Rome, Italy, Sep 27, 2010 / 02:53 am
Pope Benedict XVI has "surprised all of us" in the first five years of his pontificate, according to his personal secretary. The Holy Father, he said, is full of the same "vitality" of his John Paul II as he fulfills his "sacred duty" of laying down "tracks" throughout the world that lead to faith.
Personal secretary to Pope Benedict XVI, Msgr. Georg Gänswein, received a Capri San Michele Award over the weekend for a book he released earlier this year that illustrates the travels of the Pope in his first five years.
L'Osservatore Romano printed his words under the title "The Pope of surprises."
Msgr. Gänswein first highlighted the beauty of unity in diversity of the different Popes, that "each responds with his own personality and with his own unrepeatable sensitivity" to the call to the See of Peter. Calling the phenomenon "a miracle of newness in continuity," he listed the names of several Popes from the last century, saying that none has been the same as another, yet "all have loved Christ passionately and faithfully served their Church."