There’s loads of papal commentary – perhaps you’re overloading, as a result. But it should be no surprise that some of the sharpest stuff is to be found over at Godspy. Start with Angelo Matera’s spot-on summary of what Benedict is saying about American religion (and this was written midway through the visit – he could probably add a lot to it by this point)

What’s interesting is that the Pope doesn’t recommend remedying this situation through sheer willpower, as if having “the courage to be Catholic” would be enough. He calls for more creativity and imagination in how the faith is lived and presented, and opening up to God through prayer, service, and communion with others. In other words, rather than more willpower, which only encourages our tendency towads self-sufficiency and autonomy, he’s calling us to be more receptive to the living God who is the source of our being. This is the spiritual method of the lay movements, not the political method used by Catholic pressure groups. It’s the approach he highlighted in his two encyclicals, God is Love, and Saved By Hope, each of which were appeals to our common “religious sense,” the restlessness for God and the yearning for true happiness we all share.

This is so true, and a point I’ve been trying to articulate in various places and even something I’ve intuited over the past few years as I thought more about issues of catechesis and evangelization and penned my own small contributions to the cause.  Back in the late 80’s, when catechesists and pastoral ministers started noticing that the intentional practice of faith they thought was going to flower once the evils of rote memorization and rules had been dispensed with was just not happening,  “Catholic Identity” became the new buzz word and textbooks tossed saints back into the mix and started including at least one “Fun Catholic Fact” into each chapter.
That didn’t work either.
And what I started noticing was that my students saw no connection – none – between Jfaith in Christ and the Church, first of all and secondly, between any of it and the rest of their lives. A good deal of that was undoubtedly due to the “I can be spiritual without being religious” gestalt, but the other part of it was that through all the changes, in tossing things out and trying to rethink things…there just wasn’t enough left ot make connections and most in charge were so negative about anything that whispered “pre-Vatican II” that they just couldn’t even begin to do it. Maybe they didn’t want to.
And this is what Benedict’s program is – it’s not really, in its essence, about anything else – all the other concerns – liturgy, Biblical scholarship, theology – flow from this point.
Our hearts are made for you, O God…
And the message we have, as he so brilliantly put it in his talk to the interreligious gathering, in one simple sentence, is this, in answer to all of those restless, searching, hearts:

….Christianity proposes Jesus of Nazareth.