The Pope’s Video Message for Paris (“Court of the Gentiles”)

(March 26,2011) “Work to create bonds with other young people, without distinction and keeping in mind those who are poor or lonely, unemployed, ill or on the margins of society” said Pope Benedict XVI in his video message to the young people gathered in front of Paris’ Notre Dame Cathedral, on the occasion of the inauguration of a new forum for dialogue between believers and nonbelievers, known as “The Court of the Gentiles”. Jesus Christ came to “break down the dividing wall” between Jews and Gentiles, and to “reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility in himself”, the Pope said, quoting St Paul. The question of God is not a menace to society, it does not threaten a truly human life! The question of God must not be absent from the other great questions of our time, he stated. The youth had been invited by Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, the Archbishop of Paris, and Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, on the evening of Friday concluding the ceremonies of inauguration of the said forum for dialogue. In his video message the Holy Father told the gathering, that if we are to build a world of liberty, equality and fraternity, then believers and non-believers must feel free to be equal in their right to live as individuals and in community in accord with their convictions; and fraternal in their relations with one another. One of the reasons for this Court of the Gentiles was to encourage such feelings of fraternity, over and above our individual convictions yet not denying our differences. And on an even deeper level, to recognize that God alone, in Christ, grants us inner freedom and the possibility of truly encountering one another as brothers and sisters. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, chose the French capital to launch the forum because of its symbolic status as the home of the Enlightenment and its impact on the world. Thus, Thursday and Friday, three prestigious institutions -- the U.N.E.S.C.O, the University of the Sorbonne and the Institute of France -- enabled top personalities from the world of culture to discuss the topic "Lights, Religions, Common Sense."