APOSTOLIC LETTER "PORTA FIDEI"
OF THE SUPREME PONTIFF
BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE YEAR OF FAITH
1. The “door of faith” (Acts 14:27) is
always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with God and offering
entry into his Church. It is possible to cross that threshold when the word of
God is proclaimed and the heart allows itself to be shaped by transforming
grace. To enter through that door is to set out on a journey that lasts a
lifetime. It begins with baptism (cf. Rom 6:4), through which we can
address God as Father, and it ends with the passage through death to eternal
life, fruit of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, whose will it was, by the
gift of the Holy Spirit, to draw those who believe in him into his own glory
(cf. Jn 17:22). To profess faith in the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy
Spirit – is to believe in one God who is Love (cf. 1 Jn 4:8): the Father,
who in the fullness of time sent his Son for our salvation; Jesus Christ, who in
the mystery of his death and resurrection redeemed the world; the Holy Spirit,
who leads the Church across the centuries as we await the Lord’s glorious
return.
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.” 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.
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.
3. We cannot accept that salt should become
tasteless or the light be kept hidden (cf. Mt 5:13-16). The people of
today can still experience the need to go to the well, like the Samaritan woman,
in order to hear Jesus, who invites us to believe in him and to draw upon the
source of living water welling up within him (cf. Jn 4:14). We must
rediscover a taste for feeding ourselves on the word of God, faithfully handed
down by the Church, and on the bread of life, offered as sustenance for his
disciples (cf. Jn 6:51). Indeed, the teaching of Jesus still resounds in
our day with the same power: “Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for
the food which endures to eternal life” (Jn 6:27). The question posed by
his listeners is the same that we ask today: “What must we do, to be doing the
works of God?” (Jn 6:28). We know Jesus’ reply: “This is the work of
God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (Jn 6:29). Belief in
Jesus Christ, then, is the way to arrive definitively at salvation.
4. In the light of all this, I have decided to
announce a Year of Faith. It will begin on 11 October 2012, the fiftieth
anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, and it will end on the
Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King, on 24 November 2013. The
starting date of 11 October 2012 also marks the twentieth anniversary of the
publication of the
Catechism of the Catholic Church, a text promulgated
by my Predecessor, Blessed John Paul II,
with a view to illustrating for all the faithful the power and beauty of the
faith. This document, an authentic fruit of the Second Vatican Council, was
requested by the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in 1985 as an instrument at the
service of catechesis
and it was
produced in collaboration with all the bishops of the Catholic Church.
Moreover, the theme of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops that I have
convoked for October 2012 is
“The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the
Christian Faith”. This will be a good opportunity to usher the whole Church
into a time of particular reflection and rediscovery of the faith. It is not
the first time that the Church has been called to celebrate a Year of Faith. My
venerable Predecessor the Servant of God Paul VI announced one in 1967, to
commemorate the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul on the 19
centenary of their supreme act of witness. He thought of it as a solemn moment
for the whole Church to make
“an authentic and sincere profession of the same
faith”; moreover, he wanted this to be confirmed in a way that was
“individual
and collective, free and conscious, inward and outward, humble and frank”.
He thought that in this way the whole Church could reappropriate
“exact
knowledge of the faith, so as to reinvigorate it, purify it, confirm it, and
confess it”.
The great upheavals
of that year made even more evident the need for a celebration of this kind. It
concluded with the
Credo of the People of God,
intended to show how much the essential content that for centuries has formed
the heritage of all believers needs to be confirmed, understood and explored
ever anew, so as to bear consistent witness in historical circumstances very
different from those of the past.
5. In some respects, my venerable predecessor saw
this Year as a
“consequence and a necessity of the postconciliar period”,
fully conscious of the grave difficulties of the time, especially with regard to
the profession of the true faith and its correct interpretation. It seemed to
me that timing the launch of the Year of Faith to coincide with the fiftieth
anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council would provide a good
opportunity to help people understand that the texts bequeathed by the Council
Fathers, in the words of Blessed John Paul II, “
have lost nothing of their
value or brilliance. They need to be read correctly, to be widely known and
taken to heart as important and normative texts of the Magisterium, within the
Church's Tradition ... I feel more than ever in duty bound to point to the
Council as
the great grace bestowed on the Church in the twentieth century:
there we find a sure compass by which to take our bearings in the century
now beginning.”
I would also like
to emphasize strongly what I had occasion to say concerning the Council a few
months after my election as Successor of Peter:
“if we interpret and implement
it guided by a right hermeneutic, it can be and can become increasingly powerful
for the ever necessary renewal of the Church.”
6. The renewal of the Church is also achieved
through the witness offered by the lives of believers: by their very existence
in the world, Christians are called to radiate the word of truth that the Lord
Jesus has left us. The Council itself, in the Dogmatic Constitution
Lumen
Gentium, said this: While
“Christ, ‘holy, innocent and undefiled’ (Heb
7:26) knew nothing of sin (cf. 2 Cor 5:21), but came only to expiate the
sins of the people (cf. Heb 2:17)... the Church ... clasping sinners to
its bosom, at once holy and always in need of purification, follows constantly
the path of penance and renewal. The Church, ‘like a stranger in a foreign
land, presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of
God’, announcing the cross and death of the Lord until he comes (cf. 1 Cor
11:26). But by the power of the risen Lord it is given strength to
overcome, in patience and in love, its sorrow and its difficulties, both those
that are from within and those that are from without, so that it may reveal in
the world, faithfully, although with shadows, the mystery of its Lord until, in
the end, it shall be manifested in full light.”
The Year of Faith, from this perspective, is a summons to an authentic and
renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Saviour of the world. In the mystery of
his death and resurrection, God has revealed in its fullness the Love that saves
and calls us to conversion of life through the forgiveness of sins (cf. Acts
5:31). For Saint Paul, this Love ushers us into a new life: “We were buried ...
with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom
6:4). Through faith, this new life shapes the whole of human existence
according to the radical new reality of the resurrection. To the extent that he
freely cooperates, man’s thoughts and affections, mentality and conduct are
slowly purified and transformed, on a journey that is never completely finished
in this life. “Faith working through love” (Gal 5:6) becomes a new
criterion of understanding and action that changes the whole of man’s life (cf.
Rom 12:2; Col 3:9-10; Eph 4:20-29; 2 Cor 5:17).
7. “
Caritas Christi urget nos” (
2 Cor
5:14): it is the love of Christ that fills our hearts and impels us to
evangelize. Today as in the past, he sends us through the highways of the world
to proclaim his Gospel to all the peoples of the earth (cf.
Mt 28:19).
Through his love, Jesus Christ attracts to himself the people of every
generation: in every age he convokes the Church, entrusting her with the
proclamation of the Gospel by a mandate that is ever new. Today too, there is a
need for stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelization in order to
rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith.
In rediscovering his love day by day, the missionary commitment of believers
attains force and vigour that can never fade away. Faith grows when it is lived
as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience
of grace and joy. It makes us fruitful, because it expands our hearts in hope
and enables us to bear life-giving witness: indeed, it opens the hearts and
minds of those who listen to respond to the Lord’s invitation to adhere to his
word and become his disciples. Believers, so Saint Augustine tells us,
“strengthen themselves by believing”.
The saintly Bishop of Hippo had good reason to express himself in this way. As
we know, his life was a continual search for the beauty of the faith until such
time as his heart would find rest in God.
His extensive writings, in which he explains the importance of believing and the
truth of the faith, continue even now to form a heritage of incomparable riches,
and they still help many people in search of God to find the right path towards
the
“door of faith”.
Only through believing, then, does faith grow and become stronger; there is no
other possibility for possessing certitude with regard to one’s life apart from
self-abandonment, in a continuous crescendo, into the hands of a love that seems
to grow constantly because it has its origin in God.
8. On this happy occasion, I wish to invite my
brother bishops from all over the world to join the Successor of Peter, during
this time of spiritual grace that the Lord offers us, in recalling the precious
gift of faith. We want to celebrate this Year in a worthy and fruitful manner.
Reflection on the faith will have to be intensified, so as to help all believers
in Christ to acquire a more conscious and vigorous adherence to the Gospel,
especially at a time of profound change such as humanity is currently
experiencing. We will have the opportunity to profess our faith in the Risen
Lord in our cathedrals and in the churches of the whole world; in our homes and
among our families, so that everyone may feel a strong need to know better and
to transmit to future generations the faith of all times. Religious communities
as well as parish communities, and all ecclesial bodies old and new, are to find
a way, during this Year, to make a public profession of the Credo.
9. We want this Year to arouse in every believer
the aspiration to
profess the faith in fullness and with renewed
conviction, with confidence and hope. It will also be a good opportunity to
intensify the
celebration of the faith in the liturgy, especially in the
Eucharist, which is
“the summit towards which the activity of the Church
is directed; ... and also the source from which all its power flows.” At the same time, we make it our prayer that believers’
witness of life
may grow in credibility. To rediscover the content of the faith that is
professed, celebrated, lived and prayed,
and to reflect on the act of faith, is a task that every believer must make his
own, especially in the course of this Year.
Not without reason, Christians in the early centuries were required to learn the
creed from memory. It served them as a daily prayer not to forget the
commitment they had undertaken in baptism. With words rich in meaning, Saint
Augustine speaks of this in a homily on the redditio symboli, the handing
over of the creed: “the symbol of the holy mystery that you have all received
together and that today you have recited one by one, are the words on which the
faith of Mother Church is firmly built above the stable foundation that is
Christ the Lord. You have received it and recited it, but in your minds and
hearts you must keep it ever present, you must repeat it in your beds, recall it
in the public squares and not forget it during meals: even when your body is
asleep, you must watch over it with your hearts.”
10. At this point I would like to sketch a
path intended to help us understand more profoundly not only the content of the
faith, but also the act by which we choose to entrust ourselves fully to God, in
complete freedom. In fact, there exists a profound unity between the act by
which we believe and the content to which we give our assent. Saint Paul helps
us to enter into this reality when he writes: “Man believes with his heart and
so is justified, and he confesses with his lips and so is saved” (Rom
10:10). The heart indicates that the first act by which one comes to faith is
God’s gift and the action of grace which acts and transforms the person deep
within.
The example of Lydia is particularly eloquent in this regard. Saint Luke
recounts that, while he was at Philippi, Paul went on the Sabbath to proclaim
the Gospel to some women; among them was Lydia and “the Lord opened her heart to
give heed to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14). There is an important
meaning contained within this expression. Saint Luke teaches that knowing the
content to be believed is not sufficient unless the heart, the authentic sacred
space within the person, is opened by grace that allows the eyes to see below
the surface and to understand that what has been proclaimed is the word of God.
Confessing with the lips indicates in turn that faith implies public
testimony and commitment. A Christian may never think of belief as a private
act. Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with him. This
“standing with him” points towards an understanding of the reasons for
believing. Faith, precisely because it is a free act, also demands social
responsibility for what one believes. The Church on the day of Pentecost
demonstrates with utter clarity this public dimension of believing and
proclaiming one’s faith fearlessly to every person. It is the gift of the Holy
Spirit that makes us fit for mission and strengthens our witness, making it
frank and courageous.
Profession of faith is an act both personal and communitarian. It is the
Church that is the primary subject of faith. In the faith of the Christian
community, each individual receives baptism, an effective sign of entry into the
people of believers in order to obtain salvation. As we read in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“ ‘I believe’ is the faith of the Church
professed personally by each believer, principally during baptism. ‘We believe’
is the faith of the Church confessed by the bishops assembled in council or more
generally by the liturgical assembly of believers. ‘I believe’ is also the
Church, our mother, responding to God by faith as she teaches us to say both ‘I
believe’ and ‘we believe’.”
Evidently, knowledge of the content of faith is essential for giving one’s
own assent, that is to say for adhering fully with intellect and will to
what the Church proposes. Knowledge of faith opens a door into the fullness of
the saving mystery revealed by God. The giving of assent implies that, when we
believe, we freely accept the whole mystery of faith, because the guarantor of
its truth is God who reveals himself and allows us to know his mystery of love.
On the other hand, we must not forget that in our cultural context, very many
people, while not claiming to have the gift of faith, are nevertheless sincerely
searching for the ultimate meaning and definitive truth of their lives and of
the world. This search is an authentic “preamble” to the faith, because it
guides people onto the path that leads to the mystery of God. Human reason, in
fact, bears within itself a demand for
“what is perennially valid and lasting”.
This demand constitutes a permanent summons, indelibly written into the human
heart, to set out to find the One whom we would not be seeking had he not
already set out to meet us.
To
this encounter, faith invites us and it opens us in fullness.
11. In order to arrive at a systematic knowledge of the content of the
faith, all can find in the
Catechism of the Catholic Church a precious
and indispensable tool. It is one of the most important fruits of the
Second
Vatican Council. In the Apostolic Constitution
Fidei Depositum, signed,
not by accident, on the thirtieth anniversary of the opening of the Second
Vatican Council, Blessed John Paul II wrote:
“this catechism will make a very
important contribution to that work of renewing the whole life of the Church ...
I declare it to be a valid and legitimate instrument for ecclesial communion and
a sure norm for teaching the faith.”
It is in this sense that that the Year of Faith will have to see a concerted
effort to rediscover and study the fundamental content of the faith that
receives its systematic and organic synthesis in the Catechism of the
Catholic Church. Here, in fact, we see the wealth of teaching that the
Church has received, safeguarded and proposed in her two thousand years of
history. From Sacred Scripture to the Fathers of the Church, from theological
masters to the saints across the centuries, the Catechism provides a
permanent record of the many ways in which the Church has meditated on the faith
and made progress in doctrine so as to offer certitude to believers in their
lives of faith.
In its very structure, the Catechism of the Catholic Church follows
the development of the faith right up to the great themes of daily life. On
page after page, we find that what is presented here is no theory, but an
encounter with a Person who lives within the Church. The profession of faith is
followed by an account of sacramental life, in which Christ is present,
operative and continues to build his Church. Without the liturgy and the
sacraments, the profession of faith would lack efficacy, because it would lack
the grace which supports Christian witness. By the same criterion, the teaching
of the Catechism on the moral life acquires its full meaning if placed in
relationship with faith, liturgy and prayer.
12. In this Year, then, the Catechism of the Catholic Church will
serve as a tool providing real support for the faith, especially for those
concerned with the formation of Christians, so crucial in our cultural context.
To this end, I have invited the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, by
agreement with the competent Dicasteries of the Holy See, to draw up a Note,
providing the Church and individual believers with some guidelines on how to
live this Year of Faith in the most effective and appropriate ways, at the
service of belief and evangelization.
To a greater extent than in the past, faith is now being subjected to a series
of questions arising from a changed mentality which, especially today, limits
the field of rational certainties to that of scientific and technological
discoveries. Nevertheless, the Church has never been afraid of demonstrating
that there cannot be any conflict between faith and genuine science, because
both, albeit via different routes, tend towards the truth.
13. One thing that will be of decisive importance in this Year is retracing
the history of our faith, marked as it is by the unfathomable mystery of the
interweaving of holiness and sin. While the former highlights the great
contribution that men and women have made to the growth and development of the
community through the witness of their lives, the latter must provoke in each
person a sincere and continuing work of conversion in order to experience the
mercy of the Father which is held out to everyone.
During this time we will need to keep our gaze fixed upon Jesus Christ, the
“pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Heb 12:2): in him, all the anguish
and all the longing of the human heart finds fulfillment. The joy of love, the
answer to the drama of suffering and pain, the power of forgiveness in the face
of an offense received and the victory of life over the emptiness of death: all
this finds fulfillment in the mystery of his Incarnation, in his becoming man, in
his sharing our human weakness so as to transform it by the power of his
resurrection. In him who died and rose again for our salvation, the examples of
faith that have marked these two thousand years of our salvation history are
brought into the fullness of light.
By faith, Mary accepted the Angel’s word and believed the message that she was
to become the Mother of God in the obedience of her devotion (cf. Lk
1:38). Visiting Elizabeth, she raised her hymn of praise to the Most High for
the marvels he worked in those who trust him (cf. Lk 1:46-55). With joy
and trepidation she gave birth to her only son, keeping her virginity intact
(cf. Lk 2:6-7). Trusting in Joseph, her husband, she took Jesus to Egypt
to save him from Herod’s persecution (cf. Mt 2:13-15). With the same
faith, she followed the Lord in his preaching and remained with him all the way
to Golgotha (cf. Jn 19:25-27). By faith, Mary tasted the fruits of
Jesus’ resurrection, and treasuring every memory in her heart (cf. Lk
2:19, 51), she passed them on to the Twelve assembled with her in the Upper Room
to receive the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14; 2:1-4).
By faith, the Apostles left everything to follow their Master (cf. Mk
10:28). They believed the words with which he proclaimed the Kingdom of God
present and fulfilled in his person (cf. Lk 11:20). They lived in
communion of life with Jesus who instructed them with his teaching, leaving them
a new rule of life, by which they would be recognized as his disciples after his
death (cf. Jn 13:34-35). By faith, they went out to the whole world,
following the command to bring the Gospel to all creation (cf. Mk 16:15)
and they fearlessly proclaimed to all the joy of the resurrection, of which they
were faithful witnesses.
By faith, the disciples formed the first community, gathered around the teaching
of the Apostles, in prayer, in celebration of the Eucharist, holding their
possessions in common so as to meet the needs of the brethren (cf. Acts
2:42-47).
By faith, the martyrs gave their lives, bearing witness to the truth of the
Gospel that had transformed them and made them capable of attaining to the
greatest gift of love: the forgiveness of their persecutors.
By faith, men and women have consecrated their lives to Christ, leaving all
things behind so as to live obedience, poverty and chastity with Gospel
simplicity, concrete signs of waiting for the Lord who comes without delay. By
faith, countless Christians have promoted action for justice so as to put into
practice the word of the Lord, who came to proclaim deliverance from oppression
and a year of favour for all (cf. Lk 4:18-19).
By faith, across the centuries, men and women of all ages, whose names are
written in the Book of Life (cf. Rev 7:9, 13:8), have confessed the
beauty of following the Lord Jesus wherever they were called to bear witness to
the fact that they were Christian: in the family, in the workplace, in public
life, in the exercise of the charisms and ministries to which they were called.
By faith, we too live: by the living recognition of the Lord Jesus, present in
our lives and in our history.
14. The Year of Faith will also be a good opportunity to intensify the witness
of charity. As Saint Paul reminds us: “So faith, hope, love abide, these three;
but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13). With even stronger
words – which have always placed Christians under obligation – Saint James said:
“What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works?
Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily
food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled’, without
giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by
itself, if it has no works, is dead. But some one will say, ‘You have faith and
I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will
show you my faith” (Jas 2:14-18).
Faith without charity bears no fruit, while charity without faith would be a
sentiment constantly at the mercy of doubt. Faith and charity each require the
other, in such a way that each allows the other to set out along its respective
path. Indeed, many Christians dedicate their lives with love to those who are
lonely, marginalized or excluded, as to those who are the first with a claim on
our attention and the most important for us to support, because it is in them
that the reflection of Christ’s own face is seen. Through faith, we can
recognize the face of the risen Lord in those who ask for our love. “As you did
it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt
25:40). These words are a warning that must not be forgotten and a perennial
invitation to return the love by which he takes care of us. It is faith that
enables us to recognize Christ and it is his love that impels us to assist him
whenever he becomes our neighbour along the journey of life. Supported by
faith, let us look with hope at our commitment in the world, as we await “new
heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:13; cf.
Rev 21:1).
15. Having reached the end of his life,
Saint Paul asks his disciple Timothy to “aim at faith” (2 Tim 2:22) with
the same constancy as when he was a boy (cf. 2 Tim 3:15). We hear this
invitation directed to each of us, that none of us grow lazy in the faith. It
is the lifelong companion that makes it possible to perceive, ever anew, the
marvels that God works for us. Intent on gathering the signs of the times in
the present of history, faith commits every one of us to become a living sign of
the presence of the Risen Lord in the world. 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.
“That the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph” (2 Th 3:1): may this
Year of Faith make our relationship with Christ the Lord increasingly firm,
since only in him is there the certitude for looking to the future and the
guarantee of an authentic and lasting love. The words of Saint Peter shed one
final ray of light on faith: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while
you may have to suffer various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith,
more precious than gold which though perishable is tested by fire, may redound
to praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Without
having seen him you love him; though you do not now see him you believe in him
and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy. As the outcome of your faith you
obtain the salvation of your souls” (1 Pet 1:6-9).
The life of
Christians knows the experience of joy as well as the experience of suffering.
How many of the saints have lived in solitude! How many believers, even in our
own day, are tested by God’s silence when they would rather hear his consoling
voice! The trials of life, while helping us to understand the mystery of the
Cross and to participate in the sufferings of Christ (cf. Col 1:24), are
a prelude to the joy and hope to which faith leads: “when I am weak, then I am
strong” (2 Cor 12:10). We believe with firm certitude that the Lord
Jesus has conquered evil and death. With this sure confidence we entrust
ourselves to him: he, present in our midst, overcomes the power of the evil one
(cf. Lk 11:20); and the Church, the visible community of his mercy,
abides in him as a sign of definitive reconciliation with the Father.
Let us entrust this time of grace to the Mother of God, proclaimed “blessed
because she believed” (Lk 1:45).
Given in Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on 11 October in the year 2011, the seventh of
my Pontificate.
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
