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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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Says Christ Is Calling Them to Be Saints
SÃO PAULO, Brazil, MAY 10, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's first full day in Brazil included a meeting with young people where he touched on themes as varied as protecting the environment and saintliness.
The Pope arrived to Brazil on Wednesday for an apostolic trip that includes Sunday's opening of the 5th General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Holy Father spoke with youth today, basing his discourse on the Gospel passage of the rich young man who asks Jesus how he can inherit eternal life. After Christ tells him to sell what he has and "come follow me," the youth goes away sad.
The Pontiff said: "The question in the Gospel does not regard only the future.
"On the contrary, it exists as a task in the present, in the 'here' and 'now,'" the Holy Father said. "In short, the young man's question raises the issue of life's meaning. … [W]hat must I do so that my life is not wasted?
"Jesus alone can give us the answer, because he alone can guarantee us eternal life. He alone, therefore, can show us the meaning of this present life and give it fullness."
Apostles of youth
Benedict XVI told the young people that Jesus' answer lies in the affirmation of the goodness of God.
"To understand what is good, we need help, which the Church offers us on many occasions, especially through catechesis," the Pope explained. "Whoever keeps the commandments is on the way that leads to God. And you, young people of Brazil and Latin America, have you already discovered what is good? Do you follow the Lord's commandments?
"Many times, we who are pastors feel a sense of trepidation as we take stock of the situation in today's world. We hear talk of the fears of today's youth.
"These fears reveal an enormous lack of hope: a fear of death […] fear of failure […] fear of remaining detached."
Yet, the Holy Father told the youth that they "radiate so much joy and enthusiasm."
"I see you as Christ sees you," he said, "with a gaze of love and trust, in the certainty that you have found the true way."
"You are the youth of the Church," the Pontiff said. "I send you out, therefore, on the great mission of evangelizing young men and women who have gone astray in this world like sheep without a shepherd. Be apostles of youth."
Marriage and riches
Benedict XVI encouraged the young people to "respect and honor" marriage, "an institution of natural law, which has been raised by Christ to the dignity of a sacrament."
"God calls you to respect one another when you fall in love and become engaged, since conjugal life, reserved by divine ordinance to married couples, will bring happiness and peace only to the extent that you are able to build your future hopes upon chastity, both within and outside marriage," he told them.
Recalling again the Gospel passage of the rich young man, the Pope told them that youthfulness is a treasure.
"This episode causes us to reflect further on the treasure of youth," he said. "It is not, in the first place, a question of material wealth, but of life itself, and the values inherent in youth.
"From life springs freedom, which manifests itself, especially in this phase, as responsibility."
The Holy Father encouraged the young people to be open to a vocation to the consecrated life.
"Some are called to a total and definitive self-giving, by consecrating themselves to God in the religious life -- an 'exceptional gift of grace,' as the Second Vatican Council expressed it," he said.
The Pontiff added: "I pray that in this moment of grace and profound communion in Christ, the Holy Spirit will awaken in the hearts of many young people an impassioned love, prompting them to follow and imitate Jesus Christ, chaste, poor and obedient, totally devoted to the glory of the Father and to love for their brothers and sisters."
Benedict XVI affirmed that the Church needs young people. He asked them to follow closely the progress of the 5th General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean.
"My dear young people," he concluded, "Christ is calling you to be saints. He himself is inviting you and wants to walk with you, in order to enliven with his Spirit the steps that Brazil is taking at the beginning of this third millennium of the Christian era."
Code: ZE07051012
Date: 2007-05-10
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SÃO PAULO, Brazil, MAY 10, 2007 (Zenit.org).- On the first full day of his apostolic trip to South America, Benedict XVI paid a courtesy visit to the president of Brazil,
After celebrating Mass in private this morning, the Pope met with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at 11 a.m.
An ecumenical meeting and a discourse with youth completed the main activities of the Pope's day in Brazil. The Holy Father arrived to the South American country on Wednesday for the apostolic trip that will include the opening of the 5th General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean.
On Friday, Benedict XVI will start off the day with a "popemobile" tour among the faithful. He is set to canonize the first Brazilian-born saint during a 9:30 a.m. Mass in São Paulo.
After taking leave of his hosts at the Monastery of St. Benedict, the Holy Father will go to the cathedral to pray vespers at 4 p.m. with Brazilian bishops.
In the early evening, he will travel by helicopter to the southeastern city of Aparecida, where the 5th General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean will take place.
The Pope will open that conference on Sunday.
Code: ZE07051008
Date: 2007-05-10
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SÃO PAULO, Brazil, MAY 10, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI will give four children Portuguese-language Bibles, published and donated by the charity Aid to the Church in Need.
One of those will be the 10 millionth copy of "God Speaks to His Children," a Bible edited for youngsters. The Pope will give the Bibles to sons and daughters of recovering drug addicts during his visit on Saturday to Fazenda da Esperança in Guaratingueta.
Fazenda da Esperança, or "Farm of Hope," is a treatment center in the south of Brazil for drug addicts.
Bishop Manoel Delson Pedreira da Cruz of Caico expressed his gratitude for the Bibles in a letter to the Aid to the Church in Need: " The child's Bible has become a fixed part of the catechetical program at the diocesan level."
Since 1979, Aid to the Church in Need has printed and distributed 45 million copies of the Bible in 153 languages and in 138 countries.
Code: ZE07051010
Date: 2007-05-10
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Says This Will Stop People From Leaving Catholicism
SÃO PAULO, Brazil, MAY 10, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The phenomenon of people leaving Catholicism poses "serious questions to the Church," says Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
Cardinal Bertone, in Brazil with Benedict XVI, spoke to Vatican Radio today about the growth of sects in Latin America and people leaving the Church to join Protestant communities.
"Unfortunately, sects represent a phenomenon that not only afflicts the Latin American continent but North America and Europe as well," he said.
"The Church is called -- as the Lord himself said and as we hear repeated in the Gospel -- to a continual process of conversion to her Lord," the Vatican secretary of state explained. "It is a process of purification and renewal.
"The problem -- and I always say this to bishops and priests -- is a problem of bishops and priests being able to welcome and listen to people."
Cardinal Bertone pointed to the example of current and previous pastors of the Church.
He encouraged "being close to people, being welcoming -- as the great saints who were bishops have taught us, and as Pope John Paul II spoke about in his autobiography when he said: 'I have tried and I try to be welcoming, to be near people.'
"And how Pope Benedict XVI teaches us in his ability to listen, his closeness to people -- the people he meets, even just for a moment, during audiences, feel transfigured because they have the perception of being treated as a friend, as if you were meeting with old friends."
"This is a very beautiful thing. It is a teaching," Cardinal Bertone said. "It is also a simple but effective way to stop this exodus of our Catholic Christians."
Code: ZE07051005
Date: 2007-05-10
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Health Care Council Studies Pastoral Ministry
VATICAN CITY, MAY 10, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Catholic hospitals should be notable for Christian love and be places where suffering is endured while the joy of the resurrection is proclaimed, says a Vatican official.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry, said this during the international congress on "Updating Pastoral Ministry in Catholic Hospitals."
That dicastery organized the 3rd International Congress of the International Association of Catholic Health Care Institutions (AISAC) in the Vatican last Thursday through Saturday.
Cardinal Lozano Barragán opened the conference with a talk on "The Identity of Catholic Hospitals in Light of the Encyclical 'Deus Caritas Est.'"
"The exercise of Christian charity toward the sick" must be the distinguishing mark of Catholic hospitals, the cardinal said.
"The proclamation of the Good News in the field of health care is a paradox: While we deal with suffering, we proclaim the joy of the Risen One," he said during an interview on Vatican Radio.
Father Michael Place, the president of AISAC, said the meeting will help give a response "to the Holy Father's invitation to update pastoral efforts in health care. It must be renewed, according to his pastoral plan."
The meeting discussions underlined the need to "work to strengthen the Catholic identity in health care, so that our beliefs can be translated into action," a goal which requires "better juridical and religious formation," Father Place told Vatican Radio.
According to statistics from the Vatican dicastery, there are 22,000 Catholic health care institutions in the world. Of these, 37% are run by religious orders, 19% belong to dioceses and the rest belong to other Catholic organizations.
Code: ZE07051002
Date: 2007-05-10
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SÃO PAULO, Brazil, MAY 10, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI called for a strong defense of life during his flight to Brazil, while that country's bishops reiterated their own condemnation of abortion.
The Holy Father called for a decisive defense of life on Wednesday during a press conference with journalists flying with him on Alitalia Flight 777 to Brazil.
At Wednesday morning's conclusion of the 45th General Assembly of the National Brazilian Bishops Conference in Itaici, the prelates expressed their shared concern to educate consciences and fight abortion.
"The devaluation of human dignity and the lack of criteria based on Gospel teachings are at the base of the belittling of human life, which is fermenting the growth of violence in our country,” the bishops said during a discussion on the political situation in Brazil.
They added: "We renew our condemnation of all the attempts to legalize abortion and the manipulation of human embryos for therapeutic reasons. We must defend life from conception to its natural end."
Code: ZE07051007
Date: 2007-05-10