The third pope of the modern era, after Paul VI (1970) and John Paul II (1985), Benedict XVI arrives in Cagliari on 7 September 2008 to close the celebrations for the first centenary of the proclamation of the Madonna of Bonaria as Patron Maxima of Sardinia.
It will be precisely Sardinia that will show the world an unprecedented face of this Pontiff.
Everyone was waiting for the cold professor, the iron theologian Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the "German" Ratzinger, icy and detached.
The Sardinians, those who flocked to Cagliari in almost two hundred thousand, will meet and be conquered by a Pope "that you don't expect", with the face of a thoughtful, delicate, attentive, always smiling, even radiant and radiant Shepherd with the 70, perhaps 80,000 of Largo Carlo Felice.
A pastoral visit of just ten hours but of an emotional intensity, of an ecclesial depth, of a theological and pastoral depth that will remain imprinted in burning letters in the history of Sardinia.
The first sign of this German pope was precisely a disobedience to the rigid Vatican protocol. Arrived in the Basilica to put on the vestments for Mass , to the insistence of his entourage that he hasten to reach the sacristy, Benedict replies with an angelic about-face to linger, with a surprisingly natural sweetness, among the sick and the centenarians who have been accommodated in the central nave. For everyone he has a word, a caress, a tender kiss.
At Mass, then,” the ice broke forever. When, in the heart of a memorable homily, interrupted (an unusual occurrence in the speeches of this Pontiff) no less than thirty times by the applause of the one hundred thousand and so present, with absolutely perfect diction, Benedict repeated the words of the Sardinian text of the "Deus ti hello, Maria” . He had not yet completed the passage referring to the Madonna "Mamma, fiza e isposa, de su Segnore" that the Bonaria basin exploded with an applause that seemed to never end and an ovation worthy of a South American stadium. From that moment Benedetto was "Sardinian among the Sardinians".
Forever.
The best confirmation is that of Father Ciro Benedettini, then deputy director of the Vatican Press Office who, at the end of the day confessed: «The Pope was amazed and enchanted by the warmth that was reserved for him and by the natural charm of this land, truly only".