(Vatican Radio) Pope Benedict XVI held the final General Audience of his pontificate
on Wednesday in St Peter's Square. Listen to our report:
Below, please
find Vatican Radio's English translation of the Holy Father's remarks.
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Venerable
Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood! Distinguished Authorities! Dear
brothers and sisters!
Thank you for coming in such large numbers to this last
General Audience of my pontificate.
Like the Apostle Paul in the biblical text
that we have heard, I feel in my heart the paramount duty to thank God, who guides
the Church and makes her grow: who sows His Word and thus nourishes the faith in His
people. At this moment my spirit reaches out to embrace the whole Church throughout
the world, and I thank God for the “news” that in these years of Petrine ministry
I have been able to receive regarding the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
charity that circulates in the body of the Church – charity that makes the Church
to live in love – and of the hope that opens for us the way towards the fullness of
life, and directs us towards the heavenly homeland.
I feel I [ought to] carry
everyone in prayer, in a present that is God’s, where I recall every meeting, every
voyage, every pastoral visit. I gather everyone and every thing in prayerful recollection,
in order to entrust them to the Lord: in order that we might have full knowledge of
His will, with every wisdom and spiritual understanding, and in order that we might
comport ourselves in a manner that is worthy of Him, of His, bearing fruit in every
good work (cf. Col 1:9-10).
At this time, I have within myself a great trust
[in God], because I know – all of us know – that the Gospel’s word of truth is the
strength of the Church: it is her life. The Gospel purifies and renews: it bears fruit
wherever the community of believers hears and welcomes the grace of God in truth and
lives in charity. This is my faith, this is my joy.
When, almost eight years
ago, on April 19th, [2005], I agreed to take on the Petrine ministry, I
held steadfast in this certainty, which has always accompanied me. In that moment,
as I have already stated several times, the words that resounded in my heart were:
“Lord, what do you ask of me? It a great weight that You place on my shoulders, but,
if You ask me, at your word I will throw out the nets, sure that you will guide me”
– and the Lord really has guided me. He has been close to me: daily could I feel His
presence. [These years] have been a stretch of the Church’s pilgrim way, which has
seen moments joy and light, but also difficult moments. I have felt like St. Peter
with the Apostles in the boat on the Sea of Galilee: the Lord has given us many
days of sunshine and gentle breeze, days in which the catch has been abundant; [then]
there have been times when the seas were rough and the wind against us, as in the
whole history of the Church it has ever been - and the Lord seemed to sleep. Nevertheless,
I always knew that the Lord is in the barque, that the barque of the Church is not
mine, not ours, but His - and He shall not let her sink. It is He, who steers her:
to be sure, he does so also through men of His choosing, for He desired that it be
so. This was and is a certainty that nothing can tarnish. It is for this reason, that
today my heart is filled with gratitude to God, for never did He leave me or the Church
without His consolation, His light, His love.
We are in the Year of Faith,
which I desired in order to strengthen our own faith in God in a context that seems
to push faith more and more toward the margins of life. I would like to invite everyone
to renew firm trust in the Lord. I would like that we all, entrust ourselves as children
to the arms of God, and rest assured that those arms support us and us to walk every
day, even in times of struggle. I would like everyone to feel loved by the God who
gave His Son for us and showed us His boundless love. I want everyone to feel the
joy of being Christian. In a beautiful prayer to be recited daily in the morning says,
“I adore you, my God, I love you with all my heart. I thank You for having created
me, for having made me a Christian.” Yes, we are happy for the gift of faith: it is
the most precious good, that no one can take from us! Let us thank God for this every
day, with prayer and with a coherent Christian life. God loves us, but He also expects
that we love Him!
At this time, however, it is not only God, whom I desire
to thank. A Pope is not alone in guiding St. Peter’s barque, even if it is his first
responsibility – and I have not ever felt myself alone in bearing either the joys
or the weight of the Petrine ministry. The Lord has placed next to me many people,
who, with generosity and love for God and the Church, have helped me and been close
to me. First of all you, dear Brother Cardinals: your wisdom, your counsels, your
friendship, were all precious to me. My collaborators, starting with my Secretary
of State, who accompanied me faithfully over the years, the Secretariat of State and
the whole Roman Curia, as well as all those who, in various areas, give their service
to the Holy See: the many faces which never emerge, but remain in the background,
in silence, in their daily commitment, with a spirit of faith and humility. They have
been for me a sure and reliable support. A special thought [goes] to the Church of
Rome, my diocese! I can not forget the Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
the consecrated persons and the entire People of God: in pastoral visits, in public
encounters, at Audiences, in traveling, I have always received great care and deep
affection; I also loved each and every one, without exception, with that pastoral
charity which is the heart of every shepherd, especially the Bishop of Rome, the Successor
of the Apostle Peter. Every day I carried each of you in my prayers, with the father's
heart.
I wish my greetings and my thanks to reach everyone: the heart of a
Pope expands to [embrace] the whole world. I would like to express my gratitude to
the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See, which makes present the great family
of nations. Here I also think of all those who work for good communication, whom I
thank for their important service.
At this point I would like to offer heartfelt
thanks to all the many people throughout the whole world, who, in recent weeks have
sent me moving tokens of concern, friendship and prayer. Yes, the Pope is never alone:
now I experience this [truth] again in a way so great as to touch my very heart. The
Pope belongs to everyone, and so many people feel very close to him. It’s true that
I receive letters from the world's greatest figures - from the Heads of State, religious
leaders, representatives of the world of culture and so on. I also receive many letters
from ordinary people who write to me simply from their heart and let me feel their
affection, which is born of our being together in Christ Jesus, in the Church. These
people do not write me as one might write, for example, to a prince or a great figure
one does not know. They write as brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, with the
sense of very affectionate family ties. Here, one can touch what the Church is – not
an organization, not an association for religious or humanitarian purposes, but a
living body, a community of brothers and sisters in the Body of Jesus Christ, who
unites us all. To experience the Church in this way and almost be able to touch with
one’s hands the power of His truth and His love, is a source of joy, in a time in
which many speak of its decline.
In recent months, I felt that my strength
had decreased, and I asked God with insistence in prayer to enlighten me with His
light to make me take the right decision – not for my sake, but for the good of the
Church. I have taken this step in full awareness of its severity and also its novelty,
but with a deep peace of mind. Loving the Church also means having the courage to
make difficult, trying choices, having ever before oneself the good of the Church
and not one’s own.
Here allow me to return once again to April 19, 2005. The
gravity of the decision was precisely in the fact that from that moment on I was committed
always and forever by the Lord. Always – he, who assumes the Petrine ministry no longer
has any privacy. He belongs always and totally to everyone, to the whole Church.
His life is, so to speak, totally deprived of the private sphere. I have felt, and
I feel even in this very moment, that one receives one’s life precisely when he offers
it as a gift. I said before that many people who love the Lord also love the Successor
of Saint Peter and are fond of him, that the Pope has truly brothers and sisters,
sons and daughters all over the world, and that he feels safe in the embrace of their
communion, because he no longer belongs to himself, but he belongs to all and all
are truly his own.
The “always” is also a “forever” - there is no returning
to private life. My decision to forgo the exercise of active ministry, does not revoke
this. I do not return to private life, to a life of travel, meetings, receptions,
conferences and so on. I do not abandon the cross, but remain in a new way near to
the Crucified Lord. I no longer wield the power of the office for the government of
the Church, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, within St. Peter’s
bounds. St. Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, shall be a great example in this
for me. He showed us the way to a life which, active or passive, belongs wholly to
the work of God.
I thank each and every one of you for the respect and understanding
with which you have welcomed this important decision. I continue to accompany the
Church on her way through prayer and reflection, with the dedication to the Lord and
to His Bride, which I have hitherto tried to live daily and that I would live forever.
I ask you to remember me before God, and above all to pray for the Cardinals, who
are called to so important a task, and for the new Successor of Peter, that the Lord
might accompany him with the light and the power of His Spirit.
Let us invoke
the maternal intercession of Mary, Mother of God and of the Church, that she might
accompany each of us and the whole ecclesial community: to her we entrust ourselves,
with deep trust.
Dear friends! God guides His Church, maintains her always,
and especially in difficult times. Let us never lose this vision of faith, which is
the only true vision of the way of the Church and the world. In our heart, in the
heart of each of you, let there be always the joyous certainty that the Lord is near,
that He does not abandon us, that He is near to us and that He surrounds us with His
love. Thank you!