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Skriven 2007-03-16 19:46:58 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45)
Ärende: Vatican Information Service - Press Release
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                               VIS-Press releases

CONFESSION REVEALS THE INFINITE LOVE OF GOD

VATICAN CITY, MAR 16, 2007 (VIS) - At midday today, the Pope received
participants in the annual course on the internal forum promoted by the
Apostolic Penitentiary.

In his address, Benedict XVI considered the importance of the Sacrament of
Penance and the need for priests to prepare themselves to administer it with
devotion and faithfulness to God, for the sanctification of Christian people.

"We all," said the Holy Father, "need to draw from the inexhaustible spring of
divine love, which was made totally manifest to us in the mystery of the Cross,
in order to find true peace with God, with ourselves and with our fellow man.
Only from this spiritual spring is it possible to draw the interior energy
indispensable for defeating evil and sin in the ceaseless struggle that marks
our earthly pilgrimage towards the heavenly homeland."

The Pope highlighted how in the modern world "we see a humanity that wishes for
self sufficiency, where no small number of people almost feel they can do
without God to live well; and yet, how many seem sadly condemned to face ...
empty lives, how much violence there still is on the earth, how much solitude
weighs upon the soul of man in the era of communication! In a word, it seems
today that we have lost a 'sense of sin' ... but have increased our 'complex of
guilt'."

"May priests, ministers of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, always feel that
their task is to make known the merciful love of God, both through words and in
their approach to penitents. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal
son, welcome penitent sinners, help them to arise from their sin and encourage
them to make amends, never compromising with evil but resuming the journey
towards evangelical perfection."

Priests, said the Holy Father, must be animated by a constant longing for
sanctity. In order to carry out their "important mission," as confessors they
"must remain faithful to the Church's Magisterium in matters of moral doctrine,
aware that the law of good and evil is not determined by situations, but by
God."

The Holy Father concluded by calling upon the Virgin, Mother of Mercy, "to
support the ministry of priest confessors and to help Christian communities to
understand the value and importance of the Sacrament of Penance for the
spiritual growth of all the faithful."
AC/SACRAMENT PENANCE/...VIS 070316 (410)

SUMMARY

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