Instrumentum mensis Iunii pro lectura Magisterii Summi Pontifici Benedicti XVI pro evangelizatione in terris missionum

Saturday, 7 July 2007

The month of June was particularly full of significant interventions in the part of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI on essential matters for the life of the Church: from his Homilies on the Feast of Corpus Christi and on the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, to his address to open to annual Meeting of the Diocese of Rome on the theme: “Jesus is Lord. Educating to faith, discipleship and witness” to the publication of Letter addressed to the “Bishops, priests, consecrated persons and the lay members of the Catholic Church in the Peoples Republic of China”. A dense and loving letter rich in contents. With this Letter Pope Benedict XVI wished to express “the sentiments towards you as Successor of Peter and universal shepherd of the Church”. “You know well how much you are present in my heart and in my daily prayer and how deep is the relationship of communion that unites us spiritually.”. Therefore the Pope wished to express his fraternal closeness. “With intense joy - the Pope writes - I acknowledge your faithfulness to Christ the Lord and to the Church, a faithfulness that you have manifested sometimes at the price of grave sufferings, since it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake Nevertheless, some important aspects of the ecclesial life of your country give cause for concern.”. And again “Without claiming to deal with every detail of the complex matters well known to you, I wish through this letter to offer some guidelines concerning the life of the Church and the task of evangelisation in China, in order to help you discover what the Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, "the key, the centre and the purpose of the whole of human history wants from you”.


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