Cardinal Relays Pope's Blessing to Peru

(November 25, 2010) Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, the archbishop of Lima, communicated to his country Pope Benedict XVI's personal greetings. A press statement from the Archdiocese of Lima reported that Cardinal Cipriani greeted the Pope personally over the weekend, where he took part in the Ordinary Public Consistory to create new cardinals, and that the Holy Father "expressed his affection and concern for Peru." "The Holy Father sends us a blessing full of affection. Words of affection and closeness of the Pope which commit us much more to pray for him and to know that he is a man who loves us very much," added the archbishop of Lima. The cardinal encouraged all the Peruvian people to be constantly united to the Holy Father through prayer, and to take care of their children well, love their spouses, go to confession every week. Cardinal Cipriani also mentioned some reflections the Holy Father gave the cardinals during the consistory. "The Church seeks to take that truth has nothing to do with power. The truth of Christ has to do with service, selflessness, the truth of Confession and the Eucharist, rather than power it is mercy," he said, recalling Benedict XVI's words. Cardinal Cipriani also pointed out that the Holy Father reminded all the cardinals of the promise to defend the doctrine of the Church and to be the closest collaborators of the Pope: "It is a service that commits the cardinals to greater fidelity and to live their faith in the best possible way."