archives

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Lourdes, France

As an orator, Pope Benedict XVI generally does not, unlike his predecessor John Paul II, mine his own biography. For John Paul, the dramatic events of his life were staples of his public rhetoric. Not so with Benedict, who prefers to emphasize the song rather than the singer.

It was therefore particularly striking that one could hear faint echoes of Joseph Ratzinger’s past in his final address at Lourdes this morning, which came in an open-air Mass on a chilly morning outside the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary. The Mass was dedicated to the sick and disabled who flock to Lourdes, and many in the crowd arrived in wheelchairs or on crutches.