Fr. Robert Barron comments on Pope Benedict's visit to Germany

Pope Benedict to Germans: Remain faithful to the Church

The following comes from the CNA:

Pope Benedict XVI has encouraged German Catholics to remain faithful to the unity of the Church. He warned that those Catholics who view the Church as a mere institution are often further from God than agnostics.

“The Church in Germany will continue to be a blessing for the entire Catholic world: if she remains faithfully united with the Successors of St. Peter and the Apostles,” the Pope said at an open-air Sept. 25 Mass in the German city of Freiburg.

Pope Benedict updated the warning of Christ that “tax collectors and harlots” were closer to God than the Pharisees, offering a version “translated into the language of our time.”

“Agnostics, who are constantly exercised by the question of God, those who long for a pure heart but suffer on account of our sin, are closer to the Kingdom of God than believers whose life of faith is ‘routine’ and who regard the Church merely as an institution, without letting their hearts be touched by faith,” said the Pope.

Sunday was Pope Benedict’s last day of his state visit to Germany. Unlike Berlin and Erfurt, his previous destinations over the past four days, Freiburg is overwhelming Catholic. This was evident in the huge numbers at this morning’s Mass, held beneath blue skies and sunshine. Concelebrating with the Pope were the bishops of Germany’s 27 dioceses.

Predicted anti-papal protests have largely failed to materialize during the four-day visit, but the Pope still seemed acutely aware of those Catholic voices in Germany who dissent from Church teaching.

“The Church in Germany will overcome the great challenges of the present and future, and it will remain a leaven in society, if the priests, consecrated men and women, and the lay faithful, in fidelity to their respective vocations, work together in unity,” he said. He added that “the baptized and confirmed, in union with their bishop,” should “lift high the torch of untarnished faith and allow it to enlighten their abundant knowledge and skills.”

This renewal of the Church in Germany will “only come about through openness to conversion and through renewed faith,” said Pope Benedict. Jesus Christ “is always close to us, especially in times of danger and radical change, his heart aches for us and he reaches out to us,” he added.

“We need to open ourselves to him so that the power of his mercy can touch our hearts. We have to be ready to abandon evil, to raise ourselves from indifference and make room for his word,” he said.

In practical terms, the Pope suggested that each person ask themselves some basic questions about their personal relationship with God in prayer, in participation at Mass, in exploring his or her faith through mediation on Sacred Scripture and through study of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The papal liturgy itself was suffused with Germanic grandeur. Both the Mass settings and hymns were accompanied by a full orchestra. Meanwhile, the consecration of the Eucharist was welcomed in unison by the bell towers of local churches.

In his Angelus address immediately after the Mass, Pope Benedict held up Mary, the mother of Jesus, as a model for the Christian conversion who had said “yes” to God’s plan in her life.

"As we pray the Angelus, we may join Mary in her ‘yes,’ we may adhere trustingly to the beauty of God’s plan and to the providence that he has assigned to us in his grace,” said the Pope.

“Then God’s love will also, as it were, take flesh in our lives, becoming ever more tangible. In all our cares we need have no fear. God is good.”

Pope Benedict arrives in Germany 'to speak about God'

The following comes from the CNA:

Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Germany at the beginning of a four-day state visit. At the official welcoming ceremony he told crowds that he had come back to his homeland “to meet people and to speak about God.”

“I was born in Germany. Such roots cannot be severed, nor should they be,” the Pope told reporters on his flight from Rome to Berlin’s Tegel Airport, where he was greeted by German President Christian Wulff and Chancellor Angela Merkel.

He said aboard the plane that he was relaxed about those who are protesting against his visit because “that is normal in a free society.”

The Pope also fielded questions from the media on the issue of clerical abuse, suggesting that he understood why some victims may be tempted to say “this is not my church anymore.” But he explained that Church is an institution which catches both “good and bad fish.”

After being greeted at the airport, Pope Benedict was escorted to the German president’s residence at Berlin’s Bellevue Palace, where he was officially welcomed by President Wulff.

The Pope noted that in Germany, and elsewhere, there is a significant indifference to religion, with some people considering “the issue of truth as something of an obstacle” to society’s decision-making, and instead giving “priority to utilitarian considerations.”

Yet, he noted, “a binding basis for our coexistence is needed; otherwise people live in a purely individualistic way.” Religion, said the Pope, provides that and is “one of the foundations for a successful social life.”

“Freedom requires a primordial link to a higher instance. The fact that there are values which are not absolutely open to manipulation is the true guarantee of our freedom,” he said.

He suggested that such freedom “develops only in responsibility to a greater good” and “cannot be lived in the absence of relationships.” Pope Benedict explained that these necessities for freedom lead to the two key principles of solidarity and subsidiarity.

Solidarity, he explained, is our responsibility towards others, since “what I do at the expense of others is not freedom but a culpable way of acting which is harmful to others and also to myself.”

The Pope then turned to the principle of subsidiarity, which he defined as the idea that communal concerns are best addressed by at the lowest possible institutional level. This requires society to “give sufficient space for smaller structures to develop and, at the same time, must support them so that one day they will stand on their own.”

Both these principles, he said, have helped modern Germany to “become what it is today thanks to the power of freedom shaped by responsibility before God and before one another.”

He concluded by saying that he hoped his visit can “make a small contribution” towards a “profound cultural renewal” and a “rediscovery of fundamental values” which can lead to a better future for all.

Pope Benedict then had private meetings with both President Wulff and Chancellor Merkel before taking a break in his day for lunch at the city’s Catholic Academy.

Later today the Pope will speak before the German parliament, before making his way to the Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, where he will celebrate Mass before an anticipated audience of 70,000.