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Pope Benedict XVI- Questions and Answer |
Pope
Benedict XVI's Question and Answer Session With Roman Clergy
February 7, 2008
Following a Lenten tradition, Benedict XVI met on February 7 with
parish priests and clergy of the Diocese of Rome.
During the meeting, the participants asked the Pope the questions.
The following are the questions and responses.
On the Importance of the Permanent Diaconate
[Deacon Giuseppe Corona:]
Holy Father, I would like first of all to express my gratitude and
that of my brother deacons for the ministry that the Church so
providentially has taken up again with the [Second Vatican] Council,
a ministry that allows us to fully express our vocation. We are
committed in a great variety of works that we carry out in vastly
different environments: family, work, parish, society, also the
missions of Africa and Latin America -- areas that you indicated for
us in the audience you granted us on the occasion of the 25th
anniversary of the diaconate of the Diocese of Rome.
Now our numbers have grown -- there are 108 of us. And we would like
for you to indicate a pastoral initiative that could become a sign
of a more incisive presence of the permanent diaconate in the city
of Rome, as it happened in the first centuries of the Roman Church.
In fact, sharing a significant, common objective, on one hand
increases the cohesion of diaconal fraternity and on the other,
would give greater visibility to our service in this city. We
present you, Holy Father, the desire that you indicate to us an
initiative that we can share in the way and the manner that you wish
to specify. In the name of all the deacons, I greet you, Holy
Father, with filial affection.
[Benedict XVI:]
Thank you for this testimony as one of the more than 100 deacons of
Rome. I would like to also express my joy and my gratitude for the
Council, because it revived this important ministry in the universal
Church. I should say that when I was archbishop of Munich, I didn't
find perhaps more than three or four deacons, and I very much
favored this ministry because it seemed to me to belong to the
richness of the sacramental ministry in the Church. At the same
time, it can equally be the link between the lay world, the
professional world, and the world of the priestly ministry -- given
that many deacons continue carrying out their professions and
maintain their positions -- important or those of a simple life --
while on Saturday and Sunday they work in the Church. In this way,
you give witness in the world of today, as well as in the working
world, of the presence of faith, of the sacramental ministry and the
diaconal dimension of the sacrament of Orders. This seems very
important to me: the visibility of the diaconal dimension.
Naturally as well, every priest continues being a deacon, and should
always think of this dimension, because the Lord himself made
himself our minister, our deacon. We can think of the gesture of the
washing of the feet, with which he explicitly shows that the master,
the Lord, acts as a deacon and wants those who follow him to be
deacons, that they fulfill this role for humanity, to the point that
they also help to wash the dirtied feet of the men entrusted to us.
This dimension seems very important to me.
On this occasion, I bring to mind -- though it is perhaps not
immediately inherent to the theme -- a simple experience that Paul
VI noted. Each day of the Council, the Gospel was enthroned. And the
Pontiff told those in charge of the ceremony that he would like one
time to be the one who enthrones the Gospel. They told him no, this
is the job of the deacons, not of the Pope. He wrote in his diary:
But I am also a deacon, I continue being a deacon, and I would like
to also exercise this ministry of the diaconate placing the word of
God on its throne. Thus, this concerns all of us. Priests continue
being deacons, and the deacons make explicit in the Church and in
the world this diaconal dimension of our ministry. This liturgical
enthroning of the word of God each day during the Council was always
for us a gesture of great importance: It told us who was the true
Lord of that assembly; it told us that the word of God was on the
throne and that we exercise our ministry to listen and to interpret,
to offer to the others this word. It is broadly significant for all
that we do: enthroning in the world the word of God, the living
word, Christ. May it really be him who governs our personal life and
our life in the parishes.
Now, you have asked me a question that, I must say, goes a bit
beyond my strengths: What would be the tasks proper to the deacons
of Rome. I know that the cardinal vicar knows much better than I the
real situations of the city and the diocesan community of Rome. I
think that one characteristic of the ministry of the deacons is
precisely the multiplicity of the diaconate's applications. In the
International Theological Commission, a few years ago, we studied at
length the diaconate in the history and also the present of the
Church. And we discovered just that: There is not just one profile.
What they should do varies, depending on the preparation of the
persons and the situations in which they find themselves. There can
be applications and activities that are very different, always in
communion with the bishop and with the parish, naturally. In the
various situations, various possibilities arise, also depending on
the professional preparation that these deacons could have. They
could be committed in the cultural sector, which is so important
today, or they could have a voice and an important post in the
educational realm. We are thinking this year precisely of the
problem of education as central to our future, and the future of
humanity.
Certainly the sector of charity was in Rome the original sector,
because those called presbyters and deacons were centers of
Christian charity. This was from the beginning in the city of Rome a
fundamental area. In my encyclical "Deus Caritas Est," I showed that
not just preaching and the liturgy are essential for the Church and
for the ministry of the Church, but rather equally important is the
service of caritas -- in its multiple dimensions -- for the poor,
the needy. Thus, I hope that all the time, in the whole diocese,
even if in distinct situations, this continues being a fundamental
dimension, and also a priority for the commitment of the deacons,
even if not the only one, as is also shown in the early Church,
where the seven deacons were chosen precisely to permit the apostles
to dedicate themselves to prayer, liturgy and preaching. Also
afterward, Stephen found himself in the situation of having to
preach to the Greeks, to the Jews who spoke Greek, and thus the
field of preaching was amplified. He is conditioned, we could say,
by the cultural situation, where he has a voice to make present in
that sector the word of God. In that way, he makes more possible the
universality of the Christian testimony, opening the doors to St.
Paul who witnessed his stoning, and later, in a certain sense, was
his successor in the universalization of the word of God. I don't
know if the cardinal vicar would like to add something; I'm not as
close to the concrete situations.
[Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope's vicar for the Diocese of Rome:]
Holy Father, I can just confirm, as you said, that also concretely
in Rome, the deacons work in many sectors, for the most part, in
parishes, where they concern themselves with the ministry of
charity; but, for example, many are also involved in ministry to the
family. Since almost all of the deacons are married, they offer
marriage preparation, give follow-up to young couples, and things
like that. They also offer a significant contribution to the
ministry of health care; they help also in the vicariate -- where
some of them work -- and as you heard, in missions. There is a
certain missionary presence of deacons. I think that, naturally, in
the numerical plane, the greatest commitment is in the parishes, but
there also exist other sectors that are also opening, and precisely
because of this, we now have more than a hundred permanent deacons.
Concerning the Youth
[Father Graziano Bonfitto, from the parish of Ognissanti:]
Holy Father, I am originally from a town in the province of Foggia,
San Marco in Lamis. I am a religious in the order of Don Orione
[Sons of Divine Providence] and have been a priest for a year and a
half, currently serving as the vice pastor in the parish of
Ognissanti, in the Appio neighborhood. I won't hide my excitement
from you, and also the incredible joy I have in this moment, which
is such a great privilege for me. You are the bishop and the
shepherd of our diocesan Church, but you are also the Pope and thus
the pastor of the universal Church. Because of this, my excitement
grows uncontrollably. I would first like to express my gratitude for
all that, day after day, you do, not only for our Diocese of Rome,
but for the entire Church. Your words and your gestures, your
attention toward us, the people of God, are signs of the love and
the closeness that you foster for all of us, and each one of us.
My priestly apostolate is carried out above all with youth. It is
precisely in their name that I would like to thank you today. My
holy founder, St. Luigi Orione, said that youth are the sun or the
storm of the morning. I think that in this historical moment in
which we find ourselves, youth are both the sun and the storm, not
of the morning, but of now. As youth we now feel, more than ever,
the strong need for certainties. We want sincerity, freedom, justice
and peace. We want to count on people who walk with us, who listen
to us, like Christ with the disciples of Emmaus. Youth desire people
capable of marking the path to liberty, responsibility, love, truth.
That is, the youth of today have an unquenchable thirst for Christ:
a thirst for joyful witnesses who have found Jesus and have staked
their whole existence on him. The youth want a Church always with
feet on the ground and ever closer to their needs. They want her
present in their life decisions, even though a certain sensation of
indifference toward the Church persists in them. Youth seek a
trustworthy hope -- as you wrote in your last letter directed to the
faithful of Rome -- to avoid living without God.
Holy Father -- permit me to call you Papa -- how difficult it is to
live in God, with God and for God. The youth feel attacked on so
many fronts. There are so many false prophets, salesmen of
illusions. There are too many proclaimers of false truths and
ignoble ideals. With all of this, youth who believe today -- even
feeling that they are trapped -- are convinced that God is the hope
that resists every disillusion, that only his love cannot be
destroyed by death, even if most of the time, it is not easy to find
the space or the courage to give witness. What to do then? How to
act? Is it truly worth it to continue staking one's life on Christ?
Life, the family, love, joy, justice, respect of others' opinions,
liberty, prayer, charity -- are they still values to defend? The
life of the saints, measured by the beatitudes -- is this a life
adequate for man, for the youth of the third millennium?
Thank you so much for your attention, your affection and your
consideration for the youth. The youth are with you: They esteem
you, they love you and they listen to you. Stay close, show us with
ever greater strength the path that leads to Christ, the way, the
truth and the life. Help us to fly high, ever higher. And pray for
us always. Thank you.
[Benedict XVI:]
Thank you for this beautiful testimony of a young priest who is with
the youth, who accompanies them, and as you have said, helps them to
walk with Christ, with Jesus.
What to say? All of us know how difficult it is for youth today to
live as Christians. The cultural context and the mass media offer
everything contrary to the path that leads to Christ. It precisely
seems that it makes it impossible to see Christ as the center of
life and live a life as Jesus shows us. Nevertheless, it also seems
to me that many feel more and more the inadequacy of these offers,
of this style of life that in the end, leaves one empty.
In this sense, it seems to me that the readings precisely from
today's liturgy, from Deuteronomy [30:15-20] and the Gospel passage
from Luke [9:22-25] respond to what we should essentially say to
youth and always to ourselves. As you have mentioned, sincerity is
fundamental. Youth should perceive that we don't say words we don't
ourselves live, but rather that we speak because we have found and
look to find each day the truth as truth for my life. Only if we are
on this path, if we ourselves try to assimilate this life and
associate our lives with that of the Lord, then our words can also
be credible and have a visible and convincing logic. I insist: Today
this is the great and fundamental norm, not only for Lent but for
all Christian life: Choose life. Before you, you have death and
life: Choose life.
And it seems that the answer is natural. There are only a few people
who nourish in their depths a will for destruction, for death, of no
longer wanting existence and life, because everything is contrary
for them. Unfortunately, on the other hand, this is a phenomenon
that is growing. With all the contradictions, the false promises, in
the end life seems contradictory. It is no longer a gift, but a
condemnation and thus there are those who want death more than life.
But normally, man responds: Yes, I want life.
The question continues being how to find life, what to choose, how
to choose life. And we know the offers generally made: Go to the
disco, obtain everything possible, consider liberty as doing
everything you want, whatever occurs to you in any given moment. But
we know on the other hand -- and we can show it -- that this is a
false path, because in the end, life is not found there, but rather
the abyss of nothingness.
Choose life. The reading says it: God is your life, you have chosen
life and you have made the choice: God. This seems fundamental to
me. Only in this way are our horizons broad enough and only in this
way do we remain within the fount of life, which is stronger than
death, stronger than all of the threats of death. Thus, the
fundamental choice is this one that is indicated: Choose God. It is
necessary to understand that one who begins a life without God in
the end finds himself in darkness, even though there can be moments
in which it seems he has discovered life.
Another step is how to find God, how to choose God. Here we arrive
to the Gospel: God is not a stranger, a hypothesis of the first
cause of the cosmos. God has flesh and bones. He is one of us. We
know him with his face, with his name. It is Jesus Christ who speaks
to us in the Gospel. He is man and he is God. And being God, he
chose man to make it possible for us to choose God. Thus it is
necessary to enter into knowledge of and afterward friendship with
Jesus, to walk with him.
I consider this the fundamental point of our pastoral care for
youth, for everyone, but above all for youth: Call their attention
to the choice of God, who is life. To the fact that God exists. And
he exists in a very concrete way. And teach them friendship with
Jesus Christ.
There is also a third step. This friendship with Jesus is not a
friendship with a person who isn't real, with someone who belongs to
the past, or is far from man at the right hand of God. He is present
in his body, which continues to be a body of flesh and bones: It is
the Church, the communion of the Church. We should construct and
make communities that are more accessible and reflect the great
community of the living Church. It is everything: the living
experience of the community, with all of its human weaknesses, but
nevertheless real, with a clear path and a solid sacramental life in
which we can also touch what can seem so far away -- the presence of
the Lord. In this way, we can also learn the commandments -- to
return to Deuteronomy, from where I began. Because the reading says:
To choose God means to choose according to his Word, to live
according to his Word. For a moment this seems almost positivist:
They are imperatives. But first is the gift -- his friendship. Later
we can understand that the indicators of the path are explanations
of the reality of this friendship of ours.
We can say that this is a general overview, which flows out of
contact with sacred Scripture and the life of the Church each day.
Afterward it is translated step by step in the concrete encounters
with youth: To guide them in their dialogue with Jesus in prayer, in
the reading of sacred Scripture -- reading in common, above all, but
also personal -- and sacramental life. These are all steps to make
these experiences present in the professional life, even though this
realm is frequently marked by the total absence of God and by the
apparent impossibility of seeing him present. But precisely then,
through our life and our experience of God, we should try to make
the presence of Christ enter into this world far from God.
Thirst for God exists. A short time ago, I received the "ad limina"
visit of bishops from a country in which more than 50% are declared
atheists or agnostics. But they told me, in reality all of them are
thirsting for God. This thirst exists, though hidden. Because of
this, let's start beforehand, with the youth we can find. Let's form
communities in which the Church is reflected; let's learn friendship
with Jesus. And in this way, full of this joy and this experience,
we can also today make God present in this world of ours.
On Reaching Out to a Secular World
[Father Paolo Tammi, pastor at St. Pius X Parish and religion
professor:]
I would like to extend to you just one of the many expressions of
gratitude for the effort and the passion with which you have written
the book about Jesus of Nazareth, a text that, you yourself have
said, is not an act of the magisterium, but the fruit of your
personal search for the face of God. It has contributed to putting
the person of Jesus Christ in the center of Christianity and
certainly it is contributing -- and will continue to do so -- to a
patient righting of the partial visions of the Christian event, such
as the political vision, in which a great part of my adolescence and
that of my contemporaries developed; or the moralist vision, too
insistent -- in my opinion -- in Catholic preaching; or finally the
vision that likes to define itself as demythologizing the figure of
Jesus Christ, like that of certain teachers of secular thought who
truly think it very normal to suddenly concern themselves now with
the Founder of Christianity and his human adventure to deny his
historicity or to attribute his divinity to a fantasy of the
apostolic Church.
You, on the other hand, do not cease to teach us, Your Holiness,
that Jesus is truly everything, that with him, man and God, it's
only possible to fall in love; that it is not merely the same as
belonging to a club, supposing that such a thing exists, or spouting
off pretty phrases about him just to protect a cultural identity. I
limit myself to add that in a secular environment like a school,
where historical and philosophical motivations in favor or against
religion obviously have their legitimate space, I see every day that
the kids maintain a great emotional distance, whereas I have seem
them be moved in Assisi -- where I took them a few days ago -- upon
hearing a passionate testimony of a young friar minor. I ask you:
How can the life of a priest become ever more passionate with the
essential, which is the Spouse Jesus? And also, how can you see when
a priest is in love with Jesus? I know that you have answered this
several times, but it's certain that your answer can help or correct
us, to renew our hope. I ask you to answer this again here with your
priests.
[Benedict XVI:]
How can I correct the parish priests, who are working so well? We
can only help each other. So, you are familiar with this secular
environment not only from an intellectual distance, but above all
from an emotional one, with faith. And we should, according to
circumstances, find the way to build bridges. It seems to me that
the situations are difficult, but you are right. We should always
think: What is essential? Even if afterward the point varies in
which it is possible to link in the kerygma, the context, the way of
acting. But the question should always be: What is essential? What
has to be discovered? What would I like to give? And here, I always
repeat: The essential is God.
If we don't speak of God, if God is not discovered, we are always
stuck in secondary things. Thus it seems fundamental to me that the
question "Does God exist" is at least proposed. And that of, How
could I live without God? Is God truly an important reality for me?
It continues to impress me that the First Vatican Council would have
wanted precisely to bring this dialogue to the table, to understand
God with reason -- even if in the historical situation in which we
find ourselves we need God to help us and purify our reason. It
seems that already there is a search to respond to this challenge
posed by a secular environment regarding God as the fundamental
question, and then regarding Christ as God's answer. Naturally, I
would say that the "preambula fidei" exist, that perhaps they are
the first step to open the heart and the mind to God: the natural
virtues.
Recently I received a visit from a head of state who told me, I am
not a religious person, the foundation of my life is Aristotelian
ethics. This is already something very good, and it places us beside
St. Thomas, on the path toward Thomas' synthesis. And therefore,
this could be a point of contact: To learn and to make
understandable the importance for human coexistence of this rational
ethics, that afterward interiorly opens -- if its lived in its
consequences -- to the question of God, to the responsibility before
God.
So it seems to me that, on one hand, we should have clear before us
what is the essential that we want to and should transmit to the
others and what are the "preambula" in the situations in which we
can take the first steps. In truth, today a first ethical education
is a fundamental step. This is also what happened in ancient
Christianity. Cyprian, for example, tells us that his life before
was totally dissolute. Afterward, living in the catechumenal
community, he learned a fundamental ethics and in that way, the path
toward God opened. Also St. Ambrose in the Easter Vigil says: Until
now we have spoken of morality, now we move on to mystery.
They had traveled the journey of the "preambula fidei" with a
fundamental education in ethics, which created the possibility of
understanding the mystery of God. Therefore, I would say that
perhaps we should carry out an interaction with education in ethics
-- so important today -- on one hand, also with its pragmatic
evidence, and at the same time not omit the question of God. And in
this intertwining of two paths, it seems to me that perhaps we
manage to open ourselves a bit to this God who alone can give light.
On the Church's Role in Education
[Father Daniele Salera, parish vicar at Santa Mary, Mother of
the Redeemer in Tor Bella Monaca and a religion professor:]
Your Holiness, I am Father Daniele Salera, a priest for six years
now and the parish vicar in Tor Bella Monaca; there I give religion
classes. In reading your letter about the urgent task of education,
I have taken note of certain elements that struck me as significant
and that I would like to talk about with you. […] I would like to
transmit to you in these short moments the beauty of working in a
school with colleagues who for various motives no longer have faith
or no longer identify themselves with the Church. Nevertheless, they
give me an example of passion for education and for the rescuing of
adolescents whose lives are marked by crime and degradation.
I perceive in many of the people I work with in Tor Bella Monaca an
authentic missionary drive. Through different but convergent paths
we fight against this crisis of hope that is always lurking when one
daily interacts with kids who seem dead on the inside, without a
desire for the future, or so profoundly wrapped up in evil that they
don't manage to perceive the goodness desired for them, or the
occasions of freedom and redemption that in any case come along in
their life. Before such a human emergency, there is no time for
divisions. I often repeat to myself a saying of Pope Roncalli, who
said, "I will always look for what unites, more than what divides."
Your Holiness, this experience allows me to live daily with youth
and adults who would have never found me if I would have
concentrated only on the activities of the parish. And I see that
it's true: Many educators are giving up on ethics in favor of an
affectivity that does not give certainties and creates dependence.
Others fear defending the norms of civil coexistence because they
think these norms don't take into account the needs, difficulties
and identities of the youth. Using a slogan, I would say that at the
level of education, we live in a culture of, "yes, always" and "no,
never." But it is the "no" proclaimed with loving passion for man
and for his future that often draws the line between good and evil,
a limit that in the years of development is fundamental for building
up a solid personal identity.
On one hand, I am convinced that, before the emergency, diversities
are attenuated and therefore, in the realm of education, we can
truly find common ground with those who freely do not declare
themselves believers in the real sense. On the other hand, I ask
myself, why do we, as a Church, who have written, thought and lived
so much regarding education as formation in the correct use of
liberty -- as you say -- fail to transmit this educational
objective? Why do we seem, shall we say, so little free and freeing?
[Benedict XVI:]
Thank you for this reflection of your experiences in the school of
today with the youth of today, and also for these self-critiquing
questions for us. In this moment, I can only confirm that it seems
very important to me that the Church be present also in the school,
because an education that is not at the same time an education with
God and in the presence of God, an education that does not transmit
the great ethical values that have appeared in the light of Christ,
is not education. Professional formation is never sufficient without
the formation of the heart. And the heart cannot be formed without,
at least, the challenge of the presence of God. We know that many
youth live in environments, in situations, that make the light and
the Word of God inaccessible. They are in life situations that
represent a true slavery, not just exterior, but that provoke an
intellectual slavery that obscures the truth in the heart and in the
mind.
We try with what is within the reach of the Church to offer also to
them a chance to escape. But, in any case, we bring to this diverse
environment of a school -- where you can find a range from believers
to the saddest situations -- the Word of God. This is what we have
said about St. Paul, who wanted to make the Gospel arrive to
everyone. This imperative of the Lord -- the Gospel should be
announced to everyone -- is not a diachronic imperative, not a
continental imperative, that in all cultures it be announced in a
big way, but rather an interior imperative, in the sense of entering
into the various facets and dimensions of a society to make, at
least a little, the light of the Gospel more accessible. That the
Gospel really be announced to everyone.
And it seems an aspect of the cultural formation of today. To know
what is the Christian faith that has formed this continent and that
is a light for all continents. The ways in which this light can be
made most present and accessible are various, and I realize I don't
have a recipe for this. But the need to offer oneself to the service
of this adventure -- beautiful and difficult -- is really an element
of the imperative of the Gospel itself. Let's pray that the Lord
helps us to respond to this imperative of making knowledge of him,
knowledge of his face, arrive to all of the dimensions of our
society.
On the Reality of Sin and the Sacrament of Penance
[Father Pietro Riggi, Salesian of Borgo Ragazzi Don Bosco:]
Holy Father, I work in an oratory and in a center for minors who are
at risk. I want to ask you: On March 25, 2007 you gave an informal
speech, lamenting that today the “Last Things” are little spoken of.
[…] Without these essential parts of the Creed, does it not seem to
you that the logical system that brings us to see Christ’s
redemption crumbles? Without sin, not speaking of hell, Christ’s
redemption is diminished too. Does it not seem to you that with the
loss of the sense of sin the salvific, sacramental figure itself of
the priest, who has the power to absolve and celebrate in the name
of Christ, is also lost?
Today, unfortunately, we priests as well, when the Gospel speaks of
hell, we avoid the Gospel itself. It is not spoken of. Or we do not
know how to talk about paradise. We do not know how to talk about
eternal life. We risk giving the faith a dimension that is only
horizontal or rather detached, the horizontal from the vertical. And
this is beginning to disappear unfortunately from the catechesis for
the kids, but also from the parishes, in the foundational
structures. […]
I also wanted to point out that the Virgin Mary was not afraid to
speak to the children of Fatima, who, incidentally, were of
catechism age: 7, 9 and 12. And we so many times instead leave this
out. Can you tell us something more about this?
[Benedict XVI:]
You rightly spoke of fundamental themes of the faith, which
unfortunately rarely appear in our preaching. In the encyclical “Spe
Salvi” I wanted to speak indeed also of the last judgment, of
judgment in general, and in this context of purgatory, hell and
paradise as well. I think that we are all still struck by the
Marxist objection, according to which the Christians spoke only
about the beyond and neglected this world. So, we want to show that
we are really working for this world and we are not people who talk
about distant realities that do not help this world. Now, although
it is right to show that Christians work for this world -- and we
are all called to work to truly make this world a city for God and
of God -- we must not forget the other dimension. If we do not take
it into account, we do not work well for this world.
Showing this was one of the fundamental purposes for me writing the
encyclical. When one does not know God’s judgment, one does not know
the possibility of hell, of radical and definitive failure of life,
one does not know the possibility and the necessity of purification.
Then man does not work well for the world because in the end he
loses the criteria, he no longer knows himself, not knowing God, and
he destroys the world. All of the great ideologies promised: We will
take things in hand, we will no longer neglect the world, we will
create a new, just, correct, fraternal world. Instead they destroyed
the world. We see it with Nazism, we it also with communism -- they
promised to construct the world as it should have been, and instead,
they destroyed the world.
In the "ad limina" visits of the bishops from ex-communist countries
I always see how in those lands not only the planet, ecology, was
destroyed, but above all, and worse, souls. Rediscovering the truly
human conscience, illumined by the presence of God, is the first
task in rebuilding the earth. This is the common experience of those
countries. The rebuilding of the earth, respecting the cry of
suffering of this planet, can only happen by rediscovering God in
the soul, with eyes open to God.
So, you are right: We must speak of all this out of responsibility
for the world, for the men who live today. We must also speak
precisely of sin as the possibility of destroying ourselves and so
also of other parts of the earth. In the encyclical I tried to show
that indeed the last judgment of God guarantees justice. We all want
a just world. But we cannot repair all of the destruction of the
past, all the people who were unjustly tormented and killed. Only
God himself can create justice, which must be justice for all, for
the dead too. And as Adorno, a great Marxist, says, only the
resurrection of the flesh -- which he holds to be an illusion --
could create justice. We believe in this resurrection of the flesh,
in which not all will be equal.
Today we are used to thinking: What is sin? God is great, he knows
us, so sin will not count, in the end God will be good to all. It is
a beautiful hope. But there is justice and there is true guilt.
Those who have destroyed man and the earth cannot immediately sit at
table with God together with their victims. God creates justice. We
must keep this in mind. For this reason it seemed important to me
also to write this text on purgatory, which for me is such an
obvious truth, so evident and also so necessary and consoling that
it cannot be left out.
I tried to say: Perhaps there are not many who are destroyed in this
way, who are forever incurable, who have no element on which God’s
love can rest, who do not have a minimal capacity to love in them.
This would be hell. On the other hand, there are certainly few --
or, in any case, not many -- who are so pure that they can
immediately enter into communion with God. Many of us hope that
there is something that can be healed in us, that there is a final
will to serve God and serve men, to live according to God. But there
are many, many wounds, much filth. We need to be prepared, to be
purified. This is our hope: Even with such filth in our souls, in
the end the Lord gives us the possibility, he finally cleanses us
with his goodness that comes from his cross. In this way he makes us
capable of living eternally for him.
Thus, paradise is hope, it is justice finally realized. And it also
gives us the criteria for living, so that this time can be paradise
in some way, a first light of paradise. Where men live according to
these criteria, a little bit of paradise appears in this world, and
this is visible. It also seems to me a demonstration of the truth of
the faith, of the necessity of following the road of the
commandments, which we must talk about more. These are truly road
signs and they show us how to live well, how to choose life. For
this reason we must also speak of sin and of the sacrament of
forgiveness and reconciliation. A man who is sincere knows that he
is guilty, that he must begin again, that he must be purified. And
this is the marvelous reality that the Lord gives us: There is a
possibility of renewal, of being new. The Lord begins with us again
and in this way we also can begin again with the others in our life.
This aspect of renewal, of restitution of our being after so many
mistakes, after so many sins, is the great promise, the great gift
that the Church offers, and what, for example, psychotherapy cannot
offer. Psychotherapy is so widespread today and it is also necessary
in the face of so many destroyed and gravely wounded psyches. But
psychotherapy’s possibilities are very limited: It can only try a
little to re-establish balance in an unbalanced soul. But it cannot
give a true renewal, an overcoming of these grave maladies of the
soul. And for this reason it always remains provisional and never
definitive.
The sacrament of penance gives us the occasion to renew ourselves
completely with the power of God -- “Ego te absolvo” -- which is
possible because Christ took these sins, these faults upon himself.
It seems that today indeed this is a great necessity. We can be
healed again. Souls that are wounded and sick -- as is the
experience of all -- need not only advice but true renewal, which
can come only from the power of God, the power of crucified love. It
seems to me that this is the great nexus of mysteries that are truly
inscribed in our life. We ourselves must meditate on them again and
in this way bring them again to our people.
On Finding Silence and Space
[Father Massimo Tellan, Pastor of the Parish of Sant'Enrico:]
My name is Massimo Tellan. I have been a priest for 15 years; for 6
years I have been a pastor at Casal Monastero, in the north. I
believe that all of us realize that we live more and more immersed
in a world of cultural word inflation -- words that are, in the end,
often without meaning -- which disorient the human heart to such an
extent that it becomes deaf to truth. That eternal Word that became
flesh and assumed a face in Jesus of Nazareth becomes -- because of
this inflation of words in our world -- evanescent, and above all
for the new generations, inconsistent and distant.
Certainly [this Word gets] confused in the forest of ambiguous and
ephemeral images that bombard one every day. So, what space should
be given in education in the faith to this binomial of the word to
be welcomed and the image to be contemplated? What happened to the
art of narrating the faith and introducing people to the mystery [of
the faith] as was done in the past with the "biblia pauperum"? In
today's culture of the image how can we recover the incredible power
of seeing that accompanies the mystery of the incarnation and the
encounter with Jesus as happened on the banks of the Jordan for John
and Andrew, who were invited to go and see where the master lived?
In other words, how do we educate [people] in the seeking and the
contemplation of that true beauty that -- as Dostoyevsky wrote --
will save the world? Thank you, Your Holiness, for your attention,
and if you will allow me, and with the consent of my confreres, as a
priest of this presbyterium and a dilettante artist, along with what
I have said I would like to give you an icon of Christ at the pillar
[...] If it is true, as it is, that whoever sees the Son has seen
the Father, so whoever sees us, his Church, can see Christ.
[Benedict XVI:]
Thank you for this beautiful gift. I am grateful that we have not
only words but images too. We see that even today from Christian
meditation new images are born, Christian culture is reborn,
Christian iconography. Yes we live with an inflation of words, of
images. So, it is difficult to create space for the word and the
image. It seems to me that precisely in our world's situation, which
we all know, which is also our suffering, the suffering of each one,
the time of Lent takes on a new significance. Certainly bodily
fasting -- which for a time was not considered to be in style -- is
thought by everyone to be necessary today. It is not hard to
understand that we must fast. Sometimes we find ourselves faced with
exaggerations caused by a mistaken ideal of beauty. But in any case
bodily fasting is something important because we are body and soul
and the discipline of the body, even material discipline, is
important for the spiritual life, which is always an incarnate life
in a person who is body and soul.
This is one dimension. Today other dimensions are growing and
manifesting themselves. It seems to me that the time of Lent can
indeed also be a time of fasting from words and images. We need a
little silence; we need a space that is free from the permanent
bombardment of images. In this sense making the meaning of 40 days
of exterior and interior discipline accessible and comprehensible
today is very important for helping us to see that one dimension of
our Lent, of this bodily and spiritual life, is to create for us
spaces of silence that are also without images, to re-open our heart
to the true image and the true word. It seems promising to me that
today, too, one sees a rebirth of Christian art, meditative music --
like that of Taizé, for example -- or the renewing of the art of the
icon, a Christian art that remains, let us say, within the great
norms of the iconological art of the past, but broadening to the
experiences and visions of today. There where there is a true and
profound meditation on the Word, where we really enter into this
visibility of God in the world, of this tangibility of God in the
world, new images, new possibilities of making the events of
salvation visible are also born. This is precisely the consequence
of the event of the incarnation. The Old Testament prohibited every
image and had to prohibit images in a world full of divinities. It
lived in the great emptiness that was also represented by the
interior of the temple, where, in contrast with the other temples,
there was no image, but only the empty throne of the Word, the
mysterious presence of the invisible God, not surrounded by our
images.
But the new step is that this mysterious God liberates us from the
inflation of images, even of a time full of images of divinity, and
he gives us the freedom of the vision of the essential. He appears
with a face, with a body, with a human history that, at the same
time, is a divine history. A history that continues in the history
of the saints, of the martyrs, of the saints of charity, of the
word; [these saints] are always an explication, a continuation in
the Body of Christ of his divine and human life, and give us the
fundamental images in which -- beyond the superficial images that
hide reality -- we can open our eyes toward the Truth itself. In
this sense the iconoclastic period after the Council seems excessive
to me -- but it had its meaning, because perhaps it was necessary to
liberate ourselves from a superficiality of too many images.
Let us turn now to the knowledge of God who became man. As the
Letter to the Ephesians says, he is the true image. And in this true
image we see -- beyond the appearances that hide the truth -- the
Truth itself: "He who sees me sees the Father." In this sense I
would say that, with much respect and with much reverence, we can
rediscover a Christian art and also rediscover the essential and
great representations of the mystery of God in the iconographic
tradition of the Church. And in this way we can rediscover the true
image, covered up by the appearances. It is truly an important task
of Christian education: the liberation for the Word behind the word,
which always demands new spaces of silence, of mediation, of a
deepening of knowledge, of abstinence, of discipline. It is equally
the education in the true image, which is in the rediscovery of the
great icons created in the history of Christianity: with the
humility that liberates from superficial images. This type of
iconoclasm is always necessary to rediscover the Image, that is, the
fundamental images that express the presence of God in the flesh.
This is one dimension of the fundamental education in the faith, in
true humanism, that we are attempting at this time in Rome. We have
returned to rediscover the icon with its very severe rules, without
the Renaissance beauties. And in this way we too can enter again
onto the road to the rediscovery of the great images, toward an
always new liberation from too many words, from too many images, to
rediscover the essential images that are necessary for us. God
himself has shown us his image and we can rediscover this image with
a profound meditation on the Word that makes the images be reborn.
So, let us pray to the Lord that he help us along this road of true
education, of re-education in the faith, which is always not only a
listening but a seeing.
On Sharing the Gift of the Gospel
[Father Paul Chungat, Parochial Vicar at the Parish of San Giuseppe
Cottolengo:]
My name is Father Chungat. I am from India and I am currently the
parochial vicar at the Parish of San Giuseppe in Valle Aurelia. I
would like to thank you for the opportunity that you have given me
to serve for three years in the Diocese of Rome. This has been a
great help for me, for my studies, as I believe that it has been for
all the priests who are studying in Rome.
The time has come to return to my diocese in India, where Catholics
are only one percent of the population and the other 99%is
non-Christian. The situation of evangelization in my homeland has
been something I have been thinking a lot about in recent days. In
the recent note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
there are some words that are difficult to understand in the field
of interreligious dialogue. For example in section 10 of the
document the words "fullness of salvation" are written, and in the
introduction one reads of the necessity of "formal incorporation in
the Church."
These are things that it will be difficult to explain when I bring
them to India and I must speak to my Hindu friends and to the
faithful of other religions. My question is: Is "fullness of
salvation" to be understood in a qualitative or in a quantitative
sense? If it is to be understood in a quantitative sense, there is a
bit of a difficulty. The Second Vatican Council says that there is a
glimmer of light in other faiths. If in a qualitative sense, other
than the historicity and the fullness of the faith, what are the
other things that show the unicity of our faith in regard to
interreligious dialogue?
[Benedict XVI:]
Thank you for this intervention. You know well that your questions
are big ones and an entire semester of theology would be necessary!
I will try to be brief. You know theology; there are great masters
and many books. First of all, thank you for your testimony -- you
say that you are happy to be able to work in Rome even if you are
Indian. For me this is a marvelous phenomenon of catholicity.
At present it is not only the case that missionaries travel from the
West to other continents, but there is an exchange of gifts:
Indians, Africans, South Americans work among us and we travel to
other continents. It is a giving and a receiving on all sides; this
is precisely the vitality of catholicity, where we are all debtors
of the gifts of the Lord, and then we can give to each other. It is
in this reciprocity of gifts, of giving and receiving, that the
Catholic Church lives. You can learn from these Western environments
and experiences and we no less from you. I see that this spirit of
religiosity that exists in Asia, as in Africa, surprises Europeans,
who are often a little cold in faith. And thus this vivacity, at
least of the religious spirit that exists on these continents, is a
great gift for all of us, above all for us bishops of the Western
world and in particular in those countries in which the phenomenon
of immigration is most apparent, from the Philippines, from India,
etc. Our cold Catholicism is revived by this fervor that comes from
you. Catholicity, then, is a great gift.
Let us come to the questions that you posed to me. I do not have the
exact words of the document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith before me at this moment; but in any case, I would like to
say two things. On one hand, dialogue, getting to know each other,
respecting each other and trying to cooperate in every possible way
for the great purposes of humanity, or for its great needs, to
overcome fanaticisms and to create a spirit of peace and of love --
all of this is absolutely necessary. And this is also in the spirit
of the Gospel, whose meaning is precisely that the spirit of love
that we have learned from Jesus, the peace of Jesus that he has
given us through the cross, become universally present in the world.
In this sense dialogue must be true dialogue, in respecting the
other and in the acceptance of his alterity; but it must also be
evangelical, in the sense that its fundamental purpose is to help
men to live in love and to make it the case that this love expand
throughout the world.
But this dimension of dialogue, which is so necessary, that is, the
respect of the other, of tolerance, of cooperation, does not exclude
the other dimension, that is that the Gospel is a great gift, the
gift of great love, of great truth, that we cannot only keep for
ourselves, but that we must offer to others, considering that God
gives them the necessary freedom and light to find the truth. This
is the truth. And this, then, is also my road. Mission is not
imposition, but an offering of the gift of God, letting his goodness
enlighten people so that the gift of concrete friendship with God be
extended and acquire a human face. For this reason we want and we
must always bear witness to this faith and the love that lives in
our faith. We will have neglected a true human and divine duty if we
have left others to their own devices and kept the faith we have
only for ourselves. We would be unfaithful even to ourselves if we
were not to offer this faith to the world, while always respecting
the freedom of others. The presence of faith in the world is a
positive element, even if no one is converted; it is a point of
reference.
Exponents of non-Christian religions have told me: The presence of
Christianity is a point of reference that helps us, even if we do
not convert. Let us think of the great figure of Mahatma Gandhi:
Despite being firmly committed to his religion, for him the Sermon
on the Mount was a fundamental point of reference that formed his
whole life. And thus the ferment of the faith, although it did not
convert him to Christianity, entered into his life. And it seems to
me that this ferment of Christian love that shows through the Gospel
is -- beyond the missionary work that seeks to enlarge the spaces of
faith -- a service that we render to humanity.
Let us think about St. Paul. A short time ago I reflected again on
his missionary motivation. I also spoke about it to the Curia on the
occasion of the end of the year meeting. He was moved by the word of
the Lord in his eschatological sermon. Before every event, before
the return of the Son of Man, the Gospel must be preached to all
nations. The condition for the world reaching its perfection, the
condition for its opening up to paradise, is that the Gospel be
proclaimed to all. All of his missionary zeal is directed at
bringing the Gospel to all, possibly in his own time, to respond to
the Lord's command "that it be proclaimed to all nations." His
desire was not so much to baptize all nations, as it was that the
Gospel [be] present in the world and thus the completion of history
as such [also be present in the world].
It seems to me that today, seeing how history has gone, one can
better understand that this presence of the word of God, that this
proclamation that comes to all as a ferment, is necessary for the
world to truly arrive at its purpose. In this sense, indeed we
desire the conversion of all, but let us allow the Lord to be the
one who acts. It is important that those who wish to convert have
the possibility of doing so and that there appear in the world for
all this light of the Lord as a point of reference and as a light
that helps, without which the world cannot find itself. I do not
know if I have made myself clear: dialogue and mission not only do
not exclude each other, but the one requires the other.
On Large Celebrations of the Mass
[Father Alberto Orlando, Parochial Vicar of Santa Maria Madre della
Provvidenza:]
My name is Father Alberto Orlando, assistant pastor of the Parish of
Santa Maria Madre della Provvidenza. I would like to present to you
a difficulty that I experienced with the young people at Loreto last
year. We had a beautiful day at Loreto, but among the many nice
things we noted a certain distance between you and the young people.
We arrived in the afternoon. We were not able to see or hear. […]
The second thing that caused us some difficulty was the liturgy the
next day, a little heavy, above all in regard to the songs and
music. […] Here are the two questions: Why this distance between you
and them; and then how does one reconcile the treasure of the
liturgy in all its solemnity with the sentiment, affection,
emotiveness that nourishes young people and of which they have much
need?
I would also like some advice: How do we regulate between solemnity
and emotiveness. Also because we are ourselves priests and we often
ask ourselves how much we priests are able to live emotion and
sentiment with simplicity. And being ministers of the sacrament we
would like to be able to orient sentiment and emotiveness toward
this just equilibrium.
[Benedict XVI:]
The first point that was proposed to me is connected with the
situation of the organization [of the meeting at Loreto]: I found it
as it was, so I do not know whether it was possible perhaps to
organize it in a different way. Considering the thousands of people
who were there, it was impossible, I believe, to make it so everyone
could be close in the same way. Indeed, because of this we used a
car to get closer to individual people. But we will take this into
account and see if in the future, in other meetings with thousands
and thousands of people, it will ever be possible to do something
different. Nevertheless, it seems important to me that the feeling
of interior nearness grow, that the bridge that unites us even if we
are physically distant be found. But liturgies in which masses of
people participate are a great problem.
I remember in 1960, during the great Eucharistic Congress in Munich,
there was an attempt to give a new physiognomy to Eucharistic
congresses, which until that time were only acts of adoration. There
was a desire to put at the center the celebration of the Eucharist
as an act of the presence of the mystery that was celebrated. But
immediately the question arose as to how it would be possible.
Adoration, it was said, is possible even at a distance; but to
celebrate, a limited community that interacts with the mystery is
necessary; thus a community that must be an assembly around the
celebration of the mystery. There were many who were against the
celebration of the Eucharist in public with 100,000 people. They
said that it was not possible precisely because of the structure
itself of the Eucharist, which demands community for communion.
There were even great, very respectable personalities who were
against this solution. Then Professor Jungmann, the great liturgist,
one of the great architects of the liturgical reform, created the
concept of “statio orbis,” that is, he returned to the “statio Romae,”
where precisely in the time of Lent the faithful gathered at one
point, the statio: There they are stationed like soldiers for
Christ; they then go to the Eucharist together. If this, he said,
was the statio of the city of Rome, where the city of Rome gathers,
then this is the “statio orbis.” And from that moment on we had
Eucharistic celebrations with the participation of the masses.
For me, I must say, it remains a problem, because concrete communion
in the celebration is fundamental and so I do not find that the
definitive answer has been truly found. I also had this question
brought up at the last synod, but it did not find an answer. I also
had another question brought up, about concelebration “en masse”:
Because if, for example, thousands of priests concelebrate, one does
not know if this is still the structure desired by the Lord. But in
any case they are questions. And so the problem of celebration in
large numbers in which not all can be equally involved was presented
to you. A certain style must therefore be chosen to conserve that
dignity that is always necessary for the Eucharist and then the
community is not uniform and the experience of participation in the
event is diverse; for some it is certainly insufficient. But it did
not depend on me, rather it depended on those who made the
preparations.
One must reflect hard, therefore, about what to do in these
situations, how to respond to the challenges of this situation. If I
am not mistaken, it was an orchestra of handicapped persons who
performed the music and perhaps the idea was precisely that of
showing that the handicapped can be animators of the sacred
celebration and indeed they must not be excluded as primary agents.
And so everyone, loving them, did not want them to feel excluded
but, on the contrary, involved. It seems to me to be a very
respectable view and I share it. Naturally, however, the basic
problem remains.
But it seems to me that here too, knowing what the Eucharist is,
even if one is not able to participate externally as one would wish
so as to feel involved, one enters into it with one’s heart, as the
ancient imperative of the Church says -- perhaps created for those
who are standing in back in the basilica -- “Lift up your hearts!
Now let us all go out of ourselves, in this way we are all with the
Lord and we are together.” As I said, I do not deny the problem, but
if we really follow this word, “Lift up your hearts,” we will all
find, even in difficult and sometimes questionable situations, the
true active participation.
On the Christian Identity
[Monsignor Renzo Martinelli, Delegate of the Pontificia Accademia
dell'Immacolata:]
Holy Father, […] returning to the problem of the educational
emergency, the question is this: Recently you said to the Slovenian
bishops, “If, for example, man is understood in an individualistic
way -- which is a widespread tendency today -- how can the effort to
build a just and solidary society be justified?” How can one propose
to young people that on which you have always insisted, namely, that
the Christian “I”, once it puts on Christ, is no longer “I”? The
Christian’s identity, you said at Verona very profoundly, is the “I”
no longer “I” because there is the communal subject who is Christ.
How does one propose, Your Holiness, this conversion, this new
modality, this Christian originality of being a communion that
effectively proposes the newness of the Christian experience?
[Benedict XVI:]
It is the great question that every priest who is responsible for
others poses every day. Even for himself, naturally. It is true that
in the 20th century there was the tendency toward an individualistic
piety, to save one’s own soul above all and create merits that were
even calculatable, that one could, on certain lists, also indicate
with numbers. And certainly the whole movement of the Second Vatican
Council aimed at overcoming this individualism.
I do not wish now to judge these previous generations, who in their
way, nevertheless, sought thus to serve others. But there was a
danger there that one wanted above all to save one’s own soul; from
this followed an extrinsicism of piety that in the end found faith
to be a burden and not a liberation. It is certainly the basic will
of the new pastoral approach indicated by Vatican II to get away
from this overly narrow Christianity and to discover that I save my
soul by giving it, as the Lord told us today in the Gospel; only
freeing myself from me, going out of myself; as God did in the Son,
God going out of himself to save us. And we enter into this movement
of the Son, we try to leave ourselves because we know where we are
going. And we do not fall into a void, but we leave ourselves
behind, abandoning ourselves to God, going out, putting ourselves at
his service, as he wills and not as we will.
This is true Christian obedience, which is freedom: not as I wish,
with my plan for life for myself, but putting myself in his service,
that he may do with me as he pleases. And putting myself into his
hands I am free. But it is a great leap that is never definitively
accomplished. I think here of St. Augustine, who told us this so
many times. Initially after his conversion he thought that he had
arrived at the top and was living in the paradise of the novelty of
being a Christian. But then he discovered that the difficult road of
life continued -- although from that moment always in the light of
God -- and that every day it was again necessary to make this leap
out of oneself; to give this “I” so that it die and be renewed in
the great “I” of Christ, an “I” that is in a certain way more true,
the “I” that is common to us all, our “we.”
But I would say that we ourselves must precisely in the celebration
of the Eucharist -- which is this great and profound meeting with
the Lord where I let myself fall into his hands -- take this great
step. The more we ourselves learn to do it the more we can also
express it to others and make it comprehensible, accessible to
others. Only going along with the Lord, abandoning ourselves in the
communion of the Church to this openness, not living for myself --
neither for a worldly life nor for personal beatitude -- but making
myself an instrument of his peace, I live well and I learn this
courage in the face of daily challenges, always new and grave, often
impossible. I leave myself behind because you wish it and I am
certain that in this way I will move forward well. We can only
implore the Lord that he help us to follow this road every day, to
help, to enlighten others in this way, to move them so that they too
can be thus liberated and redeemed.
[Father Umberto Fanfarillo, Pastor of Santa Dorotea in Trastevere:]
Holy Father, I am the pastor of Santa Dorotea in Trastevere, Father
Umberto Fanfarillo, a Conventual Franciscan. Together with the
Christian community of the area of the parish, I would like to
indicate a conspicuous even if not a profound presence of other
religious contexts, which we encounter every day with reciprocal
esteem, in conscientious and also in a respectful coexistence.
In this substantial positivity of intentions I can also include the
commitment of the Accademia dei Lincei and the nearby American
university of John Cabot, with more than 800 students from about 60
countries and with religious affiliations that range from Catholic
to Lutheran, from Jewish to Muslim. It was indeed these young people
who gathered in prayer at our church when John Paul II died. Some of
them, coming to our parish, express respect and serenity before our
religious symbols, such as the crucifix and the images of Mary, of
the saints and the Pope. In the confines of the parish the Peter Pan
House welcomes children who are sick with tumors and is connected
with the Bambino Gesù Hospital.
Even here there are exceptional moments of charity in
interreligiosity and religious attention to the sick and needy
brother. At Regina Coeli Prison, which is also in the confines of
the parish, there are analogous realities and respectful encounter
among expressions of religiosity. Recently, in the climate of
respect and witness, two young Anglicans who became Catholic
received the sacrament of Confirmation. I believe that these things
are also continually met in the lodging places that characterize the
Trastevere quarter of Rome.
Holy Father, we are all looking for new and more balanced attitudes
of conscientiousness and respect. We have always appreciated your
interventions marked by respect and dialogue in the search for
truth. Help us once more with your word.
[Benedict XVI:]
Thank you for this testimony of a parish that is truly
multidimensional and multicultural. It seems to me that you have
somewhat concretized what we discussed earlier with our Indian
confrere: this ensemble of a dialogue, of a respectful coexistence,
respecting each other, accepting each other as they are in their
alterity, in their communion. And at the same time there is the
presence of Christianity, of Christian faith as a point of reference
upon which focus their attention, as a ferment that in the respect
for freedom is nevertheless a light for all and that brings us
together precisely in respect for differences. Let us hope that the
Lord will always help us in this sense to accept the other in his
alterity, to respect him and to make Christ present in the gesture
of love, which is the true expression of his presence and of his
word. And may the Lord help us thus to truly be servants of Christ
and of his salvation for the world. Thank you.
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