POPE WELCOMES MEMBERS OF PONTIFICAL BIBLICAL COMMISSION

VATICAN CITY, APR 29, 2003 (VIS) - The Pope today welcomed members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and their president, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, as they celebrate their annual plenary assembly on the theme "The Bible and Morals" and also commemorate the centenary of the institution of this pontifical commission.

Noting this anniversary, the Holy Father said that "the Pontifical Biblical Commission serves the cause of the Word of God according to the objectives that were established for it by my predecessors Leo XIII and Paul VI. It has gone forward with the times, sharing uneasiness and anxieties, concerning itself with indicating in the message of Revelation the answer that God offers to the serious problems that from era to era trouble mankind."

"One of these," he added, "is the object of your current research. You have summed it up in the title 'the Bible and Morals'. Everyone can see that there is a paradox: man today, disillusioned by so many unsatisfactory answers to the basic questions about life, seems to open himself to the voice that comes from the Transcendent Being and is expressed in the bible message. At the same time, however, he seems to be more and more intolerant of being asked to behave in harmony with the values that the Church has forever presented as founded on the Gospel. We thus see the most varied attempts to unlink biblical revelation from the most binding proposals of life."

In conclusion, the Pope pointed out that "an answer to this situation can be found in carefully listening to the Word of God, which has its fullest expression in the teaching of Christ."

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