Have you noticed that the Wednesday Audiences of Pope Benedict XVI are less pep-rally like and more and more like an enormous classroom: less euphoria and more recollection and interiority? That is because at the end of the main discourse, the priest presenters have stopped introducing the particular groups present at the audience. When the omission first happened a few months ago I thought it was a mistake or a glitch of some sort in the program (perhaps someone had not done his job). But it has been consistently omitted since. The priest presenting each language group no longer indicates the various groups present. The Holy Father himself alone takes the prerogative to mention the individual groups when he addresses each language group.
This greater gravitas at the general audiences has been a mark of the Benedictine Papacy. Already for a few years the frantic cheering had been far reduced in preference of an elegant song to serenade the Holy Father and entertain the entire audience while making one's presence known. Now, that element also better tailored. Bravo! One should go to the Holy Father to hear him, and with the utmost reverence, and not to make a spectacle before him! Granted, these are minor details, but good manners consist in paying attention to the particulars of decorum.
One other significant addition to the Papal Audience: there is an additional language included: Arabic! That innovation came shortly after the Holy Father's September visit to Lebanon and two months before the approval of the new 800 martyr saints to Islam. How mellifluous the fluency of the Semitic tongue in the weekly Audience! And how appropriate! It is presently the only ancient language used there, besides the Pater noster and the final benediction in Latin!
For an added element of universality and gravitas I would suggest that more Latin might be used: at least the scripture reading be presented in Latin, while the Holy Father might continue to give his greeting to the various groups in their particular language. Or, even better, the Holy Father could perhaps just give his address in Latin and eliminate the Babel of languages all together while announcing the Vatican radio channel for the simultaneous translations, but that would eliminate the iconic significance of our Arabic addressee, and the others'. O.K., how about the main address being in Latin instead of the more pedestrian and nationalistic Italian? Shouldn't general audiences predominantly use the most general language of the Church: her official language? Most of the worldwide listeners would understand Latin as well or even better than they do the Italian. Might even get more people interested in listening to the entire live broadcast. It would be practically the only weekly class in the world conducted in the language of the Church. Just a thought.
It is no accident that these improvements coincide with the Year of Faith: the Arabic was added on the vigil of the Jubilee of the Second Vatican Council (10th October) to begin the Holy Year.
