It was with great shock and sadness that I learned of the
news of Pope Benedict’s abdication on Monday. Pope Benedict has been responsible for the
conversion, reversion, vocation and the deepening of faith of many young
Catholics in this country. At the time of his visit to the UK, I was living a
life at complete odds to the Church but his powerful homily at Bellahouston
Park was the catalyst for my conversion. Through his eloquence, his love and
genuine concern for the young Catholics of Scotland, the powerful Truth of the
Gospel message crashed into my life. Looking back it was like a moment from
Acts of the Apostles, for upon hearing his message, I too was cut to the heart.
Like the crowds in Jerusalem, I asked the question, “What must I do?” Through
the ministry of Peter’s successor and in the subsequent messages of his UK
visit, I found the answer to this question and began an incredible journey back
into a living relationship with Christ and His Holy Church. The Holy Father
re-ignited the flame of faith in my heart and in a world marked by mediocrity;
he challenged me to become a saint.
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| "I urge you to lead lives worth of our Lord and of yourselves... ...Put aside what is worthless and learn of your own dignity as children of God" |
The Church in England will reap the fruits of his short
pontificate for many years to come. We are already seeing the flourishing of
new signs of life in the Church in the UK. I think of the many vibrant lay
apostolates in the UK: Youth 2000, Take a Stand, Made for Glory, 2nd
Friday, Night Fever, 40 Days for Life and so on. These young apostolates are
very much influenced by a pontificate which called us to enter into an intimate
relationship with Christ, to find our home in the Catholic Church, to live our
Catholicism without compromise and to give a bold and courageous witness to the
Gospel Truths in a world that so desperately needs Christ. I know of many young
men for whom the Papal Visit or WYD Madrid was the deciding factor in their
entering seminary. Indeed the numbers in our seminaries continue to increase
each year. Even more recently, the press coverage for the abdication saw many
outstanding young Catholics from across the UK interviewed. Through their
questioning, many presenters were seeking the “youth of the Church” to call for
reform and the modernisation of the Church under a new Pope. What they got was
a response from “Generation Benedict”. Paschal Uche put it rather splendidly
when he spoke these words on behalf of all young Catholics in a Channel 4
interview: “We aren’t looking for a Pope who will change the Church’s teaching,
what we desire is a Pope who is faithful to the teaching of the Church because
we believe that is how God loves us.” These young people aren’t exceptional in
any way at all, they are in fact typical of the countless young Catholics in
the UK who are proud to be part of “Generation Benedict” and who are striving
to be saints fuelled by a love of Christ and planted in the heart of the
Catholic Church.
Pope Benedict will be greatly missed by my generation. He
has been a father to us, a man who deeply loved his young people and placed his
full confidence in us to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Our
continued response to his love will be our parting gift to him and the Church
in England will be all the richer for it.
Over the next 40 days a group of young people will be
publishing 40 different accounts, from 40 different young people whose lives
have been touched by Pope Benedict. Follow us on: www.generationbenedict.wordpress.com
