2010-01-09 13:13:51

Pope Benedict XVI’s Discourse to the Members of the Pontifical North American College


(January 9, 2010) “In the century and a half since its foundation, the College has offered its students an exceptional experience of the universality of the Church, the breadth of her intellectual and spiritual tradition, and the urgency of her mandate to bring Christ’s saving truth to the men and women of every time and place,” said Pope Benedict XVI. At the same time the Holy Father expressed his confidence that, by emphasizing the hallmarks of a Roman education in every aspect of its program of formation, the College will continue to produce wise and generous pastors capable of transmitting the Catholic faith and enabling America’s Catholics to be a leaven of the Gospel in the social, political and cultural life. Pope Benedict said this in his discourse to the Rector, Faculty, Alumni and Students of the Pontifical North American College, in Rome on Saturday, 9th of January, on the Occasion of the 150 years of the founding of the College by Blessed Pius IX. He expressed his appreciation to their fidelity to the founding vision by training generations of worthy preachers of the Gospel and ministers of the sacraments, devoted to the church in Rome and America. In this year for priests, this reunion is an opportunity to express their gratitude to their alma mater, to reaffirm your filial affection for the Church of Rome, and to recommit themselves to the high ideals of holiness, fidelity and pastoral zeal, he said. The Pope recalled his invitation to the Church in America given during his Pastoral visit, to cultivate an intellectual ‘culture’ which is genuinely Catholic, and to be prepared to bring the richness of faith’s vision which will affect the future of American society. Finally the Pope referred to the portrait of Mary with Saints Gregory the Great, Pius X, John Mary Vianney and Vincent de Paul in their Chapel in Rome and called on them to live under their patronage. Then he gave his Apostolic Blessing.







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