Benedict XVI's first audience with the College of Cardinals
Vatican City (AsiaNews) Speaking during the traditional first audience with the College of Cardinals that began at 11 am in the Apostolic Palace's Clementine Hall, newly-elected Pope Benedict XVI admitted to experiencing a rollercoaster of "strong emotions", ranging from a "strong desire to thank" God and the entire Church to a "human sense of impotence".
After mentioning the "intense emotions he experienced" because of John Paul II's death, the conclave and its "outcome", and talking about his "intimate need for silence", the Pope gave "thanks to God Who, despite my human frailty, elected me as Successor to the Apostle Peter" and to the "bishops, priests, male and female religious, young and old alike", whom he met in a "truly emotional" manner on the evening of his election in St Peter's Square, "for their spiritual solidarity" and prayers during the conclave.
Benedict XVI thanked all the cardinals for the collaboration and the trust they gave to running the Church during the period of vacant see and said that he was confident in their support.
"Please," he said, "do not ever deprive me of your support! If, on the one hand, I am aware of my own limits; on the other, I know very well the nature of the mission that was given on me and which I am ready to undertake with an attitude of inner dedication".
"It is not a question of honours," the Pope added, "but of undertaking a service with simplicity and availability, just as Our Lord and Master did when he came not to be served but to serve (cf Mt, 20: 28), which he demonstrated in the last supper when he washed the feet of the Apostles and told them to do the same".
The Pontiff recalled his predecessors, beginning with John XXIII, but focusing especially on John Paul II, "whose witness over the last days supported us more than ever, and whose ever-living presence we continue to feel."
"The painful event of his death coming after a period of trial and suffering was instead a Paschal experience as he said in his testament (24.II - 1.III.1980)."
"The light and strength of the Risen Christ radiated in the Church by that kind of 'last mass' that he celebrated in his agony, culminating in the 'Amen' of a life entirely offered, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, for the salvation of the world".
Before blessing the College, Benedict XVI spoke to the cardinals who will go back to their episcopal sees and their pastoral work, exhorting them to work with him.
"For me, your spiritual closeness, your enlightened counsel and your effective cooperation will be a gift for which I will be ever grateful and a stimulus to carry out the mandate entrusted to me with total faithfulness and dedication".
Before the Pope spoke, the Dean of the College of Cardinals Angelo Sodano also stressed a desire to work together in "cordial closeness".
"To you," said Cardinal Sodano, "we give our total devotion and collaboration as well as our fraternal affection in Jesus Christ".
"In your book The Salt of the Earth (Salz der Erde), Your Holiness, you say there is always the possibility for new and vigorous forms of Christian life. You told your interviewer: 'Think about Saint Benedict who, at the end of Ancient Times, creates a new form of life which enables Christianity to reach and transform new peoples'" (in Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Century).
"May the Lord grant you, Holy Father, the possibility of imitating the work of Saint Benedict for the good of the Church and of the world".
.png)
21/04/2005
