The Dialog

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — The light of Christ has not dimmed over the past 2,000 years, but Christians today have an obligation to resist attempts to extinguish it, knowing that whenever societies have tried to pretend God did not exist, tragedy followed, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Pope Benedict make his remarks Dec. 14 during a morning audience with civic leaders and pilgrims from the town of Pescopennataro and the province of Isneria, which donated the 78-foot silver fir tree that became the Christmas tree in St. Peter’s Square.

A Christmas tree decorates St. Peter’s Square after a lighting ceremony at the Vatican Dec. 14. The 78-foot silver fir tree is from the Italian province of Isneria. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

Apparently informed that Pescopennataro has a population of about 350 people, the pope seemed a bit surprised at the crowd of 450 people who came to pay their respects and receive his thanks for the gift of the Christmas tree.

“The whole town must be here,” he told them.

In fact, the mayor did manage to get everyone on buses and to the Vatican. Along with regional government officials, they met with the pope just a few hours before Bishop Giuseppe Sciacca, secretary-general of the office governing Vatican City, presided over the official tree-lighting ceremony.

At the ceremony, the Pescopennataro poet, Angelomaria Di Tullio, read in the local dialect a poem he wrote about the tree, growing for decades near his hometown so that one day it proudly would represent the Pescolani people at the Vatican.

At the audience earlier, Pope Benedict said the gift of the tree was a sign of the faith and religiosity of the southern Italian communities that donated the tree for St. Peter’s Square and smaller trees for the Apostolic Palace.

Isaiah prophesied the coming of the Messiah as “a great light for the people who walked in darkness,” the pope said. “God became human and lived among us to scatter the darkness of error and sin, bringing humanity his divine light.”

“This great light, of which the Christmas tree is a sign and a reminder, not only hasn’t dimmed with the passing of centuries and millennia, but continues to shine on us and enlighten each person who comes into this world, especially when we go through moments of uncertainty and difficulty,” the pope said.

Throughout history when dictators and ideologues have “tried to extinguish God’s light,” he said, “periods marked by tragic violence” and attempts to destroy human beings followed in their wake.

“This is because when one tries to cancel the name of God from the pages of history,” real values and real meaning are skewed, Pope Benedict said. “Think about words like ‘freedom,’ ‘common good,’ ‘justice’: deprived of their rootedness in God and his love, in the God who showed his face in Jesus Christ, these realities often end up at the mercy of human interests, losing their connection with the requirements of truth and civic responsibility.”

By Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — The universal church needs Catholics in the Americas who are joyful missionaries, well-catechized and faithful to the teachings of the church, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The only way to solve today’s problems is through credible and effective Christian witness and charity, he said, since only actions based on God’s truth and love can be the “decisive force which will transform the American continent,” he said.

Pope Benedict XVI greets Carl A. Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, and his wife, Dorian, after making remarks at the conclusion of the opening Mass of the International Congress on the Church in America in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 9. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

The pope made his comments during the opening Mass of a Dec. 9-12 international congress marking the 15th anniversary of the Synod of Bishops for America.

The congress, organized by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and the Knights of Columbus, was looking at ways Catholics can cooperate more closely to confront today’s challenges in North, Central and South America.

The pope said some of the problems the whole continent must deal with include increased secularization, affronts to human dignity, threats to the institution of marriage, migration, violence, the illegal drugs and arms trades, corruption and inequality and poverty “caused by questionable economic, political and social” policies.

While the solutions will require careful technical or institutional responses, nothing will ever be fully resolved without an “encounter with the living Christ,” he said.

It’s that personal rapport with God that “gives rise to attitudes and ways of acting based on love and truth,” the true source and light for real transformation, he said.

In order to bring that saving message to everyone in a way that’s effective and credible, Catholics need to “purify and strengthen” their spiritual lives by growing closer to God, especially through the sacraments, the pope said.

“This will be encouraged by a correct and ongoing doctrinal formation marked by complete fidelity to the word of God and the church’s magisterium,” he said.

“A renewed missionary spirit and zealous generosity” will be “an irreplaceable contribution to what the universal church expects and needs from the church in America,” he added.

Carl A. Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, told the congress that the Americas represent a new “post-Christian” land, in which people are familiar with Christ and, at the same time, woefully ignorant of his message.

American countries and cultures “built upon Christian faith show great failures of charity, dignity and truth, failures inconsistent with being disciples of the God who is love,” he said Dec. 10.

Such ignorance not only has facilitated a culture of death throughout the Americas, it has also “resulted in a mischaracterization of Christ and of the mission of the church.”

The world is “mortally hungry for the presence of the living God,” he said, and those who are poor or hurting must be able to see the “caring face of Christ in those he has called to follow him.”

The only way the church can be that hopeful, loving presence is by rebuilding Catholic identity and helping its members to live holy lives that are “formed and strengthened by the sacraments and lived in total faithfulness to the church and in commitment to Jesus Christ.”

“The method that speaks strongest of Christ is love,” he said, so “we should be prepared to let charity be our measure of the new evangelization.”

The Catholic Church is especially well-positioned to offer concrete solutions to communities’ varied problems, he said, because “no other institution lays out a single vision” that can transcend cultures and languages.

“Diversity is sanctified and purified in its communion in the church by orienting us toward Christ,” the truth and each other, he added.

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley of Boston said that while language and culture can be difficult obstacles, “what unites us is so much more.”

Catholics are united by a shared faith, traditions, the Eucharist and the “new commandment to love one another,” he said.

Cardinal Thomas C. Collins of Toronto told CNS that his archdiocese works very hard to preserve the diverse cultures of its large immigrant communities. Its parishes celebrate Mass in 37 different languages, he said.

Catholics learn about and share immigrant communities’ “deep spiritual understanding that will help us face secularism, which seems to be the dominate culture in North America,” he said.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted of Phoenix told CNS that the church has also found unlikely partners in the evangelical communities in its fight against secularism and threats to life.

Post-Vatican II ecumenical partners, such as the Anglicans, “have slipped away from the basic teaching about Jesus Christ, the human person and marriage, which has made dialogue and cooperation with them much more difficult,” he said.

Newer dialogue partners, such as the Orthodox Church and Mormons, and even communities that were one anti-Catholic, such as the Baptists, not only share many of the same values concerning the sanctity of life and marriage, but are eagerly seeking active partnerships with the Catholic Church to protect such values and religious freedom.

Bishop Olmsted said the church can better evangelize by looking at legitimate strategies employed by evangelical movements. While proselytism must be avoided because it doesn’t fully respect the human person nor present the truth in its fullness, “we can still learn a lot” from sects and other movements.

“For example, we should learn from the way they use mega-events to move people in a way that helps them to realize this is a really important issue,” he said.

“Sects also see people that have leadership abilities and train them to go back to their peers and influence them, which is exactly what we need to do as well,” he added.

While the church tries to foster the enthusiasm and love for Christ seen in many evangelical and Catholic charismatic movements, the bishop said, it should also promote solid formation “because zeal alone is a dangerous thing.”

“Without zeal, we won’t really act, he said, but if it’s not zeal that’s well-formed and desires and knows it needs to continue to be formed, we will not be able to make the impact that Christ really calls us to have.”

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

ROME — In the immaculate conception of Mary, Christians recognize the truth that the Gospel is the good news of freedom from sin, selfishness and death, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Standing before a statue of Mary near the Spanish Steps, in the midst of Rome’s ritzy shopping district, Pope Benedict said Mary is a reminder that silence is essential for hearing God’s word, that salvation comes from God alone and that joy comes from being freed of sin.

A firefighter places a wreath of flowers on a statue of Mary high atop a column at the Spanish Steps in Rome Dec. 8. The annual tradition marks the feast of the Immaculate Conception. (CNS photo/Paul Haring

As he does every year, the pope prayed the Angelus at noon in St. Peter’s Square, then, riding in a brand new, Mercedes-Benz M-class popemobile, went to the Spanish Steps late in the afternoon Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

That Mary was conceived without sin “speaks to us of joy, that authentic joy that spreads in a heart freed from sin,” the pope said, sitting before a column topped with a statue of Mary erected in honor of the Immaculate Conception.

“Sin brings with it sadness,” the pope said.

While some people think Christianity “is an obstacle to joy because they see it as a collection of prohibitions and rules,” it really is good news, he said, because it is “the proclamation of the victory of grace over sin, of life over death.”

Of course, he said, faith leads people to renounce certain habits and actions, and it requires “a discipline of mind, heart and behavior” because original sin leaves within people “the poisonous root of selfishness, which harms them and others.”

The day’s Gospel reading recounted the Annunciation, the moment when the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she would be Jesus’ mother, and Pope Benedict said he was struck that such a “decisive moment for human destiny, the moment in which God became man, is wrapped in great silence.”

“It was an event that, if it had happened in our day, wouldn’t leave a trace in the newspapers or magazines, because it is a mystery that takes place in silence,” he said.

“The quiet silence is shown to be more fruitful than the frenetic agitation that characterizes our cities,” the pope said, encouraging Christians “to stop, be still, listen to the silence in which God makes his soft voice heard.”

Pope Benedict said no one can understand God’s plan for his or her life, nor can they see the best way to bring Christian values to society without some silent reflection. It is only “going deeper, where the forces at work are not economic and political, but moral and spiritual,” that God’s voice can be heard.

Mary’s immaculate conception also reminds Christians that “the salvation of the world isn’t the work of man, science, technology or an ideology,” but of God, he said.

Reciting the Angelus earlier in the day, the pope said Mary’s life, and particularly her saying “yes” to God’s plans for her, illustrate how close a person can come to God once freed of sin.

“In Mary, in fact, the relationship with God that sin breaks is fully alive and active,” he said. “There is no opposition between God and her being; there is full communion and understanding.”

The pope prayed that through the intercession of Mary, God would “grant us the grace to reject sin and persevere in the grace of baptism.”

Pope Benedict also recited the Angelus Dec. 9 with visitors who came to St. Peter’s Square for his normal Sunday greeting.

The day’s Gospel reading focused on St. John the Baptist’s call to prepare the way of the Lord. “We are called to listen to that voice, to make room for and welcome Jesus into our hearts,” he said.

“In our consumer societies, where people are tempted to look for joy in things,” he said, John the Baptist teaches us to focus more on what is essential, “so that Christmas is experienced not only as an exterior celebration, but as the feast of the Son of God who came to bring peace, life and true joy.”

By Cindy Wooden

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Advent’s liturgical preparation for Christmas calls Christians to renew their faith in the reality of God’s great love and to make a commitment to bringing his love to the world today, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Advent, he said, “places before us the bright mystery of the coming of God’s son, the great plan of God’s goodness through which he desires to draw us to himself to let us live in full communion, joy and peace with him.”

Addressing an estimated 4,000 people at his weekly general audience Dec. 5, Pope Benedict also asked for prayers for peace in Congo, where continuing ethnic violence and civil strife have led to dozens of deaths and has forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

A man dressed as St. Nicholas attends Pope Benedict XVI’s general audience in Paul VI hall at the Vatican Dec. 5. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

In response to the fighting and “the serious humanitarian crisis” it was causing, the pope called for “dialogue and reconciliation,” and he asked the international community to take action to meet the needs of the Congolese people.

In his main audience talk, Pope Benedict continued his reflections on the Year of Faith, which he opened in October.

Accepting God’s love and freely choosing to follow his ways “brings a fundamental change in how we relate to the entire created reality. Everything appears in a new light; it is a true conversion. Faith is a change of mentality because God, who has made himself known in Christ and has made his plan of salvation known, draws us to himself,” the pope said.

“Faith is accepting God’s vision of reality, allowing God to guide us with his word and sacraments in understanding what we must do, the path we must follow, how we must live,” he said.

“In the midst of many difficulties, Advent invites us once again to renew our certainty that God is present, he entered into the world, becoming human like us, in order to bring to fullness his plan of love,” the pope said.

In return, he said, “God asks that we, too, become signs of his action in the world. Through our faith, our hope and our charity, he wants to enter into the world once again and make his light shine in our darkness.”

Among the pilgrims at the audience were representatives of an association of Italian bakers and pastry chefs; the pope thanked them for their gifts of “panettoni,” Italian Christmas cakes, which he said would be distributed to the poor.

By Francis X Rocca

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — New rules issued by Pope Benedict XVI for the governance of Catholic charities will not prevent such charities from accepting government funding, so long as the funding does not entail conditions that conflict with church teaching, said the second-highest official of the Vatican office in charge of applying the new legislation.

Msgr. Giovanni Pietro Dal Toso, secretary of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, spoke to Catholic News Service about the pope’s apostolic letter on the “service of charity,” issued “motu proprio” (on the pope’s “own initiative”) Nov. 11, and released by the Vatican Dec. 1.

The document, which has the status of canon law, emphasizes that Catholic charitable activity must not become “just another form of organized social assistance,” and directs bishops to ensure that charitable agencies under their authority conform to church teaching.

One section of the letter forbids Catholic charities to “receive financial support from groups or institutions that pursue ends contrary to the church’s teaching.”

Commenting on this, Msgr. Dal Toso said that the rule would not necessarily prevent such agencies from taking money from national or local governments that fund, promote or permit practices condemned by the church, such as abortion or contraception.

Nevertheless, he added, “if there is a program that goes against the church’s teaching, for example, programs promoting abortion, then we cannot accept funds for such a program or even accept funds with certain conditions that are contrary to the church’s doctrine.”

The secretary said that the new papal document instructs bishops to ensure that Catholic charities “exercise proper discernment in their relationship with financial entities,” such as private foundations, whose “institutional ends,” their primary goals or core mission as defined in their statutes, “do not conform to the church’s teaching.” In those cases, he said, “such financing is not acceptable.”

The document also states that staff members of Catholic charities must “share, or at least respect, the Catholic identity of their agencies,” and that they should exemplify “Christian life” and “witness to a formation of heart which testifies to a faith working through charity.”

That requirement, Msgr. Dal Toso said, does not mean that non-Catholics may not work for Catholic charities, but it means that such employees “should be aware of the fact that (they) are working in a Catholic organization.”

He said that the “theological and pastoral formation” that the motu proprio mandates for the staff of Catholic charities should ensure knowledge not only of relevant church teachings, but also of the distinctive approach and “anthropology” that the church brings to its charitable mission.

The secretary named two U.S. agencies, Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities USA, that he said offer such instruction to their non-Catholic staff members.

The pope’s apostolic letter is primarily concerned with laying out the responsibility of each bishop to oversee charitable agencies in his diocese, in order to reinforce such agencies’ Catholic identity, Msgr. Dal Toso said.

“Catholic charity is an ecclesial activity, not merely a social activity, and that means the role of the bishop is important,” he said, noting that Pope Benedict expressed this idea in his 2005 encyclical “Deus Caritas Est,” and finally gave it legal force in the motu proprio.

The responsibility for agencies that do not fall under the jurisdiction of a single bishop is determined by canon law cited in the papal document, he said. National bishops’ conferences oversee charitable agencies established under their authority, and the Vatican oversees international agencies established with its approval.

By Francis X Rocca

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Warning that Catholic charitable activity must not become “just another form of organized social assistance,” Pope Benedict XVI issued new rules to strengthen the religious identity of Catholic charities and ensure that their activities conform to church teaching.

The pope’s apostolic letter on the “service of charity,” issued “motu proprio” (on his own initiative), directs bishops in overseeing charitable works in their dioceses. The document, dated Nov. 11, was released by the Vatican Dec. 1.

Charities approved by the church or supported by church funds “are required to follow Catholic principles in their activity and they may not accept commitments which could in any way affect the observance of those principles,” the pope wrote.

The staff members of such charities must therefore “share, or at least respect, the Catholic identity” of their agencies, and exemplify Christian life and faith. Bishops are to provide these employees with “theological and pastoral formation” through special courses and “suitable aids to the spiritual life.”

Catholic charities are forbidden to “receive financial support from groups or institutions that pursue ends contrary to the church’s teaching,” or to “accept contributions for initiatives whose ends, or the means used to pursue them, are not in conformity with the church’s teaching.”

To ensure that the church’s charitable agencies reflect “Christian simplicity of life,” each bishop is to set their salaries and expenses at levels “in due proportion to analogous expenses of his diocesan curia.”

When “the activity of a particular charitable agency is no longer being carried out in conformity with the church’s teaching,” Pope Benedict wrote, the responsible bishop must inform his flock and “prohibit that agency from using the name ‘Catholic.’”

The document is the Vatican’s latest measure aimed at reinforcing the religious identity of Catholic institutions. In May 2012, the Vatican issued rules strengthening its control over Caritas Internationalis, a confederation of 164 Catholic relief, development and social service agencies around the world, including Catholic Relief Services in the United States.

In the apostolic letter, the pope praised Caritas for its “generous and consistent witness of faith and its concrete ability to respond to the needs of the poor.”

He also instructed bishops to foster the establishment of a “local Caritas service or a similar body” in every parish under their authority, not to only to provide aid to the needy but to educate the community in a “spirit of sharing and authentic charity.”

Pope Benedict specified that the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Vatican office in charge of coordinating and promoting charitable giving, would be primarily responsible for “promoting the application of this legislation and ensuring that it is applied at all levels.”

By TheDialog

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — To celebrate the launch of his new Twitter account, Pope Benedict XVI will tweet the answers to a handful of questions from his followers.

The pope’s rare question-and-answer exchange on the social media site shows the church doesn’t just want to teach the truth, but also to listen to others, said Archbishop Claudio Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

The archbishop and other Vatican officials spoke at a news conference Dec. 3 to reveal the pope’s new Twitter account @Pontifex.

This is a screen capture of Pope Benedict XVI’s newly created Twitter account. The pope will begin tweeting Dec. 12 using the handle @Pontifex. (CNS/Vatican)

Starting Dec. 12, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the pope will send messages in eight languages, including Arabic, from eight different Twitter accounts. @Pontifex is the English feed while the other language accounts use an extension of the main handle. For example, the Spanish feed is @Pontifex_es.

The handle “Pontifex” was chosen because it means “pope and bridge builder,” said Greg Burke, media adviser for the Vatican’s Secretariat of State. The name suggests “reaching out” and bringing unity not just of Catholics “but all men and women of good will,” he said.

Msgr. Paul Tighe, secretary of the communications council, said the pontifex name also “refers to the office more than the person,” that is, it highlights the leader of the church and the Catholic faithful.

A more practical consideration was that numerous permutations of the name Pope Benedict XVI were already taken by other people not affiliated with the pope, whereas the handle “Pontifex” was available.

Using a handle that wasn’t already taken meant the Vatican didn’t have to “go around and get people to vacate the space,” the monsignor said.

The pope’s first tweets from the new accounts will be responses to four or five questions about the Catholic faith sent to the pope on Twitter via the hashtag #askpontifex, he said.

The very first question came in during the news conference announcing the initiative. It was in Spanish and asked: “What is the core of the message of the Gospel and how can we help to share it?” he said.

While it’s expected people will send questions that are off-topic, like one asking who will win an upcoming sports match, only questions dealing with the Catholic faith will get serious consideration, said Burke.

The pope will personally send the inaugural tweets around noon Dec. 12 at the end of his general audience.

The Q&A exchange will be offered just that one time, and the rest of the papal news feeds will be excerpts from his general audience talks, Angelus addresses or other important speeches, Burke said.

Each tweet will be crafted by a Vatican official and the pope will review and approve each one before it is sent from the Vatican Secretariat of State’s offices, he said.

The papal tweets will be posted with some regularity but won’t be too frequent given the time constraints of the pope and that each tweet needs his approval, Msgr. Tighe said.

Even though he won’t be physically sending the tweets, the messages “are pearls of wisdom coming from the heart of the pope’s teaching and coming from his own mind and ideas,” he said.

When asked whether the tweets will carry the weight of papal infallibility, Archbishop Celli said the tweets “aren’t positions taken on dogma,” however, they will be excerpts from his teachings and are a part of the papal magisterium.

To avoid making people feel left out or underappreciated for not being followed by the pope, the pope’s accounts won’t follow anyone else on Twitter, except the other @Pontifex language accounts, Burke said.

The pope’s presence isn’t to amass a fan club, but to encourage all the other Catholics who are present and active online, Msgr. Tighe said. Even though the pope won’t be using the site to retweet, follow others or comment, his presence is meant to “encourage them to engage in debate and discussion” with their fans and followers.

The Vatican isn’t afraid of the likelihood of insults or criticism being aimed at the pope on Twitter, both Burke and Msgr. Tighe said.

“It’s a free market of ideas and that’s good,” said Burke.

The monsignor added it would be worse to have kept the pope out of the Twittersphere out of fear of engagement and then to leave that space “vacant.”

Claire Diaz-Ortiz, manager of social innovation for Twitter, told Catholic News Service that before the account was made public, @Pontifex had 11 followers. Within an hour of its unveiling, it had more than 14,000 followers, she said, which was “a pretty great feat” considering the figure snowballed from the Tweets of the pontifical council, Vatican Radio and fewer than 100 reporters at the Vatican news conference.

Diaz-Ortiz said she works with “high profile” religious leaders and started helping the Vatican in the spring of 2012 expand its presence by opening a papal account.

“The thing we see with religion and what makes it so interesting,” she said, “is that their engagement levels are really through the roof.”

She said if you were to compare the number of followers an “average pastor” has to the number “an L.A. film star has, you see that engagement per number of followers is so much higher for a religious leader.”

“What that tells us is that this is the kind of material that people on Twitter want to connect with and want to hear about more,” she said.

She said Christian leaders have repeatedly pointed out “how many Bible verses are really less than 140 characters” to begin with, and the “positive messages of spirituality” in the Gospels already make a nice fit for the Twitter format.

By Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — In a world of hardened hearts and titillating distractions, Christians need to keep the Gospel message simple and live what they teach with love and joy, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The best place to start is with one’s own family, he said, learning to spend time together, listening and understanding one another, and “being a sign for each other of God’s merciful love.”

Pope Benedict XVI greets the crowd as he begins his general audience in Paul VI hall at the Vatican Nov. 28. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

During his weekly general audience Nov. 28, the pope spoke about the challenge of communicating the saving truth of Jesus to today’s men and women whose hearts are “often closed” and whose minds are “sometimes distracted by the glitz and glam” of the material world.

In his catechesis to some 5,000 pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall, the pope said “it’s necessary to recover simplicity, to return to the essentials.”

The first condition to establish is that people can legitimately talk about God because God himself speaks to humanity, the pope said.

“The first condition for talking about God is, therefore, listening to what God himself has said to us,” he said.

“God is not a distant hypothesis about the origin of the world” and he isn’t an abstract form of “mathematical intelligence,” rather he is real and “is concerned about us and loves us,” the pope said.

In Jesus, people can see the face of God, who descended from heaven to be with humanity, “to teach us the art of living, the road to happiness, to liberate us from sin and make us children of God,” he said.

“Jesus came to save us, showing us the good life of the Gospels.”

Another essential condition for communicating the faith is to put Christ on center stage, not oneself, he said.

When St. Paul, for example, shared the faith, he didn’t espouse a philosophy he developed or ideas he dreamed up, but rather stuck to the real presence of God in his life.

The apostle “didn’t talk about himself; he didn’t want to create a fan club or lead some school of thought,” but wanted to lead people directly to Christ, the pope said.

This is the style individual Christians and their communities are called to follow: “to show the transformative action of the grace of God, overcoming individualism, narrowness, egoism and indifference, and living God’s love in daily interactions,” he said.

Christians need to look at how Christ communicated. He spoke about God and his kingdom showing “complete compassion for the distress and difficulties of human existence,” the pope said.

Jesus communicated by continually “bending down to mankind in order to lead them to God.”

The way Jesus lived and what he preached “are entwined” and this style is “essential for us Christians and our way of living the faith in charity.”

It demonstrates credibility and “that what we say is not just words, but reflects reality,” the pope said.

For that reason, Christians need to be aware of the “the potential, desires and obstacles in current culture, especially the desire for authenticity, the yearning for the transcendent and concern for safeguarding creation.”

That way Christians can “communicate, without fear, the answers that faith in God offers” to people’s needs and today’s challenges.

One of the best places to start talking about God is in the family, “the first school for communicating the faith to new generations,” he said.

Parents need to help their children become aware of God’s love, talk about the Christian faith, foster a critical eye toward the many influences children are exposed to and be prepared to answer children’s questions about God and religion, the pope said.

But above all, he said, communicating the faith must always be done with joy — a joy that doesn’t ignore or hide from the pain, difficulties and conflicts of the world, but knows how to respond to them with Christian hope.

“It’s important to help all family members understand that faith is not a burden, but a source of deep joy,” he said.

By Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI condemned escalating hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians, saying hatred and violence are never an appropriate solution to problems.

He also called for greater efforts to promote a truce and peace negotiations.

“I am following with great concern the escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” the pope said at the end of his general audience Nov. 21.

Smoke and explosions are seen above Gaza City Nov. 21. Israeli air strikes shook the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rockets struck across the border as Pope Benedict XVI condemned escalating hostilities, saying hatred and violence are never an appropriate solution to problems. (CNS photo/Ahmed Jadallah, Reuters)

“Hatred and violence are not the solution to problems,” he said to applause from those gathered in the Paul VI hall.

“I encourage the initiatives and efforts of those who are seeking to establish a cease-fire and to promote negotiations,” he said.

He also called on leaders on both sides of the conflict to make “courageous decisions in favor of peace and put an end to a conflict that has negative repercussions throughout the entire Middle East region, which is already troubled by too many conflicts and is in need of peace and reconciliation.”

The pope expressed his closeness to victims and all those suffering because of the violence.

His appeal came as both sides in the conflict launched fresh attacks.

Just hours before the pope spoke, a bomb exploded on a bus in Tel Aviv, wounding at least 10 people.

That attack followed a weeklong Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip aimed at stopping rocket strikes by Palestinian militants.

More than 130 Palestinians and at least five Israelis have been killed since Israel launched its offensive.

By Carol Glatz

Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — The Nativity story, like the whole story of Christ, is not merely an event in the past, but has unfolding significance for people today, with implications for such issues as the limits of political power and the purpose of human freedom, Pope Benedict writes in his third and final volume on the life and teachings of Jesus.

“Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives” is only 132 pages long, yet it includes wide-ranging reflections on such matters as the significance of the Virgin Birth and the distinctive views of nature in ancient pagan and Judeo-Christian cultures.

The book was formally presented at the Vatican Nov. 20, and was scheduled for publication in English and eight other languages in 50 countries Nov. 21.

In the book, Pope Benedict examines Jesus’ birth and childhood as recounted in the Gospels of Sts. Matthew and Luke. His interpretation of the biblical texts refers frequently to the work of other scholars and draws on a variety of academic fields, including linguistics, political science, art history and the history of science.

The book’s publication completes the three-volume “Jesus of Nazareth” series, which also includes “From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration” (2007) and “Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection” (2011).

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said at the Nov. 20 book launch that the three books are the “fruit of a long inner journey” by Joseph Ratzinger, whose personal views they represent. While much of what the pope says is accepted Catholic dogma, the texts themselves are not part of the church’s Magisterium and their arguments are free to be disputed, Father Lombardi said.

In his new book, the pope argues that Matthew and Luke, in their Gospel accounts, set out to “write history, real history that had actually happened, admittedly interpreted and understood in the context of the word of God.”

The pope calls the virgin birth and the resurrection “cornerstones” of Christian faith, since they show God acting directly and decisively in the material world.

“These two moments are a scandal to the modern spirit,” which expects and allows God to act only in ideas, thoughts and the spiritual world, not the material, he writes. Yet it is not illogical or irrational to suppose that God possesses creative powers and power over matter, otherwise “then he is simply not God.”

The pope enriches the Gospel accounts with personal reflections as well as questions and challenges for his readers.

For example, considering the angel’s appearance to the shepherds, who then “went with haste” to meet the child Savior, the pope asked “How many Christians make haste today, where the things of God are concerned?”

Pope Benedict examines the political context of the time of Jesus’ birth, which featured both the so-called “Pax Romana,” the widespread peace brought by the Roman ruler Caesar Augustus, and King Herod’s thirst for power, which led to the slaughter of the innocents.

“Pax Christi is not necessarily opposed to Pax Augusti,” he writes. “Yet the peace of Christ surpasses the peace of Augustus as heaven surpasses earth.”

The political realm has “its own sphere of competence and responsibility;” it oversteps those bounds when it “claims divine status and divine attributes” and makes promises it cannot deliver.

The other extreme comes with forms of religious persecution when rulers “tolerate no other kingdom but their own,” he writes.

The English version of Pope Benedict XVI’s new book, “The Infancy of Jesus,” is seen among copies in other languages during a press conference for the release of the book to journalists at the Vatican Nov. 20. The book is the third and concluding volume of his work, “Jesus of Nazareth.” It will be released to the public Nov. 21 in 20 languages. (CNS photo/Paul Haring

Any sign God announces “is given not for a specific political situation, but concerns the whole history of humanity,” he writes.

The pope writes that the Three Wise Men symbolize the purification of science, philosophy and rationality.

“They represent the inner dynamic of religion toward self-transcendence, which involves the search for truth, the search for the true God,” the pope writes.

The pope also argues that the star of Bethlehem was a true celestial event.

It “seems to be an established fact,” he writes, that the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn happened in 7-6 B.C., which “as we have seen is now thought likely to have been when Jesus was born.”

A key topic in the book is the role of human freedom in God’s divine plan for humanity.

“The only way (God) can redeem man, who was created free, is by means of a free ‘yes’ to his will,” the pope writes. It is precisely “the moment of free, humble yet magnanimous obedience,” such as Mary and Joseph showed when listening to God, “in which the loftiest choice of human freedom is made.”

Jesus, too, in his human freedom, understood he was bound to obedience to his heavenly father, even at the cost of his earthly life.

The missing 12-year-old, rediscovered by an anxious Mary and Joseph in the Temple, was not there “as a rebel against his parents, but precisely as an obedient (son), acting out the same obedience that leads to the cross and the resurrection,” the pope writes.

Jesus’ birth, life, death and resurrection is a story filled with contradiction, paradox and mystery, the pope writes, and “remains a sign of contradiction today.”

“What proves Jesus to be the true sign of God is he takes upon himself the contradiction of God,” Pope Benedict writes, “he draws it to himself all the way to the contradiction of the cross.”