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.