ADDRESSES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES

On 6/9/07, the day he met with President Bush, the Holy Father delivered two important addresses - one to the North African bishops on ad-limina visit (in French), the other to the Congregation for Oriental Churches (in Italian). I am reserving space for the translations which I have been doing offline, but now the Vatican has posted the text of the Pope's address last night at the Lateran, so I will do that first.

Here is a translation of the Pope's address yesterday to open, in his capacity as Bishop of Rome, the Diocesan Convention on education at St. John Lateran basilica.


Dear brothers and sisters,

For the third consecutive year, the annual convention of our Diocese gives me the opportunity to meet you and address you all on the theme which the Church of Rome will focus on in the coming pastoral year, following on the work done in the year that we are concluding.

I greet affectionately each one of you - bishops, priests, deacons, religious persons and laymen who participate so generously in the mission of the Church. I particularly thank the Cardinal Vicar for the words he has addressed to me in your name.

The theme of this convention "Jesus is the Lord: Education in faith, discipleship and witness" concerns us all, because every follower professes that Jesus is the Lord and is called on to grow in adherence to him, giving and receiving help reciprocally in the great company of our brothers in the faith.

The verb 'to educate' implies a special attention for children, teenagers and young people, stressing the role which is primarily that of the family. Thus, we are staying within the pastoral course that our Diocese has been following in the past several years.

Above all, we must reflect on the initial statement in the theme, which gives both sense and direction to our Convention: "Jesus is the Lord."

We find this in Peter's discourse at Pentecost, when the first among the Apostles said, "Therefore let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2,36).

Likewise, we find it in the conclusion of the great hymn to Christ found in Paul's Letter to the Philippians: "(Let) every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (2,11).

Again, St. Paul, in the final greeting of his first letter to the Corinthians, exclaims: "If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be accursed. Marana tha, come O Lord" (1 Cor 16,22), transmitting to us the old Aramaic invocation of Jesus as Lord.

We could add many other citations. I think of Chapter 12 in the same Letter to the Corinthians, when St. Paul says: "...no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 12,3), thus declaring that this is the fundamental confession of the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit.


We can also think of Chapter 10 in the Letter to the Romans, where the Apostle says: "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord..." (10,9), reminding the Christians of Rome that these words - Jesus is the Lord - is the common confession of the Church, the sure foundation of all the life of the Church. From these words developed all the confessions in the Apostles' Creed, the Nicene Creed.

In another passage from the first Letter to the Corinthians, Paul states: "Indeed, even though there are so-called gods in heaven and on earth (there are, to be sure, many "gods" and many "lords"), yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist" (1 Cor 8,5-6).

So, from the very beginning, the disciples recognized in the risen Jesus him who is our brother in humanity but is also one with God - him who in coming to the world, and with his life, death and resurrection, brought us God, who made him present in the world in a new and unique way, He who gives meaning and hope to our life. In him, in fact, we meet the true face of God, that which we really need in order to live.

To educate in the faith, discipleship and testimony means to help our brothers, or better, to help each other reciprocally, to enter into a living relationship with Christ and the Father. From the beginning this was the fundamental mission of the Church, as a community of believers, disciples and friends of Jesus.

The Church, Body of Christ and temple of the Holy Spirit, is the trustworthy company in which we are generated and educated to become, through Christ, sons and heirs of God. In him we receive that Spirit "through which we cry, 'Abba, Father!'" (Rom 8,14-17).

We heard in a homily of St. Augustine that God is not distant, he has become 'the way', and 'the way' himself has come to us. He says, "Get up, lazyhead, and start walking!"

To start walking means to get on the 'way' which is Christ himself, in the company of other believers; it means to walk together while helping each other to really become friends of Christ and children of God.

Our daily experience tells us - and we all know this - that to educate in the faith is not at all an easy task today. That actually, every work of education today seems to become more arduous and precarious.

One speaks therefore of a great 'educative emergency' because of the increasing difficulty in transmitting to the new generations the fundamental values of existence and right conduct - a difficulty that is met both in schools and in the family and, one can say, in every other entity that has educative tasks.

We can say that it is an inevitable emergency, in a society and a culture that too often has made a creed of relativism - which has become a kind of dogma. Such a society will lack the light of truth, because it is considered dangerous to speak of truth - it is considered 'authoritarian'. It ends up by doubting the goodness of life - Is it good to be a man? Is it good to live at all? - as well as the validity of the relationships and commitments that constitute living.

How would it be possible, then, to propose to the young, and to transmit, from one generation to the next, something valid and sure, rules for life, the authentic meaning and convincing objectives for human existence, whether as individuals or as a community?

That is also why education has widely tended to reduce itself to mere transmission of abilities, the capacity to do something, even while there is an attempt to satisfy the desire for happiness of the new generations by spoiling them with consumer goods that provide fleeting gratification.

And so, parents as well as teachers are easily tempted to abdicate their own educative roles and even, not to understand anymore the role, or better still, the mission, which is entrusted to them.

But that way, we are not giving the young people, the new generations, what is our mission to transmit to them. We owe it to them to give them the true values which provide the foundation for life.

This situation evidently is not satisfactory, it cannot be satisfactory because it leaves aside the essential aim of education, which is the formation of the individual so that he is able to live fully and to give his own contribution to the good of the community.

That is why, from many sides, there is a growing demand for an authentic education and for educators who are really educators.

This is demanded by parents, who are concerned and often anguished about the future of their own children. This is demanded by so many teachers who live through the sad experience of the degradation of their schools. This is demanded by society as a whole, in Italy as in many other nations, because the very bases for coexistence are placed in doubt by the crisis in education.

In this context, the mission of the Church to educate in faith, discipleship and testimony of the Lord Jesus more than ever takes on the value of a contribution to helping our society emerge from this educational crisis, building defenses against the mistrust and strange self-hatred that has seemed to become a characteristic of our age.

All this does not help in our task of leading children, adolescents and the youth towards an encounter with Christ so they can establish a lasting and profound relationship with Him. Yet this is the decisive challenge for the future of our faith, of the Church, and of Christianity, and that is why it is an essential priority in our pastoral work: to bring the new generation closer to Christ and to the Father, this generation that lives in a world that is for the most part remote from God.

Dear brothers and sisters, we should always be conscious that such a task cannot be realized by our powers alone, but only with the power of the Spirit. We need the light and grace that come from God and that work in the heart and conscience of man.

For Christian education and formation, prayer and our personal friendship with Jesus are decisive above all else. Only he who knows and loves Jesus Christ can introduce his brothers to a vital relationship with him.

Moved by this necessity, I thought that it would be useful to write a book that helps others to know Jesus. Let us never forget his words: "I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain..." (Jn 15,15-16).

And so, our communities can work fruitfully and educate in faith and discipleship in Christ, if they are themselves authentic 'schools' of prayer (cfr Lett. ap. Novo millennio ineunte, 33), in which one lives the primacy of God.

Education, especially Christian education - an education to form one's life according to God who is love - needs the intimacy that comes from love. Especially today, when isolation and loneliness are widespread conditions - which the noise and conformism of a group cannot remedy - personal accompaniment becomes decisive, because it gives to the young the certainty of being loved, understood and welcomed.

Concretely, this accompaniment of the young should make palpable that our faith is not a thing of the past, that it can be lived today, and that by living it, we can find what is truly good for us. Thus, our children and youth can be helped to rid themselves of widespread prejudices and can find out that the Christian way of life is realizable and reasonable, in fact, by far the most reasonable way to live.

The entire Christian community, in its manifold articulations and components, is called on for this great mission of leading the new generations to encounter Christ. In this task we should express and demonstrate particularly our communion with the Lord and with each other, our willingness and readiness to work together, to be a network, to realize with open and sincere spirit every useful synergy, starting with the precious contribution of those men and women who have consecrated their lives to the adoration of God and interceding for their brothers.

Obviously, in this education and formation in the faith, the family has a primary responsibility. It is through his parents that a child has his first experience of love, a love that is not only human but is a reflection of the love than God has for him.

That is why the Christian family, that little 'domestic Church' (cfr Lumen gentium, 11), and the larger family of the Church should develop the closest collaboration in the education of children. Therefore all that has matured in the three years that our diocesan ministry has dedicated specifically to the family should not only bear fruit but flourish even more.

For example, our efforts to involve parents and godparents more, before and after baptism, in order to help them understand and carry out their mission as educators in the faith, have already shown appreciable results and deserve to be continued and to become a common patrimony in each parish.

The same thing goes for the participation of families in catecheses and in the whole itinerary of Christian initiation for our children and adolescents.

Certainly, there are many families who are not prepared for such a task, and there is no lack of those who seem to be disinterested, if not opposed outright, to the Christian education of their children. In this, we can see one of the consequences of the crisis in many marriages.

But rarely will there be parents who are completely indifferent to the human and moral formation of their children, and who are therefore not willing to be helped in educational work which even they find increasingly difficult.

And this opens up a space of commitment and service in our parishes, oratories, youth associations, and above all, in Christian families who are called to be neighbors to other families to sustain and assist them in the education of children, thus helping each other to rediscover the sense and purpose of married life.

Now let us turn to other questions in the education for faith. As children grow, their desire for personal autonomy also grows, which easily takes the form, especially in adolescence, of taking a critical distance away from their own families. In this case, it becomes particularly important for them to have the closeness assured to them by the priest, the nun, the catechist or other educators who can make concrete for them the friendly face of the Church and the love of Christ.

To generate positive and lasting effects, our closeness to them should come with the awareness that the educational relationship takes place in freedom and that Christian education itself is a formation for authentic freedom. There is no true educational proposition that does not lead to a decision, respectful and loving if possible, and the Christian proposition itself is a call to faith and to conversion that should be answered freely.

As I said in the ecclesial convention in Verona, "True education needs to reawaken the courage to make definitive decisions`- which today are considered to be a chain that limits our freedom, but in fact, they are indispensable for growth and for achieving something greater in life, particularly, towards maturing love in all its beauty, therefore, giving consistency and meaning to freedom itself" (Address on October 19, 2006).

When they realize that they are respected and taken seriously in their freedom, adolescents and young people, for all their inconstancy and fragility, are not in fact unwilling to be challenged by exigent propositions. Rather, they feel attracted and often fascinated by such challenges. They too want to show their generosity and dedication to the great values that are perennial and which constitute the basis for living.

The authentic educator considers equally serious the intellectual curiosity that is innate in children and which takes on more conscious forms as they grow older. Stimulated and often confused by too much information and by contradictory ideas and interpretations which are continually proposed to him, the young person today nevertheless keeps within him a great need for truth. He is therefore open to Jesus Christ who, as Tertullian reminds us (De virginibus belandis, I,1), "said that he is the Truth, not habit."

It is our task to try to respond to the question of truth by placing fearlessly the proposition of our faith in confrontation with the reasoning of our time. Thus we will help young people broaden the horizons of their intelligence, opening them to the mystery of God, in whom the sense and direction of existence is found, and helping them to overcome the conditioning of a rationality which trusts only what can be experimented or calculated. It is therefore very important that we develop what last year we referred to as a "ministry of intelligence."

While educational work must take place in the context of freedom, it also requires authoritativeness. That is why, especially in educating for the faith, the figure of the witness and the role of personal testimony are central.

A witness for Christ does not simply transmit information, but is personally involved in the truth he proposes, and through consistency with his own life, be becomes a reliable reference point. Yet he does not point to himself, but to that Someone who is infinitely greater than he is, whom he has trusted and whose dependable goodness he has experienced.

Thus the authentic Christian educator is a witness whose model is Jesus Christ, who was a witness for the Father and said nothing for himself but only what the Father had taught him (cfr Jn 8,28). This relationship with Christ and the Father is, for each of us, dear brothers and sisters, the fundamental condition to be effective educators in the faith.

Our Convention speaks rightly not only of education in faith and discipleship, but also of testimony for our Lord Jesus. The active testimony we can give of Christ does not concern only the priests, religious and laymen who have the task of formation in our communities, but the very children and youth and all those who must be educated in the faith.

The awareness of being called to be witnesses for Christ is not something that we add afterwards, as a consequence that is somehow outside Christian formation - as it is often thought of, unfortunately, and continues to be thought of. On the contrary, it is an intrinsic and essential dimension of education in the faith and discipleship, because the Church is missionary by nature (cfr Ad gentes, 2).

From the beginning, in the formation of children, until progressively, we come to their permanent formation as Christian adults, the will and the conviction of being participants in the missionary calling of the Church must take root in the soul of the believer, in all the situations and circumstances of his own life.

Indeed, we cannot keep for ourselves the joy of the faith - we should spread it and transmit it, this reinforcing the joy in our own heart. If faith becomes joy in having found truth and love, it is inevitable that we feel the desire to transmit it, to communicate it to others. This, in large measure, is the new evangelization to which our beloved Pope John Paul II called us.

A concrete experience, which can inspire in the youth of our parishes and various church associations the desire to testify to their own faith, is the 'mission of youth' which you are planning, after the happy results of the 'mission for citizens.'

In educating for the faith, Catholic schools have a very important task. Indeed their mission is based on an educational program that is centered on the Gospel as a referrnce point in the formation of persons and for their entire cultural proposition.

In synergy with families and with the ecclesiastical community, the CAtholic school seeks to promote that unity of faith, culture and life which is the fundamental objective of Christian education.

But even public schools, in their own ways, can be supoorted in their educational mission by the presence of teachers who are believers - first of all, but not limited to, Catholic religious isntructors - and of alumni who have had a Christian formation, besides the collaboration of so many Christian families and of the Christian community itself.

Healthy secularity in schools, as in other institutions of the State, does not imply being closed to Transcendence nor a false neutrality with respect to those moral values which are the bases for authentic personal formation.

The same thing applies for universities, and it is truly a good sign that in Rome, pastoral ministry in the universites has developed among professors as well as among students, and that there is a fruitful collaboration between civilian and pontifical academic institutions.

Today, more than ever, the education and formation of persons are influenced by those messages and widespread climate promoted by the major communications media inspired by a mentality and culture characterized by relativism, consumerism and a false and destructive exaltation- or should we say, profanation - of the body and of sexuality.

That is why, because of the great Yes that we as believers in Christ say to every man loved by God, we cannot be uninterested in the overall orientation of the society to which we belong, in the tendencies that inspire it and in the positive and negative influences that it can exercise on the formation of the new generations.

The presence itself of the community of believers, with its educational and cultural task, and its message of faith, trust and love, is in fact an invaluable service to the common good, especially to the children and youth who are being formed and prepared for life.

Dear brothers and sisters, I wish to call your attention to one last point which is supremely important for the mission of the Church and which demands our commitment, but above all, our prayers. I refer to the vocations of following the Lord more closely in the priesthood and the consecrated life.

In the past few decades, the Diocese of Rime was gladdened by the gift of many priestly ordinations, which not only allowed us to make up for past shortages, but also to meet requests from not a few sister Churches who find themselves short of priests.

But recent signs have been less favorable and should urge our entire diocesan community to renew to the Lord, humbly and trustuflly, our request for more laborers for his harvest (cfr Mt 9, 37-038); Lk 10.2).

In a way that must always be sensitive and respectful, but equally clear and coruageous, we must address a special invitation to discipleship with Jesus to those young people who appear most attracted and fascinated by friendship with him. For this purpose, the Diocese will assign a new priest who will be in charge specifically of ministering to vocations.

But we all know that more decisive in this area are prayer and the overall quality of our Christian witness, the example of living provided by our priests and consecrated persons, the generosity of the persons called and that of their families.

Dear brothers and sisters, I entrust these reflections to you as a contribution to the discussions you will be having and for the work in the coming pastoral year.

May the Lord always give us the joy of believing in him, of growing in his friendship, of following him in the way of life, and bearing witness for him in every situation, so that we may transmit to those who come after us the immense richess and beauty of faith in Jesus Christ.

Let my affection and my blessing accompany you in your work. Thank you for your attention.

The Holy Father addressed the Administrative Council of the Populorum Progressio autonomous pontifical foundation for Latin America on 6/14/07. Here is a translation of the address, which was delivered in Spanish:


Dear brothers in the Episcopate,
dear brothers and sisters:

I am very pleased to welcome and greet with affection the members of the Administrative Council of the Populorum Progressio Foundation for Latin America and the Caribbean on your annual meeting. This year, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of my predecessor Paul VI's encyclical which lent its name to your Foundation.

I wish to thank your President, Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, for the kind words he addressed to me in your name. I also wish to thank all the bishops who have come from the Continent of Hope, some of whom I had the opportunity to greet during my recent apostolic voyage to Brazil.

I greet the representatives of the Italian bishops conference who contribute so generously to realize the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch who said that the Church of Rome 'presides in charity" (To the Romans, Proemium).

In a special way, I thank all those who help us fulfill this very significant mission, especially those who work in the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, who are also here at this meeting with the Successor of Peter. Thank you for all the work you are doing for those who are most in need.

For the past 15 years, since my beloved predecessor John Paul II set up this Foundation, entrusting it to the responsibility of Cor Unum, it has dedicated itself to promote the mission of the Church by supporting specific initiatives in favor of indigenous peoples, peasants and Afro-Americans in the Latin American and Caribbean countries.

In setting up the Foundation, the Pope was thinking of those peoples who, threatened in their ancestral customs by a postmodern culture, could see their own traditions destroyed, traditions which were so willing to accept the truth of the Gospel.

The Foundation is the fruit of John Paul II's great sensitivity for the men and women who suffer most in our society. Your work should continue following the principles that have distinguished its commitment to the dignity of every human being and the fight against poverty.

I wish to underline two characteristics of your Foundation. In the first place, the development of peoples should have as guiding principle a global anthropological vision of the human being, an aspect which Article 2 of your Statues calls "integral promotion".

To define this, Pope Paul VI wrote in his encyclical: "It is a full humanism that you must promote. What else does this mean but the total integral development of the whole man and of all men?...This integral promotion takes account of the social and material aspects of life, as well as the proclamation of faith, which gives man a full sense of his existence. Often the true poverty in man is the lack of hope, the absence of a Father who gives meaning to one's existence: 'often, the most profound root of suffering is precisely the absence of God" (Deus caritas est, 31).

The second characteristic is the exemplariness of the Foundation's work method, a model for all aid structures. The projects are studied by an Administrative Council composed of bishops from various parts of Latin America, who must evaluate them. This way, the decision is in the hands of those who know best the problems of the peoples concerned and their concrete needs.

Therefore, on the one hand, a kind of paternalism is avoided, something that is always humiliating for the poor and which reins in their own initiative. On the other hand, the funds get directly to those who need them without getting dissipated in bureaucratic processes.

As I stated in my recent visit to Aparecida, the Church in Latin America faces enormous challenges, but at the same time it is the Church of Hope, which feels the need to fight for the dignity of every person and against the poverty of our fellow human beings.

Latin America is a part of the world that is rich in natural resources, where the differences in economic levels should lead to a spirit of sharing those resources, following the example of Zacchaeus, the publican in the Gospel, who said: "Half of my goods, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if someone has taken advantage of me, theu I will pay him back four times" (cf Lk 19,8).

In the face of secularization, the proliferation of sects and the indigence of so many of our brothers, it is urgent to form communities united in faith like the Holy Family of Nazareth, in which the joyful testimony of those who have encountered the Lord may be the light which guides those who are looking for a life that is more worthy.

I commend the work of this Pontifical Council Cor Unum and of the Populorum Progressio Foundation to the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe, patron saint of all America. May she help and guide you always.

As an expression of these sincere wishes, I affectionately bestow an Apostolic Blessing on all of you, your families and co-workers.

Here is a translation of the address given by the Holy Father to the bishops of Slovakia who are in Rome on ad limina visit and whom he received earlier in separate audiences. The address was given in Italian.


Dear brothers in the Episcopate!

With great joy I am meeting you all together on the occasion of the ad-limina visit that you are carrying out these days, and I greet each of you cordially, extending my greeting gladly to your respective diocesan communities.

Through you I wish to send my greetings to the entire Slovakian people, who were evangelized by Saints Cyril and Methodius, and who in the past century, had to undergo heavy suffering and persecutions at the hands of a totalitarian Communist regime.

I am happy to recall that among the bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful who showed heroic testimony in those not too far-off years, was Cardinal Jan Chryzostom Korec, to whom, I ask of you, to please convey my fraternal embrace.

John Paul II felt very much linked to you, and on whose third visit to Slovakia in September 2003, he chose the motto, "Faithful to Christ, faithful to the Church." This motto continues to be an authentic missionary and apostolic program not only for the Church in Slovakia, but for all the People of God, who are now, especially in Europe, subject to an insistent ideological pressure that would like to see Christianity reduced to merely a 'private' dimension.

In fact, Slovakia is entering increasingly - from the religious-cultural point of view - into that dynamic that is typical of other European countries with an age-old Christian tradition, which are strongly characterized in our day by a vast process of secularization.

The Christian communities who have preserved their old and rooted Catholic religious practices, after emerging from the tunnel of persecution, now find themselves taking the path of renewal promoted by the Second Vatican Council.

They are rightfully concerned with guarding their own precious spiritual patrimony and at the same time, keeping it up-to-date. They are trying to remain faithful to their own roots and to share their experiences with other churches in Europe, in a fraternal exchange of gifts that is likely to enrich everyone.

Slovakia and Poland, who in Eastern Europe are the two countries with the richest heritage of Catholic tradition, are now exposed to the risk of seeing that patrimony - which the communist regime failed to destroy - gravely corroded by the ferments that characterize Western societies today: consumerism, hedonism, secularism, relativism, etc.

I have listened to your stories these past few days and I have learned, for example, that many countryside parishes - those that most conserve traditional cultures and Christian spirituality - are losing their population because people tend to leave for the larger cities in search of better comforts and better-paying jobs.

This, venerated and dear brothers, is the situation in which the Lord calls on you to carry out your episcopal ministry. I know that in order to respond to the changed pastoral necessities, you have been engaged for some time in elaborating the plan for Pastoral Ministry and Evangelization of the Church in Slovakia for the years 2007-2013, which will be submitted for approval in October.

Looking to 2013, when you will be commemorating the 1150th anniversary of the start of the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius in your territories, you are proposing to revive and emulate the evangelizing work of the two sainted brothers of Salonicco. And as a point of departure for this unified missionary mobilization, you have chosen the rediscovery of traditions and of the Christian roots which are alive and profound in your nation.

This is a pastoral undertaking that seeks to embrace all sectors in society and to respond to the expectations of the Slovak people, paying singular attention to the spiritual needs of the youth and of families. That is why you are dedicating great care to youth ministry, both in the schools and in the parishes.

Experience tells you that quality formation at school is more than ever useful for the future of the new generations, and in this respect, the Catholic schools which are numerous in Slovakia, offer a precious contribution.

From nursery schools to schools of higher education, they strive to assure their students of quality instruction as well as an integral spiritual, moral and human education. As far as the youth ministry in the parishes, I know you can count on the services of many young priests who can offer to boys and girls - beyond the necessary preparation for the sacraments of Christian initiation - a true itinerary of spiritual and communal growth.

I suggest strongly that every proposal be made through organic projects of formation which will educate young people to always link their faith to daily life. Only that way will you be able to help them form a Christian conscience which is able to resist the increasingly insidious and invasive lures of consumerism.

With regard to the realities of families, I have learned that even Slovakia is starting to feel the crisis of matrimony and a falling birth rate, and that this is due, in the first place, to economic reasons which lead young couples to put off matrimony. At the same time, there is a diminished social consideration of the value of marriage, and the fragility of the new generations who are often fearful of taking stable decisions and commitments for life.

Another destabilizing factor is the systematic attack against matrimony and the family in the environment of popular culture and the mass media. In this context, what else can the Church do but to pray and continue to commit itself forcefully to helping families to confront the challenges of today?

Thank God that in your country the ministry of sacraments linked to the family are well structured. Matrimony, baptism, first Communion and confirmation require obligatory preparation and it is a constant task for you pastors and the priests who help you, to help families follow an authentic way of faith and of Christian community living.

To help you in this pastoral action are the groups, movements and the lay church associations, who are in the front ranks of promoting conjugal and family life and disseminating Church teaching on matrimony, the family, sexual morality and bioethical issues.

At the crossroads of the ministry for the family and that for the youth is the ministry for vocations. Slovakia is a nation which, after 1990, saw a flourishing of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. To the only seminary that remained open during the dictatorship, five have been added in the past several years, and every year, almost every parish has a new priest. Let us thank he Lord for this wealth in priests, particularly young priests.

Nevertheless, as one might expect, such a spring cannot last, and therefore, every Christian community must be urged today to give priority to an attentive vocational ministry. The formation of ministrants is, in this direction, a good way - many parishes follow this way, in collaboration with the seminaries.

Of course, the numeric and qualitative increase in vocations also depends on the spiritual life of families: Working for and with families is a very opportune way to favor the growth and consolidation of vocations to the priesthood and the consecrated life. But you must not forget, either, that all this must be nourished by constant and intense prayer.

Dear and venerated brothers, continue to have fatherly and open relations with your priests; try to help them in their difficulties, support them and be concerned about their spiritual formation, promoting timely pastoral encounters, retreats and spiritual exercises.

I am happy that, following the directives of Vatican-II, each of your dioceses has formulated a formative plan which seeks a wise collaboration among young and old priests, in order that they may learn about each other's needs.

Please convey to all your co-workers my cordial greeting and give them my assurances that I will remember them in prayer. Please convey my spiritual affection for all the faithful entrusted to your pastoral care, specially the sick and the neediest.

For everyone I invoke the celestial protection of the Sorrowful Mother, patron of Slovakia. With these sentiments, I impart from the heart a special apostolic blessing to you, dear brothers, which I gladly extend to the faithful in your respective Christian communities and to all the inhabitants of this beloved couintry.

ADDRESS TO PONTIFICAL COUNCIL ON CULTURE - PLACEHOLDER

Here is a translation of the address given by the the Holy Father upon welcoming His Beatitude Chrysostomos II, Archbishop of New Justinian and All Cyprus.



Beatitude and dear brother!

I welcome you today with joy, hearing in my heart the words of the Apostle Paul: "May the God of perseverance and encouragement grant you to think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom 15,5-6).

Your visit is a gift from the God of perseverance and encouragement, of whom St. Paul speaks, addressing himself to those in Rome who were hearing the message of salvation for the first time. Today we have experience of the gift of perseverance because, despite the presence of centuries of division, of different roads, and the effort of repairing painful wounds, the Lord has not stopped guiding our steps on the way to unity and reconciliation.

This is for us a reason for encouragement, because our meeting today takes place within the path of an increasingly more intense search for that full communion so desired by Christ: "ut omnes unum sint" (cfr Gv 17,21), that they may be one.

We know quite well how adherence to this ardent desire by our Lord cannot and should not be proclaimed only in words nor in formalities. That is why, you, Your Beatitude, tracing the steps of the Apostle of the Gentiles, have not come from Cyprus to Rome simply for an 'exchange of ecumenical courtesy" but to reiterate the firm decision to persevere in prayer so that the Lord may indicate to us how to arrive at this full communion.

Your visit is also an occasion for intense joy because in it we are given a foretaste of how beautiful the wished-for full unity of Christians will be.

Thank you, Your Beatitude, for this gesture of esteem and fraternal friendship. In your person, I greet the Shepherd of an ancient and illustrious Church, a shining tile in that brilliant mosaic of the Orient which, according to an expression dear to the Servant of God John Paul II, of venerated memory, constitutes one of the two lungs with which the Church breathes.

Your gratifying presence brings to mind the fervent preaching of St. Paul in Cyprus (cfr Acts 13, 4-ff). and the adventurous voyage which led him to Rome, where he announced the same Gospel and sealed his luminous testimony of faith with martyrdom.

Perhaps the the memory of the Apostle of the Gentiles invites us to look with humility and hope to the heart of Christ, who is our only Teacher. With his divine help, we should not tire of seeking together the ways to unity, overcoming those difficulties which, in the course of history, have caused divisions and reciprocal mistrust among Christians. May the Lord grant that we may soon be side by side at the same altar to share together the unique Eucharistic meal of Bread and Wine.

In welcoming you, dear brother in the Lord, I wish to render homage to the old and venerated Church of Cyprus, rich in saints, among who I am happy to recall particularly Barnabas, companion and co-worker of the apostle Paul, and Epiphanius, Bishop of Costanza, formerly Salamina, today called Famagusta.

Epiphanius, who carried out his episcopal ministry for 35 years in a turbulent period for the Church because of the Arian revival and the emerging controversies with the 'pneumatomachi', wrote works with a clear catechetical and apologetic intent, as he himself explained in Ancoratus.

This interesting tract contains two symbols of the faith - the Nicene-Constantinopolitan symbol and the symbol of traditional baptism in Costanza, corresponding to the Nicene faith but differently formulated and amplified - and "more apt," stresses Epiphanius himself, "to combat emerging errors, since it conforms to the faith determined by the so-called Holy Fathers" of the Council of Nicaea (Ancoratus, n. 119). In it, he explains, "we affirm faith in the Holy Spirit, Spirit of God, perfect Spirit. Comforting Spirit, the Uncreated, which proceeds from the Father and takes from the Son, the object of our faith" (ibid.).

As a good shepherd, Epiphanius indicates to the flock entrusted to him by Christ which truths to believe, the way to go, and the obstacles to avoid. Here is a method that is valid even today for the proclamation of the Gospel, especially to the new generations, who are strongly influenced by currents of thought that are contrary to the evangelical spirit.

The Church faces at the beginning of the third millennium challenges and problems not dissimilar to those that the pastor Epiphanius had to confront. Then as now, one must be very vigilant and alert the People of God against false prophets, errors and the superficiality of propositions that do not conform to the teaching of the Divine Master, our only Savior.

At the same time, it is necessary to find a new language to proclaim the faith which we have in common, a shared language, a spiritual language able to faithfully transmit revealed truths, thus helping us to reconstruct, in truth and charity, communion among all the members of the one Body of Christ.

This need, of which we are all aware, prompts us to continue without discouragement the theological dialog between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as a whole. It orients us to use valid and stable instruments so that the quest for communion is not discontinuous and occasional in the life and mission of our Churches.

Faced with the immense work that awaits us and which goes beyond human capacity, we must trust above all in prayer. This does not make it any less our duty to put to work even today every valid human means that can help in this purpose.

In this perspective, I consider your visit a very useful initiative for progress towards that unity desired by Christ. We know that this unity is a gift and fruit of the Holy Spirit; but we also know that it demands, at the same time, constant effort, inspired by a determined will and unshakable hope in the power of the Lord.

Thank you then, Beatitude, for coming to visit me together with the brothers who accompany you. Thank you for your presence which concretely expresses our desire to work together towards full communion.

For my part, I assure you that I share this desire, sustained by firm hope. Yes, "may the Lord of perseverance and comfort grant that we think in harmony with one another, in keeping with Christ Jesus."

And so let us turn trustfully to the Lord so he may guide our steps on the way to peace, joy and love.

At 10 a.m., the Holy Father presided at the Eucharistic Celebration in the Lower Piazza of the Basilica of St. Francis. Concelebrating with the Pope were Cardinal Attilio Nicora, Pontifical Legate for the Basilicas of St. Francis and Santa Maria degli Angeli, the Bishops of Umbria, and the Ministers-General of the Franciscan orders.

After a greeting by the Archbishop of Assisi/Nocera Umbra/Gualdo Tadino, Mons. Domenico Sorrentino, the Holy Father delivered this homily, translated here:


Dear brothers and sisters,

What would the Lord tell us today, as we celebrate the Eucharist in the evocative setting of this piazza, in which are concentrated eight centuries of holiness and devotion, of art and culture, in the name of Francis of Assisi?

Today, everything here speaks to us of conversion, as Mons. Sorrentino has reminded us, whom I thank from the heart for the kind words he addressed to me. With him I greet all the Church of Assisi-Nocera Umbra-Gualdo Tadino and the pastors of all the churches of Umbria.

I am grateful to Cardinal Attilio Nicora, my legate for the two Papal Basilicas of this city. And I send an affectionate greeting to all the sons of Francis, present here today with the ministers-general of their various orders.

I express my cordial respects to the President of the Council of Ministers [Prime Minister Romano Prodi] and all the civilian authorities who honor us with their presence.





To speak of conversion means going to the heart of the Christian message and to the roots of human existence. The Word of God that was just proclaimed enlightens us, placing before our eyes three model converts.

The first is David. The passage about him, taken from the second Book of Samuel, is one of the most dramatic conversations in the Old Testament. In the center of this dialog is a searing verse, with which the Word of God, offered by the prophet Nathan, lays bare a king who has reached the peak of his political fortune but has fallen to the lowest level in his moral life.

To grasp the dramatic tension of this dialog, we should bear in mind the historical and theological context in which it took place. It is a horizon bound by the story of love whereby God chose Israel as his people, establishing with it an alliance, and being concerned with assuring Israel both land and liberty.

David is a link in this story of God's continuing concern for his people. He is chosen at a difficult moment to be placed alongside King Saul and thereafter to be his successor. God's plan included his descendants, in the messianic design which would find in Christ, 'son of David', its full realization.

The figure of David is thus an image of both historic and religious grandeur - all the more contrast with the abjection to which he had fallen, when, blinded by passion for Bathsheba, he took her away from her husband, one of his most faithful warriors, and later coldly ordered his murder.

It is a shivering thought. How could one elected by God fall so low? Man is truly grandeur and misery. He is great because he carries the image of God and is the object of God's love. He is miserable because he can make terrible use of the freedom which is his great privilege and end up being against his creator.

The verdict of God, as pronounced by Nathan to David, illuminates the most intimate fissures of conscience, where armies, power, public opinion, do not count, where one is alone with God only. "You are that man" are words which nail David to his responsibilities.

Profoundly affected by these words, the king develops sincere repentance and opens himself up to the offer of mercy. And that is the way to conversion.

Inviting us to this way, alongside David, is Francis. From what his biographies say of his youthful years, nothing makes us think of any sin as great as those imputed to the ancient king of Israel. But Francis himself, in the Testament that he prepared during the last months of his existence, looked at his first 25 years as a time "when I was in sin" (cfr 2 Test 1:FF 110).

Beyond specific manifestations, 'sin' was his having thought and organized a life that was centered on himself, with vain dreams of earthly glory. When he was the 'king of feasting' among the youths of Assisi (cfr Cel I, 3,7:FF 588), he did not lack a natural generosity of spirit. But it was still very far from Christian love
which gives itself without reservation.

As he himself recalls, he found it bitter to look at lepers. Sin kept him from dominating physical repugnance so that he could recognize in them brothers to love. Conversion brought him to show mercy and in turn this obtained mercy for him.

To serve lepers, up to even kissing them, was not simply a philanthropic gesture, a 'social' conversion, so to speak, but a true religious experience, dictated by the initiative of God's grace and love. "The Lord," he said, "led me to them" (2 Test 2:FF 110). It was then that bitterness turned to "a sweetness of the soul and body" (2 Test 3: FF 110).

Yes, my dear brothers and sisters, to convert to love is to go from bitterness to 'sweetness', from sorrow to true joy. Man is really himself, and realizes himself fully, to the degree that he lives with God and of God, recognizing and loving him in his brothers.

Another aspect of the way to conversion emerges in the passage from the Letter to the Galatians. And explaining it is another great convert, the Apostle Paul. The context of his words was the debate within the early Christian community, in which many Christians who came from Judaism tended to link salvation to the fulfillment of works according to the ancient Laws, thus negating the newness of Christ and the universality of his message.

Paul presents himself as witness and town crier of grace. On the road to Damascus, the radiant face and powerful voice of Christ rid him of his violent zeal as a persecutor of Christians and lit in place a new zeal for the Crucified One who reconciles people both near and far on the Cross (cfr Eph 2,11-22).

Paul had understood that in Christ all the Laws had been fulfilled and that whoever adheres to Christ unites with him and fulfills the law. To bring Christ - and in Christ, the only God - to all peoples became his mission. Christ in fact "is our peace, he who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh,
(cfr Ef 2,14).

His very personal confession of love expresses at the same time the common essence of Christian life: "Insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me" (Gal 2,20b). And how can one respond to this love, if not by embracing the crucified Christ up to living that same life? "I have been crucified with Christ; yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me" (Gal 2,20a).

Speaking about being crucified with Christ, St. Paul not only points to his new birth in Baptism, but to all his life in service to Christ. This link to his apostolic life appears clearly in the concluding words of his defense of Christian freedom at the end of the Letter to the Galatians: "From now on, let no one make troubles for me; for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body" (6,17).

It is the first time, in the history of Christianity, that the words 'marks of Jesus' [stigmata] appear. The dispute over the right way to see and live the Gospel is, in the end, not decided by the arguments of our own thought - it is decided by the reality of life, by the communion lived and suffered with Jesus, not only in ideas and words, but to the depth of existence, involving the body itself, one's flesh.

The bruises and scars received in a long history of passion were the testimony of the presence of the Cross of Jesus in the body of St. Paul - they were his stigmata. It wasn't circumcision that saved him. The stigmata were a consequence of his baptism, the expression of his dying with Jesus day by day, the sure sign of his being a new creature (cfr Gal,6,15).

Moreover, in using the word 'stigmate', Paul also refers to the ancient practice of branding on the skin of the slave the seal of his owner. The slave was thus 'stigmatized' as the property of his master and was under his protection. The sign of the Cross, written through long suffering on the skin of Paul, was his pride - it legitimized him as a true servant of Jesus, protected by the love of the Lord.

Dear friends, Francis of Assisi brings us back today all these words of Paul, with the power of his own testimony. From the time that the face of lepers, loved because of love for God, gave him some intuition of the mystery of 'kenosis' (cfr Phil 2,7) - God's coming down in the flesh of the Son of Man; from the time that the voice from the Crucifix of San Damiano planted the program for his life in his heart, "Go, Francis, repair my house" (2 Cel I,6,10:FF 593), his path was nothing else but the daily effort to imitate Christ. He was enamored with Christ. The wounds of the Crucified One cut into his heart before they were imprinted on his body at La Verna. He could truly say with Paul: "It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me."

Now we come to the evangelical heart of today's Word of God. Jesus himself, in the passage just read from the Gospel of Luke, explains to us the dynamics of true conversion, indicating as a model the woman sinner who was redeemed by love.

One must acknowledge that this woman dared greatly. Her manner of placing herself before Jesus, washing his feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair, kissing them and anointing them with perfumed oil, was scandalous to whoever looked with pitiless eyes of judgment on persons in her condition.

On the contrary, we are struck by the tenderness with which Jesus treats the woman who had been exploited and adjudged by everyone else. Finally she found in Jesus a pure eye, a heart capable of loving without exploiting. In the look and in the heart of Jesus she received the revelation of God-Love.

Lest it be misunderstood, let us note that the mercy of Jesus is not expressed by setting aside moral law. For Jesus, good is good and bad is bad. Mercy does not change the meaning of sin but burns it up in the fire of love. This purifying and healing effect is realized if there is in man a corresponding love, which implies recognizing the law of God, sincere repentance, the intention to start a new life.

Much is forgiven to this sinner in the Gospel because she has loved much. In Jesus, God comes to give us love and ask for love. And what else, my dear brothers and sisters, was the life of Francis as a convert if not a great act of love? This is revealed by his intense prayers, rich with meditation and praise, his tender embrace of the Holy Child in Greccio, his meditation on the Passion in La Verna, his 'living according to the Holy Gospel (2 Test 14: FF116), his choice of poverty, and his searching for Christ in the faces of the poor.

It was this conversion to Christ, to the point of desiring to 'transform himself' to him, to become a complete image of him - which explains the way he lived, by virtue of which he seems to us so relevant to the great issues of our time, such as the search for peace, the conservation of nature, the promotion of dialog among all men. Francis is a true teacher in these things. But he is, because he starts with Christ.

Christ is 'our peace' (cfr Eph 2,140. Christ is the very principle of the cosmos, because in him, everything has been done (cfr Jn 1,3). Christ is the divine truth, the eternal Logos, in which every 'dia-logos' finds its ultimate basis. Francis profoundly incarnates this Christological truth which is at the root of human existence, of the cosmos, and of history.

I cannot forget in today's context the initiative of my Predecessor of holy memory, John Paul II, who assembled here, in 1986, the representatives of the Christian confessions and of the world's religions for an encounter to pray for peace. It was a prophetic intuition and a moment of grace, as I said a few months ago when I wrote the Bishop of Assisi on the 20th anniversary of that event.

The choice to celebrate the encounter in Assisi was prompted precisely by the testimony of Francis as a man of peace, whom so many view with sympathy even if they are from other cultures and religions.

At the same time, the light of the Poverello on that initiative was a guarantee of Christian authenticity, since his life and his message rested so visibly on his choice of Christ - a guarantee then that would neutralize beforehand any suggestion of religious indifferentism, which has nothing to do with authentic inter-religious dialog.

The 'spirit of Assisi' which continues to spread itself from that event is opposed to the spirit of violence, of the abuse of religion as a pretext for violence. Assisi tells us that loyalty to one's own religious conviction, loyalty above all to Christ crucified and resurrected, is not expressed in violence and intolerance, but in a sincere respect for others, in dialog, in a proclamation that appeals to freedom and reason, in the commitment for peace and reconciliation.

It cannot be an evangelical attitude, nor a Franciscan one, to fail to unite welcome, dialog and respect for everyone with the certainty of faith that every Christian, like the Saint of Assisi, must cultivate, proclaiming Christ as the way, the truth and the life for mankind (cfr Jn 14.6), the only Savior of the world.

May Francis of Assisi obtain for this particular Church, for the churches of Umbria, and all the Church in Italy - of which, together with Saint Catherine of Siena, he is the patron - and to all in the world who call on him, the grace of a true and full conversion to the love of Christ.

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ANGELUS MESSAGE AND APPEAL FOR PEACE

At the end of the Mass, the Pope introduced the Angelus with these words:

Dear brothers and sisters,

Eight centuries ago, the city of Assisi could hardly have imagined the role that Providence had assigned it, a role which has today made it well-known throughout the world as a true 'place of the spirit."

What gave it this character was the event which took place here and imprinted it indelibly. I refer to the conversion of the young Francis, who after 25 years of a mediocre daydreaming life, that was dedicated to the quest for worldly pleasures and successes, opened himself to grace, rediscovered himself and gradually recognized in Christ the ideal of his life. My pilgrimage today to Assisi is to recall that event in order to relive its meaning and its consequences.

I lingered with particular emotion at the little church of San Damiano where Francis heard from the Crucifix the programmatic words, "Go, Francis, repair my house" (2 Cel I,6,10: FF 593). It was a mission that began with the full conversion of his heart, to become thereafter an evangelical yeast that he cast with full hands on the Church and on society.

At Rivotorto I saw the place where, according to tradition, the lepers lived whom the saint served with mercy, beginning in this way his life as a penitent, and also the Sanctuary which evokes the poor dwelling used by Francis and his first brothers.

I went to the Basilica of St. Clare, Francis's 'little plant'. And this afternoon, after a visit to the Cathedral of Assisi, I will visit the Porziuncola, from where Francis, in the shadow of Mary, guided his expanding fraternity, and where he drew his last breath. There, I will meet with the youth, in the hope that the young Francis, convert to Christ, may speak to their hearts.

At this time, from the Basilica where his mortal remains rest, I wish to share his words of praise: "Highest, Almighty, good Lord, all praises be to you, all honor, glory and every blessing" (Canticle of Brother Sun 1:FF 263). Falling in love with Christ, he encountered the face of God-Love, of whom he became a passionate singer, a 'jester of God.'

In the light of the evangelical Beatitudes, we understand the gentleness with which he knew how to live with others, presenting himself humbly to all, a witness for peace and a peacemaker.

From this city of peace, I wish to send a greeting to the representatives of other Christian confessions and other religions who in 1986 accepted the invitation of my venerated Predecessor to experience here, in the hometown of St Francis, a World Day of Prayer for Peace.

I consider it my duty to issue from here an urgent and heartfelt appeal that all the armed conflicts which are bloodying the earth may cease, that the weapons be silenced, and that everywhere, hate may give way to love, offense to forgiveness, discord to unity.

We feel the spiritual presence here of all those who weep, suffer and die because of wars and their tragic consequences in any part of the world. Our thoughts go particularly to the Holy Land, so loved by St. Francis, to Iraq, to Lebanon, to the entire Middle East.

The populations of these countries have known, for too long, the horrors of combat, of terrorism, of blind violence, the illusion that force can resolve conflicts, the refusal to listen to the other side and give it justice.

Only responsible and sincere dialog, supported by the generosity of the international community, will put an end to so much pain and give back life and dignity to persons, institutions and societies.

May St. Francis, man of peace, obtain for us from the Lord that those who accept to be 'instruments of his peace' may multiply, through thousands of small acts in our daily life; that those who have roles of responsibility may be inspired by a passionate love for peace and for the indomitable will to achieve it, choosing the right means to obtain it.

May the Holy Virgin, whom the Poverello loved with tender heart and sang with inspired words, help us to discover the secret of peace in the miracle of love that was fulfilled in her womb with the incarnation of the Son of God.

Here is a translation of the written message delivered by the Pope to the head of the Franciscan order when he met the Participants of the Chapter General meeting of the Friar Minors (Conventual) and the Community of the Sacred Convent at the Upper Basilica of St. Francis on Sunday afternoon.


To the Most Reverend Fr. MARCO TASCA
Minister-General
Order of Friars Minor, Conventual

It is with great joy that I greet you, Most Reverend Father, and all the conventual friars minor gathered in Assisi for your 199th Chapter General meeting. I am happy to be doing so in this Papal Basilica where splendid works of art recount the miracle of grace that the Lord fulfilled in St. Francis.

I find it providential that this takes place in the context of the eighth centenary of the conversion of Francis. Indeed, with my visit today, I wished to underline the significance of this event, to which one must always turn to in order to understand Francis and his message.

He himself, almost synthesizing in one word his interior experience, could not find a concept more pregnant with meaning than that of penitence: "The Lord told me, brother Francis, to start penitence thus" (Testament,1: FF 110). Therefore, he thought of himself essentially as a 'penitent' - in a state of permanent conversion, so to speak.

Abandoning himself to the action of the Spirit, Francis converted increasingly to Christ, transforming himself into a living image of Him, in the ways of poverty, charity and mission.

Therefore it is your task to testify to his message with great impulse and consistency. You are called on to do it with that ecclesiastical harmony that characterized Francis's relationship with the Vicar of Christ and all the pastors of the Church.

In this respect, I am grateful for the prompt obedience with which - along with the Minor Friars, and corresponding to the special ties of affection that have always linked you to the Apostolic See - you accepted the dispositions of the Motu Proprio Totius Orbis on the new relationship of the Papal Basilicas of St. Francis and Santa Maria degli Angeli with the local church which baptized Francis and which played such a part in his life.

I greet you specially, Fr. Marco, whom the trust of your brothers has called to the demanding task of Minister General. May it be an auspicious sign for you that it comes on the 750th anniversary of the election of St. Bonaventure to the same position.

With the examples of St Francis and St. Bonaventure, along with the other elected officials, may you and the great family of the Franciscan order be guided with wise prudence to keep faith with the roots of the Franciscan experience and to be attentive to the 'signs of the times.'

The event of the Chapter General brings together friars coming from so many nations and diverse cultures to speak and listen to each other through the language of the Spirit, thus keeping alive the memory of Francis's saintliness. It is a truly extraordinary occasion to share the 'wondrous things' that God makes possible even today through the sons of the Poverello dispersed around the world.

I hope that the Capitulars, as they thank God for the growth of the Order, particularly in the missionary countries, may profit from this meeting to ask yourselves what the Holy Spirit asks of you in order to continue announcing with passion, in the footsteps of your Seraphic Father, the Kingdom of God at this beginning of the third Christian millennium.

I learned with interest that you chose as the central theme of your reflections during the days of the Chapter Assembly that of formation for mission work, underscoring that this formation is never given once and for all, but should be considered a permanent journey.

Indeed, it means a journey of multiple dimensions, which must be centered on the capacity to allow yourselves to be shaped by the Spirit in order to be ready to go wherever He calls. And this can only be based on being attentive to the Word in an atmosphere of intense and continuous prayer.

Only in this condition can one comprehend the true needs of the men and women of our time, in order to offer them answers that draw from the wisdom of God and to announce to them what one has experienced profoundly in one's own life.

It is necessary that the great family of the conventual friars minor continue to be impelled by the words that Francis heard from the Crucifix of San Damiano: "Go and repair my house" (2 Cel I,6,10): FF 593).

Each brother must be a true contemplative, with eyes fixed on the eyes of Christ. Each one must be able, as Francis was before the leper, to see the face of Christ in our brothers who suffer, and to bring to everyone the message of peace.

To this end, each one must make his the way of conforming to the lord Jesus that Francis lived in the various place symbols of his itinerary of sainthood: from San Damiano to Rivotorto, from Santa Maria degli Angeli to La Verna.

Therefore let it be a firm principle for every son of St. Francis that which the Poverello expressed with the simple words: "The Rule and life of the friars minor is this - to observe the holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Rb Im1: FF 75).

In this respect, I am glad to learn that even the conventual friars, along with the entire great Franciscan family, are engaged in re-living the stages which brought Francis to formulate the propositum vitae confirmed by Innocent III around the year 1209. Called to live 'according to the form of the holy Gospel" (Testament, 14: FF 116), the Poverello comprehended himself completely in the light of the Gospel, and the perennial relevance of his testimony comes from that.

His 'prophecy' teaches us to make the Gospel the criterion for facing the challenges of every age, even ours, and to resist the deceptive fascination of fleeting modes in order to be rooted in the design of God, and in that way to discern the true needs of men. I hope that the brothers will know how to accept this 'program' with renewed impulse and courage, trusting in the strength that comes from above.

The Conventual Minors are asked above all to be heralds of Christ: approach everyone with gentleness and trust, in an attitude of dialog, but always offering ardent testimony of our only Savior. Bear witness of the beauty of God, which Francis sang as he contemplated the wonders of creation.

Among the stupendous picture cycles that adorn this Basilica and in every angle of that marvelous temple that is Nature, let your lips raise the prayer that Francis said after the mystic rapture of La Verna, exclaiming twice: "You are Beauty!" (In praise of God in the highest, 4.6: FF 261).

Yes, Francis is a great master of the via pulchritudinis, the way of beauty. May the friars imitate him in irradiating the beauty that saves. And you can do that particularly well in this stupendous Basilica, not only through the treasures of art housed here, but above all, through the intensity and decorum of liturgy and the fervent proclamation of the Christian mystery.

To the Capitulars, I hope you will return to your respective communities bringing back the freshness and relevance of the Franciscan message. To all I say: bring back to your brothers the fraternal experience of these days as light and strength, capable of lighting up the horizons of daily life that are often clouded; bring to everyone the peace that you have given and received.

Addressing the Immaculate Virgin, Tota Pulchra, the All-Beautiful, and imploring the intercession of St. Francis and St. Clare to whom I entrust the work of this Chapter General, I impart to you, Most Reverend Father, to the Capitulars all the members of the Order, the Apostolic Blessing as a token of special affection.

Assisi, June 17, 2007

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's address to the clergy and religious of Umbria at the Cahtedral of San Ruffino in Assisi on Sunday:


Dearest priests and deacons, and members of the religious orders!

I must say that i sincerely wanted our meeting to take place in this historic Cathedral where normally, the Diocesan Church meets around the Bishop. After having been this morning among the People of God in their various components at the Eucharistic Celebration outside the Basilica of St. Francis, I find it fitting to have a special meeting with you, especially because of the great number of consecrated persons in this Diocese.

I thank Mons. Sorrentino, the Pastor of this Church, for having conveyed your sentiments of communion and affection - an affection I have immediately felt. I thank you from my heart.

I cordially greet the Emeritus Bishop Sergio Goretti, who, as we have heard, guided this Church for 25 years, a Church illustrious for so many stories of saintliness. I remember so many beautiful encounters we have had over the years right here in Assisi. Thank you, Excellency.

As you know, the occasion which brought me today to Assisi is the commemoration of the eighth centenary of the conversion of St. Francis. I come as a pilgrim myself. As a student, and later when I was preparing myself for a professorship, I studied St. Bonaventure, therefore, also St. Francis. I had been on spiritual pilgrimages to Assisi a lot before coming here physically.

And so, on this long pilgrimage of my life, I am happy to be with you today int his Cathedral. Having come to follow the footsteps of the Poverello, much of what I will say will start from him.

In this Cathedral, however, I cannot fail to remember the other saints which have brightened the life of this Church, starting with its patron San Ruffino, along with San Rinaldo and the Blessed Angelo. And of course, alongside Francis is Clare, who was born around the corner from this Cathedral.

Just now, I saw the font where tradition says both St. Francis and St. Clare had been baptized, and later, St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother.

This leads to my first reflection. If we speak of Francis's conversion today, we think of the radical change of life that he decided as a young man, but we should not forget that his first 'conversion' came with the gift of Baptism. The full response that he would give as an adult would simply be the maturation of that seed of holiness that he received earlier.

It is important that in our life and in our pastoral work, we should be more aware of the baptismal dimension of sanctity, which is a gift and a mission for all baptized persons. This was the dimension referred to by my venerated predecessor in the Apostolic Letter Novo millennio ineunte, when he wrote: "To ask a catechumen, 'Do you want to receive baptism?' is to ask him at the same time, 'Do you want to be a saint?'" (n. 31).

The millions of pilgrims who pass through these streets, drawn by the charisma of Francis, should be helped to grasp the essential nucleus of Christian life and to live by his high standard which is, precisely, saintliness. It's not enough that they admire Francis: through him they should be able to encounter Christ, to proclaim him and love him with 'right faith, sure hope and perfect charity" (Prayer of Francis before the Crucifix, 1:FF 276).

The Christians of our time often find themselves facing the tendency to accept a diminished Christ, admired for his extraordinary humanity but rejected in the profound mystery of his divinity. Francis himself undergoes a kind of mutilation when he is presented as representing important values appreciated by today's culture, but forgetting that the profound choice he made - we could say, the core of his life - was his choice of Christ.

In Assisi, more than ever, there is need for a high-profile pastoral line. Towards this end, you priests and deacons and consecrated persons, must strongly feel the privilege and the responsibility of living in this land of grace. It is true that whoever passes through this city receives a beneficial message even from the very stones and from its history. It is true that stones speak, but that does not exempt us from making a robust spiritual proposition that can also help in facing the many seductions of the relativism which characterizes our time.

Assisi has the gift of calling on people of different cultures and religions in the name of a dialog which has irrenunciable value. John Paul II has lent his name to this icon of Assisi as the city of dialog and peace. I have noted, in this respect, that to honor the memory of his special relationship with this city, you have dedicated a hall to him with paintings that show him at this Cathedral.

For John Paul II, it was clear that Assisi's vocation for dialog is linked to the message of Francis, and therefore, it should remain true to the pillars of his spirituality.

With Francis, everything comes from God and returns to God. His praises of 'God in the highest' reveal a soul that was constantly rapt in dialog with the Trinity. His relationship with Christ found its most meaningful place in the Eucharist. His very love of his fellowmen came from his experience of God's love. When, in his Testament, he recalls his meeting with the leper as the initial event of his conversion, he underscores that he was led by God himself to that embrace of mercy (cfr 2 Test 2:FF 110).

The various biographical testimonies agree in describing his conversion as a progressive opening up to the Word that comes from on high. The same logic emerges in his asking and offering alms motivated by the love of God (cfr 2 Cel 47.77). The way he looked at Nature was in fact a contemplation of the Creator in the beauty of his creatures. His own wish for peace is expressed as a prayer, since the way to express it was revealed to him: "God give you peace!" (2 Test:FF 121).

Francis was a man for others, because he was first a man of God. To wish to separate, in his message, the 'horizontal' dimension from the 'vertical' is to make Francis unrecognizable.

It is your task, as ministers of the Gospel and of the altar, and as religious men and women, to develop a way to proclaim the Christian faith which can rise to the level of today's challenges. You have a great history, and I wish to express my appreciation for what you have already done.

Although I am here today as Pope, you know that it is not my first visit here, and that I have always carried away the most beautiful impressions. Your spiritual and pastoral tradition must remain firm in its perennial values, while renewing itself to give an authentic response to new demands.

Therefore I wish to encourage you to follow faithfully the pastoral plan that your Bishop has proposed. It points to the demanding perspectives of communion, charity, mission, which all have their roots in an authentic conversion to Christ.

Lectio divina, the centrality of the Eucharist, the Liturgy of the Hours and Eucharistic adoration, contemplating the mystery of Christ through the Marian perspective of the Rosary, assure a climate and spiritual tension without which all pastoral commitments, fraternal life, the very commitment to the poor, risk being shipwrecked because we are weak and we get tired.

But take courage, dearest ones! The Church in all the regions of the world look on this city and this ecclesiastical community with special sympathy. The name of Francis, coupled with that of Clare, requires that the city distinguish itself by a special missionary thrust. But precisely because of this, it is necessary that this Church itself has an intense experience of communion.

That is the perspective for the Motu Proprio Totius Orbis, through which, as your bishop mentioned, I decided that the two great Papal Basilicas of St. Francis and Santa Maria degli Angeli - although they will continue to have the special attention of the Holy See through the Papal Legate - should come under the pastoral jurisdiction of the Bishop of this Church.

I am truly happy to know that obedience and collaboration have marked the beginning of this new way, and I am certain that it will be very fruitful.

Actually it was a decision that was ripe for many reasons. It was already suggested by the new life that the Second Vatican Council had breathed into the theology of the local Church, showing how it expresses the mystery of the universal Church. The local Churches are indeed 'formed in the image of the universal Church: in them, and starting with them - in quibus et ex quibus - the one catholic Church exists" (Lumen gentium, 23).

The universal and the local have a mutual call on each other. The individual churches, while they live their identity as 'portions' of the People of God, also express a communion and a 'diaconate' with respect to the universal Church that is dispersed all over the world, animated by the Holy Spirit, and served by the unifying ministry of the Successor of Peter.

This 'catholic' openness must be found in every diocese and should mark in some way all the dimensions of its life. But it is accentuated when a Church has a special charism which attracts and works beyond its confines. And who can deny that such is the charisma of Francis and his message?

All the pilgrims who come to Assisi should impel this Church to go beyond itself. It cannot be denied that Francis had a special relationship with his city. In a way, Assisi has embodied the way of saintliness of this great son of the city. That is demonstrated by my own pilgrimage today, in which I am visiting so many places, certainly not all, connected with events in the life of Francis.

I also wish to stress that the spirituality of Francis of Assisi helps, both in understanding the universality of the Church, which he expressed in his particular devotion to the Vicar of Christ, and in understanding the value of the local Church, seeing how strong and filial was his relationship to the Bishop of Assisi.

We must rediscover the value, not only biographical but 'ecclesiological', of that meeting between the young Francis and Bishop Guido, to whose discernment and into whose hands he delivered, having stripped himself of everything, his choice to live for Christ (cfr 1 Cel I, 6, 14-15: FF 343-344).

The timeliness for the unitary structure assured by the Motu Proprio was also prompted by the need for more coordinated and efficient pastoral action. The Second Vatican Council and subsequent Magisterium underscored the need for persons and communities in consecrated life - even those with pontifical privileges - to be situated organically, following their Constitutions and the laws of the Church, within the life of the local church (cfr Decr. Christus Dominus, 33-35; CIC 678-680).

In any case, these communities, if they expect welcome and respect for their own respective charisms, should avoid living as 'islands' but should integrate themselves with conviction and generosity into the service and pastoral plan adopted by the bishop of the entire diocesan community.

I address a special thought to you, dearest priests, who are engaged every day, along with the deacons, in the service of the People of God. Your enthusiasm, your communion, your life of prayer and your generous ministry are indispensable. One may experience fatigue or fear when facing the new demands and difficulties of our day, but we should trust that the Lord will give us the strength necessary to do what is asked of us.

We pray - and we can be sure - that he will not allow vocations to lack if we ask him in prayer, and at the same time, seek them out and cultivate them through a youth and vocational ministry that is inventive and ardent and able to show the beauty of the priestly ministry. In this context, I gladly welcome the superiors and students of the Pontifical Regional Seminary in Umbria.

To those of you in consecrated life, make your life testify to the hope that you have placed in Christ. You constitute a great wealth for the Church, whether you work in the parish ministry or help pilgrims who often come to seek hospitality, but also expect spiritual witness.

In particular, those of you who are in cloisters, learn to hold high the lamp of contemplation. To each of you, I would like to repeat the words that St. Clair wrote in a letter to Agnes of Bohemia, asking her to make Christ her 'mirror': "Look at this mirror every day, queenly spouse of Jesus Christ, and continually scrutinize it for your own face..."(4 LAg 15 : FF 2902).

Your life of concealment and prayer does not subtract you from the missionary dynamism of the Church, but places you in its heart. The higher the apostolic challenges are, the more need there is for your charism. Be visible signs of the love of Christ for all the other brothers and sisters who are exposed to the labors of apostolic work and lay commitment.

In confirming to you my affection and trust, and in entrusting you to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and your saints, starting with Francis and Clare, I impart to all a special Apostolic Blessing.



Cathedral of San Ruffino

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's address to the youth, after greetings from two youth representatives, Marco Giuliani and Ilaria Perticoni:


Dearest young people,

Thank you for your warm welcome. I sense the faith that you have, your joy in being Christian Catholics. Thank you for the affectionate words and for the important questions that your two representatives have addressed to me. I hope to say something during this encounter in reply to these questions, which are questions about life. I will not be able to give you exhaustive answers, but I will try to say what I can.

But first, I want to greet all of you, the young people of the Diocese of Assisi, Nocera Umbra and Gualdo Tadino, with your bishop, Mons. Domenico Sorrentino. And I greet the young people from all the other dioceses of Umbria who have come here with your pastors. And of course, all the young people from other regions of Italy who are accompanied by your Franciscan advisers.

And finally, a cordial greeting to Cardinal Attilio Nicora, my legate for the Papal Basilicas in Assisi, and to the Ministers-General of the various Franciscan orders.

We are welcomed here, along with Francis, by the heart of the Mother, "the Virgin made Church", as he loved to call her (cfr Saluto alla Beata Vergine Maria, 1: FF 259). Francis had a special affection for the Porziuncola chapel, which is kept in this Basilica.
It had been one of the churches that he himself repaired in the first years of his conversion, and where he listened to and meditated on the Gospel of missi0n(cfr 1 Cel I,9,22: FF 356).

After the first steps at Rivotorto, it was here that he set up the 'headquarters' of the Order, where the friars could assemble as in a maternal womb, to regenerate themselves and go out again filled with missionary drive.

Here, he also obtained for all a spring of mercy in the experience of the 'great forgiveness', which all of us always need. And finally, it was also here that he underwent his encounter with 'sister death."

Dear young people, you know that the reason that has brought me here to Assisi is the desire to relive the interior journey of Francis, on the occasion of the eighth centenary of his conversion.

This moment of my pilgrimage has a special significance. I have thought of this as the climax of my day. St. Francis speaks to everyone, but I know that he has a special attraction for you, the young ones. This is confirmed by your presence here in such number, as well as by the questions you have posed.

His conversion came when he was in the fullness of his life, of his experiences, of his dreams. But he had lived 25 years without finding sense in life. A few months before he died, he would remember it as that time "when I was in sin" cfr. 2 Test 1: FF 110).

What did Francis mean by sin? It is not easy to say, if we go by his biographies, each of them with a different design. An effective portrait of his lifestyle can be found in the Legend of three companions, which says, "Francis was so happy and generous, dedicated to games and songs. He would wander around Assisi night and day with friends like him, so generous in spending that they dissipated what they had or could earn in dining and other pleasures"
(3 Comp 1,2: FF 1396).

We can say the same thing of so many young people in our day. Today they can even amuse themselves far beyond their own city limits. So many young people gather together for all kinds of pastime during weekends. They can even wander about virtually by navigating through the Internet, looking for information and contacts of every kind. And unfortunately, there are also many young people - too many! - who look for mental landscapes as fatuous as they are destructive in the artificial paradise of drugs.

How can we deny that there are many young people - and not so young ones - who are tempted to imitate the life of the young Francis before his conversion? Beneath that lifestyle was the desire for happiness which dwells in every human heart. But could that life bring true joy? Francis certainly did not find it that way.

You can verify it for yourselves, dear young people, on the basis of your own experiences. The truth is that finite things cam give flashes of joy, but only the Infinite can fill the heart. As another great convert, St. Augustine, said: "You created us for you, O Lord, and our heart will be uneasy until it rests in you" (Confess. 1,1).

The same biographical text tells us that Francis was rather vain. He liked to have sumptuous clothes made for him and he was always in search of originality (cfr 3 Comp 1, 2: FF 1396). Whether it is vanity or the search of something original, that is something that has affected us in some way. Today, it is common to speak about 'image building' or publicity-seeking. In order to have the minimum of success, we need to distinguish ourselves in the eyes of others with something unprecedented, something original. In a way, this could simply be an innocent desire to be well received. But often, it involves pride, an excessive promotion of oneself, selfishness, a desire to dominate. In fact, to center life on oneself is a mortal trap. We can be ourselves only if we open up to love, loving God and our brothers.

An aspect that also impressed his contemporaries about Francis was his ambition, his thirst for glory and adventure. This led him to the field of battle, and he ended up being imprisoned for a year in Perugia. The same thirst for glory, once he was set free, would have taken him to Puglia, with a new military expedition, but it was on this occasion, at Spoleto, that the Lord made himself felt in his heart, causing him to turn back and to start paying attention to his Word.

It is interesting to note how the Lord took Francis at his word - his desire for self-affirmation - in order to show him the way to a holy ambition projected towards the infinite: "Who can be more useful to you: the master or the servant?"(3 Comp 2,6: FF 1401), that was the question he heard in his heart. As if to say: Why be content with being dependent on men, when there is God who is ready to welcome you to his house, into his royal service?

Dear young people, you have reminded me of some problems of youth, of your difficulty in constructing a future, but above all, of the effort to discern the truth. In the story of the passion of Christ, we find Pilate asking, "What is truth?" (Jn 18,28). It is the question of a skeptic who says, "You say you are the truth, but what is truth"? And therefore, since truth is unrecognizable, Pilate means to say: Let us do what is most practical, what will succeed best, not look for the truth. So he condemns Jesus to death, because he is after pragmatism, success, his own fortune.

Even today, many say: But what is truth? We can find fragments, perhaps, but how can we find the truth? It is really difficult to believe that the truth could be Jesus Christ, the true life, the compass of our life.

But if we begin, as we are greatly tempted, to live only according to the possibility of the moment, without truth, then we truly lose criterion and we also lose that foundation for common peace that can only be the truth. And the truth is Christ.

The truth of Christ has been verified in the lives of saints throughout the centuries. Saints are the great track of light in history which shows us: this is life, this is the way, this is the truth. And so, we have the courage to say Yes to Jesus Christ: "Your truth is verified in the lives of the saints. We will follow you."

Dear young people, coming here from the Basilica of the Sacred Convent, I thought that to talk for about an hour by myself may not be a good thing. So, I think, now might be the moment for a pause, for a song. I know you have many songs, maybe I can listen to one now.....

We heard the song say that St. Francis heard the voice. He heard in his heart the voice of Christ, and what happened? He understood that he should place himself at the service of his brothers, especially those who suffered the most. That was the consequence of his first encounter with Christ.

This morning, going to Rivotorto, I took a look at the place where, according to tradition, lepers were confined - the least of men, the most marginal - about whom Francis had felt an irresistible sense of repugnance. Then, touched by grace, he opened his heart to them. And he did this not just by pious almsgiving - it would have been little - but kissing them and serving them. He himself confessed that what had once been bitter to him now became "sweetness of soul and body" (2 Test 3: FF 110).

And so, grace began to shape Francis. He became increasingly able to keep his eyes fixed on the face of Christ and to listen to his voice. It was then that the Crucifix of San Damiano addressed him and called him to a bold mission: "Go, Francis, repair my house which, as you see, is all in ruins." (2 Cel I, 6, 10: FF 593).

Stopping this morning at San Damiano, and later at the Basilica of St. Clare, where the Crucifix that spoke to Francis is now kept, I too looked at the eyes of Christ. It is the image of the Crucified and Risen Christ, the life of the Church, which speaks even to us if we pay attention, as 2000 years ago, he spoke to his apostles and 800 years ago, spoke to Francis. The Church lives continuously from such encounters.

Yes, dear young people, let us allow ourselves to encounter Christ. Let us trust in him and listen to his word. He was not only a fascinating human being. Of course, he was fully man, similar in every way to us, except in sin (cfr Heb 4,15). But he is more than that: God became man in him, and therefore, he is the only Savior, as his very name says. Jesus means 'God saves'.

One comes to Assisi to learn from St. Francis the secret for recognizing Jesus and experiencing him. Here is what Francis felt for Jesus, according to his first biographer: "He always carried Jesus in his heart. Jesus on his lips, Jesus in his ears, Jesus in his eyes, Jesus in his hands, Jesus in all his body...Indeed, travelling so much, meditating and singing Jesus, he would forget he was travelling. He would stop to invite all creatures to praise Jesus" (1 Cel II, 9, 115: FF 115). And so we see, that communion with Christ also opens our heart and our eyes to Creation.

In short, Francis was truly enamoured of Jesus. He found him in the word of God, in his brothers, in nature, but above all, in his eucharistic presence. In this respect, he wrote in his Testament: "Of the Son of God in the most high, I see nothing else corporally in this world but his most Sacred Body and Blood"(2 Test 10: FF 113).

That Christmas in Greccio expresses his need to see Jesus in his most tender humanity as a baby(cfr 1 Cel I, 30, 85-86: FF 469-470). The experience of La Verna, where he received the stigmata, shows the degree of intimacy he had reached in his relationship with the crucified Christ. He could truly say with Paul: "To me, life is Christ" (Phil 1,21). When he stripped himself of everything and chose poverty, the reason for it all was Christ, only Christ. Jesus was his all - he needed nothing else.

But precisely because he was a man of Christ, Francis was also a man of the Church. The Crucifix of San Damiano had instructed him to repair the house of Christ, which is in fact the Church. Between Christ and the Church is an intimate and indissoluble relationship. To be called on to repair it implied, certainly, something specific and original in Francis's mission.

At the same time, that task was nothing else basically but the responsibility given by Christ to every one who is baptized. To each of us he says: "Go and repair my house." We are all called on, in every generation, to repair anew the house of Christ, the Church. Only in that way, the Church lives and becomes beautiful.

As we know, there are so many ways of repairing, edifying, constructing the house of God, the Church. It is built through several different vocations, from the layman to the family to the consecrated life and to priesthood.

I would like to say a few words about this last vocation. Francis, who was a deacon, not a priest (cfr 1 Cel I,30,86: FF 470), had a great veneration for priests. Although he knew that even among the ministers of God, there is such misery and weakness, he saw them as ministers of the Body of Christ, and that was enough to draw from him a sense of love, reverence and obedience (cfr 2 Test 6-10: FF 112-113).

His love for priests is an invitation to rediscover the beauty of this vocation, which is vital for the people of God. Dear young people, surround your priests wih love and thanks. If the Lord should call any of you to this great ministry or to any form of consecrated life, do not hesitate to say Yes. It is not easy, but it is beautiful to be a minister of the Lord. It is beautiful to spend one's life for him.

The young Francis also felt a truly filial affection for his bishop, and it was in his hands that, stripping himself of everything, he professed a life that would thenceforth be totally consecrated to the Lord (cfr 1 Cel I, 6, 15: FF 344).

He felt in a special way the mission of the Vicar of Christ, to whom he submitted his Rule and entrusted his Order. If the Popes have shown such affection for Assisi throughout history, it is in a sense a reciprocation of the affection that Francis had for the Pope. I am happy, dear young ones, to be here, in the footsteps of my predecessors, particularly of the friend, the beloved John Paul II.

As in concentric cicles, the love of Francis for Christ spreads not only throughout the church but to all things, seen in Christ and through Christ. Thus was born the Canticle of Creation, in which the eye rests on the spledor of Creation: from brother sun to sister moon, from sister water to brother fire. His interior vision had become so pure and penetrating that he could see the beauty of the Creator in the beauty of his creatures. The Canticle of brother sun, before being a most elevated page of poetry, is an implicit invitation to respect creation. It is a prayer of praise raised to the Lord, the Creator of everything.

Likewise, Francis's commitment to peace must be seen as an emblem of prayer. This aspect of his life is of great relevance in a world which needs peace so much but has not succeeded in finding the way to achieve it. Francis was a man of peace and a peacemaker. He showed it in the gentle way that he faced men of other faith, without keeping silent about his own faith, as he did in his encounter with the Sultan (cfr 1 Cel I, 20, 57: FF 422).

If today, inter-religious dialog, especially after the Second Vatican Council, has become a common indispensable patrimony of the Christian sensibility, Fanacis can help us dialog authentically, without falling into an attitude of indifference in confronting the truth or into attenuating our Christianmessage.

His being a man of peace, of tolerance, of dialog, was born of his experience of God-Love. His greeting of peace was, not in`identally, a prayer: "God give you peace" (2 Test 23: FF 121).

Dear young people, your presence here in great numbers says how much the figure of Francis speaks to your heart. I gladly re-convey his message to you, but above all, his life and his testimony. It is time for young people who, like Francis, will seriously undertake and know how to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus. It is time to look at the history of this third millennium which has just started as one that more then ever needs to be leavened by the Gospel.

Once again, I will make mine the invitation that my beloved predecessor, John Paul II, always loved to address especially to the youth: "Open your doors to Christ." Open them as Francis did, wthout fear, without calculation, without measure.

Dear young people, be my joy as you were the joy of John Paul II. From this Basilica dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels, I invite you to our next appointment at the Holy House of Loreto, at the start of September, for the Agora of Italian youth.

To you all, my blessing. thank you for everything, for your presence, and for your prayers.

HOMILY AT REQUIEM MASS FOR CARDINAL FELICI, 6/20/07

The Holy Father received His Holiness Mar Dinkha IV, Catholic Patriarch of the Assyrian Church in the East, and his delegation. Here is the text of the Holy Father's address, which was delivered in English.


Your Holiness,

I am pleased to welcome you to the Vatican, together with the Bishops and the priests who have accompanied you on this visit. My warm greetings extend to all the members of the Holy Synod, the clergy and the faithful of the Assyrian Church of the East. I pray - in the words of the Apostle Saint Paul - that "the Lord himself, who is our source of joy, may give you peace at all times and in every way" (2 Th 3:16).

On several occasions Your Holiness met with my beloved predecessor Pope John Paul II. Most significant was your visit in November 1994, when you came to Rome, accompanied by members of your Holy Synod, to sign a Common Declaration concerning Christology. This Declaration included the decision to establish a Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Assyrian Church of the East. The Joint Commission has undertaken an important study of the sacramental life in our respective traditions and forged an agreement on the Anaphora of the Apostles Addai and Mari.

I am most grateful for the results of this dialogue, which hold out the promise of further progress on other disputed questions. Indeed, these achievements deserve to be better known and appreciated, since they make possible various forms of pastoral cooperation between our two communities.

The Assyrian Church of the East is rooted in ancient lands whose names are associated with the history of God's saving plan for all mankind. At the time of the early Church, the Christians of these lands made a remarkable contribution to the spread of the Gospel, particularly through their missionary activity in the more remote areas of the East.

Today, tragically, Christians in this region are suffering both materially and spiritually. Particularly in Iraq, the homeland of so many of the Assyrian faithful, Christian families and communities are feeling increasing pressure from insecurity, aggression and a sense of abandonment. Many of them see no other possibility than to leave the country and to seek a new future abroad.

These difficulties are a source of great concern to me, and I wish to express my solidarity with the pastors and the faithful of the Christian communities who remain there, often at the price of heroic sacrifices. In these troubled areas the faithful, both Catholic and Assyrian, are called to work together. I hope and pray that they will find ever more effective ways to support and assist one another for the good of all.

As a result of successive waves of emigration, many Christians from the Eastern Churches are now living in the West. This new situation presents a variety of challenges to their Christian identity and their life as a community.

At the same time, when Christians from the East and West live side by side, they have a precious opportunity to enrich one another and to understand more fully the catholicity of the Church, which, as a pilgrim in this world, lives, prays and bears witness to Christ in a variety of cultural, social and human contexts.

With complete respect for each other's doctrinal and disciplinary traditions, Catholic and Assyrian Christians are called to reject antagonistic attitudes and polemical statements, to grow in understanding of the Christian faith which they share, and to bear witness as brothers and sisters to Jesus Christ "the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor 1:24).

New hopes and possibilities sometimes awaken new fears, and this is also true with regard to ecumenical relations. Certain recent developments in the Assyrian Church of the East have created some obstacles to the promising work of the Joint Commission.

It is to be hoped that the fruitful labour which the Commission has accomplished over the years can continue, while never losing sight of the ultimate goal of our common journey towards the re-establishment of full communion.

Working for Christian unity is, in fact, a duty born of our fidelity to Christ, the Shepherd of the Church, who gave his life "to gather into one the dispersed children of God" (Jn 11:51-52). However long and laborious the path towards unity may seem, we are asked by the Lord to join our hands and hearts, so that together we can bear clearer witness to him and better serve our brothers and sisters, particularly in the troubled regions of the East, where many of our faithful look to us, their Pastors, with hope and expectation.

With these sentiments, I once more thank Your Holiness for your presence here today and for your commitment to continuing along the path of dialogue and unity. May the Lord abundantly bless your ministry and sustain you and the faithful whom you serve with his gifts of wisdom, joy and peace.

The Holy Father addressed the Bishops of Togo Friday after having met with them separately during their current ad-limina visit to Rome. Here is a translation of the address he delivered in French:


Dear brothers in the Episcopate,

I am very happy to have met with you during your ad-limina visit. Your pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles is a visible sign of your communion with the Successor of Peter and he ties which bind your local Churches to the universal Church.

I thank the president of the Togo bishops conference, Mgr. Ambroise Djoliba, Bishop of Sokode, for the mind words he addressed to me in your name.

Through you, I send an affectionate greeting to your diocesan members, priests, religious, seminarians, catechists and the lay faithful. May they, in all circumstances, remain faithful to the Lord's commandment: "As I have loved you, so should you love each other" (Jn 13,34).

Likewise, please convey to all the Togolese people the Pope's warm greetings and fervent wishes that they may relentlessly pursue their efforts to build a harmonious and just society, where everyone may live in dignity.

Dear brothers, i would like to express my gratitude to you for your perseverance and courage in the midst of the numerous difficulties that your country has known in the past several years. On numerous occasions, you have contributed to the dialog for national reconciliation, remind everyone what the common good demands, in faithfulness to the truth of God and Man. I ask the Lord to make your efforts fruitful so that your nation may realize a prosperous life of concord and brotherhood.

The life of the Church itself has not been exempt from situations of great concern. Your constant efforts to keep your conference united are a sign that, under all circumstances, charity should prevail, and that the visible communion of the disciples of Christ is an essential reality to preserve so that the testimony of the Church is credible.

In this perspective, authentic brotherhood between the bishops and the priests, and among the priests themselves, is a mark of that full communion which is indispensable to the fruitful accomplishment of your ministry.

Then everyone will truly work together for reconciliation within the Church and in the nation. May all the priests in your diocese, about whose generous efforts I have been made aware, be faithful to their vocation, totally dedicated to their mission and in full communion with their Bishop (cf. Ecclesia in Africa, n. 97)!

Dear brothers in the Episcopate, you have the opportunity to take on your pastoral ministry by participating, according to your own abilities, in the life of the people who are entrusted to you. In fact, "as a body that is organized within the community and the nation, the Church has the right and the duty to participate fully in the building of a just and peaceful society with all the means at its disposal" (Ecclesia in Africa, n. 107).

I particularly commend your commitment to the protection of and respect for life, that you have had occasion to express repeatedly, most recently in expressing in detailed manner your opposition to abortion. Moreover, the promotion of the truth and dignity of marriage, as well as the preservation of essential family values, should be among your main priorities.

Family ministry is an essential element for evangelization, making young people discover the value of a unique and faithful commitment. Therefore I exhort you to pay special attention to the formation of married couples and families .

Through its social work and by activities in the health field where numerous religious and competent laymen are involved, the Church also manifests the loving presence of God to those who suffer or who are in distress, and contributes to the progress of justice and of respect for human dignity.

In this context, I urge you to continue promoting Catholic schools, which are the places for an integral education in the service of families and the transmission of the faith. Despite the great difficulty that these schools may have, their role is essential so the youth may acquire a solid human, cultural and religious formation. May the educators themselves be models of Christian living for the youth!

To establish a society that is fully reconciled, one must start with Christ, who alone can definitively give this grace to man. So the work of evangelization is an urgent necessity. I wish to give an affectionate greeting to the catechists who, in your country, work with the priests and other pastoral workers, contribute effectively and generously to the proclamation of the word of God to their brothers.

In the face of the challenges posed by the world today to the evangelizing mission of the Church, the apostolic exhortation Ecclesa in Africa remains a valuable guide for your dioceses, giving the possibility of confirming the people in their faith and helping them "to persevere in the hope that comes from the Risen Christ, in order to overcome any temptation to lose heart" (N. 7).

Inculturation of the evangelic message, realized in faithfulness to the teachings of the Church, contributes to the effective radicalization of faith among your people, allowing them to welcome the person of Jesus Christ in all his dimensions. In fact, it is necessary that the faithful allow themselves to be transformed by the grace of God which makes them free by banishing all fear from their hearts, because 'there is no fear in love" (1 Jn 4,18).

While respecting the rich traditions which are the living expression of the soul of a people, Christians should firmly reject those who oppose the liberating message of Christ and imprison man and society in alienation.

For this, the formation of priests, of consecrated persons and of lay faithful should occupy a place of choice in the ministry of your dioceses. "No one, in fact, can clearly know the truths of the faith which he has never learned, nor perform deeds in which he was never initiated" (Ecclesia in Africa, n. 75).

The formation of Christians should give them the means to learn the faith in depth, so that by themselves they may then be able to face difficult situations and transmit teh content of the faith by the testimony of their own lives, sustained by sure personal convictions.

This formation should also aid the lay faithful to acquire abilities that will enable them to participate in society by working for the common good. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church is a valuable instrument that can be used to for such formation, particularly of the lay apostolate.

Your involvement in the life of society, through respect for life, the promotion of justice, the defense of human rights and the integral development of man, is a testimony to Christ. Thus, the faithful can participate in the construction and development of the nation, and in the task of universal evangelization.

Finally, I wish to underscore the necessity of pursuing and deepening cordial relations with the Muslims in your country. This is indispensable for concord and harmony among all citizens, as well as for the promotion of values common to all mankind.

Through the formation of competent persons in the church institutions that have been established to promote inter-religious dialog, you would promote better mutual understanding, in charity and truth, towards effective collaboration in the development of persons and society.

Dear brothers in the Episcopate, as our meeting comes to an end, I invite you to continue with courage and determination your ministry of service to the people entrusted to you. May the Lord accompany you with his strength and his light. I entrust each of your dioceses to the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, and I grant you all an affectionate apostolic blessing, to your priests, religious, seminarians, catechists and all your lay faithful.

At Aula Paolo VI today, the Holy Father addressed the participants of the current conference of European university rectors and lecturers who are meeting on the theme "A new humanism for Europe" in connection with the 50th anniversary year of the signing of the Treaty of Rome. The address was delivered in English:



Your Eminence,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends!

I am particularly pleased to receive you during the first European Meeting of University Lecturers, sponsored by the Council of European Episcopal Conferences and organized by teachers from the Roman universities, coordinated by the Vicariate of Rome's Office for the Pastoral Care of Universities.

It is taking place on the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which gave rise to the present European Union, and its participants include university lecturers from every country on the continent, including those of the Caucasus: Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

I thank Cardinal Péter Erdo, President of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences, for his kind words of introduction. I greet the representatives of the Italian government, particularly those from the Ministry for Universities and Research, and from the Ministry for Italy's Cultural Heritage, as well as the representatives of the Region of Lazio and the Province and City of Rome.

My greeting also goes to the other civil and religious authorities, the Rectors and the teachers of the various universities, as well as the chaplains and students present.

The theme of your meeting - "A New Humanism for Europe: The Role of the Universities" - invites a disciplined assessment of contemporary culture on the continent.

Europe is currently experiencing a certain social instability and diffidence in the face of traditional values, yet her distinguished history and her established academic institutions have much to contribute to shaping a future of hope.

The "question of man", which is central to your discussions, is essential for a correct understanding of current cultural processes. It also provides a solid point of departure for the effort of universities to create a new cultural presence and activity in the service of a more united Europe.

Promoting a new humanism, in fact, requires a clear understanding of what this "newness" actually embodies. Far from being the fruit of a superficial desire for novelty, the quest for a new humanism must take serious account of the fact that Europe today is experiencing a massive cultural shift, one in which men and women are increasingly conscious of their call to be actively engaged in shaping their own history.

Historically, it was in Europe that humanism developed, thanks to the fruitful interplay between the various cultures of her peoples and the Christian faith. Europe today needs to preserve and reappropriate her authentic tradition if she is to remain faithful to her vocation as the cradle of humanism.

The present cultural shift is often seen as a "challenge" to the culture of the university and Christianity itself, rather than as a "horizon" against which creative solutions can and must be found. As men and women of higher education, you are called to take part in this demanding task, which calls for sustained reflection on a number of foundational issues.

Among these, I would mention in the first place the need for a comprehensive study of the crisis of modernity. European culture in recent centuries has been powerfully conditioned by the notion of modernity.

The present crisis, however, has less to do with modernity's insistence on the centrality of man and his concerns, than with the problems raised by a "humanism" that claims to build a regnum hominis detached from its necessary ontological foundation.

A false dichotomy between theism and authentic humanism, taken to the extreme of positing an irreconcilable conflict between divine law and human freedom, has led to a situation in which humanity, for all its economic and technical advances, feels deeply threatened.

As my predecessor, Pope John Paul II, stated, we need to ask "whether in the context of all this progress, man, as man, is becoming truly better, that is to say, more mature spiritually, more aware of the dignity of his humanity, more responsible and more open to others" (Redemptor Hominis, 15). The anthropocentrism which characterizes modernity can never be detached from an acknowledgment of the full truth about man, which includes his transcendent vocation.

A second issue involves the broadening of our understanding of rationality. A correct understanding of the challenges posed by contemporary culture, and the formulation of meaningful responses to those challenges, must take a critical approach towards narrow and ultimately irrational attempts to limit the scope of reason.

The concept of reason needs instead to be "broadened" in order to be able to explore and embrace those aspects of reality which go beyond the purely empirical. This will allow for a more fruitful, complementary approach to the relationship between faith and reason.

The rise of the European universities was fostered by the conviction that faith and reason are meant to cooperate in the search for truth, each respecting the nature and legitimate autonomy of the other, yet working together harmoniously and creatively to serve the fulfilment of the human person in truth and love.

A third issue needing to be investigated concerns the nature of the contribution which Christianity can make to the humanism of the future. The question of man, and thus of modernity, challenges the Church to devise effective ways of proclaiming to contemporary culture the "realism" of her faith in the saving work of Christ.

Christianity must not be relegated to the world of myth and emotion, but respected for its claim to shed light on the truth about man, to be able to transform men and women spiritually, and thus to enable them to carry out their vocation in history.

In my recent visit to Brazil, I voiced my conviction that "unless we do know God in and with Christ, all of reality becomes an indecipherable enigma" (Address to Bishops of CELAM, 3).

Knowledge can never be limited to the purely intellectual realm; it also includes a renewed ability to look at things in a way free of prejudices and preconceptions, and to allow ourselves to be "amazed" by reality, whose truth can be discovered by uniting understanding with love.

Only the God who has a human face, revealed in Jesus Christ, can prevent us from truncating reality at the very moment when it demands ever new and more complex levels of understanding. The Church is conscious of her responsibility to offer this contribution to contemporary culture.

In Europe, as elsewhere, society urgently needs the service to wisdom which the university community provides. This service extends also to the practical aspects of directing research and activity to the promotion of human dignity and to the daunting task of building the civilization of love.

University professors, in particular, are called to embody the virtue of intellectual charity, recovering their primordial vocation to train future generations not only by imparting knowledge but by the prophetic witness of their own lives.

The university, for its part, must never lose sight of its particular calling to be an universitas in which the various disciplines, each in its own way, are seen as part of a greater unum.

How urgent is the need to rediscover the unity of knowledge and to counter the tendency to fragmentation and lack of communicability that is all too often the case in our schools! The effort to reconcile the drive to specialization with the need to preserve the unity of knowledge can encourage the growth of European unity and help the continent to rediscover its specific cultural "vocation" in today's world. Only a Europe conscious of its own cultural identity can make a specific contribution to other cultures, while remaining open to the contribution of other peoples.

Dear friends, it is my hope that universities will increasingly become communities committed to the tireless pursuit of truth, "laboratories of culture" where teachers and students join in exploring issues of particular importance for society, employing interdisciplinary methods and counting on the collaboration of theologians. This can easily be done in Europe, given the presence of so many prestigious Catholic institutions and faculties of theology.

I am convinced that greater cooperation and new forms of fellowship between the various academic communities will enable Catholic universities to bear witness to the historical fruitfulness of the encounter between faith and reason. The result will be a concrete contribution to the attainment of the goals of the Bologna Process, and an incentive for developing a suitable university apostolate in the local Churches.

Effective support for these efforts, which have been increasingly a concern of the European Episcopal Conferences (cf. Ecclesia in Europa, 58-59), can come from those ecclesial associations and movements already engaged in the university apostolate.

Dear friends, may your deliberations during these days prove fruitful and help to build an active network of university instructors committed to bringing the light of the Gospel to contemporary culture.

I assure you and your families of a special remembrance in my prayers, and I invoke upon you, and the universities in which you work, the maternal protection of Mary, Seat of Wisdom. To each of you I affectionately impart my Apostolic Blessing.

The Holy Father this morning visited the Vatican Apostolic Library and Secret Archives which will temporarily close down next month for an expected three-year renovation and restoration. Here is a translation of his address to the officers and staff:



Lord Cardinal,
Venerated brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters!

I accepted with joy the invitation given to me by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, to visit the Vatican Apostolic Library and Secret Archives.

Both institutions, for the important service that they render to the Apostolic See and to the world of culture, deserve special attention from the Pope. I have therefore come here very gladly to meet you, to thank you all for your warm welcome, and to give you my heartfelt greetings.

First of all, to Cardinal Tauran, whom I also thank for the words he has addressed to me and the sentiments he expressed in your name. With equal affection I greet Bishop Raffaele Farina and the Prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives, Fr. Sergio Pagano, as well as all of you present and all who, in various ways, lend their collaboration to the Library and the Archives.

Dear friends, what you do is not simply work, but as I said earlier, a singular service to the Church, and in particular, to the Pope. It is well-known that the Vatican Library - which, as Cardinal Tauran announced, is soon to undergo urgent restoration work - is called Apostolic because from its establishment, it was an institution considered to be the 'Pope's library,' directly in his service.

Even in recent times, the Servant of God John Paul II recalled this link between the Apostolic Library and the Successor of Peter, a link that highlights the special mission stated by Pope Sixtus IV: "Ad decorem militantis Ecclesiae et fidei augmentum" - For the ornament of the Church and the spread of the faith.

Another one of my predecessors, Pope Nicholas V, echoed that, stating its purpose to be "Pro communi doctorum virorum commodo" - for the use and common interest of men of science.

In the course of centuries, the Vatican Library has assimilated and refined this mission with unmistakable character so that now it is a welcoming house of science, culture and humanity, which opens its doors to scholars coming from all parts of the world, regardless of origin, religion or culture.

Your task, dear friends who work here daily, is to safeguard the synthesis of culture and faith that emanates from the precious documents and treasures in your custody, from the very walls around you, the (Vatican) Museums which are next door, and the splendid Basilica that gleams through your windows.

I also know quite well the work that is being done daily, with humble and almost hidden commitment, in the Secret Archives, a destination for so many researchers coming from around the world. In these manuscripts, less solemn than the rich codices of the Apostolic Library - but not less relevant to historical interest - they are researching the roots of so many ecclesiastical and civil institutions, they study the history of times long gone as well as those more recent, they can sketch out the illustrious figures of the church and of civilization, and make better known the multiform works of the Roman Pontiffs and so many prelates.

The Vatican Archives, made available to be consulted by scholars by the wise long-range vision of Leo XIII in 1881, have become a reference for generations of historians, by the very nations of Europe who, in order to favor research into this rich and ancient treasure chest of the Church of Rome, have set up various cultural institutes in Rome.

Today, the Archives are patronized not only for erudite research into remote historical periods - worthy and meritorious as that is -but also on matters of interest regarding not so distant times, even rather recent ones.

Proof are the first fruits that have already been produced by making available to scholars the documents of Pius XI's pontificate, which I decided in June 2006.

Researches, studies and publications sometimes give rise to some polemics, alongside a mainly historical interest. In this respect, I can only praise the attitude of disinterested impartial service that the Secret Archives have rendered, while keeping away from sterile and often weak partisan historic viewpoints, offering to all researchers, without exclusion or prejudice, the documentary material in its custody, with it maintains with orderly competence.

From increasingly more places the Archives and the Library have been getting signs of appreciation and esteem from cultural institutions and private scholars of many nations. I think this is the best recognition that your two institutions can aspire for. And I wish to assure your superiors and all the staff, on all levels, of my gratitude and my nearness.

I confess that when I turned 70, I had wanted very much the beloved John Paul II to let me dedicate myself to the study and research of documents and references in your care - true masterworks that help us to retrace the history of mankind and of Christianity.

In his providential design, the Lord had other plans for me, and so I am here among you today, not as a passionate student of ancient texts, but as a shepherd called on to urge all the faithful to cooperate in the salvation of the world, by each of us fulfilling the will of God wherever he puts us to work.

For you, dear friends, it means realizing your Christian vocation in contact with these rich testimonies of culture, science and spirituality, spending your days, and ultimately, a good part of your life, in studies, in publications, in service to the public and in particular, to the organisms of the Roman Curia.

For your multiple activities, you now avail of the most advanced techniues in information technology, cataloguing, restoration, photography, and in general, everything that has to do with the guardianship and fruition of the very rich patrimony that is in your care.

In praising you for your commitment, I exhort you to always consider your work as a true mission to carry out with passion and patience, with kindness and the spirit of faith.

Be attentive to always offer a welcoming image of the Apostolic See, in the knowledge that the evangelical message is also conveyed through your consistent Christian testimony.

Now, I am happy, at the end of our encounter, to announce the nomination of Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran as President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog. In his place as Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, I have named Mons. Raffaele Farina, promoting him at the same time to the rank of Archbishop. And to be the Prefect of the Vatican Apostolic Library, I have called Mons. Cesare Pasini, who has been the Vice Prefect of the Ambrosian Library. To each of you, my wishes for the profitable exercise of your new assignments.

Once again I thank all of you for the valuable services that you carry out in the Apostolic Library and Vatican Archives. While assuring you that I remember you in my prayers, I impart from the heart to all of you with special affection a blessing which I gladly extend to your families and other loved ones.

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's homily delivered 6/28/07, at the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls on the eve of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul.


Lord Cardinals,
Venerated brothers in the Episcopate and Priesthood,
dear brothers and sisters!

In these First Vespers of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, we gratefully remember these two Apostles, whose blood, along with that of so many other witnesses to the Gospel, has made the Church of Rome fruitful.

In their memory, I am happy to greet you all, brothers and sisters, starting with the Cardinal Arch-Priest and the other Cardinals and Bishops present, the Father Abbot and the Benedictine community in charge of this Basilica, to the priests, religious and faithful gathered here.

I address a special greeting to the delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which is reciprocating the visit of a delegation from the Holy See to Istanbul on the Feast of Saint Andrew.

As I had occasion to say a few days ago, these meetings and initiatives are not simply an exchange of courtesies between the Churches, but express our common commitment to do everything possible to hasten the time towards full communion between Christians of the East and the West.

With these sentiments, I address myself with deference to the Metropolitan Bishops Emmanuel and Gennadios, sent by our dear brother Bartholomew I, of whom I have grateful and cordial thoughts.

This Basilica, which has seen events of profound ecumenical significance, reminds us how important it is to pray together for the gift of unity, that unity for which St. Peter and St. Paul offered their existence up to the supreme sacrifice of their own blood.

A very old tradition, which goes back to apostolic times, recounts that not far from here was where they had their last encounter before martyrdom. They were said to have embraced each other, and to have blessed each other reciprocally. They are depicted on the main door of this Basilica in the scene of their martyrdom.

From the very beginning then, Christian tradition has considered Peter and Paul inseparable, even if they each had a different mission to fulfill. Peter first confessed his faith in Christ; Paul received the gift of being able to plumb the profundity of its richness. Peter founded the first Christian community coming from the chosen people; Pail became the apostle of the gentiles. With different charisms, they worked for a single cause: building the Church of Christ.

In the Readings, the liturgy offers for our meditation a well-known text of St. Augustine: "Only one day is consecrated to the feast of the two apostles. But they were also a single unit. Even if they were martyred on different days, they were one. Peter went ahead, Paul followed...Thus we celebrate this feast day, consecrated for us by the blood of these apostles" (Disc. 295, 7-8).

And St. Leo the Great commented: "Of their merits and their virtues - which were superior from all accounts - we cannot think of anything contradictory or divisive, because election had made them equal, their efforts similar and their end alike" (In natali apostol., 69, 6-7).

In Rome, the link that gave Peter and Paul a common mission has assumed from the first centuries a very specific significance. Like the mythical brothers Romulus and Remus, attributed with the founding of Rome, Peter and Paul likewise are considered as founders of the Church of Rome.

Leo the Great said in this respect, addressing the city: "These are your holy fathers, your true shepherds, who, to make you worthy of the kingdom the heavens, had built very well and felicitously, doing their best to lay down the foundations of your walls" (Omelie 82,7).

As much as they were humanly very different from each other, and even if their relationship was not without tensions, Peter and Paul therefore appear as the initiators of a new city, as a concretization of a new and authentic way of being brothers, made possible by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so we can say that today the Church of Rome celebrates its birthday, inasmuch as the two Apostles had laid down its foundations. Moreover, Rome now realizes with greater awareness that is its mission and its grandeur.

St. John Chrysostom writes that "the sky is not as bright when the sun sheds its rays as the city of Rome which radiates the splendor of those burning torches (Peter and Paul) through all the world...This the reason why we love this city...for these two pillars of the Church" (Comm. a Rm 32).

We will remember the apostle Peter more particularly tomorrow, when we celebrate the divine Sacrifice in the Vatican Basilica built on the place where he was martyred. But tonight, we look at St. Paul, whose relics are guarded with great veneration in this Basilica.

At the start of his Letter to the Romans, as we heard a short while ago, he salutes the community of Rome, presenting himself as "servant of Jesus, apostle by calling" (1.1). He uses the term
servo, in Greek doulos, which indicates a total and unconditional belonging to Jesus, the Lord, as in the Hebrew word ebed, alluding to the great servants whom God has chosen and called for an important specific mission.

Paul knew he was a 'apostle by calling' - that is, not by self-candidacy nor by human charge, but only through divine calling and election. In his epistolary, the Apostle of the Gentiles repeats several times that everything in his life is the fruit of God's free and merciful initiative (cfr 1 Cor 15,910; 2 Cor 4,1; Gal 1.15).

He was chosen 'to announce the gospel of God' (Rom 1,1), to propagate the announcement of the Divine Grace which, in Christ, reconciles man with God, with himself and with his fellowmen.

From his letters, we know that Paul was anything but a skillful speaker - he shared with Moses and Jeremiah a lack of oratorical talent. "His physical presence is weak and his voice is unassuming" (2 Cor 10,10), his adversaries said of him.

The extraordinary apostolic results he obtained were therefore not due to brilliant rhetoric nor to refined apologetic and missionary strategies. The success of his apostolate depended above all on a personal involvement in announcing the Gospel with total dedication to Christ, a dedication that had no fear of risks, difficulties or persecution.

"Neither death, nor life," he wrote to the Romans, "nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (8,38-39).

From this, we can draw a lesson that is important to every Christian. The action of the Church is credible and effective only to the degree in which those who are part of it are willing to pay in the flesh for their loyalty to Jesus in very situation. Where such willingness is lacking, it diminishes the decisive argument for truth on which the Church itself depends.

Dear brothers and sisters, as at the beginning, even today, Christ needs apostles who are ready to sacrifice themselves. He needs witnesses and martyrs like St. Paul: once a violent persecutor of Christians, on the road to Damascus, he was struck down blind by divine light, and he passed right on to the cause of the Crucified One without hesitation or looking back. He lived and worked for Christ; for Him he suffered and died. How relevant is his example today!

And because of this, I am happy to announce officially that we will dedicate to the Apostle Paul a special Jubilee Year from June 28, 2008 to June 29, 2009, on the bimillenary of his birth, thought to have been between 7 and 10 A.C.

This Pauline Year can be observed best in Rome, where for 20 centuries, under the papal altar of this Basilica, his sarcophagus has lain, which according to expert consensus as well as uncontested tradition, contains the remains of the Apostle Paul.

At this Papal Basilica and its homonymous Benedictine Abbey, there will be a series of liturgical, cultural and ecumenical events, as well as pastoral and social initiatives, all inspired by the Pauline spirituality.

There will be study conferences and special publications on the Pauline texts, to better make known the immense riches of teaching contained in them, a true patrimony for mankind redeemed by Christ. In other parts of the world, similar initiatives could be realized in the dioceses, sanctuaries, places of worship, study or assistance which carry the name of St. Paul or are inspired by his teaching.

Finally, there is a particular aspect which must be observed with singular attention during the celebration of the Pauline bimillenary - I refer to the ecumenical dimension. The Apostle of the Gentiles, who was particularly committed to bringing the Good News to all peoples, did everything he could for the unity and concord of all Christians.

May he guide and protect us in this bimillennial celebration, helping us to progress in our humble and sincere quest for full unity of all the members of the Mystical Body of Christ. Amen.

Here is a translation of the Holy Father's homily at Mass today, during which he also imposed the Pallium on 46 Metropolitan Archbishops who were named in the past year.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls, where I celebrated the First Vespers of today's Solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul. Next to the sepulcher of the Apostle of the Gentiles, I paid homage to his memory and announced the Pauline Year, which will take place from June 28, 2008, to June 29, 2009, to mark the bimillenial anniversary of his birth.

Today, by tradition, we are here at St. Peter's sepulcher. Here to receive the Pallium are the Metropolitan Archbishops named in the past year, whom I greet specially.

Also present is an eminent delegation sent by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I. I welcome them with heartfelt acknowledgment, thinking back to last November 30, when I was in Istanbul-Constantinople for the Feast of St. Andrew.

I greet the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of France, Emmanuel; the Metropolitan of Sassima, Gennadios; and Deacon Andreas. Welcome, dear brothers!

Every year, the visits we exchange reciprocally is a sign that our quest for full communion is an ever present goal of the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Bishop of Rome.

Today's feast gives us the opportunity to meditate once more on the confession of Peter, a decisive moment in the journey of the disciples with Jesus. The synoptic Gospels say it took place near Caesarea Philippi (cfr Mt 16,13-20; Mk 8,27-30; Lk 9,18-22). John has preserved for us another significant confession of Peter, after the miracle of the loaves and Jesus's discourse at the synagogue in Capharnaum (cfr Jn 6,66-70).

Matthew, in the text which was read a short while ago, recalls that Jesus attributes to Peter the name Kephas, which means 'rock'. Jesus affirms he wishes to build his church 'on this rock', and in this context, confers on Peter the power of the keys (cfr Mt 16,17-19).

From these accounts it emerges clearly that Peter's confession is inseparable from the pastoral mission for Jesus's flock that was entrusted.

According to all the evangelists, Simon's confession comes at a decisive moment in the life of Jesus, when, after preaching in Galilee, he heads resolutely towards Jerusalem to bring his saving mission to fulfillment, through his death on the Cross and the Resurrection.

The disciples are involved in this decision: Jesus invites them to make a choice which will distinguish them from the crowd, to become the community of believers in him, his 'family,' the start of the Church.

In fact, there are two ways of 'seeing' and 'knowing' Christ: one, that of the crowd's, is more superficial; the other - that of the disciples - is more penetrating and authentic.

With the double question, "Who do people say I am? - Who do you think I am?", Jesus invites the disciples to be aware of this
difference in perspective.

The people thought Jesus was a prophet. That is not false, but it is not enough. One has to go in depth, to recognize the singularity of the person of Jesus of Nazareth, his 'newness.' Even today, it is so: many approach Jesus, so to speak, from the outside.

Great scholars acknowledge his spiritual and moral stature and his influence on the history of mankind, comparing him to Buddha, Confucius, Socrates and other wise and great historic personalities. But they do not arrive at acknowledging his uniqueness.

One recalls what Jesus told Phillip at the Last Supper: "I have been with you so long and still you do not know me, Phillip?" (Jn 14,9).

Jesus is often considered as one of the great religious founders, from whom one can take something in order to make up one's own belief. Just as then, even today, 'people' have different opinions about Jesus. And just as then, Jesus also asks us, his disciples today: "And you, who do you think that I am?"

We want Peter's answer to be ours. According to the Gospel of Mark, he said, "You are the Christ" (8,29); in Luke, the statement is "The Christ of God" (9,20); in Matthew, "You are the Christ, Son of the living God" (16,16); finally, in John, "You are the Holy One from God" (6.69). They are all valid responses, even for us.

Let us dwell in particular on Matthew's text from today's liturgy. According to some scholars, the formulation presumes a post-Easter context, and is linked directly to an apparition of the resurrected Jesus to Peter - an apparition analogous to what Paul saw on the road to Damascus.

Actually, the mission conferred by the Lord on Peter is rooted in the personal relationship that the historic Jesus had with the fisherman Simon, from his very first meeting with him, when he tells him, "You are Simon...you will be called Kephas (which means Peter)" (Jn 1,42). This is emphasized by the evangelist John, a fisherman himself, who, with his brother James, was an associate of the brothers Simon and Andrew.

The Jesus who, after the Resurrection, summoned Saul of Tarsus is the same who - still immersed in history - after his Baptism on the Jordan, approached the four fisherman brothers, at that time disciples of the Baptist (cfr Jn 1,35-42). He sought them out on the banks of the Lake of Galilee, and called them to follow him in order to be 'fishers of men' (cfr Mk 1, 16-20).

Later, he entrusted a particular mission to Peter, recognizing in him a special gift of faith from the heavenly Father. All this obviously was later illumined by the Easter experience, but remains always firmly anchored in the historical events that preceded Easter.

The parallelism between Peter and Paul is suggestive, but it cannot diminish the significance of Simon's historic journey with his Lord and Master, who from the beginning attributed to him the characteristic of the 'rock' on which he would build his new community, the Church.

In the synoptic gospels, Peter's confession is always followed by Jesus's announcement of his coming Passion. An announcement which Peter protests, because he has not yet understood. And yet it was a fundamental element which, therefore, Jesus insistently affirmed.

In fact, the titles attributed to him by Peter - you are 'the Christ', 'the Christ of God', 'the son of the living God'- can be understood authentically only in the light of the mystery of his death and resurrection.

The inverse is also true: the event of the Cross reveals its full sense only if 'this man' who suffered and who died on the Cross, was 'truly the son of God', to use the words of the centurion in front of the Cross (cfr Mk 15.39).

These texts say clearly that the entirety of Christian faith is in Peter's confession, illuminated by the teaching of Jesus about his 'way' to glory, that is, on his absolutely singular being as the Messiah and Son of God.

A narrow 'way', 'scandalous' for the disciples of every age, who inevitably think as human beings do, not as God does (cfr Mt 16,23). Even today, as in Jesus's time, it is not enough to have the right confession of faith. It is always necessary to learn anew from the Lord how he is the Savior and the way along which we should follow him.

In fact, we should acknowledge that even for the believer, the Cross is always difficult to accept. Instinct makes us avoid it, and the tempter leads us to believe that it would be wiser to concern ourselves with saving our own selves rather than lose one's own life because of faithfulness in love.

What was difficult to accept for the men Jesus was addressing? What is still difficult to accept even for many men today? It is difficult to accept that he claimed to be not just a prophet but the Son of God and claimed for himself the authority of God.

Listening to him preach, watching him cure the sick, evangelize the humble and the poor, forgive sinners, the disciples slowly came to understand that he was the Messiah in the highest sense of the term - which means to say, not just a man sent by God, but God himself who had become man.

Clearly, all this was greatly beyond them, surpassing their capacity to understand. They could express their faith with the titles from the Jewish tradition - 'Christ', 'Son of God', 'Lord'. But in order to keep to the truth, those titles needed to be somehow rediscovered in their most profound truth.

Jesus himself with his life revealed their full sense, always surprising, and outrightly paradoxical with regard to then current ideas. So the faith of the disciples had to adapt progressively. It presents itself to us like a pilgrimage which originates in the experience of the historical Jesus, finds its basis in the Paschal mystery, but must still advance with the action of the Holy Spirit.

And that has also been how it is with the faith of the Church in the course of history, as it is also with the faith we have, we Christians today. Resting firmly on the 'rock' of Peter, it is a pilgrimage towards that truth which the Fisherman from Galilee professed with passionate conviction: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16,16).

In Peter's profession of faith, dear brothers and sisters, we can feel ourselves - and be - all together just one, despite the divisions which have lacerated the unity of the Church in the course of centuries and whose consequences last to this day.

In the name of Saints Peter and Paul, let us renew today, together with our brothers from Constantinople - whom I thank again for their presence at this celebration - the commitment to pursue to the very end Christ's desire that we should be fully united.

With the concelebrating Archbishops, let us welcome the gift and the responsibility of communion between the See of Peter and the Metropolitan Churches entrusted to their pastoral care.

May the Holy Mother of God guide and accompany us with her intercession. May her inexhaustible faith, which sustained the faith of Peter and the other Apostles, continue to sustain that of all Christian generations. Queen of the Apostles, pray for us!

July 25,2007
Libreria Editrice Vaticana

The following is the message of the Pope Benedict XVI to the young people of the world on the occasion of the XXIII World Youth Day 2008:

"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8).

My dear young friends!

1. The XXIII World Youth Day

I always remember with great joy the various occasions we spent together in Cologne in August 2005. At the end of that unforgettable manifestation of faith and enthusiasm that remains engraved on my spirit and on my heart, I made an appointment with you for the next gathering that will be held in Sydney in 2008. This will be the XXIII World Youth Day and the theme will be: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8).

The underlying theme of the spiritual preparation for our meeting in Sydney is the Holy Spirit and mission. In 2006 we focused our attention on the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth. Now in 2007 we are seeking a deeper understanding of the Spirit of Love. We will continue our journey towards World Youth Day 2008 by reflecting on the Spirit of Fortitude and Witness that gives us the courage to live according to the gospel and to proclaim it boldly.

Therefore it is very important that each one of you young people - in your communities, and together with those responsible for your education - should be able to reflect on this principal agent of salvation history, namely the Holy Spirit or the spirit of Jesus. In this way you will be able to achieve the following lofty goals: to recognize the spirit's true identity, principally by listening to the word of God in the revelation of the Bible; to become clearly aware of his continuous, active presence in the life of the church, especially as you rediscover that the Holy Spirit is the "soul", the vital breath of Christian life itself, through the sacraments of Christian initiation - baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist; to grow thereby in an understanding of Jesus that becomes ever deeper and more joyful and, at the same time, to put the gospel into practice at the dawn of the third millennium.

In this message I gladly offer you an outline for meditation that you can explore during this year of preparation. In this way you can test the quality of your faith in the Holy Spirit, rediscover it if it is lost, strengthen it if it has become weak, savor it as fellowship with the father and with his son Jesus Christ, brought about by the indispensable working of the Holy Spirit. Never forget that the church, in fact humanity itself, all the people around you now and those who await you in the future, expect much from you young people, because you have within you the supreme gift of the father, the spirit of Jesus.

2. The promise of the Holy Spirit in the Bible

Attentive listening to the Word of God concerning the mystery and action of the Holy Spirit opens us up to great and inspiring insights that I shall summarize in the following points.

Shortly before his Ascension, Jesus said to his disciples: "And behold, I send the promise of my father upon you" (Lk 24:49). This took place on the day of Pentecost when they were together in prayer in the Upper Room with the virgin Mary. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the nascent church was the fulfillment of a promise made much earlier by God, announced and prepared throughout the Old Testament.

In fact, right from its opening pages, the Bible presents the spirit of God as the wind that "was moving over the face of the waters" (cf. Gen 1:2). It says that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life (cf. Gen 2:7), thereby infusing him with life itself. After original sin, the life-giving spirit of God is seen several times in the history of humankind, calling forth prophets to exhort the chosen people to return to God and to observe his commandments faithfully. In the well-known vision of the prophet Ezekiel, God, with his spirit, restores to life the people of Israel, represented by the "dry bones" (cf. 37:1-14). Joel prophesied an "outpouring of the spirit" over all the people, excluding no one. The sacred author wrote: "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh ... Even upon the menservants and maidservants, in those days, I will pour out my spirit" (3:1-2).

In "the fullness of time" (cf. Gal 4:4), the angel of the Lord announced to the virgin of Nazareth that the Holy Spirit, "the power of the most high," would come upon her and overshadow her. The child to be born would be holy and would be called Son of God (cf. Lk 1:35). In the words of the prophet Isaiah, the messiah would be the one on whom the spirit of the Lord would rest (cf. 11:1-2; 42:1). This is the prophecy that Jesus took up again at the start of his public ministry in the synagogue in Nazareth. To the amazement of those present, he said: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Lk 4:18-19; cf. Is 61:1-2). Addressing those present, he referred those prophetic words to himself by saying: "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4:21). Again, before his death on the cross, he would tell his disciples several times about the coming of the Holy Spirit, the "counselor" whose mission would be to bear witness to him and to assist believers by teaching them and guiding them to the fullness of Truth (cf. Jn 14:16-17, 25-26; 15:26; 16:13).

3. Pentecost, the point of departure for the church’s mission

On the evening of the day of resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples, "he breathed on them and said to them, 'receive the Holy Spirit'" (Jn 20:22). With even greater power the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. We read in the Acts of the Apostles: "And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them" (2:2-3).

The Holy Spirit renewed the Apostles from within, filling them with a power that would give them courage to go out and boldly proclaim that "Christ has died and is risen!" Freed from all fear, they began to speak openly with self-confidence (cf. Acts 2:29; 4:13; 4:29, 31). These frightened fishermen had become courageous heralds of the Gospel. Even their enemies could not understand how "uneducated and ordinary men" (cf. Acts 4:13) could show such courage and endure difficulties, suffering and persecution with joy. Nothing could stop them. To those who tried to silence them they replied: "We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20). This is how the church was born, and from the day of Pentecost she has not ceased to spread the Good News "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

4. The Holy Spirit, soul of the church and principle of communion

If we are to understand the mission of the church, we must go back to the Upper Room where the disciples remained together (cf. Lk 24:49), praying with Mary, the "mother", awaiting the Spirit that had been promised. This icon of the nascent church should be a constant source of inspiration for every Christian community. Apostolic and missionary fruitfulness is not principally due to programs and pastoral methods that are cleverly drawn up and "efficient", but is the result of the community's constant prayer (cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 75). Moreover, for the mission to be effective, communities must be united, that is, they must be "of one heart and soul" (cf. Acts 4:32), and they must be ready to witness to the love and joy that the Holy Spirit instils in the hearts of the faithful (cf. Acts 2:42). The servant of God John Paul II wrote that, even prior to action, the church's mission is to witness and to live in a way that shines out to others (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 26). Tertullian tells us that this is what happened in the early days of Christianity when pagans were converted on seeing the love that reigned among Christians: "See how they love one another" (cf. Apology, 39 § 7).

To conclude this brief survey of the word of God in the Bible, I invite you to observe how the Holy Spirit is the highest gift of God to humankind, and therefore the supreme testimony of his love for us, a love that is specifically expressed as the "yes to life" that God wills for each of his creatures. This "yes to life" finds its fullness in Jesus of Nazareth and in his victory over evil by means of the redemption. In this regard, let us never forget that the gospel of Jesus, precisely because of the Spirit, cannot be reduced to a mere statement of fact, for it is intended to be "good news for the poor, release for captives, sight for the blind ...". With what great vitality this was seen on the day of Pentecost, as it became the grace and the task of the church towards the world, her primary mission!

We are the fruits of this mission of the church through the working of the Holy Spirit. We carry within us the seal of the father's love in Jesus Christ which is the Holy Spirit. Let us never forget this, because the spirit of the Lord always remembers every individual, and wishes, particularly through you young people, to stir up the wind and fire of a new Pentecost in the world.

5. The Holy Spirit as "teacher of the interior life"

My dear young friends, the Holy Spirit continues today to act with power in the church, and the fruits of the spirit are abundant in the measure in which we are ready to open up to this power that makes all things new. For this reason it is important that each one of us know the spirit, establish a relationship with him and allow ourselves to be guided by him. However, at this point a question naturally arises: who is the Holy Spirit for me? It is a fact that for many Christians. He is still the "great unknown". This is why, as we prepare for the next World Youth Day, I wanted to invite you to come to know the Holy Spirit more deeply at a personal level. In our profession of faith we proclaim: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the father and the son" (Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed). Yes, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the love of the father and of the son, is the source of life that makes us holy, "because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Rom 5:5). Nevertheless, it is not enough to know the spirit; we must welcome Him as the guide of our souls, as the "teacher of the interior life" who introduces us to the mystery of the trinity, because He alone can open us up to faith and allow us to live it each day to the full. The spirit impels us forward towards others, enkindles in us the fire of love, makes us missionaries of God's charity.

I know very well that you young people hold in your hearts great appreciation and love for Jesus, and that you desire to meet him and speak with him. Indeed, remember that it is precisely the presence of the spirit within us that confirms, constitutes and builds our person on the very person of Jesus crucified and risen. So let us become familiar with the Holy Spirit in order to be familiar with Jesus.

6. The sacraments of confirmation and the Eucharist

You might ask, how can we allow ourselves to be renewed by the Holy Spirit and to grow in our spiritual lives? The answer, as you know, is this: we can do so by means of the Sacraments, because faith is born and is strengthened within us through the Sacraments, particularly those of Christian initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist, which are complementary and inseparable (cf. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1285). This truth concerning the three Sacraments that initiate our lives as Christians is perhaps neglected in the faith life of many Christians. They view them as events that took place in the past and have no real significance for today, like roots that lack life-giving nourishment. It happens that many young people distance themselves from their life of faith after they have received confirmation. There are also young people who have not even received this sacrament. Yet it is through the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and then, in an ongoing way, the Eucharist, that the Holy Spirit makes us children of the father, brothers and sisters of Jesus, members of his church, capable of a true witness to the gospel, and able to savor the joy of faith.

I therefore invite you to reflect on what I am writing to you. Nowadays it is particularly necessary to rediscover the sacrament of confirmation and its important place in our spiritual growth. Those who have received the sacraments of baptism and confirmation should remember that they have become "temples of the spirit": God lives within them. Always be aware of this and strive to allow the treasure within you to bring forth fruits of holiness. Those who are baptized but have not yet received the sacrament of confirmation, prepare to receive it knowing that in this way you will become "complete" Christians, since confirmation perfects baptismal grace (cf. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1302-1304).

Confirmation gives us special strength to witness to and glorify God with our whole lives (cf. Rom 12:1). It makes us intimately aware of our belonging to the church, the "body of Christ", of which we are all living members, in solidarity with one another (cf. 1 Cor 12:12-25). By allowing themselves to be guided by the spirit, each baptized person can bring his or her own contribution to the building up of the church because of the charisms given by the spirit, for "to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good" (1 Cor 12:7). When the spirit acts, he brings his fruits to the soul, namely "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Gal 5:22). To those of you who have not yet received the sacrament of confirmation, I extend a cordial invitation to prepare to receive it, and to seek help from your priests. It is a special occasion of grace that the Lord is offering you. Do not miss this opportunity!

I would like to add a word about the Eucharist. In order to grow in our Christian life, we need to be nourished by the body and blood of Christ. In fact, we are baptized and confirmed with a view to the Eucharist (cf. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1322; Sacramentum Caritatis, 17). "Source and summit" of the church’s life, the Eucharist is a "perpetual Pentecost" since every time we celebrate Mass we receive the Holy Spirit who unites us more deeply with Christ and transforms us into him. My dear young friends, if you take part frequently in the eucharistic celebration, if you dedicate some of your time to adoration of the blessed sacrament, the source of love which is the Eucharist, you will acquire that joyful determination to dedicate your lives to following the gospel. At the same time it will be your experience that whenever our strength is not enough, it is the Holy Spirit who transforms us, filling us with his strength and making us witnesses suffused by the missionary fervor of the risen Christ.

7. The need and urgency of mission

Many young people view their lives with apprehension and raise many questions about their future. They anxiously ask: How can we fit into a world marked by so many grave injustices and so much suffering? How should we react to the selfishness and violence that sometimes seem to prevail? How can we give full meaning to life? How can we help to bring it about that the fruits of the spirit mentioned above, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (no. 6), can fill this scarred and fragile world, the world of young people most of all? On what conditions can the life-giving spirit of the first creation and particularly of the second creation or redemption become the new soul of humanity? Let us not forget that the greater the gift of God - and the gift of the spirit of Jesus is the greatest of all - so much the greater is the world's need to receive it and therefore the greater and the more exciting is the church’s mission to bear credible witness to it. You young people, through World Youth Day, are in a way manifesting your desire to participate in this mission. In this regard, my dear young friends, I want to remind you here of some key truths on which to meditate. Once again I repeat that only Christ can fulfill the most intimate aspirations that are in the heart of each person. Only Christ can humanize humanity and lead it to its "divinization". Through the power of his spirit he instills divine charity within us, and this makes us capable of loving our neighbor and ready to be of service. The Holy Spirit enlightens us, revealing Christ crucified and risen, and shows us how to become more like him so that we can be "the image and instrument of the love which flows from Christ" (Deus Caritas Est, 33). Those who allow themselves to be led by the spirit understand that placing oneself at the service of the gospel is not an optional extra, because they are aware of the urgency of transmitting this good news to others. Nevertheless, we need to be reminded again that we can be witnesses of Christ only if we allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit who is "the principal agent of evangelization" (cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 75) and "the principal agent of mission" (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 21). My dear young friends, as my venerable predecessors Paul VI and John Paul II said on several occasions, to proclaim the Gospel and bear witness to the faith is more necessary than ever today (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 1). There are those who think that to present the precious treasure of faith to people who do not share it means being intolerant towards them, but this is not the case, because to present Christ is not to impose him (cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 80). Moreover, 2,000 ago twelve Apostles gave their lives to make Christ known and loved. Throughout the centuries since then, the gospel has continued to spread by means of men and women inspired by that same missionary fervor. Today too there is a need for disciples of Christ who give unstintingly of their time and energy to serve the gospel. There is a need for young people who will allow God’s love to burn within them and who will respond generously to his urgent call, just as many young blesseds and saints did in the past and also in more recent times. In particular, I assure you that the spirit of Jesus today is inviting you young people to be bearers of the good news of Jesus to your contemporaries. The difficulty that adults undoubtedly find in approaching the sphere of youth in a comprehensible and convincing way could be a sign with which the spirit is urging you young people to take this task upon yourselves. You know the ideals, the language, and also the wounds, the expectations, and at the same time the desire for goodness felt by your contemporaries. This opens up the vast world of young people’s emotions, work, education, expectations, and suffering ... Each one of you must have the courage to promise the Holy Spirit that you will bring one young person to Jesus Christ in the way you consider best, knowing how to "give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but [to] do it with gentleness and reverence" (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).

In order to achieve this goal, my dear friends, you must be holy and you must be missionaries since we can never separate holiness from mission (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 90). Do not be afraid to become holy missionaries like St. Francis Xavier who traveled through the Far East proclaiming the good news until every ounce of his strength was used up, or like St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus who was a missionary even though she never left the Carmelite convent. Both of these are "patrons of the missions". Be prepared to put your life on the line in order to enlighten the world with the truth of Christ; to respond with love to hatred and disregard for life; to proclaim the hope of the risen Christ in every corner of the earth.

8. Invoking a "new Pentecost" upon the world

My dear young friends, I hope to see very many of you in Sydney in July 2008. It will be a providential opportunity to experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit's power. Come in great numbers in order to be a sign of hope and to give appreciative support to the church community in Australia that is preparing to welcome you. For the young people of the country that will host you, it will be an exceptional opportunity to proclaim the beauty and joy of the gospel to a society that is secularized in so many ways. Australia, like all of Oceania, needs to rediscover its Christian roots. In the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Oceania, Pope John Paul II wrote: "Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the church in Oceania is preparing for a new evangelization of peoples who today are hungering for Christ.... A new evangelization is the first priority for the church in Oceania" (no. 18).

I invite you to give time to prayer and to your spiritual formation during this last stage of the journey leading to the XXIII World Youth Day, so that in Sydney you will be able to renew the promises made at your baptism and confirmation. Together we shall invoke the Holy Spirit, confidently asking God for the gift of a new Pentecost for the church and for humanity in the third millennium.

May Mary, united in prayer with the Apostles in the Upper Room, accompany you throughout these months and obtain for all young Christians a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit to set their hearts on fire. Remember: the church has confidence in you! We pastors, especially, pray that you may love and lead others to love Jesus more and more and that you may follow him faithfully. With these sentiments I bless you all with deep affection.

From Lorenzago, 20 July 2007

Benedictus PP. XVI




SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=2481...

Here is a translation of the transcript of the Holy Father's session with the priests of the dioceses of Belluno-Feltre and Treviso a the church of Santa Justina Martyr in Auronzo di Cadore on Tuesday, 7/25/07:




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


[There were 10 questions and 10 answers. I will post each section as I am able to translate them]

Here is a translation of the transcript of the Holy Father's session with the priests of the dioceses of Belluno-Feltre and Treviso a the church of Santa Justina Martyr in Auronzo di Cadore on Tuesday, 7/25/07:




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


[There were 10 questions and 10 answers. I will post each section as I am able to translate them]