Pope urges Venetians to promote a welcoming and sharing culture
Continuing his pastoral visit to northeastern Italy, Pope Benedict greeted thousands
of faithful packed into Venice's St. Mark's Square and urged the city and its people
to assume important responsibilities in the promotion of a welcoming and sharing culture.
He also recalled Venice's special vocation over the centuries of being a bridge between
East and West. Our correspondent in Venice, Chris Altieri, sent this report on the
pope's arrival in the lagoon city and his address to its inhabitants:
"The
Sun was rapidly setting as Pope Benedict XVI approached the pier at St Mark’s Square
in Venice Saturday evening, where he greeted the city fathers and the faithful before
going into the Basilica of St. Mark for private, prayerful recollection and veneration
of the evangelist’s relics, which have been conserved in the basilica for more than
a thousand years.
All the way in, shouts went up from the square, barges blasted
their water canon and church bells pealed their sonorous salute to Peter, as the lion
of St Mark danced in the seaward breeze.
After his landing and reception by
the civil authorities of the city, the region and the Italian republic, there was
a brief tour of the piazza, where thousands of Venetians were on hand to greet his
Holiness – and then, Pope Benedict climbed the stair and took his place on the richly
carpeted raised red dais.
As they had that afternoon in Aquileia, Pope Benedict’s
evening remarks in Venice went beyond the perfunctory exchange of pleasantries that
these encounters always have – though in Venice, the perfunctory entails a great deal
of pomp and pageantry. Rather, the Holy Father again praised the the past glory of
la serenissima, and challenged this Venetian generation to be the equals and even
the betters of their forbears, who, he said, were honest and industrious, with great
sensibility, organizational skills and what in everyday language is called “good sense.”
“This patrimony of civil traditions, culture and art,” said Pope Benedict,
“found rich development thanks also to Venetians’ embrace of the acceptance of Christian
faith.”
The power of the faith to inform and perfect the culture in which and
to which it is proclaimed: this has been a constant refrain of Pope Benedict’s pontificate:
a motif of his thinking with the Church for decades before his election; and it has
been a central theme of this visit to northeastern Italy.
“Over the centuries,”
said Pope Benedict, “the faith transmitted by the first evangelists weaved itself
ever more deeply into the social fabric, and eventually became an essential part of
it.” – and the beautiful churches and the many devotional shrines that line, adorn
and connect the streets, canals and bridges of Venice are visible proof of this.
Recalling
the Church of the Redeemer and the Sanctuary of the Madonna della Salute – this last
being an untranslatable play on the twofold meaning of the Latin and Italian words
for health and also for salvation – both of which were built in fulfilment of Venetians’
vows, made to obtain divine deliverance from a plague that was upon the city – Pope
Benedict said, “Your ancestors knew very well that human life is in God's hands and
that without his blessing man builds in vain.”
“So,” prayed Pope Benedict,
“as I visit your city, I ask the Lord to give you all a sincere and fruitful faith,
a faith that can nourish both great hope, and the patient search for the common good.”