Pope encourages search for truth, defends family

(April 23, 2007) Benedict XVI on Sunday visited the tomb of St Augustine, the intellectual 5th century theologian who had major impact on Western thought, and urged Catholics to never stop seeking the truth and God. The 80-year-old Pope, on the second day of a weekend trip to northern Italy, celebrated an open-air mass for some 20,000 people gathered on a riverside field in Pavia city southwest of Milan. The German-born pontiff, one of the Catholic Church's top theologians even before he was elected Pope two years ago, dedicated most of his homily at the mass to St. Augustine, who was born in North Africa and is considered one of history's greatest thinkers. His major writings, including "Confessions,", "The City of God," and "Of Free Choice of the Will," are considered to be central to the developing of both Western theology and Western thought in the first millennium.
St. Augustine, who lived from 354-430, was raised a Christian but renounced his faith as a teenager, only to convert again to Christianity in his mid 30s. "There is no need for me to say how much this regards us,” Pope Benedict said. “We should remain people who seek, who are not content with what others do and say," the Pope said. In 1953 the future pope wrote his doctoral thesis on St. Augustine and cites him often in his writings and speeches. Before heading back to Rome, the Pope prayed at Augustine's tomb in the basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro. The remains of the saint, who lived from 354-430, were moved to Italy for protection several hundred years after his death in what is now Algeria. Pope Benedict's visit to Pavia came amid celebrations marking the 750th anniversary of the Augustinians as a single religious order.
Earlier on Saturday, the Pope pressed his campaign in support of traditional families, saying that they are the «fundamental» element of society and need to be defended. Celebrating an open-air Mass in the colonnaded piazza of Vigevano, a fortified town southwest of Milan, the Pope said that families are “the fundamental element of social life.” “Only by working in favor of families can the fabric of the ecclesial community and civil society be renewed,» the pontiff stressed. After he was interrupted by applause, he added: «I see we're in agreement.» Pope Benedict has spearheaded a Vatican campaign defending the «traditional family» based on marriage between a man and a woman. His support has emboldened Italy's bishops, who are waging a fierce battle against the government's proposal to extend some rights to non-married couples, including same-sex unions. Vigevano diocese was the only diocese in the region not visited by Pope John Paul II during his globe-trotting 26-year pontificate. The Vigevano stop was the first leg of a two-day trip to the region.