I am speaking to you from this hospital room, and I must say that this painful interval was so necessary. It was so necessary in view of the visit to Sicily, Catania and Siracuse where Maria was weeping. Mary's weeping reminds us of the Sanctuary of La Salette on the French mountains. And She had to weep again in our century, after the Second World War. She is weeping.
Weeping also belong to the genius of woman.
We know very well what that weeping had done to the life of Saint Augustine and to the life of many others. Woman's weeping and the Madonna's weeping are a sign of hope. This sign was so necessary at the end of the African Synod. That weeping was so necessary, that weeping of the Madonna during the period which we have chosen for the big prayer for Italy. This weeping of the Madonna is important for Europe, for preparing us for the threshold of the Third Christian Millennium.