I join the rest of the world to thank Pope Benedict XVI's great service to the Church. If you would allow me to be corny for the moment, I believe I belong to Generation B--the youth that grew up in the faith during this Pope's term.

Pope John Paul II was someone I revered but it was through the current pontiff that I appreciated the intellectual beauty of my faith. He spoke to the youth not in code nor in plain language--he treated us as thinking individuals capable of understanding, of giving ourselves up, of sacrificing, of having high ideals but at the same time grounded in the realities of the everyday.



As a journalist, I appreciated most his messages urging us on to pause and reflect amid the deluge of information we encounter and create hour after hour in our work. He told us to take a break, disconnect from the digital noise and find out the truths about life, people and God. Though I'm still far from mastering this art of reflection, his words will forever linger as they have been already ringing since the start of my professional journey.

He also encouraged us to consider reporting on what's beautiful and good and to give politics and crime and the inane a break.