(October 12, 2012) The Church of Christ is always new and up-to-date, without breaking
away with tradition nor compromising its truths while adapting itself to the current
times. Pope Benedict XVI made this remark on Friday to some 120 presidents of episcopal
conferences worldwide and bishops who participated in the Second Vatican Council,
some 70 of whom are still alive today. He spoke to them the day after he launched
the Year of Faith with a solemn Mass in St. Peter’s Square, to mark the golden jubilee
of the start of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Benedict noted that Pope John XXII,
persistently used the word ‘update’ during the great Council which he convoked in
1962. The intuition with which he used the word “update’ has proved true even today.
“Christianity,” the Pope said, “should not be regarded as "something of the past,"
nor should it be seen with the eyes constantly turned "backwards" because Jesus Christ
is yesterday, today and forever. Christianity is marked by the presence of the eternal
God, who entered time and is present at all times, because time flows from his creative
power, from his eternal "today". This is why Christianity is always new, the Pope
said, explaining that this relevancy of Christianity does not mean a break with tradition,
but rather expresses its continued vitality. Neither does it mean reducing and lowering
the faith to the fashion of the times, according to tastes or the public opinion.
On the contrary, he said, we must carry the ‘today’ of our times to the ‘today’ of
God, just as the Council Fathers did. The Church in her journey in history, Pope
Benedict said, must always speak to the modern man, and this can be done only by those
who have deep roots in God and are led by Him, and not by those who follow the fleeting
moment and a comfortable way. Later, Friday, Pope Benedict XVI hosted a lunch for
500 synod fathers, Vatican II participants and bishops conference presidents. Joining
them were were also Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual head
of Orthodox Christians worldwide, and Archbishop Rowan Williams of Canterbury, the
spiritual head of the Anglican communion worldwide.