Pope's message to San Marino: demand the truth

June 20, 2011

During a one-day visit to the tiny Republic of San Marino, Pope Benedict XVI saluted the Christian heritage of European culture, pleaded for help in building strong families, and urged young people to be willing to ask life’s ultimate questions.

The Pontiff traveled by helicopter from Rome to San Marino on June 19. Presiding at Sunday Mass in a soccer stadium there, he spoke in his homily about God’s love for the world:

The world is full of evil, selfishness, and wickedness, and God could come to judge this world, to destroy evil and punish the wicked. However, in fact, He shows that He loves the world, that He loves man despite his sins; and He sent what was most precious to Him, His only-begotten Son.

The Christian response to God’s love, the Pope continued, brought about the “birth of a culture and civilization founded on the human person, made in God's image and hence possessor of rights that have precedence over any human legislation.” He told the people of San Marino: “You are called to carry this precious legacy forward at one of the most decisive moments of history.” The Holy Father asked the faithful to recognize “the crisis many families have to face,” and take action to ensure public support for marriage and family life. Later in the day he returned to that theme, saying: “We well know how the institution of the family is currently being called into question, almost in an attempt to deny its irreplaceable value.”

In an afternoon meeting with young people, the Pope issued a challenge: “Do not be content with partial and immediate responses” to ultimate questions. He encouraged the young people to continue their search for truth and for meaning in life, demanding full answers and refusing to “become imprisoned in the material world, in the immediate, the relative, the useful; losing sensibility toward things that concern our spiritual dimension.”

 

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Further information:

• Pope Benedict XVI: Family in urgent need of support
• Developing the Legacy of Faith Left by Our Ancestors (VIS)
• Overcoming the Crisis with Courage and Responsibility (VIS)
• Only Christ has the Fundamental Responses to Life (VIS)