2008-12-23 09:16:22

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.


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