Saturday, May 3, 2008

Apostolic Journey to the United States

Here is a link to the Vatican website that includes all the addresses Pope Benedict XVI gave while in the United States.

I find the number and types of groups Benedict addressed with his message of "Christ our Hope" interesting. These groups included: our nations leaders, the bishops, Catholics, Catholic educators, Catholic seminarians, Jewish leaders, other religious leaders, the Jewish community, the United Nations, young people, religious men and women, disabled youth, rescuers and families at ground zero, as well as the rest of the nation.

I like the advice of
Richard John Neuhaus in his article "Benedict and the Human Face of God" at First things:
As some of us have been repeating incessantly, the important thing is to listen carefully to what he is saying. And then to download all the addresses and read them carefully, and then read them again. During his visit, he laid out an astonishingly comprehensive program for the renewal of the Church and the Church’s witness to the world. Consider, too, that his arguments—and he is always making arguments—must be understood within the context of more than four decades of scholarship intimately tied to devotional and pastoral reflection.
How blessed we are to have a wonderful wealth of wise words directed at our American society to reflect upon!

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