BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

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The consistory that we celebrated this morning in the Apostolic palace according to tradition, continues here and reaches its culmination. We shall shortly impose the berretta on the new cardinals, who we greet wholeheartedly and welcome as new members of the Sacred College.

We also greet the delegations present - bishops, civilian and military authorities, members of the clergy and the faithful who have come to be with the new cardinals representing their country of origion, as well as the dioceses of which they are the pastors. We thank you all for coming to this important ecclesial event.

Our thanks above all to Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, Archbishop of Florence, who expressed the sentiments of himself and his brothers in the Episcopate and in the cardinalate to which they have been called at this time in their life.

The singular character of this final ceremony of the consistory suggests to us some reflections on a subject which seems to us fundamental and specific to this ceremony: faithfulness.

It is exactly what we wished to underscore in calling this consistory. Indeed, the most worthy and venerated ecclesiastics whom we have now added to the number of Cardinals are all distinguished principally by this gift: the absolute faithfulness with which they have lived (during this post-Conciliar period so rich in healthy ferment but also in disgregatory elements) in continuous readiness, in daily service, in total dedication to Christ, to the Church, to the Pope, without bending, withoout hesitation, without transaction.

In carrying out the most sensitive tasks, you, who we call our venerated Brothers,have offered to the entire Church an incomparable witness of fidelity.

Of this faithfulness, we are happy to render public attestation today:

First of all to you, Cardinal Benelli, who have been so close to use for a very long time, but above all during the ten years when, as Deputy Secretary of State (Sostituto), you diligently executed our will, without sparing time or energy, working uninterrupted and tirelessly.

And as much as it cost us to do without your daily collaboration, we thought of the good that will come to the Church of Florence to whom we are making a gift of your gifts, of your dedication, and of your spirit of sacrifice.

Likewise we acknowledge your fidelity, Cardinal Gantin, who after having served exemplarily your native archdiocese of Cotonou in Benin (as the ancient Dahomey is now known), became secretary of the dicastery to promote evangelization around the world, and now preside over the Commission on Justice and Peace, instituted by us to promote the cause of justice and peace especially in the emerging nations.



And we acknowledge your fidelity, Cardinal Ratzinger, whose elevated theological magisterium in prestigious university professorships in your native Germany and in numerous worthy publications, have shown how theological research - following the high road of fides quaerens intellectum (faith seeking understanding) - cannot and should never be detached from the profound, free and creative adherence to the Magisterium that authentically interprets and proclaims the Word of God; and who now, from the Archbishopric of Munich and Freising, shall be leading, with our trust, a chosen flock along the ways of truth and peace.

And in you, Cardinal Ciappi, we acknowledge a faithfulness that has always been second nature to you and which inspired your teaching at the Angelicum as Dean of the Faculty of Sacred Theology, and also as the much appreciated, humble and authoritative Theologian of the Pontifical Household from the time of our predecessors Pius XII and John XXIII, as well as during the 14 years of our Pontificate.

Our gesture serves also as a reward for this most valuable service, as well as further recognition for the Dominican order of which you have been an exemplary son.

And finally, how much faithfulness has been shown by Cardinal Tomasek, whom we rejoice to see among us today, after finally revealing his name which had remained in pectore since the Consistory of May 1976!

Your long and generous work as priest and Bishop in our beloved Czechoslovakia, with such evangelical directness and consistency, has made it our duty to present it to the Church and to civilian society as a token of a more serene and constructive tomorrow.

We publicly thank you, our venerated Brothers, for the example of your meritorious and beneficial faithfulness. But if we have given public witness of this, we certainly cannot forget the tousands upon thousands of lives spent in silence, in prayer, in work, for the glory of God and for the good of our brothers.

Let us think of the healthy and heroic young people who remain faithful to divine law and to the imperatives of conscience in the midst of perils of every kind.

Let us think of the mothers and fathers who keep the faith in living out their matrimonial vows and who make their homes 'a small church', a crucible for education, a school for apostolate.

Let us think of our beloved seminarians who prepare for the priesthood in faithfulness to an austere and edifying program of interior life, of study and self-discipline.

Let us think of the generous priests who, in the monotony of an obscure and unseen life, give everything to preach the Word of God, to the ministry of reconciliation, to caring for the sick, to the formation of adolescents, and in varied and multiple works of apostolate.

To everyone goes our gratitude. Yes, we know what they do, we are grateful to them, we bless them, we remember them.

This day that speaks to all of us of faithfulness is a wonderful occasion to recognize and encourage faithfulness which, for the most part, lives in the Church, while not allowing ourselves to he influenced by new ideologies, by the thirst for worldly applause, by seeking only our own advantage.

This,brothers and chlidren, is the significance of today's ceremony. Because even the oath which the new cardinals will be making soon is nothing but a new and larger commitment to faithfulness, an act of allegiance.

We will hear them say: "I promise and swear, that from this time to the end of my life, I will be faithful and obedient unto St Peter, the holy apostolic Roman Church and our most Holy Lord, the Pope of Rome and his successors, canonically and lawfully elected..."

The faithfulness that you will swear today shall henceforth distinguish even more your activities and your life - both as chosen members of the Roman Presbytery, to which the titles assigned to you will bind you visibly; or as our co-workers in the various dicasteries of the Roman Curia, and therefore specifically assigned to the service of the Holy See and the demands of the entire ecclesial family; or as the authorities of the diocese entrusted to some of you, and in which you will carry out the triple pastoral duty to teach, to minister and to govern, as teachers, as liturgists, and as pastors, in commu8nion with the Successor of Peter, who counts on you and your Churches.

As we said in last year's consistory, "a current of life flows from the center towards single local points, which returns to the center, in a unique exchange of vitality and love which manifests the intimate fruitfulness and unity of the Church of Christ".

In this respect, may we be aided by Our Lady, Virgo Fidelis (faithful virgin), who was always attentive to the Word of God, and may she teach us to live it and to know it profoundly. May the grace of the Lord, to whom we entrust ourselves with immense hope and total confidence, bless the commitment of everyone.

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