MEETING WITH A DELEGATION OF THE MUNICIPALITY OF CASTEL GANDOLFO,
CIVIL AND MILITARY AUTHORITIES, RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES
AND EMPLOYEES OF THE PONTIFICAL VILLAS

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Hall of the Swiss, Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo
Saturday, 29 September 2012

  

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I am pleased to welcome you at the end of my summer stay in Castel Gandolfo. It has enabled me to enjoy a period for study, prayer and rest, during which I have noted with admiration the solicitude and care of all the staff engaged in guaranteeing assistance and hospitality to me and to my co-workers, as well as to the guests and pilgrims who have come here to meet the Successor of Peter. I express my deep gratitude to each and every one for your dedication during these months. In the summer period Castel Gandolfo is like a “second See” of the Bishop of Rome, which vies with the “former” one in its capacity to welcome the visitors and pilgrims who come to pray the Sunday Angelus or to take part in the Wednesday General Audiences.

I first of all greet with affection and gratitude Bishop Marcello Semeraro of Albano. I greet the Parish Priest of Castel Gandolfo and his co-workers, together with the religious and lay communities resident in the area, both male and female. I ask you all to continue to make me feel your spiritual closeness even after my departure, as you have done during this period of my stay here. I thank to you for this, while I encourage you to persevere with trust and joy in your service to Christ and to his Gospel.

I address a cordial greeting, through the Mayor, to the civil authorities of Castel Gandolfo. As I thank you for the willingness and concern you have shown, I assure you of my remembrance in prayer for your community as a whole, and in particular for the families in difficulty and for the sick.

I would then like to extend my greeting to those in charge of the various Services of the Governorate: the Police Force, the Garden Services, the Technical and Health-Care Services, as well as the other corps which guaranteed the smooth course of all the events: the Pontifical Swiss Guard, the Staff and Officers of the Italian Security Forces and the Officers and Airmen of the 31st Squadron of the Air Force. May the Lord reward you all with abundant heavenly gifts and keep and bless you and your families.

Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you for coming to this meeting today. The best way to remember each other is in prayer: I will not fail to pray for you and for your intentions, and I am confident that you will do likewise. I entrust each one of you and your relatives and friends to the Virgin Mary, whom we venerate in the month of October as Queen of the Holy Rosary. May she always, with her loving gaze, accompany and sustain our footsteps on the road of justice and truth. With these sentiments I impart a heartfelt Apostolic Blessing to each one of you present here and to all your loved ones.