Pope baptizes 20 babies, remembers migrants, refugees

January 14, 2013 - On the feast of the Baptism of Jesus on Sunday, the frescoed walls of the Vatican’s famed Sistine Chapel rang with the wails and coos of newborns as Pope Benedict XVI presided over an annual Mass baptizing 20 babies, encouraging Christians to remember their own baptism and the “beauty of being born again.” The 20 infants, aged three to four months, were of Vatican employees. In his homily, the Pope told godparents that their job is to teach the faith by example, even though the society of our times often "views those who live the faith in Jesus as old-fashioned and outdated." This shows that society has not understood anything about the “relationship with God because as we move on the path of faith, we understand how Jesus exerts upon us the liberating action of God's love, which frees us from our selfishness and inwardness so that we can lead a full life in communion with God and open to others. Turning to parents, he said that by asking that their children be baptized, they were showing and bearing witness to their faith, “to the joy of being Christian and belonging to the Church.” This is a great gift from God which none of us have deserved, to which we have responded with our 'yes'. The Holy Father went on to tell godmothers and godfathers of their "the important duty of supporting and contributing to the work of parents in education, working alongside them in the transmission of the truth of the faith and bearing witness to the values of the Gospel, in raising children in an ever deeper friendship with the Lord.
Later at midday, before praying the ‘Angelus’, Pope Benedict addressed a large crowd in St. Peter’s Square saying Jesus who was sinless, chose to be baptized to show God’s downward movement of love for sinful mankind. This Jesus is the new man who wants to live as a son of God, that is in love; the man who, in the face of evil in the world, chooses the path of humility and responsibility, chooses not to save himself but give his own life for truth and justice. “Baptism is this rebirth in God” the Pope said, hoping that during this Year of Faith all may rediscover the beauty of being born again from above, from the love of God, and live as a child of God.
After praying the ‘Angelus’ the Holy Father recalled the Catholic Church’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees, also marked on Sunday. Comparing “migration flows to a 'pilgrimage of faith and hope', the Pope said whoever leaves his homeland is doing so hoping to find a better future, but also because he trusts God who will leads his steps, as he did with Abraham. The Pope sent each migrant and refugee his “greetings with a special prayer and blessing." Sunday’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees was its 99the edition, since Pope Pius X started it in 1914.