Continuing his cycle of lessons on the Doctors of the Church, Pope Benedict XVI told
believers Wednesday that prayer and confession are the best antidotes to our era marked
by “signs of loss of conscience and morality”.
Outlining the legacy of an 18th
century Neapolitan Saint, Alphonsus Liguori, during his Wednesday catechesis, the
Holy Father spoke of the obvious “lack of esteem” for the sacrament of confession
among Catholics today and urged priests to adopt a more “charitable, understanding
and gentle attitude” towards penitents while always remaining faithful to Catholic
moral teaching.
As a young man, the founder of the Redemptorists Order, observed
the Pope was “an outstanding eighteenth-century preacher, scholar and Doctor of the
Church. Alphonsus left a brilliant career as a lawyer to become a priest, and greatly
contributed to the renewal of the Church in his native Naples”.
“He began
as a missionary among the urban poor, gathering small groups for prayer and instruction
in the faith. Broadening his pastoral outreach, he founded the Congregation of the
Most Holy Redeemer – the Redemptorists – as a group of itinerant missionaries. Alphonsus’
pastoral zeal also found expression in his moral teaching, which emphasized divine
mercy and the relationship between God’s law and our deepest human needs and aspirations.
His many spiritual writings, marked by a deep Christological and Marian piety, stressed
the practice of prayer, especially before the Blessed Sacrament”.
“May this
great Doctor of the Church, venerated also as the patron of moral theologians, help
us to respond ever more fully to God’s call to grow in holiness, and inspire in priests,
religious and laity a firm commitment to the new evangelization”.
Finally Pope
Benedict XVI greeted all the English-speaking pilgrims present at the Audience, “especially
those from England, Norway, Japan, the Philippines and the United States. To the
choirs I express my gratitude for their praise of God in song. Upon all of you I
cordially invoke the Lord’s blessings of joy and peace”. Listen to Emer McCarthy's
report: