It is important that a renewed humanism be developed, in which the human identity equates with the category of person. The current crisis, in fact, is also rooted in individualism which obscures people’s relational dimension and leads them to withdraw in their own small world, concerned primarily with satisfying their own needs and desires, with scant consideration for others. Are not speculation in leases, the increasingly difficult integration of young people in the labour market, the loneliness of so many of the elderly, the anonymity which often characterizes life in the neighbourhoods of the city and the at times superficial view of situations of marginalization and poverty a consequence of this mindset?

Faith tells us that the human person is a being called to live in relationships; that the “I” can find itself precisely by approaching a “you” who accepts and loves him or her. This “You” is first and foremost God, the only One who can give the human being unconditional acceptance and infinite love; and it is also others, starting with those who are closest. Rediscovering this relational dimension as a constitutive element of one’s existence is the first step to bringing a more human society into being. Moreover it is also the task of institutions to foster the growth of the awareness that we are part of one reality in which each one, like the parts of the human body, is important to the whole.

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Pope Benedict XVI

Address to Members of the Regional Board of Lazio,

the Municipal Council of Rome and the Administration of the Province of Rome

January 12, 2012