Pope’s "great contentment" for ban on cluster bombs

The entry into law today of the Convention on the prohibition of cluster bombs has been welcomed with "great satisfaction" by the Pope, who urged all States to subscribe to the Agreement and expressed the hope for “increasingly vigorous” progress “on this road, defending the dignity and human life, for the promotion of integral human development, the establishment of a peaceful international order and the achievement of the common good of all people and of all nations".

Benedict XVI expressed his satisfaction for an act in which he said the "international community has shown wisdom, foresight and ability to pursue a significant achievement in the field of disarmament and international humanitarian law" after the midday Angelus prayer in the courtyard of Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo.

Before the Marian prayer, speaking to three thousand people present, the Pope mentioned some of the saints whose feast days occur around this time. Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Jesuit founder, St. Alphonsus Maria de 'Liguori, founder of the Redemptorists, Saint Eusebius, the first Bishop of Piedmont and St. John Vianney, the Curé of Ars, "whose example - said Benedict XVI – guided the recently concluded Year for Priests, and to whose intercession I again commend all the pastors of the Church. A common commitment to these saints was to save souls and serve the church with their gifts, helping to renew and enrich Her. "

"These men - he continued - gained 'wisdom of heart' (Ps 90.12), gathering to themselves all that does not corrupt and discarding all that changes over time: power, wealth and ephemeral pleasures. Choosing God they possessed all that is necessary, a foretaste of eternity right here on earth (cf. Eccles: 1-5).

The same argument, in today's Gospel, is at the heart of the parable of the rich fool, about which the Pope commented that "the foolish man in the Bible is the one who does not want to realize, from experience of the visible things that nothing lasts forever, but everything passes: youth, physical strength, comforts such as positions of power. A life dependent on such fleeting realities is foolishness. The man who trusts in the Lord, instead, is not afraid of life's hardships, even the inescapable reality of death: he is the man who gains “wisdom of heart”, just like the Saints. "

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