Some days ago a friend asked me a question that's stuck in my head. He's a young priest from Athens of the ancient Greek Orthodox Church. His question was, "what has been the main general reaction of the faithful Catholics to the Pope's decision?" I'm pretty sure I answered correctly by saying that at least here in Rome the main reaction is the desire to live this moment together with the Pope, that is, the desire to share this situation with Benedict XVI, to go through it together as a Church. Lucky me I gave him the right answer because my friend told me right after that he was going to use this answer in an interview that he was going to have, for one of Greece's most listened news radio station, regarding our Pope's departure.
Each day that goes by I'm confirming more and more that my reply to my Greek friend is accurate. As Catholics are getting over the shock and are starting to hope and believe that the Holy Spirit is behind all of this, that God will bring something great out of this decision if He wants to, more of them are beginning to support the Pope. Here in I not only see support but also this real solidarity with his holiness, particularly by the huge flow of pilgrims that arrives each day to St. Peter's just to offer prayers as the Pope spends this week in a spiritual retreat. The prayers are uniting us all and so we all are certainly going through a historical phase together as the Body of Christ!
No comments:
Post a Comment