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"In accordance with the Gospels, freedom is a fruit maturing under the sun of truth. A certain modern culture, especially in the West, upsets this principle, replacing it with the following one: ‘you'll practice freedom, and freedom will make you true". According to Card. Bertone, Secretary of State of the Vatican, that is the "central formula of a new secularized, agnostic and sometimes atheist gospel, in which freedom prevails over everything". Yesterday afternoon, in delivering the "lectio magistralis" to the world of culture, the teachers and the students of the State University of Byelorussia, Bertone faced the topic: "Faith and reason: talking about God to today's man", confirming that "in the link of truth with freedom, the first one prevails. If we regard faith and reason as two directions meant for the knowledge of truth, the competition of principle between them will disappear". On the other hand, "rationalism and atheism conceived the man-God link in this way: the more man goes ahead of God, and the more he becomes alienated, depriving himself of something essential". "Today, those who talk about religion and faith have often got the impression of looking like clowns", noticed the cardinal, pointing out "how difficult it is to talk about religion and God to today's man, in a cultural context of gradual secularization". According to Bertone, "not only are those who listen tempted by incredulity": "the threat of uncertainty is also spreading among believers". "Unity within diversity of rites, shapes and cultures is great richness for the Catholic Church; the ecclesial communion is a treasury which we must preserve with great care, defending it from any risks and dangers". Yesterday, those words were spoken by Card. Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, while meeting the Catholic-Greek community, during his visit to Byelorussia. "To remain faithful to that unity - he went on -, lots of martyrs died during centuries, such as Saint Jehoshaphat, a beloved saint for you, and for all Catholics, too". "The Lord asks all of us to follow the example of those brothers and sisters of ours, in the faith exhorted by the cardinal, according to whom the "accounts" of martyrs "are shining before us as radiant examples of firmness in faith and faithfulness to Gospel, even in the middle of the difficulties and challenges which are typical of post-modern world". "You are the heirs of an old liturgical and canonical tradition, whose full dignity is in the holy Church of God": those were Bertone's words addressed to the Catholic-Greek community. He thanked them for their "faithfulness" and brought them the "greetings", the "blessing" and the "constant concern" of the Pope. Among the present, Bertone greeted the Apostolic visitor for the Catholic-Greek in Byelorussia, the archimandrite Father Jan Sergiusz Gajek, the bishops and the Apostolic Nuncio in Byelorussia, Msgr. Martin Vidovic.

News by SIR