By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer
While addressing thousands of children on Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI said he still has difficulty understanding why God chose him to lead the Catholic Church.
According to a report by Reuters, the Pope made the comments in Rome on May 30 during a meeting with thousands of children form the Missionary Childhood society.
“I must say that even today I have difficulty in understanding how the Lord was able to think of me, choose me for this mission,” he said.
He went on to speak about his childhood and growing up in a poor region of southern Bavaria, admitting that he and his peers didn’t think of the outside world. He was “a rather naive boy in a small village very far from the center, in a forgotten province,” the pope said.
“Naturally, we knew, venerated and loved the pope — it was Pius XI — but for us he was unobtainably noble, in almost another world: Our father, but still inhabiting a reality far superior to ours.”
However, he told the children that he accepts what God has chosen to do with his humble life. “I accept it from his hands, even if it’s surprising and appears far beyond my forces,” he said, and added, “But the Lord helps me.”
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