With her deep prayer life and
total devotion to serving God and the good of her fellow citizens, St.
Joan of Arc is a wonderful model for Christian politicians, Pope
Benedict XVI said.
"Hers is a beautiful example of holiness for laypeople involved in
politics, especially in difficult situations. Faith is the light that
guided all her choices," the pope said Jan. 26 during his weekly general
audience.
The pope's remarks about St. Joan were part of an ongoing series of
audience talks about influential Catholic women of the Middle Ages.
Addressing about 3,000 people gathered for the audience, the pope said
that St. Joan of Arc, like St. Catherine of Siena, was a young laywoman
and mystic who lived her faith commitment "not in a cloister, but in the
midst of the most dramatic realities of the church and the world of her
time."
St. Joan and St. Catherine are perhaps the best examples of "those
strong women who at the end of the Middle Ages brought the Gospel to
bear on the complex events of history," he said.
From the transcripts of the young French saint's trial, "we know that
her religious life matured with mystical experiences beginning when she
was 13 years old. Through the voice of the Archangel Michael, Joan felt
called by the Lord to intensify her Christian life and to work
personally for the liberation of her people," the pope said.
Those involved in condemning her as a heretic and having her burned at
the stake included priests and theologians who disagreed with her
politically and were unable to overcome that disagreement to judge her
fairly, the pope said.
The role of churchmen in condemning the saint, he said, is a "disturbing
and enlightening" picture of the reality of the church on earth, which
as the Second Vatican Council said, "is always holy and is always in
need of purification."
The truth is that St. Joan of Arc was involved in the French political
situation because of her total love for Jesus and for her neighbor, he
said.
"This saint understood that love embraces the whole reality of God
and of man, of heaven and earth, of the church and the world," he said.
The young French saint carried a banner with an image of Jesus holding
the world, "the icon of her political mission.
The liberation of her
people was a work of human justice which Joan engaged in with charity
for love of Jesus," the pope said.
After Pope Benedict finished his main audience talk, a man from Malta
yelled out to the pope and tried to make his way up to hand a letter to
the pope.
The man was escorted from the audience hall by Vatican police.
Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, vice director of the Vatican press
office, said the letter had "devotional content."
SIC: CNS/INT'L