At the end of today’s general audience, when addressing some words to the Italian pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope put his prepared text aside and said: «I see that faith and love for the Successor of Peter is strong and I thank you.»
More than 200,000 people participated Sunday in the Holy Father’s first apostolic trip outside Rome, when he traveled to Bari to close out the Italian National Eucharistic Congress.
Outside the Vatican walls he has often been greeted with the enthusiastic cry «Be-ne-det-to!»
