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CURRENT
ISSUE: May 21, 2007
VOL.
45, NO. 10Oakland,
CA
Pope visits Brazil, urges strong efforts at evangelization
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Pope Benedict XVI responds to a crowd gathered at
Fazenda da Esperanca (Farm of Hope), a church-run rehabilitation center
for drug addicts in Guaratingueta, May 12. CNS PHOTO/ALESSIA GIULIANI/CATHOLIC PRESS PHOTO |
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Pope Benedict XVI greets the faithful as he leaves
St. Benedict Monastery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 10.
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Pope Benedict XVI looks at a nun holding relics
of St. Antonio Galvao during the saint’s canonization Mass
at Campo de Marte Airport in Sao Paulo, May 11. The 18th-century
Franciscan priest is known for his charity to the poor and his legacy
of miraculous healings.
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Brazilian soldiers stand guard, May 10, as Pope
Benedict XVI arrives to attend a meeting with Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Sao Paulo. On May 13 the pope opened
the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and
the Caribbean in Aparecida.
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Pope Benedict XVI is greeted by a dancer during
a meeting with 40,000 young people at Paulo Machado de Carvalho
stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 10.
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A souvenir with a picture of Pope Benedict XVI
is displayed in a store in Aparecida, a famous Marian shrine where
the pope celebrated an outdoor Mass, May 13.
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| Pope Benedict XVI embraces a group of children during
his visit to Fazenda da Esperanca (Farm of Hope), a Franciscan-founded
drug rehabilitation center in Guaratingueta, May 12. CNS PHOTO/TONY GENTILE/REUTERS |
APARECIDA,
Brazil (CNS) -- On a five-day visit to Latin America, Pope Benedict XVI
identified a host of social and religious challenges and said the Church
should respond by focusing more clearly on the person of Jesus Christ.
“This is the faith that has made America the ‘continent of
hope.’ Not a political ideology, not a social movement, not an economic
system: faith in the God who is love -- who took flesh, died and rose
in Jesus Christ,” the pope said on the final day of his May 9-13
visit to Brazil.
It was a comment echoed in many of his encounters, which included a rally
with young people, the canonization of the first Brazilian-born saint,
and the inauguration of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of
Latin America and the Caribbean.
The pope cited inroads by secularism, threats against the family and the
institution of marriage, and an erosion of traditional Latin America values
and said that in response the Church needs to put greater emphasis on
the religious education of its own members.
One big reason the evangelical sects have attracted Catholics, he told
Brazilian bishops, is that many Catholics are insufficiently evangelized
and their faith is weak, confused and easily shaken.
In a country where televangelists have had great success with simplistic
religious messages, the pope did not hold out any easy solutions.
Instead, he said, the Church should conduct “a methodical evangelization
aimed at personal and communal fidelity to Christ.” Firm doctrinal
content is essential to faith formation, he said, and at nearly every
stop he suggested wider use of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The crowds that showed up for papal events were enthusiastic but smaller
than foreseen by trip planners in Brazil, the largest Catholic country
in the world. There were empty spaces at both of his outdoor Masses, and
the crowds along some of his motorcade routes were sparse.
The papal trip began May 9 with an inflight press conference that prompted
controversy when the pope, in response to a question, appeared to support
the idea of excommunication for pro-abortion politicians. The Vatican
later released a toned-down version of the papal comments.
In Brazil, where pressures have been growing for legalized abortion, the
pope mentioned protection of the unborn at several of his events, including
a Sao Paulo airport welcoming ceremony attended by Brazilian President
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The pope told the president and assembled dignitaries
that he had come to help reinforce Christian values and counter new threats
to the poor, the abandoned and the unborn.
“I am well aware that the soul of this people, as of all Latin America,
safeguards values that are radically Christian, which will never be eradicated,”
he said.
On May 10, the pope joined some 40,000 young people in a Sao Paulo soccer
stadium for song, dance, prayer and a lengthy papal speech that laid out
arguments for Christian virtue.
He warned against sexual infidelity, drug use and unethical routes to
success and told the youths to live their lives “with enthusiasm
and with joy, but most of all with a sense of responsibility.”
The choreographed encounter was billed as an emotional highlight of the
papal visit. The pope hugged some of the young people who spoke, but looked
somewhat reserved throughout the event. Although he had no problem pronouncing
his Portuguese speech, there was no spontaneous banter with the crowd.
At a Mass May 11 on a Sao Paulo airfield, the pope canonized St. Antonio
Galvao, an 18th-century
Franciscan known for his charitable work among the poor and sick. The
pope said the saint’s dedication to God and purity should be exemplary
in a modern age “so full of hedonism.”
“The world needs transparent lives, clear souls, pure minds that
refuse to be perceived as mere objects of pleasure. It is necessary to
oppose those elements of the media that ridicule the sanctity of marriage
and virginity before marriage,” he said.
On May 12 the pope rode deep into the Brazilian countryside to visit Fazenda
da Esperanca, or Farm of Hope, a church-run drug rehabilitation center.
After listening to emotional testimonials from recovering addicts, the
pope warned drug dealers that they will face God’s judgment for
the human damage they have inflicted.
Compared to the first days of the trip, the pope looked more at ease on
the grounds of the farm, where he was cheered by 3,000 volunteers and
residents and was given a group hug by four children.
That evening, he was even more animated when he met with thousands of
priests, seminarians, religious and lay movement members in the Basilica
of Our Lady Aparecida, Latin America’s biggest Marian shrine.
After praying the rosary, the pope gave a spiritual pep talk that was
repeatedly interrupted by applause, telling the congregation: “The
Church is our home. This is our home. In the Catholic Church we find all
that is good.”
At Mass outside the basilica the next day, the pope appeared to draw a
distinction between the Catholic Church’s missionary approach and
the aggressive proselytizing by evangelical sects, which have flourished
in Latin America.
“The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by
attraction,” the pope said.
By living charity day in and day out, he said, Christians release “an
irresistible power which is the power of holiness.” This is the
center of the missionary task, he said.
Before leaving Brazil, the pope delivered a lengthy opening address to
the bishops’ general conference, a speech that was greatly anticipated
by the more than 260 participants.
The pope made several key points:
• The Church best contributes to solving social and political problems
by promoting a moral consensus on fundamental values – which must
come before the construction of just social structures.
• Among Catholics, the bishops should give priority to Sunday Mass
and more intense faith formation of young people and adults.
• Both Marxism and capitalism have failed to deliver on their ideological
promises to build a better world, largely because they are systems divorced
from individual morality. Along with his critique of capitalism and the
growing rich-poor gap, the pope warned that globalization risks creating
vast monopolies and treating profit as “the supreme value.”
• The evangelization of the Americas was not the “imposition
of a foreign culture,” and any attempt to retrieve pre-Colombian
indigenous religions would be “a step backward” for Latin
Americans.
