nourish the faithful with His Body and Blood.

To be his worthy ministers, you should nourish yourselves incessantly with the Eucharist, source and summit of Christian life - coming to the altar, your daily school of sanctity, of communion with Jesus, so you can enter into His feelings.

In coming to the altar to renew the Sacrifice of the Cross, you will discover more and more the richness and tenderness of the love of the divine Master who calls you today to a more intimate friendship with Him.

If you listen to Him obediently, if you follow Him faithfully, you will learn to translate His love and His passion for the salvation of souls, into your life and pastoral ministry. And each of you, dear priests-to-be, will become, with Jesus's help, a good shepherd, ready to give your own life for Him, if necessary.

That is how it was at the beginning of Christianity with the first disciples, while - as we heard in the first Reading - the Gospel was being spread with attendant consolations and difficulties.

It is worthwhile to underline the last words of the passage from the Acts of the Apostles that we heard earlier: "The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit" (13,52).

Despite misunderstandings and opposition, the Apostle of Christ
does not lose hope; rather he is the witness of that joy that comes from being with the Lord, from love for HIm and for our brothers.

On the World Day of Prayer for Vocations today, which this year has for its theme "Vocation in the service of Church communion", let us pray that all who are chosen for such a high mission may be accompanied by the prayerful communion of all the faithful.

Let us pray that in every parish and Christian community, the attention to vocations and to the formation of priests may grow. Such attention begins in the family, continues in the seminary and involves all who have at heart the salvation of souls.

Dear brothers and sisters who are taking part in this evocative celebration - in the first place, the parents, families and friends of these 22 deacons who will shortly be ordained as priests - let us surround them, our brothers in the Lord, with our spiritual solidarity.

Let us pray that they may be faithful to the mission to which the Lord calls them today, and that they may be ready to renew their Yes to God every day, their "Here I am" without reservations.

And let us ask the Master, on this Day for Vocations, to continue to inspire many priests - and good ones - totally dedicated to the service of the Christian people.

On this moment that is so solemn and important in your existence, I address myself to you affectionately, my dear priests-to-be. Jesus repeats to you today: "I no longer call you servants but friends." Welome and cultivate this divine friendship with 'eucharistic love'.

May you be accompanied by Mary, heavenly Mother of priests - she, who at the foot of the Cross, was united to the Sacrfiice of Her Son, and after the Resurrection, welcomed in the Cenacle, along with the Apostles and other disciples, the gift of the Spirit - may she help each of you, dear brothers in the priesthood, to allow yourselves to be transformed interiorly by the grace of God.

Only thus is it possible to become faithful images of the Good Shepherd; only thus can one carry out with joy the mission of knowing, guiding and loving the flock that Jesus gained at the cost of His blood. Amen.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/05/2007 7.42]

To Her Excellency
Professor Mary Ann Glendon
President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences


As the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences gathers for its thirteenth Plenary Session, I am pleased to greet you and your distinguished confreres and to convey my prayerful good wishes for your deliberations.

The Academy’s meeting this year is devoted to an examination of the theme: "Charity and Justice in the Relations among Peoples and Nations." The Church cannot fail to be interested in this subject, inasmuch as the pursuit of justice and the promotion of the civilization of love are essential aspects of her mission of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Certainly the building of a just society is the primary responsibility of the political order, both in individual States and in the international community. As such, it demands, at every level, a disciplined exercise of practical reason and a training of the will in order to discern and achieve the specific requirements of justice in full respect for the common good and the inalienable dignity of each individual.

In my Encyclical Deus Caritas Est, I wished to reaffirm, at the beginning of my Pontificate, the Church’s desire to contribute to this necessary purification of reason, to help form consciences and to stimulate a greater response to the genuine requirements of justice. At the same time, I wished to emphasize that, even in the most just society, there will always be a place for charity: "there is no ordering of the State so just that it can eliminate the need for a service of love" (No. 28).

The Church’s conviction of the inseparability of justice and charity is ultimately born of her experience of the revelation of God’s infinite justice and mercy in Jesus Christ, and it finds expression in her insistence that man himself and his irreducible dignity must be at the centre of political and social life.

Her teaching, which is addressed not only to believers but to all people of good will, thus appeals to right reason and a sound understanding of human nature in proposing principles capable of guiding individuals and communities in the pursuit of a social order marked by justice, freedom, fraternal solidarity and peace.

At the heart of that teaching, as you well know, is the principle of the universal destination of all the goods of creation. According to this fundamental principle, everything that the earth produces and all that man transforms and manufactures, all his knowledge and technology, is meant to serve the material and spiritual development and fulfilment of the human family and all its members.

From this integrally human perspective we can understand more fully the essential role which charity plays in the pursuit of justice. My predecessor, Pope John Paul II, was convinced that justice alone is insufficient to establish truly humane and fraternal relations within society.

"In every sphere of interpersonal relationships," he maintained, "justice must, so to speak, be ‘corrected’ to a considerable extent by that love which, as Saint Paul proclaims, ‘is patient and kind’ or, in other words, possesses the characteristics of that merciful love which is so much of the essence of the Gospel and Christianity" (Dives in Misericordia, 14).

Charity, in a word, not only enables justice to become more inventive and to meet new challenges; it also inspires and purifies humanity’s efforts to achieve authentic justice and thus the building of a society worthy of man.

At a time when "concern for our neighbour transcends the confines of national communities and has increasingly broadened its horizon to the whole world" (Deus Caritas Est, 30), the intrinsic relationship between charity and justice needs to be more clearly understood and emphasized.

In expressing my confidence that your discussions in these days will prove fruitful in this regard, I would like briefly to direct your attention to three specific challenges facing our world, challenges which I believe can only be met through a firm commitment to that greater justice which is inspired by charity.

The first concerns the environment and sustainable development. The international community recognizes that the world’s resources are limited and that it is the duty of all peoples to implement policies to protect the environment in order to prevent the destruction of that natural capital whose fruits are necessary for the well-being of humanity.

To meet this challenge, what is required is an interdisciplinary approach such as you have employed. Also needed is a capacity to assess and forecast, to monitor the dynamics of environmental change and sustainable growth, and to draw up and apply solutions at an international level. Particular attention must be paid to the fact that the poorest countries are likely to pay the heaviest price for ecological deterioration.

In my Message for the 2007 World Day of Peace, I pointed out that "the destruction of the environment, its improper or selfish use, and the violent hoarding of the earth’s resources … are the consequences of an inhumane concept of development. Indeed, if development were limited to the technical-economic aspect, obscuring the moral-religious dimension, it would not be an integral human development, but a one-sided distortion which would end up by unleashing man’s destructive capacities" (No. 9).

In meeting the challenges of environmental protection and sustainable development, we are called to promote and "safeguard the moral conditions for an authentic ‘human ecology’" (Centesimus Annus, 38). This in turn calls for a responsible relationship not only with creation but also with our neighbours, near and far, in space and time, and with the Creator.

This brings us to a second challenge which involves our conception of the human person and consequently our relationships with one other. If human beings are not seen as persons, male and female, created in God’s image (cf. Gen 1:26) and endowed with an inviolable dignity, it will be very difficult to achieve full justice in the world.

Despite the recognition of the rights of the person in international declarations and legal instruments, much progress needs to be made in bringing this recognition to bear upon such global problems as the growing gap between rich and poor countries; the unequal distribution and allocation of natural resources and of the wealth produced by human activity; the tragedy of hunger, thirst and poverty on a planet where there is an abundance of food, water and prosperity; the human suffering of refugees and displaced people; the continuing hostilities in many parts of the world; the lack of sufficient legal protection for the unborn; the exploitation of children; the international traffic in human beings, arms and drugs; and numerous other grave injustices.

A third challenge relates to the values of the spirit. Pressed by economic worries, we tend to forget that, unlike material goods, those spiritual goods which are properly human expand and multiply when communicated: unlike divisible goods, spiritual goods such as knowledge and education are indivisible, and the more one shares them, the more they are possessed.

Globalization has increased the interdependence of peoples, with their different traditions, religions and systems of education. This means that the peoples of the world, for all their differences, are constantly learning about one another and coming into much greater contact.

All the more important, then, is the need for a dialogue which can help people to understand their own traditions vis-à-vis those of others, to develop greater self-awareness in the face of challenges to their identity, and thus to promote understanding and the acknowledgement of true human values within an intercultural perspective.

To meet these challenges, a just equality of opportunity, especially in the field of education and the transmission of knowledge, is urgently needed. Regrettably, education, especially at the primary level, remains dramatically insufficient in many parts of the world.

To meet these challenges, only love for neighbour can inspire within us justice at the service of life and the promotion of human dignity. Only love within the family, founded on a man and a woman, who are created in the image of God, can assure that inter-generational solidarity which transmits love and justice to future generations. Only charity can encourage us to place the human person once more at the centre of life in society and at the centre of a globalized world governed by justice.

With these considerations, dear Members of the Academy, I encourage you as you carry forward your important work. Upon you and your loved ones I cordially invoke God’s blessings of wisdom, joy and peace.

From the Vatican, 28 April 2007

Benedictus PP. XVI