“There should be no Mass without its homily”: Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, bishop of Terni and president of the Catholic Biblical Federation said that this morning, during the works of the Synod of the Bishops on the Word of God, going on at the Vatican. “The homily is neither catechesis, not even meditation, nor an exegesis lesson he went on, but is the time in which we must let our hearts penetrated by the strength of the Word of God”. In this respect, he recalled many debates on the style to be adopted for preparing homilies, by mentioning a book by Carlo Bo with a meaningful title: “The sermon, torment of believers”. Then, Msgr. Paglia added that “one must not be afraid to give the Bible to believers. Each one must own his personal Bible, to consult it and to meditate without interruption”. To demonstrate that, he told the synodal fathers in advance the results of an international survey on the spreading and knowledge of the Bible. The survey will be presented in the next few days. According to the survey he pointed out “it is clear that in all countries, the people hold the Bible in high esteem. The Bible has to be made known to a further extent. Moreover, the survey pointed out that many people believe that the Holy Scripture should be taught in schools systematically”.
