What Popes Offer at General Audiences

Papal audiences vary in place and size. The Wednesday general audiences, which are held in St. Peter's Square, allow popes to address large numbers of people at once. Pope Benedict continues what his predecessor Pope John Paul II often did: Benedict offers catecheses on themes over many weeks. Benedict gave his audiences earlier this year to the Apostolic Fathers, those "great personalities" of the ancient church.

Zenit.org is one electronic news service, which bills itself as "The World Seen From Rome," and conveys both summaries and complete texts of the Wednesday audiences.

On 30 May 2007 Benedict turned his listeners toward Quintus Florens Tertullian. Tertullian lived from 160-220

...from the end of the second and beginning of the third century [Tertullian] inaugurated Christian literature in the Latin language. He started the use of theology in Latin. His work brought decisive benefits which it would be unforgivable to underestimate. His influence covered different areas: linguistically, from the use of language and the recovery of classical culture, to singling out a common "Christian soul" in the world and in the formulation of new proposals of human coexistence.

These "great personalities" of ancient times have much to offer contemporary Christians. After reading Benedict's complete, concise catechesis of Tertullian, on may want to visit Zenit.org and use its calendar-link search mechanism to be part of all the pope's Wedneday General Audiences.
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Wiki-image of Tertullian is in the public domain.