Pope Exchanges Greetings with Curia, Defends Human Sexuality, Creation
(22 Dec 08 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI exchanged Christmas greetings with the Roman Curia
Monday in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace.
In remarks to the curial
officials and staff, the Holy Father defended the dignity of each and every human
being created as a man or a woman, and called all the faithful to greater responsibility
in protecting the whole of God’s creation.
As Charles Collins reports, the
Holy Father also used the occasion to take stock of the year that is rapidly coming
to a close…
In remarks to the curial officials and staff, the Holy Father defended
the dignity of each and every human being created as a man or a woman, and called
all the faithful to greater responsibility in protecting the whole of God’s creation.
As
Charles Collins reports, the Holy Father also used the occasion to take stock of the
year that is rapidly coming to a close…
Pope Benedict used Monday’s meeting
with the officials and staff of the Roman Curia to look back on the passing year.
As
the Holy Father noted, 2008 was filled with milestones for the Church, including the
50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pius XII and the election of his
predecessor, Blessed John XXIII.
40 years have passed since the promulgation
of Paul VI’s Encyclical Letter on the regulation of birth, Humanae Vitae, and thirty
years since the passing of Humanae Vitae’s author.
The year 2008 also saw
the opening of the Pauline Year, which, Pope Benedict remembered, was solemnly inaugurated
on June 28th at the Papal Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls, in the
presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew I, and other prominent Christian
leaders.
Saying that Christians’ common recollection of their shared heritage
also provides a lens through which to look toward the future, Pope Benedict turned
to reflect on three significance of several of the year’s very special events: World
Youth Day; his Apostolic Voyages to France and the United States; the Ordinary Assembly
of the Synod of Bishops.
Praising the Synod fathers for their work over
three weeks in October, in which they reflected on the Word of God in the Life and
Mission of the Church, Pope Benedict said God always speaks to us in the present,
and we will have listened truly to the Bible only when we have discovered this divine
“present” which calls to us even now.
He called the gathering in Sydney
Australia a great festival of faith in which the more than 200 thousand young people
from every part of the globe came together both physically and spiritually thanks
to the joy of being Christian.
The Holy Father also recalled his Apostolic
voyages to France and the United States, saying they were journeys in which the Church
showed herself to the whole world as a spiritual force that indicates the true path
to life, and, through her witness of faith, brings light to the world.