Pope Benedict: The Church must be free to preach the Faith....

There is much in the Holy Father's Address given on Monday to the Bishops of the Philippines on their Ad Limina visit, and so  much of what he says applies far beyond the geographical boundaries of the Philippines.
The full text is here.

Pope Benedict touches upon a number of themes including one we heard recently, during his visit to the UK, concerning  the voice of the Church in the public square:

"..the Church’s prophetic office demands that she be free "to preach the faith, to teach her social doctrine ... and also to pass moral judgments in those matters which regard public order whenever the fundamental human rights of a person or the salvation of souls requires it".

  
 The Holy Father also gave some encouragement to Catholics working in the vineyard of social communication...a contemporary example of which is of course, the the blogosphere:

 "A specific area in which the Church must always find her proper voice comes in the field of social communications and the media. The task set before the whole Catholic community is to convey a hope-filled vision of faith and virtue...........

............It is important that the Catholic laity proficient in social communications take their proper place in proposing the Christian message in a convincing and attractive way."

Say a prayer for those Bishops, they are great defenders of life who have just had their Conference's  website hacked.