Vatican City, Aug 1, 2007 / 07:08 am
The Holy Father resumed his weekly catechesis today picking up where he left off in early July when he began vacation. The Pope held up St. Basil, a bishop and fourth-century Doctor of the Church as an example of a man who was open to God and thus able to discern what is true and good.
He was a great figure who “frequently exhorted the people of his day to give to the poor,” the Pope said. “Indeed, if we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, we ought not to own any more than our neighbor owns. We must not offend Christ with inhumanity towards others.”
Drawing further on St. Basil’s example, the Pope said virtue is the only inalienable good which remains both during life and after death and that only by being open to God “can we create a just and fraternal world”. He also referred to St. Basil’s ability to discern what is true and serves our spiritual growth.
At the audience, his first since returning from vacation in the Italy’s mountainous Dolomite region, the Holy Father also took time to greet 200 scouts, present to celebrate 100 years of the scouting movement.
Praising the movement’s contribution to education, he said: “My thoughts go to all of the scouts and guides across the world”, and he expressed his wish that the movement, founded through the “profound intuition” of Lord Baden Powell in 1907, “would continue to bear fruit in human, spiritual and civil education all over the world.”