Benedict XVI to U.S. Bishops at the close of their visit “ad limina” -
Gratitude for the commitment in favour of immigrants and the fidelity of women consecrated

The “Catholic unity” as “an essential condition for the fulfilmentof the Church’s mission” was reiterated by the Pope on Friday morning, 18 May, in his Discourse to the last group of Bishops from the United State – regions XIV and XV – on their visit ad limina Apostolorum.

The Pontiff said he was particularly pleased at the presence of bishops of the Eastern Churches of the United States, since – he explained to them – “you and your faithful embody in a unique way the ethnic, cultural and spiritual richness of the American Catholic community, past and present”. In fact, he recalled, “the Church in America has struggled to recognize and incorporate this diversity, and has succeeded, not without difficulty, in forging a communion in Christ and in the apostolic faith which mirrors the catholicity which is an indefectible mark of the Church”. Benedict XVI then spoke the importance of preserving, fostering and advancing this gift of Catholic unity as an essential condition for the fulfillment of the Church’s mission in the United States, confronting two specific points: that of immigration and that of consecrated women.

As to the first, he praised the “unremitting efforts, in the best traditions of the Church in America, to respond to the ongoing phenomenon of immigration. The Catholic community in the United States continues, with great generosity, to welcome waves of new immigrants, to provide them with pastoral care and charitable assistance, and to support ways of regularizing their situation, especially with regard to the unification of families”. For the Pope a particular sign of this “is the long-standing commitment of the American Bishops to immigration reform”. This is clearly a difficult and complex issue – he said – from the civil and political, as well as the social and economic, and above all from the human point of view.

Regarding the second theme, the Pope urged bishops to “remain particularly close to the men and women in your local Churches who are committed to following Christ ever more perfectly by generously embracing the evangelical counsels”. And he expressed his “deep gratitude for the example of fidelity and self-sacrifice given by many consecrated women” in the United States, joining them “in praying that this moment of discernment will bear abundant spiritual fruit for the revitalization and strengthening of their communities in fidelity to Christ and the Church, as well as to their founding charisms”.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI will meet with the world’s families at a time when the institution of the family is under threat and many are still struggling with a worldwide economic crisis and a lack of cultural and societal support.

As a sign of his deep concern for bolstering the family based on the lifelong union between a man and a woman, the pope will travel to Milan to meet with those attending the May 30-June 3 World Meeting of Families.

The pope will arrive June 1 and will close the event with an outdoor Mass. His three-day visit is an extraordinary sign of how much the pope wants to reaffirm the importance of families built on Christian values, Bishop Jean Laffitte, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Family, told Catholic News Service.

“It’s as if the pope wants to say ‘I am giving the maximum importance to what you families live out and I want to be near you; I believe in what you are experiencing and want to renew this hope,’” the bishop said.

The Milan gathering will be the second world family meeting that Pope Benedict has attended in his pontificate. The meetings, held every three years, are hosted by different dioceses around the world and are sponsored by the Vatican’s council for the family as a way for families to meet, discuss critical issues and grow in the faith.

Even though the pope missed the sixth world meeting in Mexico City in 2009, he has always been a vocal advocate of families.

Almost all of his speeches to visiting diplomats, heads of state and the world’s bishops address the need for governments and the church to support this fundamental building block of society. It’s the family where future generations are formed to be members of a constructive, generous, hopeful and peaceful world, the pope has said.

The pope’s message “will certainly be a message of hope, that, yes, it is worthwhile to live the fullness of the meaning of the family” as God designed and intended, as an indissoluble union between a man and a woman, Bishop Laffitte said.

The pope will meet with young people at San Siro Stadium, attend an evening celebration where he will hear people’s testimonies of faith, lead a Sunday morning outdoor Mass and have lunch with event organizers and families. He will pray with priests and religious at Milan’s Duomo cathedral and venerate the relics of St. Charles Borromeo, patron saint of catechists, seminarians, learning and the arts, and co-patron saint of Milan.

The pope will also attend a concert held in his honor at the La Scala opera house, featuring Beethoven’s 9th Symphony conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

The pope will have a chance to get his message out to the wider world when he meets with the people of Milan and civilian authorities. It may be an opportunity for him to weigh in on a major issue facing states in different parts of the world: the ongoing push to legalize or recognize same-sex unions and marriage.

The pope has repeatedly called on governments to respect and defend the traditional definition of marriage and urged the church to promote the natural order in the institution of the family.

Marriage between a man and a woman “is not a simple social convention,” the pope told the world’s ambassadors to the Vatican this year. The family is the basic unit of society and “policies which undermine the family threaten human dignity and the future of humanity itself,” he said.

The pope’s approach has been to win over people’s hearts and minds, in part by having Catholics themselves serve as credible witnesses to the joy and love that come from living in accordance with natural law.

The church needs to help people discover that its teaching not only makes sense, but also protects human dignity and creates a stable society, he has said.

In fact, on his way to his first World Meeting of Families in Valencia, Spain, the pope told reporters he was more interested in highlighting what works and makes families thrive than in lambasting opponents.

He said that stressing what is positive about Christian living can help people see “why the church cannot accept certain things, but at the same time wants to respect people and help them.”

Bishop Laffitte agreed that the church always tries its best to explain its position and to reach out with pastoral concern to people of good will, even if they cannot or do not want to live a life founded on natural law.

However, he said, when it comes to people who are openly hostile to the church’s contribution and propose changing laws in regard to the traditional definition of marriage, then the church must “be very precise, firm and strong in reiterating the principles” of natural law.

The church must “also denounce the relativistic principles” that give rise to a near-infinite array of subjective preferences about what human love and marriage are, he said.

This year’s theme for the gathering, “Work and Celebration,” comes at a critical time for many families struggling with the challenges of unemployment, low wages, long work hours for one or both parents, building a nest egg for a home or the children’s education and many other problems connected with working to support a family.

Pope Benedict is expected to address these real problems, as he did recently when he said work should not hurt the family, “but rather should support and unite it, help it to open itself to life” and take part more fully in the church and community.

Marking the U.N.’s International Day of Families May 15, the pope said employers should also respect Sundays as a day of rest and a time families can strengthen their relationships with each other and with God.

This year’s World Meeting of Families’ lecture series will feature Catholic economists, entrepreneurs, church leaders and other experts sharing best practices for families seeking to sustain themselves both financially and spiritually.

Bishop Laffitte said that with so much attention being paid to resolving economic difficulties, people often forget about cultivating social and spiritual needs.

It’s important to also spend quality time with loved ones and “rediscover the source, inspiration, grace and spiritual strength in the Sunday Eucharist,” he said.

Continuing his catechesis on Christian prayer, this Wednesday Pope Benedict turned to the teaching of the Apostle Paul, whose letters show us that “in reality there is no human cry that is not heard by God” and that “prayer does not exempt us from trial and suffering”, “but allows us to live and cope with a new force, with the same confidence of Jesus”.

Below a Vatican Radio translation of the original catechesis in Italian

Dear brothers and sisters,

In the last catechesis we reflected on prayer in the Acts of the Apostles, today I would like to begin to talk about prayer in the Letters of St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. I would first like to note that it is no accident that his letters are introduced by and conclude with expressions of prayer: they begin with thanksgiving and praise, and end with the hope that the grace of God guide the path of the communities to which they are addressed. Among the opening salutations: “First, I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1.8), and the final wish: “the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all” (1 Cor 16:23), the contents of the Letters of the Apostle are developed. That of St. Paul is a prayer that is manifested in a wealth of forms, ranging from thanksgiving to blessing, praise to the request and intercession, from hymn to supplication: a variety of expressions that demonstrates how prayer involves and penetrates all situations of life, both personal and community life.

One element that the Apostle would have us understand is that prayer should not be seen simply as a good work done by us towards God, as our own action. It is above all a gift, the fruit of the living, real, life-giving presence of the Father and Jesus Christ in us. In his Letter to the Romans he writes: “In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings” (Rom 8.26). And we know that is true when the apostle says we do not know how to pray as we ought to pray, we want to pray, but God is far away, we do not have the words, the language to talk with God, not even the thought. We can only open ourselves up, make time available for God; wait for Him to help us truly enter into dialogue. And the Apostle says this lack of words, this absence of words, but this desire to communicate with God is prayer that the Holy Spirit not only understands, but it brings, interprets before God. This weakness before God through the Holy Spirit becomes real prayer, real contact with God. The Holy Spirit is the interpreter that helps us understand, God understand, what we mean”.

In prayer we experience, more than in other dimensions of existence, our weakness, our poverty, our being creatures, because we are faced with the omnipotence and transcendence of God. The more we progress in ‘listening and in dialogue with God, so that prayer becomes the daily breath of our soul, the more we perceive the sense of our limitations, not only before concrete every day situations, but also in our relationship with the Lord. Thus the need grows within us to increasingly entrust ourselves to and rely on Him; we understand – as the Apostle says – that “we do not know how to pray as we ought “(Rom. 8.26). It is the Holy Spirit who helps our inability, enlightens our minds and warms our hearts, guiding our turning to God. For St. Paul prayer is above all the work of the Holy Spirit in our humanity, who takes on our weakness and transforms from men bound to the material things to spiritual men: in the First Letter to the Corinthians he says, “We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God. And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom, but with words taught by the Spirit, describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms”(2:12-13). Through his living in our human frailty, the Holy Spirit changes us, intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings and leads us to the heights of God (cf. Rom 8.26).

With this presence of the Holy Spirit our union with Christ is realised, since it is the Spirit of the Son of God, in which we become children. St. Paul speaks of the Spirit of Christ (cf. Rom 8.9) and not only the Spirit of God. It is obvious that if Christ is the son of God, his spirit is also the spirit of God, and so if the spirit of God, the spirit of Christ, it becomes very close to us in the Son of God and Son of Man, the Holy Spirit of God becomes human and touches us. We can enter into the communion of the Spirit. It is like saying that not only God the Father made himself visible in the Incarnation of the Son, but the Spirit of God is manifested in the life and work of Jesus Christ who lived, was crucified, died and resurrected. The Apostle reminds us that “no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12.3). So the Spirit directs our hearts to Jesus Christ, so that “we no longer live, but Christ lives in us” (cf. Gal 2.20). In his Catechesis on the Sacraments, reflecting on the Eucharist, St. Ambrose states: “Who is inebriated by the Spirit is rooted in Christ” (5, 3, 17: PL 16, 450).

I would now like to highlight three consequences in our Christian life when we allow not the spirit of the world to operate in us, but the Spirit of Christ as an inner principle of all our actions.

First of all, with prayer animated by the Spirit we are enabled to abandon and overcome every form of fear or slavery, experiencing the true freedom of the children of God. Without the prayer that nourishes our being in Christ every day, in an intimacy that steadily grows, we are in the condition described by St. Paul in the Letter to the Romans Chapter 7: For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. (cf. Rom 7:19). This is the expression of the alienation of human beings, the destruction of our freedom for our being, for original sin. We want good, we do not do it and we do what we do not want, evil. The Apostle would have us understand that it is not above all our will that frees us from this condition, nor the law, but the Holy Spirit. And since “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17), in prayer we experience the freedom bestowed by the Spirit: an authentic freedom which is freedom from evil and sin for good and for life, for God. The Spirit of freedom, St. Paul continues, is never identified either with licentiousness, or with the possibility of choosing evil, but with the “fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. “(Gal 5.22). This is true freedom, to really follow our desire for good, the true joy of communion with God and not be overwhelmed by the circumstances that lead us in other directions.

A second consequence that occurs in our lives when we allow the Spirit of Christ operate in us is that our relationship with God becomes so deep that it is not be impacted by any reality or situation. We understand that with prayer we are not freed from trial or suffering, but we can live them in union with Christ, his sufferings, with a view to participating in his glory (cf. Rom 8.17). Many times, in our prayer, we ask God for deliverance from spiritual and physical evil, and do so with great confidence. However, we often have the impression of not being listened to and then we risk losing heart and perseverance. In reality there is no human cry that is not heard by God, and in constant and faithful prayer we understand with St. Paul that “the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us” (Romans 8:18). Prayer does not exempt us from trial and suffering, indeed – as Saint Paul says – ” we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom. 8, 23), but allows us to live and cope with a new force, with the same confidence of Jesus, who – according to the Letter to the Hebrews – “in the days when he was in the flesh, he offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his reverence “(5.7). The response of God the Father to the Son and his loud cries and tears was not the immediate release from suffering, from the cross, from death, but it was a much greater fulfilment, a much deeper response, through the cross and death God has answered with the resurrection of the Son, with new life. Prayer animated by the Holy Spirit also leads us to live the journey of life each day with its trials and sufferings, in the full hope and trust in God who answers just as he answered his Son.

And the third. Finally, the prayer of the believer is also open to the dimensions of humanity and all of creation, “for creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God;” (Rom 8.19). This means that prayer, sustained by the Spirit of Christ which speaks in the depths of our being, never stays closed in on itself, is never only pray for oneself, but is open to sharing the sufferings of our time, of others. It becomes intercession for others, and so deliverance from oneself, a channel of hope for all creation, an expression of that love of God that is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (cf. Rom 5.5). This is the sign of true prayer which is not for oneself, but open to others. And thus it frees us, thus it helps redeem the world.

Dear brothers and sisters, St. Paul teaches us that in our prayer, we must open ourselves to the presence and action of the Holy Spirit, who prays in us with inexpressible groanings, to bring us to adhere to God with our whole heart and with all our being. The Spirit of Christ becomes the strength of our “weak” prayer, the light of our “dimmed” prayer, the focus of our “dry” prayer, giving us true inner freedom, teaching us to live by facing our trials, in the certainty we are not alone, opening us up to the horizons of humanity and creation “that is groaning in labour pains even until now” (Rom. 8:22). Thank you.

Washington D.C., May 15, 2012 / (CNA) – Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, encouraged new college graduates to follow in Jesus’ footsteps by living out “the Law of the Gift.”

Carried out through “selfless, sacrificial love and service” for others, this way of living can be seen in the lives of the saints and should be “part of the DNA of any Catholic school,” he explained.

Cardinal Dolan delivered the May 12 commencement address at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

He recalled the words of Pope Benedict XVI, meeting just days earlier with bishops from the United States, about the urgent need for American Catholic colleges to renew their identity and fidelity to Christ.

Catholic universities should be “both Catholic and American,” based in truth, goodness and beauty, the cardinal said.

Their mission must be rooted in both truth and love, he added, striving to educate students in “the Law of the Gift.”

In describing the Law of the Gift, he quoted Blessed Pope John Paul II, who said, “For we are at our best, we are most fully alive and human, when we give away freely and sacrificially our very selves in love for another.”

True education, he said, imparts knowledge of this law and “the importance of faith to sustain it.”

Cardinal Dolan explained that religion promotes “a culture built on the Law of the Gift.”

Allowing for the free flourishing of religion is therefore “an essential ingredient in American wisdom and the genius of the American republic,” he said.

Even critics of religion acknowledge that faith and the Church make “a particularly pointed contribution” to society through their dedication to following and fostering the Law of the Gift, he added.

The contribution of religion to society has been a heavily discussed topic in recent months, as a federal mandate issued by the Obama administration threatens to shut down many religious schools, hospitals and charitable agencies or have them compromise their religious beliefs.

Cardinal Dolan has led efforts to defend religious freedom against the mandate, which will require employers to offer health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs.

In his address, he called on the class of 2012 to vigorously defend religious freedom “as part of both our American and creedal legacy.”

Cardinal Dolan then touched on how children usually first learn about the Law of the Gift in their family.

In a reference to attempts to redefine marriage and family, he noted that the law “is most poetically exemplified in the lifelong, life-giving, faithful, intimate union of a man and woman in marriage, which then leads to the procreation of new life.”

This union is so critical to the order of the common good, that “its very definition is ingrained into our interior dictionary,” he said.

Cardinal Dolan challenged the new graduates to live out the Law of the Gift in a world that “prefers getting to giving” and “considers every drive, desire or urge as a right.”

University president John Garvey also spoke at the commencement ceremony, discussing the virtue of patience, which he described as “persistence in knocking on God’s door.”

Patience is “not the disposition to wait for what you want,” but rather “the disposition to await God’s grace,” he explained.

Garvey encouraged the graduates to imitate St. Monica’s patient years of praying for the conversion of her son, Augustine, who later became a great saint in the Church.

“Patience is the ground that virtue grows in,” he said.

The university awarded approximately 1,500 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees during the May 12 ceremony.

I always love this time of year, these days and weeks that follow Easter. In the Church’s calendar, Lent is the season for Christian conversion. It leads to the new Baptisms we celebrate at the Easter Vigil, and the renewal of our baptismal promises. We associate these weeks after Easter with Confirmation — the sacrament of our Christian discipleship and our sharing in the Church’s apostolic mission.

So now that I’m back from Rome, that’s what I’ve been doing. Our Auxiliary Bishops and I are traveling to parishes across our Archdiocese to confer this powerful sacrament of grace on our young people. And what a joy this is for me!

Everywhere I go, I’m meeting such strong and faithful young men and women.

They are growing up in good Catholic homes. Their parents brought them to the life of grace in Baptism when they were newborns. They helped prepare them for their first Confessions and Holy Communion. Now that their children are young adults, these parents are making sure they’re ready for this next step in their Christian maturity.

For me, these encounters have been a beautiful reminder of how our Catholic faith is born and nurtured in the heart of the family. And at the heart of every family is the loving heart of the mother.

We should give thanks to God for our mothers every day! For all their sacrifices and love. We should give thanks especially this Sunday — as we join our brothers and sisters of all faiths in celebrating national Mother’s Day.

For Catholics, motherhood is a vocation, a special calling from Jesus Christ.

God entrusts to every mother the duty of sharing in the mystery of his creation. In our Father’s design, every new life is conceived and grows under a mother’s loving heart.

Every mother is a guardian appointed by our Father to look out for his precious gift of life. Her smile is the first thing the child sees upon entering the world. And her smile is the child’s first sign of God’s love.

Along with fathers, mothers are entrusted with nurturing their children’s physical lives and helping them grow in the life of grace and the Spirit.

Mary’s last words in the Gospels, at the wedding at Cana, should be the first words that define how we live: “Do whatever he tells you.”

Mothers especially, are our first teachers about prayer, charity and the practices of our Christian faith. By their example, our mothers teach us the truth of Christian love — to love expecting nothing in return.

As Christians, we are blessed to have two mothers. We have our natural mothers who brought us into this world. And we have our spiritual mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It’s appropriate that May, when we celebrate Mother’s Day, is traditionally the “Month of Mary” in our Church.

At the start of the Acts of the Apostles, we see the beautiful image of the early Church united in prayer around “Mary, the mother of Jesus.”

This is what Jesus intended for his Church. His last act before dying on the cross was to entrust his mother to his Church and to every believer: “Behold, your mother!”

So we need to make sure that Mary always has an important place in our Christian lives — and in the life and mission of our Archdiocese.

I was overjoyed recently to dedicate our newest church — Our Lady of Guadalupe in Oxnard. This was a beautiful moment of grace for me. As you know, I’ve always had a devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe. So this had special meaning for me — that the first church built during my time as Archbishop is dedicated to her.

I hope this new church can be an inspiration for all of us — to renew our devotion to our Blessed Mother.

Let’s make that our prayer for one another this week. That we grow in our love for our mothers — our natural mothers on earth, and our Blessed Mother in heaven.

As our mothers taught us how to walk, Mary teaches us how to follow Jesus. She shows us how to listen for the voice of God and to trust in his plan for our lives.

Mary teaches us to always look to Jesus, and to conform our lives to his Word and his example. Her last words in the Gospels, at the wedding at Cana, should be the first words that define how we live: “Do whatever he tells you.”

In Mary’s eyes, as in the eyes of our natural mothers, we will always be her children. As a good mother, she is always close to us, ready to catch us if we fall. We can call to her when we’re in trouble. We can turn to her for help in our struggles.

So let’s honor all our mothers this weekend. And let’s ask our Blessed Mother to help us to become more worthy, more holy and loving children of God.

Over the next month in parishes across the Archdiocese of Washington, children will be making their First Holy Communion. They will come forward to receive Our Lord – Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity – in the consecrated host and Precious Blood. Often the homily is written and preached for the ears of our young Catholics, and often the simplicity of the homily reminds the adult listeners that we ought never to take for granted the great gift of the Eucharist. Our faith teaches us that what we proclaim in the Eucharist – Christ’s death and resurrection – is also re-presented in that very action by the power of God’s love and goodness. This is the heart of our faith in the sacrament we call the Eucharist, the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the real presence of Christ.

The Eucharist is at the center of the Church’s life. In the celebration of this mystery of faith, Christ himself is present to his people. Rich in symbolism and richer in reality, the Eucharist bears within itself the whole reality of Christ and mediates his saving work to us. In short, when the Church gathers in worship of God and offers the Eucharistic sacrifice, not only is Christ really and truly present under the species of bread and wine, but Christ also continues his saving work of our salvation. Just as, individually, we are brought into union with Christ through our participation in the paschal mystery and our sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ, so the Church as the new people of God comes to be in its celebration of the Eucharist. We are a people made one with Christ and one with each other, precisely in the Eucharist. It is for this reason that the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the Eucharist is the efficacious sign and sublime cause of that communion in the divine life and that unity of the People of God by which the Church is kept in being.” In other words, our weekly participation in Mass is essential to our identities as Catholics.

Since we are constituted as God’s family, God’s people – his Church – precisely by our participation in the Eucharist, we cannot grow into Christ’s new body as healthy and full members without sharing in the Eucharistic liturgy. On each Sunday, the faithful come together not only to profess the faith but also to renew the life of Christ within them. We gather not as individuals isolated from each other and related only to God, but as God’s family interrelated to each other and through the Church. We are made one in the Eucharist.

For this reason, the Church calls upon believers to celebrate the great gift of God with us at Mass every Sunday. To absent oneself from the Sunday Eucharist is to diminish one’s own spiritual life – one’s own communion with Christ’s new body, the Church.

We celebrate Eucharist as a faith family – as the Church – on Sunday because it is here that we find our identity, our unity and our very being as members of Christ’s body, members of his Church. Whether or not you know the children making their First Holy Communion in your parish, you have a share in their formation by showing them that Catholics are a family who gather each and every week for the celebration of the Mass.

Washington D.C., May 10, 2012 / (CNA/EWTN News) – Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan is charging President Barack Obama with undermining the “very cornerstone of society” by supporting “gay marriage.”

Cardinal Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, described the president’s endorsement as “deeply saddening.”

The bishops “cannot be silent in the face of words or actions that would undermine the institution of marriage, the very cornerstone of our society,” he said in a May 9 statement. “The people of this country, especially our children, deserve better.”

Cardinal Dolan said that the announcement was “not surprising” based on the Obama administration’s previous actions, which “erode or ignore the unique meaning of marriage.”

He called for prayer and efforts to “promote and protect marriage” in order to “serve the true good of all persons.”

In an unprecedented move, Obama announced his support for “same-sex marriage” in a May 9 interview with ABC News’ Robin Roberts.

“I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” he said.

The announcement came just days after U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told NBC’s David Gregory that he is “absolutely comfortable” with the idea of homosexual couples marrying.

Previously, Obama had stopped short of endorsing “gay marriage,” saying instead that he opposes discrimination against gay individuals but that his views on the question of marriage were “evolving.”

However, his actions as president have won the praise of gay advocacy groups.

His administration announced in Feb. 2011 that it would not uphold the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman for federal purposes.

He also signed a law repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the military.

Obama’s latest statement places him in firm disagreement with presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, who has signed a pledge to uphold marriage as the union of one man and one woman.

Romney was quick to voice his opposition to Obama’s stance.

“I have the same view on marriage that I had when I was governor and that I’ve expressed many times,” he said at a May 9 campaign event in Oklahoma. “I believe marriage is a relationship between a man and a woman.”

He explained that states can “make decisions with regards to domestic partnership benefits, such as hospital visitation rights,” but “marriage itself is a relationship between a man and a woman.”

Acknowledging that the issue is “a very tender and sensitive” one about which “other people have differing views,” Romney reiterated his own conviction, which he has held “since running for office.”

Several political commentators have suggested that Obama’s support for “gay marriage” does not reflect the views of the American people and could have a significant political impact in the November 6, 2012 election.

“Marriage was created long before any government came into existence,” said Catholic Advocate president Matt Smith.

He warned that if Obama’s advocacy for same-sex “marriage” succeeds, “Catholic institutions could be forced once again to violate our beliefs.”

“Many faithful Catholics were fooled by clever political rhetoric in 2008,” added Smith. “This year, the anti-Catholic record of the Obama administration should inform their vote.”

So far, 30 states have passed constitutional amendments banning “gay marriage,” including North Carolina, where voters approved such a measure by an overwhelming margin on May 8.

Tony Perkins, president of the D.C.-based Family Research Council, pointed to the recent North Carolina vote as evidence that “redefining marriage remains outside the mainstream of American politics, especially in the critical battleground states and among minority voters.”

He observed that the North Carolina amendment received over 60 percent of the vote in majority-black counties.

A Pew Research Center survey in April 2012 found that only 39 percent of African Americans are in favor of “gay marriage.”

Perkins noted that 10 of 16 key battleground states have passed amendments to protect marriage. He said that Obama’s announcement “ensures that marriage will again be a major issue in the presidential election.”

ROME (CNS) — Being a bishop means being no stranger to debates and challenges, but also knowing the joy of sharing the faith, said Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami.

“We know a little bit about controversy and dissension, but like (St.) Paul we know also the joy not only of having encountered the Lord, we also know the joy of sharing him with others,” he said.

The archbishop was the homilist May 9 at a Mass at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. He and other bishops of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina were joined by dozens of pilgrims from the region, including a violinist, trumpet player, organist and cantor from the Archdiocese of Miami. The Mass was part of the bishops’ “ad limina” visits to Rome and the Vatican. In his homily, which he read from his iPad since he said he did not have a printer available, Archbishop Wenski said the “ad limina” visits are an occasion to consult with Pope Benedict XVI and top Vatican officials, but even more they are an opportunity for the bishops to reaffirm their faith and strengthen their unity.

The first reading at the Mass recounted how Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem to discuss with Peter and the other leaders of the first Christian communities whether to require new Christians who were not Jews to be circumcised. “What was at stake was the very identity of what came to be called Christianity,” because it determined whether Christianity was to be a “sect within Judaism” or have a broader reach and membership, the archbishop said. While the controversies and challenges facing the church have changed enormously, the “ad limina” visits are “in continuity with what is described in that first reading, and our meetings do have much of the same purpose: to strengthen our communion with Christ and with one another,” Archbishop Wenski said.

Vatican City, May 7, 2012 / (CNA/EWTN News) – Pope Benedict XVI told a group of U.S. bishops that educating young Catholics in the faith is “the most urgent internal challenge” facing the Catholic Church in America.

He emphasized that responding to the challenge requires schools to have a strong Catholic identity and for theology professors to teach in unity with the Church.

“(T)he question of Catholic identity, not least at the university level, entails much more than the teaching of religion or the mere presence of a chaplaincy on campus,” Pope Benedict said May 5 in an address to U.S. bishops from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. The bishops were at the Vatican for their ad limina visit.

“All too often, it seems, Catholic schools and colleges have failed to challenge students to reappropriate their faith as part of the exciting intellectual discoveries which mark the experience of higher education.”

Pope Benedict said many new college students find themselves disassociated from their family, school and community support systems that previously helped transmit the Catholic faith to them. This fact should “continually spur Catholic institutions of learning to create new and effective networks of support,” he said.

The Pope said in his English-language address that many U.S. bishops have noted the need for Catholic colleges and universities to “reaffirm their distinctive identity in fidelity to their founding ideals and the Church’s mission in service of the Gospel.”

He specifically called on Catholic universities to comply with canon law and the 1990 apostolic constitution “Ex Corde Ecclesiae,” which both require theology teachers to receive a mandate from the “competent ecclesiastical authority.” The mandates, which usually are given by the local bishop, ensure that the teachers are in agreement with the Church’s teachings.

This requirement, the Pope said, shows ecclesial communion and is especially important in light of “the confusion created by instances of apparent dissidence between some representatives of Catholic institutions and the Church’s pastoral leadership.”

This “discord” harms the Church’s witness and “can easily be exploited to compromise her authority and her freedom,” Pope Benedict warned the bishops.

His remarks also stressed the positive aspects of Catholic education.

It is inspired by “an intellectual charity” which recognizes that leading others to truth is “ultimately an act of love.” Faith recognizes the “essential unity” of all knowledge and protects against the “alienation and fragmentation” of reason detached from “the pursuit of truth and virtue.”

The Pope praised the “great progress” in improving catechesis and reviewing texts for conformity with the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

He also lauded efforts to preserve the “great patrimony” of America’s Catholic elementary and high schools, many of which face problems because of changing demographics and increased costs.

———-

Click here for the full text of Pope Benedict XVI’s address to Region XIII of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Last month, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated two important anniversaries—his 85th birthday (April 16) and the 7th anniversary of his election to the See of St. Peter (April 19). As always, the Holy Father observed these great occasions with quiet dignity and genuine human warmth. Throughout his many years of pastoral service, Joseph Ratzinger has shown himself to be a great teacher and a good steward of the many gifts and responsibilities entrusted to his care.

Joseph Ratzinger was born on Holy Saturday and baptized the same day. As the pope recalled in his birthday homily, “On the day I was born, thanks to my parents, I was also reborn with the water of the Spirit. The day I was baptized … was Easter Saturday. At the time it was still customary to hold the Easter vigil in the morning, followed by the darkness of Easter Saturday without a Hallelujah. This singular paradox, this anticipation of light in a day of darkness, can almost be seen as an image of the history of our own times. On the one hand there is the silence of God and His absence, yet the resurrection of Christ contains an anticipation of God’s ‘yes’. We live in this anticipation, through the silence of God we hear His words, and through the darkness of His absence we glimpse His light. The anticipation of the resurrection in the midst of evolving history indicates the path we must follow and helps us to continue the journey”.

Pope Benedict’s journey through life has been a distinctive blend of gifts and responsibilities …

– Read the full article –