Watching the Pope speak to Catholic educators I am amazed once again at the words of the Holy Father. There was so much ink spilled beforehand of what the Pope would say during his trip and for the most part there were as accurate as false prophets. In most cases they would have the Pope say what they wanted said on any hobby horse issue. This was especially true in what was written previously in regards this speech. A guilty conscience seemed to spark many to think that they were going to get scolded by the Pope and others hoped that they would indeed be scolded. Either perspective shows a total lack of understanding of Pope Benedict. People seemed to be shocked that the theme of the Papal Visit "Christ our Hope" is actually the theme of the Papal Visit. When the Pope did address serious issues in this speech it was not as a scold but to act as a persuader. He is able to both point out the problems and their solutions. I look forward to looking at the full text of the speech to go through it again because it was certainly one to go over again.<\/p>\n
I did find odd the places where the audience clapped like when the Pope praised the good work of Catholic educators and this seemed rather like they were applauding themselves. No applause though when the Pope spoke about Catholic identity and how the beauty of the Church’s teaching on sexuality is reduced to risk management – those were applause moments for me.<\/p>\n