Vatican City, Jul 27, 2005 / 22:00 pm
On Monday, Pope Benedict met with clergy of the diocese of Aosta, Italy, where he just finished his summer vacation today. The text of the meeting was published yesterday and shows that his discussions centered on the crisis of faith in the world today, the role of divorced Catholics in the Church and the challenge of vocations.
The "L’Osservatore Romano" published the complete text of the meeting, held at the church of Introd, in which the Pope said that, "The history of the Church has always been marked, in various different forms, by questions that have truly tormented us. What must be done? ... I would like to respond briefly, but I would also like to point out that the Pope is not an oracle, he is infallible only in very rare situations, as we know. Therefore I share these questions with you.”
“I too suffer,” said the pontiff. “But all of us together wish ... to transform problems through suffering, because suffering is the way to transformation, and without it nothing is transformed. This is also the meaning of the parable of the grain of wheat that falls to the earth."
Benedict also referred to the ongoing vocations crisis in the West, and pointed out that the western world has reached a point "in which there is no longer any evidence of the need for God, still less for Christ. ... Consequently, it becomes difficult to believe, and if it is difficult to believe it is even more difficult to offer one's life to the Lord, to be His servant.”