Pope says public opinion gets old, but word of God stays true forever

Published: 2007-11-07

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Public opinion gets old fast, but the word of God stays true forever, Pope Benedict XVI said. "The word of God transcends time" and represents the word of eternal life, he said Nov. 7 at his weekly general audience. The pope focused his catechesis on the life and work of St. Jerome, a fourth-century theologian who translated the original books of the Bible into Latin, giving birth to the Vulgate Bible. "Human opinion comes and goes. What is extremely up-to-date today becomes very passe tomorrow," he told more that 20,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square. St. Jerome asked that Christians "seek to learn on earth those truths which will remain ever valid in heaven and eternity," the pope said. Listening to God's word is one way to capture those eternal truths, he said. The pope said the saint teaches today's Christians that it is important to love God's word and that "to ignore sacred Scripture is to ignore God."

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