Benedict XVI "serene", a "normal" day's work
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - "Normal and serene": this is how journalists who this morning attended the planned visit of President Traian Băsescu to Benedict XVI described the Pope, who also greeted and thanked them. "He was very calm, very peaceful," according to Msgr. Alberto Maria Careggio, bishop of Ventimiglia-San Remo, in an interview with Vatican Radio after his meeting with the Pope, concluding the "ad limina" pilgrimage of the bishops of Liguria. "The meeting - he added - was very exciting. Everyone was especially waiting to see the Holy Father, who greeted us with the same kindness as always. Obviously he asked us to pray for him. Not only that, he said that the sun never sets on figure of Peter, and then he urged us to be united to the Church and to pray, so that Christ's promise to Peter is never lacking in force".
The director of the Holy See Press Office, in the now daily press briefing, also spoke of a "visit carried out in a perfectly normal and serene atmosphere".
In fact, Pope Benedict XVI's day was no different from normal any other normal day of his pontificate. In addition to the Romanian president and the bishops of Liguria, he also received the members of the "Pro Petri Sede", a charity organisation based in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. "Faith - told them - is a living reality that must be constantly rediscovered and deepened so that it can continue to grow. It is faith that must guide the visions and actions of the Christian. So that it becomes a new criterion of understanding and action that changes the life of man. " "Faith without charity - he added - bears no fruit, while charity without faith would be a sentiment constantly at the mercy of doubt. Faith and charity each require the other, in such a way that each allows the other to set out along its respective path ". Because charity " can not be reduced to a simple humanism or an enterprise in human promotion. Material assistance, as necessary as it is, is not the entirety of charity which is also participation in Christ's love given and shared. Any genuine charity is a concrete manifestation of God's love for humanity, and thus it becomes a proclamation of the Gospel."
Another news item concerning the Pope also regards his "full support" for the appointment of the new President of the Supervisory Board of the IOR German lawyer Ernst von Freyberg. Much awaited and the center of rumours and hypotheses, the appointment was at the center of Father Lombardi's briefing. He said that the decision came after a process of selection that saw the presentation in September, of "about 40 candidates" selected by Spencer & Stuart, an agency specialized in head hunting professionals. In "narrowing down" the selection, a person was sought - said Father Lombardi - who was also fully inserted in the world of the Church: as well as the Order of Malta, he is part of an association for pilgrimages to Lourdes. Obviously the selection process focused on finding a reliable competent person reliability, and took place without interference from the ecclesiastical world. A sign of the Holy See's desire and will for greater rigor, objectivity, competence and transparency".
Father Lombardi finally touched the question of how the media at times describes the current situation in the Church, speaking of divisions, conflicts and power struggles. "Of course - he observed - every reality has its particular dynamic, there are discussions and differences of opinion that it is precisely because differences, if well expressed, can lead to better results and progress for all involved. The differences and also diversity of views are part of the normal dynamics of each community". "There are limits in which the differences are constructive and above which they become destructive, they become negative or a sin from a moral point of view." "It's about respecting the nature of the differences of thought and position, but no there are conspiracies''. 'There is a tendency to exaggerate these differences and present them as internal struggles and battles, I , for example, have no evidence of such battles with the supervisory commission of cardinals".
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