” “The figure of the Apostle Bartholomew was today’s focus of the catechesis, pronounced by Pope Benedict XVI during the Wednesday general audience in front of over 30 thousand devotees coming from about forty countries across the five continents. Famous in the Gospels for the enigmatic episode in which Jesus tells him: "Before Philip called you, I saw you as you were under the fig tree", said the Pope, Bartholomew is also known for saying, about Jesus’ origin: "Can anything good ever come from Nazareth?". In this respect, the Pope noticed that his was "quite heavy a prejudice" and that "this objection is somehow relevant to us. It actually shows us that, according to Judaic expectations, the Messiah could not come from such an obscure village as Nazareth. At the same time, though highlighted Benedict XVI it emphasises the freedom of God, who surprises our expectations by letting Himself be found just where we would not except Him to be". Before the audience, the Pope lingered in Via delle Fondamenta, at the basilica, to bless the statue of Saint Genevieve Torres Morales, the founder of the nuns of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Holy Angels.” “
