"A great Pope and a great Doctor of the Church" who "is also a guide for us, for our time", not least because of his ability to "be close to all the people’s needs". That’s how the Pope defined Saint Gregory the Great, appointed Pope in 590, the focus of the catechesis for today’s audience. "In such a disastrous time, actually a desperate time said Benedict XVI, off the cuff, at the end of the catechesis , he successfully created peace and gave hope. He shows us where the true source of peace is, where hope comes from, and so he is also a guide for us, for the Church of our time", not least because of his ability to "be close to all the people’s needs". "Since the start" of his papacy said Benedict XVI in Saint Peter’s Square in front of about 17 thousand devotees , "he showed an extraordinarily lucid view of the reality he had to reckon with, an extraordinary ability to work when dealing with ecclesiastic as well as civil matters, a steady balance in the decisions, including brave ones, that his appointment forced him to take". "Among the problems that at that time afflicted Italy and Rome recalled the Holy Father , one was specially relevant for the civil and ecclesial sphere: the Lombard question", in which the Pope "spent every possible energy with a view to finding a truly reconciliatory solution". (continued)
