ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI TO THE MEMBERS OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CLERGY ON THE OCCASION OF THEIR PLENARY ASSEMBLY Consistory Hall Monday, 16 March 2009
Your Eminences, Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
I am glad to be able to welcome you at a special Audience on the eve of my departure for Africa, where I am going to present the Instrumentum Laboris of the Second Special Assembly of the Synod for Africa that will be held here in Rome next October. I thank Cardinal Cláudio Hummes for the kind words with which he has interpreted the sentiments you share and I thank you for the beautiful letter you wrote to me. With him, I greet you all, Superiors, Officials and Members of the Congregation, with gratitude for all the work you do at the service of such an important sector of the Church‘s life.