There in Veneto, I used to hear: 'Every good thief has his devotion'. The Pope has several devotions; among them, to Saint Gregory the Great, whose feast is celebrated today.
In Belluno, the seminary is called 'Gregorian' in honour to Saint Gregory the Great. I have spent seven years there as student and twenty as professor.
Today, indeed, September 3rd, he was elected as Pope and I officially begin my service to the universal Church.
He was Roman and became the first Magistrate of the city. Later, he gave everything to the poor, he became a monk and was appointed as the Pope' s secretary.
When the Pope died, he was elected and he did not want to accept. The Emperor and the town took part. Finally, he accepted and wrote to his friend Leandro, Bishop of Seville: 'I feel the desire of crying, more than to speak'.
To the Emperor' s sister: 'the Emperor has wanted that a monkey became a lion'. It is seen that already in those times it was difficult to be a Pope.
He was so good with the poor. He had converted England. And he mainly wrote very beautiful books; one of them is Regula pastoralis: there he teaches to the bishops their mission, and in the last part, he says: 'I have described the good shepherd but I am not; I have shown the beach of perfection where to arrive, but personally I am still on the waves of my defects and my faults; and then, please – he told – throw me a table of salvation with your prayers so that I have not to be sunk'. I say the same; but not only the Pope is needy of prayers, the world, too.
A Spanish writer has said: 'the world works bad because there are more battles than prayers'.
Let us try that there can be more prayers and less battles.
