Pope Benedict XVI in the footsteps of Jesus
by Commodore Shemal Fernando, RSP, USP, MSc
The 3rd anniversary of the election of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
as the Supreme Pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church fell on April 19.
Just before his election to the Chair of Peter as the 265th Chief
Shepherd of the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was
identified as one of the most influential people in the world by the
renowned ‘Time’ magazine.
Yet, at the Mass of Papal Installation, he asked, “Now, at this
moment, weak servant of God that I am, I must assume this enormous task,
which truly exceeds all human capacity. How will I be able to do it?”
Throughout the 3-year pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI has attracted
enormous masses of people from all over the world to the Saint Peter’s
Basilica for his numerous public encounters.
The number of pilgrims who have participated in the liturgical
celebrations, Wednesday General Audiences and Sunday Angelus with the
Holy Father in the Eternal City is greater than that recorded for these
types of gatherings in the pontificates of his predecessors.Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger was not only the key adviser of Pope John Paul II of
revered memory for over 20 years as his Prefect of the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith but also the most revered prelate, scholar,
theologian, teacher and Catholic author of our time having spoken on
everything from sexual consumerism, private revelation and the “crisis
of faith,” to human rights, marriage, the priesthood and the future of
the world.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa with His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
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Yet, the depth, candour and humble servitude of the Holy Father will
likely be his lasting hallmark. In his recent book titled, Jesus of
Nazareth, the first published as the Pope, he describes his personal
search for the face of Jesus.
He says: “I wanted to portray the Jesus of the Gospels as the real,
‘historical’ Jesus in the strict sense of the word.I believe that this
Jesus the Jesus of the Gospels is a historically plausible and
convincing figure.”
Ratzinger was born to parents named Joseph and Maria at Marktl am Inn
in Germany on Holy Saturday, 16 April 1927. He was baptised on the same
day and on his early baptism he has said, “To be the first person
baptized with the newly blessed Easter Water was seen as a significant
act of Providence.I have always been filled with thanksgiving for having
had my life immersed in this way in the Easter Mystery”.
In his memoirs about his early life, Milestones: Memoirs 1927 1977,
Ratzinger depicts his family life as quite happy. Ratzinger spent his
childhood and adolescence in Traunstein, a village near the Austrian
border.
In this environment, which he has defined as “Mozartian”, he received
his religious, cultural and human formation. The family was profoundly
Catholic and his father attended three masses every Sunday.
In 1932 his father’s outspoken criticism of the Nazis required the
family to relocate to Auschau am Inn at the foot of the Alps. His father
retired in 1937 and his family moved to Hufschlag, where Joseph began
studying classical languages at the local High School. In 1939, he
entered the Minor Seminary in Traunstein, his first step towards the
priesthood.
His faith and the education received at home prepared him for the
harsh experience of those years during which the Nazi regime pursued a
hostile attitude towards the Catholic Church.
It was precisely during that complex situation that he discovered the
beauty and truth of faith in Christ; fundamental for this was his
family’s attitude, who always gave a clear witness of goodness and hope,
rooted in a convinced attachment to the Church.
Priesthood
In his memoirs, Ratzinger wrote that he was enrolled in the Nazi
Youth Movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941. World War II
forced a postponement of his studies, until 1945, when he re-entered the
seminary with his elder brother Georg. From 1946 to 1951 he studied
philosophy and theology in the Higher School of Philosophy and Theology
of Freising and at the University of Munich.
On June 29,1951, both Joseph and his brother were ordained to the
priesthood by Cardinal Faulhaber in the Cathedral at Freising on the
Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. He quickly displayed extraordinary
theological gifts at the University of Munich and received his Doctorate
in Theology in July 1953, with a thesis entitled “The People and House
of God in St. Augustine’s Doctrine of the Church”.
In 1957, under the renowned professor Gottlieb Sohngen, he qualified
for University teaching with a dissertation on: “The Theology of History
in St Bonaventure”. He went on to teach at Bonn from 1959 to 1963; at
Munster from 1963 to 1966 and at Tubingen from 1966 to 1969. During his
last year he held the Chair of Dogmatics and History of Dogma at the
University of Regensburg, where he was also Dean and Vice-President.
Ratzinger became widely known during the Second Vatican Council from
1962 to 1965 when at the age of 35, he was appointed as the Chief
Theological Advisor of Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joseph Frings.
His intense scientific activity led him to important positions at the
German Bishops’ Conference and the International Theological Commission.
Archbishop and Cardinal
On 25 March 1977, Pope Paul VI named him Archbishop of Munich and
Freising and received his Episcopal ordination on 28 May the same year.
He was the first Diocesan priest for 80 years to take on the pastoral
governance of the great Bavarian Archdiocese. He chose as his Episcopal
motto a phrase from 3 John 8: “Fellow Worker in the Truth”.
On 27 June 1977, he was elevated a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI, with the
titular church of St. Mary of Consolation in Tiburtina. In 1978, he took
part in the Conclave of August which elected John Paul I, who named him
his Special Envoy to the III International Mereological Congress
celebrated in Ecuador from 16 to 24 September. In the month of October
of the same year he took part in the Conclave that elected Pope John
Paul II.
In 1980, he was named by Pope John Paul II to chair the Special Synod
on the Laity on the theme: “Mission of the Christian Family in the world
of today”, and was Delegate President of the VI Ordinary General
Assembly of 1983 on “Reconciliation and Penance in the mission of the
Church”.
On November 25,1981, Pope John Paul II summoned Cardinal Ratzinger to
Rome and named him the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and President
of the International Theological Commission. The Holy Father elevated
him to the Order of Bishops assigning to him the Suburbicarian See of
Velletri-Segni on 5 April 1993.
On November 6,1998, Pope John Paul II approved the election of
Cardinal Ratzinger as Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals, submitted
by the Cardinals of the Order of Bishops. On November 30, 2002, the Holy
Father approved his election as Dean of the College of Cardinals;
together with this office he was entrusted with the Suburbicarian See of
Ostia.
In 1999, he was Special Papal Envoy for the Celebration of the XII
Centenary of the foundation of the Diocese of Paderborn in Germany which
took place on 3 January. Since 13 November 2000, he has been an
Honourary Academic of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
In the Roman Curia he has been a member of the Council of the
Secretariat of State for Relations with States; of the Congregations for
the Oriental Churches, for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments, for Bishops, for the Evangelization of Peoples, for Catholic
Education, for Clergy and for the Causes of the Saints; of the
Pontifical Councils for Promoting Christian Unity, and for Culture; of
the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and of the Pontifical
Commissions for Latin America, “Ecclesia Dei”, for the Authentic
Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law, and for the Revision of the
Code of Canon Law of the Oriental Churches.
Election as the Pope
As the Dean of the College of Cardinals, he presided over the
College’s deliberations in General Congregation during the Vacancy of
the Holy See, after the death of Pope John Paul II on 2 April 2005.
In the same capacity, he presided at the Solemn Funeral Mass for Pope
John Paul II on 8 April 2005 in St. Peter’s Square, and the Mass ‘For
the Election of the Supreme Pontiff’ concelebrated by the College of
Cardinals on 18 April 2005.
That afternoon the Cardinals inaugurated the Conclave for the
election of the successor to St. Peter, under the presidency of Cardinal
Ratzinger at the Sistine Chapel.
The single vote that afternoon produced no election. In the morning
of 19 April 2005, two ballots of the Conclave produced no election.
However, on the first ballot of the afternoon, the fourth of the
Conclave, Cardinal Ratzinger was elected. On April 24, 2005, he
celebrated the Mass for the Inauguration of his pontificate in St.
Peter’s Square, receiving the Pallium and the Fisherman’s Ring at that
liturgical celebration.
Publications
His many publications are spread out over a number of years and
constitute a point of reference for many people especially for those
interested in entering deeper into the study of theology. His
best-selling books include: The Ratzinger Report (1985); Salt of the
Earth (1996); The Spirit of the Liturgy (2000); God and the World
(2002); God Is Near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life (2003). Special
mention should be made of his “Introduction to Christianity” (1968) - a
collection of University lectures on the Apostolic Creed and “Dogma and
Preaching” (1973) - an anthology of essays, sermons and reflections.
His address to the Catholic Academy of Bavaria on “Why I am still in
the Church” had a wide resonance; in it he stated with his usual
clarity: “One can only be a Christian in the Church, not beside the
Church”.
On the occasion of his 70th birthday the volume “At the School of
Truth” was published, containing articles by several authors on
different aspects of his personality and production.
As a Cardinal, he wrote ‘Truth and Tolerance’, a book in which he
denounces the use of tolerance as an excuse to distort the truth. He
also continued to defend the Second Vatican Council and the document
‘Nostra Aetate’ on respect of other religions and the declaration of the
right to religious freedom.
As the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he
clearly spelled out the Catholic Church’s position on other religions in
‘Dominus Jesus’ , affirming that only in Christ there is salvation.
Doctorates
He has received numerous “Honoris Causa” Doctorates, in 1984 from the
College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota; in 1986 from the Catholic
University of Lima; in 1987 from the Catholic University of Eichstatt;
in 1988 from the Catholic University of Lublin; in 1998 from the
University of Navarre; in 1999 from the Libera University Maria of Rome
and in 2000 from the Faculty of Theology of the University of Wroclaw in
Poland.
Pastimes
An accomplished pianist who loves Mozart and Beethovon, Ratzinger
used to visit the peaceful halls of St. Michael’s Seminary in Regensburg
to stay in the bishop’s apartment and enjoy playing the grand piano in
the seminary’s main hall.
He also loves walking through downtown Traunstein, meeting and
greeting people.
Traunstein is where Ratzinger went through the harrowing years of
Nazi rule and World War II.Ratzinger has repeatedly stated that he would
like to retire to a Bavarian village and dedicate himself to writing
books, but more recently, he told friends that he was ready to “Accept
any charge God placed on him.”
On election as the Pope he said, “the Cardinals have elected me, a
simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord. I am comforted by
the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act even with insufficient
instruments.”
Long live the Pope! |