Father Barron's Thoughts on World Youth Day

Another World Youth Day has come and gone. Once again, nearly a million young people came together to celebrate the Catholic faith and the focal point was the arrival of the pope and the Mass he celebrated with all the pilgrims. Again, it's important to realize as Fr. Barron points out, it is not about Pope Benedict's charisma (as was said about the success of the WYD's with Pope John Paul 2 in the past) It is the office of the papacy. When the young people looked at Pope Benedict, they saw through time and space to Saint Peter and to the One who commissioned him, the Lord Jesus Himself. This realization is what gives grown men chills and young people tears when they see the pope. This is ultimately what keeps the faith going for almost 2000 years. It is Christ's commission to Peter and his successors to lead the Church by feeding the sheep. During his time at WYD, Pope Benedict had the opportunity to feed the younger members of his flock and the reverberations of this will continue to be seen for years to come.

As Karl Adams says in His Spirit of Catholicism:

"But when he speaks as pope, as successor of St. Peter, then he speaks with a divine authority that demands the obedience of all the faithful; he speaks as the visible basis and pledge of unity, out of the compact fullness of the Body of Christ, as that principle in which the supra-personal unity of the Body of Christ has achieved visible reality for the world of space and time."