(25 Jan 08 – RV) Benedict XVI yesterday received the Bishops of Slovenia, who are
in Rome for their ad limina visit.
Pope Benedict recalled how the bishops sent
a Pastoral Letter to all the faithful of Slovenia on occasion of the country’s entrance
into the EU.
The Pope praised the letter’s insistence on the need to preserve
the Christian roots of Europe’s commitment to respecting the dignity of the human
person, if Europe is to remain and continue to become ever more a land of peace.
Pope
Benedict said there are different kinds of humanism, and the different humanisms are
not morally equivalent.
A given society’s decision to adopt one or another
vision of the human person will have consequences for that society’s attempts to order
its civic life.
Different and perhaps even more insidious than Marxism, said
Pope Benedict , Western-style secularism presents signs that cannot but be cause for
worry.
The Holy Fathers said the unbridled pursuit of material goods, the decline
in birth rates and the drop in religious observance are just a few of the problems
secularism has brought to Slovenian society, and the Church has been for some time
and in different ways engaged in countering secularism’s effects.
Pope Benedict
said pastors have the duty to show Christians the path that leads to life, so that
the faithful can be salt and light in society.
Quoting the Bishops’ 2004 pastoral
letter, the Holy Father said “Christianity is the religion of hope: hope in life,
in happiness without end, in the achievement of the brotherhood of all men.” Hear
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