Pope meets primary school children

(September 24, 2010) In a rare meeting with primary school children on Thursday evening, Pope Benedict XVI went down memory lane and gave a glimpse of his own childhood when he started going to school 77 years ago. Some 70 children, their parents and teachers of schools run by the Pontifical Institute of the Religious Teachers Filippini met the Pope at the summer papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, out side Rome. The Pope recalled that it was in a ‘small village of 300 souls’ that he started to learn the essentials. “Above all, we learned to read and write and I think it was a great thing to write and read, so that we could know about the thoughts of others,” the Pope said recalling the thrill of learning. By reading newspapers and books, he said, we can know about what was written two thousand years ago or even more. But above all, the Pope said, one extraordinary thing about learning is to know God. He said, “God wrote a book, i.e. he spoke to us men and found persons who wrote the book of the Word of God, so that it could be read.” The Holy Father said that it is very important in school to learn everything that is needed for life and also to learn to know God, know Jesus and thus know how to live well. The Pope thus urged the primary school children to make Jesus the first among their best friends as He is the friend of all who really provides us the way of life.