The Pope's Wednesday catecheses
Translated from
the Italian service of
July 15, 2009
It's the third day of Benedict XVI's vacation in the mountains of Val D'Aosta. He is resting away from the crowds which, particularly on Wednesday, like today, flock to St. Peter's Square to listen to his catechesis at the General Audience.
Alessandro De Carolis gives an overview of these catecheses, particularly how Benedict XVI has structured them.
It was Pius XII who 'invented' an audience that would be regularly open to the general public, in St. Peter's Square or elsewhere, and during which he could develop the themes of his magisterium.
The first such catechesis preserved in the Holy See's archive was given on April 28, 1939, one and a half months after he had been elected Pope. Almost all the catecheses that year were on matrimony, conjugal love and the family.
Quite different from what we have become accustomed to in Papa Ratzinger's catecheses, of which he has given 22 so far in 2009, during which he ended his Pauline Year cycle on February 4.
The recent volume published by the Vatican publishing house LEV on the Apostle Paul was the sixth [???] one based on Benedict XVI's Wednesday catecheses.
His first cycle, from May 2005 to February 2006, was actually in completion of a cycle begun by John Paul II on the Psalms and Canticles for Lauds and Vespers.
He then began his 'own' catechetical cycles with an individual look at each of the Apostles (including St. Matthias, whom the Eleven picked to replace Judas Iscariot, and St. Paul, to whom he devoted four catecheses in this cycle), ending this in February 2007.
[He explained when he began the series that he wished to present the eternal teachings of the Church established by Jesus Christ through the lives and teachings of those who have been the most prominent witnesses for Christ.]
The third cycle, lasting till June 2008, was on the figures of the early Church - the first and second generations following the Apostles.
He 'interrupted' his chronological presentation of the figures who have shaped the Church through the centuries with his 20-part cycle on St. Paul for the Pauline Year.
Papa Ratzinger then resumed his review of the great Church figures with a cycle on the great writers of the Eastern and Western Churches in the Middle Ages.
The General Audiences have also been an occasion for the Popes to comment on important events for the Pontificate, such as their apostolic trips abroad, encyclicals and special messages to the world, as Benedict XVI recently did to report on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, on the Year for Priests that he decreed for 2009-2010, and on his third encyclical,
Caritas in veritate, which was his last catechesis before going on his annual summer vacation.
The Wednesday General Audiences will resume in Castel Gandolfo in August.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/07/2009 15:52]