Blessing Australian Catholics' new pilgrim center in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI said all Catholics should feel at home in the Eternal City and should return home renewed in their faith.
The pope formally inaugurated the Domus Australia -- a complex featuring 80 guest rooms, an information center and a restored chapel where Mass will be celebrated in English each day.
During his evening visit Oct. 19, Pope Benedict spent a few minutes in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, then spoke to supporters of the Domus Australia, the Australian bishops and pilgrims.
The inauguration of the facility coincided with the "ad limina" visits the bishops were making to Rome and with the first anniversary of the canonization of St. Mary MacKillop, Australia's first saint. Her relics were among those placed in the chapel's new altar, dedicated Oct. 16.
Pope Benedict said he hoped the saint would continue to inspire Australians to live lives of holiness, serving God and their neighbors.
Referring to a statement about parenting attributed to the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the pope said the church, like parents, gives people "both roots and wings: the faith of the Apostles, handed down from generation to generation, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, conveyed above all through the sacraments of the church."
Pope Benedict prayed that the pilgrims who would visit Domus Australia in the years to come will return home with "firmer faith, more joyful hope and more ardent love for the Lord, ready to commit themselves with fresh zeal to the task of bearing witness to Christ in the world in which they live and work."
Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, the driving force behind the center's establishment, welcomed the pope, saying Domus Australia was established to encourage more of the 60,000 Australians who come as tourists to Rome each year to become pilgrims -- "sensitive to the religious dimension of their travels" -- and to strengthen the links between the Catholic Church in Australia and Rome.
"On pilgrimage we visit new places, run across different ideas, disturbing our usual patterns of thought. This can also be a stimulus to repentance, to religious reawakening and genuine conversions. We hope and pray Domus Australia will make a long-term contribution" to that process, the cardinal told the pope.