The text is a newspaper article taken from the Vatican news website. The topic is Pope Benedict XVI’s farewell speech in the occasion of his last Angelus, on 24^th February 2013.

To better understand the structure of the article, it may be useful to divide it into paragraphs. The first one is constituted by a direct quotation of the Pope’s speech; particularly, the writer excerpted the section where the Pope announces his intention not to abandon the Church, but to continue serving it, although in a more suitable way to “his age and strength”. This is undoubtedly the most relevant passage of the speech, which is entirely transcribed at the end of the article; it shows that the Pope’s decision to leave his role is not a consequence of a sudden lack of faith, or of a personal crisis, or of his weakness; on the contrary, Benedict XVI assures the people of his firm determination to pursue God’s orders. Indeed, the Pope says his decision is a direct consequence of God’s will (“The Lord is calling me to ‘climb the mountain’ ”), and thus his natural response should be a retirement from the “active” life of the Church.

The choice of putting this quotation at the very beginning of the article clearly shows the position of the writer in front of such an event: he completely agrees with the Pope’s decision, and he presumably also feels empathy towards him, as the following description of the pilgrims in St Peter Square is full of signs of the utmost closeness between the Pope and the people. The writer choices to focus on just a few examples taken from the great crowd: a man with his young son from L’Aquila, which had been visited by the Pope after the earthquake; a group of nuns from the Philippines, who awaited praying from the dawn; young boys and girls, coming from other countries or even other continents, passing the night in their sleeping bags, just to listen to and look at one single man for a few minutes. These few examples are already sufficient to understand the great moral participation of people from all over the world to this historical moment.

The apparent abstention of the writer from all comments ends when he says “With outstretched arms and visibly moved, Pope Benedict greeted them all, repeating ‘grazie, grazie,’ as he attempted to quieten the crowds. An almost impossible task”. Here it becomes clear that the writer is at least as overwhelmed by this event as the pilgrims in the square, and the adjective “impossible” shows his total sympathy towards the Pope.

In his speech, Pope Benedict quoted a passage from Luke’s gospel which is about the Transfiguration of the Lord. In this famous biblical episode, Jesus Christ transfigured himself, showing his divine nature, appearing together with Moses and Elias in the light of God Father, to mean that the new exodus will not be towards a promised land on Earth, but directly to Heaven; moreover, this message is not only intended for the Jews, but for the entire mankind. Peter is amazed while he bestows such an event, and the Pope wisely recalls a quotation from St Augustine, who said that Peter, after this vision, had no reason to climb down the mountain, and return to his previous life, since he had experienced God’s glory, a possibility people are usually given only after death. This condition is somehow similar to Pope Benedict XVI’s one: he, as Peter, has been called to the mountain, but he cannot forget that, below the mountain, there is an entire world waiting. Thus, even if Peter must descend the mountain and come back to “earthly” life, and the Pope must leave his role, this does not mean they will abandon the religious community and the rest of mankind, but they will keep praying, since, as the Pope recalls, acting without praying is just activism, and prayers are a path to re-conciliate the individual with the world, rather than a way to isolate the two of them.

Concluding, in his last Angelus the Pope wanted to remember the strong bound that still exists between him and his Church, and his speech is a sort of a reminder that, when he will no longer be at that window above St Peter Square, he will nevertheless be with everyone thanks to the strength of the prayer.