"The Church is all of the Spirit, but it has a structure of its own, the apostolic succession", which is "responsible" for making one "stay in the Church in truth". It is one of the additions made off the cuff by the Pope at today’s general audience in Saint Peter’s Square, which was attended by approximately 30 thousand people. Benedict XVI ended the catechesis with a special prayer, once again off the cuff: "All this that happens in the rising Church he said makes us pray for the successors of the apostles, for all bishops and the successor of Peter, that may they be really the apostles of Christ, that may His light of truth and love never go out in the Church and in the world". As to the central part of the catechesis, which was about the life of the first Christian communities, the Pope commented, off the cuff: "we must not be surprised" that discord amidst Christians "still exists". "Just like the communion of love has existed since the beginning, discord has occurred since the beginning", said Benedict XVI, making reference to the events of original Christianity. Then, he added extempore: "Since the beginning, the Christian community has experienced not only joy, which comes from the Spirit, but also ordeal, as it will happen forever. We must not be surprised it still exists". The first disciples, said the Holy Father, still off the cuff, ran the "risk of losing their faith, as well as of losing the love of the Church": just by "recognising this risk and accepting it", specified the Pope, we must "break communion with those who have strayed from the doctrine that saves".
