Pope offers Immaculate Virgin as model for youth

(Dec. 8, 2007) Pope Benedict the XVI on Saturday pointed to the Virgin Mary, born immaculate, without any trace of original sin, as a model particularly for the youth of today who have lost the true meaning and joy of life. The Pope extolled the figure of Mary on the Church’s Dec. 8th liturgical feast of the Immaculate Conception. T
he Catholic Church’s dogma of the Immaculate Conception teaches that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was preserved by God from the stain of original sin at the time of her own conception, in view of the merits of her Son.
“Gazing at her, we recognize the greatness and beauty of God’s plan for everyman – to be saints and immaculate in love, in the likeness of our Creator,’ the Pope told a holiday crowd that had gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Rome to recite the midday angelus prayer with him. The Pope said he was thinking of the youth of today, growing in an ambience saturated with messages offering false models of happiness. These boys and girls, he said, risk losing hope because they often appear orphans of true love that fills life with meaning and joy. He said this was a theme of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, who frequently proposed Mary, the Mother of beautiful love, to the youth of our time. Pope Benedict pointed out that often adolescents, youth and even children are easy victims of the corruption of love, misled by unscrupulous adults, who draw them to blind alleys of consumerism. Even the most sacred realities, such as the human body, the temple of the God of love and of life, thus become consumer objects, the Pope said, adding, this is already taking place in pre-adolescence age. How sad, he said, to see young people losing the wonder and charm of the most beautiful sentiments, the value of respect for the body, which is the manifestation of the person and his unfathomable mystery.
After praying the Angelus, the Pope greeted all on the occasion of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, including in English: