To honor the fiftieth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council and the twentieth anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has announced a “Year of Faith,” starting today (11 October) and ending 24 November 2013, to strengthen the faith of Catholics and draw the world to faith by their example.
In October 2011, Pope Benedict issued an apostolic letter, “Porta Fidei” (“Door of Faith”), to proclaim this year. This apostolic letter continues as follows:
“2. Ever since the start of my ministry as Successor of Peter, I have spoken of the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ. During the homily at the Mass marking the inauguration of my pontificate I said: ‘The Church as a whole and all her Pastors, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert, towards the place of life, towards friendship with the Son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance.’[1] It often happens that Christians are more concerned for the social, cultural and political consequences of their commitment, continuing to think of the faith as a self-evident presupposition for life in society. In reality, not only can this presupposition no longer be taken for granted, but it is often openly denied.[2] Whereas in the past it was possible to recognize a unitary cultural matrix, broadly accepted in its appeal to the content of the faith and the values inspired by it, today this no longer seems to be the case in large swathes of society, because of a profound crisis of faith that has affected many people.”
[1] Homily for the beginning of the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome (24 April 2005):AAS 97 (2005), 710.
[2] Cf. Benedict XVI, Homily at Holy Mass in Lisbon’s “Terreiro do Paço” (11 May 2010):Insegnamenti VI:1 (2010), 673.
To access Pope Benedict’s complete apostolic letter, please visit:
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