BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

PASTORAL VISIT
TO PRATO FIORITO

The Holy Father Benedict XVI, who is also Bishop of Rome, made his tenth pastoral visit in five years this morning to a Roman parish - the one named for St. Maximilian Kolbe in the extreme eastern district of Prato Fiorito. The Holy Father celebrated Mass in the parish's new church dedicated in April 2009 after 24 years of using a prefabricated building as their church. Earlier this year, the Pope visited the parish of San Giovanni della Croce in Colle Salario, a similar outlying district.











Here is a translation of the Holy Father's homily:

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Dear brothers and sisters of the parish of San Massimiliano Kolbe:

In following our Lord, you will be living your personal and community life with commitment. Advent is a strong invitation for everyone to increasingly allow God into our lives, into our homes, into our neighborhoods, into our communities, in order to have light in the midst of so many shadows, of all the many labors of every day.

Dear friends, I am very happy to be with you today to celebrate the Lord's Day, on this third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of joy.

I cordially greet the Cardinal Vicar, the Auxiliary Bishop of this sector, your parish priest, whom I thank for the words he addressed to me in behalf of all of you, and the parish vicar.

I greet everyone who is involved in parish work: the catechists, members of various groups, as well as the many followers of the Neo-Catechumenal Way.

I appreciate very much your decision to make room in this Church for Eucharistic Adoration and I thank you for the prayers you have offered for me before the Blessed Sacrament.

I wish to extend my thoughts to all the residents of this district, especially the aged, the sick, those who live alone and are in difficulty. I remember each and everyone in this Mass.

Like you, I admire this new church and the parochial edifices, and I hope my presence will encourage you to increasingly realize the Church of living stones that you yourselves are. I know the many significant works of evangelization that you are doing.

I exhort all the faithful to give their own contribution to building the community, particularly in the fields of catechesis, liturgy and charity - the pillars of Christian life - in communion with the entire Diocese of Rome.

No community can live as a cell isolated from the diocesan context. It must, instead, be a living expression of the beauty of the Church which, under the leadership of its bishop - and in the parish, under the leadership of the parish priest who stands for the bishop - walks together in communion toward the Kingdom of God.

I address a special thought to families, with the wish that they may fully realize their own vocation for love with generosity and perseverance. Even when difficulties present themselves in conjugal life and in the relationship with their children, spouses should never cease to be faithful to that fundamental Yes that they pronounced before God and to each other on their marriage day, remembering that fidelity to one's vocation demands courage, generosity and sacrifice.

Your community includes many families from central and southern Italy who came in search of work and better living conditions. With time, the community has grown and has been partly transformed by the arrival of many persons from Eastern Europe and other nations.

Precisely because of this concrete situation in your parish, strive to grow more and more in communion with everyone. It is important to create occasions for dialog and to favor reciprocal understanding between persons coming from different cultures, lifestyles and social conditions.

But above all, it is important to involve them in Christian life, through pastoral activity that is attentive to the real needs of each one. Here, as in every parish, one must progress from 'neighbors' to reach even those who are 'distant', in bringing the evangelical presence to the various sectors of life and work.

Everyone must be able to find in the parish adequate ways of formation and to experience that community dimension which is a fundamental characteristic of Christian life. This way, they will be encouraged to rediscover the beauty of following Christ and being part of his Church.

You must therefore be a community united in listening to the Word of God and in the celebration of sacraments, particularly the Eucharist.

In this respect, the current diocesan pastoral verification on the theme "Sunday Eucharist and testimony to charity", is a propitious occasion to understand deeper and live better these two fundamental components of the life and mission of the Church and every single believer - namely, the Sunday Eucharist and the practice of charity.

United around the Eucharist, we can more easily feel that the mission of every Christian community is to bring God's message of love to all men. That is why it is important that the Eucharist always be at the center of the life of the faithful.

I also wish to address a special word of affection and friendship to you, dear children and young people who are listening to me, and to your contemporaries who live in this parish. The Church expects much of you, your enthusiasm, your capacity to look forward, and your desire for making radical choices in life.

Consider yourselves true protagonists in the parish, placing your fresh energies and all your life in the service of God and your brothers.

Dear brothers and sisters, alongside its invitation to joy, the liturgy today - with the words of St. James that we have just heard - also tells us to be constant and patient in awaiting the Lord who comes, and to be together as a community, avoiding complaints and judgments (cfr James 5, 7-10).

In the Gospel, we heard the question from the Baptist in his prison cell - the Baptist who had announced the coming of the Judge who would change the world, now feels that the world has remained the same. Therefore, he wants his disciples to ask Jesus: "Are you then the one who is to come? Or should we wait for another? Is it you or shall we wait for another?"

In the last two to three centuries, many have asked this: "Is it really you? And should the world not change more radically? What have you done?"

And so many prophets, ideologs and dictators have come along, saying, "It is not he! He has not changed the world. We have!" And they have created their empires, their dictatorships, their totalitarianism, that were supposed to have changed the world.

And they did, but in a destructive way. Now we know, that out of their great promises, nothing remains but a great void and great destruction. It was not them [i.e., They were not the awaited savior].

Thus we should look at Christ anew and ask him: "Are you the one?" The Lord, in his silent way, replies: "Consider what I did. I did not cause bloody revolution, I did not change the world with force, but I have lit so many lights that in the meantime constitute a great way of light through the millennia!"

Let us begin here, in our parish: St. Maximilian Kolbe, who offered to die of starvation in order to save a family man. What a great light he has become! How much light has come from this figure who has encouraged others to give themselves, to be close to those who suffer, to the oppressed.

Let us think of Father Damian de Veuster who was a father to the lepers, who lived and died with and for the lepers, and thus brought light to that community. Let us think of Mother Teresa, who gave so much light to persons everywhere, who, after a life without light, died with a smile, because they had been touched by the light of God's love.

We could go on and on, and see how the Lord said in his response to John the Baptist, that it is not violent revolution nor great promises that change the world, but the silent light of truth, of the goodness of God that is the mark of his presence, and which gives us the certainty that we are loved to the very end and that we are not forgotten - we are not a product of chance, but of a will of love.

Thus we can live and feel the closeness of God. "God is near", the first Reading today says. He is near, but often we are distant. Let us get close to him, let us go where his light is present, let us pray to the Lord, and in the contact of prayer, we too can become a light for others.

This is also the sense of the parochial church: to enter here, to enter into a conversation with Jesus, to be in touch with him, the Son if God, so that we too may become one of the many small lights that he has lit, and we can bring this light to the world as it is redeemed.

Our spirit should open up to this invitation, and thus, we can journey with joy towards Christmas, like the Virgin Mary, who awaited in prayer, with intimate and joyous trepidation, the birth of the Redeemer. Amen.

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