VATICAN - Benedict XVI tells “Pro Petri Sede” and “Etrennes Pontificales” associations: “Nourished by the same Eucharistic Bread, the baptized cannot be indifferent when bread is lacking on men's tables.”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “The Pauline year offers us the occasion, through meditation on the word of the Apostles to the Gentiles, to be acutely conscious that the Church is a Body, through which the very life of Jesus circulates -- hence the fact that every member of the ecclesial body is united in a very profound way to all the others, and cannot ignore their needs. Nourished by the same Eucharistic Bread, the baptized cannot be indifferent when bread is lacking on men's tables.” These are the words with which the Holy Father addressed members of the associations “Pro Petri Sede” and “Etrennes Pontificales” (from Belgium), whom he received in an audience on February 27, during their pilgrimage that they make every two years to the tombs of the apostles.
“Again this year you have accepted the call to enlarge your hearts to the needs of the disinherited, so that the members of the Body of Christ affected by poverty are alleviated and thus become more alive and free to give witness of the Good News,” the Pope said. He then thanked those present for the possibility they give to the Successor of Peter to “enable him to exercise concrete and active charity, which is the sign of his solicitude for all the Churches, for all the baptized, and for all men,” Benedict XVI concluded his address by highlighting that “by combating poverty we give greater possibility to peace so that it will enter and take root in hearts.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 2/3/2009)