I linked to American Papist’s coverage below, but just a couple more articles:
Enjoying the second day of his pastoral visit Lombardi Dioceses of Vigevano and Pavia, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Holy Mass at the Borromeo College of Pavia. The Holy Father focused his homily on the conversion of Saint Augustine, whose bodily remains the Holy Father visited at an Augustinian Monastery in the area. The conversion of St. Augustine, Benedict said, was not an event, but a path.
The Holy Father began his homily by examining the work done by the Apostles in the work of preaching conversion in this Sunday’s Gospel. “During Easter time,” His Holiness began, “the Church presents us, Sunday by Sunday, some parts of the preaching with which the Apostles, particularly Peter, invited Israel to faith in Jesus Christ.” Before the Sanhedrin today, Peter “responded with a brief catechesis on the essence of the Christian faith.”
“This brief catechesis,” Benedict continued, “is not valid only for the Sanhedrin. It speaks to all of us.” Jesus is, according to the Pope, “the ‘head’ that leads us on the way and the ‘savior’ that justifies our life.” In fact, he said, the keywords of Peter’s catechesis are “conversion” and “pardon for sin,” “which correspond to Christ’s two titles, ‘head’ and ‘savior.’”
The Pope asked what one needs to do to convert. Noting that “conversion has its own, proper form for each life,” he added that “throughout the history of Christianity, the Lord has sent us models of conversion, so that we may orient ourselves by looking at their example.”
Benedict XVI then noted the moving story of conversion found in Augustine’s Confessions. By reading The Confessions Benedict said, “one can see that the conversion was not an event that happened in a particular moment, but was, instead, a path.”
Moreover, “this path did not end at the Baptismal font.” St. Augustine’s conversion was a gradual process, and “we can, therefore, speak of the ‘conversions’ of Augustine that were one large conversion that took place in his search for the Face of Christ and then while journeying along with Him.”
The Pope continued by expressing his desire to list “the three great steps on this path to conversion.” “The first, fundamental conversion,” he said, “is the interior journey towards Christianity – that is, the desire to want to know Christ.”
“The second conversion is described by St. Augustine at the end of the second book of his Confessions.” After having been baptized, St. Augustine returned to Africa “and there he founded, together with his friends, a small monastery.” However, the second step was his being called “to live with Christ for all. He had to translate his knowledge and sublime thoughts into the language and thinking of the simple people of his city.”
Citing his humility as the “third decisive step on St. Augustine’s path to conversion,” the Pope told those present that Augustine had found “the highest level of humility . . . the humility to recognize that the bountiful mercy of God was continually necessary for himself and the entire pilgrim Church.”
From an Italian paper, via PRF:
The warm rapport between the Pope and the people was evident from his first appointment in the morning – a visit to the San Matteo Polyclinic.
"Life must be defended at every stage," he reminded them, but he also said that suffering can be a way to get nearer to God.
"anyone who is a patient here knows what illness is, and what it means to need comfort," said Fausta Beltrametti, wife of ex-Minister Giulio Tremonti who welcomed the Pope in behalf of the patients.
Among those in the audience to greet the pope was Umberto Bossi [head of a political party called Lega…] who was with his wife and three children.
"Suddenly, there he was in front of me. And he said, ‘Oh, you’re here! How are you?’ and we shook hands, " Bossi remembers.
Another one who met the Pope was cardiac surgeon Mario Vigano who said, "I was up till 4 a.m. finishing a heart transplant, and the Pope asked me how the patient was. I gave him a page on which is printed in 25 languages that phrase of Ezekiel, "I will take away your heart of stone and I will give you one of flesh’"
Amelia Borgo, a housewife and patient, said, "I asked him to pray for me."
At the esplanade of the Borromeo Gardens, some 25,000 faithful stood under the sun for Mass. In his homily, Ratzinger evoked St. Augustine, his faith and his conversion.
He again referred to him at the University of Pavia in the afternoon, where the crowd virtually submerged him – many of them students – and quite a few managed to shake his hand or touch him. Ratzinger was all smiles and he seemed very moved.
Indeed later on, after the last event on his schedule – the prayer at St. Augustine’s tomb in San Pietro in Ciel d’Oro –
where a crowd had gathered outside the Church, he asked for a microphone and spoke to them, and then approached them to kiss babies and shake hands with the adults.One of those who was very pleased about it was Gabriella Sacchi and her 8-year-old daughter Beatrice, who had been ‘chasing’ the Pope the whole day.
"We waited outside the Bishop’s Palace, and we saw him pass before us. At the Borromeo Gardens, we stationed ourselves at the entrance, and when he passed, he smiled at us. But we really wanted to touch him and this time we did it! This Pope has illuminated our lives."
Beatrice was too stunned to remember what the Pope whispered to her. "All I remember is that his eyes are a beautiful color, not what I see on TV."
Many nice photos at Catholic Press Photo
Pope Benedict got 15,001 pairs of shoes on Saturday.
During a visit to this northern city known as Italy’s shoe capital, a local consortium gave one pair for himself and 15,000 more pairs for the needy around the world.
The Pope was given red loafers designed and manufactured by the Moreschi firm and made from kangaroo hide.
Those destined for the poor include boots and other types of footwear. Local industrialists are due to send them directly to charities chosen by the Vatican.
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