“Thank you, Pope Benedict XVI”

 fr Bruno Cadoré on behalf of the entire Dominican Family

Most Holy Father,

I ask you to accept the immense gratitude of the Order of Preachers for the great generosity and beautiful simplicity with which you have exercised your ministry, ‘a humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard’. The Brothers, Nuns, Apostolic Sisters, Lay Dominicans and the entire Dominican Family join me in assuring you of our communion in prayer and thanksgiving.

On several occasions during your ministry, in the course of your teaching, you evoked some great figures of holiness that God by His grace has given to the Order of Preachers. It was for us a strong invitation to draw anew and constantly from the source of the charism of St. Dominic.

When you did me the honor of receiving me, you insisted that the Order should deploy its rich tradition of "study and worship" and take its place in the "new evangelization” to which you have invited the Church in continuity with the Second Vatican Council. This reminder, I believe, provides us with the horizon in view of which we are preparing to celebrate, in 2016, the eighth centenary of the confirmation of the Order of Preachers.

I ask you to assist us with your prayers, that the Lord may grant us the grace always to seeks always to serve the Church and its unity, "totally committed to the evangelization of the Word of God” as it was expressed by Pope Honorius III.

fr Bruno Cadoré, OP Master of the Order