Vatican City, May 19, 2005 / 22:00 pm
Earlier this morning, Pope Benedict met with students from the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, accompanied by their president, Archbishop Justo Mullor, encouraging them to have holiness and the salvation of souls they meet on their journey as the fundamental goal of their lives.
The Pope called on the future Vatican diplomats to cultivate "the two constitutive and complementary dimensions of the Church: communion and mission, unity and evangelical passion," and asked them to reinforce their "sensus Ecclesiae," so as to take on "an ecclesial form in your entire personality, in your minds and in your hearts."
He told the students that, "While you are in the academy, seek to become fully 'Roman' in an ecclesial sense, in other words, sure and faithful in your adherence to the Magisterium and to the pastoral guidance of Peter's Successor.”
“At the same time,” he urged, “cultivate missionary zeal, with eagerness to cooperate in spreading the Gospel to the farthest confines of the world."