Brescia, Italy - Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday his own Catholic Church should do more to reach out to people in times of great challenges and to provide them with courage and support. While on a pastoral visit to the northern Italian city of Brescia, the pope cited such issues as the economic crisis, migration problems and raising the young.
Now he hoped for a Church "which is a shining signal of hope for humanity in the Third Millenium," Benedict said. The Catholic Church needed a dialogue with the modern world, he added.
The pope's visit to Brescia was made in memory of a predecessor, Pope Paul VI (1963-1978), who had once named Joseph Ratzinger - today's Benedict - as archbishop of Munich.
