Vatican City, May 16, 2008 / 08:19 am
On Friday the Holy Father received bishops from the Church in Thailand and addressed them concerning the condition of the Catholic Church in their care. Besides speaking about the need to respond to the challenges of globalization, the Pope urged the bishops to loudly proclaim the Gospel, even as the culture coarsens.
Pope Benedict began his talk with the prelates by speaking about the good relationship the Church has with Buddhists. "The coexistence of different religious communities,” he said, “today unfolds against the backdrop of globalization.”
Globalization presents the Church with both challenges and positive developments, the Pope noted. On the positive side, “there is the growing multitude of economic and cultural bonds which usually enhance a sense of global solidarity and shared responsibility for the well-being of humanity,” but “on the other there are disturbing signs of a fragmentation and a certain individualism, ... pushing the transcendent and the sense of the sacred to the margins and eclipsing the very source of harmony and unity within the universe.”
These negative outcomes of globalization should be fought by the Catholic Church in cooperation with the Buddhists by promoting “mutual understanding concerning the transmission of traditions to succeeding generations, the articulation of ethical values discernible to reason, reverence for the transcendent, prayer and contemplation,” the Pope said.