A Catholic's Swansong

This noon, Pope Benedict XVI spoke his last angelus address in St. Peter's, in front of a crowd of around 200,000. Thursday will be his last day in office. This is his text, which I have taken (hopefully legally) in an English translation from the Vatican Radio's website:

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DEAR brothers and sisters!

On the second Sunday of Lent, the liturgy always presents us with the Gospel of the Transfiguration of the Lord. The evangelist Luke places particular emphasis on the fact that Jesus was transfigured as he prayed: his is a profound experience of relationship with the Father during a sort of spiritual retreat that Jesus lives on a high mountain in the company of Peter, James and John , the three disciples always present in moments of divine manifestation of the Master (Luke 5:10, 8.51, 9.28).


Photo: Altar bells, image by Eu. Hansen (2009)
via Wikimedia Commons, (CC BY-SA 3.0 Licence)