'Faith is also service to joy'

Throughout his first year as Supreme Pontiff, Pope Benedict XVI has visited all the headquarters of the various Sacred Congregations in the Vatican. He always had a very clear and positive message to share with all the staff.

One very important visit was certainly that to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, over which he had presided as Prefect for 20 years. What is so very important about this visit?

One has to keep in mind that throughout these 20 years Cardinal Josef Ratzinger was considered by Church conservatives as the main architect of Pope John Paul II's conservative doctrinal policy and was also the favourite target of the progressives, while quite so often vilified by a good part of the media as Panzerkardinal, since he always defended Catholic orthodoxy with the impenetrability of a tank.

One is pleased to note that after Cardinal Ratzinger's election as Supreme Pastor many progressives and media people have now taken a more objective view and also a more respectful attitude towards Benedict XVI. Indeed, some of these vociferous critics have now openly admitted they were never aware of "his attentiveness and multilingual skills... and even a sense of humour".

Pope Benedict addressed the participants of the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican's Clementine Hall on February 10. Cardinal William Levada, whom the Pope had appointed to succeed him as Prefect of the Congregation, on May 13 last year, opened the audience by greeting the Holy Father.

Addressing the participants on the basic importance of faith, the Pope said: "I cannot but recall with a certain emotion the very intense and fruitful period which I spent with the Congregation, whose task it is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on faith and morals in the entire Catholic Church.

"Faith has a fundamental importance in the life of the Church, because the gift that God makes of Himself in Revelation is fundamental and God's gift of Himself is accepted through faith... Here the importance of your Congregation comes to the fore. Through its service to the whole Church and to the Bishops in particular as teachers of the faith and pastors, it is precisely called in a spirit of collegiality to encourage and to recall the centrality of the Catholic faith in its authentic expression."

The Holy Father stressed: "Whenever the perception of this centrality weakens, the fabric of ecclesial life loses its original brightness and wears thin: it degenerates into sterile activism or is reduced to political expediency with a worldly flavour.

"Service to the faith, which is a witness to the One who is the entire Truth, is also a service to joy and this is the joy of faith in him, of truth that is communicated through him, of salvation that comes from him! It is this joy we feel in our hearts when we kneel with faith to worship Jesus!"

Pope Benedict concluded his address with a paternal appeal to the participants and to all the faithful: "By continually deepening our knowledge of Christ, the centre of the cosmos and of history, we can show the men and women of our time that faith in him is important for humanity's future; indeed it is the accomplishment of all that is authentically human. Only in this perspective will we be able to give convincing answers to the person who is searching."