After today’s catechesis the Pope, as usual, greeted the faithful from various countries who had attended the audience, including French pilgrims from the diocese of Angoulême, accompanied by their bishop, Hervé Gosselin, those from Slovakia, especially parish groups and schools, and the participants in the eleventh pilgrimage of the Military Ordinary, headed by Bishop Frantisek Rábek, and German-speaking pilgrims including students of the Mädchen-Realschule Sankt Josef Schwandorf. He gave an especially joyful greeting to Turkish pilgrims, faithful of the archdiocese of Izmir, accompanied by their Bishop Lorenzo Piretto.

Among the Italians present, he mentioned those from the various diocese of the peninsula: Acqui, Grosseto, Nola, Sessa Aurunca and Tortona, with their bishops, as well as the alumni of the Interdiocesan Major Seminary of Udine, Trieste and Gorizia, accompanied by their archbishop Msgr. Mazzocato. “I greet the participants in the course organised by the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, the municipal council of Taranto with Archbishop Santoro, the directors of the Houses of Divine Providence in Italy and the Montfort Missionaries, who commemorate the third centenary of the birth in heaven of the founder St. Luigi Maria Grignion de Montfort. May the visit to the Tombs of the Apostles promote in all a sense of belonging to the ecclesial family”, he said.

“I offer a special greeting to the young, to the ailing, and to newly-weds. Today is the feast day of ST. Matthew, apostle and evangelist. May his conversion be an example to you, dear young people, to live life by the criteria of faith; may his meekness support you, the infirm, when your suffering seems unbearable; and may his following of the Saviour remind you, dear newly-weds, of the importance of prayer in the matrimonial story you have undertaken”.