Pope Benedict recalls Pope Paul VI, sends greetings to China before Olympics

 
(August 4, 2008) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday remembered his predecessor, Pope Paul VI, who died on August 6, 1978, recalling his providential role in the critical period in the Catholic Church during and after the Second Vatican Council. "As supreme Pastor of the Church, he led the people of God to the contemplation of the face of Christ, Redeemer of man and Lord of history,” Pope Benedict said before reciting the traditional Marian “Angelus” prayer at midday in Bressanone, a town in the Italian Alps where he is on a two-week vacation. “The loving orientation of the mind and heart toward Christ was precisely one of the central themes of Vatican Council II,” which Pope Benedict said was a fundamental attitude that his venerable predecessor John Paul II inherited and presented again with the great Jubilee of 2000. “At the centre of everything, Christ is always and only there - at the centre of the Sacred Scriptures and of Tradition, in the heart of the Church, the world, and the entire universe,” Pope Benedict said. He pointed out that Divine Providence had called Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, from the see of Milan to that of Rome at the most delicate moment of the Council - when the intuition of Blessed John XXIII was in danger of not taking shape. Speaking of the fruitful and courageous pastoral action of Pope Paul VI, Pope Benedict said, his merit appears ever greater, almost superhuman, in presiding over the Second Vatican Council and bringing it to a successful conclusion and managing the eventful post-conciliar phase. He urged all to strive to treasure his teachings.
The ground-breaking Second Vatican Council, that breathed a new life into the Church, had opened under the inspiring leadership of Pope John XXIII in 1962 and closed under Pope Paul VI in 1965. At least four future pontiffs took part in the council's opening session: Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini, who on succeeding Pope John XXIII took the name of Paul VI; Bishop Albino Luciani, the future Pope John Paul I; Bishop Karol Wojtyla, who became Pope John Paul II; and 35-year-old Father Joseph Ratzinger, present as a theological consultant, who more than forty years later became Pope Benedict XVI.
After praying the midday ‘Angelus’ on Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI sent his greetings to China before the Olympics and said he hoped the Games would offer an example of coexistence among people from different countries. He said he will follow the Olympics, which opens on Friday, August 8, with a sense of “deep friendship” and expressed hope the games can represent “a pledge of brotherhood and peace among people.” “I follow with deep friendship this great sporting event - the most important and awaited on a world level - and I wish that it offer the international community a valid example of coexistence among people of different background in the respect of mutual dignity,” the pope told the faithful gathered in Bressanone. The 81-year old pontiff sent his greetings to China, organizers of the Games and the athletes, expressing hope that “each can give their best in the true Olympic spirit.” "May sport once again be a symbol of fraternity and peace among peoples," Pope Benedict wished.
The German-born Pope has made the improvement of relations with Beijing a priority of his papacy. China's officially atheistic Communist Party forced Chinese Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, and the two sides have not restored formal ties. Many of China's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church. Last year, Pope Benedict sent a special letter to Catholics in China, praising the underground church, but also urging the faithful to reconcile with followers of the official church. China says that before restoring ties, the Vatican must first sever relations with Taiwan, which Beijing considers a renegade province.The Holy Father will end his two-week vacation in Bressanone next Monday and return to the summer papal residence at Castel Gandolfo outside Rome, where he will resume his normal schedule.