Pope Greets Youth at Weekly Audience

(12 Mar 08 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI combined his General Audience today with a greeting to students in St Peter’s Basilica.

Young people took centre stage on Wednesday when, before his General Audience, Pope Benedict greeted thousands of Italian students in St Peter’s Basilica.

Many of the students waving yellow baseball caps and some wearing traditional regional dress welcomed the Holy Father and listened as he told them that, in today society marked by rapid and deep changes, young people who want to follow Christ need to work constantly on their spiritual formation and try to understand ever more fully the contents of the faith.

This meeting of youth comes before the Pope presides over a Penitential Liturgy in St Peter’s Basilica for the youth of the Diocese of Rome on Thursday in preparation for the 23^rd World Youth Day which will be celebrated on Palm Sunday.

After a short journey to the Paul the VI Hall Pope Benedict was greeted by a cross section of people from all age groups who had come from near and far to be at Wednesday’s audience.

Continuing his catechesis on the Father’s of the Church the Pope this week spoke about two great Christian writers from the Italian peninsula during the period after the fall of the Roman Empire in the West: Boethius and Cassiodorus.


 
Both were anxious to preserve the heritage of Greek and Roman learning, handed down through generations of Christian believers, in the context of the Gothic culture that dominated Italy at the time. Boethius, born in Rome in 480, entered public life and became a senator, though he continued his philosophical and religious studies alongside his public responsibilities. Unjustly imprisoned and later executed by King Theodoric, he wrote his greatest philosophical work in prison. Reflecting on the injustice of his situation, in the light of Biblical Wisdom literature and Classical authors, he concluded that true happiness lies in continuing to hope in God, despite adversity. Indeed, harsh fortune helps us to distinguish true friends from false ones, and there can be few greater consolations than that of true friendship. His contemporary, Cassiodorus, devoted much time and energy to promoting the monastic movement, in the belief that monks were the people best placed to preserve and hand on the heritage of Classical Christian culture. We would do well to take note of his advice to them: “Meditate day and night on the law of the Lord and always focus your attention upon Christ.”

One of those present at the audience was Bishop of Haarlem in the Netherlands, Joseph Punt.

We are happy to join this audience and to hear and experience the Holy Father in a personal contact.

Towards the end of his audience the Pope spoke in Latin to a group of students and their teachers from the Scarensis Cathedral School. He encouraged them in their studies and hoped they enjoyed the antiquities of Rome both Christian and Classical.

As always Pope Benedict greeted all the pilgrims present in a number of languages including English.

I am pleased to welcome the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors here today, including groups from England, Ireland, Japan, Australia, Scandinavia, and North America.

At the conclusion of the audience the Holy Father imparted his apostolic blessing upon the faithful.