VATICAN CITY, FEB 10, 2006 (VIS) - This morning, Benedict XVI received participants in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, telling them that in their service to the entire Church, and in particular to bishops, they must highlight "the centrality of the Catholic faith, in its authentic expression."
The Pope pointed out how "when the perception of this centrality diminishes, the fabric of ecclesial life also loses its original vivacity and is damaged, decaying into a form of sterile activism or deteriorating into mere worldly political cunning." Yet, if the truth of faith holds a central position in Christian life, human existence "is revived by a love that knows neither rest nor limit."
"Jesus Christ," the Holy Father went on, "is the Truth made Flesh, Who draws the world to Him. The light radiated by Christ is splendor of truth. All other truths are fragments of the Truth that He is and that leads back to Him. Jesus is the pole star of human freedom, and without Him [that freedom] loses direction, because without knowledge of the truth freedom is distorted and isolated, and is reduced to sterile will."
Benedict XVI highlighted the fact that Jesus Christ "attracts to Himself all men's hearts, opening them and filling them with joy. In fact, only the truth is capable of occupying the mind and making it fully happy." This happiness, he went on, frees the soul from "the shackles of egoism, making it capable of authentic love."
"Love for truth also inspires and guides the Christian approach to the modern world, and the Church's evangelizing commitment," said the Pope. The great advances made in the field of scientific knowledge, "have helped us better to understand the mystery of the creation." However this progress "has sometimes been so rapid as to make it very difficult to recognize how it can be compatible with the truths concerning mankind and the world revealed by God. At times, certain scientific assertions have even been opposed to such truths." On this matter, the Pope reaffirmed the need for "deeper knowledge of the truths discovered by reason, in the certainty that there is no cause for competition of any kind between reason and faith."
Benedict XVI then indicated that "dialogue between faith and reason, religion and science, offers not only the possibility of demonstrating to modern man, in a more effective and convincing manner, the reasonableness of faith in God, but also that of showing that in Jesus Christ lies the definitive fulfillment of all authentic human aspirations. Thus, serious evangelizing efforts cannot overlook the questions arising from modern scientific discoveries and philosophical debate."
The Holy Father concluded his address by telling the members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that "your service to the fullness of the faith is a service to truth and, hence, to joy, a joy that comes from the depths of the heart. ... From this viewpoint, your doctrinal ministry can well be defined as 'pastoral.' Your service is, in fact, a service to the full diffusion of the light of God in the world!"
AC/FAITH:REASON:TRUTH/CDF VIS 20060210 (530)
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