As is tradition, Pope Benedict XVI held a mid flight press conference with journalists
accompanying him on his four day visit to the United Kingdom. We publish a draft
Vatican Radio translation of the question and answer session:
Q. β Your Holiness,
welcome among us and thank you for being available for our questions. We have a group
of 70 journalists present here from different parts of the world. Of course some have
come especially from the UK to join our group for the flight. As usual, in recent
days my colleagues have given me several questions for consideration in this initial
conversation, the beginning of a long-awaited and challenging journey, which we hope
will be truly beautiful. I chose a series of questions, from among those that were
submitted, and I will ask them in Italian so as not to tax you too much. My colleagues
will help those who are not familiar with Italian, to understand. The first question:
during the preparation for this journey there have been contrary discussions and positions.
The country has a past tradition of a strong anti-Catholic position. Are you concerned
about how you will be received?
A. - Firstly, good day to you all and I wish
you a good journey. I must say that I'm not worried, because when I went to France
I was told: "This will be a most anticlerical country with strong anticlerical currents
and with a minimum of faithful." When I went to the Czech Republic it was said: "This
is the most non-religious country in Europe and even the most anti-clerical". So Western
countries, all have, each in their own specific way, according to their own history,
strong anticlerical or anti-Catholic currents, but they always also have a strong
presence of faith. So in France and the Czech Republic I saw and experienced a warm
welcome by the Catholic community, a strong attention from agnostics, who, however,
are searching, who want to know, to find the values that advance humanity and they
were very careful to see if they could hear something from me in this respect, and
tolerance and respect for those who are anti-Catholic. Of course Britain has its own
history of anti-Catholicism, this is obvious, but is also a country with a great history
of tolerance. And so I'm sure on the one hand, there will be a positive reception
from Catholics, from believers in general, and attention from those who seek as we
move forward in our time, mutual respect and tolerance. Where there is anti-Catholicism
I will go forward with great courage and joy.
Q. - The UK, like many other
Western countries - there is an issue that you have already touched on in the first
answer βit is considered a secular country. There is a strong atheist movement, even
for cultural reasons. However, there are also signs that religious faith, particularly
in Jesus Christ, is still alive on a personal level. What can this mean for Catholics
and Anglicans? Can anything be done to make the Church as an institution, more credible
and attractive to everyone?
A. - I would say that a Church that seeks to be
particularly attractive is already on the wrong path, because the Church does not
work for her own ends, she does not work to increase numbers and thus power. The Church
is at the service of another: she serves, not for herself, not to be a strong body,
rather she serves to make the proclamation of Jesus Christ accessible, the great truths
and great forces of love, reconciling love that appeared in this figure and that always
comes from the presence of Jesus Christ. In this regard, the Church does not seek
to be attractive in and of herself, but must be transparent for Jesus Christ and to
the extent that she is not out for herself, as a strong and powerful body in the world,
that wants power, but is simply the voice of another, she becomes truly transparent
for the great figure of Christ and the great truth that he has brought to humanity.
The power of love, in this moment one listens, one accepts. The Church should not
consider herself, but help to consider the other and she herself must see and speak
of the other. In this sense, I think, both Anglicans and Catholics have the same simple
task, the same direction to take. If both Anglicans and Catholics see that the other
is not out for themselves but are tools of Christ, children of the Bridegroom, as
Saint John says, if both carry out the priorities of Christ and not their own, they
will come together, because at that time the priority of Christ unites them and they
are no longer competitors seeking the greatest numbers, but are united in our commitment
to the truth of Christ who comes into this world and so they find each other in a
genuine and fruitful ecumenism.
Q. - Thank you Your Holiness. A third question.
As is well known and as was also highlighted by recent surveys, the sexual abuse scandal
has shaken the confidence of the faithful in the Church. How do you think you can
help restore that trust?
A. - First, I must say that these revelations have
been a shock for me, not only a great sadness. It is difficult to understand how this
perversion of the priestly ministry was possible. The priest at the time of ordination,
after having prepared for this moment for years, says yes to Christ, to be his voice,
his mouth, his hands and serve Him with his whole life, so that the Good Shepherd
who loves and helps and guides to the truth is present in the world. How a man who
has done this and said this may also fall into this perversion is difficult to understand.
It is a great sadness, a sadness that even the authority of the Church has not been
sufficiently vigilant and not fast or decided enough in taking the necessary measures.
Because of all of this, we are in a time of repentance, humility, and renewed sincerity.
As I wrote to the Irish bishops, I think we now realize its a time of penance, a time
to renew and relearn humility with complete sincerity. Regarding the victims, I would
say there are three important things. Our first interest is for the victims: how can
we repair the damage done? What can we do to help these people overcome this trauma,
to regain their life and rediscover confidence in the message of Christ? Care, commitment
to victims is the first priority, with material, psychological, spiritual aid. Second,
the problem of the guilty persons. The just punishment is exclusion from all possibilities
of access to young people because we know that this is a disease and free will does
not work where there is disease. So we have to protect these people against themselves
and find ways to help them, protect them against themselves and exclude them from
any access to young people. The third point is prevention in education, in the choice
of candidates for the priesthood to be so careful that, as much as humanly possible,
we exclude future cases. And I would now also like to thank the British Bishops for
their attention and cooperation with both the See of St. Peter and with public bodies.
It seems to me that the British Bishops have done a great job in their attention to
the sensitivity of the victims and the law and I am very grateful to them for this.
Q.
β Your Holiness, the figure of Cardinal Newman is obviously very significant: you
have made an acception for Cardinal Newman to preside over the beatification. Do you
think that his memory will help to overcome divisions between Anglicans and Catholics?
What are the aspects of his personality which you would like to give stronger emphasis
to?
A. - Cardinal Newman is mainly, on the one hand, a modern man, who took
on all of the problems of modernity, he experienced the problem of agnosticism, the
impossibility of knowing God, of believing; a man who throughout his life was on a
journey, a journey to let himself be transformed by the truth, in a search of great
sincerity and great willingness, to learn more, to find and to accept the path to
true life. This modernity of his inner-being and life points to the modernity of his
faith: it is not a faith in the formulas of a bygone age, it is a most personal form
of faith, lived, suffered, found through a long process of renewal and conversion.
He is a man of great culture who on the one hand participates in our sceptical culture
of today, in the question: "Can we understand something certain about the truth of
man, of the human being, or not? And how can we arrive at the convergence of the verisimilitude?
". A man who, on the other hand, with a great knowledge of the culture of the Church
Fathers, he studied and renewed the internal genesis of the faith, thus acknowledging
his figure and his inner constitution, he is a man of great spirituality, a great
humanism, a man of prayer, of a deep relationship with God and a relationship with
himself, and therefore also of a deep relationship with the other men of his and our
time. So I would say these three elements: the modernity of his existence, with all
the doubts and problems of our existence today, his great culture, knowledge of the
great cultural treasures of mankind, his constant quest for the truth, continuous
renewal and spirituality: spiritual life, life with God, give this man an exceptional
greatness for our time. Therefore, it is a figure of Doctor of the Church for us,
for all and also a bridge between Anglicans and Catholics.
Q. - And one last
question, this visit is considered a state visit β this is how it has been qualified.
What does this mean for relations between the Holy See and the United Kingdom? Are
there are major points of common accord, particularly given the great challenges of
today's world?
A. - I am very grateful to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II,
who wanted to give this visit the rank of a state visit and who expressed the public
nature of this visit and also the common responsibility of politics and religion for
the future of continent, for the future of humanity: the large, shared responsibility
so that the values that create justice and politics and which come from religion,
share the journey in our time. Of course, the fact that legally it is a state visit,
does not make this visit a political matter, because if the Pope is head of state,
this is just an instrument to ensure the independence of his message and public nature
of his work as pastor. In this sense, the State visit is substantially and essentially
a pastoral visit, a visit in the responsibility of the faith for which the Supreme
Pontiff, the Pope, exists. Of course, the character of a state visit focuses attention
on the converging interests of politics and religion. Politics is essentially designed
to ensure justice and with justice, freedom, but justice is a moral value, a religious
value, and so faith, the proclamation of the Gospel connects with politics in justice
and here common interests are also born. Britain has a great experience and a great
record in combating the evils of this time, misery, poverty, disease, drugs and all
these fights against misery, poverty, slavery, abuse of man, drugs ... are also the
goals of the faith, because they are the aims of the humanization of man, so that
the image of God be restored against the destruction and devastation. Another common
task is the commitment to world peace and the ability to live peace, peace education
and establish the virtues that make man capable of peace. And, finally, an essential
element of peace is the dialogue of religions, tolerance, openness to one another
and this is a deep aim both of Britain, as a society, and of the Catholic faith:
to be open to the outside world, open to dialogue, in this way to open to truth and
the common path of humanity and to rediscovering the values that are the foundation
of our humanism!