CNS STORY: Priests must help people find truth in God, pope says at audience

POPE-AUDIENCE Aug-5-2009 (410 words) With photos. xxxi

Priests must help people find truth in God, pope says at audience

By Catholic News Service

CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (CNS) -- In a very brief general audience, Pope Benedict XVI said the church needs holy priests who can help the faithful understand that truth exists and, ultimately, is found in God.

The audience, with an estimated 4,000 people packed into the courtyard at the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo, lasted a mere 15 minutes. The pope's main talk lasted only five minutes, although the Vatican published the much longer text the pope had prepared for the audience.

Pope Benedict's remarks focused on St. John Vianney, the patron of parish priests, who died Aug. 4, 1859. The pope invoked a special Year for Priests to mark the 150th anniversary of the French priest's death.

At first glance, "the pastoral methods of St. John Vianney could appear little suited to current social and cultural conditions. In fact, how could a priest today, in a world that has changed so much, imitate him?" the pope asked.

But just like many societies today, French society in the 1800s seriously challenged people of faith, he said.

"Post-revolutionary France experienced a sort of 'dictatorship of rationalism' aimed at canceling the very presence of priests and of the church in society" and at convincing people that by using just their reason they could arrive at all the truths they needed to give meaning and order to their lives, the pope said.

"If back then there was a 'dictatorship of rationalism,' in many areas today there is a kind of 'dictatorship of relativism,'" he said.

Thinking that reason alone can bring people to truth or thinking that there is no such thing as a definitive truth valid for all people and all times ignores the fact that human beings were created by God and will find the fullness of life in him, Pope Benedict said.

Just as in St. John Vianney's time, he said, the human search for meaning and fulfillment today can be satisfied only through a relationship with God.

The saint's example is a reminder that "the priest must have an intimate personal union with Christ to cultivate and deepen day after day. Only in this way can he touch the hearts of the people and open them to the merciful love of the Lord," he said.

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Editor's Note: The text of the pope's audience remarks in English will be posted online at: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20090805_en.html.

The text of the pope's audience remarks in Spanish will be posted online at: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20090805_sp.html.

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