To the Bishops of Brazil (10 July 1980)

On 10 July 1980, in Fortaleza, the Holy Father addressed the National Conference of Bishops, urging growth in communion, in participation, and in evangelization.

Mr. President,
most eminent Cardinals,
dear confreres.

1. In the joyful anticipation of the visit I am now making to your country, in recent months I have often thought of the various meetings I would have. Each of them seemed very important to me, but I can tell you with brotherly sincerity: none is more important than this with you, Bishops of Brazil.

Today you are the largest episcopal body in the world; and the number corresponds to the intense pastoral activity for this young and dynamic Church. For this and for the promising prospects of your country, the episcopate to which you belong assumes a prestige and a responsibility that goes well beyond the borders of your dioceses and of the nation itself: a responsibility before the whole Church.

Therefore, in the plan of this apostolic pilgrimage, my greatest desire was to be personally among you, to greet you "in osculo sancto" (Rom 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20) and "in vinculo pacis" (Eph 4, 3), to express to you my sentiments as pastor of the universal Church. The Lord Jesus knows why I tell you on this occasion the words that he himself spoke at a crucial moment in his life: "I have longed to eat this Passover with you" (Lk 22:15). Indeed, this meeting is an Easter, a passage of the Lord among us. Praised be God who offers me this opportunity and assists us in this hour, so that this meeting may be a source of renewed pastoral fruitfulness for you as it is a source of joy and comfort for me.

The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil

2. My first words are intended as a fraternal greeting to the national conference of Bishops of Brazil.

I cannot forget the almost pioneering character of this conference. Born with this name of Conference of Bishops back in 1952, it was one of the first in the world to be formed, long before the Second Vatican Council shed new light on the doctrine of episcopal collegiality and rightly promoted episcopal conferences as a particular expression and a particularly appropriate organ of this collegiality.

In these 28 years - everyone recognizes this - he has tried to fulfill a mission and to carry out a work in conformity with his nature: to make possible the meeting and dialogue of the ever more numerous Bishops in the country: to facilitate the convergence of pastoral action, thanks above all to an overall plan and pastoral care which from the outset have been the dominant concern of the national conference of Bishops of Brazil; represent the Brazilian episcopate in the most authentic way in other institutions, including civil ones.

Certainly the conference, far from stopping in self-satisfaction with what it has done, will have to continually strive to be ever more faithful to its mission. This fidelity to the original vocation, to the objectives that the wisdom of the Church points out to her and to the paths that she herself has traced out, is a condition for the effectiveness of her action. For it, therefore, as for every living organism, especially if it is an organism at the service of Christ, perfecting itself is a sign of inner health, it is a requirement, it is a duty.

In what aspects to improve and grow? The Puebla document suggests the answer: in communion, in participation, in evangelization.

Communion within the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil

3. Above all in communion. Because this is the raison d'être and the primary purpose of every episcopal conference: to create and always keep alive the communion between the bishops who compose it. These are necessarily very different men, just as the first twelve chosen by the Lord Jesus himself were different. The more numerous they are, the more this difference increases. However, their pastoral service requires a communion that is as deep and solid as possible. The cement of this communion - much stronger than what could divide or break it - is the only Lord who has called the Bishops and made them his ministers: the only truth of which they are at the same time teachers and servants; the only salvation in Christ which they proclaim and actualize: the fraternal charity which "gathers them into unity" (cf. Hymnus Ubi Caritas).

Pastors of a Church which, according to the theology of the Second Vatican Council, likes to define itself as a "sacrament of unity" ( Lumen Gentium , 1), the Bishops are called to be the first to give the living witness of unity. Let us not delude ourselves: the best preaching that the Bishops of a nation can do, the most fruitful service they can offer to their own people, the most effective gesture they can make will certainly be the true and visible demonstration of their communion. On the contrary, without this communion, everything else proves dangerously precarious. In their own conference the Bishops want and have the right to find an instrument and a stimulus for unity.

If I were allowed to draw inspiration from my personal experience as a Bishop, and also as a member of a national conference, I would not hesitate to say that any manifestation of an episcopal conference produces an all the greater impact (I am speaking of a real, profound, lasting, not necessarily sensational impact ) the more unity is reflected in it, understood as the soul of episcopal collegiality which is concretely embodied in this group of Bishops. Consider, brothers: the witness of effective collegiality will be greatly facilitated, to the extent that affective collegiality accompanies it. This presupposes an authentic dialogue between all its components, which, as you know, ranges from a constantly cultivated poverty of spirit to a constant openness to divine grace which is its perfection. We need to pay attention to others, in the small gestures of daily life. Thus the climate is created which makes mutual trust grow. This trust which should never be limited to simple cordiality in mutual dealings, but must reach that profound feeling which allows us to accept with simplicity, in the area of ​​the questionable, opinions or positions different from our own, provided that the common good of the Church is safeguarded at the local level and in its universal dimension. It is precisely with a lively awareness of episcopal collegiality and with an attitude of fraternal trust that I have come here to you, and that I find myself as a brother among brothers to speak to you and listen to you, within the limits of time. but it must reach that deep feeling which allows us to accept with simplicity, in the area of ​​the questionable, opinions or positions different from our own, provided that the common good of the Church is safeguarded at the local level and in its universal dimension. It is precisely with a lively awareness of episcopal collegiality and with an attitude of fraternal trust that I have come here to you, and that I find myself as a brother among brothers to speak to you and listen to you, within the limits of time. but it must reach that deep feeling which allows us to accept with simplicity, in the area of ​​the questionable, opinions or positions different from our own, provided that the common good of the Church is safeguarded at the local level and in its universal dimension. It is precisely with a lively awareness of episcopal collegiality and with an attitude of fraternal trust that I have come here to you, and that I find myself as a brother among brothers to speak to you and listen to you, within the limits of time.

I would like to add - but perhaps it is superfluous - that growth in communion requires ever deeper mutual knowledge, understanding of the other, respect for his conscience, frankness and loyalty. All this is the fruit of a charity which, on this level, is called fraternal love and communion, which leads to overcoming particularisms, partisanships, or disputes between groups and leads to integrating the understandable diversities within a certain healthy pluralism. A conference cannot fail to thank God when it is free from these problems, and must humbly and fervently beseech him that it always be so; and God grant that this consonance is always manifested in the documents and pronouncements of this episcopal conference because "by this the men who are my disciples will know", says the Lord, "if you love one another".

The participation of the national conference of Bishops of Brazil

4. Growing in participation is the second goal. An episcopal conference is a common work: spiritually rich if in it all the Bishops feel they are full members and are present with pleasure and without embarrassment; impoverished whenever, for whatever reason, someone feels, says or places himself on the margins.

The growth in participation takes place in some facts, perhaps humble, but no less worthy of consideration. Participation grows to the extent that sincere efforts are made to perceive and weigh the positions taken in the name of the whole conference, the deep feeling and the convictions of the individual parts of the whole, when they are consistent, even if not majority.

In a large episcopal conference, participation is all the greater the greater the representativeness of the member bishops in the decision-making bodies. Participation grows when the Bishops, in practice, feel their own conference as the space in which they can meet in the exercise of their condition as called in a particular way to participate in the mission of Christ the prophet. By virtue of this conjunction with Christ himself, Bishops serve divine truth in the Church. They contribute to shaping the life of the Church itself, as regards its fundamental dimension, and are constituted teachers of faith of the People of God, in continuity with the one divine teacher (cf. Mt 23:8). They have an inalienable individual and collegial responsibility before Christ himself and before the whole Church. However, who could doubt the value of competent collaboration which, in various sectors, priests, laity, men and women religious lend to the Bishops within the episcopal conference? They deserve praise for this contribution.

Naturally, it is the Bishops who retain responsibility for the decisions, pronouncements and documents of the conference as such, and therefore must answer for them before their own conscience and before God. Surrounding oneself with collaborators could be a way of supporting the effort of fidelity to divine truth and of greater service to the People of God. However, it should surprise no one that in their assemblies and in their conferences the Bishops try to have sufficiently long periods to meet and dialogue with each other without the presence of others, to strengthen the own unity as teachers of the faith, to share the common responsibility of being, each time more, the strength and security of the fundamental unity of the Church.

All of us who view your conference with sympathy and admiration wish and pray that it always progresses in participation. May no one refuse his presence, not only physical, but also active and efficient. This participation will be the greatest grace of the conference.

The National Conference of Bishops of Brazil and Evangelization

5. In every episcopal conference, the improvement in communion and participation is a function of the improvement of its main task which is evangelization.

In the apostolic exhortation "Evangelii Nuntiandi", which is certainly the "magna carta" of evangelization for this last quarter of a century and one of the most notable documents of the magisterium of Paul VI, this great and unforgettable pope recalled that evangelization is some something rich, complex and dynamic (Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi , 17) which includes various elements; but he added: "To evangelize is above all to bear witness, in a simple and direct way, to God revealed by Jesus Christ, in the Holy Spirit" ( ibid ., 26); the basis, center and summit of evangelization is salvation in Jesus Christ ( ibid, 27). The Puebla document closely follows the inspiration of the "Evangelii Nuntiandi" when, speaking of the content of evangelization, it presents as "essential content" ( Puebla , 351) the "central truths" ( Ibid , 166) about Jesus Christ ( Ibid , 170ff), on the Church ( Ivi , 220ff) and on man ( Ivi , 304ff), calling everything else an "integral part" of evangelization.

It is the Church's duty, especially in our world threatened by atheistic secularism - it will never be superfluous to recall this - to proclaim the absoluteness of God, the mystery of Jesus Christ, the transcendence of salvation, faith and the sacraments of faith. It is the duty of her shepherds. You will certainly agree with me if I say that we, ministers of Christ in his Church, will have credibility and efficacy in speaking of temporal realities only if first (or at least at the same time) we are careful to proclaim "a salvation that surpasses all these (temporal) limits to be realized in the absolute of God" (cf. Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi , 27), to proclaim "the prophetic announcement of a "beyond", a profound and definitive vocation of man" ( Ibid, 28).

I mention this to say that I feel happy when an episcopal conference in the program of its assemblies gives space to themes connected with the urgent questions of a temporal order that touch the men of our time. The very nature of this body always demands that these questions be incorporated into evangelization and the priority search for the kingdom of God and his justice (cf. Mt 6:32), which the Lord has indicated to us in an overview of all our worries. He himself has left us the example. To all without exception he announced the good news, even though he found himself on the side of the little ones, the poor and the suffering with his love of predilection for him. In our ministry activity, things concerning God must always prevail if we want our condition as leaders in favor of men to remain with all its vitality (cf. Heb 5:1). Thus the assemblies, the episcopal conferences must be concerned with confronting the emerging problems in the life of men and of society with the thought of God, known, sought, explored and shared in fraternity, without neglecting to deal promptly and with certainty with the problems proper to life of the Church, such as those that refer to the liturgy, prayer, priestly vocations, religious life and its correct renewal, catechesis, the religious formation of young people, popular piety and its demands, the challenge of aberrant sects, to the avalanche of immorality, etc...

In this predominantly resides the strength and identity of our Church. In this way and with such an attitude, not only the Church in Brazil will benefit, in your case, but also Brazilian society itself, and especially the generations just starting out on life.

In recent times, since my intention to make this pastoral visit to Brazil was made known, the number of letters that reach me every day from this country has increased significantly.

They are touching letters for the poverty and simplicity they reveal on the part of the writer, and do not hide the difficulty of some who have barely learned to handle the pen. They manifest a hunger for God, an openness to the sacred and, at times, an explicit thirst for the truth of the Gospel and for supernatural life. This cannot leave us indifferent. We, pastors of the Church, cannot fail to give them the spiritual goods that they ask of us, like little ones asking for bread, looking for someone to break it for them, as Scripture says. Effectively with the spiritual goods and means proper to the Church which we have at our disposal, through adequate pastoral programmes, animated by a conscious concern for the concrete man, in all its truth, the Church, without having to resort to means which are extraneous to it, it can well contribute to the transformation of society, helping it to become ever more just, founded on objective justice. This makes the need evident and accentuates the great importance of catechesis.

Reading your quinquennial reports, I am struck by the insistence with which many of you complain about the lack of deepening of faith in a people which, on the other hand, is religious, good and, to use Tertullian's expression, "naturally Christian” (Tertullian, Apologeticus, 17: Ed. Rauschen, 58). This superficiality in the knowledge of the doctrine of the faith is the cause of many inconveniences, among which you yourselves mention: a certain vulnerability towards aberrant doctrines; a certain tendency towards a religiosity made up of exteriority, more of feelings than convictions: the always imminent risk of a privatist faith detached from life... In this situation, catechesis is urgent. I can only admire the zealous pastors who in their Churches try to respond concretely to this urgency by making catechesis a true priority.

Therefore catechesis must always be the principal task of evangelization, as the assembly of the Synod of Bishops of 1964 pointed out. I believe that catechesis must constitute a constant concern of the episcopal conference as such and of its various bodies, which will not fail to refer , when necessary, to theologians and experts in the art of teaching, for the clarification of the doctrine and the adaptation of the catechisms to the different ages and levels of the people for whom they are intended.

As for the content and methods of this catechesis, I will not repeat here what I have tried to make explicit, as far as possible, in the apostolic exhortation "Catechesi Tradendae". I only recall that the faithful called to the communion of the Church have the right to receive the "word of faith" (Rom 10:8) "in all its rigor and in all its vigor" (John Paul II, Catechesi Tradendae, 30) through an effective, active and adequate catechesis; a catechesis which, with the integrity of its content, brings the whole message of Jesus Christ to the man of our time. In this field we Bishops of the Church, in our conscience as pastors, will always find ourselves faced with the question of texts for catechesis: how are they elaborated? what is their content? what message do they send? What image of God, of Christ, of the Church, of Christian life, of man's vocation, do they communicate? Here is an area in which zeal and pastoral vigilance will have to be exercised as in few others.

Here some words regarding the basic ecclesial communities would come in handy, as outlined by my venerable predecessor Paul VI in the apostolic exhortation "Evangelii Nuntiandi" (Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 58) to whose guidelines I allow myself to draw your attention. Such communities constitute a current experience in Latin America and above all in this country. It must be accompanied, assisted and deepened in order to bear the fruits desired by all, without deviating towards purposes that are extraneous to it. I don't want to dwell on this point. I entrust to your episcopal conference the special text concerning the basic ecclesial communities themselves, which I would have liked to address personally and aloud to the recipients if time had not been lacking given the complexity of the programme.

Personal responsibility of each Bishop

6. Rightly conceived and implemented, the episcopal conference is an incomparable point of encounter and dialogue for the bishops of a country. In it everyone will certainly find help, guidance and encouragement.

However it cannot, nor does it intend to limit, the personal responsibility that each Bishop assumes in receiving, with episcopal ordination, the mission and the charisms necessary to carry it out. This mission, which binds him to his particular Church, but also opens him to the care of all the Churches, each Bishop carries out as a personal commitment: it is his task as pastor.

Recalling this pastoral "munus", I cannot ignore one thing that accompanies me in this meeting as a reason for joy: it is the image, Brazilian Bishops, which you project throughout the Church and in the world; image of poverty and simplicity, of full dedication, of closeness to your people, of perfect integration into their life and their problems; image of Bishops who are profoundly evangelical and conform to the model proposed by the Second Vatican Council. I already knew, from numerous testimonies, this aspect of your physiognomy as Bishops. But reading your quinquennial reports, receiving you and conversing with you in my house, on the occasion of your magazines "ad limina apostolorum" with my joy and edification, with the edification also of your faithful, I can tell you that I thank God for your witness of poverty and presence among your people. Is it perhaps necessary to encourage you on this point? I do it from the heart, asking God to make you ever more capable of true sharing, that is, of rejoicing and suffering, of living together and collaborating with those whom he himself has entrusted to your pastoral care.

Thus inserted into the lives of your people, you must feel more at ease in carrying out your mission, of which Christ the Shepherd invites you to assume all aspects. Your people need you to hire them, and, albeit silently, they beg you for it. I too, called to confirm you in your mission (cf. Lk 22:32), hope that you do so. What are these aspects?

6.1. In the midst of your people who, like the disciples of Jesus, say to you: "Teach us to pray" (Lk 11:1), be teachers of prayer. You are the first liturgists of your Churches; celebrate the sacramental mysteries with them and for them, especially the Eucharist. You are also primarily responsible for making your people pray and for promoting worthy liturgical prayer. It is important that, in communion with your priests, you make every effort for a healthy liturgical renewal, avoiding, on the one hand, an unjustified attachment to liturgical forms that were useful in the past but which would make no sense today, and, on the other, liturgical abuses , prolonged experimentation in liturgical matters, the empire of subjectivism and anarchy, all things that break true unity, disorient the faithful, jeopardize the beauty and depth of the celebrations.

6.2. Imitating those whose successors we are today, unworthy but aware and responsible, be constant heralds of Jesus Christ and his message. Above all for this we have been called, consecrated, by the "Holy Spirit... placed... to shepherd the Church of God" (Acts 19:20): to reveal to men the mystery of Christ, to make his good news resound , to make many men his disciples. We can repeat with Saint Paul that we have not come to teach any human science, but Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ crucified (cf. 1Cor 1,23; 2,1-2), because among our people we are not experts in politics or economy, we are not leaders in function of some temporal enterprise, but ministers of the Gospel.

This is, so to speak, the most delicate point of the communion between Bishops. They can differ in the face of accidental temporal options, but they cannot fail to find themselves inseparably united when it comes to their fundamental task, the evangelical proclamation of Jesus Christ.

6.3. Be builders of the ecclesial community. With strong insistence and in various documents, the Second Vatican Council says that we pastors are sacraments - signs and creators - of communion. With this it underlines an essential dimension of our ministry: that of calling together those who are scattered, of reuniting those who are separated, thus building up the Church and keeping her in unity, despite all the forces of rupture and disunity.

6.4. Be teachers of the truth, of the truth that the Lord wanted to entrust to us, not to hide or bury it, but to proclaim it with humility and courage, to promote it, to defend it when it is threatened. To those of you I met last year in Puebla I reminded you of the threefold truth: about Jesus Christ, about the Church, about man. At the service of this truth are theologians, and the Church is happy that she finds in herself teachers capable of deepening this truth, enlightened by revelation, by the word of God and by tradition, by the magisterium of the Church and, in this light, helped by the human sciences . THE

Bishops should carefully follow the ministry of these theologians by including it in the whole of ecclesial service; nothing is more fruitful and enriches the Church more. The true theologian knows, also through a supernatural intuition, that it is up to the Bishop to pastorally supervise his theological activity for the benefit of the faith of the People of God.

We would all be happy if errors and deviations in these three fields - Christ, the Church, man - were something remote, perhaps possible, but unreal for the moment. But you know that's not the case. Therefore, the painful, crucifying but indescribable duty of pointing out these errors with serenity and firmness and punctually proposing the truth to the faithful is more than current. May the Lord give you the charisma of discernment to always have these truths in mind and the freedom and security to always teach them, refuting everything that opposes them.

6.5. Be fathers and brothers of priests, your collaborators in the work of the Gospel (cf. Phil 4:3).

I am sure that your experience as Bishops can only confirm my 20-year experience as Bishop of Krakow: if it is stimulating and encouraging for a priest to count on the welcome and collaboration of his people and on the friendship of colleagues, it is not less - indeed I would say that it is more - to count on the Bishop's understanding, closeness and defence, in difficult times. The priests of a diocese in general understand that the Bishop may lack the qualities of administrator, organizer, intellectual, but they suffer if they do not find in him the trust of a brother and the affectionate security of a father. Give the best of yourselves to always be close to your priests. But above all remember that for a Bishop nothing can be more urgent and precious than the holiness of his priests. “Forma gregis”,

6.6. Be attentive and vigilant fathers of future priests. I would be happy if following this meeting the firm conviction of having to become even more, in your dioceses, inspirers of vocations to the priestly ministry and to religious life remained in your hearts as pastors. A Bishop can be sure that he never wastes the time, talents and energies he devotes to this purpose. Therefore, keep an eye on your seminaries, aware that any imperfection or deviation that there may be in the formation of future priests, for fear of being demanding, out of accommodation or less attention on your part and that of your chosen collaborators, is harmful to the seminarians themselves today and greater damage to the Church tomorrow.

6.7. Be fathers and brothers of the religious who, fully living their consecration, find themselves in the heart of the Church at the service of the kingdom. There should always be the most perfect communion possible between the Bishop and the men and women religious of the local Church. This communion will consist above all in respecting and promoting the general charism of religious life with its essential dimensions, and the particular charism of each religious family. In the Bishop, religious must always find the one who calls them to live their vocation ever better. On the other hand, communion will consist in summoning and helping men and women religious for an ever more lively and organic insertion into the pastoral dynamism of the diocese. One of the requirements of this insertion, on the part of the religious,

The "mutual relations" between Bishops and religious, if inspired by the Christian virtues of trust, respect, loyalty, charity and a spirit of service, more than by mere juridical norms, prove immensely useful to the Church. All the more so in a country like Brazil, where the presence and activity of religious is particularly notable throughout its history.

6.8. Be generous and welcoming fathers to the laity of your Churches. The Second Vatican Council explicated a theology of the laity as one of the most notable elements of its ecclesiology. This reminds us that the lay person is, by definition, a disciple and follower of Christ, a man of the Church present and active in the heart of the world, to manage temporal realities and order them to the kingdom of God. These lay people expect from their pastors, above all, nourishment for their faith, security in the teachings of Christ and the Church, spiritual support for their life, firm orientation for their action as Christians in the world. They also expect legitimate freedom for their commitment to the temporal order. They wait for help and stimulus to be laymen without the risk of clericalization (and for this reason they expect their pastors to be fully such without the risk of laicization...). May the very numerous lay people who here in Brazil with ever greater commitment give themselves unreservedly to the service of the Church find in you everything they need for an even better service.

6.9. In the name of the Gospel, be promoters of great human values: above all, of the true dignity of man, son and image of God, brother and heir of Jesus Christ. Your vocation as Bishops forbids you, with total clarity and without half measures, anything resembling political partisanship, subjection to this or that ideology or system. But it does not forbid, indeed it invites us to be close to and at the service of all men, especially the weakest and neediest. You know that the preferential option for the poor, warmly proclaimed by Puebla, is not an invitation to exclusivism, nor would it justify a Bishop refusing to proclaim the word of conversion and salvation to this or that group of people on the pretext that they are not poor - after all, what content is given to this term? -because it is his duty to proclaim the whole Gospel to all men, that all are "poor in spirit". But it is an invitation to a special solidarity with the little ones and the weak, with those who suffer and cry, who are humiliated and left on the margins of life and society, to help them ever more fully conquer their dignity as a human person and as a child of God.

The Church of Brazil - I have already said it several times during this pastoral journey, particularly in my meeting with the brothers of the Vidigal favela in Rio de Janeiro - and the Cardinal bears witness to this - does well to manifest itself as the Church of the poor, the Church of the first beatitude: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Mt 5:3). In doing so, in carrying out her mission, the Church also serves the good of society. It does not claim to assume political activities as its own function. It respects established authority (cf. 1Pt 2:13-17). You continue to proclaim that authority is necessary for the good of society, for the maintenance and exercise of its sovereignty. On the other hand, however, it claims as its right and duty the practice of a social pastoral, not along the lines of a purely temporal project, but as the formation and orientation of consciences, with its specific means, so that society becomes more just. And the Church must do the same, the Bishops must do the same in the different countries of the world and in the different systems existing in today's world.

It is the task of the episcopate to prepare and propose the program of this social pastoral care and to implement it in collegial unity. In Brazil it is possible to organize this action with the prospect of many fruits, because in this country the Church and the episcopate constitute a true social force.

But to achieve this goal it is necessary to satisfy some fundamental conditions.

Above all, this social program must be authentic, that is, it must be consistent with the nature and identity of the Church, correspond to her principles, which are those of the Gospel, and be inspired by her magisterium, especially her social magisterium. In other words, this social pastoral care cannot be based on premises which, however many merits one wishes to recognize in them, are contrary to Catholic truth in its very foundations.

Secondly, social pastoral care must be authentically Brazilian, without thereby losing its universality. It must respond to the integral truth regarding the contemporary world. It must keep an eye out for all injustices and all human rights violations, everywhere, in the field of both material and spiritual goods. If this fundamental perspective is missing, it runs the risk of becoming the object of unilateral manipulations.

Furthermore, the Church's social action program must be organic: it must consider the bond that exists between the various economic and technical factors, on the one hand, and cultural needs, on the other. In this context, special attention must be paid to education and training, indispensable pre-requisites for access to equal social promotion for all. The audacious reforms that are necessary do not have the collectivization of the means of production as their sole objective, much less if by this we mean the concentration of everything in the hands of the state, converted into the only true capitalist force. The purpose of these reforms must be to allow access for all to property, since this constitutes in a certain way the indispensable condition of man's freedom and creativity,

Lastly, the social action of the Church must be the commitment of all those who carry significant parts of the Church's mission on their shoulders, each according to his specific function and responsibility.

Thus, theologians will not be exposed to all kinds of objections if they give what they teach an entirely evangelical and Christian orientation, faithful to the teachings of the Church. The ministers of the Church - Bishops and priests - will be aware that their most effective participation in this social pastoral care does not consist in engaging in party struggles or in group and system options, but in being true "educators in the faith", safe guides, spiritual animators. Religious will not change what constitutes their charism in the Church - total consecration to God, prayer, witness of future life, pursuit of holiness - with political commitments that serve neither them, who lose their identity, nor the Church which remains impoverished with the loss of one of its essential dimensions, nor to the world and to society, equally deprived of that original element which only religious life can bring to legitimate pluralism. Even the activity of the laity will assume its genuine dimension, because it acquires the vision of the integral man with all his components, "including his openness to the absolute, even the absolute of God" (Paul VI,Evangelii Nuntiandi , 33).

6.10 In this happy meeting with you I could not omit one last exhortation: be brothers of the Successor of Peter, united to him affectively and effectively "in opus ministerii" (cf. Eph 4:12).

Only "cum Petro et sub Petro" ( Ad Gentes , 38), independently of the person who at different times takes on the condition of Peter, does the episcopal college and each bishop find the fullness of their own ecclesial mission.

I deem it superfluous to recall that this communion with the Pope is expressed in the acceptance of his word not only when it is pronounced by him personally, but also when it comes through the bodies that collaborate with him in the pastoral governance of the Church and speak in his name, with his approval or by his mandate.

Nothing is more comforting to me, as a fruit of your ad limina visit and of my visit to you, than knowing that I can count on this sincere and generous communion with the See of Peter, the principle of unity and the seed of universality. United to you "in cruce et spe episcopatus", the Bishop of Rome, the pastor of the universal Church, finds renewed courage in the singular ministry which God's mysterious plan has wished to entrust to him.

Memory of Brother Bishops

7. I do not want to end these words or close this meeting without recalling the Bishops who were the legitimate successors of the Apostles in this country for four and a half centuries and here dedicated their entire lives and energies to building up the kingdom of God. the historical-cultural circumstances in which they were called to exercise their mission, their different human physiognomies, their personal histories; but all men who left signs of their passage, starting with Dom Pedro Fernandes Sardinha who was the first Bishop of Brazil. We must necessarily limit ourselves to mentioning names. But how can we not evoke figures such as those of Dom Vital Maria de Oliveira, Dom Antônio Macedo Costa, Dom Antônio Ferreira Viçoso, of the first two Brazilian Cardinals Dom Joaquim Arcoverde and Dom Sebastiao Leme da Silveira Cintra, of Dom Silvério Gomes Pimenta, of Dom José Gaspar de Affonseca e Silva? How can we not evoke here in Fortaleza the admirable figure of Dom Antônio de Almeida Lustosa, who rests in this cathedral, and who left in this diocese the luminous image of a wise and holy man? May the memory of these brothers and so many others who preceded us with the sign of faith stimulate us ever more in the service of the Lord.

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