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                               VIS-Press releases

MASS FOR DECEASED CARDINALS AND BISHOPS

VATICAN CITY, 4 NOV 2010 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican Basilica the Pope
presided at the traditional November Mass for the souls of cardinals and
bishops who died over the course of the year. Members of the College of
Cardinals concelebrated with the Holy Father.

At the beginning of his homily, Benedict XVI recalled the names of the
cardinals who passed away during the last twelve months - Peter Seiichi
Shirayanagi, Cahal Brendan Daly, Armand Gaetan Razafindratandra, Tomas Spidlik
S.J., Paul Augustin Mayer O.S.B. and Luigi Poggi - expressing his affection for
them and for all the other archbishops and bishops who died this year.

"We wish to remember these our venerable brothers as zealous pastors whose
ministry was always inscribed in that eschatological horizon, which encourages
hope in the unblemished happiness we have been promised after this life, as
witnesses of the Gospel, ... as Christians, animated by profound faith and by
the living desire to conform ourselves to Jesus".

The Holy Father then went on to observe that the term "eternal
life" designates
"the divine gift granted to humankind; i.e., communion with God in this world
and its fullness in the next. Eternal life was opened to us by Christ's Paschal
Mystery and faith is the way to attain it". Referring then to Jesus'
conversation with Nicodemus, as recounted in today's Gospel, the Pope explained
how in this exchange Jesus "reveals the most profound meaning of the event of
salvation: ... The Son of man must be raised on the wood of the cross so that
those who believe in Him might have life. ... The cross, paradoxically, from
being a sign of condemnation, death and failure, becomes a sign of redemption,
life and victory in which, with the eyes of faith, we can see the fruits of
salvation".

The salvific significance of the cross "consists in the immense love of God and
in the gift of His only-begotten Son. ... The verbs 'to love' and 'to give'
indicate a decisive and definitive action expressing the radical way in which
God approached man in love, even unto the total giving of self, ... lowering
Himself into the abyss of our utter abandonment, and crossing the portal of
death. The object and beneficiary of divine Love is the world, in other words
humanity. This completely cancels the idea of a distant God divorced from man's
journey, and reveals His true face". God "loves without measure.
He does not
show His omnipotence in punishment, but in mercy and forgiveness".

The Holy Father concluded his homily: "Jesus came to save, not to condemn. With
the sacrifice of the cross, He revealed the face of God's love. And it is
precisely because of our faith in the superabundant love Jesus Christ gave us
that we know that even the smallest effort of love is greater that the most
powerful destructive force and can transform the world. And because of this
same faith we have a 'sure hope': in eternal live and in the resurrection of
the flesh".
HML/VIS 20101104 (520)

SUMMARY

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