Posted on 12/10/2012 7:52:33 AM PST by marshmallow
(Vatican Radio) “The universal Church expects and needs”, the “missionary spirit”, “zealous generosity” and “irreplaceable contribution” of the Church in America, North and South, said Pope Benedict XVI Sunday evening in an address to cardinals, bishops, priests, religious and laity from the American continent.
They had gathered around the Altar of the Chair in St Peter’s Basilica for the Opening Mass of the International Congress on the Church in America. The congress, Dec 9-11, is marking 15 years since the Synod of Bishops for America.
The liturgical celebration was presided by Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who is also President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. At the end of the celebration the congregation was also addressed by Pope Benedict XVI.
He noted that the post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in America, cited challenges and difficulties that are still current. Challenges such as secularism and religious groups which, he said, are spreading, giving rise to numerous problems.
The Pope noted that there is an urgent need for an “education to and promotion of a culture of life” to counter the spread of a mentality “that undermines the dignity and protection of life” and does not favor the institution of marriage and family.
He asked “how can we not worry about the painful situations of migration, uprooting of peoples, or violence, especially those caused by organized crime, drug trafficking, corruption and the arms trade? What about the searing inequalities and poverty traps caused by questionable economic, political and social measures?”
“All these important questions require careful study. Yet in addition to their technical evaluation, the Catholic Church is convinced that the light for an adequate solution can only come from encounter with the living Christ, which gives rise to attitudes and ways of acting based on love....
(Excerpt) Read more at en.radiovaticana.va ...
LOL! The church has done a great job at that so far!?!
I am ex-catholic, the catholic church is full of a bunch of pro-abortion, entitlement freaks! The church would need to excommunicate half their members before I would consider coming back!
I’m with you on that. You’d think a church with such a centralized power structure would have a much tighter grip on principles. If Catholicism is to survive, it needs to purge the garbage, starting with an official excommunication of Joe Biden.
God bless Pope Benedict and the Holy Church.
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