Benedict XVI
Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVIserved as pope of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013. He was elected pope on 19 April 2005, was inaugurated on 24 April 2005 and resigned from the office on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election occurred in a papal conclave following the death of Pope John Paul II...
children forget future help peace suffered tragedy violent witnesses
These children have suffered a most violent trauma. We must help them to be able to forget the tragedy so that they will be witnesses of peace for the future of humanity.
children support abortion
The Catholic community must offer support to those women who may find it difficult to accept a child, above all when they are isolated from their family and friends. Likewise, the community should be open to welcome back all who repent of having participated in the grave sin of abortion, and should guide them with pastoral charity to accept the grace of forgiveness, the need for penance, and the joy of entering once more into the new life of Christ.
children fighting names
The extermination of millions of unborn children, in the name of the fight against poverty, actually constitutes the destruction of the poorest of all human beings.
children decision circumstances
Society as a whole must defend the conceived child's right to life and the true good of the woman who can never, in any circumstances, find fulfilment in the decision to abort.
children greatest-treasure evil
Children truly are the family's greatest treasure and most precious good. Consequently, everyone must be helped to become aware of the intrinsic evil of the crime of abortion. In attacking human life in its very first stages, it is also an aggression against society itself. Politicians and legislators, therefore, as servants of the common good, are duty bound to defend the fundamental right to life, the fruit of God's love.
children humility light
Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the mystery of God’s humility, which in turn calls us to humility and simplicity. Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light.
mother children abortion
God's love does not distinguish between the infant in the mother's womb or the child or the youth or the adult or the older person. In each one God sees His image and likeness. Human life is a manifestation of God and His glory.
stars children memories
Advent's intention is to awaken the most profound and basic emotional memory within us, namely, the memory of the God who became a child. This is a healing memory; it brings hope. The purpose of the Church's year is continually to rehearse her great history of memories, to awaken the heart's memory so that it can discern the star of hope...
faith children book
Vacation time offers the unique opportunity to pause before the thought-provoking spectacles of nature, a wonderful "book" within reach of everyone, adults and children. In contact with nature, a person rediscovers his correct dimension, rediscovers himself as a creature, small but at the same time unique, with a "capacity for God" because interiorly he is open to the Infinite.
children acceptance blessing
The first priority will consist in restoring a sense of the acceptance of life as a gift from God. According to both Sacred Scripture and the wisest traditions of your continent, the arrival of a child is always a gift, a blessing from God. Today it is high time to place greater emphasis on this: every human being, every tiny human person, however weak, is created 'in the image and likeness of God' (Gen 1:27)
children church down-and
Too often [the Church] is weighted down and burdened with the sins and failings of her children; too often she appears disfigured and discouraged.
children taken trying
Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly lets himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me and love me.
becoming causes encouraged failure faithful forget misleading offered possible proof risk run service simple tendency union
The service that may be offered to the faithful and non-Christian spouses who are going through difficulties would be misleading if one encouraged in them, even if only implicitly, the tendency to forget the indissolubility of the union itself. In this way, the possible intervention of the ecclesiastical institution in the causes of annulment would run the risk of becoming a simple proof of a failure.
center concern faithful family invite matrimony sacrament share therefore
I share your concern and therefore invite the faithful to place the sacrament of matrimony at the center of their family life.