Message for the 33rd National Day for Life (February 6, 2011)
"Educating the fullness of life"
Education is the challenge and the urgent task to which we are called, each according to his own role and specific vocation.
We hope and we strive to educate the fullness of life, supporting and growing, from the new generations, a culture of life and accept that to keep it from conception to its natural end and that will always encourage, even when it is weak and in need of help.
As observed by Pope Benedict XVI, "the root of the crisis in education is a crisis of confidence life "(Letter to the Diocese and the city of Rome on the urgent task of education, January 21, 2008). With alarming frequency, the news reports cases of ferocious violence: Creatures allowed to be born, lives brutally broken, abandoned elderly, victims of accidents on the road and at work. We take this
un'estenuazione the sign of the culture of life, the only one able to teach respect and care for it in every season and particularly in its most fragile. The most disturbing factor is habituation: everything seems normal now glimpse of humanity and deaf to the cries of those who can not defend themselves. Lost the sense of Dio, l’uomo smarrisce se stesso: «l’oblio di Dio rende opaca la creatura stessa» (Gaudium et spes, n. 36).
Occorre perciò una svolta culturale, propiziata dai numerosi e confortanti segnali di speranza, germi di un’autentica civiltà dell’amore, presenti nella Chiesa e nella società italiana. Tanti uomini e donne di buona volontà, giovani, laici, sacerdoti e persone consacrate, sono fortemente impegnati a difendere e promuovere la vita. Grazie a loro anche quest’anno molte donne, seppur in condizioni disagiate, saranno messe in condizione di accogliere la vita che nasce, sconfiggendo la tentazione dell’aborto.
Vogliamo di cuore ringraziare le famiglie, le parrocchie, religious institutes, counseling centers of Christian inspiration and all the associations that strive every day to support the new life, reaching out to those in need and alone would fail to meet the commitments it entails.
This act of support towards the origin of life, to be truly fruitful, requires an environment conducive to the Church, as well as social and legislative interventions targeted. It should unleash a new humanism, educating all people of good will, and in particular the young generation, to see life as the highest gift that God has given to mankind. "The man - said Benedict XVI - is really designed for what is large, to the infinite. The greatest desire in life is a sign that He created us, who brought his "footprint". God is life, and so each creature tends to life in a unique and special about the human person, made in the image of God, aspire to love, joy and peace "(Message for the Twenty-sixth World Youth Day 2011, August 6, 2010, n. 1).
is precisely the beauty and power of love to give full meaning to life and result in a spirit of sacrifice, dedication and generous frequent accompaniment. We remember with gratitude to the many families in their homes who care for elderly family members and spouses who, even in tight times economic, eagerly welcome new creatures. We look with affection to parents who, with great patience, accompany teenage children in the human and spiritual growth and to orient them with great tenderness for what is right and good. We like to highlight the contribution of those grandparents who, selflessly, we also teaching them the wisdom to new generations and helping them to discern, in the light of their experience, what really matters.
Beyond the walls of your home, many young people find true masters of life: there are priests who spend the communities entrusted to them, expressing the fatherhood of God to the young and the poor are the teachers who, with passion and skill, introduce the mystery of life, making the school experience and Generative a place of true education. We thank them also.
Every human environment, animated by an appropriate educational activity can become productive and make life flourish. You must, however, that the yearning for brotherhood, located deep in the heart of every man, is illuminated by an awareness of sonship and gratitude for a gift so great, giving wings to the desire for fullness of meaning of human existence. Our lifestyle, characterized by a commitment to the gift of self, becomes a hymn of praise and makes us sowers of hope in these difficult times and exciting.
Rome, October 7
2010 Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
EPISCOPAL COUNCIL PERMANENT
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