VATICAN CITY, 1 JAN 2009 (VIS) - At noon today, shortly after celebrating Mass in the Vatican Basilica, Benedict XVI addressed the pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square to pray the Angelus.
The Pope wished a happy New Year to all present and to those who were following the Angelus on radio or television, assuring them that "with the Lord's grace - and only with it - can we have ever-new hope that the future will be better than the past".
With the message for the World Day of Peace, the theme of which is "Fighting Poverty to Build Peace" in 2009, he affirmed that his wish "is to dialogue anew with those responsible at national levels and in international organizations, offering the Catholic Church's contribution in promoting a new world order worthy of the human being".
"At the beginning of the new year", he said, "my first objective is precisely to invite all leaders and ordinary citizens not to be disheartened in the face of difficulties or failures, and to renew their commitments".
The Holy Father noted that "in the second part of 2008, an economic crisis of vast proportions arose. This crisis must be examined in detail as a serious symptom that requires intervention at its roots. It is not enough - as Jesus would say - to take a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one. Putting the poor in first place means decidedly moving toward the global solidarity that John Paul II pointed out as necessary, co-ordinating the potentialities of the market with those of civil society in constant respect of the law and tending always to the common good".
"Jesus Christ", the Pope concluded, "did not organize campaigns against poverty but proclaimed the Gospel for a complete ransom from moral and material misery to the poor. The Church, with its unceasing labors of evangelization and human promotion, does the same. We call on the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, to help all men and women walk together the Path of peace".
ANG/POVERTY ECONOMIC CRISIS/... VIS 20090102 (350)
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