John Thavis: Pope Benedict was once a professor, and even as pope he’s never really stopped teaching. It’s not just encyclicals -- his favorite format as a teacher seems to be his weekly general audiences. Today on the Vatican Report we’ll look at what the pope’s been trying to get across in recent audience talks about medieval Christian thinkers. I’m John Thavis, Catholic News Service Rome bureau chief.

Carol Glatz: And I’m Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service Rome correspondent. Every Wednesday, the pope holds his weekly general audience for several thousand visitors. The centerpiece of the event is a five or ten-minute talk the pope gives in Italian, with shorter versions in several other languages. Now, on these occasions the pope also has the media’s attention, and he could talk about anything he wants, from nuclear disarmament to economic injustice. But in recent months, he’s been focusing on a number of medieval Christian writers and monks, most of whom are not household names.

John Thavis: Right, when the pope began quoting from St. Odo, a 10th-century Benedictine abbot, a lot of people even here at the Vatican said: Who’s he? Well, St. Odo, it turns out, was part of a monastic reform movement, urging the monks and Christians of that period to turn away from society’s decadence and adopt a much more austere lifestyle. It was a radical message at the time, and the pope’s point was that it has relevance in today’s materialistic and, some would say, hedonistic culture.

Carol Glatz: In a similar way, the pope pointed to St. Peter Damien, an 11th-century monk who asked people of his day to take time out of their busy lives for meditation and prayer. I think Pope Benedict was reminding people today that they’re not the first to face a hectic schedule and a demanding workday. And he was saying that -- just as in the Middle Ages -- you can’t hear God’s voice when it’s drowned out in the buzz of the daily routine.

John Thavis: Another interesting figure the pope chose to highlight was a man called Peter the Venerable, a 12th-century French abbot known for his role as a mediator, and for his openness to Judaism and Islam. The pope said one of the reasons for Peter the Venerable’s sense of tolerance toward Muslims was that he studied Islam from original sources -- again, kind of a challenge to modern Christians in our own time of interreligious tensions.

Carol Glatz: Ever since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Benedict has used the audience talks to look back on the church’s leading figures through the ages, starting with the Apostles and the evangelists. It’s a kind of Catholicism 101, and he’s convinced it’s very much needed today.

John Thavis: Finally, one unexpected note: Throughout these talks, the pope, who is very much a theological bookworm, has emphasized that understanding the divine mysteries cannot be accomplished merely through study or books or arguments. You have to have faith, he said, and you have to give some time to spiritual practice -- something he says was well-understood by the medieval saints. I’m John Thavis.

And I’m Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service.

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