Meeting of ex-students of Pope Ratzinger

(August 27, 2011) Former students of the Pope gathered at Castel Gandolfo, Saturday to continue their annual summer seminar. Since last Thursday these students have been meeting at the Mariapoli centre in Castel Gandolfo. Saturday the seminar was resumed at the Pontifical Palace in the presence of the Pope. The suffering of a whole generation of older people, has been highlighted at the seminar, as pointed out by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Archbishop of Vienna. A generation that had lived in the heyday of Catholicism, now witnessed the empty churches and parishes. But a new wave of hope has been injected into the Church by the World Youth Day just terminated in Madrid. The students at the seminar were struck by the fervour of the youth, who though a tiny minority amid their peer groups that have grown lax and secular, were determined to bear witness to their faith precisely among such peer groups and to usher in a new springtime for the church.