Pope Benedict's programme: listen, love, strengthen

When, on April 18, the eligible 115 cardinals assembled in conclave they relied primarily on the assistance of the Holy Spirit and on their mature judgment to elect a new Pope. At the same time media people, opinion-makers and analysts were relying merely on human calculations.

No wonder when the cardinals elected Joseph Ratzinger as the new Pope, many feared that under the leadership of Benedict XVI the Church might put itself into a ghetto, cut off from modernity and also revert back to the past.

One is now pleased to say that the cardinals did make the right choice. The excellent homilies of the brilliant Cardinal Ratzinger during the funeral Mass of John Paul II as well as during the Mass on April l8 before the conclave began clearly revealed that he had to make a good Pope.

In the conclave Mass he stressed: "Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labelled as fundamentalism, whereas relativism, that is letting oneself be 'tossed here and there carried about by every wind of doctrine', seems to be the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognise anything as definitive, and whose ultimate goal consists solely on one's own ego and desires."

In his very clear and forceful homily on April 24 during the Mass marking the inauguration of his pontificate, Pope Benedict made it very clear that his "real programme of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole Church, to the word and the will of the Lord, to be guided by Him, so that He himself will lead the Church at this hour of our history." Our Pope is a good listener and always so ready to give his time to others.

Another great talent of Joseph Ratzinger is that of love for all. It is in this spirit that in his homily on April 24, at St Peter's Square, he exclaimed: "It is not power, but love that redeems us! This is God's sign: He Himself is love. How often we wish that God would show Himself stronger, that He would strike decisively, defeating evil and creating a better world! All ideologies of power justify themselves in exactly this way: they justify the destruction of whatever would stand in the way of progress and the liberation of humanity."

The Holy Father, as an expert of humanity, is fully aware of the indispensable need of a good vision together with patience... lots of it too! As he clearly pointed out in his homily: "We suffer on account of God's patience. And yet, we need His patience. God, who became a lamb, tells us that the world is saved by the Crucified One, not by those who crucified Him. The world is redeemed by the patience of God. It is destroyed by the impatience of man."

As a good Shepherd and Fisherman, Pope Benedict is not only a Pastor who loves and listens but is also a leader who has been chosen to strengthen, not only his flock, but the whole world. On April 24, the Holy Father made this very inspiring appeal to all: "The pastor must be inspired by Christ's holy zeal: for him it is not a matter of indifference that so many people are living in the desert. And there are so many kinds of desert. There is the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life.

"The external deserts in the world are growing, because the internal deserts have become so vast... The Church as a whole, like Christ, must set out to lead people out of the desert towards the place of life, towards friendship with the son of God, towards the One who gives us life, and life in abundance."