Pope says charity makes good triumph over evil

(February 24, 2012) Since charity touches the human heart in a very special way it is a privileged form of evangelization and re-evangelization that demonstrates that good exists and will triumph, said Pope Benedict XVI on Friday. He was speaking to some 35 members of the “Circolo San Pietro” association of Rome diocese, who brought their collection for the Pope’s charity fund called “Peter’s Pence”. The Pope said, “The witness of charity touches the human heart in a special way; the new evangelization, especially in a cosmopolitan city like Rome, calls for great openness of spirit and wisdom towards all.” The Holy Father mentioned a few of the association’s numerous initiatives, such as running soup kitchens for the poor, night care centres, family houses for young girls in need, homes for the terminally ill, missionary commitment in Laos as well as sponsorship for children. The Pope said our fidelity to the Gospel is measured in terms of our attention and concrete solicitude towards our neighbours, especially the weak and the marginalized in all their aspects, physical, moral and spiritual. “Even if today’s culture seems to have lost the sense of good and evil, the Pope said, one needs to stress that good exists and will triumph. In this regard, he explained, the service of charity becomes a privileged form of evangelization in the light of Jesus’ teaching, which demands that we do to others what we want others to do to us, especially to those who are small and neglected. ‘Circolo San Pietro’, the Italian for St. Peter’s Circle, was founded in 1869 by a group of young lay Catholics of Rome to help the needy and the sick.