For French citizens, the visit of the Holy Father to France will be an opportunity to "get acquainted" with Benedict XVI. Those words were spoken by the archbishop of Paris, Card. André Vingt-Trois, in an interview with La Croix (published online today). "Some citizens said the cardinal have already met him in the past, during his lectures", which Cardinal Ratzinger then delivered at the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, or at Sorbonne. "But those lectures stated Vingt-Trois involved a rather restricted and quite specialized audience". "Many French people, even Catholics, have never had a chance to see Benedict XVI live". His arrival in Paris and Lourdes is thus a chance to discover "his personality", not only through reading "his texts or his speeches": the French citizens "will discover his personality"; they will see "who he is and how he gets on with other people. All that will render their acquaintance with him more human and more concrete". (To be continued)
