"Even a Tiny Flame"

On August 6, Pope Benedict XVI conducted a Q&A session with priests in Bolzano-Bressanone in northern Italy.

This good quote came out that session (English translation -- the original was in either German or Italian):

When I was young I was rather more severe. I said: the sacraments are the sacraments of the faith, and when the faith isn’t there, where there’s not practice of the faith, the sacraments can’t be conferred. When I was Archbishop of Munich I always discussed this with my pastors, and there too there were too factions, one severe and one more generous. I too in the course of time have realized that we have to follow instead the example of the Lord, who was very open also with the people who were at the margins of Israel at that time. He was a Lord of mercy, too open – according to many of the official authorities – with sinners, welcoming them or allowing himself to be welcomed by them at their dinners, drawing them to himself in his communion.

Thus I would say in essence that the sacraments are naturally sacraments of the faith. Where there is no element of faith, where First Communion would just be a party with a big lunch, nice clothes and nice gifts, then it can’t be a sacrament of the faith. But, on the other hand, if we can see even a tiny flame of desire for communion in the church, a desire also from these children who want to enter into communion with Jesus, it seems right to me to be rather generous.

Hat-tip: John Allen

The photo above is from here. Caption: Pope Benedict XVI flanked at left by his brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, and by his personal secretary Georg Gaenswein in Bressanone, near Bolzano, Italy, Thursday, July 31, 2008.