VATICAN - “Ethnic and social differences lived in a spirit of reciprocal respect and love, become a common enrichment rather than a motive for division”: Benedict XVI addresses Bishops of Congo on ad limina visit

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “May our meeting, expression of communion with the Successor of St Peter, be a source of ever more intense communion among yourselves and among your diocesan Churches, filling you with confidence and encouraging you to persevere in the proclamation of the Gospel”: this was the wish expressed by the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI when he received in audience the Bishops of Congo on Friday 19 October on the occasion of their ad limina visit to Rome.
The Holy Father sent greetings to the priests, deacons, men and women religious, catechists and lay faithful of the respective dioceses, “who have frequently manifested their love for Christ and their solidarity with their brothers and sisters at difficult moments of the country's recent history” and he urged them to be “tireless artificers of justice and peace”. Recalling that the Bishops' Conference continues to work to promote peace and national reconciliation, the Pope called on “Christians and all citizens to open paths to reconciliation so that ethnic and social differences, lived in a spirit of reciprocal respect and love, become a common enrichment rather than a motive for division”.
The Pope said the Bishops' five-yearly reports underline “the urgency to develop authentic missionary dynamism” in the local Churches. “To evangelise in truth and in depth, it is necessary to be ever more faithful and credible witnesses to Christ - said Benedict XVI -. This is your eminent responsibility. Always be ‘men of God' present in your dioceses close to your priests, concerned primarily for the proclamation of the Gospel, drawing from your intimate relationship with Christ the power to weave ever tighter bonds of fraternity and unity among yourselves and with everyone”. The Bishops' Conference is called to be a “ privileged place of communion and of fraternal life and concerted on common programmes”.
Pastoral commitment concerns the “living ecclesial communities”, which are “concrete environments of Gospel announcement and the exercise of charity”, and they form “a powerful stronghold against religious sects”. The Holy Father urged the Bishops to “give special attention to the initial and ongoing formation of the faithful, so they may be familiar with the Christian mystery and live of it, sustained by the reading of Holy Scripture and Sacramental life”, and be ever more active in society. Those involved in the formation of the laity, for example catechists and their families, must have access to adequate formation “in order to fulfil their important mission”.
The Holy Father asked the Bishops to encourage their priests on the Pope's behalf: “It is up to you to sustain them, to encourage them to live in full communion with you and in a real spirit of service to Christ and to the Christian community, to lead an ever more worthy and holy existence, founded on profound spiritual life and affective maturity lived in celibacy through which they offer, with the grace of the Spirit and through free response of their will, the totality of their love and their concern for Jesus Christ and his Church”. The Pope called on the many Congolese priests outside their country to “consider seriously the pastoral needs of their dioceses” and make “the necessary decisions to respond to the pressing appeals of their diocesan Churches”.
The Pope ended his address sharing the Bishops' concern for “considerable decrease in the number of canonical marriages” and consequent weakening of the family, calling for pastoral reflection “to promote the dignity of Christian matrimony, reflection and realisation of Christ's love for his Church” and to help couples “to acquire the human and spiritual maturity necessary to assume with responsibility the mission of Christian spouses and parents”. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 22/10/2007; righe 47, parole 640)