Pope welcomes 5 new envoys:
'Laws must be concerned with
every person in his wholeness,
not just economic objectives'
May 4, 2012
“Allowing everyone the opportunity to know God, and in full freedom, means helping to forge a strong interior personality which enables people to witness to good and accomplish good even if it comes at a cost” said Pope Benedict Friday as he received a group of non-resident Ambassadors to the Holy See from the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Malaysia, Ireland, the Republic of Fiji and Armenia. Emer McCarthy has the report:
The Holy Father delivered one general address to the group which focused on how openness to God in society can help overcome the ‘spiritual and material’ poverty that the current economic crisis has produced.
The Pope began by noting how mass communications has made our planet “smaller” and people more aware of the great suffering caused by poverty which is “dramatically developing” and has taken on “new forms”.
Globalisation, Pope Benedict said, has led people to “believe in the possibility of unlimited enjoyment and consumption”, but now that the necessary means to satisfy these needs are lacking, “feelings of frustration have emerged”, resulting in “an increase in loneliness due to exclusion”, a widening gap between rich and poor, and “a perception of unfairness” that can become a source of rebellion.
He called on States to ensure that the social laws do not increase inequalities, adding that in order to strengthen the human foundation of the socio-political reality, “we must be attentive to another kind of poverty: that of the loss of reference to spiritual values, to God”.
This vacuum, he continued. makes discernment between good and evil more difficult and adherence to fashionable ideals easier. Subsequently, “many young people in search of an ideal, turn to artificial paradises which destroy them. Addiction, consumerism and materialism, do not fill the heart of man made for infinity. For the greatest poverty is the lack of love”.
Pope Benedict said: “In distress, compassion and selfless listening are a great comfort. Even without great material resources, it is possible to be happy. Living simply in harmony with what we believe, should remain a possibility”.
The new envoys are: Teshome Toga Chanaka, Ethiopia; Madame Dato Ho May Yong, Malaysia; David Cooney, Ireland; N.S. Mara. Fiji; and Viguen Tchitetchian, Armenia.
(From Page 2 of tomorrow's OR (5/5/12).
I translated the Holy Father's address, but I lost the entire post when page was reset while I was posting it.I will post when I have re-translated. The English service of Vatican Radio has a translation which is incomplete:
www.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=585083