PAPAL AUDIENCES TODAY
With Rev. Samuel Moko,
Secretary-General of
the World Lutheran Federation
With the Circolo San Pietro
Benedict XVI had his annual meeting today with the Circolo San Pietro, a Rome-based organization founded in 1869 by young Romans from noble families to show their support for the Pope.
Over the years, they have become a charitable organization serving Romans in need through soup kitchens, clothing aid, housing for indigent female university students and for parents whose children are under longterm care at the Bambino Gesu hospital, and a hospice for the terminally ill. They also provide international aid for the care of abandoned children and for seminarians who require financial support.
They provide an Honor Guard that takes part in the Pope's liturgical ceremonies, and last year, they gifted Benedict XVI with his own personal staff with a distinctive design. Before that, the Holy Father used the contemporary Crucifix-topped staff used by Paul VI and John Paul II, then shifted to the lighter Cross-topped staff of Pius IX, before he got the new staff.
The Circolo was assigned its own Church, Santa Maria della Pieta near the Colosseum. The members are also active in promoting correct liturgical worship.
The Pope with the present president of the Circolo San Pietro, Duke Leopoldo Torlonia; right photo, shown with the new staff which was a gift from the Circolo; below, the Circolo members with the Pope in last year's audience.
The Holy See helps the poor
of Rome and the world
In his audience with the members of the Circolo San Pietro Saturday, Benedict XVI said their 'generous work' is a concrete sign of the Pope's charitable activity and the Holy See's solidarity with the poor of Rome and the world.
Here is a full translation of his address:
Dear members of the Circolo San Pietro:
I am happy to welcome you on this occasion which enables me to renew my gratitude for your generous work in the service of the Holy See.
Our meeting takes place near the liturgical Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and allows us, in some way, to have a foretaste of the joy of the observance which is very significant for your praiseworthy sodality and for the entire Church.
I greet each one with affection, starting with your president, Duke Leopoldo Torlonia, whom I thank for the kind words he addressed in the name of everyone, and also your spiritual adviser.
We recently concluded the Year for Priests, which was a time of grace, during which the Church reflected with special attention on the figure of St. Jean Marie Vianney, the Holy Curate of Ars, on the 150th anniversary of his death.
He is a model of evangelical living not just for priests, but for laymen too, especially for those like you who are involved in the vast field of charity. A particular aspect of the life of this humble priest was, in fact, his detachment from material goods. He possessed nothing, and distributed all he had to the neediest. For himself, he did not feel he needed anything - he considered everything material to be superfluous.
He had learned to care for the poor as a boy, seeing how his parents welcomed them to their home and helped them. This love led him, when he was a priest, to give everything he had to the needy. He even set up a hospitality home, which he called 'Providence', for poor girls, to whom he tried to assure a Christian education.
May his example be for you, dear members of the Circolo San Pietro, a constant invitation to open wide your arms to every person who needs a tangible sign of solidarity.
Continue to be the concrete sign of the Pope's charity toward those who are in need, both in the material and spiritual senses, as well as to all the pilgrims who come to Rome from all over the world to visit the tombs of the Apostles and to meet the Successor of Peter.
As we were reminded earlier, you are here today to consign to me the collection for Peter's Pence this year from the churches of Rome. I wish to express my gratitude for this attestation of participation in my concern for the neediest persons.
This represents a point of convergence of two complementary actions that become a single eloquent testimonial of evangelical charity, because on the one hand, it manifests the affection of the inhabitants of this city and of pilgrims to Rome for the Successor of Peter, and on the other hand, it expresses the concrete solidarity of the Holy See towards so many situations of need and indigency that unfortunately persist in Rome and other parts of the world.
Getting close to the parishes of Rome and managing assistance and hospitality centers in the capital, you have the possibility of grasping directly the multiple situations of poverty that the city continues to have.
At the same time, you can also observe the intense desire in people to know Christ and to love him in their brothers.
Through this commitment of yours to respond directly to the needs of the less fortunate, you spread a message of hope, which comes from faith and adherence to the Lord, thus becoming heralds of his Gospel.
May charity and witness continue to be the guidelines of your apostolate. I encourage you to continue your activities with joy, inspiring yourselves incessantly with indefectible Christian principles and always drawing new vigor from prayer and the spirit of sacrifice - as your motto says - in order to bring copious fruits of good to the Christian community as well as to civilian society.
I entrust your aspirations, your plans and every activity to the maternal protection of the Blessed Virgin, Salus Populi Romani, so she may guide your steps and make you ever more convincing workers for solidarity and builders of the peace in all the fields where your praiseworthy activity is carried out.
With these wishes, I invoke the heavenly intercession of Saints Peter and Paul, and I gladly impart to each of you, to your families, and those whom you encounter in your daily service, a special Apostolic Blessing.
Peter's Pence collection
worldwide this weekend
The Peter’s Pence Collection will be taken up in most Catholic parishes the weekend of June 26 - 27. This year’s theme, “Cast the love of Christ upon the world,” focuses on the relationship between solidarity and love.
The theme draws from Pope Benedict’s encyclical letter
Caritas in Veritate (no. 78) where he says, “God’s love . . . gives us the courage to continue seeking and working for the benefit of all.”
Through this worldwide collection the Pope is able to exercise the ministry of charity on behalf of the entire Church. Offerings to the collection support church needs, humanitarian initiatives (such as aid of victims of war, oppression and natural disasters) and other human promotion projects around the world.
Assistance to seminaries and institutes of Christian formation in many developing countries, a village for HIV/AIDS orphans in Kenya, and the establishment of the Hospital of St. Vincent de Paul in Bosnia are examples of assistance provided by the Pope thanks to the generosity of parishioners.
Other works which have recently received assistance through the Peter’s Pence Collection include the Nazareth Boys Town in Mbare, Rwanda, that takes in abandoned orphans who are victims of genocide and civil war, and Casa di Accoglienza Giovanni Paolo II (Opera Don Orione)
[visited Thursday by Benedict XVI], a residence that gives free shelter and specializes in helping special-needs pilgrims to travel to Rome.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/06/2010 08:04]