“The Church does not engage in proselytism. Instead, she grows by “attraction”: just as Christ “draws all to himself” by the power of his love, culminating in the sacrifice of the Cross, so the Church fulfils her mission to the extent that, in union with Christ, she accomplishes every one of her works in spiritual and practical imitation of the love of her Lord.”
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Pope Benedict XVI
Holy Mass for the Inauguration of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean
May 13th, 2007
Pedro Gabriel, MD, is a Catholic layman and physician, born and residing in Portugal. He is a medical oncologist, currently employed in a Portuguese public hospital. A published writer of Catholic novels with a Tolkienite flavor, he is also a parish reader and a former catechist. He seeks to better understand the relationship of God and Man by putting the lens on the frailty of the human condition, be it physical and spiritual. He also wishes to provide a fresh perspective of current Church and World affairs from the point of view of a small western European country, highly secularized but also highly Catholic by tradition.
Maybe 2007, not 2017!!!!
You’re right. Thanks 🙂 I already corrected it
Since you are quoting Pope Benedict during a Mass he said in May 2017, should you have said Pope Emeritus Benedict? Or was he talking as pope on that particular occasion? It’s not very important, but it would be a little clearer in (at least) my mind.
D’oh! It’s 2007, not 2017! My bad 😛
Beautiful.
Like any Catholic who’s been exposed to the Evangelical Christians proselytism it is wonderful to read the comments of Pope Benedict to explains things the way they are. So many have had family and friends proselytize the way into fundamentalist born-again Christian groups typing told all sorts of happy things that are doctrinally unsound.
As well as correcting the date, I should have said that initially I thought that this was a quote from Pope Francis, as he often rails against proselytism and encourages attraction – great to see such continuity between these two Popes.
Stick around. Tomorrow the game continues 😉
I thought this was a quote from Pope Francis too! I have loved both Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and Pope Francis but now I am starting to wonder I thought the two were so different from each other.