The Holy Father's meeting today with the officials and personnel of the Rome police who provide security for the Vatican provided him an opportunity to speak of the responsibilities of public officials. In a way, it gratified the demands of Italian MSM who have called on the Pope to condemn Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's lax private morals.
Pope tells Rome police that
public officials must set good example
By Nicole Winfield
VATICAN CITY, Jan. 21 (AP) - Premier Silvio Berlusconi came under mounting criticism Friday from the Catholic Church over his dalliances with young women, with the Pope saying public officials must set good moral examples and Italian bishops planning to discuss the sex scandal.
Pope Benedict XVI didn't mention the scandal or Berlusconi by name. But during an audience with Rome's police chief and police officers, he said public officials must "rediscover their spiritual and moral roots."
"The singular vocation that the city of Rome requires today of you, who are public officials, is to offer a good example of the positive and useful interaction between a healthy lay status and the Christian faith," Benedict said, echoing more direct comments about the scandal a day earlier by his No. 2.
Prosecutors have placed Berlusconi and three associates under investigation, alleging he paid for sex with a 17-year-old girl nicknamed Ruby and used his office to cover it up. Prosecutors have said Berlusconi had sex with several prostitutes during parties at his Milan estate.
Wiretapped conversations of participants at the parties, printed this week in Italian newspapers, have described the villa as a brothel with topless girls, who at least on one occasion were offered nurse uniforms and police outfits to wear — an allegation that prompted a police union to formally protest.
Berlusconi has denied the allegations and accused prosecutors of a politically motivated witch hunt. He has not been charged. Ruby, who is now 18, has denied she had sex with Berlusconi, though she says he did give her €7,000 ($9,400) to help her out financially.
The Church's criticism is a blow to the conservative Berlusconi, who — despite his lavish lifestyle and admitted affection for beautiful women — has tried to establish his conservative coalition as supportive of the Church's key positions on family, life and social issues.
On Friday, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian bishops' conference, said the scandal would be discussed Monday at a meeting of the conference's main decision-making body, the ANSA news agency reported.
Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, has already called the scandal "hurtful and upsetting" and said it had damaged Italy's international reputation.
Another influential Catholic publication,
Famiglia Cristiana, said Friday that, with his antics at his home in Arcore, Berlusconi had managed to divide Italian Catholics in a way they had never before been divided.
"Precisely at the same time the Church is announcing a program to re-educate young people in Christianity, we have from Arcore — from its supporters and critics on TV — an opposite message, of an indecent representation of a way to live," the magazine said in an editorial on its website.
Benedict's comments echoed those a day earlier by the Vatican No. 2, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who was asked specifically to comment on the scandal.
Bertone said the Vatican was concerned and following the developments "attentively." He said there must be a "more robust morality, a sense of justice and legality" among everyone, particularly those in public office.
Bertone's comments were the first by the Vatican on the scandal, though the Holy See newspaper
L'Osservatore Romano had earlier reprinted a statement issued by Italian President Giorgio Napolitano calling for a clear examination of the allegations in court as soon as possible.
Even if Berlusconi's private life is private, and even if somehow investigations end up not finding any crime he could be charged with, he is not a child and is old enough to know that discretion is the better part of valor. Unfortunately, previous flare-ups of public outrage over his private behavior have apparently not taught him a lesson at all - when the scandal first came to a boil in 2009, public suerveys showed most Italians were tolerant of his loose living - and he continues to flaunt his libertine lifestyle. It is conduct unbecoming a national leader and unbecoming a Catholic. He must come to his senses, or be thrown out of office.
Benedict XVI says
society and public institutions
must 'rediscover their soul'
21 JAN 2011 (RV) - In his annual New Year greetings to Rome’s Police department, Pope Benedict XVI called on civil and public leaders to rediscover their spiritual and moral roots.
Reflecting on one of the greatest challenges in the current relativistic culture - the crisis of conscience – the Pope observed that there is "a sense of insecurity, primarily due to social and economic instability, but also exacerbated by a weakening of the perception of ethical principles that underpin the law and personal moral attitudes, which always give strength to the rules that govern society"....
Here is a translation of the Holy Father's address:
Distinguished Police Chief,
Officials and functionaries,
Dear agents and civil personnel of the State Police:
I am truly happy to meet you and welcome you to the house of Peter, this time not out of service, but for us to meet each other, talk to each other and greet each other in a more familiar manner.
I specially greet the Chief of Police to thank him for his kind words, and the other police officials and your chaplain. And a special greeting to your families, especially the children.
First of all, I wish to thank all of you for the work that you do for the city of Rome, of which I am the Bishop, so that city life may take place with order and security. And I express my gratitude for the extra effort that my activities often require of you.
The times in which we live are marked by profound changes. Even Rome, which is rightly called the Eternal City, has changed much and is evolving. We experience this everyday and you are its close witnesses.
These changes often generate a sense of uncertainty, caused primarily by precarious social and economic conditions, which is sharpened by a weakening perception of the ethical principles which are the basis for law as well as the personal moral attitudes that always reinforce laws and regulations.
Our world, with all its new hopes and possibilities, is traversed at the same time by the impression of a decrease in the moral consensus, and that consequently, the structures that are the bases for living together are no longer able to function fully and well.
Therefore, many are tempted to think that any forces mobilized in defense of civilian society are ultimately destined to fail. In the face of such a temptation, we who are Christians have the responsibility to find new resolve in professing our faith and to do good, continuing courageously to be close to our fellowmen in their joys and sufferings, in happy moments as well as the dark hours of our earthly existence.
In our days, great importance has been given to the subjective dimension of existence. On the one hand, this is good because it allows man and his dignity to be placed at the center of consideration of both historical thought and action. But it must never be forgotten that man finds his most profound dignity in the loving attention of God, in reference to him.
Attention to the subjective dimension is also good when it highlights the value of the human conscience. But here we find a grave risk because modern thought has developed a reductive view of conscience, according to which there are no objective refeences to determine what is valid and what is true, but rather that it is the individual himself, with his intuitions and his own experiences, who becomes the yardstick- and that therefore, each person has his own truth, his own morality.
The most evident consequence is that religion and morals tend to be confined to the subjective and the private sphere: therefore, faith with its values and behavior no longer have a right or a place in public and civilian life.
That is why, on the one hand, society gives great importance to pluralism and tolerance, while on the other hand, religion tends to be progressively marginalized and considered irrelevant and, in a sense, extraneous to the civilian world - almost as if its influence on the life of man must be limited.
On the contrary, for us Christians, the true meaning of 'conscience' is man's capacity to recognize truth, and before that, to feel the need for truth, to seek it and to find it.
Man must be open to the truth and to goodness in order to be able to accept them freely and consciously. Moreover, the human being is an expression of love and truth: God 'planned' him, so to speak, to have an interiority, a conscience, from which he can draw the orientations to cultivate and conserve himself and human society.
The new challenges on the horizon demand that God and man encounter each other again, that society and public institutions rediscover their 'soul', their spiritual and moral roots, in order to give a new consistency to ethical and juridical reference values, and therefore, to practical actions themselves.
Christian faith and the Church will never cease to offer their own contribution to the promotion of the common good and to authentically human progress. The same religious service and spiritual assistance which, under existing law, Church and State are committed to provide to citizens, including you who belong to the state police, bear witness to the pernnial fecundity of this encounter.
The singular calling of the City of Rome demands that you, who are public officials, offer a good example of positive and profitable interaction between healthy secularity and Christian faith.
Indeed, the effectiveness of your service is the result of combining professionalism and human qualities - being up to date in the means and systems of security, as well as having human gifts like patience, perseverance to do good, sacrifice, and a readiness to listen. All this, well harmonized, in the service of citizens, especially those who are in difficulty.
You must always consider man as the end point of your service, so that everyone may live together in an authentically human way. As Bishop of this city, I also ask you to read and meditate on the Word of God in order to find the source and criterion of inspiration for your actions.
Dear friends, as you perform your service on the streets of Rome and in your offices, remember that your Bishop, the Pope, prays for you and wishes you well. I thank you for your visit, and I entrust you all to the protection of the Most Blessed Mary and of the Archangel Michael, your heavenly patron, as I impoart to you and your work a special Apostolic Blessing.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/01/2011 09:43]