Year of Faith: hopes for year of great grace

(Vatican Radio) The Year of Faith proclaimed by Pope Benedict kicks off on October 11^th. This Thursday also marks the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and is also the twentieth anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

To find out how he will be reflecting on this Year of Faith, we caught up with the Archbishop Emeritus of Philadelphia in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania as he joined thousands of faithful for last week’s General Audience in St. Peter’s square. We discovered that Cardinal Justin Rigali is not only looking forward to the opportunities this Year will provide in terms of spiritual growth, but he’s also looking back to that October 11^th 1962 when he was among the Church fathers to gather for the opening of Vatican II.

“I had the privilege of being in the Basilica fifty years ago on October 11th,” explains the Cardinal, saying he was present as Pope John XXIII inaugurated the Second Vatican Council. “At the time, (it was) the Feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Mother.”

“And now, in this extraordinary occasion, Pope Benedict, who was also present as one of the experts in the Council, now it is his role to commemorate this magnificent event and at the same time, as he commemorates this event, to lead the entire Church in this ‘cammino’ – this pilgrimage – in the Year of Faith.

“Pope Benedict, together with the entire Church, is so hopeful that this Year of Faith will be a year of great grace when people will open their hearts and their minds to the Gospel once again and turn to our Lord Jesus Christ who is the way of the Truth and the Life.”

Listen to the extended interview with Cardinal Rigali in which he talks about preparations for the Year of Faith, the World Meeting for Families to be hosted in 2013 by his Archdiocese of Philadelphia, and Catholic education: