A difficult moment

More than 150,000 people filled St. Peter's Square today to pray the Angelus with Pope Benedict XVI for the last time.

Source: L'Osservatore Romano

In his remarks following the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father said that "Lent is a favorable time to rediscover the faith in God as the basic criterion of our life and the life of the Church."

Source: L'Osservatore Romano

The circumstances of these days demonstrates the great importance and this necessary centrality of this message.

Tony Gentile of Reuters may have captured the best image to symbolize the day when he photographed Archbishop Georg Ganswein withdrawing the tapestry with the Holy Father's coat of arms:

I can well imagine His Excellency's sentiments at that simple and yet eloquent gesture.  This tapestry will not likely be seen hanging from the window of the Papal Apartment again.

Update: Please allow me to make one correction: Pope Benedict XVI will gather with the faithful one more time for the Angelus address one week from today, and the tapestry will appear once more.  I suppose I wasn't quite awake when reading various news reports and simply took what they said for granted.