In this Year of faith, Benedict XVI dedicated his audience to the very heart of our faith, the Creed.

“IN MANY SOCIETIES, GOD IS THE GREAT ABSENTEE”

On yet another rainy January day in Rome, pilgrims Wednesday flocked to the Paul VI Hall in the Vatican for the general audience with Pope Benedict. The Pope devoted his weekly catechesis to the first part of the Creed, telling pilgrims, “in this Year of the faith, I would like to start today to reflect with you on the Creed, the solemn profession of faith which accompanies our lives as believers.

“The Creed begins ‘I believe in God.’ It is a fundamental affirmation, deceptively simple in its essence, but which opens the infinite world of our relationship with the Lord and with His mystery. Believing in God implies attachment to him, welcoming his Word and joyful obedience to His revelation. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us, “ said the Pope, “Faith is a personal act - the free response of the human person to the initiative of God who reveals Himself."

The Holy Father said, “Being able to say that we believe in God is therefore both a gift and a commitment, it is divine grace and human responsibility, in an experience of dialogue with God who, out of love, ‘speaks to men as friends’ speaks to us so that, in faith and with faith, we enter into communion with Him.”

“In many of our societies,” declared Benedict XVI, “God has become the great absentee and His place was taken by a multitude of idols, above all possession and the autonomous self. Even the remarkable and positive progress in science and technology has created in man an illusion of omnipotence and self-sufficiency, and a growing self-centeredness has given rise to many imbalances within interpersonal relationships and social behaviors.”

“Faith, on the other hand,” he said, “makes us pilgrims on earth, inserted into the world and history, but on a journey to the heavenly homeland.” “Believing in God makes us bearers of values which do not often coincide with the prevailing trend or opinion; it demands that we adopt criteria and behaviors which do not belong to the common way of thinking.”

During the general audience, the Pope also made an appeal for flood stricken Indonesia, saying he was following “with concern the news coming from Indonesia, where a major flood has devastated the capital Jakarta, causing victims, displacing thousands and provoking extensive damage. I wish to express my closeness to the people affected by this natural disaster, assuring my prayers and encouraging solidarity so that no one lacks necessary help.”

Present at the audience today was a group of about 35 civil and religious officials from Brazil’s organizing committee for World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro in July, including Rio’s Archbishop Orani Joao Tempesta.

THE VATICAN, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC AND IVORY

A September 2012 article in National Geographic entitled “Ivory Worship,” accuses the Vatican of using ivory to make precious religious items and the Pope of giving or accepting gifts made of ivory. There is a huge illegal trade in ivory elephant tusks, and officials throughout the world are working to keep poachers from killing or maiming elephants and removing their tusks to sell them to manufacturers of jewelry, decorative items, etc.

In an unusual move, papal spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, wrote a lengthy response to the magazine, to correct errors and explain the “Catholic Church’s position and its teaching on the unjustified violence toward animals (which) is clear and simple in its general principles.”

Father said in his 2,500-word letter, “I know quite well the Catholic Church and the authorities that, from Rome, serve the Church around the world. I have never heard or even read a word that would encourage the use of ivory for devotional objects. We all know that there are ivory objects of religious significance, mostly ancient, because ivory was considered a beautiful and valuable material. There has never, however, been encouragement on the part of the Church to use ivory instead of any other material. There has never been any reason to think that the value of religious devotion might be connected to the preciousness of the material of the image you use. Much less is there any organization promoted or encouraged by the authorities of the Catholic Church to trade or import ivory. Also, in Vatican City—that is, in the tiny State that is governed by the Catholic Church—there is no store that sells items made of ivory to the faithful or to pilgrims.”

The head of Vatican radio and the press office spoke of stores in the area around Vatican City that sell religious goods but said the Vatican has no authority over them or what they sell.

He wrote, “The investigation “Ivory Worship”, published in National Geographic, talks about some specific cases that have to do with Catholics, and therefore many put them in relation to the ‘Vatican’ (that is, the Church authorities that, from Rome, serve the world community of the Catholic Church).

“However,” said Fr. Lombardi, the story of “a priest in the Philippines who seems to be responsible for illegal trade in ivory has absolutely nothing to do with the responsibility of the ‘Vatican, which knows nothing about and has nothing to do with him.”

“Nevertheless, we are absolutely convinced that the massacre of elephants is a very serious matter, against which it is right that everyone who can do something should be committed. For our part, we can certainly undertake a program of information and empowerment through some Vatican organizations. What we commit to today are mainly three things:

“1) To bring this issue to the attention of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which is the Vatican dicastery responsible for studying precisely those problems associated with justice and peace, but also with the environment. It is in contact with analogous national commissions “for justice and peace” of Catholic communities around the world. I believe that the killing of elephants and the illegal trade of ivory are topics that effectively lie within the jurisdiction of this dicastery.

“2) To propose to the sections of Vatican Radio that prepare programming for Africa (in English, French, Portuguese, and Swahili) to investigate into this topic and to speak about it in radio programs in order to encourage the ecclesial communities it addresses to engage in the fight against poaching and the illegal ivory trade, as well as to propose informational material to the other sections of Vatican Radio in order to raise awareness among their audiences.

“3) To make the contributions of the research of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on environmental issues and biodiversity more widely known. In fact, these are issues to which the Pontifical Academy often returns in the course of its activities and its work.

“The slaughter of elephants will not stop because of these initiatives, but at least we are working together to seek practical solutions to stopping it with the possibilities of information and training available to us.”

ONE ROMAN’S LOVE FOR ITALIAN “PRESEPI”

Sunday, after the ceremony in which American Msgr. Francis Kelly became a canon of St. Peter’s Basilica and the reception at the North American College, an American friend who works at the Vatican invited me to her home to see her husband’s beautiful, handmade presepe or nativity scene.

Gigi has been building these presepi for years, always adding some new feature or changing another. It stands in one corner of their living room and immediately invites the visitor to take a close look.

I did not have my camera but did have my trusty Samsung. I hope you enjoy these photos and Gigi’s creative, loving, enthusiastic and very hard work.

Write to Joan at:
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