Pope Benedict as a Cardinal.

The new Pope, Benedict XVI, is still something of an unknown quantity to many people, even within the Roman Church. As Cardinal Ratzinger, he was more associated with the running and politics of the Church than with its spirituality.

Now, he is urging “the spirituality of communion” among his Bishops. In an address last Saturday at his winter palace, Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome, he encouraged them to reflect “ever more on the authentic spirituality of communion, which must characterize the presbyterial and episcopal ministry.”

Zenit.org reports on the meeting, in which even spirituality seems to attain a baffling density in a Vatican context:

In her opening message, Chiara Lubich, founder and president of the Focolarini, told the prelates from 51 countries that “deeper understanding of the mysterious sorrow of the abandonment of Jesus on the cross can become light for their path, a response to their ‘whys,’ a way to unity.”

The meeting’s point of reference was Benedict XVI’s encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est.” The bishops addressed a different aspect of the encyclical each day of the congress.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, emphasized that the spirituality of communion “supports bishops in their ministry and helps them see each person as loved by God.”

Archbishop Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, stressed the special gift that movements, with their diverse charisms, constitute for the Church, as they are a “factor of evangelization, resource not only for the lives of the faithful, but also of the pastors.”

The Roman Church remains almost incomprehensible in its jargon and rich mosaic of movements, thought-streams, principles and organizations.

In the end, what has that to do with “spirituality”? Perhaps Pope Benedict can enlighten us.