SUMMARY:
-
RETURNING TO THE ESSENTIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE IN ORDER TO
RELAUNCH EVANGELISATION
-
PRESIDENT OF BULGARIA AND PRIME MINISTER OF MACEDONIA RECEIVED BY THE
POPE
-
THE CHURCH IS COMMITTED TO UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE COVERAGE
______________________________________
RETURNING
TO THE ESSENTIAL ASPECTS OF CHRISTIAN LIFE IN ORDER TO RELAUNCH
EVANGELISATION
Vatican
City, 24 May 2012 (VIS) - At midday today the Holy Father received
participants in the sixty-fourth general assembly of the Italian
Episcopal Conference, to whom he delivered an address focusing on the
challenges of the new evangelisation in a society increasingly
distanced from God. "Our situation requires renewed drive, aimed
at the essential aspects of Christian faith and life", he said.
"At a time in which God has, for many people, become the great
Unknown and Jesus is simply an important figure of the past, we
cannot relaunch missionary activity without renewing the quality of
our own faith and prayer. ... We will not be able to win mankind to
the Gospel unless we ourselves first return to a profound experience
of God".
The Pope
began his remarks by recalling that this autumn marks the fiftieth
anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II, and he exhorted the
prelates to implement its teachings in order to meet the social and
cultural transformations of our time which, he said, "also have
visible consequences in the religious sphere". Societies of
ancient Christian tradition are today characterised by secularism.
Thus the spiritual and moral heritage which lies at the roots of the
West "is no longer understood in its profound significance, ...
and a rich soil risks becoming an inhospitable desert".
The Pope
identified a number of worrying trends, including a drop in religious
practice and diminishing participation in the Sacraments. "Many
baptised have lost their identity. They do not know the essential
contents of the faith, or believe they can cultivate that faith
without ecclesial mediation. And while many look doubtfully at Church
teaching, others reduce the Kingdom of God to certain broad values,
which are certainly related to the Gospel but which do not touch the
central nucleus of Christian faith".
"Unfortunately
it is God Himself Who remains excluded from many people's horizon
and, when not met with indifference, closure or rejection, discourse
about God is relegated to the subjective sphere, reduced to an
intimate and private affair which is marginalised from the public
conscience. The heart of the crisis affecting Europe also arises from
this abandonment, this lack of openness to the Transcendent".
In this
context, Benedict XVI highlighted the fact that "new methods of
announcing the Gospel or of pastoral activity are not enough to
ensure that the Christian message finds greater acceptance". As
the Council Fathers said, "we must begin again from God,
celebrated, professed and witnessed. ... Our primary task, our true
and only task, remains that of dedicating our lives to the one thing
that ... is truly dependable, necessary and ultimate. Men live from
God, from He Whom, often tentatively and unawares, they seek in order
to give full meaning to lives. We have the task of announcing Him,
revealing Him and leading others to meet Him".
The Holy
Father continued: "The fundamental condition in order to be able
to speak about God is to speak with God, increasingly to become men
of God, nourished by an intense life of prayer and moulded by His
Grace. ... We must allow ourselves to be found and seized by God so
as to help the people we meet be touched by the Truth. ... The old
and new mission facing us is that of introducing the men and women of
our time to a relationship with God, to help them to open their minds
and hearts to the God Who seeks them and wants to come close to them,
leading them to understand that doing His will does not curb freedom;
rather, it means being truly free, it means achieving true goodness
in life.
"God
is the guarantor not the competitor of our freedom", the Pope
added in conclusion. "Where space is given to the Gospel, and
therefore to friendship with Christ, man realises he is the object of
a love which purifies, warms, renews, and makes us capable of serving
mankind with divine love".
PRESIDENT
OF BULGARIA AND PRIME MINISTER OF MACEDONIA RECEIVED BY THE POPE
Vatican
City, 24 May 2012 (VIS) - In a traditional annual meeting coinciding
with the commemoration of the Feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the
Holy Father this morning received in separate audiences Rosen
Plevneliev, president of the Republic of Bulgaria, and Nikola
Gruevski, prime minister of the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, each accompanied by a delegation. The delegations
subsequently went on to meet with Cardinal Secretary of State
Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. who was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique
Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.
THE
CHURCH IS COMMITTED TO UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE COVERAGE
Vatican
City, 24 May 2012 (VIS) - Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, head of the
Holy See delegation to the sixty-fifth World Health Assembly,
yesterday delivered an address before that gathering, which is being
held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 21 to 26 May. Speaking English, the
archbishop reaffirmed the Holy See's support for Resolution WHA64.9
on "sustainable health financing structures and universal
coverage", which urges member States to aim for affordable
universal coverage and access for all citizens on the basis of equity
and solidarity.
He also
recalled how Benedict XVI has emphasised the importance of
establishing "real distributive justice which, on the basis of
objective needs, guarantees adequate care to all. Consequently, if it
is not to become inhuman, the world of healthcare cannot disregard
the moral rules that must govern it".
Archbishop
Zimowski noted that "more countries, especially those with
emerging economies, are moving towards universal coverage",
thanks also to "good policies that promote equity. ... Therefore
my delegation strongly believes that in the endeavour to promote
universal coverage, fundamental values such as equity, human rights
and social justice need to become explicit policy objectives",
he said.
The
archbishop made an appeal for high-income countries to show greater
solidarity towards poorer nations in order to overcome funding
shortfalls in health. In this context he quoted the Encyclical
"Caritas in veritate" in which Benedict XVI writes: "More
economically developed nations should do all they can to allocate
larger portions of their gross domestic product to development aid,
thus respecting the obligations that the international community has
undertaken in this regard".
In
conclusion the head of the Holy See delegation affirmed that
"progress towards universal coverage cannot be the effort of
State machinery alone. It requires support from civil society. ...
With over 120,000 social and healthcare institutions worldwide, the
Catholic Church is in many developing countries one of the key
partners of the State in healthcare delivery, providing services in
remote areas to rural low-income populations, enabling them to access
services that would otherwise be out of their reach. The efforts and
contribution of such organisations and institutions towards universal
access, merit the recognition and support of both the State and the
international community, without obliging them to participate in
activities they find morally abhorrent".
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