Benedict XVI's Q-and-A Session With Youth in Loreto

"The Pope Is Close to You, He Shares Your Joys and Your Pain"

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 12, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of the question-and-answer session Benedict XVI held with the youth gathered in Loreto, Italy, on Sept. 1.

* * * 

PASTORAL VISIT OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO LORETO 

ON THE OCCASION OF THE AGORÀ OF ITALIAN YOUTH 

PRAYER VIGIL WITH YOUNG PEOPLE 

Plain of Montorso 

Saturday, 1 September 2007 

RESPONSES OF THE HOLY FATHER 

TO QUESTIONS POSED BY YOUNG PEOPLE 

Question posed by Piero Tisti and Giovanna Di Mucci: 

"Many of us young people in the suburbs do not have a centre, a place or people with whom we can identify. Often we are without a history, a perspective or even a future. It seems that what we really wait for never happens. From this come the experience of solitude and at times, an improper dependence on others. Your Holiness, is there someone or something by means of which we can become important? How is it possible to hope when reality negates every dream of happiness, every project of life?". 

Response of the Holy Father: 

Thank you for this question and for your very realistic presentation of the situation. It is not always easy to respond concerning the peripheries of this world with great problems and we do not want to live an easy optimism; but on the other hand, we must have the courage to go forward. 

I will therefore anticipate the essence of my answer: Yes, there is hope today too; each one of you is important because each is known and desired by God and God has his plan for each one. It is our task to discover and respond to it, so that despite these precarious and marginalized situations, we will be able to put into practice God's plan for us. 

However, to go into detail, you have realistically presented to us the situation of a society: in the outskirts it seems hard to move ahead, to change the world for the better. Everything seems concentrated in the great centres of economic and political power, the great bureaucracies dominate, and those in the outskirts truly seem excluded from this life. 

Then, one aspect of this situation of marginalization that affects so many people is that the important cells of social life that can also build centres on the fringes are fragmented: the family, which should be the place where generations meet - from great grandfather to grandchild -, should not only be a place where generations meet but also where they learn to live, learn the essential virtues, and this is in danger. 

Thus, all the more should we do our utmost to ensure that the family survives, that today too, it is the vital cell, the centre in the periphery. 

Therefore, the parish, the living cell of the Church, must also really be a place of inspiration, life and solidarity which helps people build together centres in the periphery. And I must say here, there is often talk about the Church in the suburbs and in the centre, which would be Rome, but in fact in the Church there are no suburbs because where Christ is, the whole centre is there. 

Wherever the Eucharist is celebrated, wherever the Tabernacle stands, there is Christ; hence, there is the centre and we must do all we can to ensure that these living centres are effective, present and truly a force that counters this marginalization. 

The living Church, the Church of the little communities, the parish Church, the movements, must form as many centres in the outskirts and thus help to overcome the difficulties that the leading politics obviously cannot manage to resolve, and at the same time, we must also think that despite the great focuses of power, contemporary society itself is in need of solidarity, of a sense of lawfulness, of the initiative and creativity of all. 

I know that this is easier said than done, but I see here people who are working to increase the number of centres in the peripheries, to increase hope, and thus it seems to me that we should take up the initiative. The Church must be present precisely in the suburbs; Christ must be present, the centre of the world must be present. 

We have seen and we see today in the Gospel that for God there are no peripheries. In the vast context of the Roman Empire, the Holy Land was situated on the fringe; Nazareth was on the margins, an unknown town. Yet that very situation was, de facto, to become the centre that changed the world! 

And thus, we must form centres of faith, hope, love and solidarity, centres of a sense of justice and lawfulness and of cooperation. Only in this way will modern society be able to survive. It needs this courage, it needs to create centres even if, obviously, hope does not seem to exist. We must counter this desperation, we must collaborate with great solidarity in doing our best to increase hope, so that men and women may collaborate and live. 

The world -- we see it -- must be changed, but it is precisely the mission of young people to change it! We cannot change it with our own strength alone but in communion of faith and in journeying on together. In communion with Mary, with all the Saints, in communion with Christ, we can do something essential, and I encourage you and invite you to trust in Christ, to trust in God. 

Being in the great company of the Saints and moving forward with them can change the world, creating centres in the outskirts, so that the company of Saints may truly become visible and thus the hope of all may become realistic, and every one may say: "I am important in the totality of history. The Lord will help us". Thank you. 

Question posed by Sara Simonetta : 

"I believe in the God who has touched my heart, but I have many insecurities, questions and fears that I carry within. It is not easy to speak about God with my friends; many of them see the Church as a reality that judges youth, that opposes their desire for happiness and love. Faced with this refusal, I feel all of my solitude as human and I want to feel near God. Your Holiness, in this silence, where is God?". 

Response of the Holy Father: 

Yes, even though we are believers, we all know God's silence. In the Psalm we have just recited, there is this almost despairing cry: "Make haste to answer me, O Lord... Do not hide your face!", and a little while ago a book of the spiritual experiences of Mother Teresa was published and what we already all knew was a little more clearly shown: with all her charity and the power of her faith, Mother Teresa suffered from God's silence. 

On the one hand, we must also bear God's silence in order to understand our brothers who do not know God. 

On the other, with the Psalm we can always cry to God once again: "Answer us, show your face!". 

And without a doubt, in our life, if our hearts are open, we can find the important moments when God's presence really becomes tangible even for us. 

I now remember a little story that John Paul II told at the Spiritual Exercises he preached in the Vatican when he was not yet Pope. He recounted that after the war he was visited by a Russian official who was a scientist and who said to him as a scientist: "I am certain that God does not exist. Yet, if I am in the mountains, surrounded by his majestic beauty, by his grandeur, I am equally sure that the Creator does exist and that God exists". 

The beauty of creation is one of the sources where we can truly touch God's beauty, we can see that the Creator exists and is good, which is true as Sacred Scripture says in the Creation Narrative, that is, that God conceived of this world and made it with his heart, his will and his reason, and he found it good. 

We too must be good in order to have an open heart and to perceive God's true presence. 

Then, hearing the Word of God in the solemn liturgical celebrations, in celebrations of faith, in the great music of faith, we feel this presence. I remember at this moment another little story which a Bishop on his ad limina visit told me a little while ago. 

There was a very intelligent woman who was not a Christian. She began to listen to the great music of Bach, Handel and Mozart. She was fascinated and said one day: "I must find the source of this beauty", and the woman converted to Christianity, to the Catholic faith, because she had discovered that this beauty has a source, and the source is the presence of Christ in hearts, it is the revelation of Christ in this world. 

Hence, great feasts of faith, of liturgical celebration, but also personal dialogue with Christ: he does not always respond, but there are times when he really responds. Then there is the friendship, the company of faith. 

Now, gathered here in Loreto, we see that faith unites, friendship creates a company of travelling companions. And we sense that all this does not derive from nothing but truly has a source, that the silent God is also a God who speaks, that he reveals himself and above all, that we ourselves can be witnesses of his presence, and from our faith a light truly shines also for others. 

Thus, I would say on the one hand, we must accept that God is silent in this world, but we must not be deaf to his words or blind to his appearance on so many occasions. We see the Lord's presence, especially in creation, in the beautiful liturgy, in friendship within the Church, and full of his presence, we can also give light to others. 

Thus, I come to the second part, or rather, the first part of your question: it is difficult to speak to friends today about God and perhaps even more difficult to talk about the Church, because they see in God only the limit of our freedom, a God of commandments, of prohibitions, and the Church as an institution that limits our freedom, that imposes prohibitions upon us. 

Nonetheless, we must try to make the living Church visible to them, not this idea of a centre of power in the Church with these labels, but the community of companions where, in spite of all life's problems that exist for everyone, is born our joy of living. 

Here, a third memory springs to mind. I was in Brazil, in Fazenda da Esperança, this great community where drug addicts are treated and rediscover hope, the joy of living in this world; and they witnessed what the actual discovery that God exists meant for their recovery from despair. 

They thus understood that their life has meaning and they rediscovered the joy of being in this world, the joy of facing the problems of human life. 

Therefore, in every human heart, despite all the problems that exist, is a thirst for God, and when God disappears, the sun that gives light and joy also disappears. 

This thirst for the infinite that is in our hearts is also demonstrated even in the reality of drugs: the human being wants to extend the quality of life, to have more than life, to have the infinite, but drugs are a lie, they are a fraud, because they do not extend life but destroy it. 

The great thirst that speaks to us of God and sets us on the path that leads to him is true, but we must help one another. Christ came to create a network of communion in the world, where all together we might carry one another, and thus help one another together to find the ways that lead to life and to understand that the Commandments of God are not limits to our freedom but the paths that guide us to the other, toward the fullness of life. 

Let us pray to the Lord to help us understand his presence, to be full of his Revelation, his joy, to help one another to go forward in the company of faith and with Christ to increasingly find the true Face of God, and hence, true life. 

---

Introduction of Pontifical Academy Meeting

Introduction of Pontifical Academy Meeting
"A Lack of Charity and Justice in the World"

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 26, 2007 (Zenit.org).

The plenary session will be held in Vatican City from April 27 to May 1.

* * *

INTRODUCTION: CHARITY AND JUSTICE IN THE RELATIONS AMONG PEOPLES AND NATIONS

The next plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences will be devoted to the study of Charity and Justice in the Relations Among Peoples and Nations. In the recent past, the academy has devoted sessions to the study of globalization and these have enabled us to see that there is a lack of charity and justice in the world we live in.

This may be summarized in a general way as: disproportionate reallocations, promises not honored, and unequal divisions. In addition, we are faced with new signs of the times that are very worrying. All of this has been met by the renewed appeal to charity and justice made by the Pope, Benedict XVI, in particular in his encyclical "Deus Caritas Est." These facts and this appeal form an important part of the background to our meeting.

The subject of the session will be the relations among peoples and nations: the developed, the developing, the emerging and the poor. We will ask ourselves whether these relations, in the light of the social magisterium of the Church, can become more just, fairer, and more peaceful, and what the route should be to achieve such ends. In other words, is a partnership for charity and justice possible in the globalized world?

1. Worrying recent signs of the times

Although it is at times a common conviction that the pursuit of charity and justice at the international level is of key importance for contemporary society, at the same time we encounter signs that are working in the opposite direction:

The re-emergence of nationalism. In developing and developed countries there are signs of crisis as regards two key features of the process of globalization: one is a human problem and relates to increased legal and illegal international migration and the political resistance to it; the second is economic and relates to the tensions between protectionism and free trade.

Weak convergence. In spite of continuing rapid economic growth in many developing countries, signals of economic and social convergence between developed and developing countries are still confined to only to a few of this last category. This is not only the case at the economic level but is also true in the field of education.

Pervasive poverty. At the same time, even in countries that have a fast-growing economy, the incidence of poverty and extreme poverty is still very high.

The weakness of multilateralism. Bilateralism is growing stronger and most multilateral institutions, such as the UN, the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, and even some of their regional counterparts, are demonstrating signs of weakness and tiredness. However, no institutions are presently emerging to replace them.

Millennium Goals. These were based on a broad international consensus but there are now well-grounded doubts about the possibility of really implementing them within the time envisaged. The previous consensus on the Millennium Goals is thus beginning to crumble. As a result, there is a need for further reflection on the mechanisms by which these goals can be achieved, together with the formulation of new proposals.

Insufficient and inefficient aid. The aid that has been given has fallen far short of the goal of allocating 0.7% of the GDP of developed countries to foreign aid. In addition, the aid that has been given has often been inefficiently distributed and utilized both by international organizations and by local governments and agencies.

Terrorism and war. As the events of Sept. 11, 2001, indicate, the beginning of the new century has been characterized by a notable increase in the social and moral scourge of terrorism. At the same time, the world is still afflicted on a large scale by wars between countries and wars within countries.

2. The Encyclical "Deus Caritas Est" of Pope Benedict XVI

Our meeting wants to draw inspiration from the Pope's first encyclical and its important implications. In particular this document reminds us that the theological and human virtue of charity must preside over all of the social teaching and all of the social works of the Church and her members. First of all, this encyclical leads us to the center of our faith, to the truth that "God is love."

Thus the Pope declares that "Jesus united into a single precept this commandment of love for God and the commandment of love for neighbor." The Pope draws our attention to the fact that this teaching is both timely and significant "in a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence."

This is why "Deus Caritas Est" has been correctly described as being in part a social encyclical. It is love (caritas) that animates the Church's care for the needy, the work of laywomen and men for justice and peace in the secular sphere, and is the leavening force of the Church in society. And without love, as Paul told the Corinthians, our words and works will come to nothing.

Indeed, "Deus Caritas Est" places itself in the long lineage of other social encyclicals (cf. No. 27), not only because it addresses the virtue of charity but also because it attributes primary importance to the virtue of justice. Indeed, it has a highly significant reference to a famous statement on this virtue by one of the great figures of Tradition: "As Augustine once said, a state which is not governed according to justice would be just a bunch of thieves: 'Remota itaque iustitia quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia?"'

Taking into consideration traditional philosophical-political doctrines and also (in a critical way) the Marxist demand for a fair distribution of goods by public powers, Benedict XVI declares: "In today's complex situation, not least because of the growth of a globalized economy, the social doctrine of the Church has become a set of fundamental guidelines offering approaches that are even beyond the confines of the Church: in the face of ongoing development these guidelines need to be addressed in the context of dialogue with all those seriously concerned for humanity and for the world in which we live" (No. 27).

When discussing the relationship between the Church, a "Community of Love," and politics, the Pope's approach to justice is particularly relevant to the social sciences and to the role of the magisterium of the Church.

First of all, the Pope offers the strongest vision that has ever been formulated in the contemporary age on the relationship between politics and justice: "The just ordering of society and the State is a central responsibility of politics." Indeed, "Justice is both the aim and the intrinsic criterion of all politics."

For the Pope justice (and politics) is not a mere utilitarian or contractual technique but "by its very nature has to do with ethics" (No. 28). In contrast to the solely descriptive and value-free understanding of human action proposed by many within the human and social sciences, the Pope upholds the importance of practical reason by renewing the question of the most just political order.

However, he perceives the modern danger of detaching reason from faith: "If reason is to be exercised properly, it must undergo constant purification, since it can never be completely free of the danger of a certain ethical blindness caused by the dazzling effect of power and special interests." Indeed, we cannot but engage in an assessment of our sense of justice in the light of faith: "From God's standpoint, faith liberates reason from its blind spots and therefore helps it to be ever more fully itself."

This critical work of faith frees reason from its limits: "Faith enables reason to do its work more effectively and to see its proper object more clearly." Not only the historical dimension of the meaning of justice, founded on both the Jewish and Christian traditions and the Roman and Greek inheritance, but also its contemporary meaning, derive from the constant purification that faith brings to reason: "This is where Catholic social doctrine has its place: it has no intention of giving the Church power over the State. Even less is it an attempt to impose on those who do not share the faith ways of thinking and modes of conduct proper to faith."

To conclude, here, too, the Pope attributes to the Christian a fundamental task and stresses that the aim of the social doctrine of the Church "is simply to help purify reason and to contribute, here and now, to the acknowledgement and attainment of what is just" (No. 28a).

The Holy Father, in conformity with this teaching on charity and justice, thus calls for the structures of charitable service in the social context of the present day to promote the wellbeing of individuals, of peoples and of humanity: "Our times call for a new readiness to assist our neighbors in need. … Concern for our neighbor transcends the confines of national communities and has increasingly broadened its horizon to the whole world" (No. 30).