Pope Benedict Calls for a Year of Faith

Ever since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Benedict has spoken of the need to rediscover the journey of faith, to respond to the profound crisis of faith that has affected many people.  With his new Apostolic Letter, Porta Fidei, he has announced a Year of Faith when the Church as a whole will reflect on the great treasure of our faith and how we can better profess and share it with the world around us.  It is first a summons to a deeper conversion of heart.  Then, as St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, the love of Christ impels us to evangelize, to proclaim his Gospel to all the peoples of the earth.

The Pope calls us to “arrive at a systematic knowledge of the content of the faith” through study of the Catechism.  We will find that what is presented there is no mere theory but “an encounter with a Person who lives within the Church.  We will also reflect on salvation history through the ages, “marked as it is by the unfathomable mystery of the interweaving of holiness and sin.”

“What the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, and capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end.”