I remain very happy when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope and chose the name Benedict, for he did not imagine the intentions of God. he is truly a blessing personalized, and the concretization of the blessing for us, now, in the Church and in the World. We need this blessing.

It reminds me of there in Rome, a women told us a very interesting fact about him. She had a candy store next to the Vatican and she told us that she knew him when he was Cardinal because he spent a lot of time there. One day, she saw Pope Benedict XVI, seeing the white, (he was already Pope), in the first days after the election, leaving the Vatican. Then the people keeping vigil went to his direction and asked him: :Where are you going?” He said to them: “I am going to my house, for I left my books, my working materials, because I have to work and nobody brought me anything yet. ” And the security said to him. “But, Holy Father, you cannot!” Then he asked them, “Why can’t I?” They asked him to wait a little and looked for more security and brought him a car. He wanted to go himself but they brought him in the car and the people saw him and applauded him.

He is simple and we need to accustom ourselves with him so simple. The tenderness that he expresses in his eyes and the tenderness of his heart. The bases for a new evangelization were put in the Church and Pope Benedict saw bringing all the progress to the Church to face the challenges of today’s world.
That God may bless the Pontiff on this special day of his birth.

Monsignor Jonas Abib.

Translated from Portuguese