The Audience: "Wind Like the Holy Spirit"

A notable catechesis from this morning's General Audience -- where the breeze was such that B16 deemed "wind that could make one think of the Holy Spirit"... Georg and Archbishop James Harvey, the Milwaukee -born prefect of the Papal Household, had to hold the Boss' shoulder cape down.

Here's the AsiaNews summary, but I think I'm going to have to translate this text at some point....

Right from the time of the apostles, he said, the community of the disciples “was no stranger to trials, arising above all from clashes about truths of the faith, with subsequent divisions in communion. Just as fellowship in love has existed from the beginning (cfr 1 Jn 1:1ff), so has division taken over from that time: “They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But by going out they made it plain that none of them belongs to us” (1 Jn 2:19). How great is the danger of losing one’s faith! It is a clear duty of those who believe the Church of love and who want to live within it, to interrupt communion with those who distance themselves from the saving doctrine (cfr 2 Jn 9-11)

The growing Church was “well aware of the possible tensions in the experience of communion”.

But “the Church of love is also the Church of truth, understood above all to be faithfulness to the Gospel entrusted to the Lord Jesus to his own. Christian brotherhood arises out of being made children of the same Father by the Spirit of truth: “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God” (Rom. 8:14).

But to live in unity and peace, the family of children of God needs someone to watch over it in truth, and to lead it with wise and authoritative discernment: this is what makes the ministry of the Apostles”.

The apostles, i.e. the bishops, many of whom get savaged by their own everyday.....

Imagine having to give a talk with your aides on you like this... but it seems the Holy Spirit called on them to help. It's almost worthy of a caption contest.


PHOTOS: AP/Plinio Lepri

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