Pope baptizes 14 newborns

(January 11, 2009) Pope Benedict said on Sunday that by receiving the sacrament of Baptism the faithful become children of God, and brothers and sisters with each other. Earlier Sunday morning the Pontiff held the last of his public liturgical celebrations of Christmastide administering the Baptism to 14 newborn babies – 7 boys and 7 girls. The traditional ceremony took place during a Mass to mark the feast of the Baptism of the Lord in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican whose walls and ceiling are graced with the frescos of Michelangelo. "With this sacrament," the Pontiff explained, "man really becomes son - son of God. From that point the goal of his life consists in arriving at, in a free and conscious way, that which from the very beginning was his destination as man." The Holy Father said the "basic educational principle of the human person redeemed by grace" is "become what you are." He explained: "Such a principle has many analogies with human growth, where the relationship between parents and children passes, through separation and crisis, from total dependence to the awareness of being children, to recognition through the gift of life received and to the maturity and capacity to give one's life. "Born to new life through baptism, the Christian too begins his journey of growth in the faith, which will carry him to consciously invoke God as 'Abba - Father,' turning to him with gratitude and living in the joy of being his son." We recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters through a humble but profound awareness of being sons of the one heavenly Father. "As Christians, thanks to the gift of the Holy Spirit received in baptism, we have the gift and task of living as sons of God, and brothers and sisters, to be like 'leaven' in a new humanity, united and rich in peace and hope.