Pope Benedict XVI Address to the officials of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints

(December 19, 2009) “In these forty years, the congregation has developed, with expertise in the service of the People of God, providing a significant contribution to the work of evangelization. In fact, when the Church worships a saint, announces the effectiveness of the Gospel and discovers with joy that the presence of Christ in the world, believed in and worshiped by faith, is able to transform human life and produce fruits of salvation for the whole 'humanity,” said Pope Benedict XVI. He was speaking in Rome on the 19^th of December to the officials of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on the 40^th anniversary of its founding by Pope Paul VI in 1969. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints is the congregation of the Roman Curia which oversees the complex process which leads to the canonization of saints, passing through the steps of a declaration of "heroic virtues" and beatification and presents them to the Pope. The saints said the Holy Father, “are a sign of the radical newness, which the Son of God, through His incarnation, death and resurrection, has planted in human nature as an outstanding witnesses of faith, to be not just agents of the past, but of the present and the future of the Church and society.” Their life on earth builds a deep relationship with God and leads people in continuous pursuit of evangelical perfection, said the Pope. This gradual emergence of holiness in believers is the way chosen by God in revealing to the men the divine plan and at the same time, it is part of the way in which God's people grow in faith and knowledge of Truth. Greeting them at the Christmas time Pope Benedict said: “the Solemnity of Christmas, which we are preparing, indicates in full light the dignity of every man, called to become children of God, in the example of the Saints whose dignity is realized in concrete historical circumstances of personal life, free and responsible choice of the supernatural gifts.”