Pope's Sunday 'Regina Coeli' address

(June 1, 2009) “The Holy Spirit is the Soul of the Church”. Without it the Church would only be “a great historical movement, a complex and solid social institution, perhaps even a type of humanitarian agency”, as it is often regarded by people who cannot see it with the eyes of the faith. Pope Benedict made the remark on Sunday as he addressed thousands of pilgrims in St. Peter's Square before reciting the traditional midday ‘Regina Coeli’ prayer. He said that the Church’s true nature and real historic presence has ceaselessly been guided and formed by the Spirit and the Lord., because of which it is a living body. Noting that this year’s Pentecost Sunday fell on the May 31^st feast of visitation of Mary to Elizabeth, the pontiff pointed out that the young Mary, carrying Christ in her womb, forgets herself to run to the aid of others. He explained that she is a wonderful icon for the Church in “the perennial youth of the Spirit, the Missionary Church of the Word Incarnate, called to bring it to the world and witness it particularly through charity”. He urged all to pray to Mary so that the Church may be continually strengthened by the Holy Spirit.
After praying the ‘Regina Coeli’, Pope Benedict said that these days the World Youth Day Cross was making its round in the Italian Abruzzo region that was devastated by the April 6 earthquake. He said that a group of volunteers of the San Lorenzo centre, next to the Vatican, was gathering many people around this cross. “In communion with that region, hard hit by the earthquake," the Pontiff said, "we ask Christ dead and risen to pour put his Spirit of consolation and hope upon them." On Saturday the cross was brought to a student house where eight youth died in L'Aquila, a town near the epicenter of the earthquake that claimed some 300 lives. On Sunday the cross was brought to the training school of the Guardia de Financia where the bishop of the region, Archbishop Giuseppe Molinari, celebrated the Mass of the Pentecost with confirmations. During the rest of the day it travelled to different areas where fields of tents for the displaced have been raised. It will be brought back to Rome on Tuesday, and will go to different cities of Spain before the World Youth Day in Madrid, planned for August 2011.