Scottish Catholic Observer

Thousands of Catholics are flocking to Rome for the chance to see Pope Benedict XVI before he steps down from the Papacy. More than 35,000 people have already registered to attend Pope Benedict XVI’s final audience on Wednesday, February 27.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi said on Saturday that the Pope’s final audience will not include the usual Catechesis. Instead there will be a Liturgy of the Word and a celebration of the Pontificate.

A huge crowd attended the Holy Father’s antepenultimate Angelus last Sunday, which the Holy Father used to call Catholics to rediscover their Faith this Lent.

Vatican Television Centre will be broadcasting live Pope Benedict’s departure from the Apostolic Palace on Thursday February 28, following his final farewell to the College of Cardinals.

Fr Lombardi said Pope Benedict is expected to remain in Castel Gandolfo for a period of at least two months after he steps down. Up to his last day in office, Pope Benedict will continue his daily duties. On Saturday these included a meeting with the President of Guatemala, Italian bishops on their ad limina pilgrimage and later in the evening with out-going Italian Premier Mario Monti.

From Sunday evening, the entire Roman Curia withdrew for a week-long Lenten retreat, led this year by Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Vatican Council for Culture. During this period all Papal appointments are suspended.

Angelus

Just before going on retreat, the Pope told a vast crowd gathered in St Peter’s square on Sunday that Lent is a ‘spiritual battle’ in his second to last Angelus.

Lent, he said, ‘always involves a battle, a spiritual battle, because the spirit of evil naturally opposes our sanctification and seeks to divert us from the way of God.’

The Pope, speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, explained that the Lenten ‘spiritual battle’ is the reason why the Gospel of the first Sunday of Lent relates each year to Jesus’ temptations in the desert.

He then greeted the pilgrims in different languages and told the Italian pilgrims their attendance in such large numbers is ‘a sign of affection and spiritual closeness that I have been shown these days.’

–        This story was reported in full in the February 22 print edition of the SCO.