Pope: the world and men need to be reconciled with God, with themselves and with creation

Benedict XVI particularly recalled the liturgies which took place during his visit, which he described as "real festivals of the faith", highlighting two elements: "First there was a great shared joy, which was also expressed through the body, but in a disciplined manner and oriented by the presence of the living God. This already indicates the second element: the sense of the sacredness of this mystery of the living God. "

 "The Synod – he continued - proposed the theme: “The Church in Africa in the service of reconciliation, justice and peace. This issue is primarily theological one and it is also a pastoral topical hot, but it could have been misinterpreted as a political issue. The Bishops' task was to transform the theology into a concrete pastoral ministry".

 "But in doing so one must not give into the temptation to take political matters into one’s own hands or to transform oneself from a pastor into a political leader. Indeed, the very real issue in front of which the pastors are continually is precisely this: how can we be realistic and practical, without taking on a political role that is not ours to take on? We could even say: it is the issue of positive lay participation practiced and interpreted correctly. "This, he said, is also a major theme in Caritas in Veritate”.  

 "The theme of the Synod draws three fundamental words of the great theological and social responsibility: reconciliation - justice - peace. One might say that reconciliation and justice are the two prerequisites of peace and therefore define, to a certain extent, its nature".  Dwelling particularly on reconciliation, Benedict XVI noted that "peace can only be accomplished if you reach interior reconciliation”.    

   "The Synod has sought to examine deeply the concept of reconciliation as a task for the Church today, drawing attention to its various dimensions." The first is with God, "If man is not reconciled with God, he is at odds also with the creation. He is not reconciled with himself, he wants to be something other to what he is and is therefore not even reconciled with his neighbour. A part of reconciliation is the ability to recognize fault and ask forgiveness – of God and each other. And finally openness to penance also belongs to the process of reconciliation, the willingness to suffer to the deepest degree for a fault and allow oneself be transformed by it. And gratuity is also a part of it ", "the willingness to go beyond what is necessary, not to calculate, but to go beyond what we call the simple legal conditions. It is part of that generosity of which God himself has given us an example" and even gratuity, “the willingness to take the first step. To be the first to reach out to offer reconciliation, to take on the pain that involves renouncing being right”.

He also dedicated significant words to the Holocaust Museum. "The visit to Yad Vashem - he said - meant an encounter with the shocking cruelty of human sin, blinded by hatred of an ideology that, without any justification, delivered millions of human beings to death and that with this, ultimately, wanted to get rid of even God from the world, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the God of Jesus Christ. So this is primarily a memorial against hatred, a heartfelt call to purification and forgiveness, love. This very monument to human sin made all the more meaningful my visit to the memorial sites of the faith and made their unchanged actuality all the more perceptible”.

And Bethlehem, the town where Jesus was born, "Unfortunately, today, it does not represent an achieved and stable peace, but an arduous search and waiting for peace." Then the pope, who yesterday said that "Christmas is not a fairy tale for children", today, in remembrance of places linked to the life of Jesus said that "faith is not a myth. It is real history, traces of which we can touch. This realism of faith does us particular good in the travails of the present. God has truly shown Himself. In Jesus Christ he was truly made flesh ".  

Hence, the theme of the new evangelization, inspired by his visit to the Czech Republic. "Before this trip I've always been told that this is a country with a majority of agnostics and atheists." "All the more joyous was my surprise to see that everywhere I was surrounded by great cordiality and friendship; that great liturgies were celebrated in a joyful atmosphere of faith; that within the universities and the culture sphere my words were listened to with lively attention" . "But I consider the fact particularly important that even people, who consider themselves agnostic or atheist, should be dear to us as believers. When we speak of a new evangelization, these people might get scared. They do not want to see themselves as objects of mission, nor give up their freedom of thought and will. But the question of God remains present even for them, even if they can not believe the concrete nature of his attention for us". "As a first step of evangelization we must try to keep alive this research; we have to worry that man does not set aside the question of God as the essential question of his existence. Worry so that he accepts that question and the nostalgia that it hides".

Thus the idea that the Church has meeting places "where men can engage in some way with God, without knowing Him and before they have found access to his mystery, at the service of which is the internal life of the Church. To dialogue with other religions we must now add dialogue particularly with those for whom religion is something alien, to whom God is unknown, who do not desire to be without God, but at least draw close to Him as the Unknown".