Dear Swiss Guards, the collaboration you offer to the Successor of Peter, Pastor of the universal Church, requires the high professionalism of modern security services, but at the same time has an authentic and significant ecclesial dimension. In the person of the Pope, you serve the whole Church; you make available to her your youthful enthusiasm, vitality and inner freshness.
As I look at you, dear friends, I remember what I said during the liturgical celebration for the inauguration of my Pontificate.: "The Church is alive.... And the Church is young. She holds within herself the future of the world and therefore shows each of us the way towards the future" (L'Osservatore Romano English edition, 27 April 2005, p. 8).