” “"The Church is one, it was born of Christ’s blood; it is a precious garment woven by the Holy Spirit; the Church is there, where it is announced that Christ is born of the Virgin, where fraternity and agreement blossom". It is a "figure" from Saint Cromatius, "wise master and zealous pastor", born in Aquileia around 345 and ordained bishop of that city in 388, the protagonist of the Pope’s catechesis for today’s general audience. In mentioning him, Benedict XVI added another figure "that Cromatius is particularly fond of", that of the ship on a stormy sea: "There’s no doubt", states the bishop, "that this ship is the Church". "His first and foremost commitment said the Pope was to listen to the Word, so as to be able to announce it: in his lessons, he always starts from God’s Word and he always comes back to it". The preferred subjects in Cromatius’ preaching include the "mystery of the Holy Trinity that he contemplates in his revelation all along the history of salvation" and the subject of the Holy Spirit; above all, though, "he very insistently goes back to the Mystery of Christ. The Word made flesh is true God and true man: he has fully taken on a human nature, to give it His own divine nature. These truths, insistently repeated partly as anti-Arian arguments, would result about fifty years later in the definition of the dogma in Chalcedony" (continued).” “
