” “A thundering applause coming from about eight thousand believers that are present at the Paul VI auditorium interrupted the Pope today, at the end of the general hearing, when he pronounced the name of Andrea Santoro, the Roman priest killed in Turkey last Sunday. The vast majority of the crowd got up, as sign of extreme greeting and homage paid to the faith of the priest, tragically gone. “Thank you for this applause”, said the Holy Father addressing the believers, at the end of the ovation. ” “Apart from the text written about Father Santoro, Benedict XVI added a few improvised annotations, above all, relating to the last “beautiful letter”, received by the Holy Father “yesterday evening”, he said (and not “in these days”, as said in the written text). As for the letter, the Holy Father made known that “it will be published in the Osservatore Romano tomorrow”, and to describe it, he used the following expressions: “It is a mirror of his priestly soul and of his commitment until blood effusion”. Furthermore, Benedict XVI revealed that receiving the letter by Father Santoro “was a surprise. It carried the letterhead of his parish, and it expressed the zeal of the faith and the lively love that were present in the heart of Father Antonio”.
