POPE WELCOMES HUNGARY'S BISHOPS ON "AD LIMINA" VISIT

VATICAN CITY, JAN 30, 2001 (VIS) - Pope John Paul today resumed the traditional quinquennial "ad limina" visits to Rome by bishops, which he had suspended during the Jubilee year, except for two individual bishops whom he met in June from Vietnam and Portugal. Today he welcomed the bishops of Hungary to the Vatican and, in his talk to them in their language, he highlighted the need to defend life, combat religious indifference and renew their pastoral ministries to families and to young people.

Recalling that Hungary is now celebrating its first millennium as a Christian nation, the Pope said he liked the motto they had chosen for the occasion: "Our past is our hope - Christ is our future." He said that Christ must be the focus of the lives of all the faithful: "It is important never to lose sight of the face of the Savior and to put into practice the Gospel message."

The Holy Father expressed his "appreciation" for the bishops' efforts to promote "an authentic spirituality," and reminded them that one of the principal Gospel imperatives is the defense of life: "More than ever ... we must inspire a true 'culture of life' in our world."

"Notwithstanding your tireless dedication," the Pope went on, "even in your country we note worrisome data which marks in many countries of the old continent the spread of an ever more preoccupying culture of death. The statistics on abortion published in the last ten years in your country are alarming. They must incite you to defend without fear and with clarity human life in every phase of its existence, from conception to natural death. Do everything possible to encourage pregnant women to complete their pregnancy." Pastors, he added, "must be ready to speak on every occasion, opportune or not."

Turning to the religious indifference which marks many societies today, John Paul II said that "even if He is put on the margins or silenced, God is present. Certainly, many live as if God does not exist. But the desire for Him is always alive in man's heart. Man, in fact, ... seeks a truth which transcends him because he feels ... that in this is the meaning of his own life."

The Holy Father then spoke of the decades of persecution which the Church in Hungary had suffered, saying that some of the forms it took were "violent, others sophisticated and more subtle. In the last ten years the Church has lived a different reality: this 'turning point' has brought not only new freedom but also a 'consumeristic shock'. Material goods are on display with such insistence that they often suffocate any desire for religious and moral values."

Consumerism also often makes us overlook or forget the meaning of Sunday, the Pope underlined. "Sunday is both the day of the Lord and the day of man. ... Man, as a person, must never be crushed by economic interests. And this is a real risk because 'consumer societies', where God is often given up as dead, have created enough idols, among which is that of profit at all costs." He urged the bishops "to reawaken the voice of God in man's conscience."

In closing words, Pope John Paul urged the bishops to renew their pastoral ministry to Christian families, "true domestic Churches," and to pay particular attention to young people.

To fulfill these and other pastoral ministries, the Pope advised Hungary's bishops to use not only the traditional forms of evangelization such as preaching, catechesis, retreats and pastoral letters, but to also turn to "the new 'areopaghi'" of the radio, television and new technologies. He congratulated them for "wishing to realize a Catholic radio network."

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