Pope Hails Spirit of Christian Unity

SPERO NEWS, Jan. 10 — Pope Benedict XVI said dialogue with the World Alliance of Reformed Churches is healing “tragic divisions” between Christians dating from the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, according to Spero News.

The Pope spoke Jan. 7 after a meeting with a delegation of the alliance led by its president, the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Kirkpatrick said after his meeting with the Pope that he hopes recent steps toward unity are the first of many.

“I pray that our meeting will itself bear fruit in a renewed commitment to work for the unity of all Christians,” the Holy Father remarked. He said after his election in April that promoting Christian unity would be his “primary task.”

Pope Benedict hailed the Catholic-Reformed dialogue, saying that it has “made an important contribution to the demanding work of theological reflection and historical investigation indispensable for surmounting the tragic divisions which arose among Christians in the 16th century.”

Gluttony Deadliest Sin for Italians

REUTERS, Jan. 10 — Most Italians feel guiltier about over-eating than they do about cheating on their partners, according to the findings of a survey that said that factors other than religious faith are more inclined to influence behavior.

Reuters reported that the survey, by psychology magazine Riza Psicosomatica, found that excessive eating and spending topped the list of what people considered the most guilt-inducing vices.

Sexual infidelity was at the bottom of the list of the magazine’s “seven deadly sins,” behind neglecting friends and family, failing at work and not staying in physical shape.

The survey of some 1,000 Italians aged 25-55 found that religion played little part in determining what made people feel guilty, despite Italy’s Catholic traditions. Only 7% of those questioned said religious rules induced guilt. The most powerful drivers of guilty feelings were the judgment of loved ones or the disapproval of society as a whole.

Cardinal and Italian Senator: Christian Values Needed

AGENZIA GIORNALISTICA ITALIA, Jan. 10 — Italian Senate President Marcello Pera åexpressed agreement with Cardinal Camillo Ruini in denouncing “detachment of Christendom that unfortunately has manifested itself in many areas of Europe,” according to the Italian news service.

“There is a need to defend the true values of Christian civilization with determination and with awareness, promoting them without being intimidated or trapped by insincere parlance,” Pera said. According to Pera, there is currently in Europe the risk of “a weakening of identity,” a consequence of a lack of awareness of one’s own roots. “Values such as freedom, tolerance and respect, that are often defined simply as being humanistic, should be correctly called Christian values,” he said.

For Pera, the speech to diplomats given Jan. 9 by Benedict XVI with the passage relating to the real risk of a clash of civilizations represents an important warning in this direction. The Pope said, “We live in this situation, in a Europe that is weakening its defenses, in a Europe that, on the basis of conquests considered typically its own, such as the secular state, the separation of church and state, and the separation of politics from religion, in reality hides its uncertainties, its weaknesses and its fears.”