ZE090611
ZENIT
The World Seen From Rome
Daily dispatch - June 11, 2009
VATICAN DOSSIER
Pope Warns Secularism Can Infest Church
Natural Law Not Going Out of Style, Says Commission
WORLD FEATURES
Vietnam Prelate Dies a Witness of Persecution
Experts Confront Problem of Euthanasia by Omission
NEWS BRIEFS
Bishops to Aid Mediation in Peruvian Amazon
Cardinal Pleased With India's Election Results
Dominican Republic Rejects Changes to Marriage Law
ROME NOTES
Doubting Thomases; the Pitfalls of Folly
DOCUMENTS
Papal Address to Italian Episcopal Conference
CLASSIFIED ADS
Can ordinary, everyday work become prayer? See the book: The Mystery of Work
Pope Warns Secularism Can Infest Church
Cautions Against Worship Lacking HeartROME, JUNE 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is warning of a "serpentine secularization" that penetrates the Church and is manifested in "formal and empty Eucharistic worship."
The Pope celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi today in Rome, presiding over Mass in the Basilica of St. John Lateran and then processing with the Blessed Sacrament to the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
In his homily, the Holy Father illustrated the importance of faith in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, telling the thousands of pilgrims that this faith "cannot be taken for granted."
"Today there arises the risk of a serpentine secularization even within the Church, which can convert into a formal and empty Eucharistic worship, in celebrations lacking this participation from the heart that is expressed in veneration and respect for the liturgy," he cautioned.
According to the Pontiff, "the temptation is always strong to reduce prayer to superficial and hurried moments, letting oneself be carried away by earthly activities and worries."
And nevertheless, he added, the Eucharist is "the bread of eternal life of the new world that is given us today in the holy Mass, so that starting now the future world begins in us."
"With the Eucharist, therefore, heaven comes down to earth, the tomorrow of God descends into the present and it is as if time remains embraced by divine eternity," the Bishop of Rome explained.
He didn't hide his joy at being able to accompany the Blessed Sacrament along the path to St. Mary Major; he invited the faithful to raise up this prayer: "Stay with us, Christ, give to us the gift of yourself and give us the bread that nourishes us for eternal life.
"Free this world from the venom of evil, of violence and of hate, which contaminate consciences; purify it with the power of your merciful love."
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Natural Law Not Going Out of Style, Says Commission
Theologians Affirm It's Still the Base of EthicsROME, JUNE 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The objective values of natural law continue serving as the base for universal ethics, according to a new document from the International Theological Commission.
The document, "The Search for Universal Ethics: A New Look at Natural Law," was published on the Holy See's Web page in Italian and French.
L'Osservatore Romano published today a summary of the document in an article by French Dominican Father Serge-Thomas Bonino, a member of the commission.
The commission emphasizes the need for a consensus on objective and universal ethical values, which should be promoted to avoid the ups and downs of public opinion and government manipulation.
"These values can guarantee for human rights, for example, a more solid base than fragile juridical positivism," Father Bonino explained. "They should be founded on what defines human beings as humans and in how human nature is concretized is each person, regardless of race, culture or religion."
The document suggests that natural law as the base of ethics continues maintaining its validity, in a culture that elevates the individual to the level of a final reference point who creates his own values and acts outside of objective ethical norms, making use of ideologies that have little concern for human dignity.
The International Theological Commission document thus contributes to the current debate on the search for universal ethics, aiming to combat the growing separation between the ethical order on the one hand, and the economic, social, juridical and political orders on the other.
These latter sectors of human activity try to develop without normative references to a moral good that is objective and universal, the document notes.
It goes on to offer two alternatives, Father Bonino explained: Either globalization advances "more or less regulated in a juridical framework that is purely positivist, incapable of avoiding in the long-term the power and rights of the strongest, or else man involves himself in the process to orient it based on the finality that is properly human."
Living Law
The experts note in this regard that natural law affirms "persons and human communities are capable, in the light of reason, of recognizing the fundamental orientations of a moral act in conformity with the nature itself of the human subject and of presenting them in a normative way, in the form of precepts or commands."
"These fundamental precepts -- objective and universal -- are called to found and inspire together the moral, juridical and political determinations that regulate the life of man and society," the document proposes.
"To propose natural law in today's context, one should distance himself from the caricaturist presentations that have made it incomprehensible to many of our contemporaries [and] take advantage of the recent innovate elements of Catholic moral theology," Father Bonino suggested.
The document recalls that there is already a common ethical patrimony, as witnessed by the numerous convergences among the cultural and religious traditions of the world.
It also opposes a rationalistic vision of natural law, though it defends its rational dimension, and indicates that the "interior call to follow the good as such is the experience on which all morality is founded."
The final chapter of the document considers the "profound change of perspective in the presentation of natural law" that was offered by Christ.
"In the light of faith, man recognized in Jesus Christ the eternal Logos who presides over creation, and who, in incarnating himself, presents himself to man as the living Law, the criteria of a human life in conformity with natural law," Father Bonino explained.
"Natural law is not abolished," he concluded, "but taken to its fulfillment by the new law of love."
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Vietnam Prelate Dies a Witness of Persecution
Communists Mark Life of 100-Year-Old BishopLONG XUYEN, Vietnam, JUNE 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Vietnamese Catholics are mourning the death of their oldest bishop, as they continue to witness the destruction of what the late prelate strove to build.
Bishop Michael Nguyen Khac Ngu died Wednesday, less than a month after celebrating his 100th birthday. He served as a priest for 75 years, having been ordained in France in 1934.
Among the buildings that the late bishop built, all except the cathedral have been seized by the Communist government. Vietnamese Catholics continue in an ongoing battle with the government over properties that have been confiscated and buildings that have been demolished.
The most recent to be taken was the monastery of the Congregation of the Brothers of The Holy Family of Banam in Long Xuyen, which was demolished last week.
Michael Nguyen Khac Ngu was born in northern Vietnam in 1909. He entered St. Therese Minor Seminary in Lang Son Diocese in 1922, and later traveled to France for further study and was ordained there as a priest in 1934.
In 1954, after the Communist takeover of the north and subsequent persecution of the Church, he led his parishioners southward and settled with them in Long Xuyen province, south of Saigon.
The region was established as a diocese in 1960 and he was named the first prelate. At that time, it had 20,000 Catholics; today it has 240,000 in 108 parishes and 45 sub-parishes, served by 240 priests.
Though Bishop Michael Nguyen ordained a coadjutor on the same day of the Communist takeover of the South -- April 30, 1975 -- he did not retire officially until 1997.
Talking about the late prelate, the diocese's current bishop, Joseph Tran Xuan Tieu, recalled how simply he had lived "in a 20-square-meter room with an old bed and without a television or personal computer."
Bishop Joseph Tran, 63, said the late bishop set a shining example to others by devoting much time each day to prayer, and never missing daily Mass even when ill: "He read books and newspapers daily, washed his own clothes and cleaned his own room, and made toothpicks for the people in the bishop's house."
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Experts Confront Problem of Euthanasia by Omission
Underline Papal Teaching on Care for Patients in Persistent ComasPHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania, JUNE 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A group of experts are highlighting papal teaching that people in persistent comas should be nourished regardless of the cost, as an ordinary duty of persons to one another.
This was affirmed in an article published this month in the journal of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, Ethics and Medics, signed by a group of 15 scholars.
Some of the contributing scholars are: Robert George, jurisprudence professor at Princeton University; William May, retired moral theology professor at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family; Christian Brugger, moral theology professor at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary; and Father Thomas Berg, executive director of Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person.
They responded to a statement published in the February issue of Commonweal, written by a consortium consisting of seven directors of bioethics programs at Jesuit universities, about the "papal teaching on the moral requirement to provide food and water to patients in the so-called persistent vegetative state."
The aim of the consortium, the scholars asserted, "is to influence the American bishops against amending the 'Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.'"
The article reported that this month the bishops will consider the amendment which will "bring the directives in line with the March 2004 teaching of Pope John Paul II" on the "persistent vegetative state."
The scholars underlined a 1992 document by the pro-life committee of the U.S. bishops titled "Nutrition and Hydration: Moral and Pastoral Reflections," which "warned against any removal of food and water from persons in the vegetative state based on a 'quality of life' judgment about the value of their lives or on the cost of total care."
Although the prelates did not at that time explicitly include patients in the vegetative state, they noted that this was only because they were waiting for the official word from the magisterium, which came with Pope John Paul II.
The article reported the Pope's statement that "providing food and water to patients in a [persistent vegetative state] is morally required, even when doing so does not facilitate the patient's recovery from the comatose condition."
It explained: "Providing food and water should not be considered a medical act strictly speaking, but an ordinary and proportionate means of caring for disabled patients; the Pope calls them forms of basic health care to which every patient, no matter how disabled, has a right.
"The administration of nutrition and hydration is thus morally obligatory, provided that they remain useful for accomplishing their end, namely, to nourish the patient and preserve his or her life."
Consistent
The teaching of Pope John Paul II, the scholars asserted, "is consistent with what the Church has explicitly taught on the subject for the last 30 years."
The article also responded to the consortium's claim that the papal teaching is "out of touch with American medical and legal realities," stating that the Jesuit group missed the point of the Pope's words.
The scholars clarified: "The Pope's statement that feeding and hydrating disabled patients 'always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act' is not a judgment about the complexity of health care procedures.
"It is a normative judgment about the basic duties of persons to one another based on 'the intrinsic value and personal dignity of every human being.'
"Feeding disabled people is not a medical treatment, even though a medical procedure may be required. It is a form of care owed to all persons, including patients in a [persistent vegetative state]."
The scholars noted that "the papal teaching nowhere requires a specific form of nutrition and hydration, especially if expense poses an unreasonable burden."
However, they added, "it does forbid choosing to withhold all food and water when a patient needs them to survive and they do not impose undue burdens on that patient."
The main concern of the papal teaching, the scholars stated, "is to confront the growing problem of euthanasia by omission for patients in a [persistent vegetative state]."
The article asserted, "The Holy See's teaching that assisted feeding is a part of normal care does not stop being true just because the patient's cognitive loss is due to something other than a [persistent vegetative state]."
The article affirmed that the health care guidelines should be amended if they are unclear in these principles and "lend themselves to justifying the removal of food and water from patients in a [persistent vegetative state], or any cognitively diminished patients."
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On the Net:
Full text: http://www.ncbcenter.org/em/0906-2.aspx
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Bishops to Aid Mediation in Peruvian Amazon
35 Killed in Violent ClashesLIMA, Peru, JUNE 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Peru's bishops have agreed to work with the government in mediating the ongoing clashes in the Peruvian Amazon between indigenous communities and the police that took 35 lives last weekend.
Archbishop Héctor Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte of Trujillo, the president of Peru's episcopal conference, announced Tuesday that Prime Minister Yehude Simons had paid a visit to episcopal conference headquarters to ask his participation in a commission that will work toward a solution to the conflict.
The clashes began in April as Peru's legislature began to issue a series of six decrees that ease restrictions on mining, oil drilling and farming in the Peruvian Amazon, which indigenous communities see as a threat to their livelihood.
Sixty-five communities who live in the jungle have been protesting since April.
Peru's legislature voted Wednesday to suspend the decree on lumber harvesting for 90 days, with the hopes that the government can negotiate a deal with the protestors within three months.
A press statement released after the prime minister's visit to conference headquarters said the meeting sought ways to achieve "reconciliation and the restitution of social peace."
The statement reported that Archbishop Cabrejos invited everyone to "work for peace and avoid any type of violence."
"We are all Peruvians and so we should all work toward reconciliation," he said. "We invite all to be calm, serene. We think in terms of Peru, we don't think in terms of groups, or certain people; we think in terms of the country. We are all Peruvians and this is something important to keep in mind.
The archbishop added that the Church is open to collaborate in anything that will contribute to the common good: "I think the visit of the prime minister is an important step to initiate dialogue, for a solution to conflict."
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Cardinal Pleased With India's Election Results
Says Country Wants an Inclusive GovernmentROME, JUNE 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Oswald Gracias of India says he's proud of India for having elected a moderate government last month.
The archbishop of Bombay told the Union of Catholic Asian News in early June that he was pleased with the results, because "we were worried that the fundamentalist forces might get predominance." He was in Rome to meet with Benedict XVI and Vatican officials.
India held general elections to the lower house of Parliament in five phases in April and May. The Indian National Congress led the United Progressive Alliance to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, and secure for themselves a second five-year term as the ruling alliance.
The pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata has been blamed for sectarian violence targeting Christian and Muslims in several parts of the country.
Last August, some Hindu extremists in Orissa blamed the slaying of a Hindu leader on Christians. Dozens of Christians, including a priest, were killed, and more than 54,000 fled their homes. Thousands of them are still living in displacement camps.
The violence spread to more than 392 towns, where some 5,000 houses, 149 churches, and 40 schools were destroyed or burned to the ground.
Cardinal Gracias said the results show that India wants “a government that is inclusive. ... They are not happy with a government which will cause division.
"The Indian people do not want aggressiveness; they do not want repression of minorities."
India has a population of more than 1.16 billion people. According to a 2001 census, more than 80% are Hindu, 13% are Muslim and 2% are Christian.
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Dominican Republic Rejects Changes to Marriage Law
Affirms Statement Against Same-Sex UnionsSANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, JUNE 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Dominican Republic Congress approved a statement defining marriage as being between a man and a woman.
On Wednesday members of review assembly working on constitutional reform affirmed this definition, and also rejected a proposal to amend the Constitution in a way that would civilly recognize marriages performed in all of the churches located in the country.
The Catholic Church, however, retains the power to celebrate marriages as granted by the state in the signing of a Concordat in 1954.
Today, the Listin Diario reported that this proposal was part of several family-related items under review by the special committee of the assembly.
A total of 108 assembly members voted, with 106 in favor of the deletion of the proposal's statement: "Religious marriages will have civil effects in the terms established by law."
The assembly approved a statement that marriage can only take place between a man and a woman, and closes the possibility to same-sex unions.
The lawmakers also recognized that wives who are in a unique and stable marriage, and children that are a fruit of this union, may inherit property. The proposal states that a man and a woman, "free of impediments to marriage, by forming a home actually create rights and duties in their personal and property relations in accordance with the law."
The committee agreed that men and women enjoy equal rights and duties in building a home, and that the good of the family is inalienable and indefeasible in accordance with the law.
Father Manuel Ruiz, a priest who was in the stands watching the vote, explained that this was not a triumph of the Catholic Church over other churches. He noted that it would have been good for the article to mention the Concordat signed in Rome between the state and the Catholic Church.
The country's population is 89% Catholic.
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Doubting Thomases; the Pitfalls of Folly
God Responds to Dark HoursBy Elizabeth Lev
ROME, JUNE 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- This week the Catholic world celebrates one of its defining feasts, Corpus Domini. In 1264, Pope Urban IV instituted this holiday in the wake of the miracle at Bolsena, one of the most famous Eucharistic miracles of all time.
Peter of Prague, a priest troubled by doubt in the Transubstantiation (the doctrine that at the consecration the bread and wine truly become the body and blood of Christ) prayed to God for help in believing. The Lord responded with a miracle. As Father Peter uttered the words of consecration, the host in his fingers dripped blood. This astonishing sign helped to bolster the faith of an age assailed by doubt and heresy.
The texts of many of the best-known Latin Eucharistic hymns, such as the “Tantum ergo” and the “Lauda Sion” were written by St. Thomas Aquinas to fittingly celebrate this great feast. And while many areas of Italy celebrate this day with great pomp and processions -- in nearby Genazzano the streets are lined with floral mosaics -- the most important procession is that of Rome where the Holy Father celebrates Mass at St. John Lateran and then processes with the Blessed Sacrament to the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
Although the holy day was instituted to celebrate the miracle of Bolsena, there are many documented Eucharistic miracles all over the world. In 2005, The Real Presence Association produced a catalogue of the Vatican exhibition “The Eucharistic Miracles in the World” to illustrate how the Real Presence in the Eucharist has manifested itself around the globe.
In Rome, there have been two miracles at 1,000 years distance. The first took place in the age of Gregory the Great and the second during the reign of Pope Paul V Borghese.
In 595, Pope Gregory was celebrating Mass in a Roman church. When it came time for consecration, the Roman noblewoman who had baked the bread for the Eucharist began to laugh in disbelief that the fruit of her oven could become the Body and Blood of Christ.
Pope Gregory, dismayed at her lack of faith, refused her Communion, but as he prayed over the bread, it transformed visibly into flesh. The woman fell to her knees repentant. The relics of this miracle are now in Andechs, Germany, although a damaged fresco by Pomarancio recounts the story in the portico of the Church of St. Gregory on the Celian Hill.
Rome’s most celebrated Eucharistic miracle, however, took place on the Esquiline Hill, in one of the oldest churches in the city. Tradition has it that St. Peter found hospitality in the home of Senator Pudens, father of Sts. Praxedes and Pudenziana, who famously collected the blood of the martyrs.
This prestigious site was soon converted into a church and to this day contains the oldest Christian mosaics in the world. This basilica enjoyed the patronage of many great churchmen and was beautified with paintings, mosaics and luxurious pavement over the centuries. But its most wondrous gift was the privilege of hosting a miracle in 1610.
While celebrating Mass in the Caetani chapel of the church, a disbelieving priest dropped the Host after consecration. (Some versions say he let it fall on purpose). The Host fell upon the steps, spilling blood onto the marble. To this day, the relics of this miracle can still be seen in the form of the bloodstains on the steps.
A common factor among the stories of these miracles is doubt. Anguished doubt, ridiculing doubt or disrespectful doubt plagued each of the recipients of these miraculous visions. Rarely has there been more confusion and certainty than in our present day, and these miracles demonstrate how God tries to help us overcome our dark hours so we can proclaim with St. Thomas the Apostle, “My Lord and my God.”
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The cost of compromise
In 1440, the printing press gave the world mass-produced books, transforming and enriching man’s life forever. These in turn were followed by broadsides, the first newspapers. And, in due course, the op-ed was born in the form of the pamphlet.
Renaissance pundits had plenty to write about. In the turbulent period of the Reformation, many people had strayed from their spiritual leaders and turned to sophisticated literary champions instead.
Heresy appeared side by side with sound doctrine and confusion was rife. People could read John Calvin one day and the Defense of the Seven Sacraments the next. As the Church was challenged in her most essential teachings, the faithful were left adrift and unsure, and certain pundits found they could easily make a name for themselves through facile engagement of the issues of the day, without every truly taking sides in theological debate.
Erasmus of Rotterdam was one such opportunist. Though he remained nominally Catholic throughout the Reformation, his writing and satires caused much uncertainty, to the point where the Catholic renewal of the following generation blamed him for having "laid the egg that hatched the Reformation."
This year marks the 500th anniversary of Erasmus’ “In Praise of Folly,” his most celebrated satire, where he lends his biting pen to the complaints of the Reformers, holding up popes, theologians and religious (among many others) to ridicule. The book is written by Folly in the first person (a woman, of course) exulting in her dominion and victories.
Erasmus, blessed with an excellent humanistic education, deployed his fine Latin and his gift for clever repartee in high profile polemics. But by glossing over the substantial problems facing the Catholic faith, and nodding in time with the Protestants’ chant for “change,” he disheartened and discouraged many of his fellow Catholics.
Erasmus’ treatment of the papal magisterium as a secondary consideration played a critical role in undermining the authority of the papacy. Confident in his own reason and personal brilliance, it never occurred to Erasmus to seek counsel from Rome on how his writing might affect those who were contending with the forces of Protestantism. Reading his work, some confused Catholics thought that open criticism of the Church was the order of the day.
The legacy of Erasmus illustrates the dangers of downplaying doctrine while taking a superficial approach to the great issues of the day. While the Eucharist was being dismissed and profaned from one end of Europe to another, Erasmus poked fun at those who tried to explain Transubstantiation. Brushing aside the role of theology in the Church, he played right into the hands of the Protestant dissenters who were quick to claim Erasmus as one of their own.
That sort of folly led to tragic consequences in the case of Erasmus. In 1535, his longtime friend and correspondent, Sir Thomas More, was beheaded in England. The two colleagues had come to a crossroads. King Henry VIII tried to coerce Thomas More to act against his faith and conscience by denying the Magisterium. Thomas could not. Erasmus was silent.
Erasmus’ usually ready pen spilled no ink during the trial, imprisonment and murder of his friend Thomas More. Whether paralyzed by cowardice or compromise, the results of his political coquetry must have been painful.
Undoubtedly with his wit and brilliance Erasmus hoped to play a crucial role in the important events of his time. But he lacked the clarity of conscience and desire for truth that characterized his friend Thomas More. Erasmus comforted himself by writing that folly held an easy route to forgiveness, allowing one to blame missteps and errors on youthful foolishness. But while Thomas More will be honored at the altars on his feast day of July 6, Erasmus will always be remembered as he who scribbled while Rome burned.
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Elizabeth Lev teaches Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University’s Italian campus and University of St. Thomas’ Catholic studies program. She can be reached at lizlev@zenit.org
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Papal Address to Italian Episcopal Conference
"Rediscover Both the Grace and the Duty of the Priestly Ministry"VATICAN CITY, JUNE 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI gave May 28 to the members of the Italian episcopal conference on the occasion of their annual general assembly.
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Dear Italian Brother Bishops,
I am pleased to meet you once again all together on the occasion of this important annual event for which you gather at your Assembly to share the anxieties and joys of your ministry in the dioceses of the beloved Italian nation.
Your Assembly, in fact, visibly expresses and promotes that communion by which the Church lives and which is also put into practice in the harmony of your pastoral initiatives and action.
I come in person to uphold with my presence that ecclesial communion which I have seen constantly growing and being reinforced. I thank in particular the Cardinal President who, on behalf of you all, has confirmed the fraternal adherence and cordial communion with the Magisterium and pastoral service of the Successor of Peter, thereby reaffirming the special unity that binds the Church in Italy to the Apostolic See.
In recent months I have truly received a great many moving testimonies of this adherence. I cannot but offer you my heartfelt thanks! In this atmosphere of communion it is possible to nourish profitably with the word of God and the grace of the sacraments the Christian people, deeply rooted in the land, who feel a keen sense of faith and a true sense of belonging to the ecclesial community.
This is all thanks to your pastoral guidance, your generous service to so many priests and deacons, religious and lay faithful who with assiduous dedication support the ecclesiastical fabric and the daily life of the numerous parishes scattered in every corner of the country.
Let us not conceal from ourselves the difficulties they encounter in our time in leading their members to adhere fully to the Christian faith. Indeed, in this perspective various sources are calling for the renewal of their lay members through increased cooperation and missionary co-responsibility.
For these reasons, in your pastoral action you have appropriately desired to implement the missionary commitment that has marked the Church's progress in Italy since the Council. You have done so by making the fundamental task of education the focus of your Assembly's reflection.
As I have had the opportunity to say on several occasions, this is a constitutive and ongoing requirement in the Church's life, which today is tending to acquire a character of urgency and even emergency.
In these days you have been able to listen, reflect and discuss the need to start an educational type of project that springs from a consistent and complete vision of man, which can only derive from the perfect image and fulfilment that we have in Jesus Christ.
He is the Teacher at whose school we must rediscover the educational task as a most lofty vocation to which every member of the faithful is called in different ways. At a time when relativist and nihilistic concepts of life exert a strong attraction and the very legitimacy of education is called into question, the first contribution we can offer is that of witnessing to our faith in life and in the human being, in human reason and in the human capacity to love.
This is not the fruit of an ingenuous optimism but comes to us from that "trustworthy hope" (Spe Salvi, n. 1) that is given to us in faith in the redemption brought by Jesus Christ. With reference to this well-founded act of love for man, an educational alliance can arise between all who have responsibility in this delicate context of social and ecclesial life.
Next Sunday, the conclusion of the three-year Agora of Italian Youth that has involved your Conference in a structured process for the animation of your youth ministry is an invitation to check the educational process under way. It also asks you to embark on new projects for a specific group, that of the new generations, extremely broad and significant for the educational responsibilities of our ecclesial communities and of society as a whole.
Furthermore, the task of formation, extends to adults who are not excluded from a real responsibility for continuing education. No one is excluded from the duty of taking care of his or her own growth and that of others until we all attain to "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Eph 4: 13).
The difficulty of forming authentic Christians is intricate and merges with the complex task of helping men and women to grow more responsible and mature. Knowledge of truth and goodness and free adherence to them form the core of the educational project, which can give shape to a global growth process, duly prepared and accompanied.
For this, in addition to an adequate project that points to the goal of education in the light of the approved model to be followed, authoritative educators to whom the new generations can look with trust are essential.
In this Pauline Year, which we have lived by deepening our knowledge of the words and example of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, and which you have celebrated in various ways in your dioceses and, precisely yesterday, all together in the Basilica of St Paul Outside-the-Walls, his invitation rings out, especially effectively: "Be imitators of me" (1 Cor 11: 1).
These are courageous words. A true educator stakes himself first and is able to combine authority and exemplarity in the task of educating those entrusted to his care. We ourselves are aware of this, placed as we are as guides among the People of God, we to whom in turn the Apostle Peter addressed the invitation to tend God's flock by being "examples to the flock" (1 Pt 5: 3). These too are words on which to meditate.
The circumstance which, after the Year dedicated to the Apostle to the Gentiles, sees us prepared to celebrate a Year for Priests is therefore particularly fortunate.
We are called, together with our priests, to rediscover both the grace and the duty of the priestly ministry. This ministry is a service to the Church and to the Christian People that demands a profound spirituality. In response to the divine vocation, this spirituality must be nourished by prayer and by an intense personal union with the Lord in order to serve him among the brethren through preaching, the sacraments, an orderly community life and assistance to the poor.
Thus, throughout the priestly ministry the importance of the commitment to education stands out, in order to develop people who are free, truly free, and hence responsible, mature and aware Christians.
There is no doubt that the sense of solidarity profoundly rooted in Italian hearts draws vitality from the Christian spirit. Furthermore, it finds a way of expressing itself with particular intensity in certain dramatic circumstances in the country's life, the most recent of which was the devastating earthquake that hit some parts of the Abruzzo region.
As your President mentioned earlier, during my Visit to that tragically damaged region I was not only able to take stock personally of the bereavement, suffering and disastrous effects of that terrible quake but also and I found this most striking besides the strength of mind of those people, the prompt wave of solidarity that was organized from every single part of Italy.
Our communities responded with great generosity to the requests for aid from that region by supporting the initiatives promoted by the Bishops' Conference through Caritas. I would like to renew to the Bishops of Abruzzo and, through them, to the local communities, the assurance of my constant prayers and of my permanent affectionate closeness.
For months we have observed the effects of the heavy blow the financial and economic crisis has dealt, on a global scale and, if in varying degrees, to all countries.
Despite the measures implemented at various levels, the effects of the crisis on society are not failing to make themselves felt even acutely, especially by the more fragile social sectors of society and families.
Thus I would like to express my appreciation and encouragement of the initiative of the solidarity fund called "Prestito della speranza" [loan of hope] which next Sunday will be an opportunity to participate unanimously in the national collection which constitutes the basis of the fund. This renewed request for generosity, which comes in addition to the many projects implemented by numerous dioceses, in recalling the gesture of the collection organized by the Apostle Paul for the Church in Jerusalem, is an eloquent testimony of the mutual sharing of burdens.
In a difficult period, which is affecting above all those who have lost their jobs, sharing becomes a true act of worship that is born from the charity inspired by the Spirit of the Risen One in believers' hearts. It is an eloquent sign of the inner conversion generated by the Gospel and a touching manifestation of ecclesial communion.
An essential form of charity to which the Churches in Italy are deeply committed is also intellectual. A significant example of this is the endeavour to spread a mindset in favour of life in all its aspects and phases, with special attention to life scarred by conditions of great frailty and precariousness. This commitment is clearly witnessed by the manifesto: "Free to live. Loving life to the end", which sees the Italian Catholic laity working together to ensure that knowledge of the full truth about man and the promotion of the authentic good of people and of society is not lacking in Italy.
The "yeses" and "nos" that are expressed in the manifesto outline a true educational action and are an expression of strong, practical love for every person. My thoughts, therefore, return to the central theme of your Assembly the urgent duty of education which requires that the faithful be rooted in the word of God and spiritual discernment, cultural and social planning, and the witness of unity and of free giving.
Dear Brothers, there are only a few days to go before the Solemnity of Pentecost in which we shall be celebrating the gift of the Spirit who breaks down barriers and opens people to an understanding of the whole truth. Let us invoke the Consoler who does not abandon those who turn to him and entrust to him the journey of the Church in Italy and of every person who lives in this most beloved country. May the Spirit of Life come down upon all of us and kindle in our hearts the flame of his infinite love.
I warmly bless you and your communities!
© Copyright 2009 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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