Pope meets Romanian president, ‘Pro Petri Sede’

February 15, 2013 - With less than two weeks left of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI on Friday received in the Vatican the president of Romania, a group of Italian bishops from Liguria region on their 5-yearly "ad limina” visit, as well as members of “Pro Petri Sede”, a Belgian association that supports papal projects. The Pope first met president Trăian Băsescu of Romania who was accompanied by his wife and a delegation. The president later met Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone along with Vatican Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Dominique Mamberti. A Vatican statement said the cordial talks appreciated the good relations between the Holy See and Romania. The two sides particularly highlighted the fruitful collaboration at the European level with regard to safeguarding common values and they also noted a few issues regarding cooperation between the Catholic Church and Romania in the education sector. They also exchanged views on the Catholic community of Romania and the contribution of the nation’s Church toward integrating the Romanian community abroad.
Pope Benedict later met some 45 members of the “Pro Petri Sede” and commended them for their generosity and sense of ecclesial communion. The Pope told them that the Year of Faith is an invitation to a genuine conversion to the Lord Jesus, and that faith is something that needs to be continuously discovered and deepened in order to grow. Hence the need for charity, for “faith without charity bears no fruit, while charity without faith would be a sentiment constantly at the mercy of doubt. Faith and charity each require the other, in such a way that each allows the other to set out along its respective path.” However, the Pope said, in order to live this witness of charity, the encounter which the Lord that transforms the heart and eyes of man is therefore indispensable. In fact, he said, it is the witness of God’s love for each one of our bothers in humanity that gives true meaning to charity, which cannot be reduced to mere humanism or an enterprise of human promotion. The Pope said that acts of charity, carried out generously, allows each one to come closer to Christ who never ceases to comes to meet men.