In Genoa, Pope Benedict Calls for Ban on Cluster Munitions

(18 May 08 -RV) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday spoke out against cluster munitions, calling for a strong, credible international convention interdicting the use of such weapons, which the Holy Father called murderous ordnance.

The Pope’s appeal came ahead of a diplomatic conference scheduled to open on Monday in Dublin, Ireland, a conference aimed at reaching agreement on a ban of the weapons.

Saying it is in fact necessary to remedy past errors and avoid committing them in the future, Pope Benedict offered his prayers to the victims of cluster munitions and the families of victims, as well as for those who are participating in the Dublin conference opening tomorrow.

Pope Benedict’s remarks came at the end of the traditional midday Angelus prayer, which the Holy Father this Sunday recited with the faithful of Genoa, the northern Italian port city where the Holy Father spent part of the weekend on pilgrimage.


Beyond the Angelus, the Pope’s Sunday schedule included private prayer at the Genovese Shrine of Our Lady of the Watch, a meeting with patients, family and staff at a famous Genovese centre for pediatric medicine, an encounter with young people, a prayerful meeting with the Cathedral Chapter of Genoa together with religious priests, brothers and sisters, and open-air Mass.

In his homily during the Mass marking Trinity Sunday in Genoa’s Victory Square, the Holy Father recalled the Church’s understanding of the human being, made in the image and likeness of God.

Recalling the Church’s teaching on social matters, which the Pope said trace a complete and articulate design, capable of motivating and orienting the commitment to human promotion and the social and political service of Catholics, Pope Benedict exhorted the faithful to care for spiritual and catechetical formation, calling for a substantial formation that is needed now more than ever in order properly to live the Christian vocation in today’s world.

The transforming power of Christian hope and its relation to Christian charity were themes on which the Holy Father had reflected earlier in the day, during a visit to the world-renowned Giannina Gaslini pediatric hospital.

Praising the hospital’s staff and administration for their diligence and constant commitment to progfessional excellence, the Holy Father encouraged them to continue to integrate genuine affection for their young charges, who, experience it as the first and indispensable therapy.

Pope Benedict said, “when you do this, the hospital becomes an ever-greater locus of hope.”

The hope in which we may truly place our trust, said Pope Benedict, is God and God alone, who, in Jesus Christ and in His Gospel has thrown the dark gates of time open to the future.

“I am risen and now I am always with you,” is Christ’s constant message to us, especially in times of greatest difficulty, “my hand sustains you. Wherever you might fall, you shall fall into my arms. Even at the gates of death, there I am.”

Recalling Christ’s words in the Gospel of Luke to the mother who had lost her child, Pope Benedict said Christ repeats his words of consolation to us even today, in our suffering:


do not weep, he says to us. He stands by each and every one of us, and asks us to show his love for all those who find themselves in difficulty, if we are to be his disciples.

Discipleship was a theme to which Pope Benedict turned in his remarks to Genoa’s Cathedral Chapter, gathered together with religious priests, brothers and sisters to pray with and listen to the pilgrim Pope.

The Holy Father exhorted the Capitular clergy and gathered religious always to remember that the one thing they have in common is the call to proclaim together the joy of Christ and the beauty of the Church. The Pope said this joy and this beauty come from the Holy Spirit; they are a gift and a sign of God’s presence in our souls.

Pope Benedict went on remember that we cannot rely on our own merely human energies if we are to be true heralds of and witnesses to the salvific message.

The Pope said it is first of all God’s faithfulness that moves us to keep faith with Him.

God’s faithfulness, and the need for all of us to place our faith in Him, were strongly present as themes of Pope Benedict’s remarks to young people gathered in Genoa’s Matteotti to hear the Holy Father before the Angelus prayer this Sunday morning.


After the greetings of 2 Genovese young people, who recounted the weeks of preparation the youth of the archdiocese have made ahead of the Holy Father’s arrival, preparations that included hours of prayer and catechesis, culminating in a week of Eucharistic adoration in churches throughout the city, Pope Benedict spoke to the youth of Genoa about the need to deepen our understanding of Christ, so that we might love Him all the more.


The Holy Father said Knowledge drives us to love, and love stimulates our understanding, and so it is with Christ.

Dear young people, said Pope Benedict, each and every one of you, if you remain united to Christ and to His Church, will be capable of great things. This is my hope for you, it is the hope I leave with you.


With an affectionate, “see you in Sydney” to all those present who plan on travelling to Australia for this year’s World Youth Day celebrations, and words of encouragement to all the young people who will follow events from home, the Holy Father entrusted all the young people to the Virgin Mary, model of openness and humble courage in embracing the Lord’s mission.