Pope's Sunday visit to Pope Paul VI's birthplace

(November 9, 2009) Pope Paul VI's priesthood was under the protection of Mary and devotion to her accompanied him for his whole life, said Pope Benedict XVI. The Pope spoke of his predecessor on Sunday before praying the midday ‘Angelus’ with crowds who attended a Mass the Holy Father celebrated in the northern Italian city of Brescia, where Giovanni Montini, the Future Paul VI, was born. Pope Benedict XVI made a one-day trip to Pope Paul VI's birthplace on Sunday. With a brief discourse, the German Pontiff highlighted a particular contribution his predecessor made to Marian devotion. When the Second Vatican Council promulgated the dogmatic constitution “Lumen Gentium’ on Nov. 21, 1964, during the pontificate of Paul VI, it had an entire chapter dedicated to the Madonna as its apex and crown. Pope Paul VI noted that it contained the largest synthesis of Marian doctrine ever elaborated by an ecumenical council, with the purpose of 'manifesting the countenance of the Church to which Mary is intimately joined. It was in this context that Paul VI proclaimed Mary Most Holy Mother of the Church, Pope Benedict recalled.
Earlier at the Mass celebrated in Brescia’s Paul VI Square, Pope Benedict observed that Pope Paul VI dedicated all his energies to serving the Church so that contemporary man may find Christ in it. He said this in reference to Sunday’s Mass readings on the two widows. In giving everything, the widow of the Gospel, like the widow in the Old Testament, gives herself and puts herself in the hand of God for others, the Pope observed. He cited several thoughts of Pope Paul VI to show his total dedication to the Church of Christ. Given the current Year of Priests, Pope Benedict drew attention to his predecessors’ encyclical on priestly celibacy, "Sacerdotalis Caelibatus." In the encyclical, Pope Paul VI recalls that the total abandonment of the priest to Christ manifests the virginal love of Jesus for the Church, and the virginal and supernatural fecundity of this marriage.
During his Sunday visit to Brescia Pope Benedict also inaugurated a new premises of the Paul VI Institute. At the ceremony the Pope spoke of the complete harmony there should be between the cultural and religious dimensions of education, so that young people are truly prepared to meet modernity. Observing that we are going through a real ‘educational crisis’ he said that "it is necessary to transmit to future generations something valid, solid rules for comportment, to indicate lofty objectives toward which one should decisively order one’s life." "The demand for an education capable of meeting the expectations of young people grows," the Pontiff observed, "an education that is first of all witness and, for the Christian educator, witness of faith.” Particularly highlighting Paul VI's emphasis on an education that unites culture and faith, Pope Benedict said his predecessor can give us guidance in this area. Pope Paul pointed to some negative characteristics in modern culture, such as subjectivism, individualism and the unlimited affirmation of the subject. At the same time, he held the necessity of dialogue on the basis of a solid doctrinal formation, whose unifying principle was faith in Christ; a mature Christian ‘consciousness,’ therefore, capable of confrontation with everyone, without, however, ceding to the fashions of the time.”