COOPERATORES VERITATIS
Pope receives
Corps of Gendarmerie
On Friday evening in the Sala Clementina in the
Apostolic Palace, Pope Benedict XVI received in audience the Corps of
Gendarmerie – the police and security force of Vatican City State.
The Holy Father granted the audience in order to
offer his encouragement and express his gratitude after a particularly
challenging period for the Papal Gendarmes.
In his remarks, the Pope said, “This occasion
gives me the opportunity to express my profound feelings of respect, my
heartfelt encouragement, and my deep gratitude for the generous service you
perform with discretion, competence, and efficiency, and not without sacrifice.”
He noted, “Among its other duties, the Gendarmerie
is called to greet with courtesy and kindness the many pilgrims and visitors to
the Vatican, who come from Rome, from Italy and all over the world. . . . In
every pilgrim or visitor, you know you must see the face of a brother or sister
that God has placed in your path, and therefore receive them with kindness and
help them, knowing that each one is a part of the great human family.”
Pope Benedict continued, “Dear Gendarmes and
Firefighters, your special place in the heart of Christendom, where crowds of
faithful come tirelessly to meet the Successor of Peter and to visit the tombs
of the Apostles, arouses more and more in each of you the ambition to intensify
the spiritual dimension of life, as well as the commitment to deepen your
Christian faith, bearing courageous witness in every circumstance with a
consistent way of life.” To that end, he said, the Year of Faith can be a
tremendous help: “it is a privileged occasion for rediscovering how much joy
there is in believing and communicating to others that the saving and liberating
encounter with God realizes the deepest aspirations of man, his desires for
peace, for brotherhood, and for love.”
The Pope concluded his remarks with a renewed
expression of his “sincere and affectionate thanks” for the work of the
Gendarmerie and the Vatican Fire Department, and granted to all those gathered,
and to their families, the Apostolic Blessing.
SOURCE:NEWS.VA
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