Cardinal Ruini on Pope Benedict's Letter

Great stuff here at Card. Ruini on the Holy Father’s Letter- very good via Father Z

We touch here a raw nerve of Catholicism of the last centuries, fraglie point of suffering of which we must become more and better aware. I refer to the weakening, and at times nearly extingushing of a sense of ecclesial belongning, thus of the joy and of gratitude of being part of the Catholic Church. This isn’t something secondary or minor, which should be rightly give way before out individual liberty and our personal relationship with God, or also before many other affiliations which seem more concrete and more gratifying.

It is necessary, instead, to rebuild within us that conviction of faith which characterized Christianity from its very beginning, according to which the sense of the Church is an essential element of our belonging to Christ. Here are the roots of the reception of the Magisterium of the Church and the exertion to conform our lives to its teachings, but also an attitude which embraces the sphere of feelings and which is translated spontaneously into a love for those who in the faith are fathers and brothers. ["padri e fratelli"] If these sentiments will be lived in us, we will remain far from the bitter taste of finding fault in our presumed adversary, who in reality is our brother, which alas emerge in many words, gestures or silences, as the Pope’s letter, with honesty and suffering, helps us to understand...................


AMEN