Vatican City, Jun 27, 2008 / 08:21 am
Pope Benedict XVI brought together around 400 people from the Diocese of Rome on Friday to thank Cardinal Camillo Ruini for his service as the Vicar of Rome and to introduce Cardinal Agostino Vallini as the new vicar. Among the developments of Ruini’s tenure that the Pope highlighted was the spread of a spirit of mission.
Pope Benedict began his words by recalling the pontificate of Pope John Paul II. "The closing years of last century, and the first years of the new were a truly extraordinary time," said Benedict, "and all the more so for people who, like us, had the good fortune to experience them alongside a true giant of the faith and of the mission of the Church, my venerated predecessor."
Collaborating closely with John Paul II, "we were 'drawn along' by his exceptional spiritual strength, rooted in prayer, in profound union with the Lord Jesus Christ and in filial intimacy with His Most Holy Mother. John Paul II's missionary charisma had ... a decisive influence on his pontificate, in particular on the period of preparation for the Jubilee 2000. And this was directly evident in the diocese of Rome, the Pope's own diocese, thanks to the constant commitment of the cardinal vicar and his collaborators."
Two examples of Cardinal Ruini’s commitment, said the Pope, are "the Rome Citizens' Mission and the Dialogues in the Cathedral.” Both of these groups showed “a Church which, at the very moment in which she was gaining a greater awareness of her own diocesan identity, ... opened herself ... to a missionary mentality ... destined to last not just the length of a season, but ... to become permanent."