Edurne Uriarte said yesterday, here in ABC, that the university world has not yet overcome the terrible idea that eminent things must be difficult to understand. What is difficult to understand is usually what is badly expressed. The Pope is an academic but he does not participate in the chronic deviations of some academics. He expounds greatness in the right words. He has no baritone voice or rhetorical vocation, but he is very well understood. There is always an original twist in his speech, never obscurity. The children follow him perfectly when he dedicates his catechesis to them.

In any case, it seems to me that the most important thing about the Pope's presence among us is not what he says, but what he does. He brings us Catholics together around his "I", he unites us. To single out this word or the other is not easy and is quite relative. I really liked the speech at Barajas. As soon as he got off the plane, the Pope told the young people not to be ashamed of the Lord. That idea will probably be very present these days. "I say again to the young people, with all the strength of my heart: let nothing and no one take away your peace; do not be ashamed of the Lord". To be ashamed of the Lord is a deeply evangelical expression. Jesus used it with great force. "If anyone is ashamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him" (Lk 9:26). St. Paul always had it at the top of the language: "I am not ashamed of the gospel" (Rom 1,16); "I am not ashamed, for I know in whom I have believed" (2Tm 1,12); "do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord" (2Tm 1,8).

These days there is nothing to be ashamed of. You can be a Christian and show off. From time to time young people are entitled to that. There may have been some unpleasant setbacks, but they are picturesque nonetheless. Grotesque rather. The immense tide of faith, of communion, of joy, carries it all away like a tropical storm carries away a cabbage. These days being Catholic is not at all embarrassing, but rather a source of pride, and it is only right that it should be so. Look at how many of us there are, look at how we have organised it (because the truth is that they have organised it very well), look at how the Pope speaks to us, as if we were reasonable people called to an ideal. And look at how much fun we had.

I remember that in 1982, when John Paul II ordained a bunch of priests in Valencia (my brother among others), we priests who had attended the ceremony were the first to leave that crowd of faithful. We went through a kind of channel that had been opened up for us. People crowded behind the fences and applauded us as we passed, as if we were bullfighters and had had a great afternoon. I remember the comments of my fellow priests and myself. Nothing like that had ever happened to us before. It was a bit extravagant but comforting.
Now, if a priest is waiting for the applause when he passes through the crowd, it is clear to him, because nobody applauds. The same thing will happen to the young people after WYD. They will come out stronger, more ready "to remain firm in the faith and to take on the beautiful adventure of proclaiming it and witnessing to it openly with their own lives". That is precisely the opposite of shame. Let us now call it blushing, false respect, so as not to confuse it with embarrassment, which is the opposite.

Young people are very important for the Church and for this country of ours. Now, Benedict XVI has also come to speak to us, who are in the majority and the sun is already shining on our backs. I do not know whether he is speaking to us as the Vicar of Christ or as an older brother, who by his age and profession has had occasion to know the evils of the times. He does not want Spain to surrender at his feet, he wants Spain to realise that without God we do not even understand ourselves. I was moved to hear in Barajas that lament for those who silence "even his holy name".

We Christians must not silence God's holy name. It is not a question of fideism, it is a question of rationality. Thirteen years ago Joseph Ratzinger received at the University of Navarre, which is my university, the doctorate honoris causa. I heard the same tone at yesterday's speech to university professors. The Christian faith speaks to us of Christ as the Logos through whom all things were made. "This good news discovers a rationality in all creation and contemplates man as a creature who participates in and can come to recognise this rationality".