According to the Vatican Information Service (VIS) the Holy Father, at the end of the session, thanked all the authors of the project and addressed these words to them: “It seems to me that the film is a spiritual journey in a spiritual continent that is quite distant from us and, nevertheless, very close to us because the human drama is always the same.”
“We have seen how in a context that is very distant from us, the entire reality of human life with its problems, sorrows, and failures is presented and also how at the end, the Truth, which is stronger that any obstacle, encounters human being. That is the great hope that remains at the end; on our own we cannot find the truth, but it is the Truth, which is a Person, who finds us. Seen from the outside, the life of St. Augustine seems to end tragically: the world in which he lived and for which he lived is destroyed. But as we have seen affirmed here, his message remains and even endures in spite of world’s changes because it springs from the Truth and leads to Love, which is our common destiny”.
“Thank you, all of you,” he concluded, “we hope that many, who watch this human drama, would allow themselves to be found by the Truth and in return also find Love”.
Ecumenism
The following day and after the general audience, Benedict XVI addressed a group of Catholics and Orthodox and urged them to make a common reflection on St. Augustine, how he can help to facilitate ecumenical dialogue.
The Pope, greatly indebted to the saint from Hippo, directed himself to the participants of the Inter-Christian Symposium that is promoted by the Pontifical University Antonianum and the Aristotle University of Thessalonica.
The Holy Father is confident that “the common study done by Catholics and Orthodox on the figure of St. Augustine will help pave the way to full communion”.