Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
During the month of December through his Magisterium the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI led the Church as she waited for the Advent of the Lord Jesus to contemplate the Mystery of the Incarnation, and he called the attention of all men and women to the true dignity of the human person revealed by Christ. The Holy Father made frequent mention of his second Encyclical Spe salvi, which had just been made public consigning it ideally to the whole Church and especially certain categories of people such as the sick, during a visit to a hospital in Rome and to university students gathered in St Peter's Basilica for a Mass in preparation for Christmas.
Saturday 1 December the Holy Father granted an audience to participants at a Forum for Catholic NGOs, and he thanked them for working to defend fundamental human rights and the objective dignity of life as a whole, stressing the importance of recognition of natural morals and denouncing insistent relativist ideology especially in the international field. On 2 December, first Sunday of Advent, the Pope made a pastoral visit to San Giovanni Battista Hospital in Rome. On Thursday 13 January 13 Benedict XVI met with hundreds of Roman university students. On Monday 17 he granted an audience to some Postulators of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, to whom he said “Saint normally generate more saints and closeness to their person, or even only in their footsteps, is always beneficial”.
The annual audience with the Roman Curia on 21 December for an exchange of Christmas wishes, gave the Pope an opportunity to look back on important moments of his Magisterium during the year which was coming to an end. In his address he mentioned his pastoral visit to Brazil to open the 5th General Conference of the Council of Bishops' Conferences of Latin America and the Caribbean in Aparecida which focused on discipleship of Christ and evangelisation.
In his Christmas Message the Pontiff dwelt on the “great light” brought by Christmas, “certainly not 'great' in the manner of this world”, and of peace, which “only the ‘great’ light which appeared in Christ can give to mankind”
