The Growth of Relativism: Pope Benedict XVI sounded the alarm about an "educational emergency"
Vatican City, Jan. 11, 2008 (www.vaticans.org) - Pope Benedict XVI sounded the alarm about an "educational emergency" during a January 10 meeting with political leaders from Rome and he surrounding Lazio district.
The "emergency" to which the Holy Father referred was the growth of relativism. Young people, he said, find it difficult to develop "firm certainties and criteria upon which to build their lives." This failure of moral guidance, the Pope said, threatens "the very basis of coexistence and the future of society."
In restoring a sense of moral order upon which young people can build their lives, the Pontiff said, "It is clear that respect and support for the family based on marriage have primary importance." The "unrelenting and threatening" attacks on family life, he said, are undermining the most basic unit of healthy social life, and public officials must respond by giving the family "their convinced and concrete support, in the certainty that in this way they are working for the common good."
Pope Benedict told the local government leaders that another serious problem is the high costs of living in the region around Rome, which "make living conditions truly difficult for many individuals and families."
The meeting between the Pope and the civic officials of Rome and Lazio is an annual tradition. The political leaders visit the Vatican each January for an exchange of new-year greetings.
source: cwnews
Pope Benedict XVI: Saint Augustine of Hippo was a bit like today's young people
Vatican City, Dec.09,2008 (vaticans.org) - Saint Augustine, a figure of "singular relevance" in the history of the Church and of Christian literature, and not only in these, was a bit like the young people of today - he had "extremely robust intelligence, but was not always a model student"'; he had widely varied experiences; he sought, at first, moral rules that were not too burdensome; he was anxious to know the Truth. Benedict XVI today illustrated the figure of the saint of Hippo to the six thousand persons present for the general audience in the Paul VI hall, and announced that he will dedicate his upcoming catecheses to this most prolific of the Fathers of the Church.
The pope today said of Augustine - who was an object of special study for him as a theologian, and the subject of his thesis - that "all the roads of Latin Christian literature lead to Hippo, where he was bishop", and he recalled the assertion of Paul VI, for whom "it may be said that all the thought of antiquity converges" in his work, and from this there branch out many of the roads travelled by Western culture, so much so that "he is known even by those who ignore Christianity".
Augustine was born on November 13, 354, in Tagaste, in the Roman part of Africa, to Patricius, a pagan, and Monica, a fervent Christian venerated as a saint who exerted a great influence on her son, raising him in the faith. He was an "absolute master of the Latin language", and from his reading of Cicero he was driven to "know the truth" and learned the "love of wisdom". But "the name of Jesus was missing" in Cicero, and this prompted him to read the Bible. This left him disappointed, not only because of its "insufficient" style, but also because it lacked a "lofty" philosophy.
His search for a religion that could satisfy his desire for truth and bring him close to Jesus made him "fall into the snares of the Manichaeans". Among other things, their morality left their members relatively free, something that, the pope observed, also happens today.
He went to Italy, first to Rome and then to Milan, where, disappointed by his experience with Manichaeism, he was fascinated by the preaching of Ambrose, "not only for its rhetorical style, but also for its contents". For Augustine, Ambrose "resolved the question of philosophical sophistication" in the Bible, with his reflection on the presence of the mystery of Christ in the Old Testament, and his meditation "on the Logos who became flesh".
At the summit of his tormented interior journey, Augustine converted in 386, and at the age of 32 was baptised by Ambrose. He became a priest after returning to Africa, and in 395 he was made a bishop. He was "exemplary in his tireless efforts", "very active in Church governance", and "entrusted himself to God every day, until the very end of his life". He died on August 28, 430, at the age of 75.
Source:Asia News
Pope Benedict XVI will name a new primate for Poland
Warsaw, Jan. 3, 2008 (vaticans.org) - The Polish daily Rzeczpospolita reports that Pope Benedict XVI will name a new primate for Poland sometime this spring.
If the Rzeczpospolita report is accurate-- and it has not been confirmed by Vatican sources-- it would contradict earlier indications that Pope Benedict would allow the current Polish primate, Cardinal Jozef Glemp, the retired Archbishop of Warsaw, to retain that title until he reaches his 80th birthday in 2009.
Cardinal Glemp became the Polish primate in 1981, when he succeeded the legendary Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski as Archbishop of Warsaw and of Gniezno. Historically the title of primate was attached to the Gniezno archdiocese. But in 1992, when he approved a restructuring of the Polish hierarchy and appointed a new Archbishop of Gniezno (Henryk Muszynski), Pope John Paul II stipulated that Cardinal Glemp would remain the primate.
Source: CWNThree millon people in Pope Benedict XVI's meetings in 2007
Vatican City, Dec.03,2008 (vaticans.org) - During the year 2007, almost three million faithful participated in public meetings with the Pope, either in the Vatican or at his summer residence of Castelgandolfo.
According to statistics released by the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, a total of 2,830,100 people attended the Wednesday general audiences, special audiences, liturgical celebrations and Sunday Angelus prayers during the course of the year.
The Wednesday general audiences, held in St. Peter's Square and the Paul VI Hall, attracted 729,100 people. This figure reflects the number of tickets distributed, and does not take into account the thousands of faithful who arrive without tickets and also participate.
The Angelus prayers of 2007 drew 1,450,000 people to St. Peter's Square - 155,000 more than last year - while 442,000 attended the various liturgical ceremonies presided by the Holy Father. April 2007, the month in which Holy Week fell, saw the greatest numbers of faithful attending the Wednesday general audiences and the liturgical celebrations: respectively 130,000 and 250,000.
Source: VIS
Pope Benedict XVI: Christians thank God for blessings in 2007
Vatican City,Dec.02,2008 (vaticans.org) - Marking the end of a year, Christians turn to God who is eternal, thanking him for the blessings he has given and asking for his help and protection, Pope Benedict XVI said.
Presiding over a Dec. 31 evening prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Benedict said that marking the passage from one year to the next "leads us to turn our gaze with intimate recognition to the one who is eternal, to the Lord of time."
The prayer service, in which officials from the Rome city government participated, ended with the singing of the "Te Deum" hymn of thanksgiving to God.
While the civil calendar changes, the pope said, the church is still in Christmastime, which should help Catholics remember that the first thing for which they give thanks is the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
"The fact that the Son assumed a human nature opens the prospect for a radical change in the human condition," he said.
Jesus, he said, "became like us in order to make us like him" -- children of God freed from the power of sin.
"Isn't this a fundamental reason for raising our thanks to God? A thanksgiving that cannot help being even more motivated at the end of the year, considering the many benefits and the constant assistance we have experienced in the 12 months just passed," he said.
The prayer of thanksgiving to God, he said, is also a prayer for God's continued help, especially for the poor, for families and for the young in Rome and around the world.
For too many people, poverty makes it almost impossible to look to the future with hope, he said.
And too many young people "are attracted by a false exaltation, or better, a profanation of their bodies and the banalization of sexuality," he said.
But Catholics in Rome are working to solve these problems, he said, particularly by helping families and by strengthening efforts to educate young people in "the basic values of existence and in correct behavior."
The young themselves, the pope said, are becoming more and more involved in efforts to evangelize their peers and in campus ministry programs at Rome's universities.
Pope Benedict asked God to give special blessings to the priests of the Diocese of Rome and, especially, to the 28 deacons preparing for ordination in April.
The "Te Deum" hymn of thanksgiving, he said, ends with a solemn proclamation of total hope in God and of trust that believers will be with him for eternity.
Pope Benedict asked those at the prayer service to pray that God would help them be beacons of hope in their families, parishes, schools and workplaces "so that a better future could be built for the whole city."
After the prayer service, Pope Benedict went into St. Peter's Square to get a close look at the Nativity scene.
A special escort was provided by the Vatican police department band.
Source: CNS