I wish to share with readers of The Times the joy I felt when reading the message which Pope Benedict delivered during the visit to his country last September.
Let us change the Church by putting God back in the centre- Fr Angelo Seychell, Żejtun
The Pope said that “freed from its material and political load, the Church can dedicate itself better and in a truly Christian way to the whole world”.
In order to recharge the Church, said the Pope, no tactical device is needed but only the Gospel, which is the unique identity authorised for Christians, the unique whole, full of sincerity and sobriety but which has to be repolished from what is only apparently a matter of faith but which truly is only conventions and customs.
The Church of Benedict XVI is not suitable neither for tepid Christians nor for managerial Christians, who give more importance to the efficiency of structures rather than to faith and spirit. It would be better to have agnostics than them.
This is a “humble” church, a virtue which today is not very popular. It is a Church that considers “secularisation” a positive factor even when it expresses itself in “expropriation of property” or in “abolishment of priveleges and similar things” because every time this happens one notes “a profound liberation of the Church from signs of worldliness”.
In Germany the Pope launched a challenge to society and offered an extraordinary reflection, never done before, on the Church and its future.
This Pope is a person able to astonish because he uses words and concepts with such liberty and ability that make people listen.
His whole ideal has come out: let us change the Church by putting God back in the centre, because it’s only where God exists that there is a future.
The Pope astonished the German Parliament by giving a lecture on law, democracy and the philosophy of politics, which without justice, competence and responsibility, betrays itself and peoples.
He said that without law the state becomes just a band of brigands, a clear reference to the Nazi dictatorship.
A good politician must be able to distinguish between good and evil. Politics must pursue justice and thus create the fundamental conditions for peace.
Regarding the Church, he admonished Christians and routine faithful that they will be preceded in the kingdom of heaven by publicans and prostitutes, says Matthew, and by agnostics, says Benedict XVI. This is not a warning but an appeal to count the cost of living the Gospel compared to the cost of keeping what is just an apparatus.
And the Pope ended his message with these severe words: “The harm to the Church is not caused by its adversaries but by tepid and weak Christians, who should be the light of the world!”