Aide Comments on Inaugural Homily
VATICAN CITY, MAY 20, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI envisions Latin America as not only the "continent of hope," but also as the "continent of love," according to the director of the Vatican Television Center.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, said this on the most recent edition of the Vatican television news program "Octava Dies."
He was commenting on the Pope's homily at the inaugural Mass of the 5th General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean, which is being held through the end of May near the national shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida.
The spokesman said that the homily was "broad but delivered with extraordinary vivacity and effectiveness."
Father Lombardi added that the Pope "painted a vast and articulate picture for the conference's work, responding to the lively expectations for orientation on fundamental themes: the relationship between culture and the proclamation of the faith, the center of the faith, the pastoral problem posed by sects, the relationship between the work of the Church and the construction of justice in the social and political sphere, the Christian vision of the family."
He continued: "The sermon, in line with the previous magisterium, but characterized by the 'Ratzinger style' in its systematization and linearity, in its conceptual profundity and in some crucial themes, such as the reaffirmation of a vision of reality and life from which God must not be marginalized, and cannot be if we do not want to risk endangering the well-being of humanity today and tomorrow.
"Fundamental directions for a continent that, thanks to its history of faith, is -- according to the Pope -- not only a 'continent of hope,' but also a 'continent of love.'"
Code: ZE07052002
Date: 2007-05-20