VATICAN CITY, 7 SEP 2009 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received a group of prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (West 1-2), who have just completed their "ad limina" visit.
The Pope began his remarks by recalling his own 2007 visit to the Brazilian city of Aparecida for the opening of the Fifth General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean, during which he was able "to experience the Brazilian people's affection for Peter's Successor".
Turning then to consider the challenges and concerns the bishops had described to him, the Holy Father remarked upon "the striking distances that, together with your priests and others responsible for the mission, you have to cover in order to serve your faithful, many of whom have to face the problems of a relatively recent urbanisation in which the State does not always mange to promote justice and the common good".
The Holy Father encouraged the prelates not to lose heart and to remember that "announcing the Gospel and adhering to Christian values ... is not just useful but indispensable for building a good society and achieving true integral human development".
Speaking then of the lack of priests in Brazil, where nonetheless "the harvest is abundant", he reminded the bishops that part of their ministry is "the generation of new pastors" because, "although God alone is capable of sowing the call to pastoral service of His people in the human heart, all members of the Church should question themselves on the urgency of this cause and the personal commitment with which they feel and experience it".
Benedict XVI also told the bishops that in modern society, in which "so many people seem to want to live everything in a single minute, while others give themselves up to boredom, inertia, or various forms of violence", in reality "these desperate lives are seeking hope, a fact evinced by the widespread and at times confused need for spirituality, and the renewed search for points of reference to resume the journey of like".
In the decades following Vatican Council II "many Christian communities sank into self-secularisation. ... At the present time there is a new generation born into this secularised ecclesial environment which, instead of demonstrating openness and consent, sees in society an ever-deepening gulf of differences and contrasts to the Magisterium of the Church, especially in the field of ethics. In this godless desert, the new generation thirsts for transcendence".
Modern youth "needs formators who are true men of God, priests completely dedicated to formation who bear witness of the gift of self to the Church through celibacy and an austere life, according to the model of Christ the Good Shepherd. In this way the young will learn to be open to the meeting with the Lord, though daily participation in the Eucharist. They will love silence and prayer and seek primarily the glory of God and the salvation of souls".
The Holy Father concluded by asking the bishops to reflect upon the theme of the formation of seminarians and priests "in faithfulness to the universal norms of the Church", which was the subject of their plenary assembly of last April.
AL/.../BRAZIL VIS 20090907 (540)
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