See preceding page for stories posted earlier today.
'Opportunistic attacks cannot begin
to scratch at the image
of this prophetic Pope',
says Cardinal Bagnasco
by Salvatore Izzo
VATICAN CITY, May 25 (Translated from AGI) - The entire Church of Italy has lived through "months of intense participation in the tribulations which the Pope has unexpectedly had to confront due to a series of unfortunate and predictable interpretations given to some of his statements".
This was affirmed by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian bishops' conference (CEI), in his opening address to the CEI general assembly meeting May 26-29 at the Synod Hall in the Vatican's Aula Paolo VI.
Bagnasco has previously condemned the political and media attacks against Benedict XVI, which followed incomplete and biased presentations of the Pope's positions on certain issues, particularly condoms and AIDS, and criticisms based on a non-objective reconstruction of facts (in the case of his revoking the excommunication of four Lefebvrian bishops).
Those distortions, Bagnasco pointed out, were used as a pretext by some European parliamentary members to make institutional attacks against the Pope
[an anti-Pope resolution in the Belgian Parliament, and a defeated attempt at something similar in the European Parliament].
But, Bagnasco went on, "The 'hostility' with which the Pope has been targeted has made him grow even more - if it is possible - in the esteem and love of the faithful and their pastor".
"It remains incomprehensible to us," he continued, "how the humility and goodness of heart, the refinement and the interior tranquillity, that characterize Benedict XVI cannot be recognized as such."
In fact, Cardinal Bagnasco said, "That is the secret of the Pope's popularity among the people. It seems we must point out that the more penetrating his words are, the more he exposes himself to rigid, if not downright hostile, reactions from certain circles."
The important thing, said the CEI president, is the Pope's efforts to see to it that "Christianity does not fade into irrelevance or come under subjection by the power-wielders of the present", explicitly proclaiming that "Christianity is not moralism but faith".
"If a prophet is he who, in the alternating and complex events of history, points to God and the light of his kingdom so that humanity does not lose itself," he concluded, "we do not hesitate to call this Pope prophetic - in his magisterium, his patient and tenacious will to weave a salvific dialog with the world today."
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 26/05/2009 18:37]