The text I am going to analyze is organized into two parts: in the first one Emer McCarthy reports about the Pope and Christianity, while in the second one we can find the last Angelus pronounced by Pope Benedict XVI. The Angelus is very important because Pope speaks about the Gospel and about his decision to retire from his mission of “chief” of Christians.

The first part starts with an extract from the last Pope’s Angelus, where he declared that the Lord called him to climb the mountain (this is a metaphoric language that means Pope had to pray and to meditate). So in the first part the reader can find the main themes affronted in the Angelus.  After that, the text is about some declaration of McCarty that regards the atmosphere before and during the event. Lots of people, from all over the world, moved to Rome to assist to Benedict XVI’s latest Angelus:  there was an atmosphere of sadness and happiness at the same time. It was an atmosphere of sadness because the guide of Christians was leaving the Church. But there was even an atmosphere of happiness because believer can see Pope for the last time.

Concerning the second part of the extract, Pope’s words refers to the Sunday Gospel, which talks about the Transfiguration of the Lord. So Benedict XVI puts at the centre of his reflection the aspects referring to the spirituality, while he downplays the events that regards him.

The use of the language (both in Pope and in McCarty) belongs to the semantic field of religion. So only believers can understand all the words of the Angelus. In  addition to this, it is difficult to understand  Pope’s phrases and messages if we don’t put attention to all the speech. Concerning intertextuality, it is evident  that there are references to the book of the Bible (Old and New Covenant). Even in this case, the knowledge of events and facts of the Bible is necessary to understand the meaning of Pope’s words.

In conclusion I think that this extract is very important because it permits us to reflect about the weakness of human being: the behavior of Benedict XVI symbolizes the intelligence and the dignity that all people should have.