Lisbon, Portugal, May 12, 2010 / 09:26 am
This morning in Lisbon, Pope Benedict emphasized the importance of truth and tradition to culture while speaking to a large gathering of cultural leaders. He presented the Church as a “champion” of tradition and her “mission of truth” as a need for modern societies.
After having celebrated Mass privately at the nunciature earlier on Wednesday morning, Pope Benedict XVI met with representatives of Portuguese culture, led by 101-year old movie maker Manoel de Oliveira, in the auditorium of the Cultural Center of Belem in Lisbon.
Oliveira began the encounter by offering remarks that highlighted the anxieties of the Portuguese people in the midst of the “turbulence” of the contemporary world. After the Portuguese film maker's observations, the Holy Father related that “today’s culture is permeated by a ‘tension,’ which at times takes the form of ‘conflict’ between the present and tradition.
“The dynamic movement of society gives absolute value to the present, isolating it from the cultural legacy of the past and without attempting to trace a path for the future,” he said.