WASHINGTON, D.C.
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Here is the text of the address Benedict XVI gave today to the
bishops of the United States at the Basilica of the National
Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. At the end he answers three
questions posed to him by the prelates.
Dear Brother
Bishops,
It gives me great joy to greet you today, at the start of my
visit to this country, and I thank Cardinal George for the
gracious words he has addressed to me on your behalf. I want to
thank all of you, especially the Officers of the Episcopal
Conference, for the hard work that has gone into the preparation
of this visit. My grateful appreciation goes also to the staff
and volunteers of the National Shrine, who have welcomed us here
this evening. American Catholics are noted for their loyal
devotion to the see of Peter. My pastoral visit here is an
opportunity to strengthen further the bonds of communion that
unite us. We began by celebrating Evening Prayer in this
Basilica dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, a shrine of special significance to American
Catholics, right in the heart of your capital city. Gathered in
prayer with Mary, Mother of Jesus, we lovingly commend to our
heavenly Father the people of God in every part of the United
States.
For the Catholic communities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia
and Louisville, this is a year of particular celebration, as it
marks the bicentenary of the establishment of these local
Churches as Dioceses. I join you in giving thanks for the many
graces granted to the Church there during these two centuries.
As this year also marks the bicentenary of the elevation of the
founding see of Baltimore to an Archdiocese, it gives me an
opportunity to recall with admiration and gratitude the life and
ministry of John Carroll, the first Bishop of Baltimore - a
worthy leader of the Catholic community in your newly
independent nation. His tireless efforts to spread the Gospel in
the vast territory under his care laid the foundations for the
ecclesial life of your country and enabled the Church in America
to grow to maturity. Today the Catholic community you serve is
one of the largest in the world, and one of the most
influential. How important it is, then, to let your light so
shine before your fellow citizens and before the world, "that
they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who
is in heaven" (Mt 5:16).
Many of the people to whom John Carroll and his fellow Bishops
were ministering two centuries ago had traveled from distant
lands. The diversity of their origins is reflected in the rich
variety of ecclesial life in present-day America. Brother
Bishops, I want to encourage you and your communities to
continue to welcome the immigrants who join your ranks today, to
share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrows and
trials, and to help them flourish in their new home. This,
indeed, is what your fellow countrymen have done for
generations. From the beginning, they have opened their doors to
the tired, the poor, the "huddled masses yearning to breathe
free" (cf. Sonnet inscribed on the Statue of Liberty). These are
the people whom America has made her own.
Of those who came to build a new life here, many were able to
make good use of the resources and opportunities that they
found, and to attain a high level of prosperity. Indeed, the
people of this country are known for their great vitality and
creativity. They are also known for their generosity. After the
attack on the Twin Towers in September 2001, and again after
Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Americans displayed their readiness
to come to the aid of their brothers and sisters in need. On the
international level, the contribution made by the people of
America to relief and rescue operations after the tsunami of
December 2004 is a further illustration of this compassion. Let
me express my particular appreciation for the many forms of
humanitarian assistance provided by American Catholics through
Catholic Charities and other agencies. Their generosity has
borne fruit in the care shown to the poor and needy, and in the
energy that has gone into building the nationwide network of
Catholic parishes, hospitals, schools and universities. All of
this gives great cause for thanksgiving.
America is also a land of great faith. Your people are
remarkable for their religious fervor and they take pride in
belonging to a worshipping community. They have confidence in
God, and they do not hesitate to bring moral arguments rooted in
biblical faith into their public discourse. Respect for freedom
of religion is deeply ingrained in the American consciousness -
a fact which has contributed to this country's attraction for
generations of immigrants, seeking a home where they can worship
freely in accordance with their beliefs.
In this connection, I happily acknowledge the presence among you
of Bishops from all the venerable Eastern Churches in communion
with the Successor of Peter, whom I greet with special joy. Dear
Brothers, I ask you to assure your communities of my deep
affection and my continued prayers, both for them and for the
many brothers and sisters who remain in their land of origin.
Your presence here is a reminder of the courageous witness to
Christ of so many members of your communities, often amid
suffering, in their respective homelands. It is also a great
enrichment of the ecclesial life of America, giving vivid
expression to the Church's catholicity and the variety of her
liturgical and spiritual traditions.
It is in this fertile soil, nourished from so many different
sources, that all of you, Brother Bishops, are called to sow the
seeds of the Gospel today. This leads me to ask how, in the
twenty-first century, a bishop can best fulfill the call to
"make all things new in Christ, our hope"? How can he lead his
people to "an encounter with the living God", the source of that
life-transforming hope of which the Gospel speaks (cf. Spe
Salvi, 4)? Perhaps he needs to begin by clearing away some
of the barriers to such an encounter. While it is true that this
country is marked by a genuinely religious spirit, the subtle
influence of secularism can nevertheless color the way people
allow their faith to influence their behavior. Is it consistent
to profess our beliefs in church on Sunday, and then during the
week to promote business practices or medical procedures
contrary to those beliefs? Is it consistent for practicing
Catholics to ignore or exploit the poor and the marginalized, to
promote sexual behavior contrary to Catholic moral teaching, or
to adopt positions that contradict the right to life of every
human being from conception to natural death? Any tendency to
treat religion as a private matter must be resisted. Only when
their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians
become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel.
For an affluent society, a further obstacle to an encounter with
the living God lies in the subtle influence of materialism,
which can all too easily focus the attention on the hundredfold,
which God promises now in this time, at the expense of the
eternal life which he promises in the age to come (cf. Mk
10:30). People today need to be reminded of the ultimate purpose
of their lives. They need to recognize that implanted within
them is a deep thirst for God. They need to be given
opportunities to drink from the wells of his infinite love. It
is easy to be entranced by the almost unlimited possibilities
that science and technology place before us; it is easy to make
the mistake of thinking we can obtain by our own efforts the
fulfillment of our deepest needs. This is an illusion. Without
God, who alone bestows upon us what we by ourselves cannot
attain (cf. Spe Salvi, 31), our lives are ultimately
empty. People need to be constantly reminded to cultivate a
relationship with him who came that we might have life in
abundance (cf. Jn 10:10). The goal of all our pastoral and
catechetical work, the object of our preaching, and the focus of
our sacramental ministry should be to help people establish and
nurture that living relationship with "Christ Jesus, our hope"
(1 Tim 1:1).
In a society which values personal freedom and autonomy, it is
easy to lose sight of our dependence on others as well as the
responsibilities that we bear towards them. This emphasis on
individualism has even affected the Church (cf. Spe Salvi,
13-15), giving rise to a form of piety which sometimes
emphasizes our private relationship with God at the expense of
our calling to be members of a redeemed community. Yet from the
beginning, God saw that "it is not good for man to be alone"
(Gen 2:18). We were created as social beings who find
fulfillment only in love - for God and for our neighbor. If we
are truly to gaze upon him who is the source of our joy, we need
to do so as members of the people of God (cf. Spe Salvi,
14). If this seems counter-cultural, that is simply further
evidence of the urgent need for a renewed evangelization of
culture.
Here in America, you are blessed with a Catholic laity of
considerable cultural diversity, who place their wide-ranging
gifts at the service of the Church and of society at large. They
look to you to offer them encouragement, leadership and
direction. In an age that is saturated with information, the
importance of providing sound formation in the faith cannot be
overstated. American Catholics have traditionally placed a high
value on religious education, both in schools and in the context
of adult formation programs. These need to be maintained and
expanded. The many generous men and women who devote themselves
to charitable activity need to be helped to renew their
dedication through a "formation of the heart": an "encounter
with God in Christ which awakens their love and opens their
spirits to others" (Deus Caritas Est, 31). At a time when
advances in medical science bring new hope to many, they also
give rise to previously unimagined ethical challenges. This
makes it more important than ever to offer thorough formation in
the Church's moral teaching to Catholics engaged in health care.
Wise guidance is needed in all these apostolates, so that they
may bear abundant fruit; if they are truly to promote the
integral good of the human person, they too need to be made new
in Christ our hope.
As preachers of the Gospel and leaders of the Catholic
community, you are also called to participate in the exchange of
ideas in the public square, helping to shape cultural attitudes.
In a context where free speech is valued, and where vigorous and
honest debate is encouraged, yours is a respected voice that has
much to offer to the discussion of the pressing social and moral
questions of the day. By ensuring that the Gospel is clearly
heard, you not only form the people of your own community, but
in view of the global reach of mass communication, you help to
spread the message of Christian hope throughout the world.
Clearly, the Church's influence on public debate takes place on
many different levels. In the United States, as elsewhere, there
is much current and proposed legislation that gives cause for
concern from the point of view of morality, and the Catholic
community, under your guidance, needs to offer a clear and
united witness on such matters. Even more important, though, is
the gradual opening of the minds and hearts of the wider
community to moral truth. Here much remains to be done. Crucial
in this regard is the role of the lay faithful to act as a
"leaven" in society. Yet it cannot be assumed that all Catholic
citizens think in harmony with the Church's teaching on today's
key ethical questions. Once again, it falls to you to ensure
that the moral formation provided at every level of ecclesial
life reflects the authentic teaching of the Gospel of life.
In this regard, a matter of deep concern to us all is the state
of the family within society. Indeed, Cardinal George mentioned
earlier that you have included the strengthening of marriage and
family life among the priorities for your attention over the
next few years. In this year's World Day of Peace Message I
spoke of the essential contribution that healthy family life
makes to peace within and between nations. In the family home we
experience "some of the fundamental elements of peace: justice
and love between brothers and sisters, the role of authority
expressed by parents, loving concern for the members who are
weaker because of youth, sickness or old age, mutual help in the
necessities of life, readiness to accept others and, if
necessary, to forgive them" (no. 3). The family is also the
primary place for evangelization, for passing on the faith, for
helping young people to appreciate the importance of religious
practice and Sunday observance. How can we not be dismayed as we
observe the sharp decline of the family as a basic element of
Church and society? Divorce and infidelity have increased, and
many young men and women are choosing to postpone marriage or to
forego it altogether. To some young Catholics, the sacramental
bond of marriage seems scarcely distinguishable from a civil
bond, or even a purely informal and open-ended arrangement to
live with another person. Hence we have an alarming decrease in
the number of Catholic marriages in the United States together
with an increase in cohabitation, in which the Christ-like
mutual self-giving of spouses, sealed by a public promise to
live out the demands of an indissoluble lifelong commitment, is
simply absent. In such circumstances, children are denied the
secure environment that they need in order truly to flourish as
human beings, and society is denied the stable building blocks
which it requires if the cohesion and moral focus of the
community are to be maintained.
As my predecessor, Pope John Paul II taught, "The person
principally responsible in the Diocese for the pastoral care of
the family is the Bishop ... he must devote to it personal
interest, care, time, personnel and resources, but above all
personal support for the families and for all those who … assist
him in the pastoral care of the family" (Familiaris Consortio,
73). It is your task to proclaim boldly the arguments from faith
and reason in favor of the institution of marriage, understood
as a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman, open to the
transmission of life. This message should resonate with people
today, because it is essentially an unconditional and unreserved
"yes" to life, a "yes" to love, and a "yes" to the aspirations
at the heart of our common humanity, as we strive to fulfill our
deep yearning for intimacy with others and with the Lord.
Among the countersigns to the Gospel of life found in America
and elsewhere is one that causes deep shame: the sexual abuse of
minors. Many of you have spoken to me of the enormous pain that
your communities have suffered when clerics have betrayed their
priestly obligations and duties by such gravely immoral
behavior. As you strive to eliminate this evil wherever it
occurs, you may be assured of the prayerful support of God's
people throughout the world. Rightly, you attach priority to
showing compassion and care to the victims. It is your God-given
responsibility as pastors to bind up the wounds caused by every
breach of trust, to foster healing, to promote reconciliation
and to reach out with loving concern to those so seriously
wronged.
Responding to this situation has not been easy and, as the
President of your Episcopal Conference has indicated, it was
"sometimes very badly handled". Now that the scale and gravity
of the problem is more clearly understood, you have been able to
adopt more focused remedial and disciplinary measures and to
promote a safe environment that gives greater protection to
young people. While it must be remembered that the overwhelming
majority of clergy and religious in America do outstanding work
in bringing the liberating message of the Gospel to the people
entrusted to their care, it is vitally important that the
vulnerable always be shielded from those who would cause harm.
In this regard, your efforts to heal and protect are bearing
great fruit not only for those directly under your pastoral
care, but for all of society.
If they are to achieve their full purpose, however, the policies
and programs you have adopted need to be placed in a wider
context. Children deserve to grow up with a healthy
understanding of sexuality and its proper place in human
relationships. They should be spared the degrading
manifestations and the crude manipulation of sexuality so
prevalent today. They have a right to be educated in authentic
moral values rooted in the dignity of the human person. This
brings us back to our consideration of the centrality of the
family and the need to promote the Gospel of life. What does it
mean to speak of child protection when pornography and violence
can be viewed in so many homes through media widely available
today? We need to reassess urgently the values underpinning
society, so that a sound moral formation can be offered to young
people and adults alike. All have a part to play in this task -
not only parents, religious leaders, teachers and catechists,
but the media and entertainment industries as well. Indeed,
every member of society can contribute to this moral renewal and
benefit from it. Truly caring about young people and the future
of our civilization means recognizing our responsibility to
promote and live by the authentic moral values which alone
enable the human person to flourish. It falls to you, as pastors
modeled upon Christ, the Good Shepherd, to proclaim this message
loud and clear, and thus to address the sin of abuse within the
wider context of sexual mores. Moreover, by acknowledging and
confronting the problem when it occurs in an ecclesial setting,
you can give a lead to others, since this scourge is found not
only within your Dioceses, but in every sector of society. It
calls for a determined, collective response.
Priests, too, need your guidance and closeness during this
difficult time. They have experienced shame over what has
occurred, and there are those who feel they have lost some of
the trust and esteem they once enjoyed. Not a few are
experiencing a closeness to Christ in his Passion as they
struggle to come to terms with the consequences of the crisis.
The Bishop, as father, brother and friend of his priests, can
help them to draw spiritual fruit from this union with Christ by
making them aware of the Lord's consoling presence in the midst
of their suffering, and by encouraging them to walk with the
Lord along the path of hope (cf. Spe Salvi, 39). As Pope
John Paul II observed six years ago, "we must be confident that
this time of trial will bring a purification of the entire
Catholic community", leading to "a holier priesthood, a holier
episcopate and a holier Church" (Address to the Cardinals of the
United States, 23 April 2002, 4). There are many signs that,
during the intervening period, such purification has indeed been
taking place. Christ's abiding presence in the midst of our
suffering is gradually transforming our darkness into light: all
things are indeed being made new in Christ Jesus our hope.
At this stage a vital part of your task is to strengthen
relationships with your clergy, especially in those cases where
tension has arisen between priests and their bishops in the wake
of the crisis. It is important that you continue to show them
your concern, to support them, and to lead by example. In this
way you will surely help them to encounter the living God, and
point them towards the life-transforming hope of which the
Gospel speaks. If you yourselves live in a manner closely
configured to Christ, the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life
for his sheep, you will inspire your brother priests to
rededicate themselves to the service of their flocks with
Christ-like generosity. Indeed a clearer focus upon the
imitation of Christ in holiness of life is exactly what is
needed in order for us to move forward. We need to rediscover
the joy of living a Christ-centered life, cultivating the
virtues, and immersing ourselves in prayer. When the faithful
know that their pastor is a man who prays and who dedicates his
life to serving them, they respond with warmth and affection
which nourishes and sustains the life of the whole community.
Time spent in prayer is never wasted, however urgent the duties
that press upon us from every side. Adoration of Christ our Lord
in the Blessed Sacrament prolongs and intensifies the union with
him that is established through the Eucharistic celebration (cf.
Sacramentum Caritatis, 66). Contemplation of the
mysteries of the Rosary releases all their saving power and it
conforms, unites and consecrates us to Jesus Christ (cf.
Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 11, 15). Fidelity to the Liturgy
of the Hours ensures that the whole of our day is sanctified and
it continually reminds us of the need to remain focused on doing
God's work, however many pressures and distractions may arise
from the task at hand. Thus our devotion helps us to speak and
act in persona Christi, to teach, govern and sanctify the
faithful in the name of Jesus, to bring his reconciliation, his
healing and his love to all his beloved brothers and sisters.
This radical configuration to Christ, the Good Shepherd, lies at
the heart of our pastoral ministry, and if we open ourselves
through prayer to the power of the Spirit, he will give us the
gifts we need to carry out our daunting task, so that we need
never "be anxious how to speak or what to say" (Mt 10:19).
As I conclude my words to you this evening, I commend the Church
in your country most particularly to the maternal care and
intercession of Mary Immaculate, Patroness of the United States.
May she who carried within her womb the hope of all the nations
intercede for the people of this country, so that all may be
made new in Jesus Christ her Son. My dear Brother Bishops, I
assure each of you here present of my deep friendship and my
participation in your pastoral concerns. To all of you, and to
your clergy, religious and lay faithful, I cordially impart my
Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of joy and peace in the Risen
Lord.
1. The Holy Father is asked to give his assessment of the
challenge of increasing secularism in public life and relativism
in intellectual life, and his advice on how to confront these
challenges pastorally and evangelize more effectively.
I touched upon this theme briefly in my address. It strikes me
as significant that here in America, unlike many places in
Europe, the secular mentality has not been intrinsically opposed
to religion. Within the context of the separation of Church and
State, American society has always been marked by a fundamental
respect for religion and its public role, and, if polls are to
be believed, the American people are deeply religious. But it is
not enough to count on this traditional religiosity and go about
business as usual, even as its foundations are being slowly
undermined. A serious commitment to evangelization cannot
prescind from a profound diagnosis of the real challenges the
Gospel encounters in contemporary American culture.
Of course, what is essential is a correct understanding of the
just autonomy of the secular order, an autonomy which cannot be
divorced from God the Creator and his saving plan (cf. Gaudium
et Spes, 36). Perhaps America's brand of secularism poses a
particular problem: it allows for professing belief in God, and
respects the public role of religion and the Churches, but at
the same time it can subtly reduce religious belief to a lowest
common denominator. Faith becomes a passive acceptance that
certain things "out there" are true, but without practical
relevance for everyday life. The result is a growing separation
of faith from life: living "as if God did not exist". This is
aggravated by an individualistic and eclectic approach to faith
and religion: far from a Catholic approach to "thinking with the
Church", each person believes he or she has a right to pick and
choose, maintaining external social bonds but without an
integral, interior conversion to the law of Christ.
Consequently, rather than being transformed and renewed in mind,
Christians are easily tempted to conform themselves to the
spirit of this age (cf. Rom 12:3). We have seen this emerge in
an acute way in the scandal given by Catholics who promote an
alleged right to abortion.
On a deeper level, secularism challenges the Church to reaffirm
and to pursue more actively her mission in and to the world. As
the Council made clear, the lay faithful have a particular
responsibility in this regard. What is needed, I am convinced,
is a greater sense of the intrinsic relationship between the
Gospel and the natural law on the one hand, and, on the other,
the pursuit of authentic human good, as embodied in civil law
and in personal moral decisions. In a society that rightly
values personal liberty, the Church needs to promote at every
level of her teaching - in catechesis, preaching, seminary and
university instruction - an apologetics aimed at affirming the
truth of Christian revelation, the harmony of faith and reason,
and a sound understanding of freedom, seen in positive terms as
a liberation both from the limitations of sin and for an
authentic and fulfilling life. In a word, the Gospel has to be
preached and taught as an integral way of life, offering an
attractive and true answer, intellectually and practically, to
real human problems. The "dictatorship of relativism", in the
end, is nothing less than a threat to genuine human freedom,
which only matures in generosity and fidelity to the truth.
Much more, of course, could be said on this subject: let me
conclude, though, by saying that I believe that the Church in
America, at this point in her history, is faced with the
challenge of recapturing the Catholic vision of reality and
presenting it, in an engaging and imaginative way, to a society
which markets any number of recipes for human fulfillment. I
think in particular of our need to speak to the hearts of young
people, who, despite their constant exposure to messages
contrary to the Gospel, continue to thirst for authenticity,
goodness and truth. Much remains to be done, particularly on the
level of preaching and catechesis in parishes and schools, if
the new evangelization is to bear fruit for the renewal of
ecclesial life in America.
2. The Holy Father is asked about "a certain quiet attrition" by
which Catholics are abandoning the practice of the faith,
sometimes by an explicit decision, but often by distancing
themselves quietly and gradually from attendance at Mass and
identification with the Church.
Certainly, much of this has to do with the passing away of a
religious culture, sometimes disparagingly referred to as a
"ghetto", which reinforced participation and identification with
the Church. As I just mentioned, one of the great challenges
facing the Church in this country is that of cultivating a
Catholic identity which is based not so much on externals as on
a way of thinking and acting grounded in the Gospel and enriched
by the Church's living tradition.
The issue clearly involves factors such as religious
individualism and scandal. Let us go to the heart of the matter:
faith cannot survive unless it is nourished, unless it is
"formed by charity" (cf. Gal 5:6). Do people today find it
difficult to encounter God in our Churches? Has our preaching
lost its salt? Might it be that many people have forgotten, or
never really learned, how to pray in and with the Church?
Here I am not speaking of people who leave the Church in search
of subjective religious "experiences"; this is a pastoral issue
which must be addressed on its own terms. I think we are
speaking about people who have fallen by the wayside without
consciously having rejected their faith in Christ, but, for
whatever reason, have not drawn life from the liturgy, the
sacraments, preaching. Yet Christian faith, as we know, is
essentially ecclesial, and without a living bond to the
community, the individual's faith will never grow to maturity.
Indeed, to return to the question I just discussed, the result
can be a quiet apostasy.
So let me make two brief observations on the problem of
"attrition", which I hope will stimulate further reflection.
First, as you know, it is becoming more and more difficult, in
our Western societies, to speak in a meaningful way of
"salvation". Yet salvation - deliverance from the reality of
evil, and the gift of new life and freedom in Christ - is at the
heart of the Gospel. We need to discover, as I have suggested,
new and engaging ways of proclaiming this message and awakening
a thirst for the fulfillment which only Christ can bring. It is
in the Church's liturgy, and above all in the sacrament of the
Eucharist, that these realities are most powerfully expressed
and lived in the life of believers; perhaps we still have much
to do in realizing the Council's vision of the liturgy as the
exercise of the common priesthood and the impetus for a fruitful
apostolate in the world.
Second, we need to acknowledge with concern the almost complete
eclipse of an eschatological sense in many of our traditionally
Christian societies. As you know, I have pointed to this problem
in the Encyclical Spe Salvi. Suffice it to say that faith and
hope are not limited to this world: as theological virtues, they
unite us with the Lord and draw us toward the fulfillment not
only of our personal destiny but also that of all creation.
Faith and hope are the inspiration and basis of our efforts to
prepare for the coming of the Kingdom of God. In Christianity,
there can be no room for purely private religion: Christ is the
Savior of the world, and, as members of his Body and sharers in
his prophetic, priestly and royal munera, we cannot separate our
love for him from our commitment to the building up of the
Church and the extension of his Kingdom. To the extent that
religion becomes a purely private affair, it loses its very
soul.
Let me conclude by stating the obvious. The fields are still
ripe for harvesting (cf. Jn 4:35); God continues to give the
growth (cf. 1 Cor 3:6). We can and must believe, with the late
Pope John Paul II, that God is preparing a new springtime for
Christianity (cf. Redemptoris Missio, 86). What is needed above
all, at this time in the history of the Church in America, is a
renewal of that apostolic zeal which inspires her shepherds
actively to seek out the lost, to bind up those who have been
wounded, and to bring strength to those who are languishing (cf.
Ez 34:16). And this, as I have said, calls for new ways of
thinking based on a sound diagnosis of today's challenges and a
commitment to unity in the service of the Church's mission to
the present generation.
3. The Holy Father is asked to comment on the decline in
vocations despite the growing numbers of the Catholic
population, and on the reasons for hope offered by the personal
qualities and the thirst for holiness which characterize the
candidates who do come forward.
Let us be quite frank: the ability to cultivate vocations to the
priesthood and the religious life is a sure sign of the health
of a local Church. There is no room for complacency in this
regard. God continues to call young people; it is up to all of
us to to encourage a generous and free response to that call. On
the other hand, none of us can take this grace for granted.
In the Gospel, Jesus tells us to pray that the Lord of the
harvest will send workers. He even admits that the workers are
few in comparison with the abundance of the harvest (cf. Mt
9:37-38). Strange to say, I often think that prayer - the unum
necessarium - is the one aspect of vocations work which we tend
to forget or to undervalue!
Nor am I speaking only of prayer for vocations. Prayer itself,
born in Catholic families, nurtured by programs of Christian
formation, strengthened by the grace of the sacraments, is the
first means by which we come to know the Lord's will for our
lives. To the extent that we teach young people to pray, and to
pray well, we will be cooperating with God's call. Programs,
plans and projects have their place; but the discernment of a
vocation is above all the fruit of an intimate dialogue between
the Lord and his disciples. Young people, if they know how to
pray, can be trusted to know what to do with God's call.
It has been noted that there is a growing thirst for holiness in
many young people today, and that, although fewer in number,
those who come forward show great idealism and much promise. It
is important to listen to them, to understand their experiences,
and to encourage them to help their peers to see the need for
committed priests and religious, as well as the beauty of a life
of sacrificial service to the Lord and his Church. To my mind,
much is demanded of vocation directors and formators: candidates
today, as much as ever, need to be given a sound intellectual
and human formation which will enable them not only to respond
to the real questions and needs of their contemporaries, but
also to mature in their own conversion and to persevere in
life-long commitment to their vocation. As Bishops, you are
conscious of the sacrifice demanded when you are asked to
release one of your finest priests for seminary work. I urge you
to respond with generosity, for the good of the whole Church.
Finally, I think you know from experience that most of your
brother priests are happy in their vocation. What I said in my
address about the importance of unity and cooperation within the
presbyterate applies here too. There is a need for all of us to
move beyond sterile divisions, disagreements and preconceptions,
and to listen together to the voice of the Spirit who is guiding
the Church into a future of hope. Each of us knows how important
priestly fraternity has been in our lives. That fraternity is
not only a precious possession, but also an immense resource for
the renewal of the priesthood and the raising up of new
vocations. I would close by encouraging you to foster
opportunities for ever greater dialogue and fraternal encounter
among your priests, and especially the younger priests. I am
convinced that this will bear great fruit for their own
enrichment, for the increase of their love for the priesthood
and the Church, and for the effectiveness of their apostolate.
Dear Brother Bishops. with these few observations, I once more
encourage all of you in your ministry to the faithful entrusted
to your pastoral care, and I commend you to the loving
intercession of Mary Immaculate, Mother of the Church.
Before leaving, I would like to pause to acknowledge the immense
suffering endured by the people of God in the Archdiocese of New
Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina, as well as their
courage in the challenging work of rebuilding. I would like to
present Archbishop Alfred Hughes with a chalice, which I hope
will be accepted as a sign of my prayerful solidarity with the
faithful of the Archdiocese, and my personal gratitude for the
tireless devotion which he and Archbishops Philip Hannan and
Francis Schulte showed toward the flock entrusted to their care.
© Copyright 2008 -- Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Pope
Benedict XVI's Address to US Bishops