Dear Abp. Marchetto,
With these lines I wish to be close to you and join myself to the act of presentation of the book
“Primato pontificio ed episcopato. Dal primo millennio al Concilio ecuмenico Vaticano II” [Pontifical primacy and epicopate: from the first millennium to the Second Vatican Ecuмenical Council] I beg you to consider myself spiritually present [there].
The topic of the book is an homage to the love that you have for the Church, a loyal and at the same time poetic love. Loyalty and poetry are not an object of trade: they cannot be bought or sold, they simply are virtues that are rooted in a heart of
a son who feels the Church to be a Mother; or, in order to be more precise, and saying it with an Ignatian familiar "tone", as "the Holy Mother Hierarchical Church". You have made this love manifest in many ways,
including correcting a mistake or imprecision on my part - and for that I thank you from my heart -, but above all it is manifest in all your purity in the studies made on the Second Vatican Council.
I once told you, dear Abp. Marchetto, and I wish to repeat it today, that
I consider you to be the best interpreter of the Second Vatican Council. I know that this is a gift from God, but I also know that you made it bear fruit.
I am grateful to you for all the good that you do for us with your testimony of love for the Church, and I ask the Lord that you be abundantly blessed.
I beg you please not to forget to pray for me. May Jesus bless you, and may the Virgin protect you.
Vatican, October 7, 2013
Fraternally,
Francis
(
source: Rorate)