BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Benedict XVI in Nemi:
'My most beautiful memory of Vatican-II'
Translated from

July 9, 2012

At 11:30 this morning, the Holy Fathr Benedict XVI left the Pontifical Villas in Castel Gandolfo by car to visit the Centro Ad Gentes of the Divine Word missionaries in nearby Nemi.

The place, then called the International Center of the Society for the Divine Word (SVD), hosted the work of the Vatican-II Commission on Mission in 1965, in which then Fr. Joseph Ratzinger took part as a theological consultant to the Council.




The Pope was greeted in Nemi by the newly-elected SVD Superior-General Fr. Heinz Kulüke, the outgoing Superior General Fr. Antonio Pernia, and the Procurator-General, Fr. Giancarlo Girardi.

At the main chapel of the Center, the Holy Father was welcomed by 150 participants in the order's annual General Chapter meeting and by the community of the diocesan Curia of Rome.

After adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Fr. Kulüke formally welcomed the Holy Father, who went on to deliver brief remarks extemporaneously.





Here is a translation of the Holy Father's remarks:

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I am truly grateful for the chance to revisit, after 47 years, this center in Nemi, of which I have the most beautiful memories, perhaps the most beautiful of Vatican-II.

[At the time], I lived in the center of Rome, in the Collegio di Santa Maria dell’Anima, with all the noises of the city. That, too, was beautiful. But to be here, amid greenery, to have this breath of Nature and the freshness of the air, is in itself beautiful.

And then, there was the company of so many great theologians, with an assignment as important and beautiful as to prepare the Council decree on mission.

I remember, first of all, the Superior-General at the time, Fr. Schütte, who had suffered in China, was sentenced and then expelled. He was full of missionary dynamism, of the need do to give a new thrust to the missionary spirit.

And there was me, a theologian of no importance, rather young, who had been invited to take part for some reason. But it was a great gift for me.

There was Fulton Sheen, who fascinated us in the evenings with his discourses; and Father Congar and the great missiologists from Louvain. It was truly an experience of spiritual enrichment for me, a great gift.

The decree that we worked on did not involve great controversies. But there was one that I did not really understand, between the school of Louvain and the shcool of Muenster: What was the principal objective of mission? Was it implantatio Ecclesiae or announcing the Gospel?

But everything converged into one dynamic: the need to bring forth the light of the Word of God, the light of God's love, to the world, and to give the world new joy by this announcement.

Thus was born in those days a good and beautiful decree, which was accepted almost unanimmously by the Council Fathers, and which I also consider a very good complement to Lumen gentium, because it expresses a Trinitarian ecclesiology, which starts off from the classic idea of bonum diffusivum sui - goodness has the inherent necessity to communicate itself, to give itself.

It cannot remain by itself - goodness is essentially communication. And this we already see in the Trinitarian mystery, within God himself, which is disseminated in the story of salvation and our need to give to others any goodness we have received.

It is with these memories that I think of those days in Nemi which are, for me, an essential part of my Council experience.

I am happy to see that your society is flourishing - the Father General spoke of more than 6.000 members in so many countries. Clearly, missionary dynamism is alive, and it lives as long as there is joy in the Gospel, if we stay with the experience of goodness that comes from God, which should be communicated and wants to be communicated. Thank you for this dynamism.

I wish every blessing and great inspiration from the Lord for your Chapter meeting. May the same inspiring powers of the Holy Spirit which was with us almost visibly in those days [of the Council] be present anew among you and help pave the way forward for your society as well as for the mission ad gentes in the coming years.

I thnak you all. God bless you. Pray for me, as I pray for you. Thank you.

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The Holy Father receives a carved wooden image of a Balinese Madonna from an Indonesian artisan. The SVD has a large community of missionaries in that country, which has the world's largest Muslim national population.

Right, the SVD fathers show the Pope some of the photo albums and the guest register from the 1965 work session he attended. (B/W photos from tomorrow's OR).


With an original photo, VATICAN INSIDER was able to do a much better blow-up from the 1965 group photo than I could from the OR photolift - too bad their photo editor appears not to have recognized the Venerable Fulton Sheen (foreground) and cropped his face in half:

The only cardinal in the group is the commission chairman, Armenian Cardinal Gregory Agagianian (1895-1971), who was Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples at the time (he had turned out to be the closest competitor to Angelo Roncalli in the 1958 Conclave). Fr. Congar is one of the four Dominicans in the photo - I think, fourth from left in the third row.