Pope visits modernistic Rome church commissioned by his predecessor

Published: 2006-03-27

ROME (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI visited a modernistic Rome church commissioned by Pope John Paul II and read from a sermon his predecessor prepared shortly before his death. In his final days, the late pope worried that the world was succumbing to selfishness, fear and the power of evil, Pope Benedict told several hundred parishioners at the Church of God the Merciful Father on the outskirts of Rome March 26. Pope John Paul was scheduled to deliver the sermon April 3, 2005, one week after Easter. "In the divine plan, it was written that he should leave us on April 2, the eve of that day, and therefore could not pronounce these words," Pope Benedict said. Pope Benedict then quoted from the text, released last year by the Vatican. "To humanity, which sometimes seems lost and dominated by the power of evil, selfishness and fear, the risen Lord offers the gift of his love which forgives, reconciles and opens the spirit to hope once again," Pope John Paul wrote.

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