Universal Call to Holiness

Blessed Are the Persecuted:
Catechesis on Persecution
By the Successor of Peter
ROME, April 23, 2012 – Benedict XVI explains how to respond to the persecutions that are still hitting Christians today. In the same way as the apostles. Without fear, without revenge. With freedom, courage, prayer.

The Apostles' Response to Persecution
Wednesday Catechesis of Pope Benedict VI

Homily to the Papal Household:
Enter into the Mystery of the Trinity,
The Mystery of Love
VATICAN, March 15, 2012 -- In our days, it is particularly relevant to “revisit the Fathers of the Church, not only to understand the content of the Faith in its earliest form, but even more, to rediscover the vital unity between faith as it is professed, and faith as it is lived – between the thing itself, and its enunciation.”

Jesus, Our Contemporary
VATICAN, February 2012 -- An important conference was held in Rome in early Feburary with a provacative title, "Jesus, Our Contemporary." Strikingly, it was part of an interreligious dialogue that brought together not just Catholics, but Protestants, Jews, Muslims, agnostics, nonbelievers. It is part of an ongoing project by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, in support of Pope Benedict's emphasis of the mission of the Church to lead people to God. The question is what God? As Pope Benedict has written to the bishops of the world, "Not just any god, but the God who spoke on Sinai; to that God whose face we recognize in a love which presses 'to the end' – in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen." Read Cardinal Ruini's own description of the conference.

Pope Benedict: Faith Without Love
Would No Longer Be an Authentic Christian Faith
VATICAN, February 19, 2012 -- Pope's homily at mass in Vatican Basilica, with the newly-created cardinals, on the solemnity of the Chair of Saint Peter. "The Church does not exist for her own sake, but she has to point beyond herself, to the realms above..."

How to Win the Culture War
FEATURE ESSAY: To win any war, the three most necessary things to know are: (1) that you are at war, (2) who your enemy is, and (3) what weapons or strategies can defeat him. You cannot win a war (1) if you simply sew peace banners on a battlefield, (2) if you fight civil wars against your allies, or (3) if you use the wrong weapons.

Apostolic Letter of Pope Benedict XVI,
Year of Faith- Porta Fidei