Surprise: Pope takes curia to Brazil for Christmas

As Sandro Magister observes in a post, "Surprise: The Pope Takes the Curia to Brazil" (www.chiesa, December 24, 2007), Benedict XVI, in a surprise move, dedicated almost all of his pre-Christmas address to the Roman curia three days ago to a reflection on the purposes of his trip to Brazil from May 9-14 of this year. Those purposes were to bring the Church back to a stance of mission and to proclaim Jesus to all the peoples of the earth. Including the Muslims. An excerpt, in which the Pope again insisted on this missionary effort, citing the "Doctrinal Note on some aspects of evangelization" released on December 14 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, states:

"The document proposes, in effect, to remind all Christians – in a situation in which it is often no longer clear even to many of the faithful what the reason for evangelization is – that the reception of the Good News in faith itself urges the communication of the salvation received as a gift. [...] Nothing is more beautiful, urgent, and important than freely giving back to men what we have freely received from God! Nothing can exempt or relieve us of this onerous and fascinating commitment. The joy of Christmas, which we can already taste in anticipation, while it fills us with hope, drives us at the same time to proclaim to all the presence of God among us." (emphasis added)

Merry Christmas! Ummm . . . Ever thought about becoming a Catholic?

Pertinaciously yours,
Pertinacious Papist