Work in Parliament Audience with His Sanctity the Pope Benedict XVI
Under the scope of the Centrist Democrat International Leaders Meeting CDI Leaders Meeting, held in Rome on the 21st and 22nd of September, Maria da Graça Carvalho attended the reception by His Sanctity the Pope Benedict XVI at his summer residence in Castelgandolfo, in the morning of 22nd. September.
The Holy Father encouraged the committee members to continue in their commitment to improving the quality of human relationships and conditions of life in a manner consonant with Christian principles. "This commitment," said Pope Benedict, "must know no bending or folding, but instead should be lavished with renewed vitality, in view of the continuing and - in some ways - the deepening of the problems we face."
During his speech, the Holy Father encouraged his guests to speak to the ongoing economic and financial crisis with a "prophetic spirit" proper to Christians.
Pope Benedict went on to say, "The political and institutional contributions that you make will not only be required to respond to the urgent needs of a market-logic, but should continue to take as central and essential the pursuit of the common good, rightly understood, as well as the promotion and protection of the inalienable dignity of the human person."
The Pope discussed the importance of defending the traditional family founded on marriage as the basic unit of society and the building-block of community. Noting how Blessed John Paul II had included among the basic human rights, "The right to live in a united family and in a moral environment conducive to the development of his personality." "The family," said Pope Benedict, "is the principle and most incisive locus of the education of the human person." Pope Benedict went on to say, "The family, the original cell of society, is therefore the root that nourishes not only the individual, but also the very basis of social coexistence."
See the speech of Pope Benedict XVI here.