The Italian newspapers all feature coverage of the Pope's visit to Brescia and Concesio today. For now, I will translate Andrea Tornielli's wrap-up.
The German Pope conquers
the city of Paul VI
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from
Photo: Il Giornale di Brescia
A completely Brescian day, in the footsteps of Paul VI, to meet the diocese and the city.
A Mass celebrated under driving rain which did not keep 12,000 faithful from filling up Piazza Paolo VI to the inch for the Eucharistic concelebration by Benedict XVI with the bishops of Lombardy and Cardinals Dionigi Tettamanzi, Giovanni Battista Re and Paul Poupard.
Later, the Pope would have lunch with them, along with Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, emeritus Archbishop of Milan, who 2ill be 83 in February, and is ailing with Parkinson's disease.
Benedict XVI arrived in the morning at the military airbase of Ghedi. Accompanying him on the flight was Gianni Letta, undersecretary to Prime Minister and his cabinet.
Enroute in the Popemobile to the city center of Brescia, the Pope stopped briefly at the parish church of Santa maria Assunta in Botticino Sera to venerate the remains of St. Arcangelo Tadini (1846-1912), who was the parish priest from 1887 until he died and had founded the Congregation of teh Worker Sisters of the Holy House of Nazareth. Tadini was canonized by Papa Ratzinger last April.
No speeches were on the program, but upon leaving the church, the Pontiff addressed the crowd briefly, saying "we are grateful to St. Arcangelo for the gift which he has given us - he taught us to love God, to love Christ and Our Lady, in order to give rise to a fraternal world where everyone lives not for himself but for others".
Arriving in Brescia, the Pope also decided to make a brief stop before the memorial in Piazza della Loggia to the victims of a May 1974 terrorist bomb which killed eight and injured dozens. It was an unscheduled stop much appreciated by the citizens of Brescia, especially the victims' families and friends.
After being officially welcomed in front of the Cathedral of Brescia by Bishop Luciano Monari and Mayor Adriano Paroli, the Pope was welcomed in the church by its canons. He stopped to view the monument to Paul VI by the sculptor Lello Scorzelli
[who had designed for the late Pope the pastoral staff topped by the Crucifix, which was used by Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI in the first years of his Pontificate].
He then venerated the relics of St. Andrew and St. Benedict and prayed before the Blessed Sacrament, before speaking to the seminarians and sick persons who were invited to the Cathedral.
Then came the Mass in the Piazza. Among those who presented gifts at the Offertory were three workers from Brescian firms that had been hard hit by the economic crisis. The Pope spoke to each of them briefly.
In the afternoon, after lunch and a brief rest, the Pope proceeded to Concesio, birthplace of Paul VI, where he inaugurated the new headquarters of the Istituto Paolo VI built next to the family home where he was born in 1897.
Benedict XVI dedicated his address to Papa Montini as educator, relating it to the ongoing educational emergency in Italy.
Before leaving Concesio, the Pope also prayed at the parish church of Sant'Antonino, where Giovanni Battista Montini was baptized.
I hope I get around this week to translating the stories from the Brescia papers on sidelights not generally recounted in the general media about the Pope's local trips. Here is today's front page of the invaluable Il Giornale di Brescia:
The Pope in the heart of Brescia
Ten hours on Brescian territory to meet the ecclesial community, to venerate the figure of St. Arcagnelo Tadini, to pay homage to Pope Paul VI, son of Brescia, and to inaugurate the headquarters of the Istituto Paolo VI.
Eighty thousand Brescians turned up to greet him - from his landing in Ghedi airbase at 9:20 a.m. to his departure from the same place at 7:20 p.m. - and to follow the Pope's Brescian day.
In his Popemobile, the Pope travelled a total of 45 kilometers on Brescian streets, cheered by people on both sides of the road despite the terrible weather.
From Ghedi, the papal motorcade went first to Botticina Sera, where the mortal remains of Arcangelo Tadini rest in the parish church he led, a saitn canonized by Benedict XVI himself last April.
Here, the Pontiff, breaking protocol, addressed fervent words to the faithful and took time to greet some children.
Then the route towards the center of Brescia where, after a moment of prayer before the memorial to terrorist victims in Piazza della Loggia, the Pope proceeded to the Cathedral, and a Mass that started at 11 in Piazza Paolo VI, concelebrated with 3 cardinals, the bishops of Lombardy and some 400 Brescian priests.
The Mass was attended by 12,000 who could be accommodated in the Piazza, and several thousands more watching maxisceens in Piazza Loggia and Largo Formentone.
In his homily, the Pope made ample references to the Magisterium of Papa Montini. And it was this too, at the center, of Pope Benedcit's entire afternoon schedule.
Aftere lunch at the Centro pastorale in Brescia, Benedict XVI proceeded to Concesion to visit Papa Montini's natal home and to inaugurate the new seat of the Istituto Paolo VI built next to it. He also presented the sixth Paul VI International Prize to Sources Chretiennes, a French publishing house.
P.S.
also has some excellent pictures - especiall crowd and motorcade scenes that are usually not available in standard photo reports - and they do not simply duplicate those by the news agencies nor Il Giornale di Brescia, But they are also not 'mouse-copiable', and I won't have time to work on them until late tonight....
But here's a beautiful, almost poetic, wrap-up on page 1 of Brescia Oggi today - too bad the front-page image is not available unless one is an online subscriber:
The Pope stirs Brescian enthusiasm:
Stadium-like fervor in the Piazza
by Massimo Tedeschi
Translated from
Nov. 9, 2009
The inclement weather did not ruin the feast for the faithful in Piazza Paolo VI, in Botticino, in Concesio.
And the papal gestures that broke through most of all were his caresses to the children and his prayer stop before 'la stele'
[Brescian term for the stone marker to commemorate the victims of the May 1984 terrorist bombing in the city's Piazza della Loggia] .
But his homily and the discourse at the Istituto Paolo VI in
Concesio were important but demanding lessons....
Thus: Stronger than the rain. More tenacious than the cold and wind. More urgent than the need to seek warmth. So might one describe the 12,000 who crowded next to each other for at least five hours in Piazza Paolo XVI, lashed mercilessly most of the time by driving rain, but holding out bravely to attend the Papal Mass.
So it was for thousands of others - we will not know exactly how many - who parked themselves in front of the maxiscreens in Piazza della Loggia, in Largo Formentone, in Corso Zanardelli, to follow the Mass.
So it was for two thousand volunteers who formed a human cordon along the 48 kilometers of all the routes that Benedict XVI passed through from Ghedi to Botticino, to Brescia and Concesio.
Benedict XVI's first visit to Brescia became a 'plunge into the crowds and for the crowds'.
['Bagno di folla', literally 'bath of people', is the Italian term for huge crowds drawn around a figure.]
The 12 hours that Papa Ratzinger spent on Brescian land brought us a double image of the Successor of Peter: as pastor and theologian, father and teacher, shy and authoritative, philosopher and mystic - the aspects that coexist in him in enchanting equilibrium, and which was the hallmark of his day in Brescia.
[I am surprised Tedeschi fails to point out the obvious parallels to the Bresscian Pope himself!]
The shepherd, the paternal leader, the loving father with delicate gestures, placed himself under the scrutiny of all the Brescians. The theologian and teacher held the floor during his homily in the piazza, in his challenging speech at the istituto Paolo VI in Concesio, and in his warm greeting to its parishioners.
And if the homily had aroused an audience that is generally numb to spiritual messages, the speech at the Institute was a challenge that calls for reflection. Perhaps even debate.
Papa Ratzinger's day in Brescia started at 9:23 a.m., when the Italian military Airbus touched down at the airbase in Ghedi. And soon, the Holy Father's unmistakable red shoes stepped down the ramp - to cheers from a jubilant welcoming crowd.
The streets along which the Popemobile rode - bearing plate #1 of Vatican City State - had been cleared of traffic earlier. Security forces had blocked all streets crossing the papal route with their usual excessive caution, paralyzing a section of the province.
Castenedolo, Virle, Rezzato, Botticino: the route travelled by the Popemobile was nonetheless constellated with crowds, waving yellow and white flaglets despite the rain.
In Botticino, Papa Ratzinger notices the preparations, he stops, he speaks to the faithful, he kisses children - and enthusiasm is skyhigh.
Then on towards the city. In the suburbs, Sant' Eufemia, San Faustino, both sides of the street are packed.
And then in Piazza della Loggia, the Pope once more steps out of his program. The Popemobile stops, the Pope gets off, and prays before the marker. Brescia's citizens are exultant - he has not forgotten a tragedy that was traumatic for them.
The entry into Piazza Paolo VI was triumphal. First to greet him were the youth groups. Sunddenly, the piazza was like a stadium at a championship game.
After the formal welcome from the mayor and the bishop - sober and substantial - Papa Ratzinger entered the Cathedral and spent a moment in prayer.
Afterwards, he poses with seminarians gatehred there to be presented to him. He greets sick people who have been invited to the Church for the Mass, but he will spend more time with them later, after the Mass.
The Mass itself is intense, almost mystical.
[Apropos, the Annunciation image on the chalice that the Holy Fahter raised at consecration is so startling it looked to me at first glance like it was a reflection!] It started almost an hour late, so the Angelus was recited at 1 p.m.
For which the luncheon with the bishops of Lombardy - including Cardinal Martini, emeritus of Milan - was necessarily took up the slack. This was followed by a brief rest at the Centro Pastorale Paolo VI.
For the 82-year-old Pope, the afternoon had three more activities - the visit to Paul VI's home, the inauguration of the Istituto Paolo VI's new headquarters and the awarding of teh paul VI International Prize, and lastly, an embrace from the people of Coincesion at the church where Giovanni Battista Montini had been baptized.
Finally, at 7:30, take-off from Ghedi for Rome. The Pope must have been tired. But the Brescians - or at least, quite a number of them - were happy,
[And so, we must believe, is the Pope!]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/11/2009 18:48]