Listening to Peter

Tom Hoopes here. A very attentive crowd is sitting, listening to the Holy Father's homily. The only movement is from the security guys.

His message is that unity becomes many, not the other way around. The unity of Pentecost led to evangelization, the Church going out into new places, including the United States. Secularation then set in, and caused divisions and isolation. Now he wants to call us to unity -- through evangelization.

Division means smallness, ironically. Unity means expansion.

He's reviving many concepts on this trip that John Paul initiated but which he has not mentioned as often. On the plane: The Great Jubilee of the Church in America. Yesterday: The new springtime of the faith. Today: The New Evangelization.

Beautiful.