"Gratitude" to card. Camillo Ruini, "at the end of his long service as the Pope’s vicar for the diocese of Roma", and a wish for a "fruitful ministry" to card. Agostino Vallini, appointed new Pope’s vicar. With these sentiments, Benedict XVI announced today the succession in the position of Pope’s vicar for the diocese of Rome. In giving audience to the officers of the Vicariate of Rome in the Vatican today, the Pope repeated "the sentiments" he had already voiced to card. Ruini in the letter he sent him a few days ago, in which "I could mention the many aspects of your lasting, much-appreciated ministry started in January 1991 when the Servant of God John Paul II called you to replace cardinal Ugo Poletti". Benedict XVI recalled that "the last few years of the last century and the first few years of the new century have been a truly extraordinary time, even more for those who, like us, have happened to live them at the side of a genuine giant of the faith and mission of the Church, my venerable predecessor. He guided God’s people to the historical target of the Year Two Thousand and, through the Great Jubilee, led it into the third millennium of the Christian era. By working closely with him, we have been «carried away» by his exceptional spiritual strength". (continued)
