MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XXI
ITALIAN CATHOLIC ACTION ON THE OCCASION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY XIV
VATICAN CITY, Tuesday, May 10, 2011 (ZENIT.org) .- Here is the text of the message the Pope XVI sent to the participants at the XIV General Assembly of the Italian Catholic Action, which was held in Rome from 6 to 8 May on the theme "Living the faith, love life. educational commitment of Catholic Action. "
Dear friends of the Italian Catholic Action!
you gather in your General Assembly on the theme: Living the faith, love life. The educational commitment of Catholic Action, to reaffirm your love for Christ and the Church and renew the way of your Association, with a commitment to fully assume your responsibility lay service to the Gospel. You are adolescents, young adults are put at the disposal of the Lord in the Church with a solemn, public, in communion with the Bishops, to give a good witness in all areas of life. Your presence is ubiquitous in the parishes, families, neighborhoods, in social settings: a presence that live in the everyday and the aspiration to holiness. Your children and children and young people want to be festive and happy, generous and courageous, like Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.
You have the drive of the dedication in the construction of the city and courage to serve in the institutions, such as Vittorio Bachelet, like Blessed Alberto Marvelli, as Giuseppe Toniolo, soon to be beatified. In your draft human and Christian want to be loyal friends of Christ, as the pious Pierina Morosini and Antonia Messina, AS VENERABLE Armida Barelli. You want to revive our communities with children fascinating for the purity of his heart, as Antonietta Meo, capable of attracting parents, Jesus. When your young people welcome the occasion of Christmas or the month of peace, I'm always amazed at the authenticity with which he communicated the joy the Lord.
I met last year in October, with your teen and young, committed and cheerful, lovers of true freedom that leads them to a generous life, a direct apostolate. Have before them the example of men and women content with their faith, who want to accompany new generations with love, wisdom and prayer, patiently seeking to build community living tissues and address the most pressing problems of everyday life family: the defense of life, the suffering of separation and abandonment, solidarity in misfortune, la acogida de los pobres y de los apátridas. Os siguen presbíteros asistentes que saben bien que significa educar a la santidad. En las diócesis estáis llamados a colaborar con vuestros obispos, de manera constante, fiel y directa, en la vida y en la misión de la Iglesia. Todo esto no nace espontáneamente, sino con una respuesta generosa a la llamada de Dios de vivir con plena responsabilidad el Bautismo, la dignidad del ser cristianos. Por esto os organizáis en asociaciones con ideales y calidades precisas como lo indica el Concilio Ecuménico Vaticano II: una asociación que tiene la finalidad apostólica de la Iglesia, que colabora con la jerarquía, que se manifiesta como cuerpo orgánico y que recibe de la Iglesia an explicit mandate (cfr.Decr. Apostolicam actuositatem, 20). On the basis of who you would like, dear friends, in the footsteps of my venerable predecessors, confide some indication of commitment.
1. The educational perspective
On the line marked by the bishops of the churches in Italy, you are especially called to assess your vocation education. Catholic Action is an educational force qualified, supported by good tools for an ancient tradition. Know how to educate children and youth with the ACR, know how to conduct educational tours with adolescents and young people, are capable of lifelong learning for adults. Your action will be more penetrating if, as you do, you work even more with you in a deep optical favorecéis unit and educational collaborations with other forces to be church or civil. To educate is to go beyond the occasion, the immediate moment, and build, with the collaboration of all Christian life project founded on the Gospel and the Magisterium of the Church A central insight of the individual. Your project format is valid for many Christians and people of good will, especially if you can see, model of Christian life, generous and joyful commitment of deep interiority and ecclesial communion.
2. The proposal of holiness
Your holiness associations are gyms, where you entrenáis full time in the cause of the Kingdom of God in a deeper way of life I characterized as evangelical believers in secular places of everyday life. This requires intense prayer either communal or personal, continuous listening to the Word of God, and a regular sacramental life. It is necessary to make the term "holiness" a common word, not exceptional, not only to states designated heroic Christian life, but to indicate in the reality of every day, a vigorous response and openness to the action of the Holy Spirit.
3. Training in cultural and political commitment
Holiness be dignified also for you to serve the common good based on Christian principles, offering, in the life of the city, qualified presence, free of charge, conduct rigorous, faithful to Church teaching oriented and good. Training in cultural and political commitment to you is therefore an important task that requires a thought embodied the Gospel, able to discuss ideas and proposals apply to the laity. This is a commitment that is met mainly from the daily life of mothers and fathers who struggle with the challenges of education children, workers and students, cultural centers targeted for growth of all. Italy has gone through difficult periods in history and has left them stronger, thanks to the unconditional commitment of the Catholic laity committed to the policy and institutions. Today the country's public life requires further and generous response by believers, to make available to all, their own abilities and spiritual forces, intellectual and moral.
4. A broad commitment to the great shock of the Mediterranean world and
I ask finally, to be generous, welcoming, supportive and above all, common beauty of faith. Many men, women and youth are placed in contact with our world, you know superficially, blinded by illusory images, and need not lose hope, not to sell their dignity. They need to bread, work, freedom, justice, peace, recognition of their own and irrevocable rights of children of God. They need faith, and we can help them, respecting their religious beliefs in a free and peaceful exchange offering with simplicity, honesty and zeal our faith in Jesus Christ. In the construction of the history of Italy, Catholic Action, as I wrote to the President of the Republic on the occasion of 150 anniversary of the unification of Italy had a big role, struggling to hold together the love of country and faith in God. Scattered throughout the country, even today can help create a popular culture, widespread, positive, and be responsible, capable of serving the country, as in the period in which the Charter was drafted and was reconstructed country after the Second World War. Catholic Action can help Italy to meet his peculiar vocation, placed in the Mediterranean, a crossroads of cultures, aspirations, tensions that require a large force of communion, solidarity and generosity. Italy has offered to people near and far, the richness of their culture and their faith, their art and thoughts. Today you, lay Christians are called to offer with conviction, the beauty of your culture and the reasons for your faith, beyond fraternal solidarity for Europe this up to the challenge of the era.
I extend to all the Assembly my most cordial greetings, greeting the President, Professor Frank Miano, Assistant General, Monsignor Domenico Sigalini, and all the delegates, and each and every one of the great family of Catholic Action sent a special blessing See.
From the Vatican, May 6, 2011
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