Yesterday, Pope Benedict prayed at the tombs of several previous Popes, in the crypt under St. Peter’s, the Vatican Grottos:

Pius XII

Paul VI

John Paul I

John Paul II

Then today, he headed over to the Pontifical Gregorian University

A very young student!

The text of the speech is here, in Italian. No translation yet.

Here you go – the wonderful Teresa at PRF steps in (scroll down)

As an ecclesiastic pontifical University, this academic center is committed to feel in the Church and with the Church. It is a commitment born out of love for the Church, our Mother and Bride of Christ. We should love her as Christ Himself loved her, taking upon us the sufferings of the world and of the Church to complete in our flesh what was lacking in Christ’s
own suffering (cfr Col 1,24).

It is thus we can form the new generations of priests, of religious and of committed laymen. Indeed it is obligatory to ask ourselves what type of priest, religious or layman we want to make of our students.

Certainly, it is your intention, dear professors and lecturers, to form learned priests, who at the same time are ready to give up their lives to serve with undivided heart, in humility and with austerity in their private life, to serve all whom the Lord entrusts to their ministry.

Likewise you offer a solid intellectual foundation for members of religious orders, so they may know how to live joyfully that consecration which God has given them as a gift and show themselves to be an eschatological sign for that future life to which we are all called.

Similarly you would wish to prepare lay men and women who can competently carry out services and functions within the Church but above all, to be a ferment for the Kingdom of God in the temporal sphere. In this respect, the University has started this year an interdisciplinary program to train laymen specifically to live their ecclesiastical vocations of ethical commitment in the public sphere.

However, dear students, formation is also your responsibility. Study certainly requires constant asceticism and abnegation. But it is through this way that a person is trained in sacrifice and a sense of duty. What you learn today is what you will teach tomorow when the Church will entrust you with the sacred ministry or other services for the good of the community.

That which will give joy to your hearts in every circumstance is the knowledge of always having cultivated the right intentions, thanks to which one has the certainty of having sought and done the will of God. Obviously all this requires purification of the heart and discernment.

Dear children of St. Ignatius, once more the Pope entrusts this university to you, a work that is so important to the Universal Church and to many local Churches. It will always be a priority of priorities in the apostolate of the Society of Jesus.