Nazism's culture of death made me discover my vocation, says Pope Benedict

(April 07, 2006) : “It was the brutality of Nazism and the antihuman culture that confirmed to me that the Gospel shows us the right road, that we must help so that its road will triumph”, said Pope Benedict while responding to one of the five youth of the diocese of Rome. About 30,000 youth of the diocese of Rome took part on Thursday evening in a meeting in St. Peter’s Square to prepare for the upcoming World Youth Day to be held on 9^th April worldwide on the diocesan level. Replying to a question about his vocation, Pope Benedict further said: “I grew up in a world very different to the present one. There was the Nazi regime that was telling me the new Germany would no longer need priests. My vocation grew almost naturally with me, I discovered the beauty of the liturgy which, in a certain sense, opens up the heavens,” the Pontiff said. Among the questions posed, one was about the family, marriage and sexuality. And to the question “what is expected of us”, Benedict XVI replied: “Making God present in society”. The meeting swiftly turned into a celebration that re-evoked memories of Pope John Paul II, who came up with the idea of World Youth Day in 1984. The youth carried the World Youth Day cross inside the basilica and went to pay homage at the tomb of Karol Wojtyla with Pope Benedict.