Full Text: Pope Benedict XVI's remarks to US bishops of Region II
Below, please find the full text and audio of Pope Benedict XVI's remarks to the US
Catholic bishops of Region II on Saturfday, November 26th, 2011
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Dear
Brother Bishops,
I greet you all with affection in the Lord and, through you,
the Bishops from the United States who in the course of the coming year will make
their visits ad limina Apostolorum.
Our meetings are the first since my 2008
Pastoral Visit to your country, which was intended to encourage the Catholics of America
in the wake of the scandal and disorientation caused by the sexual abuse crisis of
recent decades. I wished to acknowledge personally the suffering inflicted on the
victims and the honest efforts made both to ensure the safety of our children and
to deal appropriately and transparently with allegations as they arise. It is my
hope that the Church’s conscientious efforts to confront this reality will help the
broader community to recognize the causes, true extent and devastating consequences
of sexual abuse, and to respond effectively to this scourge which affects every level
of society. By the same token, just as the Church is rightly held to exacting standards
in this regard, all other institutions, without exception, should be held to the same
standards.
A second, equally important, purpose of my Pastoral Visit was
to summon the Church in America to recognize, in the light of a dramatically changing
social and religious landscape, the urgency and demands of a new evangelization.
In continuity with this aim, I plan in the coming months to present for your consideration
a number of reflections which I trust you will find helpful for the discernment you
are called to make in your task of leading the Church into the future which Christ
is opening up for us.
Many of you have shared with me your concern about the
grave challenges to a consistent Christian witness presented by an increasingly secularized
society. I consider it significant, however, that there is also an increased sense
of concern on the part of many men and women, whatever their religious or political
views, for the future of our democratic societies. They see a troubling breakdown
in the intellectual, cultural and moral foundations of social life, and a growing
sense of dislocation and insecurity, especially among the young, in the face of wide-ranging
societal changes. Despite attempts to still the Church’s voice in the public square,
many people of good will continue to look to her for wisdom, insight and sound guidance
in meeting this far-reaching crisis. The present moment can thus be seen, in positive
terms, as a summons to exercise the prophetic dimension of your episcopal ministry
by speaking out, humbly yet insistently, in defense of moral truth, and offering a
word of hope, capable of opening hearts and minds to the truth that sets us free.
At
the same time, the seriousness of the challenges which the Church in America, under
your leadership, is called to confront in the near future cannot be underestimated.
The obstacles to Christian faith and practice raised by a secularized culture also
affect the lives of believers, leading at times to that “quiet attrition” from the
Church which you raised with me during my Pastoral Visit. Immersed in this culture,
believers are daily beset by the objections, the troubling questions and the cynicism
of a society which seems to have lost its roots, by a world in which the love of God
has grown cold in so many hearts. Evangelization thus appears not simply a task to
be undertaken ad extra; we ourselves are the first to need re-evangelization. As
with all spiritual crises, whether of individuals or communities, we know that the
ultimate answer can only be born of a searching, critical and ongoing self-assessment
and conversion in the light of Christ’s truth. Only through such interior renewal
will we be able to discern and meet the spiritual needs of our age with the ageless
truth of the Gospel.
Here I cannot fail to express my appreciation of the
real progress which the American Bishops have made, individually and as a Conference,
in responding to these issues and in working together to articulate a common pastoral
vision, the fruits of which can be seen, for example, in your recent documents on
faithful citizenship and on the institution of marriage. The importance of these
authoritative expressions of your shared concern for the authenticity of the Church’s
life and witness in your country should be evident to all.
In these days,
the Church in the United States is implementing the revised translation of the Roman
Missal. I am grateful for your efforts to ensure that this new translation will inspire
an ongoing catechesis which emphasizes the true nature of the liturgy and, above all,
the unique value of Christ’s saving sacrifice for the redemption of the world. A
weakened sense of the meaning and importance of Christian worship can only lead to
a weakened sense of the specific and essential vocation of the laity to imbue the
temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel. America has a proud tradition of respect
for the sabbath; this legacy needs to be consolidated as a summons to the service
of God’s Kingdom and the renewal of the social fabric in accordance with its unchanging
truth.
In the end, however, the renewal of the Church’s witness to the Gospel
in your country is essentially linked to the recovery of a shared vision and sense
of mission by the entire Catholic community. I know that this is a concern close
to your own heart, as reflected in your efforts to encourage communication, discussion
and consistent witness at every level of the life of your local Churches. I think
in particular of the importance of Catholic universities and the signs of a renewed
sense of their ecclesial mission, as attested by the discussions marking the tenth
anniversary of the Apostolic Constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae, and such inititiatives
as the symposium recently held at Catholic University of America on the intellectual
tasks of the new evangelization. Young people have a right to hear clearly the Church’s
teaching and, most importantly, to be inspired by the coherence and beauty of the
Christian message, so that they in turn can instill in their peers a deep love of
Christ and his Church.
Dear Brother Bishops, I am conscious of the many pressing
and at times apparently insoluble problems which you face daily in the exercise of
your ministry. With the confidence born of faith, and with great affection, I offer
you these words of encouragement and willingly commend you and the clergy, religious
and lay faithful of your Dioceses to the intercession of Mary Immaculate, Patroness
of the United States. To all of you I impart my Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of
wisdom, strength and peace in the Lord. Listen