The Holy Father resumed his weekly catechesis on Wednesday 1st August 2007, picking up where he left off in early July when he began vacation. The Pope held up St. Basil, a bishop and fourth-century Doctor of the Church as an example of a man who was open to God and thus able to discern what is true and good.
He was a great figure who “frequently exhorted the people of his day to give to the poor,” the Pope said. “Indeed, if we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, we ought not to own any more than our neighbor owns. We must not offend Christ with inhumanity towards others.”