Holy Father’s Message
Pope Benedict XVI
“Blessed is the servant who has faith in the clergy who live uprightly according to the Roman Church”
“The Lord gave me and still gives me faith in priests who live according to the rite of the Holy Roman Church because of their orders that were they to persecute me, I would still want to have recourse to them.”
“I desire to respect, love and honor them and all others as my lords. I discern the Son of God in them and they are my lords.
“We must honor all theologians and those who minister the most holy divine words and respect them as those who minister to us spirit and life.”
Pope Benedict said that Christ had given his apostles, and the bishops who succeeded them, the duty to ensure that the faith is passed along without dilution or distortion. Although the Pope “must be aware that he is a weak and fragile man,” he cannot avoid this responsibility, the Holy Father continued. He must execute his teaching function, fulfilling the mandate from Christ, because “when Sacred Scripture is separated from the living voice of the Church, it falls victims to the disputes among experts.”
The Pope acknowledged that papal authority is a stumbling block for some people, who see the teaching magisterium as a threat to freedom of belief and of conscience. But he explained that the Pope’s authority is not really his own, since “the ministry of the Pope is a guarantee of obedience to Christ and to his Word.” As teacher, he continue, the Pontiff “binds himself and the Church in obedience to God’s Word, in the face of all attempts to adapt that Word, or water it down, and in the face of all forms of opportunism.” Benedict XVI went on to say that his predecessor, John Paul II, was carrying out this task when he repeatedly demanded respect fro human life, in the face of mounting public opposition. “The freedom to kill is not true freedom, a but a tyranny that reduces human beings to slavery,” he said.
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Without charity work, society cannot last long, Benedict XVI says, since even in the most just society, love will always be necessary.
Referencing his encyclical “Deus Caritas Est,” he also affirmed that “love will always be necessary, even in the most just society.”
“Love of neighbor cannot be delegated,” he said, and “the state and politics, even with their necessary concern for well-being, cannot replace it.”
“There is no just state legislation that can make the service of love superfluous,” the Bishop of Rome contended. “Whoever wants to have nothing to do with love, disposes himself to have nothing to do with the person as person; there will always be suffering that needs consolation, help.”
Volunteers
“… volunteers are not ‘provisional resources’ in the social network, but persons who really contribute to delineate the human and Christian face of society,” he said. “Without charitable work, the common good and society will not be able to last long, because their progress and dignity depend in large measure precisely on those persons who do more than strictly fulfill their duty.”
Benedict XVI encouraged the civil protection workers to be “living icons of the good Samaritan, paying attention to your neighbor, recalling the dignity of the person and inspiring hope.”
Your mission,” he said, “does not consist only in the management of emergencies, but in a great conscientious and meritorious contribution to the realization of the common good,” which “represents always the horizon of human coexistence also and above all in moments of great trials.”
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Pope tells Pontifical Council February 08, 2010
Pope Benedict XVI met on February 8 with members of the Pontifical Council for the Family, who have gathered for their plenary meeting under the direction of the council’s president’ Cardinal Ennio Antonelli. The Pope encouraged the group in its studies on the themes: “the family, subject of evangelization” and “the family, resource for society.”
The Pontiff devoted some time to a discussion of the Pontifical Council’s plans to produce a new document on preparation for marriage. Citing the work of his predecessor John Paul II, Pope Benedict said that there are three essential types of preparation: remote, when children are trained to have a healthy attitude toward marriage and human sexuality; proximate, when engaged couples learn together about the Church’s approach to Christian marriage; and immediate, when the couple makes final spiritual preparations to enter a marital union.
Pope Benedict called the group’s attention to the UN discussion of the rights of children. “The family founded on marriage between a man and a woman is the greatest help that can be given to children,” he said. “Supporting the family and promoting its true good, its rights, its unity and stability is the best way to protect the rights and the real needs of children.” The Pope acknowledged with regret in his address that some Catholic priests had failed to respect the rights of children by abusing them. He vowed that the Church “hasn’t, and won’t ever, stop deploring and condemning” their misdeeds.