VATICAN - Benedict XVI: "In every trial, in different parts of the world, the Church suffers persecution, but is winning"

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - "In every age the Church is supported by the light and strength of God, that is fed into the wilderness with the bread of His Word and the Holy Eucharist. And so in all tribulations, through all the trials that she meets during the times and in different parts of the world, the Church suffers persecution, but always wins. And in this way the Christian Community is the presence, the guarantee of God's love against all the ideologies of hatred and selfishness". These are the words spoken by the Holy Father Benedict XVI during the act of devotion to the Immaculate in Piazza di Spagna, where the Pope visited, according to tradition, on the afternoon of Thursday, December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
"The only danger the Church can and should fear is the sin of her members – the Pope continued -. While Mary is free from a every stain of sin, the Church is holy, but at the same time is marked by our sins. For that reason the people of God, pilgrim in time, turn to her heavenly Mother and ask her help and encouragement in living a truly Christian life and to give us hope. We really need, especially at this difficult time for Italy, Europe and different parts of the world. Mary help us to see that there is a light beyond the blanket of fog that seems to envelop reality".
In his speech, the Pope recalled that the "woman" of the Apocalypse is Mary. "She is 'dressed up as the sun', that is to say God: the Virgin Mary in fact is entirely surrounded by the light of God and lives in God ... This woman has the moon under her feet, symbol of death and mortality. Indeed, Mary is fully associated with the victory of Jesus Christ, Her Son, over sin and death ... On the head of the woman dresses in sun there is 'a crown of twelve stars.' This sign represents the twelve tribes of Israel, meaning that the Virgin Mary is at the center of the People of God, of the whole communion of saints". The "woman dressed up as the sun", as well as representing the Madonna, "personifies the Church, the Christian community of all time. She is pregnant, in the sense that sshe carries Christ in her womb and must give birth to the world: here is the delivery of the pilgrim Church on earth, in the midst of the consolations of God and the persecutions of the world must bring Jesus to people.
And for this, because she brings Jesus, the Church faces the opposition of a fierce opponent, represented in the apocalyptic vision of' a great red dragon '. This dragon has tried in vain to eat Jesus... because Jesus Christ, through His death and resurrection, has risen to God and is seated on his throne. So the dragon was defeated once and for all in the sky, turns his attacks on the woman - the Church - in the desert of the world". (SL) (Agenzia Fides 09/12/2011)