Pope Calls on Nations to Live up to Promise of Nuclear Non Proliferation

(05 May 10 - RV) During his General Audience this Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI made an appeal for a nuclear free world, told pilgrims that marriage can save society, and warned priests against a weakening of Christ’s action through the Church, when God’s gift of the sacraments are ministered without humility and fidelity.

Twenty thousand pilgrims and visitors packed an overcast St Peter’s Square Wednesday to hear Pope Benedict XVI’s weekly catechises.

Speaking in Italian at the end of the audience the Pope launched an appeal to world leaders gathered in New York for the review conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, asking them to “overcome the constraints of history and patiently weave a political and economic plan for peace, to help human development and the genuine aspirations of peoples”.

He said: " Progress towards combined and secure nuclear disarmament is closely connected to the full and rapid fulfilment of the relative international commitments”. “Peace, in fact, rests on trust and on respect for promises made, not only on the balance of power”. The Pope went on to encourage initiatives “which pursue a progressive disarmament and the establishment of zones free from nuclear weapons, with a view to their complete elimination from the planet”.

Also Wednesday Pope Benedict used his greeting to English speaking pilgrims to launch a strong defence of marriage, which he described as “an instrument of salvation, not only for married people but for the whole of society”

His comments came in greetings to a group of pilgrims from Jönköping Sweden, where a Conference on the Family will take place later this month.

He observed that: “Like any truly worthwhile goal, it places demands upon us, it challenges us, it calls us to be prepared to sacrifice our own interests for the good of the other. It requires us to exercise tolerance and to offer forgiveness. It invites us to nurture and protect the gift of new life. Those of us fortunate enough to be born into a stable family discover there the first and most fundamental school for virtuous living and the qualities of good citizenship. I encourage all of you in your efforts to promote a proper understanding and appreciation of the inestimable good that marriage and family life offer to human society”


The Pope added that “God’s gift to us of marriage and family life enables us to experience something of the infinite love that unites the three divine persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, are made for love – indeed at the core of our being, we long to love and to be loved in return. Only God’s love can fully satisfy our deepest needs, and yet through the love of husband and wife, the love of parents and children, the love of siblings for one another, we are offered a foretaste of the boundless love that awaits us in the life to come”.

Earlier, in his catechesis in Italian, the Holy Father had reflected on his weekend trip to Turin to venerate the Holy Shroud: “which invites us to contemplate the face of Christ” and “to share in his saving work”.

But the main body of this weeks catechesis was a continuation of his reflections on the priestly ministry, and, in particular the ministry of sanctification: “As ministers of Christ, priests bring us into life-giving contact with the mystery of God’s holiness”. “In the celebration of the sacraments, and in particular the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Reconciliation, Christ’s sanctifying work is constantly made present and effective”.

In comments in Italian the Pope pondered “an underestimation of the faithful exercise of this ministry has represented a weakening of the current action of Christ through the Church"
“In their devout celebration of the sacraments, priests sanctify the faithful and are themselves sanctified and configured ever more closely to Christ. I ask all of you to pray for priests and their ministry of sanctification, that they may be true shepherds according to God’s heart”.