The Church must shine in peoples’ lives

A river of ink has been used to tell us about the abuse scandals, Vatican leaks, and failings of Pope Benedict XVI in recent times.

Yet, I recently found myself among 1m people in Milan for the Church’s Seventh World Meeting of Families and the atmosphere among those participating, on the Family Day, seemed to be a different experience than that portrayed by the media.

I also had the same experience in Madrid at World Youth Day in August last year when more than 1m young people seemed to be interested in what the Pope and the Church had to say to them.