There is too much fighting among Catholics in the Church today, according to Pope Benedict XVI.

And, the Pope says, the destructive infighting stems from the tendency to abuse the freedom granted to Christians, a temptation that St. Paul warned against in his letter to the Galatians.

The Holy Father comments on the matter at the conclusion of his letter about the controversy generated by his lifting of the excommunications of four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X.

The official text of the letter will not be released by the Vatican until tomorrow, but it has been reported on today by a number of European media sources, as noted in a CNS article posted earlier today on the Daily Blog.

These remarks from the conclusion of Benedict’s letter were translated by Register correspondent Edward Pentin from an unofficial text published in German:

States the Pope, “Dear brethren, in the days in which I had it in mind to write this letter, I was found by chance to be in a seminary in the center of Rome and had to comment on Gal 5, 13-15. I was surprised how directly relevant it was to what we are now discussing: ‘You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.’”

The Holy Father adds, “I was always inclined to view this sentence as one of rhetorical excess…In some respects it may also be that. But unfortunately, there is ‘biting and devouring’ even today in the Church as an expression of a poorly understood freedom. Is it surprising that we are not better than the Galatians? That we are, at least, threatened by the same temptations? The fact that we always have to learn this freedom anew? And that we must always re-learn the first priority: to love? On the day I was to speak at the seminary in Rome, it was the feast of Our Lady of Confidence. In fact Mary teaches us confidence. She leads us to the Son, which we all expect. He will guide us — even in turbulent times…The Lord preserve us all and lead us on the path of peace. This is a wish that rises spontaneously from my heart, especially now at the beginning of Lent, a liturgical period of time when inner purification is particularly beneficial, and invites us all to look towards the glowing goal of Easter with new hope.”