Today, the pope met with parish priests from the diocese of Albano. An Italian newspaper snippet, translated at PRF:

Answering a question by one of the priests, the Pope cited an initiative by the Bishop of Assisi to mark this jubilee year of St. Francis: "Mons. Sorrentino has declared it a year to devote to conversion in order to counteract the popular misconception about the saint."

He explained further: "At first, Francis was some sort of a playboy [he used the English word], but he soon realized that this was not all to life, that he should open up himself to God and to others."

To the priests of the Castelli Romani area, the Pope extended a message of hope, exhorting them to be courageous.

"Notwithstanding so many sufferings and failings," he told them, "The Church has survived…Two thousand years of history…overcoming through the centuries Muslim invasions, illuministic secularizing currents, Marxism, Hitler who wished to destroy Catholicism…"

Papa Ratzinger made special mention of the dificulties being experienced by Christians in Msulim lands, and by the flowering Churches in Northern Africa who are being threatned by Muslim influences.

So many times, he said, the Church "has appeared as though it would have come to an end", but even when intellectuals like Rousseau and Voltaire gave it up for dead, so many saints continued to give it new life. he reminded them that the 19th century was a century of saints, of religious congregations, and that the Christian faith is stronger than any of the ideological currents that come and go.

In other Papal news, EWTN Europe will be broadcasting the Pope’s visit to the Shrine of Manoppello tomorrow, and his interview with German television on Saturday – but I don’t see it listed for EWTN US. Huh. What are we?

Update: The interview will apparently be shown during the timeslot of "The World Over" tomorrow night.