Pope Questions Meaning Given to Freedom on First Day of Portugal Trip

(11 May 10 – RV) Atlantic skies and the sun shining as a 32 strong children’s choir from the prestigious Lisbon Academy of Saint Cecilia sang the hallmark hymn marking this journey to welcome Benedict XVI on Portuguese soil for the first time , as Roman Pontiff .

Bem vindo Santo Padre , Bem vindo in Portugal the children sang, while the President of the Republic Anibal Cavaco da Silva and his wife stood by together with the Patriarch of Lisbon Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo.

And there were speeches , beginning with the welcoming party , the President who welcomed the pope at the start of this journey rife with meaning for Portugal describing him as a “messenger of hope at a time of uncertainty” ..
“You cannot understand Portugal” he stressed “without that privileged relationship with the Holy See recalling how in the year 1079 the Pope of the time , Alexander III recognized the new State of Portugal”.

And the Roman Pontiff replied, greeting all the Portuguese people, whatever their faith or religion at a historic time for this beloved and ancient nation which this year is celebration the centenary of the proclamation of the Republic.

“I come” he remarked “as a pilgrim to Our lady of Fatima”, referring to the apparitions which took place in the Marian shrine almost a century ago , describing this moment as “a window of hope that God opens when a man closes the door to him”.

This Apostolic visit has two levels of interest , first of all of Marian devotion in continuity with the Successors of Peter , Paul VI first and then John Paul II who all travelled to Fatima on the date of the Apparitions there and always on the 13th May the date when Our Lady appeared to three little shepherd children for the first time . Curiously in Fatima they’re referring to this continuity with the papacy in the media dubbing him “u terceiro papa” , the third pope .

The third pope who in turn in his speech referred to the words of an eminent Portuguese cardinal from the Salazar era who once remarked “it was not the Church that imposed Fatima but it was Fatima that imposed itself on the Church” .

But it was the second level of interest , the more official one that the Holy Father then highlighted picking up on the President’s mention of the special historical connection between Portugal and the Successor of Peter, noting as the President of Portugal had mentioned in his welcome address how “the people of this nation have since the earliest days of their nationhood looked to the Successor of Peter for recognition of their existence as a people”.

“This visit is under the sign of hope” he said “ intended as a proposal of wisdom and mission”, a reference to the theme the Bishop’s of Portugal suggested for this visit .Pope Benedict went on to explain how “from a wise vision of life and of the world the just ordering follows”.

Benedict XVI then placed the Church in a historical context , pointing out its openness to cooperating “with anyone who does not marginalize or reduce to the private sphere the essential consideration of the human meaning of life”. The point at issue he insisted “is not an ethical confrontation between a secular and a religious system , so much as a question about the meaning that we give to freedom” .

The pope then went back to the landmark date of the proclamation of the Republic highlighting how by separating Church and State the Republican revolution which took place 100 years ago in Portugal opened a new area of freedom for the Church,to which the two concordats of 1940 and 2004 would give shape ,in cultural settings and ecclesial perspectives , profoundly marked by rapid change .

A brief ceremony at the arrival then , a mere taste of the more official ceremony to take place later in the morning at the Mosterio du Jeronimos , a place relating to explorers and evangelisers, steeped in symbolism and beauty relating to the powerhouse of European exploration .