Vatican City, 31st May 2005 (CNA)
- As he prepares to join young people in
Cologne for World Youth Day this summer, Pope
Benedict XVI told Italian bishops yesterday that
they, especially priests and bishops, must assure
the young that they are loved by the
Church.
The Pope told the bishops that because
young people run the risk of being "tossed to and
fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine…they need to be helped to grow and mature
in the faith: this is the first service they must
receive from the Church, especially from us as
bishops and from our priests."
"Many of them," the Holy Father continued,
"are not able to understand and accept all the
Church's teaching immediately, but precisely for
this reason it is important to reawaken within
them the intention to believe with the Church, the
belief that this Church, animated and guided by
the Spirit, is the true subject of the faith."
Pope Benedict suggested that if the Church
were to adequately convey the faith to young
people, that they "must feel loved by the Church,
in particular by us, bishops and
priests."
He said that in this way, "they will
experience in the Church the friendship and love
the Lord holds for them, they will understand that
in Christ truth coincides with love, and in their
turn they will learn to love the Lord, and to have
faith in His body which is the Church.”
“This is the central point”, he concluded,
“of the great challenge of transmitting the faith
to the young
generations."
