Benedict XVI believes that the sexual revolution and the collapse of moral theology are the cause of the scandals of abuse

The Church and the scandal of badual abuse

From 21 to 24 February, at the invitation of Pope Francis, the presidents of the episcopal conferences of the world gathered at the Vatican to discuss the crisis of faith and the Church, a crisis palpable worldwide after the shocking revelations of office abuse committed against minors. The magnitude and severity of reported incidents have puzzled priests and laity and have led many to question the faith of the Church. It was necessary to send a strong message and seek a new beginning to restore the Church's credibility as a light among peoples and as a force against the powers of destruction.

Having myself held a position of responsibility as pastor of the Church at a time when this crisis was developing and before that, I had to ask myself the question even though I am no longer directly responsible for being an emrito, how can I contribute to this news I start retrospectively. Then, from the time of the announcement to the meeting of presidents of episcopal conferences, I put together some notes with which I wish to help in this difficult hour. After making contact with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal (Pietro) Parolin and Pope Francis himself, it seems appropriate to publish this text in the Klerusblatt.

My work is divided into three parts.

In the first, I try to briefly present the general context of the question, without which the problem can not be understood. I try to show that in the decade of 1960, a great event occurred, of unprecedented magnitude in history. It can be said that in the twenty years between 1960 and 1980, the binding norms hitherto in matters of baduality completely collapsed and that a new normality has appeared, which has so far made the 39, the object of several laborious attempts to break up.

In the second part, I seek to clarify the effects of this situation on the formation of priests and their lives.

Finally, in the third part, I would like to develop some perspectives for an adequate response from the Church.

I.

(1) The problem begins with the introduction of children and young people into the nature of baduality, something prescribed and supported by the state. In Germany, the then Minister of Health, Minister of Health (Kte) Strobel, had a cbadette on which everything that was not previously allowed to be taught in public, including bad, was disseminated for educational purposes. What was originally supposed to concern only bad education for young people was later accepted as an option.

Similar effects were obtained with the Sexkoffer published by the Austrian government (N. OF T. Sexual Materials Used in Austrian Colleges in the late 1980s). Pornographic films with badual content then became common, to the point that they are broadcast in small cinemas (Bahnhofskinos) (N. of cheap T. cinemas in Germany which planned small bands near railway stations).

I still remember seeing, one day in the city of Regensburg, the crowds queuing up in front of a big cinema, something we had never seen before in wartime, when a mission special was expected. I also remember arriving in the city on Good Friday in 1970 and having seen on the billboards a large poster of two people completely naked and entwined.

Among the freedoms for which the 1968 revolution struggled was total badual freedom, one who has no more rules. The desire to resort to violence, which has characterized these years, is strongly linked to this mental collapse. In fact, bad tapes are no longer allowed on airplanes because they can generate violence in the small pbadenger community. And considering the fact that excess clothing has also caused aggression, school principals have repeatedly tried to introduce a proper attire to create a climate conducive to learning .

Part of the fissionoma of Revolucion del 68 was that pedophilia is also diagnosed as authorized and appropriate.

For young people in the Church, but not just for them, it was in many ways a very difficult time. I have always wondered how young people in this situation could approach the priesthood and accept it with all its ramifications. The considerable collapse of the following generations of priests over these years and the large number of secularizations are a consequence of all these developments.

(2)At the same time, regardless of this development, Catholic moral theology has experienced a collapse that has left the Church helpless in the face of these social changes. Try to briefly describe the trajectory that followed this development.

Until the Second Vatican Council, Catholic moral theology was largely based on natural law, whereas the Holy Scriptures have been quoted only for context or justification. In the Council's struggle for a new understanding of Revelation, the option of natural law has been largely abandonedand a moral theology entirely based on the Bible was required.

I remember how the Jesuit faculty of Frankfurt entered the young and intelligent father (Schiller) in order to develop a morality based entirely on the Scriptures. The beautiful thesis of Father (Bruno) Schiller shows a first step toward the construction of a scriptural morality. The Father was then sent to the United States and returned after realizing that only the Bible could express morality in a systematic way. Then I tried a more pragmatic moral theology, without being able to respond to the crisis of morality.

At the end, the hypothesis has prevailed that morality must be exclusively determined by the goals of human action. Although the old sentence "the end justifies the means" is not confirmed in this raw form, his way of thinking had become definitive.

Consequently, there can no longer be anything that constitutes absolute good, or anything that is fundamentally bad; (could be) only relative value judgments. There was no longer any good (absolute), but only the relatively better or contingent at the time and under the circumstances.

The crisis of justification and the presentation of Catholic morality have come to dramatic proportions in the late 1980s and the 1990s. On January 5, 1989, the Colonia Declaration was published, signed by 15 professors of Catholic theology. He focused on several points of the crisis in the relationship between episcopal teaching and the task of theology. (Reactions to) this text, which initially did not go beyond the usual level of protest, grew very quickly and it's become a cry against the magisterium of the church and met, clearly and visibly, the potential of world manifestation against the doctrinal texts expected of John Paul II. (See D. Mieth, Klner Erklrung, LThK, VI.³p. 196) (N. of T. The LTHK is theLexikon in Theology und Kirche, lexicon of theology and church, whose editor includes Telogo Karl Rahner and German Cardinal Walter Kasper)

Pope John Paul II, who knew very well and who closely followed the situation in which moral theology was order the work of an encyclical to clarify things. It is published with the title ofVeritatis Splendor(The Splendor of Truth) on August 6, 1993 and generated various vehement reactions of moral theologians. Before that, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) had already convincingly and systematically presented the morality proclaimed by the Church.

Never forget how the German-speaking moral telogo leader of the time, Franz Bckleback in his native Switzerland after his retirement he announces with respect to theVeritatis SplendorWhat if the encyclical determined that there were actions that could always and always be described as bad, he would refute it with all the resources At your disposal.

It was Godthe merciful which prevented him from putting his resolution into practice because Bckle is dead July 8, 1991. The encyclical was published on August 6, 1993 and actually includes the determination that there are actions that can never be good.

The Pope was fully aware of the importance of this decision At that time, and for this part of the text, I again consult the best specialists who did not participate in the encyclical edition. He knew that he should leave no doubt about the fact that morality to balance the goods must always have a final limit. There are goods that are never subject to concessions.

There are values ​​that should never be dropped for greater value and even surpbad the preservation of physical life. There is martyrdom. God is more, including physical survival. A life bought by the negation of God, a life that is based on one last lie, is not life.

Martyrdom is the basic category of Christian existence. The fact that it is no longer morally necessary in the theory defended by Bckle and many others demonstrates that it is the very essence of Christianity that is at stake here.

In moral theology, however, another question had become imperative: the badumption that the teaching of the Church had gained wide acceptance must have final competence (infallibility) should not fall into the range of infallible decisions about faith and morals. of the magisterium of the church. There is probably some truth in this hypothesis that guarantees more debate, but there are a minimum of moral issues that are inextricably linked to the fundamental principle of faith and that it must be defended if he does not want faith to be reduced to a theory and not recognized in his concrete life claims.

All that lets see how fundamentally the authority of the Church in morality is questioned. Those who deny the Church a competence in the final education in this region require it to remain silent, precisely where the boundary between truth and lies is at stake.

Regardless of this issue, in many circles of moral theology the badumption that the Church does not have and can not have its own morality has been exposed. The argument was that all moral badumptions will have their parallel in other religions and that there will therefore be no Christian nature. But the question of the nature of a biblical morality is not solved by the fact that for every speech somewhere, a parallel can be found in other religions. Instead, it's all biblical morality, which as such is new and distinct from its individual parts.

The moral doctrine of the Holy Scriptures has its way of being preached in a unique way in its concretion in the image of God, in the faith in a God who has shown Himself in Jesus Christ and who has lived as a human being..The Decolo is an application to human life of biblical faith in God. The image of God and morality are similar and that is why it results in a particular change in the Christian attitude towards the world and human life. In addition, Christianity has been described from the beginning with the wordHods(path, in Greek, used in the New Testament to speak of a path of progress).

Faith is a cross and a way of life. In the old church, the catechumenate was created as a habitat in which the distinctive and new aspects of the way of life of the Christian life were both practiced and protected against the increasingly demoralized culture. I believe that even today, something like the catechumenate communities is necessary for the Christian life to be affirmed in its own way.

II.

The first ecclesial reactions

(1)The process, long prepared and under way, of the dissolution of the Christian concept of morality has been marked, as I have tried, by the unprecedented radicalism of the 60s. This dissolution of the moral authority of the teaching of the Church must necessarily have an effect on the different members of the Church. In the context of the meeting of Presidents of Bishops' Conferences around the world with Pope Francis, the question of priestly life, as well as that of seminaries, is of particular interest. In dealing with the problem of preparing seminaries for priestly ministry, there is in fact a vast decomposition in terms of previous form of preparation.

In several seminars, homobadual groups have been created which have acted more or less openly., which has significantly changed the climate that lives there. At a seminar in southern Germany, candidates for the priesthood and the lay ministry of pastoral specialists (Pastoralreferent) live together. In daily meals, seminarians and pastoral specialists were together. The wives were sometimes with their wives and children; and sometimes with their girlfriends. The climate in this seminary did not provide the necessary support for the preparation of the priestly vocation. The Holy See was aware of these problems without being informed precisely. At first, an apostolic visit was agreed for seminars in the United States.

Like him the criteria for selecting and appointing bishops have also changed After the Second Vatican Council, the bishops' relations with their seminaries were also very different. Above all conciliarity has been established as a criterion for the appointment of new bishopswhich can be understood in many ways.

In factIn many places it was understood that conciliar attitudes were related to a critical or negative attitude towards tradition. until then, and this must be replaced by a new and radically open relationship with the world. UThe bishop, who was previously rector of a seminary, had made the seminarians see badgraphic films with the intention that they make them resistant to behavior contrary to faith.

There were, and not only in the United States of America, bishops who, individually, completely rejected the Catholic tradition and sought a new and modern catholicity in their dioceses. It may be interesting to mention that in many seminars, students who saw them reading my books were considered unsuitable for the priesthood. My books were hidden, as if it was bad literature, and they were only read under the desk.

The visit that was made gave no new clue, apparently because several powers joined forces to invent the real situation. A second visit was commissioned and provided new data, but did not yield any results. Since the 1970s, however, the situation of seminars has generally improved. And yet, only isolated cases of strengthening vocations to the priesthood appeared, the general situation having evolved differently.

(2)The issue of pedophilia, if I remember correctly, it was not acute until the second half of the 1980s. Meanwhile, it had already become a public problem in the United States, so much so that the bishops went to Rome to seek help because the canon law, as it was written in the new Code (1983), did not seem sufficient to take the necessary measures. At first, Rome and the Roman canonists had difficulties with these concerns since, in their opinion, the temporary suspension of the priestly ministry should be sufficient to allow purification and clarification. This could not be accepted by the American bishops, because the priests thus remain in the service of the bishop and they are directly badociated with him. Gradually, a criminal law of the new code developed and strengthened, voluntarily constructed in a comfortable way.

Moreover, and nevertheless, there was a fundamental problem in the perception of criminal law. Only the so-called guarantee (a kind of procedural protectionism) was considered conciliar. This means that the rights of the accused must be guaranteed, in the first place, to the point of totally excluding any conviction. As a counterbalance to the defense options offered to accused and often inadequate speakers, his right to defense, thanks to the guarantee, extended to such an extent that the convictions were almost impossible.

Allow me a brief excerpt at this point. In light of the magnitude of the bewildered peddling, a word of Jesus jumps back to the fore: And whoever stumbles upon one of those little ones who believes in me, it would be best for him to tie him a grind around his neck . those who stir a donkey and throw it into the sea (Mark 9:42).

The word small in the language of Jesus means ordinary believers who can see their faith confused for the intellectual arrogance of those who think themselves intelligent. Then, here Jesus protects the deposit of faith with a threat or punishment enftico for those who do damage.

The modern use of the phrase is not bad in itself, but it should not obscure the original meaning. It is clear, against any guarantee, that not only the right of the accused is important and requires a guarantee. Great badets such as faith are just as important.

Then, a balanced canon law that corresponds to Jess's message should not only provide a guarantee to the accused, for whom respect is a legal right, but rather It must also protect the faith, which is also an important legal badet. A correctly formed canon law must then contain a double guarantee: the legal protection of the accused and the legal protection of the property at stake. If today this clear design by nature is presented, it usually falls on the ear of a deaf man when the issue of the protection of faith is resolved as a legal good. In the general consciousness of the law, faith no longer seems to have the rank of good that requires protection. It is an alarming situation that church pastors must consider and take seriously.

I would now like to add to the brief notes on the situation of priestly formation at the time of the crisis, some observations on the evolution of canon law in this area.

In principle, the congregation for the clergy was responsible treat the crimes committed by the priests, but since the guarantee dominated the situation at that time, I agreed with Pope John Paul II that it was appropriate to entrust these offenses to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.under the title of Delicta maiora against fidem.

This made it possible to impose the maximum penalty, that is to say the expulsion of the clerical state, this could not have been imposed by other legal provisions. It was not a trick to impose the maximum penalty, but a consequence of the importance of faith for the Church. In fact, it is important to ensure that such misconduct on the part of the clergy ultimately brings faith.

Wherever faith no longer determines the actions of man, such offenses are possible.

The severity of the sentence, however, also badumes clear evidence of the offense: this aspect of the guarantee remains in effect.

In other words, To legally enforce the maximum penalty, a proper criminal process is necessarybut the dioceses and the Holy See are submerged by such a requirement. That is why we formulate a minimum of criminal procedures and leave open the possibility that the Holy See itself badumes the judgment when the diocese or the metropolitan administration can not do it. In each case, the trial must be examined by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in order to guarantee the rights of the accused. Finally, at the fourth fair (north of the badembly of congregation members), we created a call instance to appeal.

Because all this really super powers the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and since the delays had to be predictable given the nature of this case, Pope Francis has made additional reforms.

III.

(1.)What should be done? Maybe we should create another church for things to work? Well, this experience has already been made and has already failed. Only obedience and love to our Lord Jesus Christ can show us the way, So first try to understand again and from inside (of ourselves) what the Lord wants and wanted with us.

First, I would suggest the following: if we really want to summarize very briefly the content of the faith as it is in the Bible, we will have to do it by saying that the Lord initiated a story of love with we and want to embrace all creation. The way to fight the evil that threatens us, as well as the whole world, can only be that love. This is the true strength against evil, since the power of evil emerges from our refusal to love God. Whoever calls for the love of God is redeemed. Our being not redeemed is a consequence of our inability to love God. To learn to love God is therefore the path of human redemption.

Let us try to develop a little more this essential content of the revelation of God. We can then say that The first fundamental gift of faith is the certainty that God exists. A world without God can only be a world without meaning. If not, where will everything come from? In any case, it has no spiritual purpose. In a way, it is simply there and has no purpose or meaning. There is no standard of good or evil and only that which is stronger than anything can badert itself and power becomes the only principle. The truth does not count, it does not really exist. It is only if things have a spiritual reason that they have an intention and are designed. Only if there is a creator God who is good and who wants good, then the life of man can have a meaning.

There is a Creator God and the measure of all things is a primordial and primordial need, but a God who does not express himself at all, who has not made himself knownit will remain as a presumption and can not then determine the form[[[[Gestalt]of our life. For God to be truly God in this deliberate creation, we must look at Him to express ourselves in one way or another. He did it in many ways, but he did it decisively in the call to Abraham and he gave those who sought God guidance that exceeded all expectations: God Himself – even become a creature, speak as a man with us. Human being.

In this sense, the phrase that God is, in the end becomes a truly joyful message, precisely because it is more than understanding, because it creates and is a love for that once again People are aware of this, the first and most important task entrusted to us by the Lord.

A society without God a society that does not know it and treats it as non-existent It is a society that loses its measure. Nowadays was the sentence of the death of God. When God dies in a society, we are told that it becomes free. In reality, the death of God in a society also means the end of freedom because what dies is the goal that provides guidance, since the compbad disappears that directs us in the right direction it teaches us to distinguish right from wrong. Western society is a society in which God is absent from the public sphere and has nothing to offer him. And that is the reason why it is a society in which the measure of humanity is lost more and more. In some cases, it suddenly seems that what is bad and destroys the man has become a routine matter.

This is the case of pedophilia. Theorized recently as something legitimate, it has spread more and more. And now, we realize with surprise that what is happening to our children and young people threatens to destroy them. The fact that this can also be extended in the Church and among the priests should disturb us in a particular way.

Why has pedophilia reached such proportions? In the end, the reason is the absence of God. We Christians and priests also prefer not to speak about God because this discourse does not seem practical. After the convulsions of the Second World War, we always had, in Germany, expressly in our Constitution that we were under the responsibility of God as a guiding principle. Half a century later, it was no longer possible to include the responsibility of God as a guiding principle in the European Constitution. God is seen as the partisan concern of a small group and can no longer be a guiding principle for the community as a whole. This decision is reflected in the situation in the West, where God has become a private affair for a minority.

One of the main tasks, which must result from the moral upheavals of our time, is to begin to live again by and under God. Above all, we we must relearn to recognize that God is the basis of our life, instead of leaving it as an ineffective phrase. Never forget the warning of the great telogo Hans Urs von Balthasar who already wrote me on one of his postcards: Do not presuppose the triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, preside!

In fact, in theology, God is always taken for granted as a matter of routine, but in the concrete, we do not relate to him. The theme of God seems so unreal, so excluded from the things that concern us and yet everything becomes different if it is not presupposed, but presented to God. Do not leave it as a frame, but recognize it as the center of our thoughts, words, and actions.

(2)God became man for us. The man as a creature is so close to his heart that he is united to him and has entered human history in a very practical way. He speaks to us, lives with us, suffers with us and badumes death for us. We talk about it in detail in theology, with words and thoughts learned, but it is precisely so that we run the risk of becoming teachers of the faith instead of being renewed and made teachers by the faith.

Consider this about the central question: the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Our treatment of the Eucharist can only arouse anxiety. Vatican Council II rightly focused on the dismissal of this sacrament from the presence of the body and blood of Christ, from the presence of his person, his pbadion, his death and his resurrection, to the center of Christian life and the very existence of the Church. . It's partly what has really happened and we should be grateful to the Lord.

And yet, a very different attitude prevails. Ce qui prédomine n’est pas un nouveau respect pour la présence de la mort et de la résurrection du Christ, mais un moyen de traiter avec celui qui détruit la grandeur du mystère.. Chaque participation à la célébration eucharistique dominicale montre combien peu de chrétiens d’aujourd’hui savent apprécier la grandeur du don qui consiste en sa présence réelle. L'Eucharistie est devenue un simple geste de cérémonie quand il est pris pour acquis que le tribunal exige qu'il soit offert lors des fêtes de famille ou à l'occasion comme mariages et enterrements à tous les invités pour des raisons familiales.

La manière dont les gens reçoivent simplement le Saint-Sacrement dans la commune comme une routine montre que beaucoup le voient comme un geste purement cérémonial. Par conséquent, lorsque vous réfléchissez avant tout à l'action requise, il est évident que nous n'avons pas besoin d'une autre église avec notre propre conception. Au lieu de cela, cela nécessite avant tout le renouvellement de la foi en la réalité que Jésus-Christ nous a été donnée dans le Saint Sacrement.

Lors de conversations avec des victimes de pédophilie, je suis devenu très conscient de cette exigence première et fondamentale. Une jeune femme qui a été clamée m'a dit que l'aumônier, son supérieur au service de l'autel, l'initie toujours aux abus baduels qu'il commet avec ces mots: C'est mon corps qui doit être délivré par vous.

Il est évident que cette femme ne peut plus entendre les paroles de la consécration sans faire l'expérience de la terrible angoisse de l'abus. Oui, nous devons implorer de toute urgence le Seigneur pour son pardon, mais nous devons avant tout jurer par lui et lui demander de nous réapprendre à comprendre la grandeur de sa souffrance et de son sacrifice. Y nous devons faire tout ce qui est en notre pouvoir pour protéger le don de la Sainte Eucharistie des abus.

(3)Et enfin, il y a le mystère de l'Église. La phrase avec laquelle Romano Guardini, il y a presque 100 ans, J'ai exprimé l'espoir joyeux qui était en lui et dans beaucoup d'autres, reste inoubliable: Un événement d'une importance incalculable a commencé, l'Eglise se réveille dans les âmes.

Cela signifiait que l'Église n'était plus vécue ou perçue simplement comme un système extérieur qui entrait dans nos vies, comme une sorte d'autorité, mais qu'elle commençait à être perçue comme quelque chose de présent dans le cœur des gens, comme une chose non seulement. externe mais cela nous déplace intérieurement. Près de 50 ans plus tard, en reconsidérant ce processus et en voyant ce qui se pbadait, Je suis tenté d'inverser la phrase: l'Église meurt dans les âmes.

In fact aujourd'hui, l'Église est largement perçue uniquement comme une sorte d'appareil politique. On en parle presque exclusivement dans les catégories politiques et cela s'applique même aux évêques qui formulent leur conception de l'Église du matin presque exclusivement en termes politiques. La crise, causée par les nombreux cas d'abus commis par le clergé, nous fait considérer l'Église comme quelque chose d'inacceptable presque que nous devons prendre en main et redistribuer. Mais una Iglesia que se hace a s misma no puede constituir esperanza.

Jess mismo compar la Iglesia a una red de pesca en la que Dios mismo separa los buenos peces de los malos. Tambin hay una parbola de la Iglesia como un campo en el que el buen grano que Dios mismo sembr crece junto a la mala hierba que un enemigo secretamente ech en l. In fact la mala hierba en el campo de Dios, la Iglesia, son ahora excesivamente visibles y los peces malos en la red tambin muestran su fortaleza. However, el campo es an el campo de Dios y la red es la red de Dios. Y en todos los tiempos, no solo ha habido mala hierba o peces malos, sino tambin los sembros de Dios y los buenos peces. Proclamar ambos con nfasis y de la misma forma no es una manera falsa de apologtica, sino un necesario servicio a la Verdad.

En este contexto es necesario referirnos a un importante texto en la Revelacin a Juan. El demonio es identificado como el acusador que acusa a nuestros hermanos ante Dios da y noche. (Ap 12, 10). El Apocalipsis toma entonces un pensamiento que est al centro de la narrativa en el libro de Job (Job 1 y 2, 10; 42:7-16). All se dice que el demonio buscaba mostrar que lo correcto en la vida de Job ante Dios era algo meramente externo. Y eso es exactamente lo que el Apocalipsis tiene que decir: el demonio quiere probar que no hay gente correcta, que su correccin solo se muestra en lo externo. Si uno pudiera acercarse, entonces la apariencia de justicia se caera rpidamente.

La narracin comienza con una disputa entre Dios y el demonio, en la que Dios se ha referido a Job como un hombre verdaderamente justo. Ahora va a ser usado como un ejemplo para probar quin tiene razn. El demonio pide que se le quiten todas sus posesiones para ver que nada queda de su piedad. Dios le permite que lo haga, tras lo cual Jon acta positivamente. Luego el demonio presiona y dice: Piel por piel! S, todo lo que el hombre tiene dar por su vida. Sin embargo, extiende ahora tu mano y toca su hueso y su carne, vers si no te maldice en tu misma cara. (Job 2,4f).

Entonces Dios le otorga al demonio un segundo turno. Tambin toca la piel de Job y solo le est negado matarlo. Para los cristianos es claro que este Job, que est de pie ante Dios como ejemplo para toda la humanidad, es Jesucristo. En el Apocalipsis el drama de la humanidad nos es presentado en toda su amplitud.

El Dios Creador es confrontado con el demonio que habla a toda la humanidad y a toda la creacin. Le habla no solo a Dios, sino y sobre todo a la gente: Miren lo que este Dios ha hecho. Supuestamente una buena creacin. En realidad est llena de miseria y disgustos. El desaliento de la creacin es en realidad el menosprecio de Dios. Quiere probar que Dios mismo no es bueno y alejarnos de l.

La oportunidad en la que el Apocalipsis no est hablando aqu es obvia. Hoy, la acusacin contra Dios es sobre todo menosprecio de Su Iglesia como algo malo en su totalidad y por lo tanto nos disuade de ella. La idea de una Iglesia mejor, hecha por nosotros mismos, es de hecho una propuesta del demonio, con la que nos quiere alejar del Dios viviente usando una lgica mentirosa en la que fcilmente podemos caer. No, incluso hoy la Iglesia no est hecha solo de malos peces y mala hierba. La Iglesia de Dios tambin existe hoy, y hoy es ese mismo instrumento a travs del cual Dios nos salva.

Es muy importante oponerse con toda la verdad a las mentiras y las medias verdades del demonio: s, hay pecado y mal en la Iglesia, pero incluso hoy existe la Santa Iglesia, que es indestructible. Adems hoy hay mucha gente que humildemente cree, sufre y ama, en quien el Dios verdadero, el Dios amoroso, se muestra a S mismo a nosotros. Dios tambin tiene hoy Sus testigos (martyres) en el mundo. Nosotros solo tenemos que estar vigilantes para verlos y escucharlos.

La palabra mrtir est tomada de la ley procesal. En el juicio contra el demonio, Jesucristo es el primer y verdadero testigo de Dios, el primer mrtir, que desde entonces ha sido seguido por incontables otros.

El hoy de la Iglesia es ms que nunca una Iglesia de mrtires y por ello un testimonio del Dios viviente. Si miramos a nuestro alrededor y escuchamos con un corazn atento, podremos hoy encontrar testigos en todos lados, especialmente entre la gente ordinaria, pero tambin en los altos rangos de la Iglesia, que se alzan por Dios con sus vidas y su sufrimiento. Es una inercia del corazn lo que nos lleva a no desear reconocerlos. Una de las grandes y esenciales tareas de nuestra evangelizacin es, hasta donde podamos, establecer hbitats de fe y, por encima de todo, encontrar y reconocerlos.

Vivo en una casa, en una pequea comunidad de personas que descubren tales testimonios del Dios viviente una y otra vez en la vida diaria, y que alegremente me comentan esto. Ver y encontrar a la Iglesia viviente es una tarea maravillosa que nos fortalece y que, una y otra vez, nos hace alegres en nuestra fe.

Al final de mis reflexiones me gustara agradecer al Papa Francisco por todo lo que hace para mostrarnos siempre la luz de Dios que no ha desaparecido, incluso hoy. Gracias Santo Padre!

Benedicto XVI