Catholic World News News Feature

Voices from the Synod: October 10 October 10, 2008

The following are excerpts from some of the more noteworthy comments at the 7th and 8th general congregations of the Synod of Bishops, meeting at the Vatican to discuss the theme: "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church."

Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family:

To follow the liturgical year by means of the daily Gospel, or at least the Sunday Gospel, highlighting a phrase to remember or to live during the day or throughout the week. It does not take much time: just a few minutes are sufficient for praying and listening together, for making a shared commitment to enact in daily activities and relationships and to recall at the right moment in spontaneous family dialogue.

Bishop Louis Pelatre, apostolic vicar of Istanbul:

Throughout the world there are excellent commissions for translations of the Bible in the different international languages, but what about translations in the local languages that are only spoken by a small number of persons? This is a real problem in Turkey.

Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum:

The majority of world religions such as Islam, Hinduism or Buddhism have learnt from Christianity and made it their own to foster love of neighbor…. When, for those who are questioning and seeking, the service of the Church's aid agencies and the individual Christian does not show God clearly, we forsake a function of the Church that is decisive for these times of ours.

Archbishop Hector Miguel Cabrejos Vidarte of Trujillo, Peru:

A good knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures is a guarantee of good preaching. ... A knowledge of the text renders the presentation of the Gospel more efficient. We have to exhort the ministers of the Word to prepare their homilies carefully, bearing in mind the congregation they are addressing.

Cardinal Vinko Puljic, Archbishop of Vrhbosna, Bosnia-Herzegovina:

In countries that have recently emerged from socialist regimes, the Church needs lay faithful who live the Gospel of Christ intensely in the family and in society, and who once again take on their role in the mission of the ecclesial community.

Bishop Emmanuel Felemou of Kankan, Guinea:

Although the one God was already known in our cultures, what was missing was that clarity and perfection in which love is no longer only to be shared with brothers in blood but with everyone, that clarity and perfection in which, when we want to demonstrate how powerful we are, we forgive our enemy instead of poisoning him. I do not mean to suggest that forgiveness did not exist before, but this reality needed the word of Christ, His knowledge and His example.

Latin-rite Patriarch Fouad Twal of Jerusalem:

I would like to take the occasion of the presence of the Holy Father and of all the Synod Fathers to make an appeal for the Holy Land and ask for more prayer, more solidarity ,and more pilgrimages to help us be the witnesses of Christ, Messiah, Savior "not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to earth's remotest end."

Archbishop Charles Maung Bo of Yangon, Myanmar:

The Gospel mandate of 'feeding the hungry, clothing the naked' emerged forcefully after the recent attack of the deadly cyclone Nargis. Nearly 150,000 people died and 2 million people became refugees in their own land. The nation was in mourning. With the help of the Lord we have brought life back to many communities. The churches became the refugee camps.