That of the successor of Peter is a "unique role in the Church" because "one apostle is entrusted with what is communicated to all the apostles". This was repeated today by the Pope, quoting one of the "beautiful sermons" of Saint Leo the Great, "the first bishop of Rome to be called Leo" and "the first Pope whose sermons have survived", whose figure was the focus of today’s general audience. "It comes natural to think of him also in the context of the current general Wednesday audiences said Benedict XVI , appointments that that over the last decades have become for the bishop of Rome a customary way to meet the devotees and so many visitors coming from all parts of the world". The papacy of Leo the Great, which lasted over 21 years, recalled the Pope, "was without any doubt one of the most important in the history of the Church". Leo the Great, according to the Pontiff, felt "with special urgency his responsibility as the successor of Peter", and "the Pontiff asserted this responsibility in the West as well as in the East by acting in many circumstances with prudence, determination and clearness of mind through his writings and his legates". In this way, according to the Pope, "he showed how the assertion of the primacy of Peter was necessary back then as much as it is today, to serve the communion, the distinctive trait of the only Church of Christ".
