Authentic witnesses

To the cries of ‘Viva O Papa’ (Long Live the Pope!) a huge throng of people filled the esplanade of the Sanctuary of Fatima to listen to the Pope, who had arrived on board the ‘pope-mobile’ to celebrate the great open-air mass marking the anniversary of the first apparition of Mary to the three shepherd children of Fatima on 13 May 1917. This was perhaps the culminating moment of Benedict XVI’s three-day apostolic journey to Portugal. The Pope also celebrated the anniversary of Ali Agca’s attempt on John Paul II’s life (13 May 1981) and the tenth anniversary of the beatification of two of the three children to whom the Virgin Mary had appeared in 1917 (13 May 2000). Among the huge programme of the apostolic journey, we have chosen some key passages from two of the addresses given by Benedict XVI in recent days: his speeches to the Portuguese bishops and to the representatives of the country’s social institutions.Authentic witnesses of the Gospel. “Keep alive the prophetic dimension, without any gags, in the scenario of the contemporary world, because the word of God is not in chains!”. That’s the appeal made by the Pope to the bishops of Portugal. “There’s a need – he said – for authentic witnesses of Jesus Christ, especially in those human environments in which the silence of the faith is wider and deeper: politicians, intellectuals, and professionals of communication who profess and promote a mono-cultural message, with contempt for the religious and contemplative dimension of life. In these fields there are believers who are ashamed [of their faith], who give a hand to secularism, and the building of barriers to Christian inspiration”. In these contexts – said the Pope – evangelization needs “a real ardour of sanctity”. And he explained: “when the Catholic faith is no longer felt by many as the common heritage of society and is often seen as an insidious and obfuscating seed by the ‘gods’ and lords of this world, it is very difficult for it to touch hearts through simple discourses or moral exhortations, still less through vague appeals to Christian values”. “The courageous and integral appeal to principles – observed the Pope – is essential and indispensable; nonetheless the simple enunciation of the message is not enough to reach people’s heart; it does not touch their freedom; it does not change their life. What fascinates people is especially their meeting with believers who, through their faith, draw them to the grace of Christ, by bearing witness to Him”. It was at this point that Benedict XVI confessed to the bishops his “agreeable surprise” to see how new ecclesial communities and movements, “at a time when the Church is in difficulty”, are succeeding in “reawakening in the young and in adults the joy of being Christians, and of living as part of the Church”. The Pope ended his speech with a recommendation: he urged the bishops “to respond to situations of grave social deprivation”. May the difficulties that are most felt today not weaken you in the logic of giving. May your witness as prophets of justice and peace, as defenders of the inalienable rights of the person, continue to be expressed in a vital way in the country. May your voice be joined with that of the most vulnerable, whom you have wisely motivated to possess a voice of their own, without ever fearing to raise your voice in defence of the oppressed, the humiliated and the maltreated”.At the service of the common good. “Conscious, as the Church, that you are unable to offer practical solutions to every specific problem” and “are devoid of any type of power”, “be ready to help and to offer the means of salvation to everyone”. In short, be “determined to serve the common good”. That’s the appeal made by Pope Benedict XVI to the representatives of the Church’s social and charitable organizations in Portugal, to whom he recommended the example of the Good Samaritan. And what is this style of service? It is “a heart that sees”. “This heart sees where there’s a need for love and acts as a consequence”. The Pope motivated the reason for attention to others as follows: “The unconditional love of Jesus who healed us – he declared – must now be transformed into a gratuitously and generously given love, through justice and charity, if we wish to live with a Good Samaritan’s heart”. The privileged addressees of this particular attention are – he explained – “the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, those who live alone and abandoned, the disabled, young and old, migrants, the unemployed and those who suffer from needs that cast a shadow on their dignity as free persons”. Benedict exhorted the representatives of the social institutions to “achieve a satisfactory synthesis between spiritual life and apostolic activity”. And he underlined a risk: “The pressure exerted by the dominant culture, which insistently presents a lifestyle based on the law of the stronger, on easy and enticing profit, ends up by influencing our way of thinking, our projects and our mode of service, with the risk of depriving them of that motivation of faith and Christian hope that had aroused them in the first place”. In this way – according to the Pope – “the many and pressing requests for aid and support that the poor and the outcasts of society make of us prompt us to seek solutions that respond to the logic of efficiency, of visible effect and publicity. Nonetheless, the abovementioned synthesis is indispensable”, he said, “to be able to serve Christ in the humanity that awaits you. In this divided world, a profound and genuine unity of heart, spirit and action is incumbent on you all”.