Pope Benedict XVI

Thursday, January 12, 2012

News Vatican Information Service 01/12/2012

SUMMARY:

- Individual Destiny Is Linked to Collective Destiny
- Audiences
- Other Pontifical Acts

INDIVIDUAL DESTINY IS LINKED TO COLLECTIVE DESTINY

VATICAN CITY, 12 JAN 2012 (VIS) - "The challenges we are currently facing are numerous and complex, and can be overcome only if we reinforce our awareness that the destiny of each of us is linked to that of everyone else. For this reason ... acceptance, solidarity and legality are fundamental values". With these words the Holy Father welcomed the authorities of the City of Rome, the Region of Lazio, and the Province of Rome, whom he received this morning in a traditional annual meeting for the exchange of New Year greetings.

The Pope went on: "The present crisis can, then, be an opportunity for the entire community to verify whether the values upon which social life is founded have generated a society that is just, fair and united, or whether it is necessary to undertake a profound rethink in order to rediscover values which ... not only favour economic recovery, but which are also attentive to promoting the integral good of human beings".

Benedict XVI expressed the view that the roots of the current crisis lie in "individualism which clouds the interpersonal dimension of man and leads him to close himself into his own little world, concerned first and foremost with satisfying his own needs and desires with scant concern for others". The consequences of such a mentality are "speculation in housing, increasing difficulty for young people to enter the world of work, the solitude suffered by so many elderly, the anonymity which often characterises urban life, and the sometimes superficial attention paid to situations of marginalisation and poverty".

The first step towards creating a more human society is "to rediscover relationships as the constituent element of our lives". Man is called to live in relation with other people and with God, Who alone "is capable of welcoming man unconditionally and of giving him infinite love".

Institutions must foment and increase the awareness that we all form part of the same structure, encouraging values of acceptance, solidarity and legality, said the Pope highlighting the work of Christian organisations which welcome people who have abandoned their own countries due to poverty or violence. He invited his audience to develop ways to integrate people into the social fabric, so that "individuals may learn to consider the place in which they reside as a 'common home', in which to live and for which to care".

Acceptance must be accompanied by solidarity, because "charity and justice require that, in times of need, those with the greatest resources should look after the disadvantaged". Benedict XVI insisted that institutions must give particular support to families, especially large families, in which context he invited the authorities "to defend the family founded on marriage as an essential cell of society". They must also show solidarity towards young people, "who are most penalised by the lack of work, ... implementing policies which ensure fairly priced accommodation and which help to guarantee employment", so as to avoid the risk that young people "fall victim to criminal organisations offering easy takings".

Finally, the Pope turned his attention to the need "to promote a culture of legality, helping citizens to understand that law exists to channel the many positive energies that exist in society, and thus to promote the common good. ... Institutions have the task ... of issuing just and fair provisions, also taking account of the law which God inscribed in man's heart, and which everyone can understand through reason".

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, 12 JAN 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in audience:

- Renata Polverini, president of the Region of Lazio, Italy.

- Gianni Alemanno, mayor of the City of Rome.

- Nicola Zingaretti, president of the Province of Rome.

- Bishop John A. Eijiro Suwa of Takamatsu, Japan.

- Bishop Paul Sueo Hamaguchi of Oita, Japan.

- Bishop Thomas Aquino Manyo Maeda of Hiroshima, Japan.

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 12 JAN 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Ignatius Chama of Mpika, Zambia, as archbishop of Kasama (area 59,130, population 1,182,000, Catholics 705,208, priests 66, religious 177), Zambia, and as apostolic administrator "sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis" of the diocese of Mpika.

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V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

News Vatican Information Service 01/11/2012

SUMMARY:

-The Prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper
-Cuban Crocodile at the Holy Father's General Audience
-Audiences
-Other Pontifical Acts

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THE PRAYER OF JESUS AT THE LAST SUPPER

VATICAN CITY, 11 JAN 2012 (VIS) - Jesus' prayer during the Last Supper was the theme of Benedict XVI's catechesis during his general audience, which was held this morning in the Paul VI Hall in the presence of 4,000 faithful.

The Pope explained how the emotional backdrop to the Last Supper, in which Jesus bade farewell to His friends, was the immanence of His approaching death. Moreover, in the days in which He was preparing to leave His disciples, the life of the Jewish people was marked by the approaching Passover, the commemoration of the liberation of Israel from Egypt.

"It was in this context that the Last Supper took place", the Holy Father said, "but with an important novelty". Jesus "wanted the Supper with His disciples to be something special, different from other gatherings. It was His Supper, in which He gave something completely new: Himself. Thus Jesus celebrated the Passover as an anticipation of His Cross and Resurrection".

The essence of the Last Supper lay in "the gestures of breaking and distributing the bread, and sharing the cup of wine, with the words that accompanied them and the context of prayer in which they took place. This was the institution of the Eucharist: the great prayer of Jesus and the Church". The words the Evangelists use to describe that moment "recall the Jewish 'berakha'; that is, the great prayer of thanksgiving and blessing which, in the tradition of Israel, is used to inaugurate important ceremonies. ... That prayer of praise and thanks rises up to God and returns as a blessing. ... The words of the institution of the Eucharist were pronounced in this context of prayer. The praise and thanksgiving of the 'berakha' became blessing and transformed the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus".

Jesus' gestures were the traditional gestures of hospitality which a host would extend to his guests, but in the Last Supper they acquired a more profound significance, Pope Benedict explained. Christ provided "a visible sign of welcome to the table upon which God gives Himself. In the bread and the wine, Jesus offered and communicated His own Self". Aware of His approaching death, "He offered in advance the life that would shortly be taken from Him, thus transforming His violent death into a free act of the giving of Self, for others and to others. The violence He suffered became an active, free and redemptive sacrifice".

"In contemplating Jesus' words and gestures that night, we can clearly see that it was in His intimate and constant relationship with the Father that He accomplished the gesture of leaving to His followers, and to all of us, the Sacrament of love", said the Pope. During the Last Supper Jesus also prayed for His disciples, who likewise had to suffer harsh trials. With that prayer "He supported them in their weakness, their difficulty in understanding that the way of God had to pass through the Paschal mystery of death and resurrection, which was anticipated in the offer of bread and wine. The Eucharist is the food of pilgrims, a source of strength also for those who are tired, weary and disoriented".

Benedict XVI went on: "By participating in the Eucharist we have an extraordinary experience of the prayer which Jesus made, and continues to make for us all, that the evil we encounter in our lives may not triumph, and that the transforming power of Christ's death and resurrection may act within each of us. In the Eucharist the Church responds to Jesus' command to 'do this in remembrance of me', she repeats the prayer of thanksgiving and blessing and, therewith, the words of transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of the Lord. Our Eucharistic celebrations draw us into that moment of prayer, uniting us ever and anew to the prayer of Jesus".

"Let us ask the Lord that, after due preparation also with the Sacrament of Penance, our participation in the Eucharist, which is indispensable for Christian life, may always remain the apex of all our prayers", the Pope concluded. "Let us ask that, profoundly united in His offering to the Father, we too can transform our crosses into a free and responsible sacrifice of love, for God and for our fellows".

At the end of his catechesis the Holy Father delivered greetings in a number of languages to the pilgrims present in the Paul VI Hall, inviting them to participate with "faith and devotion" in the Eucharist which, he said, is indispensable for Christian life as well as being the school and culmination of prayer. Addressing young people, the sick and newlyweds, he pointed our that last Sunday's Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord is an occasion to reflect upon our own Baptism. "Dear young people", the Pope exclaimed, "live your membership of the Church, the family of Christ, joyfully. Dear sick people, may the grace of Baptism ease your sufferings and encourage you to offer them to Christ for the salvation of humanity. And you, dear newlyweds, ... base your marriage on the faith which you received as a gift on the day of your Baptism".

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CUBAN CROCODILE AT THE HOLY FATHER'S GENERAL AUDIENCE

VATICAN CITY, 11 JAN 2012 (VIS) - Among those attending this morning's general audience with the Holy Father were staff of the zoological park in Rome (the "Bioparco"), which is currently celebrating its centenary. They brought with them a rare live specimen of the Cuban crocodile, to represent the 1,200 animals which live in the park and as a sign of the environmental protection and education work the structure carries out.

The Cuban crocodile, which is classified as an endangered species, has seen its numbers fall by 80 per cent in recent years, and it currently survives only in a small area of the island. The young specimen shown to the Pope is being kept in the zoological park for a period of recovery. In March, coinciding with Benedict XVI's apostolic trip to Cuba, it will be returned to its country of origin. In a statement Paolo Giuntarelli, president of the "Bioparco Foundation" said that, "the meeting with the Pope is the most prestigious seal of approval for our first hundred years, and the best possible beginning to a new century of history".

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, 11 JAN 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in audience Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller of Regensburg, Germany.

Yesterday afternoon he received in audience Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne, Germany.

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