{"id":1374,"date":"2007-06-20T08:54:16","date_gmt":"2007-06-20T08:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2007\/06\/athanasius.html"},"modified":"2007-06-20T08:54:16","modified_gmt":"2007-06-20T08:54:16","slug":"athanasius","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/06\/athanasius.html","title":{"rendered":"Athanasius"},"content":{"rendered":"

The subject of today’s General Audience, along with an appeal for refugees:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Nations must offer solidarity to refugees, by coming to their aid and respecting their rights. This is the appeal which Benedict XVI launched today for the world\u2019s 10 million refugees, to mark World Day for Refugees dedicated to them.  The Pope recalled that it is the duty of Christians to help to those in particularly difficult situations and hoped that \u201cpublic attention is drawn to the plight of those forced to flee their nations\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcoming refugees and giving them asylum is a dutiful act of human solidarity – said the pope – so that they do not feel isolated by intolerance and disinterest\u201d. \u201cI hope \u2013 read the central part of the appeal – that these brothers and sisters tried by terrible suffering are guaranteed asylum and the recognition of their rights, I invited all Nations to offer protection to all who find themselves in such delicate situations of need\u201d.<\/p>\n

Benedict XVI\u2019s appeal came at the end of the general audience, in which the Pope evoked the figure Saint Athanasius of Alexandria and his opposition to the Arian heresy, his \u201cdecisive and tenacious intransigence\u201d in his defence of the faith against those who wished to \u201cpoliticise it to render it more accessible\u201d.  <\/p>\n

An in door audience, to protect the circa 11 thousand pilgrims from the heat, divided between St. Peters basilica and the Paul VI audience hall.  <\/p>\n

Continuing in his teachings on the figures of the early church, Benedict XVI spoke today of the Egyptian bishop who he described as \u201cprotagonist of the Christian tradition\u201d, already renowned within years of his death as a \u201cas a pillar of Christian orthodoxy\u201d, venerated in East and West alike.  Against the followers of the Arian heresy, he insisted on the full divinity and consubstantiality of the Son with the Father and was author of a spiritual biography of Saint Anthony Abbot, influence in the spread of the monastic ideal.<\/p>\n

snip<\/em><\/p>\n

Of Athanasius’ many writings the pope underscored his treatise On the Incarnation of the Word, which defends the full divinity of the Son, whose incarnation is the source of our salvation \u201che became man so that we could become God\u201d, which promotes the idea that God is accessible to us through Christ \u201c.<\/p>\n

Athanasius moreover showed that he was fully aware of the influence that a figure such as St Anthony could have on people\u201d. \u201cIt was a best-seller \u2013 he maintained \u2013 so much so that St Augustine tells us that one of his public letters inspired the conversion of two Imperial officials it was at the origins of his own conversion\u201d.<\/p>\n

In conclusion, \u201cwe have many reasons to be thankful\u201d for through the life of St. Athanasius, just like that of St. Anthony, we see that \u201cwho goes towards God does not distance himself from man, but helps man to ever greater unity\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The subject of today’s General Audience, along with an appeal for refugees: Nations must offer solidarity to refugees, by coming to their aid and respecting their rights. This is the appeal which Benedict XVI launched today for the world\u2019s 10 million refugees, to mark World Day for Refugees dedicated to them.  The Pope recalled that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nAthanasius - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2007\/06\/athanasius.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Athanasius - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The subject of today’s General Audience, along with an appeal for refugees: Nations must offer solidarity to refugees, by coming to their aid and respecting their rights. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}