The Archbishop of Valencia confirmed that the pope will travel to the WMF (08-12-2005)

Valencia - The Archbishop of Valencia, Monsignor Agustín García-Gasco, has confirmed today that Pope Benedict XVI will travel to Valencia in July and he will stay there for "at least two days, Saturday the 8th and Sunday the 9th", to preside over the final acts of the 5th World Meeting of the Families (WMF).

This words at the end of the solemn mass at the Cathedral of Valencia at midday today, have been received with an ovation by over one thousand five hundred people who filled the temple. "Although it will still take a while to officially make it public, I can confirm this great joy to you now", the prelate pointed out.

"I ask you to pray so that the WMF brings fruit for the faith in the families in the whole world", said Monsignor García-Gasco, who was received in public at theVatican last Saturday by Benedict XVI, who was informed of the preparations for the WMF.

On the other hand, during his sermon at the mass, the Archbishop of Valencia also referred to the 40th anniversary today of the conclusion of the II Vatican Council by Pope Paul VI. After evoking that "they were years of great vitality for the Church", the prelate stressed that "also today, 40 years later, we bear the desires, joys and hopes in our heart that the Council aroused in the heart of the Christians".

Monsignor García-Gasco has acknowledged that "assuming the Council, its comparison and fulfillment in life and in the Church's mission has been and is a complex, and hard job" and he has also stressed that "the renewal has been profound and, frequently a certain sensation of dismay and sadness has appeared". However, "the problems were there before". The difficulties "have not arisen from the Council, but from the historical circumstances that we we lived and from the mistakes in their application". In this way, he insisted that "we are facing a situation of intense secularization and weakening of the Christian sense in the Church and in society, but those problems did not arise from the Council itself".

According to the prelate, "the battle against everything Christian has become particularly intense during the 20th century and it is still present nowadays", and he has stressed that "precisely the conciliar renewal helps us to have the keys to face up to this historic situation". In this way, the archbishop pointed out that "some people's intention to remove God from culture, public life, social and human relations and laws, only leads to void and desperation", and he added that "there is no future for a society like that".

Likewise, he has asked the faithful "not to forget that outside of God happiness and well-being is not possible". If the Spirit of God is rejected, "a civilization fitting for man cannot be built", he added. The inheritance of the II Vatican Council "continues to be alive and fertile" and, also, "a future which is worth making an effort for, fighting for, being faithful to lies ahead of us ", he has specified. The archbishop of Valencia ended his sermon encouraging "us to feel proud of belonging to the large family of God's children in the Catholic Church" and he has emphasized that "the Council, as John Paul II reminded us, is a safe compass for sailing in the rough waters of the Third Millennium that we have just started".

Monsignor García-Gasco has concelebrated mass with the Chapter of the Catedral and priests from the Catholic University of Valencia, San Vicente Mártir, set up by the archbishop two years ago today. Pupils from the Valencia Metropolitan Seminary, which is celebrating its patron saint the Virgin Mary today, have also participated.

AVAN