Holy Father Visits Birthplace of Paul VI

Vatican City: November 08, 2009, (PCTV Newsdesk)

Early this afternoon the Pope travelled to Concesio, near the Italian city of Brescia, where he visited the house in which Paul VI was born on 26 September 1897 and greeted some relatives of the late Pontiff.

Subsequently, in the "Vittorio Montini" Auditorium, he inaugurated the new headquarters of the Paul VI Institute, and assigned the International Paul VI Prize, which was awarded to Bernard Meunier, director of a series of books published in Paris entitled "Sources Chretiennes".

In his address the Holy Father explained that the prize was being awarded for "the commitment shown by this historic series - founded in 1942 by, among others, Henri de Lubac and Jean Danielou - to a renewed discovery of ancient and mediaeval Christian sources".

Going on then to speak about one particular aspect of Giovanni Battista Montini's personality, his commitment to education, Benedict XVI recalled how "the educator Montini, student and priest, bishop and Pope, was always aware of the need for a qualified Christian presence in the world of culture, art and civil society, a presence rooted in the truth of Christ and, at the same time, attentive to man and his vital needs".

Pope Paul VI's concern for education "was shown buy his many initiatives dedicated to the new generations, in turbulent and difficult times such as the events of 1968. Courageously he indicated the way that leads to the meeting with Christ, as a liberating educational experience and the only true response to the desires and aspirations of the young, who had fallen victims to an ideology".

"Paul VI defined himself as an 'elderly friend of the young'. He was able to recognise and share their torment as they were torn between the desire to live, the need for certainty, the longing for love, the sense of being lost, the temptation to scepticism and the experience of disillusionment. He learned to understand their hearts, and recalled that the agnostic indifference of modern thought, critical pessimism and the materialist ideology of social progress are not enough for the spirit, which is open to completely different horizons of truth and life".

After then expressing the view that Paul VI was "a master of life and courageous witness of hope", the Holy Father explained that his predecessor "was not always understood; on the contrary, on more than a few occasions he was assailed and isolated by the then-dominant cultural movements. Nonetheless, firm even though physically frail, he led the Church without faltering. He never lost faith in the young, renewing in them, and not only in them, the invitation to trust in Christ and to follow Him along the path of the Gospel".

Benedict XVI concluded by expressing the hope that "the love of this Pope for the young, his constant encouragement to trust in Jesus Christ - an invitation reiterated by John Paul II and which I too renewed at the very beginning of my Pontificate - may be perceived by the new generations".