EGYPT: FAVOUR FRATERNAL RELATIONS BETWEEN RELIGIONS

VATICAN CITY, 6 NOV 2008 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican, the Pope received the Letters of Credence of Lamia Aly Hamada Mekhemar, the new ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to the Holy See.

  In his address to her the Holy Father spoke of "Egypt's many efforts to favour peace and harmony, and to seek solutions that respect States and persons", indicating that these efforts "concord with those of the Holy See which also strives to favour and promote" such things.

  "Religions", he said, "can and must be factors of peace. Yet despite everything they can be poorly understood and used to provoke violence and death. Respecting the sensibilities and history of each country and of each human or religious community, ... and above all an authentic desire to seek peace, favours the reconciliation of peoples and the peaceful coexistence of everyone".

  After highlighting how Egypt "has always been known as a land of hospitality for countless refuges, both Muslim and Christian, who have sought security and peace in its territory", Benedict XVI expressed the hope that "this noble tradition many continue for the good of everyone".

  Referring then to the reciprocal understanding and respect between Islam and Christianity, the Pope pointed out that although much progress has been made in this field, "there still remains a long way to go".

  "What is important above all", he continued, "is to promote good mutual understanding. This cannot be limited to a restricted group of dialogue but little by little must irradiate out to the people who in their daily lives, in cities and villages, have to develop a mentality of reciprocal respect, one that can lead to mutual esteem".

  The Holy Father indicated that the Catholic community in Egypt, despite being very small, "demonstrates the great diversity that exists in out Church and the possibility of harmonious coexistence between the great Eastern and Western traditions. Their historic social commitment to the people of Egypt in the fields of education, healthcare and charity work, bears witness to a gratuitous love that knows no religious distinction. This is something understood and appreciated by Egyptian society as a whole".

  "In your country, the Catholic Church also wants to enter into contact with the many visiting Catholic tourists who wish to practice their religion. I am convinced that they will soon be given the chance to pray to God in a dignified fashion at appropriate places of worship in the new tourist sites that have come into being in the last few years. It would be a good signal to the world if Egypt were to favour relations of friendship and fraternity among religions and peoples, in accordance with its ancient and noble traditions".
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CATHOLIC-MUSLIM FORUM: OVERCOME PREJUDICES OF THE PAST

VATICAN CITY, 6 NOV 2008 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican, Benedict XVI received participants in the First Seminar of the Catholic-Muslim Forum. The event has been organised by the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue and by the 138 Muslim representatives who, on 13 October 2007, sent an open letter to the Pope and to other heads of Christian Churches and ecclesial Communities.

  In his English-language remarks to them, the Pope noted that the open letter "has received numerous responses, and has given rise to dialogue, specific initiatives and meetings, aimed at helping us to know one another more deeply and to grow in esteem for our shared values. The great interest which the present seminar has awakened is an incentive for us to ensure that the reflections and the positive developments which emerge from Muslim-Christian dialogue are not limited to a small group of experts and scholars, but are passed on as a precious legacy to be placed at the service of all, to bear fruit in the way we live each day".

  The Holy Father pointed out that the theme chosen for the meeting, "Love of God, Love of Neighbour: The Dignity of the Human Person and Mutual Respect", highlights "even more clearly the theological and spiritual foundations of a central teaching of our respective religions. ... Our calling and mission is to share freely with others the love which God lavishes upon us without any merit of our own".

  "I was pleased to learn that you were able at this meeting to adopt a common position on the need to worship God totally and to love our fellow men and women disinterestedly, especially those in distress and need. God calls us to work together on behalf of the victims of disease, hunger, poverty, injustice and violence.

  "For Christians", he added, "the love of God is inseparably bound to the love ... of all men and women, without distinction of race and culture. ... The Muslim tradition is also quite clear in encouraging practical commitment in serving the most needy. ... We should thus work together in promoting genuine respect for the dignity of the human person and fundamental human rights, even though our anthropological visions and our theologies justify this in different ways. There is a great and vast field in which we can act together in defending and promoting the moral values which are part of our common heritage".

  The Pope continued: "Only by starting with the recognition of the centrality of the person and the dignity of each human being, respecting and defending life which is the gift of God, and is thus sacred for Christians and for Muslims alike - only on the basis of this recognition, can we find a common ground for building a more fraternal world, a world in which confrontations and differences are peacefully settled, and the devastating power of ideologies is neutralised.

  "My hope", he went on, " is that these fundamental human rights will be protected for all people everywhere. Political and religious leaders have the duty of ensuring the free exercise of these rights in full respect for each individual's freedom of conscience and freedom of religion. The discrimination and violence which even today religious people experience throughout the world, and the often violent persecutions to which they are subject, represent unacceptable and unjustifiable acts, all the more grave and deplorable when they are carried out in the name of God.

  "God's name can only be a name of peace and fraternity, justice and love. We are challenged to demonstrate, by our words and above all by our deeds, that the message of our religions is unfailingly a message of harmony and mutual understanding. It is essential that we do so, lest we weaken the credibility and the effectiveness not only of our dialogue, but also of our religions themselves".

  "Let us unite our efforts, animated by good will, in order to overcome all misunderstanding and disagreements", Pope Benedict concluded. "Let us resolve to overcome past prejudices and to correct the often distorted images of the other which even today can create difficulties in our relations; let us work with one another to educate all people, especially the young, to build a common future".
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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, 6 NOV 2008 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences five prelates from the Bolivian Episcopal Conference, on their "ad limina" visit:

    - Archbishop Edmundo Luis Flavio Abastoflor Montero of la Paz, accompanied by Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Omar Aparicio Cespedes.

    - Bishop Juan Vargas Aruquipa of Coroico.

    - Bishop Toribio Ticona Porco, prelate of the territorial prelature of Corocoro, accompanied by Bishop Jesus Agustin Lopez de Lama C.P., prelate emeritus.
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IMPORTANCE OF THE RESURRECTION IN PAULINE CHRISTOLOGY

VATICAN CITY, 5 NOV 2008 (VIS) - Continuing his series of catecheses on Pauline Christology, in today's general audience Benedict XVI considered the importance given by the Apostle to the resurrection of Jesus, as evinced in his First Letter to the Corinthians.

  In the resurrection "is the solution to the problem posed by the drama of the Cross", said the Pope. "The Cross cannot of itself explain the Christian faith. The Paschal mystery consists in the fact that the crucified One 'was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures'. ... This is the key to Pauline Christology, everything revolves around this centre of gravity. ... He Who was crucified - and who thus expressed God's immense love for man - rose and lives among us".

  "The originality of this Christology never comes at the expense of faithfulness to tradition. The 'kerygma' of the Apostles precedes Paul's individual re-elaboration. All his arguments are rooted in the shared tradition in which the faith of all the Churches is expressed. In this way St. Paul offers us a universally-valid model for theology and preaching. Theologians and preachers do not create new visions of the world or of life but remain at the service of transmitted truth, ... of the real fact of Christ, of the Cross, of the resurrection. Their task is to help us understand today, behind the ancient words, the reality of God-with-us, and thus the reality of true life".

  "In announcing the resurrection St. Paul is not concerned with presenting a comprehensive doctrinal exposition, but approaches the subject by responding to the concrete doubts and queries that were put to him by the faithful". He concentrated "on essentials: we have been 'justified' - that its made just, saved - by Christ Who died and rose for us. What emerges above all is the fact of the resurrection, without which Christian life would be simply absurd.

  "On that Easter morning", the Holy Father added, "something extraordinary yet at the same time very real happened, something marked by specific signs recorded by numerous witnesses. For Paul, as for other authors of the New Testament, the resurrection is linked to the testimony of those who had direct experience of the Risen One. This involved seeing and feeling, not just with the eyes or with the senses, but also with an inner light that compels us to recognise what the exterior senses record as objective fact. Paul, then, gives ... fundamental importance to the apparitions, which are a condition for faith in the Risen One. ... Thus that chain of tradition came into being which, through the testimony of the Apostles and the first disciples, reached down to later generations and to us".

  "The first way to express such testimony is to preach the resurrection of Christ as a summary of the announcement of the Gospel, as the culmination of an itinerary of salvation". For the Apostle, the resurrection is of fundamental importance because "it consists in the fact that Jesus, elevated from the humility of His earthly existence, was declared to be Son of God 'with power'".

  "With the resurrection begins the announcement of the Gospel of Christ to all peoples, the Kingdom of Christ begins ... which has no other power other than that of truth and love. The resurrection, then, definitively reveals the true identity and extraordinary stature of the Crucified One. ... Jesus is God, ... Lord of the living and the dead".

  "The theology of the Cross is not a theory, it is the reality of Christian life. Living in faith in Jesus Christ, living truth and love, involves daily sacrifices, it involves suffering. Christianity is not the easy path, rather it is a demanding climb illuminated by the light of Christ and His great hope".

  "True believers obtain salvation by professing with their mouths that Jesus is the Lord and believing with their hearts that God raised Him from the dead. In this way they become part of the process by which the first Adam, worldly and subject to corruption and death, is transformed into the ultimate Adam, celestial and incorruptible. This process began with the resurrection of Christ, on which is founded the hope that we too may one day enter with Christ into our true homeland in heaven".
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IN MEMORIAM

VATICAN CITY, 5 NOV 2008 (VIS) - The following prelates died in recent weeks:

 - Bishop Salvatore Boccaccio of Frosinone-Veroli-Ferentino, Italy, on 18 October at the age of 70.

 - Bishop Ernest Kombo S.J. of Owando, Republic of Congo, on 22 October at the age of 67.

 - Archbishop Santo Bartolomeo Quadri, emeritus of Modena-Nonantola, Italy, on 17 October at the age of 98.

 - Bishop Augusto Petro, emeritus of Uruguaiana, Brazil, on 28 October at the age of 90.

 - Archbishop Venedictos Printesis, emeritus of Athenai, Greece, on 21 October at the age of 91.
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