VATICAN - Pope encourages faithful to pray to the Lord and to Saint Paul, that “as Christians, we can be ever more characterized, in relation with the society in which we live, as members of the 'family of God'...and that the pastors of the Church have increasingly more paternal sentiments, both gentle and strong, in the formation of the house of God, of the community, of the Church.”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The final letters of Saint Paul, called the pastoral letters, two sent to Timothy, and one to Titus, his close collaborators, were the focus of the catechesis of the Holy Father Benedict XVI during the general audience on Wednesday, January 28. To Timothy, who later became the first Bishop of Ephesus, the Apostle entrusted important missions and wrote him flattering praise of him. Titus was also placed in charge of very delicate missions in which he comforted Paul. According to the Letter addressed to him, it seems he was Bishop of Crete. The Pope commented that: “It seems to the majority of exegetes today that these letters wouldn't have been written by Paul himself, and that their origin would be in the 'Pauline school' and reflected his inheritance to a new generation, perhaps integrating some brief writing or word from the Apostle himself. For example, some words from the Second Letter to Timothy seem so authentic that they could only have come from the heart and lips of the Apostle.”
“Undoubtedly the ecclesial situation that emerges in these letters is distinct from that of the central years of Paul's life,” the Holy Father said, also mentioning the new cultural contexts and the appearance of teachings considered totally erroneous or false that anticipate “that successive erroneous orientation we know by the name of Gnosticism.” In contrast to these doctrines, Saint Paul firstly calls for a return to a spiritual reading of sacred Scripture, that is, a reading that considers it truly as 'inspired' and coming from the Holy Spirit, such that with it one can be 'instructed for salvation'...The other call consists in the reference to the good 'deposit': It is a special word from the pastoral letters with which is indicated the tradition of the apostolic faith that must be protected with the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. This so-called deposit should be considered as the sum of apostolic Tradition and as the standard for fidelity to the proclamation of the Gospel...The apostolic proclamation, that is, Tradition, is necessary to introduce oneself in the understanding of Scripture and capture in it the voice of Christ.”
From the Pastoral Letters, one can also see that “ the Christian community goes configuring itself in very clear terms, according to an identity that not only stays distant from incongruent interpretations, but above all affirms its own anchor in the essential points of the faith, that here is synonymous with 'truth'...In any case, it remains as an open community, of universal reach, that prays for all men of every class and condition so they come to know the truth. "God wants everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth...Thus the sense of universality, though the communities are still small, is strong and determinant for these letters...This is a first important component of these letters: the universality of the faith as truth, as the reading key to sacred Scripture, to the Old Testament, and thus it delineates a unity in the proclamation of Scripture and a living faith open to all and witness of the love of God for all.”
As for the ministerial structure of the Church, for the first time the Pastoral Letters present the triple subdivision of the bishops, presbyters and deacons. In fact, in the Pauline letters of the central years of his life, Paul speaks of the “bishops” and “deacons,” according to the structure that was the typical structure of the Church that formed in the epoch of the pagan world. The figure of the apostle himself remains, therefore, dominant, and because of this only little by little are the rest of the ministries developed.” In the Churches formed in the Judeo-Christian world, the presbyters are the dominant structure. “At the end in the pastoral letters, the two structures unite: Now appears the 'episcopo' (the bishop), always in singular, accompanied by the determinant article 'the.' And together with the 'episcopo' we find the presbyters and deacons...Thus is noted initially the reality that will later be called 'apostolic succession'...And thus we have the essential of the catholic structure: Scripture and Tradition, Scripture and proclamation, forming a whole; but to this structure that we could call doctrinal, should be added the personal structure, the successors of the apostles, as witnesses of the apostolic proclamation.”
The Holy Father's final point on the Pastoral Letters of St. Paul was on the fact that “the Church understands herself in very human terms, in analogies with the house and the family.” There are very detailed instructions on how a Bishop should act: he must manage his own household well...for if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of the church of God? This, the importance of an attitude of teaching and a special personal characteristic of paternity. “The episcopo in fact is considered as father of the Christian community,” Benedict XVI said, adding at the close of the catechesis the need to pray to the Lord and Saint Paul “as Christians, we can be ever more characterized, in relation with the society in which we live, as members of the 'family of God.' And let us pray also that the pastors of the Church have more and more paternal sentiments, simultaneously gentle and strong, in the formation of the house of God, of the community, of the Church.”
Before greeting Italian pilgrims, the Holy Father made the following three announcements.
First: “I have received with joy the news of the election of Metropolitan Kirill as the new Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. I invoke upon him the light of the Holy Spirit for a generous service to the Russian Orthodox Church, entrusting him to the special protection of the Mother of God.”
Second: In the homily delivered on the occasion of the solemn inauguration of my pontificate, I said that the "call to unity" is an "explicit" duty of the pastor and I commented on the Gospel passages about the miraculous catch of fish, saying: "Though there were so many fish, the net did not break." I continued after these Gospel words: "Alas, beloved Lord, with sorrow we must now acknowledge that it has been torn!" And I continued, "But no -- we must not be sad! Let us rejoice because of your promise, which does not disappoint, and let us do all we can to pursue the path towards the unity you have promised. … Do not allow your net to be torn, help us to be servants of unity!" Precisely in fulfilling this service to unity, which determines in a specific way my ministry as the Successor of Peter, I decided some days ago to concede the remission of the excommunication incurred by four bishops ordained without pontifical mandate in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre. I have carried out this act of paternal mercy because repeatedly these prelates have manifested their sharp suffering in the situation in which they found themselves. I trust that following from this gesture of mine will be the prompt effort on their part to complete final necessary steps to arrive to full communion with the Church, thus giving testimony of true fidelity and true recognition of the magisterium and the authority of the Pope and the Second Vatican Council.”
Third: “In these days in which we remember the Shoah, my memory turns to the images taken in during my repeated visits to Auschwitz, one of the concentration camps in which was carried out the brutal massacre of millions of Jews, innocent victims of a blind racial and religious hate. As I renew with affection the expression of my total and indisputable solidarity with our brother recipients of the First Covenant, I hope that the memory of the Shoah moves humanity to reflect on the unpredictable power of evil when it conquers the human heart.
May the Shoah be for everyone a warning against forgetting, against negating or reductionism, because violence committed against even one human being is violence against all. No man is an island, a well-known poet has written. May the Shoah teach especially, as much the old generations as the new ones, that only the tiring path of listening and dialogue, of love and pardon, leads peoples, cultures and religions of the world to the desired encounter of fraternity and peace in the world. May violence never again humiliate the dignity of man!” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 29/1/2009)