God never leaves people, even at moment of death, says pope

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God never leaves his creatures alone, not even at the moment of death when each person must complete his or her journey without the company of anyone else, Pope Benedict XVI said.

God continually stretches out his hand to guide those he loves, the pope said Dec. 14 during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square.

"His closeness is not one of judgment that incites terror, but one of support and liberation," the pope said.

Offering a reflection on Psalm 139 and its praise of God who is "all knowing and ever present," Pope Benedict set aside his prepared text to focus on the extent to which God remains with each individual not only in life, but also at the moment of death.

"God is always with us. Even in the darkest nights of our lives, he does not abandon us. Even at the most difficult times of our lives, he is present," Pope Benedict said. "And even on the last night, in the last solitude where no one can accompany us, the night of death, the Lord does not abandon us."

"Therefore, we Christians can trust that we are never left alone. The goodness of God never abandons us," the pope said.

In his prepared text, Pope Benedict said that although God looks on evil with severity, "his is not a looming and inspectorial presence," but a "saving presence capable of embracing all existence and all history."

At the end of the audience, the pope spent more than an hour shaking hands, blessing children and collecting gifts.

The smaller gifts were wrapped for Christmas, but the pope also was given a large crystal cross, a jewel-encrusted Book of the Gospels from the faithful of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church, table linens, a wooden Nativity scene and several paintings, especially of Mary.

The gifts -- including a huge tome on Gothic architecture, music CDs and books about the election of Pope Benedict -- continued to arrive as the pope met briefly with publishers attending a meeting with the Vatican's publishing house.

Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, founder and editor in chief of Ignatius Press, which has published the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger's books in English, gave the pope a Lectionary.

Father Fessio told Catholic News Service that the book was the first copy of the volume of Mass readings that Ignatius Press will be selling. It has been approved by the Antilles Episcopal Conference for liturgical use in the Caribbean nations belonging to the conference.

The Jesuit said that after the Vatican told the U.S. bishops that a Lectionary based on the inclusive-language New Revised Standard Version of the Bible would not be approved, Ignatius Press secured a 50-year license for a Lectionary based on a second Catholic edition of the original Revised Standard Version.

Father Fessio said Pope Benedict asked Dec. 14 if the Lectionary would be used anywhere besides the Antilles and Father Fessio told him he is hoping the Ignatius Press Lectionary would be adopted by other bishops' conferences.

Here is the actual text of the Pope's General Audience of November 30th. I quote it all here because what came out was taken out of context and twisted.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. On this first Wednesday of Advent, a liturgical season of silence, watchfulness and prayer in preparation for Christmas, let us meditate on Psalm 137[136], whose first words in the Latin version became famous: Super flumina Babylonis. The text evokes the tragedy lived by the Jewish people during the destruction of Jerusalem in about 586 B.C., and their subsequent and consequent exile in Babylon. We have before us a national hymn of sorrow, marked by a curt nostalgia for what has been lost.
This heartfelt invocation to the Lord to free his faithful from slavery in Babylon also expresses clearly the sentiments of hope and expectation of salvation with which we have begun our journey through Advent.
The background to the first part of the Psalm (cf. vv. 1-4) is the land of exile with its rivers and streams, indeed, the same that irrigated the Babylonian plain to which the Jews had been deported. It is, as it were, a symbolic foreshadowing of the extermination camps to which the Jewish people - in the century we have just left behind us - were taken in an abominable operation of death that continues to be an indelible disgrace in the history of humanity.
The second part of the Psalm (cf. vv. 5-6) is instead pervaded by the loving memory of Zion, the city lost but still alive in the exiles' hearts.
2. The hand, tongue, palate, voice and tears are included in the Psalmist's words. The hand is indispensable to the harp-player: but it is already paralyzed (cf. v. 5) by grief, also because the harps are hung up on the poplars.
The tongue is essential to the singer, but now it is stuck to the palate (cf. v. 6). In vain do the Babylonian captors "ask... for songs..., songs... of joy" (v. 3). "Zion's songs" are "song[s] of the Lord" (vv. 3-4), not folk songs to be performed. Only through a people's liturgy and freedom can they rise to Heaven.
3. God, who is the ultimate judge of history, will also know how to understand and accept, in accordance with his justice, the cry of victims, over and above the tones of bitterness that sometimes colours them.
Let us entrust ourselves to St Augustine for a further meditation on our Psalm. The great Father of the Church introduces a surprising and very timely note: he knows that there are also people among the inhabitants of Babylon who are committed to peace and to the good of the community, although they do not share the biblical faith; the hope of the Eternal City to which we aspire is unknown to them. Within them they have a spark of desire for the unknown, for the greater, for the transcendent: for true redemption.
And Augustine says that even among the persecutors, among the non-believers, there are people who possess this spark, with a sort of faith or hope, as far as is possible for them in the circumstances in which they live. With this faith, even in an unknown reality, they are truly on their way towards the true Jerusalem, towards Christ.
And with this openness of hope, Augustine also warns the "Babylonians" - as he calls them -, those who do not know Christ or even God and yet desire the unknown, the eternal, and he warns us too, not to focus merely on the material things of the present but to persevere on the journey to God. It is also only with this greater hope that we will be able to transform this world in the right way. St Augustine says so in these words:
"If we are citizens of Jerusalem... and must live in this land, in the confusion of this world and in this Babylon where we do not dwell as citizens but are held prisoner, then we should not just sing what the Psalm says but we should also live it: something that is done with a profound, heartfelt aspiration, a full and religious yearning for the eternal city".
And he adds with regard to the "earthly city called Babylon", that it "has in it people who, prompted by love for it, work to guarantee it peace - temporal peace - nourishing in their hearts no other hope, indeed, by placing in this one all their joy, without any other intention. And we see them making every effort to be useful to earthly society".
"Now, if they strive to do these tasks with a pure conscience, God, having predestined them to be citizens of Jerusalem, will not let them perish within Babylon: this is on condition, however, that while living in Babylon, they do not thirst for ambition, short-lived magnificence or vexing arrogance.... He sees their enslavement and will show them that other city for which they must truly long and towards which they must direct their every effort" (Esposizioni sui Salmi, 136, 1-2: Nuova Biblioteca Agostiniana, XXVIII, Rome, 1977, pp. 397, 399).
And let us pray to the Lord that in all of us this desire, this openness to God, will be reawakened, and that even those who do not know Christ may be touched by his love so that we are all together on the pilgrimage to the definitive City, and that the light of this City may appear also in our time and in our world.

The thread in question is here: Nonbelievers Too Can Be Saved, Says Pope

Read what Pope Benedict actually said and compare it to the mischaracterization. I've highlighted the passage in red.

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