2011-09-26 15:07:00

Pope says change in Church means re-committing itself to Christ’s mission


(September 26, 2011) The problem of decline in religious practice with substantial numbers of the baptized drifting away from Church life in Germany can be successfully tackled by the Church not by compromising itself to the ways of the world but only by re-committing itself to the mission of Christ to be his witnesses and making disciples of nations. This message of the Pope Benedict XVI came in his meeting with members of Germany’s Catholic associations in a concert hall in Freiburg on Sunday evening, before he left for Larh airport from where he flew back to Rome. The Holy Father cited Blessed Mother Teresa who was once asked what, in her opinion, was the first thing that would have to change in the Church. “Her answer,” the Pope said, “was: you and I.” Pope Benedict went on to explain that the Church is “not just other people, the hierarchy, the Pope and the bishops: we are all the Church, we the baptized.” The Pope admitted there is room for change, but he highlighted that this change must improve the mission Jesus entrusted to the Church. He noted that that Christian witness is constantly obscured, relationships are alienated and the message is based on relativism. In order to accomplish her mission and be truly herself, the Church needs to constantly set herself apart from her surroundings, she needs in a certain sense to become unworldly or “desecularized”.








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