Pope calls for peacemakers in world fraught by violence

The General Audience returned to St Peter’s Square Wednesday, a clear sign that spring has arrived in Rome, with more than ten thousand pilgrims and tourists filling Bernini’s colonnade with bright flags and banners. Pope Benedict XVI toured the square in his Popemobile waving warmly to the crowds before he took his place on the raised platform in front of the Basilica’s façade.

Continuing his series on the Doctors of the Church the Holy Father spoke of Lawrence of Brindisi, a 16^th century Capuchin friar, proclaimed Doctor apostolicus, by Blessed John XXIII in 1959. “A man of peace” who teaches us that “even today the world needs peace”, but that above all it needs “men and women peacemakers and conciliators", who are “well prepared and courageous apostles”, capable of helping the “light and beauty of the Gospel to take precedence over cultural orientations of ethical relativism and religious indifference”.

St. Lawrence was “known for his vigorous labour for the salvation of souls, his vast learning and his eloquent preaching. Coming of age at a time when many of the articles of the faith were being called into question, Saint Lawrence applied his immense talents to making clear the biblical and patristic foundations of the teachings of the Church”.

In comments in Italian, Pope Benedict noted that “with a clear and calm explanation he showed the biblical and patristic basis of all articles of faith challenged by Martin Luther. Among them, the primacy of St. Peter and his successors, the divine origin of the episcopate, justification as the inner transformation of man, the necessity of good works for salvation. The success Lawrence enjoyed helps us to understand that even today, in carrying forward ecumenical dialogue with great hope and enthusiasm, the approach to Sacred Scripture, read in the tradition of the Church, is indispensable and of fundamental importance”

The Holy Father continued “this son of the Franciscan tradition also applied himself heroically to efforts towards peace and reconciliation between the nations and peoples of Europe. His witness serves as an excellent example for our age, so fraught with violence, ethical relativism and religious indifference. The new evangelization needs well-prepared, zealous and courageous apostles like Saint Lawrence so that the light and beauty of the Gospel may reach into the depths of every human heart”.

Then to the notes of the of the Saint Anne and Saint Ibs Schools choir, Pope Benedict concluded: “in order to achieve such a lofty vocation, Saint Lawrence of Brindisi would have us grow close to our Lord Jesus Christ by reading the Sacred Scriptures and by cultivating daily the relationship of love with him in personal prayer, because every good action of ours has its beginning and its end in Him”. Listen to Emer McCarthy's report: