Pope meets Rome police officials

(January 21, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI on Friday urged public bodies and authorities who hold positions of power to re-discover their moral roots. “The challenges of our times demand that public entities re-discover their soul and their spiritual and moral roots,” the Pope told Rome's police chief and police officers whom he received in an audience in the Vatican. “The new challenges facing us in the horizon,” the Pope said, “demand that God and man return to meet each other, that society and public entities rediscover their soul, their spiritual and moral roots, in order to give a new consistency to the ethical and juridical values…” For this reason, the Pope explained, “the Christian faith and the Church never fail to offer their contribution in promoting the common good and an authentically human progress.” The Pontiff observed that 'in our world ... the impression is given that moral consensus is lacking and consequently the foundations of social life are not able to function properly.' In such a situation, the Pope said, Christians are specially called to find a new resolve in professing their faith and in doing good, to courageously forge ahead and be close to the people in their joys and sufferings, in their happy days and in their dark moments of earthly existence. “The singular vocation that the city of Rome requires today of you, who are public officials, is to offer a good example of the positive and useful interaction between a healthy lay status and the Christian faith," Pope Benedict added.