Pope's homily on Pentecost Sunday

(May 12, 2008) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday morning led a solemn Eucharistic celebration in St. Peter’s Square in Rome, marking the feast of the Pentecost, that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary. In his homily he spoke about the Pentecost episode saying the Holy Spirit gave life to a community that is at the same time one and universal. The Pope said that St. Luke who recounted the event in the Acts of the Apostles, “clearly wants to convey a fundamental idea, namely, in the act itself of her birth the Church is already 'catholic,' universal. "The Church that is born at Pentecost is not above all a particular community - the Church of Jerusalem - but the universal Church, that speaks the language of all peoples," the Holy Father explained. "From her, other communities in every corner of the world will be born, particular Churches that are all and always actualizations of the one and only Church of Christ. The Catholic Church is therefore not a federation of churches, but a single reality. Pope Benedict also emphasized the gift of peace of the Holy Spirit, hence the Church's responsibility to constitutionally be a sign and an instrument of the peace of God for all peoples. The Church realizes her service to the peace of Christ above all in preaching of the Gospel and with the signs of love and mercy that accompany it; and among these signs, the said, the sacrament of reconciliation should be emphasized.