TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY "RECONCILIATIO ET PAENITENTIA"

VATICAN CITY, 2 DEC 2009 (VIS) - At the end of today's general audience, the Pope recalled the fact that today marks twenty-five years since the promulgation of John Paul II's Apostolic Exhortation "Reconciliatio et paenitentia" which, said Pope Benedict, "drew attention to the importance of the Sacrament of Penance in the life of the Church.

  "On this important anniversary", he added, "I wish to mention some outstanding figures of 'apostles of the confessional', tireless dispensers of divine mercy such as St. John Mary Vianney, St. Joseph Cafasso, St. Leopold Mandic and St. Pio of Pietrelcina.

  "May their witness of faith and charity encourage you, dear young people, to shun sin and to plan your future as a generous service to God and mankind. May it help you, dear sick people, to experience the mercy of the crucified Christ in your suffering. May it stimulate you, dear newlyweds, to create a family in an abiding climate of faith and mutual understanding.

  Finally, may the example of these saints, assiduous and faithful ministers of divine forgiveness be for clergy - and especially in the current Year for Priests - and for all Christians an invitation always to trust in the goodness of God, faithfully practicing and celebrating the Sacrament of Penance".
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 2 DEC 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:

 - Bishop Camilo Fernando Castrellon Pizano S.D.B. of Tibu, Colombia, as bishop of Barrancabermeja (area 15,000, population 556,000, Catholics 400,000, priests 69, permanent deacons 1, religious 59), Colombia.

 - Msgr. Petar Rajic, nunciature counsellor, as apostolic nuncio to Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar, and as apostolic delegate to the Arabian Peninsula, at the same time elevating him to the dignity of archbishop. The archbishop-elect was born in Toronto, Canada in 1959 and ordained a priest in 1987.
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IN MEMORIAM

VATICAN CITY, 2 DEC 2009 (VIS) - The following prelates died in recent weeks:

 - Bishop Martino Gomiero, emeritus of Adria - Rovigo, Italy, on 20 November at the age of 84.

 - Bishop Ambrose Mathalaimuthu, emeritus of Coimbatore, India, on 15 November at the age of 84.
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WILLIAM OF ST. THIERRY: CANTOR OF LOVE

VATICAN CITY, 2 DEC 2009 (VIS) - William of St. Thierry was the subject of the Holy Father's catechesis during his general audience, celebrated this morning in St. Peter's Square.

  William, a friend and admirer of Bernard of Clairvaux, was born in Liege between the years 1075 and 1080. A member of a noble family, he was educated in the most famous schools of the time and later entered the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Nicaise in Reims. He subsequently became abbot of the monastery of Saint-Thierry where, however, he was unable to reform the community as he wished and abandoned the Benedictines to enter the Cistercian abbey of Signy. There he wrote a number of important works of monastic theology.

  "De natura et dignitate amoris" (The nature and the dignity of love) contains, the Pope explained, one of William's fundamental ideas, which also holds true for us today: "The principal force that moves the human soul is love. … The truth is that only one task is entrusted to each human being: learning to love sincerely, authentically and freely. But only at the school of God can this task be achieved and can man attain the end for which he was created".

  "Learning to love is a long and arduous path", said the Holy Father. "In this journey people must impose an effective asceticism upon themselves … in order to eliminate any disordered affections … and unify their lives with God - source, goal and power of love - until reaching the summit of spiritual life, which William defined as 'wisdom'. At the end of this ascetic itinerary, we experience great serenity and sweetness".

  William likewise attributes considerable importance "to the emotional dimension" because "our heart is made of flesh and when we love God, Who is Love, how can we not express our human feelings in this relationship with the Lord? … The Lord Himself, becoming man, chose to love us with a heart of flesh".

  For this Cistercian monk, love "illuminates the mind and enables a better and more profound understanding of God and, in God, of people and events". Love "produces attraction and communion to the point of effecting a transformation, an assimilation, between the lover and the loved. … And this holds true, above all, for knowledge of God and of His mysteries, which surpass our mind's capacity to understand. God is known if he is loved", Benedict XVI affirmed.

  He concluded by quoting from the "Epistola aurea" addressed to the Cistercians of Mont-Dieu, a summary of William of St. Thierry's ideas on the subject of love: "The image of God present in man impels him towards resemblance; that is, towards an ever fuller identification between his will and the divine will. This perfection, which William calls 'unity of spirit', cannot be achieved through individual effort, … but by the action of the Holy Spirit which … purifies and … transforms into charity all the desire for love present in the human being. …In this way … man becomes by grace what God is by nature".
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PAPAL MASS WITH INTERNATIONAL THEOLOGICAL COMMISSION

VATICAN CITY, 1 DEC 2009 (VIS) - Early this morning Benedict XVI celebrated Mass in the Pauline Chapel of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, with members of the International Theological Commission.

  In his homily the Pope described the figure of the true theologian, who does not succumb to the temptation of using the measure of his own intelligence to fathom the mystery of God. In the study of Holy Scripture over the last two hundred years, he said, "there have been great specialists and ... masters of the faith who have penetrated into the details ... of the history of salvation. But they were unable to see the mystery in itself, the central nucleus: that Christ truly was the Son of God".

  Yet the history of the Church, the Holy Father went on, contains a long list of men and women who were capable of humility and of reaching the truth. Among these he mentioned St. Therese of Lisieux and St. Damian de Veuster, "little people who were also wise", models from which to draw inspiration because "they were touched in the depths of their heart".

  "Following His Resurrection the Lord touched the heart of Saul on the road to Damascus", the Pope concluded, "Saul, who was one of the wise who could not see. ... He became blind and thus truly came to see. The great man becomes a small man and so sees the ... wisdom of God, ... which is greater than all human wisdom".
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