VATICAN CITY (CNS): Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Pentecost with hundreds of thousands of Catholics of different cultures, races and languages who have different ways of expressing and living their faith.
From the moment of Pentecost and throughout history, he said during a Mass in St Peter’s Square on June 4, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit “transforms confusion into communion”.
The majority of people attending the Mass on Pentecost morning were part of a gathering of at least 350,000 people who had filled St Peter’s Square and the boulevard leading to it the previous evening for a papal vigil with members of lay movements and communities.
At the vigil and Mass, Pope Benedict called on the movements to work together with each other and with the Church to bring God’s love to the world and to show modern men and women the beauty of a life lived for others.
In his long homily at the vigil, Pope Benedict focused more on the Holy Spirit than on the movements, although he praised the movements as schools for helping Catholics learn to live according to the Spirit and for sharing the Christian message with the world.
