Addressing a rally in favour of education and celebrating Mass at a parish, Pope Benedict XVI's Feb. 23-24 weekend highlighted his role as bishop of Rome.More than 40,000 of the city's students and parents, teachers, catechists and priests gathered in St. Peter's Square Feb. 23 in response to the pope's call for a renewed commitment to education in the city.
Pope Benedict said the gathering was a sign of "a common concern for the good of new generations, for the growth and future of the children the Lord has given this city."
Educating young people has never been easy, he said, but with new technology, constant exposure to the media, increasing family breakdowns and looser ties to the church, it is more difficult than ever.
But, the pope said, no one can give up.
"The great heritage of faith and culture, which is the truest richness of our beloved city, must not be lost in the passage from one generation to another, but rather must be renewed and strengthened to be a guide and a stimulus for our journey toward the future," he said.
Speaking to the parents, the pope asked them to keep their marriages and their love for each other strong.
"This is the first and greatest gift that your children need in order to grow serenely, to acquire faith in themselves and faith in life and, in that way, to be capable of an authentic and generous love themselves," he said.
He also told the young people that they have a responsibility for their own moral, cultural and spiritual growth and that they must open their hearts and minds to "the patrimony of truth, goodness and beauty" that has been cultivated by the people of Rome for centuries.
The next morning, Feb. 24, Pope Benedict visited the parish of Santa Maria Liberatrice in Rome's Testaccio neighbourhood and was treated to a poem written in his honour in Romanesco, the Roman dialect.
The pope smiled as the poem was read and then told parishioners, "Unfortunately I don't speak Romanesco, but as Catholics we are all a bit Roman and we carry Rome in our hearts."
In his homily at the parish, his remarks to members of parish groups and in his midday Angelus address at the Vatican, Pope Benedict focused on the day's Gospel reading about Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well.
Pope Benedict told the parish groups that the woman is a symbol of modern men and women in their use of freedom and their search for meaning.
"She had five husbands and was living with another man," the pope said. "She made ample use of her freedom, but still did not become freer; in fact, she became emptier."
Yet, the pope said, when she was talking to Jesus at the well, she showed a clear desire to know God and to learn the proper way to worship him.
"In this woman, we can see the reflection of our lives today with all the problems that involve us; but we also see how, in the depths of our hearts, there is always the question of God," he said.
Pope Benedict also reflected on the fact that it is Jesus who first asks the woman for water.
"God thirsts for our faith and wants us to find in him the source of our authentic happiness," the pope said in his homily.
"Jesus wants to lead us, like the Samaritan woman, to profess our faith in him with strength so that we can then proclaim and witness to our brothers and sisters the joy of encountering him and the marvels that his love works in our lives," Pope Benedict said.
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