Dear children, youth and adults of Catholic Action
E 'gives me great pleasure to welcome you here today in St. Peter's Square, where in the past few times your praiseworthy Association met with the Successor of Peter. Thank you for your visit. I greet with affection all of you who have come from all over Italy, as well as members of the International Forum that come from forty countries worldwide. In particular Greeting the National President, Professor Luigi Alici, whom I thank for hearing expressions addressed to me, Assistant General, Monsignor Domenico Sigalini, and national authorities and diocesan. I also thank you for the special gift that I have wanted to offer through your representatives and witnesses your solidarity towards the needy. I express deep gratitude to Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian Episcopal Conference, which celebrated the Mass for you.
You came to Rome in spiritual company of your many saints, blessed, venerable and servants of God, men and women, youth and children, educators, and chaplains, rich in Christian virtues, grew up in the ranks of Catholic Action, which these days takes 140 years to life. The magnificent corona of the faces symbolically embrace Piazza San Pietro is a tangible sign of holiness full of light and love. These witnesses, who followed Jesus with all their forces, who have labored for the Church and the Kingdom of God, are your most authentic identity card. Is it not possible, even today, for you guys, for you young people and adults, make your life a witness of communion with the Lord, that it becomes a masterpiece of holiness? It is not just that the purpose of your association? This will certainly be possible if Catholic Action will continue to remain faithful to their roots of faith, nourished by full adherence to the Word of God, an unconditional love for the Church, by a vigilant participation in civic life and a constant commitment to training. Dear friends, respond generously to this call to holiness, according to the forms most appropriate for your condition lay! Continue to be inspired by the three great rendition that my venerable Predecessor, the Servant of God John Paul II has entrusted to Loreto in 2004: contemplation, communion and mission.
Catholic Action began as a particular association of lay faithful marked by a special and direct relationship with the Pope, and soon became a valuable form of "collaboration of the laity in the hierarchical" recommended "strongly" from the Second Vatican Council, which identifies the essential "characteristic features" (cf. Decree Apostolicam actuositatem, 20). This vocation is still valid today. I encourage you to continue your generosity in service to the Church. Assuming the general apostolic purpose, in a spirit of intimate union with the Successor of Peter and of active co-responsibility with Pastors, you incarnate a fruitful ministry in balance between the universal Church and local Church, which calls you to offer a constant and invaluable contribution to the community.
This broad church, which identifies your charisma associations, is not the sign of an uncertain or outdated, but rather a great responsibility attaches to your vocation lay: enlightened and sustained by the action of the Holy Spirit and always rooted in the way of Church, you are challenged to courageously seek ever new synthesis between the announcement of Christ's salvation to people of our time and promote the integral good of the person and the whole human family.
In my speech at the Fourth National Congress, held in Verona in October 2006, I recognized that the Church in Italy is very much alive, which maintains a presence in the midst of people of every age and condition. The Christian traditions are often still rooted and continue to produce fruit, while it is in a great effort of evangelization and catechesis, addressed particularly to the younger generations, but now even more so to families "(Teachings of Pope Benedict XVI, vol. II / 2, 2006, pp. 468-469). How can we not see this widespread presence also a discreet but tangible Catholic Action? The beloved Italian nation, in fact, he could always count on men and women formed in your association willing to selflessly serve the cause of the common good, for building a just ordering of society and the state. Know, then, always live up to your baptism, who has dipped into the death and resurrection of Jesus for the salvation of every man you meet and a world thirsting for peace and truth. Be "worthy of the Gospel" and "ministers of Christian wisdom for a more humane world": this provides the theme of your Assembly and that 's commitment to assume that today in front of the Italian Church, represented here by you, your priests assistants , the bishops and their President.
In a missionary Church, placed before an educational emergency such as that found Today in Italy, you who love and serve you be untiring preachers and teachers prepared and generous in a Church called a very demanding test of loyalty and attempted to adapt, be courageous witnesses and prophets of evangelical radicalism, in a Church daily compared with the relativistic mindset, hedonistic, consumerist know making more room for rationality in the sign of a faith friend of intelligence, both as part of a widespread and popular culture, and in the search of a more elaborate and reflected; in a Church that calls the heroism of sanctity, respond without fear, always trusting in God's mercy
Dear friends of the Italian Catholic, the path in front of you are not alone: \u200b\u200byou accompany your saints. Other figures still had significant roles in your Association: I think for example, among others, to Giuseppe Toniolo and a Armida Barelli. Stimulated by these examples of Christian living, you have embarked on a remarkable year, a year that we could qualify for holiness, which are eager to translate in real life the teachings of the Gospel. I encourage you in this regard. Intensified prayer, rescheduled, your conduct on the eternal values \u200b\u200bof the Gospel, inspired by the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church. The Pope follows you with a constant remember the Lord, I cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing to you present here and the entire Association.
From Wednesday, May 28 Miano Franco is the new national president of the Italian Catholic. "The AC wants to be increasingly available in its 'service to the Church', as requested by Pope Benedict XVI on May 4 in St. Peter's Square, answering the 'call to holiness' in forms that are appropriate to the 'lay vocation,'" writes Frank in his first message to the association. Find out who is the new president (Link to biography), the first and statements by the outgoing president and assistant general Luigi Alici, Mgr. Domenico Sigalini below and write your greetings to our new president. 
