At the beginning of the month of September the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI went to Loreto for the closing event of the first year of the Agorà for young Italian Catholics. In the evening of 1 September during the Vigil, he replied to questions posed by a few young people and on Sunday 2 September he presided a solemn concelebration of the Eucharist on the Montorso plain. A few days later Benedict XVI travelled to Austria for his 7th International pastoral visit during which he went on pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine of Mariazell, to celebrate the 850th anniversary of its foundation. The Holy Father said the place was the "maternal heart" of Austria, in fact the Shrine of the Mother of God is “a symbol of an opening which goes beyond geographical and national borders, in the person of Mary it reminds us of the essential dimension of the human person: the capacity to open to the Word of God and its truth”. On Sunday 9 September after Mass and the recitation of the midday Angelus in front of St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI addressed children participating in initiatives of the Pontifical Holy Childhood Society and he handed them a Letter in which he expressed appreciation for their efforts: “I see you as young collaborators with the service the Pope renders the Church and the world: you sustain me with your prayers and also with the efforts to spread the Gospel.” During his visit to Austria Benedict XVI visited the Cistercian Abbey of Heiligenkreuz, where he venerated the relics of the Holy Cross and addressed the Community of monks, and teachers and students of the Theology Faculty: “ On my pilgrimage to the Magna Mater Austriae, - the Pope said - I am pleased to visit this Abbey of Heiligenkreuz, which is not only an important stop on the Via Sacra leading to Mariazell, but the oldest continuously active Cistercian monastery in the world. I wished to come to this place so rich in history in order to draw attention to the fundamental directive of Saint Benedict, according to whose Rule Cistercians also live. Quite simply, Benedict insisted that "nothing be put before the divine Office". For this reason, in a monastery of Benedictine spirit, the praise of God, which the monks sing as a solemn choral prayer, always has priority. Monks are certainly - thank God! - not the only people who pray; others also pray: children, the young and the old, men and women, the married and the single - all Christians pray, or at least, they should!”.
In September the Holy Father flew from Castel Gandolfo by helicopter to Rome to give his general weekly audience Wednesday, during which he continued his catechesis dedicated to the Church Fathers, presenting John Chrysostom and Gregory of Nyssa, and dedicating one Audience to reporting on his apostolic visit to Austria.