Dear Friends,
At this moment I have great confidence because I know, we all know, that the Gospel's Word of truth is the strength of the Church; it is her life. The Gospel purifies and renews, bearing fruit, wherever the community of believers hears it and welcomes God's grace in truth and in love. This is my confidence, this is my joy.
At his final public audience on Wednesday, the man we now refer to as His Holiness Benedict XVI, Pope Emeritus poured out his heart to God, to the Church and to all believers of good faith. His greatest wish has been and remains that each of us comes to know and to love Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, and to give ourselves fully to Him and to one another.
This is a theme we've been drawing out in "Spirit & Life," the theme of charity and truth as the only way to true unity. The Gospel of Life is not merely a program for those committed to the pro-life movement, it is a message of love and truth to all who will hear it. To turn our backs on the Gospel is to turn our backs on one another, and on our true flourishing, as we look for other ways to achieve happiness and peace. Ultimately, these other ways confuse and lead to division. This is why we cannot be surprised at the state of our nation and a world that has not only not heard the Gospel in many regions, but which is led by those who are not openly hostile to the Gospel, and who believe that unity and peace are simply a matter of technology and policy.
This is also how people with the best intentions available to them come to seek ways to alleviate poverty and war through means that perpetuate poverty and replace outright war with silent mass destruction. The idea that a person is just a rational animal with no end beyond this world will lead people and organizations to act in ways that may seem, even to Catholics, to be a form of charity. But they also end up seeing the poor as obstacles to their own flourishing, hence the growing campaign to eliminate children, and even to hasten the death of those who are most vulnerable at the end of life. On this view, every solution is technical, and if people disagree, they must be forced to comply for their own good. Hence we arrive at where we are today even in the "free" United States, where authentic faith is now seen as a threat to the government, and where people are increasingly being forced to participate in gravely immoral practices.
Charity in truth
In the last eight years we have been witnesses to one of the great teaching pontificates in history. Since Benedict's shocking announcement a few weeks ago, writers have been cataloging and analyzing Benedict's papacy, often clearly, though some have also also at times, unfortunately, brought their agendas. His detractors see only scandal, what they consider inconsistencies, or more likely, stubborn, antiquated consistency. They flail at the Church with their politics and their skewed notions of where the "real" Church is headed. This is a gospel of the self, which of course ultimately leads to separation from Christ.
Yet the Holy Father, holding firmly to both charity and truth, indeed to the Cross, never sunk to this level, but continued to invite people to know not some savior of their own preference, but the only true Savior, the One who died for their sins. He had very few intellectual equals in this age, but he spoke simply, even spontaneously, with incredible depth, patience and love.
As we've said several times, borrowing from Benedict and others, charity without truth isn't really charity, it is mere niceness, which is not a virtue. And with all the problems remaining in the Church, some of which have popped up again in a dramatic way after Benedict's announcement, we must also keep in mind that truth without charity can easily become abuse, and even untruth, as important facts and distinctions are deemed irrelevant to a line of criticism.
We must not let ourselves get bogged down in controversies and speculation. We have every right to demand the truth, but even in this we must do so with love. This is difficult, but it is supposed to be. It hurts to correct those we love. If it becomes easy, we risk letting go of the Cross.
We have to do our best to avoid all of these errors, which is why Benedict's example is so essential. He was careful and deliberate. He was patient and very persistent. He was both kind and truthful. Even in renouncing the office of the papacy, as he said, he is not letting go of the Cross. This "simple pilgrim" remains united with us in prayer as he retires to Castel Gandolfo and later to his residence in the Vatican. He has pledged his obedience to the next pope, and we must do the same.
As Benedict said on Wednesday, the Church doesn't belong to any one of us, it belongs to Jesus Christ, so we put our trust in Him. He also said beautifully in another recent address, "Indeed, love and truth are two names of the same reality, two names of God." Let's proceed as if we truly believe this, with faith and trust.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Father Shenan J. Boquet
President, Human Life International
