Audience Following a welcome speech the Pope made to almost 150 000 members in St. Peter's Square I (Denis) and Daniele were prorpio them ... a unique experience of communion with the Church
Pope Benedict XVI
Rome to Italian Catholic Action, May 4, 2008
Dear children, youth and adults of Catholic Action
E 'gives me great pleasure to welcome you here today in St. Peter's Square, where in the past few times
your praiseworthy Association met with the Successor of Peter.
Thanks for your visit. I greet with affection all of you who have come from all over Italy, as well as members of the International Forum
coming from forty countries worldwide. In particular, I greet
National President, Professor Luigi Alici, feel gratitude for the words that he has turned
, Assistant General, Monsignor Domenico Sigalini, and diocesan and national authorities.
I also thank you for the special gift that I have wanted to offer through your representatives and testifying
your solidarity towards the needy.
express deep gratitude to Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, which
celebrated Mass for you.
You came to Rome in the company of your spiritual many saints, blessed, venerable and
servants of God, men and women, youth and children, educators, and chaplains, rich in Christian virtues,
grew up in the ranks of Catholic Action, who these days turns 140 years old. The magnificent
crown of the faces symbolically embrace Piazza San Pietro is a tangible sign of holiness
full of light and love. These witnesses, who followed Jesus with all their might,
who have labored for the Church and the Kingdom of God, are your most authentic
identity card. Is it not possible, even today, for you guys, for you young people and adults, make your
life a witness of communion with the Lord, that it becomes a true masterpiece
of holiness? It is not just that the purpose of your association? This will be
certainly possible if Catholic Action will continue to remain faithful to their
deep roots of faith, nourished by full adherence to the Word of God, an unconditional love to
Church, a vigilant participation in civic life and a constant commitment to training. Dear friends,
respond generously to this call to holiness, according to the forms most suited to your
lay terms! Continue to be inspired by the three great rendition that my venerable
predecessor, the Servant of God John Paul II has entrusted to Loreto in 2004: contemplation, communion and mission
.
Catholic Action began as a particular association of lay faithful
marked by a special and direct relationship with the Pope, and soon became a valuable form of "collaboration
hierarchical apostolate of the laity," recommended "strongly" from the Vatican II, which identifies the essential
"characteristic features" (cf. Decree Apostolicam actuositatem, 20). This
his vocation remains valid today. I encourage you to continue your generosity in
service to the Church. Assuming the general apostolic purpose, in a spirit of intimate union with the Successor of Peter and
active co-responsibility with Pastors, you incarnate a fruitful ministry in
balance between the universal Church and local Church, which calls you to offer a continuous and invaluable contribution
communion.
This broad church, which identifies your charisma associations, is not the sign of an uncertain or outdated
, gives rather a great responsibility to your vocation lay
: enlightened and sustained by the action of the Holy Spirit and always rooted in
path of the Church, you are challenged to courageously seek ever new synthesis between
the proclamation of salvation in Christ to our contemporaries and the promotion of the integral good of the person and
entire human family.
In my speech at the Fourth National Congress, held in Verona in October 2006, I
recognized that the Church in Italy is very much alive, which maintains a presence in
among people of all ages and conditions. The Christian traditions are often rooted and
continue to produce fruit, while it is in a great effort of evangelization and catechesis,
addressed particularly to the younger generations, but now even more so to
families "(Teachings of Pope Benedict XVI vol. II / 2, 2006, pp. 468-469). How can we not see in this
widespread presence also a discreet but tangible Catholic Action?
The beloved Italian nation, in fact, he could always count on men and women formed in your
Association, willing to selflessly serve the cause of the common good, for the edification of
a just ordering of society and the state. Know, then, always live up to your
Baptism, who has dipped into the death and resurrection of Jesus for the salvation of every man who met
and a world thirsting for peace and truth. Be "worthy of the Gospel" and "ministers of Christian wisdom
for a more humane world ": this provides the theme of your Assembly and
that 's commitment to assume that today in front of the Italian Church, represented here by you, by your priests
assistants, the Bishops and their President.
In a missionary Church, placed before an educational emergency
as that found in Italy today, you who love and serve you be untiring preachers and educators
prepared and generous in a Church called to evidence also very demanding fidelity and tempted to
adaptation, be courageous witnesses and prophets of evangelical radicalism;
in a church that daily confronts the relativistic mindset, hedonistic, consumerist know
enlarge the area of \u200b\u200brationality in the sign of a faith friend of intelligence, both within a culture
popular and widespread, and in the search of a more elaborate and reflected, in a Church which calls
heroism of sanctity, respond without fear, always trusting in the mercy of God
Dear friends of the Italian Catholic, the path in front of you are not alone: \u200b\u200bthere
accompany your saints. Other figures still had significant roles in your
Association: I think for example, among others, to Giuseppe Toniolo and a Armida Barelli.
Stimulated by these examples of Christianity lived, you have embarked on a remarkable year, a year that might be described
of holiness, which are eager to translate in real life
the teachings of the Gospel. I encourage you in this regard. Intensified prayer,
rescheduled, your conduct on the eternal values \u200b\u200bof the Gospel, inspired by the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
. The Pope follows you with a constant reminder to the Lord, I cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessing to
you here and the entire Association.
