Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Benedict XVI has urged all Catholics to embrace the family and the Year of Faith in 2013.

The coming year is set to be a momentous one for the Church as the Year of Faith, which was launched last October, reaches its climax. The Holy Father has urged all Catholics to pray for its success.

The Vatican has announced that, throughout the month of January, Pope Benedict will be praying ‘that in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in Him’ and all Catholics are urged to join him in praying for this.

Family

Along with commending the Year of Faith to the hearts of all Catholics, the Pope also returned to another theme of his Papacy: the necessity of the traditional family, in the final hours of 2012.

Speaking at his final Angelus, on the last Sunday of 2012, he marked the Feast of the Holy Family with a special prayer for ‘all the families of the world.’

“We should say a special prayer to the Lord for all the families of the world,” the Pope said. “Imitating the Holy Family of Nazareth, may parents seriously concern themselves about the growth and education of their children, so that they may mature as responsible and honest citizens, without ever forgetting that faith is a precious gift to be nourished in their children through personal example.

“At the same time, we pray that every child is welcomed as a gift from God, is sustained by the love of the father and mother in order to advance as the Lord Jesus ‘in wisdom and age and favour before God and man.’”

Year ahead

Looking ahead to the rest of 2013, these two themes of the Year of Faith and the family, look certain to dominate the life of the Holy Father and the Church. In dioceses and parishes around the world there will be a myriad of events to mark the Year of Faith, but one of the most important will be the unified worldwide solemn Eucharistic adoration, due to take place on the feast of Corpus Christi, June 2.

Pope Benedict will lead an hour of Eucharistic adoration to be observed simultaneously around the world, highlighting a traditional devotion that fell somewhat out of practice in the decades after the Second Vatican Council, but which has recently grown more popular with the Pope’s personal encouragement. This will be one of the most visually and spiritually impressive of many events scheduled for the Year of Faith, which ends on November 24.

The spiritual development sought in the Year of Faith will also see a source of new enlightenment from the Holy Father as he releases a new encyclical on the subject of Faith.

Pope Benedict’s fourth encyclical is expected to be released in the first half of this year, very possibly in the spring, according to Fr Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman. Dealing with the subject of Faith, the encyclical will complete a trilogy on the three ‘theological virtues;’ the previous installments were Deus Caritas Est (2005) on charity, and Spe Salvi (2007) on hope.

The Holy Father will also continue to bring forward his message of love for the family, especially to the hundreds of thousands of young Catholics who will gather in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for World Youth Day 2013 in July.

The highlight of the week in Brazil will be the presence of the Pope, who will encourage the young people to cultivate their faith and religious identity and embrace the traditional family.

This will be Pope Benedict’s second trip to Brazil, the country with the world’s largest Catholic population and the only foreign trip currently on his agenda for 2013.

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