Benedict XVI to the French bishops

The ignorance of the content of the faith is one of the most serious problems of our time and is an obstacle for the mission of the Church. Speaking to the third and final group of French bishops on their “ad limina” visit this morning, 30 November, the Pope explained that this ignorance mainly concerns the lack of understanding of the person of Jesus Christ and of the sublime and universal value of his teachings.

It is a problem which concerns many men and women “including many Catholic faithful”. For this reason, Benedict XVI added that the new evangelization “presents itself with particular urgency”. Above all because this kind of dual ignorance “causes in the new generations an inability to understand history” and to feel that they are heirs of a tradition, the Christian tradition, that “shaped European life, society, art and culture”. But the situation is such that if they want to reach the desired fruits of the new mission of evangelization it will be necessary to deeply involve the communities and parishes. And underlining the formation of the youth the Pope said “the Church in Europe and in France must not remain indifferent to the decline in vocations and priestly ordinations and other types of callings that God draws forth from the Church”. We must urgently “mobilize all available energies so that the youth may listen to the voice of the Lord”. Institutes of Catholic teaching are fundamentally important in this context so that “they are first in the great discussion between faith and culture”.