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Fresh from his 17th pastoral visit as Primate of Italy, Pope Benedict turns his attention this week to the Italian bishops' annual general assembly in Assisi.
Pope calls on Italian bishops
to work on bringing God
back to the world
Vatican City, Nov 10, 2009 (CNA) - Pope Benedict XVI has sent a message to the general assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference reiterating the role of the bishops as educators and representatives of Christ on earth.
Cardinal Bagnasco presides at the CEI plenary assembly in Assisi. The cardinal had a message-packed 17-page opening address to the assembly earlier.
The Pope also told the bishops, who are meeting in Assisi this week, what he had said in Aosta, Italy, over the summer: "If our fundamental relationship with God is not living, if it is not lived, then none of our other relationships can take their correct form. If God is absent, we lack the compass ... to show us the path, the direction we must follow.
“We must bring the truth of God back into the world, make Him known, make Him present.”
The Holy Father then called upon the bishops to “become living adoration, a gift that changes the world and restores it to God.”
Pope Benedict also touched on problems of division in Southern Italy as well as the new Italian edition of funeral rites, both of which are topics present on the Conference’s agenda.
THE POPE'S MESSAGE
TO THE ITALIAN BISHOPS
Following is a translation of the message sent by the Holy Father to the president of the Italian bishops' conference (CEI), Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco:
To my Venerated Brother
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco
President of the Italian Bishops' Conference
On the occasion of the 60th General Assembly of the Italian Bishops' Conference, it is my special pleasure to send my affectionate greeting to you, to the CEI Secretary, and to all the Pastors of the Church in Italy, gathered in Assisi, a symbol of that Christian life conducted 'according to the form' of the Gospel, as incarnated in the existence of St. Francis adn St. Clare who continue to exercise an irresistible spiritual fascination in Italy and in the world.
Present with you ideally, I express all my spiritual closeness, knowing well the zeal that you, venerated and dear brothers, employ daily in the service of the communities entrusted to your pastoral care.
In the apostolic visits that I have been making to the Italian dioceses, as well as on other occasions which bring me in contact with the beloved Church in Italy, I meet vital communities, firm in their ties to the Successor of Peter and in reciprocal communion.
For this, "I do not cease giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers" (Eph 1,16), together with the priests, your primary co-workers in your apostolic efforts, the deacons, religious and lay faithful who share hare your joy and your responsibility as witnesses to Christ in every area of Italian society.
These periodic meetings, I am sure, nourish your reciprocal cooperation which is indispensable for realizing the mandate that marks your apostolic activity: to increase faith, hope and charity in the Christian population, to nourish the relationships with other religious communities and civilian authorities, to work to ensure the presence of the leaven of the Gospel in the culture and in the fabric of Italian society, for the protection of human life, for the promotion of peace and justice, and for the defense of Creation.
The exchange and fraternity that characterize your work in assembly give strength and liveliness to the common commitment towards the one Church of Christ and the growth of the human fabric in society.
A few months have passed since our meeting on the occasion of the General Assembly last May, during which education was identified as the fundamental perspective for your pastoral orientations in the coming decade.
The emergence of the educational issue is a sign of the times that has urged all Italy to place the formation of the new generations at the center of attention and commitment of each one, according to his responsibility, and in the context of a broad convergence of intentions.
As I recalled in my intervention last May 28, education is "a constitutive and permanent exigency in the life of the Church" and can be found at the heart of her mission, which is to make sure that every person can encounter and follow the Lord Jesus, the Way who leads to authentic love, the Truth who comes to meet us, and the Life of the world.
The educational challenge involves all the sectors of the Church and demands that the great questions of contemporary man be faced decisively: those that have to do with the nature of man and his dignity - a decisive element in the complete formation of a person - and 'the question of God', which seems to be more than ever urgent in our time.
I wish to recall, in this regard, what I said last July 24 during Vespers in the Cathedral of Aosta: "If the fundamental relationship - that with God - is not alive, is not lived, then all other relationships will not be able to find their right form. But this also goes for society, for mankind as such: When God is not present, if God is set aside, if God is absent, we lack the compass for an overview of all relationships in order to find the way, the orientation we must follow. We must once again bring the reality of God into the world, to make him known, to make him present" [L'Osservatore Romano, July 26, 2009, p. 8).
In order for this to happen, we must be the first, dear brother bishops, with all our being, to be living adoration, a gift that transforms the world and restores it to God. This is the profound message of the Year for Priests, which constitutes an extraordinary occasion to go to the heart of the ordained ministry, leading each priest to the unity of his identity and mission.
I am happy to see how, in your dioceses, this special proposition has been generating not a few initiatives, especially spiritual and vocational, and is contributing to bring to light the path of sainthood that has been traced over time by so many Italian bishops and priests.
Indeed, the history of Italy is also the story of countless ranks of priests bent over the wounds of disoriented and suffering mankind, making of themselves an offering of salvation.
I hope that you will gather abundant fruits from this choral prayer and meditation on the gift of the priesthood that came from the heart of Christ for the salvation of the world.
Another subject to which the work of your Assembly will give ample attention is "the southern question'. Twenty years since the publication of the document Sviluppo nella solidarietà. Chiesa italiana e Mezzogiorno [Development in solidarity: The Italian Church and the South], you continue to feel the need to speak up and take responsibility for the needs of a region that cannot grow unless together.
In the lands of southern Italy, the presence of the Church is a seed of renewal, personal as well as social, and of integral development. May the Lord bless the efforts of those who work, with the tenacious strength of goodness, for the transformation of consciences and the defense of the truth of man and society.
In the course of your meeting, you will also examine the new Italian edition of the Funeral Rite. It responds to the need to combine faithfulness to the original Latin with timely adaptations to the national situation, and availing of the experience that matured after Vatican-II, with an attentive look at the changed socio-cultural context and the demands of the new evangelization.
A funeral constitutes an important occasion to announce the Gospel of hope and show the motherhood of the Church. The God "who will come in glory to judge the living and the dead" is he who will "wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain" (Ap 21,4).
In a culture which tends to ignore thoughts of death - if it is not seeking outright to exorcise it and reduce it to a spectacle or transforming it into a right - it is the task of every believer to cast the light of Christian revelation on this mystery, certain that "love can reach into the afterlife, that reciprocal giving and receiving is possible, in which our affection for one another continues beyond the limits of death" (Spe salvi, 48).
Eminent cardinals and venerated brothers in the Episcopate, fifty years ago, at the end of the XVI National Eucharistic Congress and after an extraordinary Peregrinatio Mariae [Marian pilgrimage], the bishops of Italy consecrated Italy to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Refresh your memory of that significant and fruitful act, in order to confirm the most special bond of affection and devotion that unites the Italian people to the heavenly Mother of the Lord.
I gladly join you in this remembrance, entrusting the work of your Assembly, the Church in Italy and the entire nation to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary, Queen of Angels, and the purest image of the Church.
I invoke her intercession, with that of Saints Francis and Clare of Assisi, and all the saints of this Italian land. With these sentiments, I impart the Apostolic Blessing from the heart to you, the bishops, their co-workers and everyone present.
From the Vatican
November 4, 2009
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 11/11/2009 23:31] |