VATICAN - Pope Benedict XVI in Piazza di Spagna: “In these forty years Our Lady has sustained the Bishops and first of all the Successors of Peter in their demanding ministry at the service of the Gospel; she has led the Church to a faithful understanding and application of the Council documents”

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - In the afternoon of December 8, Feast of the Immaculate Conception in keeping with his predecessors, Pope Benedict XVI went to pay homage to the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Piazza di Spagna, close to the Palazzo of Propaganda Fide. In his address the Pope said he brought to Mary, Mother of the Redeemer “the worries and hopes of the men and women of our day”.
He quoted the homily pronounced by Pope Paul VI forty years ago at the end of the Second Vatican Council in which Pope Paul VI addressed Our Lady as "Mother of God and our spiritual Mother” entrusting to her the implementation of the Council’s decisions. “In these forty years Our Lady has sustained the Bishops and first of all the Successors of Peter in their demanding ministry at the service of the Gospel - said Benedict XVI -; she has led the Church to faithful understanding and application of the council documents”. For this reason he thanked the most holy Virgin Mary and addressed her with the same sentiments as the Council Fathers, “who devoted the last chapter of the dogmatic constitution Lumen gentium to Mary underlining the indissoluble bond which binds Mary to the Church”.
“We wish to thank you Virgin Mother of God and our dearest Mother, for interceding for the Church … You went up to Calvary, profoundly united with your Son who on the cross gave you as mother to the disciple John, may we feel you near at every moment of our life, especially at times of darkness and trial … help us persevere as we strive to follow Christ… (69)!” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 9/12/2005, righe 26, parole 384)