THE "SUMMA THEOLOGICA", ST. THOMAS AQUINAS' MASTERPIECE

VATICAN CITY, 23 JUN 2010 (VIS) - In today's general audience, celebrated in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope delivered the last in a series of three catecheses on the figure of St. Thomas Aquinas.

  The Holy Father explained how St. Thomas' masterpiece, the "Summa Theologica", contains 512 questions and 2,669 articles in which the saint "precisely, clearly and pertinently" outlines the truths of faith as they emerge from "the teachings of Holy Scripture and of the Fathers of the Church, especially St. Augustine". This exertion "of the human mind was always illuminated - as St. Thomas' own life shows - by prayer, by the light that comes from on high.

  "In his 'Summa'", the Pope added, "St. Thomas starts from the fact that God exists in three different ways: God exists in Himself, He is the principle and end of all things, so all creatures come from and depend upon Him. Secondly, God is present through His Grace in the life and activity of Christians, of the saints. Finally, God is present in a very special way in the person of Christ, and in the Sacraments which derive from His work of redemption".

  "St. Thomas dedicates special attention to the mystery of the Eucharist, to which he was particularly devoted", said Benedict XVI, encouraging people "to follow the example of the saints and love this Sacrament. Let us participate devotedly in Mass in order to obtain its spiritual fruits; let us feed from the Body and Blood of the Lord that we may be incessantly nourished by divine Grace; let us pause willingly and often in the company of the Blessed Sacrament".

  The Holy Father went on: "What St. Thomas explained with academic rigour in his main theological works such as the ' Summa Theologica' was also expressed in his preaching", the content of which "corresponds almost in its entirety to the structure of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Indeed, in a time such as our own of renewed commitment to evangelisation, catechism and preaching must never lack the following fundamental themes: what we believe, i.e., the Creed; what we pray, i.e., the Our Father and the Ave Maria; and what we live as biblical revelation teaches us, i.e., the law of the love of God and neighbour and the Ten Commandments".

  "In his brief 'Devotissima expositio super symbolum apostolorum', St. Thomas explains the importance of faith. Through it, he says, the soul is united to God, ... life is given a clear direction and we can easily overcome temptations. To those who object that faith is foolish because it makes us believe something that does not enter into the experience of the senses, St. Thomas offers a very detailed response, claiming that this is an inconsistent objection because human intelligence is limited and cannot know everything.

  "Only if we were able to have perfect knowledge of all things visible and invisible would it be foolish to accept truth out of pure faith", said the Pope. "Moreover, as St. Thomas observes, it is impossible to live without entrusting ourselves to the experience of others, when our personal knowledge does not extend far enough. Thus it is reasonable to have faith in God Who reveals Himself, and in the witness of the Apostles".

  Commenting on the article of the Creed concerning the incarnation of the Divine Word, St. Thomas says that "the Christian faith is reinforced in the light of the mystery of the Incarnation; hope emerges more trustingly at the thought that the Son of God came among us as one of us, to communicate His divinity to mankind; charity is revived because there is no more evident sign of God's love for us than to see the Creator of the universe Himself become a creature", said the Holy Father.

  "St. Thomas, like all saints, was greatly devoted to the Blessed Virgin", Pope Benedict concluded. "He gave her a stupendous title: 'Triclinium totius Trinitatis'; in other words, the place where the Trinity finds repose because, thanks to the Incarnation, the three divine persons dwell in her as in no other creature, and experience the delight and joy of living in her soul full of Grace. Through her intercession we can obtain any kind of help".

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METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOPS WHO WILL RECEIVE THE PALLIUM

VATICAN CITY, 22 JUN 2010 (VIS) - At 9.30 a.m. on Tuesday 29 June, Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul Apostles, Benedict XVI will preside at a Eucharistic concelebration with the following 38 metropolitan archbishops upon whom he will impose the pallium:

 - Archbishop Luis Gerardo Herrera O.F.M. of Cuenca, Ecuador.

 - Archbishop Alex Thomas Kaliyanil S.V.D. of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

 - Archbishop Gerard Tlali Lerotholi O.M.I. of Maseru, Lesotho.

 - Archbishop Antonio Fernando Saburido O.S.B. of Olinda and Recife, Brazil.

 - Archbishop Albert Legatt of Saint-Boniface, Canada.

 - Archbishop Gualtiero Bassetti of Perugia - Citta della Pieve, Italy.

 - Archbishop Andrea Bruno Mazzocato of Udine, Italy.

 - Archbishop Gabriel Mblinghi C.S.Sp. of Lubango, Angola.

 - Archbishop Socrates B. Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, Philppines.

 - Archbishop Constancio Miranda Weckmann of Chihuahua, Mexico.

 - Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham, England.

 - Archbishop Juan Jose Asenjo Pelegrina of Seville, Spain.

 - Archbishop Jerome Edward Listecki of Milwaukee, U.S.A.

 - Archbishop Samuel Kleda of Douala, Cameroon.

 - Archbishop Jesus Sanz Montes O.F.M. of Oviedo, Spain.

 - Archbishop Anton Stres C.M. of Ljubljana, Slovenia.

 - Archbishop Joseph Atanga S.J. of Bertoua, Cameroon.

 - Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, South Africa.

 - Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr of Cincinnati, U.S.A.

 - Archbishop Alberto Taveira Correa of Belem do Para, Brazil.

 - Archbishop Andre-Mutien Leonard of Mechelen-Brussels, Belgium.

 - Archbishop Antonio Lanfranchi of Modena - Nonantola, Italy.

 - Archbishop Dominik Duka O.P. of Prague, Czech Republic.

 - Archbishop Ricardo Antonio Tobon Restrepo of Medellin, Colombia.

 - Archbishop Jose Domingo Ulloa Mendieta O.S.A. of Panama, Panama.

 - Archbishop Francis Kallarakal of Verapoly, India.

 - Archbishop Desire Tsarahazana of Toamasina, Madagascar.

 - Archbishop Ricardo Blazquez Perez of Valladolid, Spain.

 - Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong of Kwangju, Korea.

 - Archbishop Luis Madrid Merlano of Nueva Pamplona, Colombia.

 - Archbishop Thomas Gerard Wenski of Miami, U.S.A.

 - Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark, England.

 - Archbishop Jozef Kowalczyk of Gniezno, Poland.

 - Archbishop Pierre Nguyen Van Nhon of Hanoi, Vietnam.

 - Archbishop Matthias Kobena Nketsiah of Cape Coast, Ghana.

 - Archbishop Bernard Bober of Kosice, Slovakia.

 - Archbishop Carlos Garfias Merlos of Acapulco, Mexico.

 - Archbishop Luigi Moretti of Salerno - Campagna - Acerno, Italy.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 22 JUN 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:

 - Bishop Joseph Patrick McFadden, auxiliary of the archdiocese of Philadelphia, U.S.A., as bishop of Harrisburg (area 19,839, population 2,060,000, Catholics 248,000, priests 179, permanent deacons 49, religious 394), U.S.A.

 - Appointed Fr. Andres Vargas Pena of the clergy of the diocese of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, episcopal vicar for pastoral care, and Fr. Adolfo Miguel Castano Fonseca of the clergy of the diocese of Toluca, Mexico, professor at the diocesan seminary, as auxiliaries of Mexico (area 1,429, population 8,781,000, Catholics 7,845,500, priests 1,757, permanent deacons 135, religious 7,229), Mexico. Bishop-elect Vargas Pena was born in Villa de la Paz, Mexico in 1946 and ordained a priest in 1973. Bishop-elect Castano Fonseca was born in San Mateo Mozoquilpan, Mexico in 1962 and ordained a priest in 1987.

 - Appointed Msgr. Michael J. Fitzgerald of the clergy of the archdiocese of Philadelphia, U.S.A., judicial vicar, as auxiliary of the same archdiocese (area 5,652, population 3,887,694, Catholics 1,458,430, priests 999, permanent deacons 239, religious 3,370). The bishop-elect was born in Montclair, U.S.A. in 1948 and ordained a priest in 1980.

 - Appointed as members of the administrative council of the Pontifical Academy for Life: Bishop Fernando Natalio Chomali Garib, auxiliary of Santiago de Chile, Chile; Mounir Abdel Messih Shehata Farag of Egypt; Gian Luigi Gigli of Italy; John Hass of U.S.A., and Monica Lopez Barahona of Spain.

 - Appointed Msgr. Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, under secretary of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum", as secretary of the same dicastery.
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PRIESTS MUST ALWAYS REMAIN WITH CHRIST

VATICAN CITY, 20 JUN 2010 (VIS) - Benedict XVI celebrated Mass this morning in the Vatican Basilica, during the course of which he conferred priestly ordination on fourteen deacons from the diocese of Rome.

  In his homily the Pope explained how, "in prayer, the priest is called to rediscover the ever-new face of his Lord, the most authentic content of his mission. Only one who has an intimate relationship with the Lord can be seized by Him, can bring Him to others, can become His envoy. This involves a kind of 'remaining with Him' which must always accompany, and be the core of, priestly ministry, also and above all during moments of difficulty when it seems that 'the things to be done' must take priority. Wherever we are, whatever we do, we must always 'remain with Him'".

  "The priesthood must never represent a way to achieve security in life or to attain social position. Anyone who aspires to the priesthood in order to increase his personal prestige and power has radically misunderstood the significance of this ministry. Anyone whose main goal is to realise an ambition of his own, to achieve success, will always be a slave to himself and to public opinion. In order to be noticed he will have to adulate; he must say what people want to hear, he must adapt to changing fashions and opinions. In this way, he will deprive himself of the vital relationship with truth, reducing himself to condemning tomorrow what he praises today.

  "A man who organises his life like this", the Holy Father added, "a priest who sees his ministry in these terms, does not truly love God and neighbour, he loves only himself and, paradoxically, ends up by losing himself. The priesthood - let us never forget it - is founded on the courage to say yes to another will, with the daily-growing awareness that - precisely my conforming ourselves to the will of God, 'immersed' in this will - not only is our originality not cancelled but, quite the contrary, we increasingly enter into the truth of our being and our ministry".

  "When we celebrate Mass", said Benedict XVI, "we have the bread of heaven in our hands, the bread of God Who is Christ, the grain broken to be multiplied and become the true food for the life of the world. This cannot but fill you with a sense of inner wonder, of living joy and immense gratitude because now the love and gift of the crucified and glorious Christ pass through your hands, through your hearts! It is an experience of wonder, ever new, to see that in my hands and in my voice the Lord achieves this mystery of His presence".

  The Pope asked God to give the new priests "the grace to achieve a profound experience of all the beauty and power of your priestly service and, at the same time, the grace to be able to live this ministry coherently and generously, every day.

  "The grace of the priesthood", he told the newly-ordained priests, "will unite you in the depths of your hearts to the sentiments of Jesus, Who loved unto the end unto the total gift of self, it will unite you to His becoming bread multiplied for the holy meal of unity and communion".

  The Holy Father concluded by explaining that "care over the celebration of the Eucharist must always be accompanied by commitment to Eucharistic life; that is, a life lived in obedience to the one great law, the law of love that gives completely and serves with humility, a life that the grace of the Holy Spirit makes ever more similar to that of Jesus Christ, High and Eternal Priest, Servant of God and of man".

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FOLLOWING CHRIST MEANS ACQUIRING THE POWER OF THE CROSS

VATICAN CITY, 20 JUN 2010 (VIS) - At midday today, following this morning's Mass in the Vatican Basilica during which he conferred priestly ordination on fourteen deacons from the diocese of Rome, the Holy Father appeared at the window of his private study to pray the Angelus with faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square.

  "The Sacrament of Holy Orders demonstrates, on God's part, attentive closeness to mankind and, on the part of those who receive the Sacrament, complete willingness to become instruments of that closeness, with a radical love for Christ and for the Church.

  "In today's Gospel", the Holy Father added, "the Lord asks His disciples: 'Who do you say that I am?' To this the Apostle Peter promptly replies: 'The Messiah of God', thus surmounting the earthly opinions that held Jesus to be one of the prophets".

  "It is to us too - who can know the Lord through faith in His Word and the Sacraments - that Jesus addresses the proposal to follow Him every day. And it is us too whom He tells that, in order to be His disciples, we must acquire the power of His cross, pinnacle of our good and crown of our hope. ... Taking up the cross means committing ourselves to defeat the sin that blocks the way to God, daily welcoming the will of the Lord and growing in faith, especially in the face of problems, difficulties and suffering", said the Pope.

  "Also in our own time there are many Christians in the world who, animated by love for God, daily take up their cross, both the cross of everyday trials and that of human barbarity which sometimes requires the courage of the supreme sacrifice. May the Lord enable each of us to place our solid hope in Him, certain that, by carrying our cross, we will, with Him, attain the light of the resurrection".

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