As we previously mentioned, Benedict was in Verona yesterday, closing out the Italian Church’s big national gathering.

Sandro Magister summarizes his lengthy talk here:

Dear brothers and sisters, we must now ask ourselves how, and on what basis, […] to provide concrete and practicable resources for Christian witness […] I would like to emphasize how, through this multiform testimony, what should emerge above all is that great “yes” that, in Jesus Christ, God has spoken to man and to his life, to our freedom and our intelligence; and how, therefore, faith in a God with a human face should bring joy to the world.

Christianity is, in fact, open to everything that is right, true, and pure in cultures and civilizations, to that which brings joy, consoles, and strengthens our existence. Saint Paul wrote in the Letter to the Philippians: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (4:8). The disciples of Christ thus recognize and willingly welcome the authentic values of the culture of our time, such as scientific knowledge and technological development, human rights, religious liberty, and democracy. But they do not ignore or underestimate the dangerous frailty of our human nature that is a threat to man’s journey in any historical context; in particular, they do not overlook the interior tensions and contradictions of our age. Thus the work of evangelization is never a simple adaptation to cultures, but is always a purification, a courageous departure that turns into a process of maturation and healing, an opening to that which permits the birth of the “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15) that is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Teresa has translated his homily at the Mass:

A decisive change for the world can come only from God. Only from the Resurrection can we understand the true nature of the Church and its testimony, which is not detached from the Paschal mystery but is fruit of it, a manifestation and realization on the part of those who, having received the Holy Spirit, were sent by Christ to continue His mission (cfr Jn 20,21-23).

"Witnesses of the Risen Jesus". This definition of Christians derives directly from the passage of the Gospel of Luke read today, but also from the Acts of the Apostles (cfr Acts 1, 8,22).

"Witnesses of the Risen Jesus" – that preposition ‘of’ should be understood correctly. It means that the testimony is ‘of’ the risen Lord, meaning it is about Him, and as such, we should render Him valid witness, be able to speak about him, make Him be known, lead people to Him, convey His presence.

It’s the exact opposite of what happens to the other term, ‘hope of the world.’ Here the preposition "of" does not indicate belonging, because Christ is not of this world, just as Christians should not be of this world. Hope, which is Christ, is in the world, and for the world, but it is only because Christ is God, He is the Holy One (in Hebrew Qadosh). Christ is the hope of the world because He has risen, and He has risen because He is God.

Christians too can bring hope to the world, because they are of Christ and of God to the degree that they die with Him to sin, and arise with Him to a new life of love, of pardon, of service, of non-violence.

As St. Augustine said: "You have believed. You were baptized. Your old life is dead, it was killed on the Cross, buried at baptism. The old life in which you lived badly has been buried; the new life arises." (Sermone Guelf. Ic, in M. Pellegrino, Vox Patrum 177).

Only if, like Christ, they are not of this world, can Christians be the hope of the world and for the world.

The Vatican Radio page has a report.

There are several other interesting features on Vatican Radio at present – one on the 56 Hungarian uprising, and the reaction of Pius XII:   3 public statements during the weeks of the uprising, and an appeal over the radio.