NOTABLES: Persons of interest

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ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
Parish Church of Introd (Val d'Aosta))
Monday, 25 July 2005



Your Excellency,
Dear Brothers,

I would first like to express my joy and gratitude for this opportunity to meet you. As Pope, one risks being somewhat distant from real, everyday life and especially from the priests who work on the front line in so many parishes in this very Valley, and now, as His Excellency said, with the lack of vocations, also in particularly demanding conditions of physical commitment.

It is therefore a grace for me to be able to meet the priests and presbyterate of this Valley in this beautiful church. And I would like to say "thank you" for coming; for you too, it is the vacation period.

To see you gathered together and thus to see myself united with you, being close to the priests who work day after day for the Lord as sowers of the Word, is a comfort and joy to me.

Last week, two or three times, it seems to me, we heard this Parable of the Sower, which was formerly a parable of consolation in a situation different from ours but in a certain sense also similar.

The Lord's work had begun with great enthusiasm. The sick were visibly cured, everyone listened joyfully to the statement: "The Kingdom of God is at hand".

It really seemed that the changing of the world and the coming of the Kingdom of God would be approaching; that at last, the sorrow of the People of God would be changed into joy.

People were expecting a messenger of God whom they supposed would take the helm of history in his hand. But they then saw that the sick were indeed cured, devils were expelled, the Gospel was proclaimed, but the world stayed as it was. Nothing changed.

The Romans still dominated it. Life was difficult every day, despite these signs, these beautiful words. Thus, their enthusiasm was extinguished, and in the end, as we know from the sixth chapter of John, disciples also abandoned this Preacher who was preaching but did not change the world.

"What is this message? What does this Prophet of God bring?", everyone finally wondered. The Lord talks of the sower who sowed in the field of the world and the seed seemed like his Word, like those healings, a really tiny thing in comparison with historical and political reality. Just as the seed is tiny and can be ignored, so can the Word.

Yet, he says, the future is present in the seed because the seed carries within it the bread of the future, the life of the future. The seed appears to be almost nothing, yet the seed is the presence of the future, it is a promise already present today.

And so, with this parable, he is saying: "We are living in the period of the sowing, the Word of God seems but a word, almost nothing. But take heart, this Word carries life within it! And it bears fruit!".

The Parable also says that much of the seed did not bear fruit because it fell on the path, on patches of rock and so forth. But the part that fell on the rich soil bore a yield of thirty- or sixty- or a hundredfold.

This enables us to understand that we too must be courageous, even if the Word of God, the Kingdom of God, seems to have no historical or political importance.

In the end, on Palm Sunday Jesus summed up, as it were, all of these teachings on the seed of the word: If the grain of wheat does not fall into the ground and die it remains single, if it falls into the earth and dies it produces an abundance of fruit. In this way he made people realize that he himself was the grain of wheat that fell into the earth and died.

In the Crucifixion, everything seems to have failed, but precisely in this way, falling into the earth and dying, on the Way of the Cross, it bore fruit for each epoch, for every epoch.

Here we have both the Christological interpretation, according to which Christ himself is the seed, he is the Kingdom present, and the Eucharistic dimension: this grain of wheat falls into the earth and thus the new Bread grows, the Bread of future life, the Blessed Eucharist that nourishes us and is open to the divine mysteries for new life.

It seems to me that in the Church's history, these questions that truly torment us are constantly cropping up in various forms: what should we do? People seem to have no need of us, everything we do seems pointless. Yet we learn from the Word of the Lord that this seed alone transforms the earth ever anew and opens it to true life.

I would like, as far as I can, to respond briefly to your words, Your Excellency; but I would also like to say that the Pope is not an oracle, he is infallible on the rarest of occasions, as we know. I therefore share with you these questions, these queries.

I also suffer. However, let us, on the one hand, suffer all together for these problems, and let us also suffer in transforming the problems; for suffering itself is the way to transformation, and without suffering nothing is transformed.

This is also what the Parable of the Grain of Wheat that fell into the earth means: only in a process of undergoing transformation does the fruit mature and the solution become clear. And if we did not suffer, the apparent ineffectiveness of our preaching would be a sign of the lack of faith, of true commitment.

We must take these difficulties of our time to heart and transform them, suffering with Christ, and thereby transform ourselves. And to the extent to which we ourselves are transformed, we will also be able to respond to the question asked above, we will also be able to see the presence of the Kingdom of God and to make others see it.

The first point [made by the bishop] is a problem that exists throughout the Western world: the lack of vocations. In these past few weeks I have received ad limina visits from the Bishops of Sri Lanka and from the southern part of Africa. Vocations there are increasing; indeed, they are so numerous that it is proving impossible to build enough seminaries to accommodate all these young men who want to be priests.

Of course, this joy also carries with it a certain sadness, since at least some of them come in the hope of social advancement. By becoming priests, they become like tribal chiefs, they are naturally privileged, they have a different lifestyle, etc.

Therefore, weeds and wheat grow together in this beautiful crop of vocations and the Bishops must be very careful in their discernment; they must not merely be content with having many future priests but must see which really are the true vocations, discerning between the weeds and the good wheat.

However, there is a certain enthusiasm of faith because they are in a specific period of history, that is, in the period in which it is clear that the traditional religions are no longer adequate. People are realizing, they are seeing that these traditional religions contain a promise within them but are waiting for something. They are awaiting a new response that purifies and, let us say, takes on all that is beautiful, setting it free from these inadequate and negative aspects.

In this time of transition, in which their culture is truly reaching out to a new time in history, the two offerings - Christianity and Islam - are the possible historical responses.

Consequently, in a certain sense there is a springtime of the faith in those countries but, of course, in the context of rivalry between these two responses, and also especially in the context of suffering because of the evangelical sects, who present themselves, as it were, as a Christian response that is better, easier and more accommodating.

So it is that even in the history of a promise, in a springtime moment, the commitment of the one who must sow the Word with Christ and, as we say, build the Church, continues to be difficult.

The situation is different in the Western world, which is a world weary of its own culture. It is a world that has reached a time when there is no longer any evidence of the need for God, let alone Christ, and when it therefore seems that humans can build themselves on their own.

In this atmosphere of a rationalism closing in on itself and that regards the model of the sciences as the only model of knowledge, everything else is subjective. Christian life too, of course, becomes a choice that is subjective, hence, arbitrary, and no longer the path of life. It therefore naturally becomes difficult to believe, and if it is difficult to believe, it is even more difficult to offer one's life to the Lord to be his servant.

This is certainly a form of suffering which, I would say, fits into our time in history, and in which we generally see that the so-called "great" Churches seem to be dying. This is true particularly in Europe and in Australia, but not so much in the United States.

On the other hand, the sects that present themselves with the certainty of a minimum of faith are growing, because the human being seeks certainty. Thus, the great Churches, especially the great traditional Protestant Churches, are truly finding themselves in a very deep crisis. The sects have the upper hand because they appear with a few simple certainties and say: "This suffices".

The plight of the Catholic Church is not as bad as that of the historical Protestant Churches, but of course, she shares the problem of our historical period. I do not think that there is any system for rapid change. We must go on, we must go through this tunnel, this underpass, patiently, in the certainty that Christ is the answer and that in the end, his light will shine as before.

Thus, the first answer is patience, in the certainty that the world cannot live without God, the God of Revelation - and not just any God: we see how dangerous a cruel God, an untrue God can be - but the God who showed us his Face in Jesus Christ. It is the Face of the One who suffered for us, this loving Face of the One who transforms the world in the manner of the grain of wheat that fell into the earth.

Therefore, we ourselves have this very deep certainty that Christ is the answer and that without the concrete God, the God with the Face of Christ, the world destroys itself.

There is growing evidence that a closed rationalism, which thinks that human beings can rebuild the world better on their own, is false. On the contrary, without the restraint of the true God, human beings destroy themselves. We see this with our own eyes.

We ourselves must have a renewed certainty: he is the Truth; only by walking in his footsteps do we go in the right direction, and it is in this direction that we must walk and lead others.

In all this suffering, not only should we keep our certainty that Christ really is the Face of God, but we should also deepen this certainty and the joy of knowing it, and thus truly be ministers of the future of the world, of the future of every person.

We should deepen this certainty in a personal relationship with the Lord because certainty can also grow with rational considerations. A sincere reflection that is also rationally convincing but becomes personal, strong and demanding by virtue of a friendship lived personally, every day, with Christ - this truly seems to me to be very important.

Certainty, consequently, demands this personalization of our faith, of our friendship with the Lord, and thus, new vocations also grow. We see it in the new generations after the great crisis of this cultural struggle unleashed in 1968, when the historical epoch of Christianity truly seemed to be over.

We see that the 'promises' of 1968 have not been kept and, let us say, the awareness that another way exists which is more complex because it requires this transformation of our hearts but is truer. Thus new vocations are also born.

And we ourselves must also find the creativity to help young people to discover this way in the future, too. This was also evident in the dialogue with the African Bishops. Despite the number of priests, many are condemned to a terrible loneliness and many do not survive morally.

And it is therefore important to live in the reality of the presbyterate, of the community of priests who help one another, who are journeying on together with solidarity in their common faith.

This seems to me to be important, for if young people see priests who seem very lonely, sad and tired, they will think: "If this is my future, then it is not for me". A real communion of life that shows young people: "Yes, this can be a future for me too, it is possible to live like this", must be created.

I have gone on too long. It seems to me that I have already said something on the second point. It is true: to the public, and especially world leaders, the Church appears as something antiquated, and our proposals seem unwanted. People behave as though they can to live without our words, they want to live without our words. They have no need for us and do not want our words.

This is true and causes us pain, but it is also part of this historical situation arising from an anthropological vision which claims that the human being must act as Karl Marx said, when he remarked, "The Church has had 1,800 years to show that it could change the world and has not done anything; we will now do it on our own".

This has become a very widespread idea supported by many contemporary philosophers. Thus, we understand the impression of so many that it is possible to live without the Church, which appears as a vestige of the past. But it is becoming ever clearer that only moral values, strong convictions, and sacrifices, make it possible to live and to build the world. It is impossible to construct it in a mechanical way, as Karl Marx proposed, the theories concerning capital and ownership, etc.

If there is no moral force in souls, if there is no readiness to suffer for these values, a better world cannot be built; indeed, on the contrary, the world deteriorates every day, selfishness dominates and destroys all.

In perceiving this the question arises anew: Where does the strength come from that enables us to suffer, to suffer for a good that hurts me first, which has no immediate usefulness? Where are the resources, the source? From where does the strength come to preserve these values?

It can be seen that morality as such does not survive and is not effective unless it is deeply rooted in convictions that truly provide certainty, and the strength to suffer - suffering is part of love - and love grows in suffering. In the end, in fact, love alone enables us to live, and love is always also suffering: it matures in suffering and provides the strength to suffer for good without taking oneself into account when doing so. The strength that comes from a love that is the substance of my life gives me the power to carry on the struggle for good. Here too, we need the patience to make people understand this.

Even those who do not convert straightaway can at least draw closer to those in the Church who possess this inner strength, the strenght of faith, which binds people together to move ahead;

I am thinking of the Lord's Parable of the Mustard Seed which was so small and then became a tree so great that the birds of the sky build their nests in it. I would say that these birds are those who are not yet converted but who at least perch on the tree of the Church.

In the time of the Enlightenment, when faith in the Western world was divided between Catholics and Protestants, people believed it was necessary to preserve the common moral values by giving them a firm foundation. They thought, "We must make the moral values independent of the religious denominations so that they can prevail etsi Deus non daretur - as if God did not exist.

Today, we are in the opposite situation. There is no longer any need for moral values, which become evident only if God exists. I have therefore suggested that lay people, the so-called seculars, should think about whether the contrary might not be true for them today: that they must live quasi Deus daretur - as if God exists.

If we are not strong enough to believe, we must live on this hypothesis, otherwise the world will not function. This, it seems to me, would be a first step to approaching faith - even as I see, from so many contacts, that, thanks be to God, dialogue with part of the secular world is increasing.

The third point: the plight of priests at atime of priest shortage, when they must work in as many as three, four and at times even five parishes, and are exhausted. I think that the Bishop, together with his priests, is trying to discover what the best solution might be for your diocese.

When I was Archbishop of Munich, [some parishes] created a type of service consisting only of the Liturgy of the Word. without a priest, as a way tpo keep the community in its own church. And they said: "Every community should stay put, and when there is no priest let us celebrate this Liturgy of the Word".

The French had a word for these Sunday assemblies "in the absence of a priest", but after a while, those who practised this realized thatsuch a practice would lead to losing the meaning of the sacrament - a 'protestantization' occurs, and ultimately, the Churchgoer thinks that "if the service is merely going to be the litrugy of the Word, then I can just as well celebrate it myself at home".

I remember when I was a professor at Tuebingen, there was the great exegete Kelemann - I do not know if you are familiar with his name - he was a pupil of Bultmann, who was a great theologian. Although he was a convinced Protestant, he never went to church. He used to say: "I can also meditate at home on the Sacred Scriptures".

I would say that the Liturgy of the Word should not be a susbtitute for Sunday Mass, when the Lord comes to us corporally. So such Sunday ssemblies are not a solution.

Sunday was created because the Lord was raised and entered the community of the Apostles to be with them on a Sunday. And thus, they understood that Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath) was no longer the liturgical day, but Sunday, the day when the Lord wants to be with us physically, again and again, when he nourishes us with his Body, so that we ourselves may become his Body in the world.

We should find a way to offer many people of good will this possibility: for now I do not presume to give formulas. I referredto a situation in Munich, but I am unacquainted with the situation here which is bound to be a little different.

But that our people are incredibly mobile and flexible. The young travel 50 kilometrers or more to go to a discothèque, why can they not travel 50 kilometers to go to a church? Yet, this is something very positive and practical, even if I do not dare to offer formulas. But we must make an effort to let our faithful feel this: "You meed to be with the Church, you need to be with the Lord in a living Church".

However, an effort should be made to give people this sentiment: "I need to be with the Church, to be with the living Church and with the Lord!". This is important enough, and its impo0rtance cretes the premise for its solution. I leave the question open for your diocese and priests, Your Excellency.

Several priests then spoke. The Holy Father answered their questions on the topics of the education of youth, the role of Catholic schools, and the consecrated life as follows:

These questions are very practical, and it is far from easy to come up with equally practical answers.

First of all, I should like to thank you for having called our attention to the need to attract young people to the Church; they are easily attracted instead by other things, by a way of life that is rather remote from our convictions.

The ancient Church chose the way of creating alternative living communities. I would say, therefore, that it is important that young people discover the beauty of faith, that it is beautiful to have a direction, that it is beautiful to have God as a friend who can truly tell us the essential things of life.

This intellectual factor must then be accompanied by an emotional and social factor, that is, by socialization in faith; because faith can only be fulfilled if it also has a body, and this involves human beings and their way of life. In the past, therefore, when faith was crucial to community life, catechism alone, which continues to be important today, would have sufficed.

However, given that social life has drifted away from faith - since all too often even families do not offer a sharing of faith - we must offer ways for 'socializing faith' in faith-based associations that ofger vital spaces for interaction and convince its members and others through a Christian way of thought, with affection and lively friendship. These various dimensions should go together, because the human person is a social being.

In this sense, for example, it is wonderful to see so many parish priests who spend their holidays with groups of young people. In this way, the young people experience not just the joy of their holiday but they cam live it close to the Church in th eperson of their parish priest or vicar.

In Italy, it seems to me that the Church offers many alternatives and possibilities for socialization that allow young people to 'walk together' in Christ and help build the Church. That is why they need intelligent answers to their questions. is there sitll a need for God? is christ merely a figure in the history of religion or is he truly the Face of God, the God we all need? Can we live to the fullest if we do not know Christ?

But it is also necessary to make them understand that buikding their life, building their future, requires patience and suffering, that the Cross is part of our life, and that the way of the Cross is far frome asy. A mountaineer knows, for example, that he must face difficulties if climbing is to be a beautiful experience - so too, young people must understand that sacrifice is an essential exercise of our internal life in our 'ascent' towards the future.

With regard to Catholic schools, I can say that many Bishops who have come on their ad limina visit have frequently stressed their importance. The Catholic school, in situations such as in Africa, becomes an indispensable means of cultural advancement, for the first steps to literacy even, and for setting the standards in which a new culture is formed. Thanks to the Catholic school, it is also possible to confront the challenges of technology in a pro-technology culture that would otherwise destroy ancient forms of tribal life and their moral content.

Where we live the situation is different, but what I feel important is a general mental discipline that Christianity is not cut off from reality today, either.

As we said earlier, in the wake of the Enlightenment and of the supposed "Second Enlightenment" in 1968, many thought that the historical time of the Church and faith was over, and that the world had entered a new epoch, when Church and faith would be no more than objects of study as we now study classical mythology.

On the contrary, it is vital to make people understand that faith is permanently up-to-date and perfectly reasonable. Hence, an intellectual assertion is called for that makes the beauty and organic structure of the faith comprehensible.

This was one of the fundamental intentions of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which has now been condensed in the Compendium. We must not think of faith as a pack of rules to be shouldered like a heavy backpack on our journey through life.

In the end, our faith is simple and rich: we believe that God exists, that God counts. But which God? A God with a face, a human face, a God who reconciles, who overcomes hatred and gives us the power of peace that no one else can give us. We must make people understand that Christianity is actually very simple, but also very rich.

School is a cultural institution for intellectual and professional training. In Catholic schools, it is also necessary to make the organic and logical dimensions of the faith understood,its essetial elements. What the Eucharist is, what happens in Sundya Mass, what is Christian marriage.

It is necessary, of course, to make the faithful understand that the discipline of religion is not purely intellectual, like for example, mathematics. The discipline of religion is practical and must be applied to life.

Faith creates assembly and unites. So it liberates us from isolation and unites us in a great community . a very complete one. In our Sunday gatherings, in the parishes. A universal community in which I become related to everyone in the faith. It is necessary to understand this Catholic dimension of the community that gathers in the parish church every Sunday.

Knowing the faith is one objective. Socializing in the Church or "ecclesializing" means being introduced into the great community of the Church, a living milieu, where I know that even in the important moments of my life - especially in suffering and in death - I am not alone.

Your Excellency said that many people do not seem to need us, but that the sick and the suffering do. And this should be understood from the outset: I will never again be lonely as long as I live. Faith redeems me from loneliness. I will always be supported by a community, but at the same time, I must support the community and, from the first, teach responsibility for the sick, the lonely, the suffering - and thereby the gift is reciprocal.

It is necessary to reawaken an awareness of this great gift in every person, in whom is hidden the readiness to love and to give himself. A guarantee that I, each one of us, has brothers and sisters to support me in difficult situations, when I am in need of a community that does not leave me stranded.

Regarding the importance of religious life, we know that the monastic and contemplative life becomes attractive in the face of the stress of this world. It appears like an oasis in which we can truly live. This may be a romantic view, and discernment of vocation is essential. But at this time, the historical situation makes the contemplative rather than the active religious life more attractice.

Vocations today seem to be more evident among males, in which priests and religious are seen to be carrying out their apostolate in working with young people, ministering to the sick and to those who live alone, etc.

It is unfortunately less visible for female vocations, in which the work of professional educators, doctors and nurses seems to make the religious vocation superfluous. There are qualified lay nurses and qualified lay school teachers, so that it no longer appears to be a religious vocation, and that specific activity will be difficult to resume once the chain of vocations is broken.

But we see more and more that professionalism alone is not enough. . The heart must be put into it - love for the suffering person, for the persono one helps, is necessary. This is true in teaching, as well.

We now have new forms such as secular institutes, whose communities show by their lives that their way of life is good for the person but also for the community. I therefore think that by changing the form of female religious communities - many of our active female communities today began in the 19th century with the specific social challenges of that period and today the challenges are a little different - the Church today makes it clearer that service to the suffering and the defence of life are vocations with a deep religious dimension, and that there are forms [of religious life in which to live such vocations. So many new forms are springing up which make us hope that the Lord will grant the necessary vocations for the life of the Church and the world today.

Pope Benedict XVI then answered the chaplain of the local District Prison, which has 260 inmates of more than 30 different nationalities""
Thank you for your very important and moving words. Shortly before my departure, I had the opportunity to talk to Cardinal Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, who is working on a document on the problem of detainees.

These brothers and sisters suffer and at times feel that their human rights are barely respected; they also feel despised and live in circumstances where Christ's presence is truly necessary. And Jesus, in Matthew's Gospel, anticipating the Last Judgment, speaks explicitly of their plight: "I was... in prison and you did not come to comfort me", "I was... in prison and you came to visit me" (Mt 25: 43; 36).

I am grateful to you, therefore, for having mentioned the threats to human dignity in these circumstances. As priests we must also be brothers to the "least" and see in them the Lord who is waiting for us. and is of the greatest importance. It is my intention, together with Cardinal Martino, to say a word in public on these particular situations that are a mandate for the Church to act, for the faith and for her love.

Lastly, I am grateful that you said that it is not so much what you do that is so important but what you are in your priestly commitment. Of course, we must do many things and not be lazy, but all our work will only bear fruit if it is an expression of what we are. If what we do shows that we are deeply united to Christ, that we are instruments of Christ, a mouthpiece through which Christ speaks, a hand through which Christ acts: we should be convinced. and act with conviction that is truly the result and expression of what we are.[

The next question was about communion for remarried divorcees, [which is the part excerpted in the post above]. Then, a priest asked him for clarification concerning the administration of the Sacrament of Baptism to adults, and about the Compendium of the Catechism. The Pope replied as follows:
The first question on Baptism is very difficult, and I have already had an opportunity to work on it when I was Archbishop of Munich, because we had such cases.

Each individual case should first be clarified: is the obstacle to Baptism such that it is impossible to administer it without 'wasting' the Sacrament, or should the situation make it possible to say, even in a problematic context, "this person has truly converted, has a complete faith, wants to live the faith of the Church, desires to be baptized"?

I think that a general formula would not correspond with the diversity of the real situations: we naturally endeavour to do our utmost to give Baptism to a person who asks for it with full faith, but the details must be examined in each individual case.

If a person is converted [by himself, and not through an ctive effort by the Church] and desires access to Baptism, the Church's desire must be to allow this person to be incorporated into the communion of Christ and of the Church, and to support him or her. The Church must be open as long as there are no obstacles that actually contradict Baptism.

The second point: We all know that in the cultural and intellectual situation of which we spoke at the start, catechesis has become far more difficult. It needs new contexts to be understood and contextualized, so that it may be evident that what we teach concerns the present and the future, and so, a necessary contextualization has been made in the catecheses carried out by the various Bishops' Conferences.

Clear answers are necessary to make it possible to perceive what faith is, a simple way of making people understand. This has sparked a "polemic" in the world of catechists over catechism in the classic sense and the new instruments of catechesis. It is true - I am now speaking only of my German experience - that many of the catechisms used did not achieve their goal: they always prepared the ground but were so concerned with preparing the ground along which the person was to advance that they failed to give the simple answers required. At the same time, classic catechisms no longer appeared to touch the mind of the contemporary catechumen.

So, the Church at last took on this multidimensional commitment: we compiled the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It provides, on the one hand, the necessary cultural contextualizations, but it also gives precise answers.

We wrote it in the awareness that the journey from this Catechism to concrete catechesis would not be an easy one. But we understood that the linguistic, cultural and social situations are very different in the various countries, and even within the same country in different social classes.

Hence, it is the task of the Bishop or of the Bishops' Conference and of the catechists themselves, to undertake this final stage in the task of catechesis. Our position, therefore, was: [This is the reference point for everyone; what the Church believes can be seen here".

Therefore, the Bishops' Conferences should create instruments that apply to the cultural situation and cover the ground that has yet to be covered. Ultimately, the catechist himself or herself must take the last steps, and perhaps the suitable means for these last steps too must be offered to him or her in training.

After several years, we had a meeting in which catechists from across the world told us that the Catechism was going well, that it was a necessary book which helped by conveying the beauty, organic approach and fullness of the faith, but that it needed to be summarized.

The Holy Father John Paul II, having taken note of the consensus at that meeting, charged a Commission to compile this Compendium, that is, a synthesis of the big Catechism to which it refers, extracting the essential.

In the first draft of the Compendium, we wanted to be very concise, bbut in the end we realized that truly to convey what is essential, especially for our time, the necessary material that every catechist needs was what we put into the Compendium. We also added prayers. And I think that it really is a very useful book that "sums up" everything contained in the big Catechism; in this regard, it seems to me that it corresponds in our day to the Catechism of Pius X.

The individual Bishops and Bishops' Conferences remain committed to helping priests and all catechists in their work with this book, as well as to acting as a bridge to specific groups, for the ways of speaking, thinking and understanding differ widely not only between Italy, France, Germany and Africa, but also within the same country, catechesis is received very differently. The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the Compendium, containing the essence of the Catechism, therefore continue to be instruments for the universal Church.

Moreover, we are always in need of the work of the Bishops who, in contact with the priests and catechists, help find all the necessary instruments to facilitate this sowing of the Word.

Lastly, the Holy Father said to everyone present:
I would like to thank you for your questions that help m to consider the future, and especially for this experience of communion with a great presbyterate of a most beautiful Diocese. Thank you.

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The delay in posting the two 'lookback's in the preceding post was mostly because I had nothing 'pre-posted' on on the event in Val d'Aosta in July 2005. I did not join the forums (PAPA RATZINGER FORUM first, and then THE RATZINGER FAN CLUB several days later, till late Augut 2005 - after WYD in Cologne, and I was a complete neophyte on the Internet. I didn't begin posting anything (and only comments at the time) until a few weeks later, when I found I could be most useful translating items from Italian, French, Spanish or German that would not otherwise be immediately reported, if at all, in the Anglophone media.

And I did not really begin attempting a daily chronicle of Benedict XVI's Pontificate until late November 2005 when the PAPA RATZINGER FORUM opened an English section to accommodate those of us who were more or less forced out of the RFC - me for 'posting too much', I was explicitly reprimanded online - because of a sudden ban by the forum on posting copyrighted photos. Of course, everyone has always posted copyrighted photos on forums and blogs which are by nature non-commercial (and even the RFC soon resumed posting copyrighted photos), and I have yet to read of anyone sued by the photo agencies for using their photos on non-commercial sites....But soon enough, none of that mattered at all.

I took the shortest way out of my dilemma on 'nothing to re-post' -because I never had an original post on the event - by simply translating the excerpt on Benedict XVI's answer regarding remarried divorcees which was provided in Italian by Cascioli. A Google search of images of 'Benedict XVI with the clergy of Aosta, July 2005' did not get me anything, so I first posted the Aosta excerpt without a photo.

Tonight I decided to search the PRF for photos - that Forum started in May 2005, so it would have photos from July 2005, since its FOTA DAPAPA gallery was the most popular B16 site during the first few months of the Pontificate. Except, of course, that in those early months, everyone simply posted the photos from their original source - before we all discovered the necessity of using ImageShack or Photobucket to store the photos we chose so that they would not disappear when the originak photo sources took them offline - which is what happened, alack and aolas!, to most of the photos lovingly posted during the first few months of B16's Pontificate.

To my great surprise, quite a few of the photos from B16's first summer vacation as Pope - to Les Combes in Val d'Aosta, which is why he addressed the diocesan clergy there in July 2005 - survived the offline blitz somehow, and that is how I have the few photos I am reproducing here.