VATICAN CITY, FEB. 25, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is encouraging Brazilians to live this Lent as a period of conversion and reconciliation, to promote authentic peace among all communities and peoples.
The Pope affirmed this in a letter sent to Archbishop Geraldo Rocha, president of the Brazilian bishops’ conference, at the beginning of the annual Campaign of Fraternity organized by the Church in this country during Lent. This year’s campaign focuses on the theme «Fraternity and Public Security» and has the motto «Peace Is the Fruit of Justice.»
Live this Lenten season, the Holy Father wrote, as a «period of conversion and reconciliation of all Christians, so that the noble aspirations of the human heart can be fulfilled and an authentic peace prevail among peoples and communities.»
The Pontiff pointed out that Lent «invites us to fight with every effort to do the good, precisely because we know how difficult it is for men to seriously decide to practice justice.»
He referred to the general conference of Latin American and Caribbean bishops, held in May 2007, and noted that the final document of the meeting states that the presence of the Kingdom is seen in the «living of the Beatitudes in a personal and communitarian way, in the evangelization of the poor, in knowledge and fulfillment of the will of the Father, in the martyrdom for the faith, in access for everyone to the goods of creation, in mutual sincere and fraternal forgiveness, accepting and respecting the richness of plurality, in the struggle to not succumb to the temptation of being slaves of evil.»
Human condition
The Holy Father affirmed, that even if we obtain «a fair distribution of wealth and a harmonious organization of society,» some things will never disappear, such as «the pain of illness, of misunderstanding and loneliness, of the death of loved ones, of the experience of our own limitations.»
The Lord, he says, «abhors injustices and condemns those who commit them,» but «respects the freedom of the individual, and for this reason allows them to exist, because they are part of the human condition after original sin.»
Benedict XVI added that Christ’s heart, «full of love for man led him to carry, along with the cross, all these torments: our suffering, our sorrow, our hunger and thirst for justice.»
The conference’s secretary general, Bishop Dimas Lara Barbosa, said in a recent interview with the bishops’ press office that the goal of this campaign is to «show the concern of the Church for the problem of violence and lack of security,» and to combat the «culture of fear that prevails in many places.»
