ENCOUNTERS WITH THE FUTURE POPE: Stories about Joseph Ratzinger before he became Pope

shortly after Joseph Ratzinger was named Archbishop of Munich-Freising in 1977, before he left Pentling to take up his new position. All the pictures was taken by altrofoto in Pentling.

altrofoto address www.altrofoto.de







Picture with his sister even has a story.

She wore the apron, leant against the entrance gate and asked: " When do you come then today to the dinner Joseph?"
He was in the coat, on the way to the university and answered: " It is getting late, Maria. "

Thanks for the pics Palma, I have never seen those ones before.

from the left: professor Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, his sister Maria, former mayor Dr. Albert Schmid in the city hall in Pentling.




professor Dr. Joseph Ratzinger with his brother Georg, after the mass, also in Pentling.




from the left: Bishop Rudolf Graber of Regensburg(Who also appear in more pictures, vide supra. Also appear in the article posted by Teresa Benedetta, he had come to congratulate his new colleague, stood with him under TV lights), professor Dr. Joseph Ratzinger, Dr. Heinrich Wurstbauer former editor in chief church newspaper. Place Regensburg University.






Place Regensburg University.

Palma!!! Those photos are... awesome!

PALMA - HERE ARE THE TRANSLATIONS FROM SPANISH. I STILL HAVE TO DO THE LONG ONE.

A few weeks ago, Palma e-mailed me 4 articles (3 brief and one lengthy) in Spanish about a Spanish theologian's recollections of a man he had known for 35 years and who suddenly was the Pope.

I believe she has also furnished these articles to the RFC and they may already have them translated, but I will post my translations anyway.

The short interviews are from right after 4/19/05, but the lengthy article is a comprehensive evaluation of Joseph Ratzinger over four different phases of his life during the author's friendship with him, written earlier this year around the first anniversary of his election as Pope. [It always feels weird referring to his election as Pope, but it was an election, though I have always preferred to think of it as a predestined selection!]

Josep-Ignasi Saranyana, professor of theology at the University of Navarra, Spain, and a member of the Pontifical Commission for Social Sciences, knew Joseph Ratzinger as a university professor, as Archbishop of Munich, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and in a special way, as his escort and guide for a week when the Cardinal came to his university to receive an honorary doctorate in 1998.

I will start with the short ones.

This brief memoir came out in La Gaceta de los Negocios (Madrid) on 4/20/05.

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I have the good fortune of knowing, for many years now, Cardinal Ratzinger who is now Pope Benedict XVI. First as a theologian, when he was a professor in Regensburg; then, as Archbishop and Cardinal of Munich; and finally, as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

In a rush assignment like this, and trying to order my thoughts, I can say that I always admired him as an intellectual who was interested in all the currents of contemporary thought. I never heard him once say anything against any of his colleagues - not when the was a professor, much less as CDF Prefect!

He would receive my small articles with exquisite cordiality, as though they were really important to him. I realized that he would skim through them, and sometimes read more closely with interest. It was very stimulating to me to be taken seriously.

I think that this aspect of his character - knowing how to listen and be attentive - will manifest itself very much in his role as Pope.

Another detail I wish to remark on is the affection between him and his sister Maria. She was like a mother, the feminine hand in the house, attentive to everything.

Once when he chided me for not eating dinner (I was not feeling well), she prepared a delicious tea of roses (I think that's waht it was called) as her brother looked on satisfied and his secretary perplexed.


This is an interview with a magazine, Veritas, on 4/22/05.

'Benedict is rejuvenated
when he is with young people'

You knew Joseph Ratzinger when he was a professor in Germany. What are our recollections?
I dealt with him quite a bit because of my doctoral thesis in Theology.

I was always surprised at the promptness with which he answered my letters (there was no e-mail at the time!). He provided me with bibliographies, gave his opinion about my first publications, he gave me the addresses of other colleagues to whom I could address more specific questions.

He was always available, far fronm the stereotype German professor who is distant and arrogant. Ratzinger was the exact opposite. This was very stimulating for me.


Then you had occasion to deal with him as Archbishop of Munich...
Well, we continued being in touch, and I visited him both in his house in Regensburg, which he kept, and at his episcopal residence, where I sat at his table like a family member.

We would talk about what was happening in the Spanish universities and things in general. And after his sister Maria retired, we would go on talking about theological questions, about which he was passionate.

He never once said anything against any of his colleagues, which is something admirable in our profession. It was a pleasure to converse with him. Sometimes, we would go on for two hours without noticing the time.

You accompanied him during his stay in Pamplona when he was given an honorary degree by the Unviersity of Navarra. How was he then?
I had the great luck of being with him and his secretary for almost a week. He was very much in his element, reliving his days as a professor, the most beautiful years of his youth.

I remember that one day, he was so tired he did not even want to have dinner. But when he went to his rooms at the University College dorm, he was literally assaulted by students who wanted to honor him. Forgetting his tiredness, he followed them to a big hall where they sang songs for him, peppered him with questions and showered him with affection. This went on for more than an hour.

His faint signs of exhaustion earlier quickly gave way to smiles of satisfaction. With young people, he feels rejuvenated.

Did you have occasion to visit him in Rome when he was already CDF Prefect?-
Of course, but not very often because I didn't want to bother him at work. Still, I remember a day when I wanted to see him. It was a Friday, the day when he had his weekly meeting with the Pope, and obviously he was busy preparing for the audience. But when he learned that I was there, he stopped what he was doing and saw me right away.

We started to talk about books and university affairs. He was so available, and did not once show any sign of impatience.

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This one is not dated, but it must have been shortly after the Conclave, too. Nor is the source indicated.

For Ratzinger,
the great pending task
for Christianity is Europe

As someone who knows Ratzinger personally, what reasons would he have for choosing the name Benedict ?
Three basic ones. First, not to choose a name that would indicate he was going to be a template of what he has been up to now.

Then, Benedict is the patron of Europe. Europe has been Ratzinger's grand theme. All the good and all the bad has been brewing in Europe for more than a thousand years. It needs to be 'recovered'.

From the Christian viewpoint, Europe is the great pending task, along with the United States and Canada.

And finally, Benedict XV. He had a very attractive program. He was the Pope who sought peace, who sought the institutional presence of the Church in the concert of nations, and was the great missionary Pope of the modern era.

How did you get to know Ratzinger?
Initially, we corresponded, starting in 1970. I was working on the ecclesiology of St. Bonaventure and soon discovered that one of the principal books about the saint was a thesis by Ratzinger. And he gave me a lot of help.

It happens that that thesis, written for his Habilitation, was initially turned down, and it seemed to him that the world had fallen on him.

You mean Ratzinger was disqualified?
No. they finally approved the thesis. But the event strengthened one of his characteristics: he learned to place himself in the shoes of his opponent or critic. Since he himself had suffered the incomprehension of his colleagues on intellectual or doctrinal points, he felt that he could not judge another theologian without talking to him, or at the very least, going to the bottom of what the other person thinks.

But there were quite a few theologians who had problems with Ratzinger.
As Prefect of the CDF, he had to pass judgment on a variety of authors, but he always made it a point to put himself in the other person's position and talk it out.

In the case of Leonardo Boff, for instance, Ratzinger went to Rio de Janiero and stayed there for several days, studying Boff's work and talking to those who knew him. I was there at the time to look into liberation theology, which seemed to be very powerful then. Ratzinger had Boff's books on his desk. [Of course, eventually, Boff was summoned to the CDF in Rome for questioning.]

He is never influenced by what's in fashion. In one of our meetings, Ratzinger gave me his book on eschatology, the preface of which revealed another trait of his. He comments, with some irony, that he has always had the 'misfortune' of being countercurrent. Earlier, he was up against conservatives. I am sure he was referring to that habilitation thesis, because those who turned him down were the conservatives on the committee.

This time - it was around 1974 - he said "I am up against the reformists." He was referring to a very important development.
After Vatican-II, he realized that many of the theologians in his group were drifting away from the genuine spirit of Vatican II.

What happened then?
He ended up parting ways with some colleagues with whom he had been in close collaboration. It was the group that published the journal Concilium. Well, along with like-minded colleagues, he founded Communio.

This underlines another element of his character: he is a person of integrity, he doesn't go with fads, he has a very deep sense of the duty to find the truth above all else.

In any case, how is the new Pope in his personal dealings?
The first time we met personally was at his house in Regensburg, shortly after he was named Archbishop. We had along long conversation one summer afternoon. We were discussing theological questions and were so engrossed we neglected the fact that his sister Maria had prepared a mid-afternoon snack for us.

His sister was a central figure in his lfife, because Ratzinger, at laest at that time, was useless for little practical things, so he needed the attention of a feminine hand.

The two of them were bound by obvious affection. It must have been a great crisis for him when she died, because she provided him a home in which he could carry out his activities.

You used to call him Professor...
Yes. I remember another evening in Munich. After dinner, he gave me the guest book to sign - that's a very German custom. I wrote, more or less: "With gratitude to Cardinal Ratzinger for this pleasant evening. To me, he will always be Professor Ratzinger." He liked that. He really enjoyed university life.

We got up from the dining table to watch the news on TV. I asked him: "Which newscast? The German?" He said. "No, no. the Austrian."

So I asked, But aren't you German? He said, "I'm Bavarian." So I asked, is Bavarian a language or a dialect? He said, "Of course, it's a language."

I thought it showed how close he is to his native land and its traditions. He has always felt bound to his Bavarian roots. I think because of this he would understand the problems of small nations.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/12/2006 18.37]

Teresa and Palma,

Very nice little story! I love these tales about Papa before he became Papa. His personality and core beliefs never seemed to change from the time he was in the seminary till now. He has always been a brilliant but humble, kind, gentle, generous, appreciative, and courteous man. We are so astonishingly lucky that he is pope!

And we can only echo Benefan's words. This Pope is an extraordinary person.

Thank you very much. It is a excellent translation.

Josep Ignasi Saranyana:

Thanks Palma & Teresa for this story. I love hearing about him when he was younger.

Somewhere in cyberspace are two posts - a translation of the long Saranyana article on Pope Benedict which I had not done from last time. Before I left the office earlier tonight, I posted it twice - because although it says on the board that the last post on this thread is mine, the first post never came on, and the second one has not come on either. I'll wait and see what happens before I try again...

P.S. Well, they have not resurfaced, and since this post 'took', I suppose that means those earlier ones are now truly lost. I will re-post after getting something to eat. Just got home - it's midnight...

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/12/2006 6.16]

Here then is the translation referred to above. Thanks once again to Palma - we hope you have more of these articles, and the pictures, too!
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Diálogos Almudí, 2006
BENEDICT XVI,
EX-JOSEPH RATZINGER
By Josep Ignasi Saranyana

They entitled my intervention ”What is Benedict XVI like as a person? I would have phrased it differently, but it is the title engraved in the invitations. I had suggested “Benedict XVI, formerly Joseph Ratzinger”.

It is good at a time when we inaugurate a new Pontificate to look at the trajectory followed by the Holy Father before he was elected, and contemplate with genuine amazement how Divine Providence has prepared him for many years for the mission that he must carry out from 2005. In this preparation, there are details that are really surprising.

I have divided the life of the Pope into a series of parts that I will review rapidly because they are already known to you, although perhaps, you have not had a chance to consider them together, in an organic manner.

Let us remember first that his priestly ordination took place in June 1951. Immediately, he was given a parochial assignment in Munich, at the Church of the Precious Blood of Christ (Heilige Blut), where he served from September 1951 to September 1952.

This work marked him very much. He occupied himself with youth ministry, having been assigned to lecture to young people, hold andreligious instruction classes, which Ratzinger prepared carefully, and which then became something almost publication-ready - indeed published in 1958, with the title ‘The New Pagans and the Church.'

These lectures reveal the concern that the future Pope had, in the immediate postwar period, for the formation of young people.

Remember that Germany underwent the terrible Nazi experience from 1933 to the end of the Second World War in 1945. The young generation which managed to survive the war had received little Christian formation, even if they had been baptized – and this went for Catholics as well as Lutherans.

Ratzinger realized at that time, even as a newly-ordained young priest, that the priority pastoral task was to impart to the young some Catholic intellectual fundamentals that would enable them later to develop a Christian life in a harmonious manner.

After this brief parochial life, Ratzinger began his long academic career. It began in 1952 and ended in 1977 – 25 dense years, that he remembers with joy and nostalgia.

First he had to do his doctoral thesis. Then came his habilitation thesis, an academic requirement in order to be a lecturer in German universities.

He got his first middle-level chair at the diocesan seminary of Friesing. He got his first full professorial chair (fundamental theology) in 1959 at the University of Bonn. Three other chairs would follow, all in Dogmatic Theology – Muenster in Westphalia, Tuebingen and Regensburg.

These 25 years included a ‘star’ episode from 1962-1965, when Ratzinger took part in the Second Vatican Council, first as the personal consultant to Cardinal Joseph Frings of Cologne, and later as an expert theologian of the Council.

His academic career ended in 1977, when he began his brief episcopal stage. In 1977, Paul VI surpringly named him Archbishop of Munich, and a few weeks later, cardinal.

He was in Munich for four years, when John Paul II called him to the Vatican on October 5, 1981.

It is good to remember that good administrators - and John Paul was one - have a rare intuition for discovering good co-workers. Petty administrators tend to choose co-workers who are inferior so that they cannot be overshadowed. The great ones usually pick people who are as good as or better than they are.

It appears that the mutual acquaintance of Wojtyla and Ratzinger deepened during the first pastoral visit of John Paul II to Germany in 1980, on a centenary anniversary of Albertus Magnus. They had a series of conversations. Ratzinger did not know Polish, so they spoke in German, which John Paul spoke well. One has the impression that from then on, John Paul had the idea of getting this young archbishop from Munich for a key position in the Church.

Ratzinger was sworn in as Prefect of the CDF on November 25, 1981, when John Paul was still convalescing from the assassination attempt on him in May of that year. And so Ratzinger reamined in Rome till 2005 when he was elected Pope.

To recap, we can say: one year of pastoral work as vicar in a city parish where he dedicated himself to the youth ministry; then 25 years as a professor at the highest level, very much concerned with the formation of students, during which he spent 4 long seasons at Vatican-II; 4-1/2 years as Archbishop of Munichj; 25 years as prefect of a Roman discastery; and since last April, a few months as Pope.

What conclusions can we draw from this itinerary ?

First conclusion: This is a pious priest. As a professor, the Pope was already known as a pious theologian. I ask you to consider my words far from being adulatory. I will tell you an anecdote which you must interpret in its real context, namely, without extrapolations so as not to draw unwarranted consequences.

Once in the 70s, I asked a German lady colleague, a good historian of theology: « And what's Ratzinger like?» She said, « Oh, Professor Ratzinger! - he's a pious theologian. He preaches every Sunday.»

That is a precise indication that correctly situates Ratzinger, to show his dediction to the priestly life.

Many German professors at the time, even if they were priests, were so totally immersed in their academic activities that they had little interest in fixed pious practices, and probably no interest in preaching at all.

In this environment, Ratzinger was considered a man with a strong spiritual life. We are seeing that now in the Pope. When he was in Val d'Aosta last summer, they revealed some details of his private life. We learned that he wakes up early, that he spends some time praying before the Blessed Sacrament and that he celebrates Mass before starting to work. Which he would do until lunchtime.

You cannot just improvise a life of prayer and work, especially when you are at an advanced age. I say this so that you see how important it is for a young priest to acquire prayer habits, which should be more important than any intellectual activity.

John Paul II must have noticed in Ratzinger - besides his intellectual caliber - his life of piety, because he too was a man who prayed a lot.

It is said that once he was flying by helicopter during a visit to Brazil. It seems something important had happened in Rome that had been communicated to a ranking Curia member who was in the same helicopter. He therefore attempted to get the Pope‘s attention, but the Pope was engrossed in reading his Breviary and never once looked up. It appears the prelate became impatient and finally interrupted the Pope’s prayers. John Paul II is reported to have said drily, « You must wait until the Pope finishes his prayers. »

I think John Paul and Ratzinger come from the same ‘school’, even if they have very different temperaments. This is a good sign for the Catholic world. It is a good sign that the head of the Church, the Vicar of Christ, not only has the grace that comes with the position, but that he makes that grace compatible with a tempered personal piety acquired since adolescence.

The second point : Pope Benedict is a theologian and pastor who engages in dialog. Benedict XVI is a good intellectual -I would say a first-class intellectual. His intellectual qualities were evident from the very start and have been cultivated uninterruptedly.

His doctoral thesis, written at age 24, was an excellent patristic work on St. Augustine, at the suggestion of his great teacher Clemens Gottlieb Soehngen, who became his friend and protector. He held the chair in fundamental theology at the University of Munich, and Ratzinger always had the greatest appreciation for him. His thesis onn Augustine got maximum points from the beginning.

It is a known fact that Ratzinger’s habilitation thesis for lectureship – it is the second doctoral thesis one has to defend in Germany in order to qualify as a university lecturer – met with considerable obstacles. But finally it was approved and was published. It is now a classic book on St, Bonaventure and the theology of the 13th century.

As you may have heard, Benedict XVI attributes much significance to the fact that his second thesis met with so many difficulties, to the point that it was sent back to him, and he salvaged it miraculously in a few weeks time through some remarkable modifications.

He sees the experience as having capital importance in his formation, because it taught him what suffering is, and prepared him to be able to put himself in the position of his interlocutor.

We must dwell a bit on this episode. His gifts as a researcher had been proven. His superiors at the diocesan seminary of Freising knew it. His protector Soehngen was ready to take him in as a professor in the University. Ratzinger was brilliant, well-versed in the classical languages Greek and Latin, and famliar with the best traditions of the Church.

Nevertheless, at the moment of truth, his habilitation thesis was not understood by one of his examiners, Prof. Michael Schmaus, who at that time was the undisputed academic authority in German Catholicism.

Ratzinger always considered that Schmaus’s ‘incomprehension’ taught him to be very careful himself when interpreting the theological opinions of others.

From that moment on, he realized that if he, with all good intentions, was so badly misunderstood by Schmaus, then he himself did not have the right to interpret someone else’s theological opinion without first trying to talk it out with the other and placing himself in the other’s shoes.

And where did we see this attitude recently expressed? We saw it in the long conversation that lasted all afternoon and part of the evening that he recently had with Hans Kueng, whom he has known since 1957, and with whom, as you can imagine, there are many doctrinal points they do not share.

Despite that, the two apparently had a good talk together in Castel Gandolfo this summer. It wasn’t supposed to, but their meeting lasted to dinner time and beyond. Hans Kueng emerged quite enthusiastic after the meeting, even if they had not really resolved any differences.

So what do we know that they talked about? It seems they talked about Kueng’s project to promulgate a global ethic. It was a good common theme because the Pope is interested in the same thing. They must have reminisced, too, I suppose, about their years together, when they both taught in the same university.

Therefore Ratzinger is a man who favors dialog. There is another anecdote in this regard. You will remember that in 1984 Leonardo Boff had this confrontation with Cardinal Ratzinger, then prefect of the CDF. In the nature of his position, Ratzinger had to impose an important disciplinary measure on Boff for having written a book that was ‘twisted’ in relation to Catholic orthodoxy.

The penalty was to observe public silence on the wuestioned points for a year. The book was «Igreja: carisma e poder« [The Church : Charisma and power] which was published in 1981.

When Ratzinger was elected Pope, journalists flocked to Boff to ask him what he thought of it. hey expected him to answer ‘this was the man who persecuted me and muzzled me for a year, etc… »

Instead, Boff limited himself to saying that Ratzinger had been the only man who gave him a helping hand when he needed it as a student in Munich – that it was Ratzinger who advised him regarding the publication of his doctoral thesis.

Boff’s words indicated that Ratzinger himself paid out of his own pocket for the publication, or at least contributed to it. A recent item in El Pais said Ratzinger gave Boff 14,000 DM so he could get the thesis published.

However, a few more days after the Conclave, Boff was no longer as courteous.

[There are a few mixed-up sentences I cannot translate because the resulting jumble of phrases does not make sense.]

…[In any case] the picture that some media have ‘fabricated’ about Ratzinger, of being an intransigent person incapable of dialog, does not corrrespond to fact. That has never been who he is.

I would like to recount a third anecdote which I experienced myself. In the middle of February 1981, I had the good fortune of being received by the Cardinal at his residence in Munich, the Archbishop’s Palace. His sister Maria asked me to stay for dinner. She was an extraordinary woman. I think her death 15 years ago must have been a severe blow to Ratzinger, because they were very close.

After dinner, he asked me to watch the news with him. After that, he said « Why don’t we see what books I have… » and went towards the bookcases of his vast library. He pulled out one, a book of mine that I had sent him just two weeks earlier. « Here you say about me… »

It was significant for me that a world-renowned theologian, a cardinal of the Church, would have bothered to look through the debut book of a younger colleague. And I think that this curiosity and attentive interest show, as I have been saying, a person who seeks dialog and who is tnterested in what others are doing.

Informed sources say that even now, as Pope, he reserves one afternoon every week, I think Tuesdays, to study, to update himself on the latest publications, so that he can prepare his texts appropriately ; and that at this time, he does not want anyone around, not even his private secretary…

You may judge for yourselves if this is a man who is arrogant, as he has been unjustly accused of, or if he is a man against dialog, a man closed off within his own positions.

My third point: This is an ecclesiastic who has experience of governing. His more than two decades in Rome before he became Pope gave him invaluable experience in curial administration and a vast knowledge of the problems of the universal Church.

It is true that the most important administrative matters are decided in the last instance by the Pope, with the help of his Secretary of State. But by nature, many Church matters directly concern the CDF, and it is also required that the opinion of the CDF be sought in other matters that directly concern other dicasteries. Obviously, the most delicate issues of the Church can never be dealt with without the participation of the Prefect of the CDF.

To cite a few examples: No bishop can be named before his dossier is well studied by the Prefect of the CDF; a priest may not be secularized unless the CDF hasassed judgment; no dicastery can publish any doctrinal document that has not been reviewed by the CDF; laws and regulations about the most sensitive Church matters may not be amended without prior notice to the CDF .

We can say that virtually all Vatican documents must go through that office. Thus, the Prefect of the CDF is always necessarily a very well-informed person. And that is why Benedict XVI came to his position with a very wide overview of the Church, even if it may not have been, at the time of his election, the ‘political vision’ incumbent on the Vatican Sectretary of State, for instance.

What I just said about Benedict XVI applies to the day-to-day matter of governance, for ordinary as well as extraordinary administrative procedures. But it also applies to doctrinal debates.

The prefect of the CDF, in effect, occupies an exceptional vantage point to take the pulse of ideas within the Catholic world and outside it, and this particular advantage that he holds over any other scclesiastic in the service of the Holy See is well-known to all.

Now, John Paul II published a whole lot of doctrinal documents, even if not all are of the same ranking. Anyone who compares these various documents will realize that there is no uniform style. That is normal for any administrator who has other public functions to discharge.

And so, there are textxs in a more personal style which, as some observe, take a circular approach to the crux of the issue, whereas other documents are very linear, almost Cartesian.

Many of us suspect that the more linear documents would have been prepared by some of the Pope’s closest associates, even though at the Pope’s initiative, of course, and then published with his approval under his name. Who could have been the late Pontiff’s discreet collaborator in matters of doctrinal importance ?

Benedict XVI recently made a declaration which surprised a lot of people. When he was asked whether he would write much as Pope, he said : « Too much has already been written, and everything that needs to be written has been written. Now what was written must be executed. »

The informed listener, who can read between the lines, gets the message. Some of John Paul II’s most densely rich documents had been previously noted if not developed in the doctoral and habilitation theses of the young Ratzinger and in the documents he wrote for and about the Second Vatican Council.

These days, I have been working on a comparison between the theological works of Joseph Ratzinger with some documents of John Paul II’s pontificates, and I am discovering that many of the concerns expressed by John Paul II correspond to themes which Ratzinger developed in his early years as a novice theologian and before earning his first university professorship, that is to say, between the years 1951-1959.

To close this panoramic view of the spiritual and priestly virtues of Benedict XVI, allow me to pose this question: What where the cardinal electors looking for during the Conclave?

They were probably looking for a pious conscientious priest, a good intellectual, a person with experience in church administration, a man acquainted with the msot serious problems that the Church faces, and someone who had been a close associate of the late Pope. It is obvious that only one person fits that profile.

Therefore, when the media was speculating who the next Pope might be, there were those of who were amused, because there was only one obvious candidate, with perhaps one or two others who were quickly ‘dismounted.’ It is evident that the only choice could have been him.

For once, the Roman saying that « He who enters the Conclave as Pope comes out a cardinal » did not hold. In this case, a cardinal entered the Conclave whose election some feared, including the cardinal himself who was not seeking it. But it was evident that the die had been cast beforehand.

I will now proceed to the fourth point of this lecture : the pastoral priorities of Benedict XVI.

In geographic order, I would say that the Pope’s principal concern is Europe, concretely the Europe in which all of contemporary Western culture had been brewed. Not all Europe, but its central part – the golden rectangle defined by the points London in the west , Berlin to the East, Vienna or Prague to the southeast, west to Paris, and back to London. That rectangle gave birth to everything that has marked contemporary culture – Luther, the Enlightenment, the great European revolutionary movements… [It is really strange that Saranyana does not go south of the Alps with his 'rectangle', for he is thereby excluding Italy and Spain- the foremost seats of the Renaissance - from this 'cradle of culture'!]

Who can dialog with such a powerful and rich culture? Dialog is only possible when one has a profound knowledge of the issue, not merely superficial. It can only be carried out by someone who was formed by that very environment, withthe appropriate intellectual formation.

The Pope speaks exquisite German and has a fluid command of English. Edward Schillebeekcx, a well-known Dominican theologian of Flemish origin, now an old man (he was born in 1914), was called several years back to the CDF for a conversation with Cardinal Ratzinger about some of Schillebeeckx’s controversial Christological statements.

When he emerged form the meeting, the Dominican did not want to comment about the conversation excpet to say that Ratzinger spke perfect English. Schillebeeckx speaks German but they did not use German because the Dutch and the Flemish avoid speaking German.

Ratzinger's French is excellent, having delivered his initiation speech into the Academy of Moral Sciences of the Institut de France in French, before the academicians of the Institut, whose Academie Francaise is the guardian of the purity of the French language.

And his Italian is, of course, fluent and rich.

The Pope underscored, during his trip to Cologne for World Youth Day) – and note this, because it is paradixical – that one of the important tasks for ecumenism these days is to support Lutheranism. It is difficult to imagine Lutherans converting to Catholicism, despite recent reconciliatory moves, especially the Joint Catholic-Lutheran Declaration first presented in Augsburg in 1999 and subsequently ratified by the Holy See.

But if Lutheranism should go under, that would create a terrible vacuum in Germany, Scandinavia and other places. It is necessary to lend them a hand without humiliating them, not a hand asking for conversion, but a helping hand that may eventually lead to some conversions.

The Germans, including the German Lutherans, welcomed the election of a German Pope on this ground : « That a German has become Pope means the Second World War has really ended. »

This reason is more profound than it might seem at first glance. It presupposes an important step, a mending of ancient European quarrels that go back to the Low Middle Ages, and especially to the century of the Reformation. It means exploding the anti-Roman complex of many Germans.

All that is very important, But acceptance of the German Pope means, above all, for German Catholics and Lutehrans alike, that they are willing to listen to him.

One of this Pope’s great priorities will be China. Many of us will perhaps remember Anthony Quinn’s excellent last scene in the 1968 film of Morris West’s « The Sheos of the Fisherman ». It shows the Pope, dressed in black clergyman suit, speaking to the leader of the Chinese government in a civilian setting.

China is, in effect, the great pending assignment of the Catholic Church. It is a subcontinent of exceptional value, with a millenial culture, in which Catholics gained a foothold only with much difficulty. China says it is ready to open itself to the Vatican but on one condition: that the Holy See give up relations with Taiwan.

That is difficult, but perhaps the Holy See will find the right formula. Perhaps through an Apostolic Nuncio for the Pacific region, with his seat in Manila, who would also be the Apostolic representative to Taiwan, without being directly named as such?

In any case, China is a primordial priority. [At the time of this lecture, the thorny issue of Chinese episcopal ordinations without the approval of the Vatican had not taken center stage.]

There is a third pastoral objective besides Europe and China. Let me tell you another recent anecdote. As you know, the bishops of Latin America meet once every ten years, more or less in a general conference that includes the bishops of the Caribbean. The first was held in Rio de Janeiro in 1955; the second in Medellin, Colombia in 1968, opened by Paul VI; the third in Puebla, Mexico, in 1979, opened by John Paul II; and the fourth in Santo Domingo in 1992, also opened by John Paul II.

The fifth was to have been in Quito, Ecuador, in 2005. But the Holy See had to inform the Latin American bishops that the Pope was no longer able to make the trip to Quito, and suggested that they could hold it in Rome so that at least the Pope could be present.

With John Paul’s death and the election of Benedict XVI, the leadership of the Latin Ameircna bishops conference went to the new Pope and asked, "What do we do now? Do we go back to the plan for Quito, do we continue with Rome, and what dates shall we have?»

And the new Pope replied in a totally unexpected way : « What do you think of doing it in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Aparecida ? » Surprise and perplexity among the bishops.

Aparecida, where the patroness of Brazil is venerated, is located 160 kilometers south of Sao Paolo in the Brazilian interior.

Then the Pope added it could be done during a time when it was not so hot, perhaps in May, shortly after Easter. And so it was that the conference date was fixed for May 2007.

Brazil is one of the primary pastoral objectives of the Holy Fahter. It is the country with the largest Catholic population in the world, but everything in Brazil appears to be changeable. They may be Catholics today but tomorrow they could be something else. And something has to be done about it.

The Pope has considered Brazil a serious problem since he visited it in August 1982 to take part in a meeting of theologians which the Conference of Latin American Bishops had arranged in Rio de Janeiro.

Then there’s the fourth of his pastoral priorities: the United States. And this was demonstrated by one detail of his early Pontificate. Six months after his election, the only important curial position that had been filled by Benedict XVI was the position he himself left vacant – that of prefect of the CDF.

And who did he choose to fill the position? The Archbishop of San Francisco, William Joseph Levada, who is of course well aware of what is happening in the U.S. Church. Levada was also the only American bishop who worked directly in the preparation of thr Catechism of the Catholic Church.

These four areas I have indicated correspond to four principal concerns of the Church today : Europe, where a new evangelization is urgently needed; China, which is a major pending assignment; Brazil, because the Church needs to be urgently supported in the largest Catholic nation on earth ; and the United States, because some sectors of the wealthiest nation on earth are corruptible and could succumb in the near future.

Alongside, there are two priorities of a universal nature: to recover the splendor of Catholic liturgy, and to promote vocations fo the priesthood and the religious life. It is very likely that the Pope will want to take a hand in planning the intellectual formation of Catholic clergy.

With all these, I believe you will have a rather ample portrait of Benedict XVI, formerly Joseph Ratzinger. In the natural course of events, his Pontificate is not going to be lengthy but it will be brilliant.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/12/2006 18.39]

It is very kind of you to translate all of I send to you.
I only can say thanks Teresa!

MANY THANKS TO TERESA AND TO PALMA FOR THIS WONDERFUL ARTICLE.

It's a great Christmas present!!

[Modificato da Music of Lorien 21/12/2006 1.57]

I have been meaning to gather together in this thread various 'testimonials' that are scattered all over - some of them posted in the RFC before the English section was started here in the PRF, many of them still in my initial printout folder of what I could find randomly in those early days after 4/19/05 when I was very much a novice at Internet searching (having been limited before that only to Medline searches of medical and scientific journals) and before I ever had any idea about online forums!

I was hoping I might do some of it this weekend. Here's tHE first one I came across by Fr. Joseph Fessio, from his 'hometown' newspaper in Florida, where he is currently provost of Ave Maria University:


Ave Maria provost studied
with new pope in Germany
DIANNA SMITH, dlsmith@naplesnews.com
and KRISTEN SMITH, kmsmith@naplesnews.com

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

He twirls his rosary ring, pacing back and forth like a professor in his cabana by the pool at Ave Maria University.

The Rev. Joseph Fessio has been repeating himself for almost three hours now, proudly talking to journalists by phone from all over the world, sharing stories of his friendship and admiration for Pope Benedict XVI, elected Tuesday to succeed Pope John Paul II who died earlier this month.

"I want people to know what a saint we have. He's good, good," says Fessio, the AMU provost, while inhaling a bowl of bean salad before his next interview. "I'm so full of joy."

By 4 p.m., he has 20 unheard messages on his cell phone. He needs to return calls to People magazine, the Washington Post and CNN. He organizes his interviews with the help of three AMU employees recruited to field phone calls and he's reminded periodically to take sips of water so his throat won't dry from talking too much.

Fessio is so popular this day that you'd think he was the one named the new pope.

He jokingly calls himself a hot media property because he's one of the few, perhaps the only person in America, who can speak of the new pope as people speak of old classmates. Their friendship dates back to the early 1970s, when Fessio was pursuing his doctorate in then-West Germany.

He studied under then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and was intrigued by the man who is now the leader of the world's 1 billion Catholics.

Ratzinger, a cardinal for the past 27 years, worked closely with Pope John Paul II, making him a popular choice to lead the church.

"I thought about him right from the beginning because he was so friendly with Pope John Paul," says Joseph Friel, of Bonita Springs, who serves as Grand Knight for the St. Leo Catholic Church's council of the Knights of Columbus.

"I know he can't do what Pope John Paul did because they said no one will match him."

Fessio says Pope Benedict XVI will continue Pope John Paul II's legacy.

With the bowl of salad, now empty, Fessio says, "God bless," to a reporter in Rome and hangs up the phone. He falls into his chair. He's got more than 25 journalists to call back and is trying to digest his late lunch.

The last free moment he had was around 1 p.m. when he toasted with champagne to celebrate the announcement of the new pope with three close friends. They toasted the pope's health.

Fessio says he's ready for another journalist.

"Do you need to do anything first?" asks Michael Dauphinais, AMU associate dean of faculty, who serves as Fessio's agent this day.

"I wanna call Cardinal (Christoph) Schonborn," Fessio says.

And just like that, he did.

He dialed the cardinal's phone number and, after three rings, Schonborn of Austria picked up his cell phone in Vatican City. Fessio first greets him in German.

"This is so wonderful! What a gift for the church, what a gift for the church!" Fessio says, shaking his right fist in victory. "You must stand by his side, stand by his side ... I won't ask you how you voted because I don't want you to break your seal, so I'm gonna take a guess."

Schonborn also studied with Fessio under the now former cardinal. Their relationships grew after graduation and the two have since kept in touch. Schonborn, Fessio and Ratzinger see each other at least once a year.

Fessio is also editor and founder of Ignatius Press, the exclusive publisher of the 12 books written by the former cardinal.

Fessio says Schonborn told him that after the pope made his first appearance Tuesday from the St. Peter's Basilica balcony, he turned to Schonborn and said, "We must keep our friendship."

Fessio speaks highly of the pope just as one would of a relative: kind, gracious, soft spoken, thoughtful. He brings presents to Fessio whenever they meet.

"He's everything I'm not," Fessio chuckles.

Maureen Boylan of Bonita Springs, a Catholic, says she is pleased a pope has been selected, no matter who he is or where he is from. She says she saw Pope John Paul II at World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002 and feels Pope Benedict XVI will continue the previous pope's work with youth.

With the next World Youth Day ? an event where youth from around the world gather to meet and share their faith ? being held in Germany, Pope Benedict's native country, Boylan feels Pope Benedict will follow John Paul II's footsteps.

"I'm delighted because we've been praying for the election of this pope and we know the Holy Spirit is the one who chooses the pope," Boylan says. "We didn't think it would be an American cardinal. We had a feeling it would be someone who worked closely with the pope and he did."

The focus now shifts to Sunday, when Pope Benedict XVI formally will be installed.

Dauphinais recites Fessio's schedule today like he's a movie star whose date book is full of talk-show appointments. He's got ABC, "Fox and Friends," the Fox morning show, a date with a television crew from Miami, and whatever else might come up.

Then talk of traveling to Rome arises. Fessio planned to visit in May, but now that his friend and mentor is pope, those plans may be rushed.

"I better go," he says.


A second story three days later:

Area priests going to Vatican
for celebration
DIANNA SMITH, dlsmith@naplesnews.com

Saturday, April 23, 2005

Five Roman Catholic priests at Ave Maria University will be in Vatican City on Sunday to watch Pope Benedict XVI formally assume the papacy.

The five who plan to celebrate the selection of the new Catholic leader with the hundreds of thousands of people expected to be in St. Peter's Square are the Rev. Joseph Fessio, AMU provost; the Rev. Matthew Lamb, director of AMU graduate school of theology; the Rev. Michael Beers, dean of the AMU pre-theologate program; the Rev. Robert Garrity, AMU chaplain; and the Rev. Bevil Bramwell, AMU professor of theology.

Gov. Jeb Bush, who converted to Catholicism 10 years ago, left Friday to lead the U.S. delegation to the investiture ceremony. The 52-year-old governor was asked by his brother, President George W. Bush, to lead the delegation.

He will lead a group that includes Knights of Columbus Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson, Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, Helen Alvare, a law professor from Catholic University of America, and Frank Hanley, president emeritus of the International Union of Operating Engineers.

The outdoor church service will take place at 4 a.m. EDT.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Tuesday in one of the shortest conclaves in a century. Since the election, journalists from around the world have flocked to Fessio, who is one of the few and perhaps the only American priest with close ties to Ratzinger. Fessio studied under Ratzinger in the 1970s in then- West Germany while pursuing his doctoral degree. The two since have remained friends and make sure to see one another at least once a year.

Fessio's next national television appearance will be at 10 a.m. Sunday on NBC's program "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert.

Before he left for Rome, Fessio said that Sunday's church service is more of a celebration than anything else.

"It's like a birthday party," he said. "It's a time when people rejoice, and I want to be there."

He said he doesn't intend to see the pope during his visit.

"Everybody wants to see him," he said. "I hope he doesn't spend too much time in his pontificate meeting with small groups. There's too much to be done."

Ave Maria University is a liberal arts Catholic university tucked in the Vineyards in North Naples. Its creator, Tom Monaghan, is building a permanent campus east of Golden Gate Estates and local developer Barron Collier Cos. is creating a town to go with it. AMU students have been celebrating Pope Benedict's election all week.

Richard Lender, an AMU graduate student studying theology, said students were "bouncing off the walls" when they heard the news Tuesday. He said Ratzinger was the best possible choice because he's been in Rome for so long and knows how Rome works.

"He is a first-rate theologian; even his enemies agree as much," Lender said. "He's a great mind. You're going to know exactly where he's going to stand."

Church experts say he is strongly rooted in church traditions and inflexible on high-profile issues such as the church's bans on contraception and women priests.

Fessio said the teachings of the Catholic church aren't something invented by man, but revelations given by God. The pope, Fessio says, relays the messages from God.

"Of course they're going to be conservative," he said. "Ratzinger will be no more conservative and no less conservative than John Paul II."

AMU President Nick Healy said he was relieved to hear a pope had been named because, for a brief moment, the Catholic church was without a leader.

"In a profound supernatural way, he is a representative of Christ," Healy said. "Until Christ comes again, the only visible head of the church is the pope."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

=============================================================

This one is from Business Week online of 5/2/05:


"A Loyal Son of the Church"

Father Joseph Fessio, former student and close friend of Benedict XVI, discusses the "warm, gracious man with a wonderful sense of humor"


When Reverend Joseph Fessio was a student at the University of Regensburg in then-West Germany from 1972 to 1975, his doctoral director and mentor was Father Joseph Ratzinger, who later became cardinal and was elected Pope on Apr. 19, taking the name Benedict XVI.

In 1989, Fessio, along with fellow classmate Christoph Schönbrun, now Vienna's cardinal, and Marc Ouellet, now Quebec's cardinal, established Casa Balthasar, a residence outside Rome for those considering a vocation to the priesthood, under the auspices of Cardinal Ratzinger.

As a director of Casa Balthasar, Fessio meets annually with Ratzinger. He has collaborated with Ratzinger, as head of the Committee of Cardinals, and Schönbrun, executive editor, on the English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, in 1993-94.

On Apr. 20, Fessio, a Jesuit who's currently provost of Ave Maria University in Naples, Fla., discussed his mentor with BusinessWeek Special Correspondent Ann Therese Palmer. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow:

You knew the new Pope before he was named a cardinal. What kind of a manager was he?
Perhaps the best way to know what kind of a manager he is would be to ask those who actually work with him day-to-day. Three good priest friends have been in that position. They all revere him and consider him a saint.

I would call him more a leader than a manager. He inspires others to give fully of themselves and encourages them to develop their talents. Despite the way he is often portrayed, he is warm and gracious. He has a wonderful sense of humor.

When Walter Kasper was a bishop in Germany, he publicly opposed Cardinal Ratzinger in a way that was quite inconsiderate. Years later, when it was proposed that Kasper be made a cardinal, Cardinal Ratzinger, who could have clearly blocked it, did not do so. He holds no grudges and has a genuine love even of those with whom he seriously disagrees.

What was he like as a mentor when you were studying under him?
As a mentor he was very easy to talk to and very understanding. He gave me excellent guidance in my thesis research and writing. He is a brilliant theologian in his own right and has wonderful perceptive abilities, but he listens very attentively and patiently.

However, once he has heard a person out and been asked for his opinion or a decision, he expresses it very calmly, clearly, and decisively. He has the ability to gather up into one sentence almost all the elements that are needed.

What about the characterization that he is as tough as nails?
He may be characterized as "tough as nails," and in one sense he is. I'm confident that he would die for the truths that he holds. No one could dislodge from him the faith which he has made such a part of his life and his being.

At the same time, that's not how he treats people. There is no person I've ever met who is any more gentle, gracious, or cordial than Cardinal Ratzinger. There is no difference between his public and private persona. That's one of the endearing characteristics of Joseph Ratzinger.

Whether as bishop or cardinal or even now as Pope, he will speak openly and transparently. He will listen carefully.

Do you think Vatican II influenced him?
As a young theologian, Joseph Ratzinger was a theological adviser to two influential German cardinals during the Second Vatican Council. Against the background of the pre-Vatican II Church, he seemed like a liberal. Against the background of the post-Vatican II Church, he seems like a conservative.

He has always been a loyal son of the Church, one of tremendous brilliance and wide culture and education. His positions haven't changed, but the surrounding society and even some aspects of the Church have.

What effect did the 1968 student revolts in Paris and at Germany's University of Tubingen, where Father Ratzinger was teaching, have on him?
He certainly saw and experienced then that violent revolution is not the way to achieve beneficial social change. Nor does it lead to spiritual maturity. I believe that he took Benedict for his papal name precisely because St. Benedict was the father of Europe. St. Benedict was a young man in a corrupt superpower that had become hedonistic and self-centered. In addition to this moral corruption from within, there were the attacks from the barbarians from without.

So [in the sixth century] Benedict left Rome and went out into the woods to pray. Others joined him, and from that experience arose the great Benedictine monastic movement. By the year 1200 there were 40,000 Benedictine monasteries scattered throughout Europe.

These monasteries preserved the cultural riches of Greece and Rome, as well as the growing wisdom accumulated by the Church herself. It was through Benedict's flight from a corrupt and corrupting society, and his seeking of God alone through prayer and work (ora et labora) that he transformed culture and Europe.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 01/01/2007 5.13]

I did quite a bit of translating from German, Italian and French - and a couple of Spanish and Portuguese pieces, too - during the three months that I was an active member of the RFC. Most of them were the human-interest, lighter items that give us a look at the character and personality of our beloved Pope through the eyes of those who have known him or have encoutnered him in some way or other. So I thought I would post some of those pieces here little by little -'for the record', as I usually say - but also because many of our members who are not registered at RFC may not have seen them.

The piece is a celebratory talk about Joseph Ratzinger given by Prof Dr. Wolfgang Beinert at a special public session of the Pentling district council on April 27, 2005. It was originally posted in German in the main forum here by an Italian member who wanted it translated to Italian. As Rosa is the resident German-to-Italian expert on our forum, I took the initiative of translating the item to English and posting it in the RFC - there was no English section here at the time.



The pictures show Cardinal Ratzinger being greeted on the street in Pentling by some children (left) on the day that the town named him an honored citizen (right).


And this is the yummy picture of the Cardinal that accompanies Dr. Beinert's piece.
-----------------------------------------------------

Reminiscences about a Pentlinger
By Wolfgang Beinert

What do I remember about Joseph Ratzinger, a Pentlinger who has been Pope Benedict XVI for a week now?

When one has known him for over 40 years as a student, as a colleague, as a priestly companion, as townmate, then too many events, words, experiences come to mind.

Towards the end of the 60s, a Dogma Professor from Tuebingen came from the Neckar to the Danube, in flight, one might almost say, from the student uprising. He and his sister Maria took up residence on Hoelkeringerstrasse. His assistants and his doctorate students at the time eagerly helped him transfer his books when he made the move.

Years later, the small house on Bergstrasse was ready to move into. He was convinced that it would be the final station of his life, his last move after so many years of professorial transfers. As he said a few days ago, "I had thought that I had done my lifework and that I could now hope for a peaceful end to my days." That is why he had his parents transferred from a cemetery in Traunstein to the Ziegelsdorfer Cemetery here.

As a professor, he often invited his assistants to coffee or supper at his new house, to chat, to discuss university affairs, but above all, to carry on theological discussions. One wonderful, mild summer evening, we sat in the garden and enjoyed an incomparable Pentling view. Our view of the Danube Valley at that time was quite extensive because it had not been built over yet.

Maria was in the kitchen preparing the meal. Suddenly, the bushes rustled and a black-and-white cat came out.
I knew the cat well: she belonged to one of the families in the neighborhood, though we did not know which one exactly, but she liked to visit the Ratzinger siblings often. Two of the most important things in a cat?s life were readily offered here: affectionate stroking from the master of the house and milk from the mistress.

But today it was different. The cat had a dead mouse between her teeth, and now she laid it with a soulful look at Ratzinger's feet. He picked it up courageously by the tail and disappeared in the direction of the kitchen. He stayed away so long that I did not know what to think. Finally he came back, and shortly thereafter, Maria said dinner was ready. It was a very delicious meal, but no meat was served.

Why do I recount this now? It is said that pets usually have an unmistakable knowledge of human beings. One also knows that it is probably the highest tribute from a cat when it can lay a dead mouse at the foot of his master, because that is the best thing it can offer.

Had this cat seen into Ratzinger's soul? Then that was a good thing. Because few personalities have been so misunderstood, and still is, as he has been. What have we been reading for a week now? Panzerkardinal, Rottweiler, Papa Ratzi, Papa Peppino, Grand Inquisitor, symbol of conservatism and retrogression. The most underhanded tag I read was in an Italian newspaper which called him Pastore tedesco. One can translate it, literally as German shepherd, but one can also translate it as Schaeferhund [the German term for German shepherd dogs!]

But what is he really like, this man? Many of us have met him in this town over the past 30 years - when he goes for a walk, at Mass, at town celebrations like that of our firemen. One thinks of his polished homilies during the time when he regularly said Mass in our little church. We all came to know a simple, reserved, almost shy man. But how many can say, we know who he is?

In my case, I remember two events which took place before he came to Pentling. One took place in Tuebingen, the other in Basel. In 1967, the 150th anniversary of the rebirth of the Catholic theology faculty at the University of Tuebingen was celebrated. One such faculty had been there earlier, but in those days, it was Protestant. The feast began with a solemn academic act. The professors were dressed in satin robes with the violet trimmings of the theology faculty. Before them marched the beadles, school officials dressed in medieval costume and carrying bejeweled ceremonial staffs. The Rector carried his heavy gold chain of office, and so did the Dean athough his was smaller. Joseph Ratzinger was dean at the time.

In the evening, the Professors had invited the guests to a communal drink. The Dean had donated a barrel of Bavarian beer. Which now he had to untap. The students were skeptical: This slender Professor who always seemed to be out-of-this-world would surely be seriously challenged to do that! One student beside me said: "Well, we will probably have half of it left. The rest will just spill out on the floor." The Dean donned an apron, and with two well-targeted strong taps, he opened the cask. One suspected that in his Munich student days, Ratzinger may well have worked with beer taps!

Why do I relate this? I think the anecdote is typical of the way Ratzinger was often judged. At various times, he has been said to be too soft, too hard, too complicated, too naive, for whatever was required of him at the time. But these wrong impressions were always based on a superficial acquaintance with him.

Shortly after that academic celebration, our postgraduate seminar at Tuebingen travelled to Basel to visit Karl Barth, one of the most outstanding theologians of the 20th century. He belonged to the Evangelical Reformed church and was an expert on Holy Scripture. For almost 40 years, he had been writing his great work Churchly Dogma which now comprised 30 volumes but was still far from finished. Barth, born in 1886, had grown old writing it. His students believed he would not die until he finished his work - that finally, God himself would know who he was by reading about it in Barth!

Now we wanted to see and hear him once more with our Professor, and to be able to discuss with him. We were greatly disappointed. The old scholar turned the tables on us ?he wanted to know what our professor thought! But we already knew that from our lessons with him. On the other hand, Barth sensed quite well that here was someone who was his peer as a theologian, who thought in new ways, who said the unexpected, who also allowed tradition to shine.

Who then is Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI? In a nutshell: a personality who is astonishingly endowed not only with brilliant intellectual gifts but also with human virtues. He is multifaceted and one never knows which aspect of him one sees at any moment. However, it is not impossible to find a key to get to him and in the process be drawn into his world of spiritual riches. It does not mean however that one can thereby gain a comprehensive psychogram of the man. However, there are indications that will make his life and thought more understandable to us. One can at least try to show the roots from which he draws his life force.

In the first place, one must remember his deep-rooted Bavarian piety. It is almost commonplace to speak of his brilliant intelligence and profound spirituality. Almost everyone has done that in the past few days. But rarely do they see that behind all that, and encompassing it all, is a simple peasant Catholicism which practices its religion without need of long discussions - a family prays the Rosary, lights candles before the Madonna, and unquestioningly trusts in God's goodness. When, a few days ago, we saw the new Pope in such a relaxed mood, with such smiling composure, not long after the heaviest burden had been laid on his shoulders, therein lies the explanation!

But his piety is anything but naive. It reached its full flowering as the young theologian engaged himself intensively in the study of Saint Augustine. That has shaped his life even to this hour. Augustine is, with Paul of Tarsus and Thomas Aquinas, the most outstanding theologian that the Church has produced; he is also one of its greatest saints. He was a a pastor gifted with grace, and he lived in a time of breakdown. He died in 430 as the Goths besieged his city of Hippo.

Ratzinger was always fascinated by him: A bishop who was also a theologian, a very caring pastor to his flock, who at the same time, sought to penetrate the deepest mysteries of God.

Three features from his theological profile have influenced Ratzinger greatly. The first was the Christ mystique. Augustine was a determined God-seeker who knew that we should all live in Christ in order to find God. One thinks of Benedict's homily at his installation with its passionate references to the Resurrected Christ. Here lies a clear difference from John Paul II, whose first encyclical began with the programmatic words Redemptor hominis - referring to Christ, of course, but primarily as the Saviour of Mankind. The key sentence of the document then is that the first way of the Church is man himself. And Mary takes on a central status as the prototype of redeemed man.

John Paul's successor on the other hand would start with Jesus himself, the whole Jesus, as Augustine saw it, Jesus as head of the Church. And if the head has arisen, so will the body. That is why even while he has often and so eloquently defined the crises faced by the Church today, Ratzinger can also say fearlessly, the Church lives, the Chuarch is young, it is a Church of young people.

John Paul and Benedict converge in their missionary attention towards the faithful; they differ in their approach.

The focus of Ratzinger's theology on the Church itself is the second Augustinian influence on him. "The House and the people of God according to Augustine" was the title of his dissertation. The third was the Platonic-dualistic train of thought that Augustine favored.

As I said earlier, we can thank the student revolution of 1968 that we gained Ratzinger as a Pentlinger. At that time, it seemed like the world of order, of law, of balance, was breaking up. To the young professor who had been schooled in the thought of Augustine (who also played a role in the life of St. Bonaventure, the subject of Ratzinger's Habilitation thesis), it seemed there was no room left for him in such chaos, and so thankfully he took the opportunity to come to Regensburg and into our community.

Augustine completed his best and most successful book as the ancient world was collapsing. The title was De civitate Dei (The city of God), in which he saw the world as the stage for a gigantic struggle between God and Satan, in which all men must choose a side. Ratzinger did that - and one does not need to ask which side he chose.

From that decision comes a pessimism and the somewhat rigorous and unyielding force that he would later be mocked for as keeper of the faith.....

We must not fail to point to a third lifespring for the new Pope. That is his attachment to family. We have all known him as a rather introverted man, who has not found it easy to make friends. But he is everything but incapable of reaching out. However, the real space for his intimacy is with his own family - with his sister Maria until her death in 1991 and with his brother Georg.

Joseph came to Pentling from Rome as often as he could. He would visit his parents' graves, where Maria has also found her last resting place - regularly and surely around All Souls Day, in good old Bavarian tradition. The whole world felt something of this family intimacy in the reaction of Georg to his brother's elevation.

But the first pictures we saw of the new Pope showed us a Holy Father, who joyously and freely celebrated his spiritual fatherhood of the faithful. But that it will now be more difficult for him to come home to Pentling must surely be one of the burdens that come with his high office.

The cardinals, during the short Conclave they had last week, could not afford to be wrong. We do not know what decisive reasons they had to elect this brother-cardinal who even among their ranks was somewhat controversial. If one is to believe what has been reported since then, he got many more votes than necessary to be elected.

Last Monday, April 25, in the audience for German pilgrims, the Pope said that when he felt that the guillotine was about to fall on him, he called on God to spare him, as there were younger, better candidates than he. "But God obviously did not listen to me." This sentence does not appear in the official text, but he added it. Like every preacher, Ratzinger has said again and again that God indeed hears all our prayers, but not always the way we want it. Now, it had happened to him.

And we are thankful to God for that. In these last few days
I have had to keep myself from thinking that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is still back there, in some corner of the Sistine Chapel, slumped down and forgotten. Because the man who stepped on to that loggia in St. Peter's, bore his features, but it was a totally different man than that to whom they had belonged.

His students used to say: "If the Professor would ever let himself smile, he would go down to the basement" [presumably so no one could see]. But on that historic Tuesday, the world saw a man with a warm, happy, winning, open, almost youthful smile. It has not left him since then. He glows. He wins hearts. He makes it plausible that the Church is young and that the youth make up the Church.

Nevertheless, Ratzinger has not become another person as Benedict XVI. He has simply received a different mission. He has to carry it out, not by calling to task those who transgress in matters of doctrine - someone else will do that now - but to spread the gospel of Christ. And that too goes back to his rootedness in Pentling, in the milieu of old Bavaria.

I was asked to give my reminiscences about a Pentlinger. That sounds somewhat like a seal, an ending, an obituary even. Of course, his physical presence in our community is no longer possible. But his belonging to this community will not end in the spiritual sense.

Last Monday, he told the Bavarians who were present and therefore us, too: "Let us proceed together, let us keep together. I trust in your help. I ask you to be forebearing when I make a mistake like any other man, or when you do not understand what the Pope says or must do, from his own conscience and from what he knows about the Church. I ask you for your trust. If we stay together, then we will find the right way."

Remembrances of a Pentlinger? No, simply an appreciation of our great townmate, who has now acquired international historic importance. Our own story with him will continue, even after Papamania is over and we have resumed the unspectacular routine of daily life, with us here and he in Rome.

What we can give him, what we must accompany him with, what we can do to help lighten his burden a little, is our critical attention to what he says, to be in solidarity with him, give him the faithful love of God's community. We surely have his blessing - Benedict 'the Blessed' - so that, in turn, we may bless each other.

An editor of Passauer Neue Presse, a Bavarian newspaper, has compiled remembrances and anecdotes from Joseph Ratzinger?s Regensburg days in a slim 64-page book, illustraed with many photographs, called Hier bin ich daheim - Papst Benedikt XVI und das Bistum Regensburg[Here I feel at home- Pope Benedict XVI and the Bishopric of Regensburg]. You will remember this poster advertising the publication in the pictures made available to us by Beatrice-France in the Italian forum (from Bea's 2005 trip to Bavaria):



The Passauer Neue Presse published four of those anecdotes on 9/17/05 (I thank Lapiranja for posting the link today (10/1/05) in the German section):
___________________________________________________

From the chapter, The Brother:

Joseph Ratzinger came to Regensburg to settle in 1969 when he took up his post as Professor of Dogma and Dogmatic History at the University. Georg Ratzinger reveals that the future Pope had a brush with the law while making the move.

In Tuebingen (which he was leaving for Regensburg), he had become friends with another theologian who was head of a private high school in the Black Forest, in a village called Bierbronnen.

When Joseph was going to make the move to Regensburg, the friend who owned a small car, offered to handle the move for him. The small car was easily crammed to overflowing and suitcases were piled on the roof - in short, the 'moving van' did not look trustworthy at all.

Certainly, a policeman near the outer limits of the city did not find it so. He stopped the strange vehicle and asked the driver for his license. Seeing it, the policeman could barely suppress a smile. "So, you're from Bierbronnen," he said mischievously, obviously thinking of the half-pint he was going to allow himself when he went off-duty. "Then, in God's name, go on your way!"

From the chapter, Professor Ratzinger:

Professor Ratzinger' arrival in Regensburg was preceded by an already legendary reputation of full lecture halls, brilliant thinking, and polished speaking. The boyish-looking Professor with the prematurely white hair would reinforce this reputation further in the Danube city of Regensburg.

Sigfried Wiedenhofer, who was Ratzinger' assistant then and is currently Professor for Systematic Theology at Frankfurt University, has this to say about the secret of his mentor's success as teacher:

"t wasn?t that he tried any didactic experiments, but he had the gift of drawing out something meaningful and important even from the simplest answers, recognizing the student's attempt to think for himself. This gift was particularly useful in the colloquys with doctoral candidates, among whom the majority were foreigners, therefore to make onself understood language-wise was very important,"

Passionist Father Martin Biallas, who belongs to a Ratzinger Schuelerkreis, speaking of Ratzinger's empathy with his students, says: "Behaving like a star was totally alien to him."

From the chapter, The Private Man:

The Monday following the Pope?s formal installation, an exclusive circle of friends was invited to lunch with the Pope. Among the guests were Margarete and Reinhard Richardi, who have known Joseph Ratzinger for decades.

Margarete is the regional chairman of a Catholic action women?s group in Bavaria and her husband recently retired as Professor of Labor and Social Law at the University of Regensburg. They can rightly claim to have taken Ratzinger into their family circle.

The intimacy of the relationship was evident that day in the Vatican. As she entered the room, wearing in a red Alpine jacket, the Pope called out, "Look at Frau Richardi- all in cardinal-red and looking very Bavarian!"

What Joseph Ratzinger most enjoyed with the Richardis was the company of their children - a son and two daughters, and later, the grandchildren. During the Cardinal's yearly visits to Regensburg for the Christmas holiday, the Richardis made sure that their children and grandchildren would be there.

The Cardinal has been photographed kneeling on a carpet in the Richardis' living room and playing with Sebastian, the grandson who was born in 1997, and was 2-1/2 years old when the picture was taken [which would make it Christmas 2000)].



At Christmas 2003, the Cardinal had a little episode with Sebastian?s younger sister Katharina. The Cardinal was familiar with the figures that make up the Richardis' creche. This time, he noticed a Playmobile doll that had been smuggled among the shepherds. "This does not belong here," he said. And the little girl piped up, "But I put it there, just in case Mary and Joseph need her!" The doll was a nurse.

Ratzinger has undertaken to baptize the Richardi grandchildren. Margarete Richardi says he had promised earlier to baptize Bettina's daughter Teresa and Anne's youngest son, Benjamin. The baptisms were to have been on Pentecost and on Assumption Day. Would the Pope be able to do it still? She says she asked him about it at that lunch, and he had answered, "We must see about that."

As the Richardis have long been planning to spend a week in Rome in October, they have an opportunity to celebrate a double baptism this month.

From the chapter The Churchman:

At vacation time, when the brothers Georg and Joseph Ratzinger were not on a vacation trip, one could meet them regularly at Sunday Mass in the Regensburg Cathedral.

The General Vicar Dr. Wilhelm Gegenfurtner recounts: "They would always show up at 9 o?clock at the sacristy, and when as Mass celebrant, one saw those two white-haired heads under the pulpit - for that was where they always sat - one could only hope that everything would go well (with the service). Although there was no cause for anxiety, because the Cardinal was never a 'man-eater.'"

Gegenfurter says further: "I was always much impressed by how simple this man was, even if as Prefect of the CDF, he held one of the most important offices in the Church."

The Vicar recounts that during his audience with the Pope after the inaugural Mass, Benedict said to him during a quiet moment, "Look after Georg for me, will you? We policeman's kids must stand together!"

Gegenfurter, like the Ratzinger brothers, is a policeman?s son. He promised the Pope he would look after Georg.

From the chapter, The Private Man:

Joseph Ratzinger has been listed as citizen of Pentling since 1969. For his inauguration, some 100 neighbors and friends from Pentling travelled to Rome in 2 buses. But one of these friends could no longer make the trip. Georg Mesner, sexton and quite a character, died in September 2003.

Gerhard Klier, mayor of the old town, says, "We had a Pope before Benedikt - that was Herr Hopfensperger." The sexton loved the Church so much that he often acted one step before everyone else in matters concerning it.

In 1996, Klier recalls, he got a call from the Cardinal who wished to clarify something. "I am supposed to bless a firetruck. Are you behind this?" The mayor said, "No. That would have been Herr Hopfensberger."

The Cardinal did bless the firetruck on May 25, 1996, and two years later, he attended Hopfensperger?s golden anniversary as sexton.

To this day, one can see a cardinal-red Audi 80 in the streets of Pentling. It is the car Hopfensperger kept available for the Cardinal. Klier notes, "The Cardinal certainly travelled more in Herr Hopfensperger?s car than he ever did in the so-called papal (VW) Golf!"

Also among the locals through whom Joseph Ratzinger feels linked to Regensburg and Pentling are Therese and Rupert Hofbauer. They live near Ratzinger's house in Pentling, and since 1981, they have looked after the house on Bergstrasse #6 - whether it is to order heating oil, or to let the chimney cleaner in, or to care for the garden. Lately, their concern has been whether the alarm system, which the police advised to be installed in the Pope's house, really works.

From Georg Ratzinger, they know that the Pope misses his house and garden. "That's why we regularly send him photos of the garden so he can see what flowers are in bloom."

Some of the photos will likely show Chico, the Hofbauers?'
6-year old cat, whom the Cardinal became very fond of. The Italian newspaper Libero even had a frontpage article in May 2005 about Chico, describing him as the Pope's cat.

Oh, the media! Rubert and Therese had their share of them in the days immediately following the conclave: "It was madness!" Now, relative calm has returned on that front. But they still get visitors who knock on their door and ask if they can get 'leaves from the Pope's garden.' Someone even broke off a lilac branch 'to bring to my old, sick mother."
==============================================================

Two of the B/W photos illustrating this article have not been seen before:


The Ratzinger siblings are photographed at Christmas time
in the Cardinal's house in Pentling. Obviously this was before
1991, as Maria died in November 1991.

The second picture showed the Cardinal with Princess Gloria
Thurn und Taxis and her daughters Elisabeth and Maria Theresia,
after Mass at the Regensburg Cathedral. But for some reason
I could not 'lift' the picture.

The link was www.pnp.de/nachrichten/ar...MAP)&BNR=0

Coming across the picture of a young Ratzi that Beatrice picked off a Peter Seewald book yesterday reminded me that I just noticed Palma posted five pictures from the ordination day of Joseph and George Ratzinger - 4 of which I have never before seen - in the RFC, apparently some time in December.

As she has up to now provided both forums with the same material (articles for translation as well as pictures), I hope she does not mind that I am posting those pictures here as well. The Seewald picture would have been presumably taken 1-2 years later...














P.S. It's a daunting job to try and catalog the pictures we already have on this Forum, so I am assigning myself to try and organize - chronologically - all the pictures of Ratzi from childhood (there must be a baby picture of him somewhere, though) up to the time he is named Archbishop of Munich that are available on the Forum. That 'section' of his biography would be most manageable as it has the 'least' volume of material so far. I'll probably open up a PHOTO ALBUM - 1927-1977 thread for the purpose, and it will be a work in progress, necessarily, as more new things are unearthed.

The Archbishop-Cardinal years will be the toughest to do because new material keeps popping up, and a lot of the pictures are not dated. The Papal years will be easier to organize in that respect, but the sheer volume is daunting.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 03/01/2007 0.52]

Memory of a meeting with older the cardinal become Józef Niewiadomski
(22.4.2005)

In the year 1997 the theological faculty held an examination in Rome. In the context of this examination we had also a meeting with the Praefekten at that time of the Glaubenskongregation. Both this meeting and the meetings, which I had had in the next years as secretary of the European society for catholic theology with him, left other impressions as the medialen pictures of the time at that time. On the occasion of the Papal election I remembered a small article, which I had written at that time.

Published in: Courier from 1 October 1997

Already its outside feature surprised me: Almost astonishing a looking small man. Dressed in black robe, he looks correctly more hager. A certain Noblesse is not to be surveyed. Before it puts itself and begins the discussion, he speaks quietly a prayer on latin. Then he listens and answers the questions with a quiet voice, nearly emotionless. The outside picture does not fit the secondarymost important man of the catholic church, the Praefekten of the Glaubenskongregation in Rome: Kard. Joseph Ratzinger. With a symposium of the Innsbrucker theological faculty in Rome I could to him one hour long listen, look at him, and for me thoughts over humans Ratzinger make. Straight one on the background medial of the delivered picture, which only the unyielding, intolerant, from which actual problems of the time nothing draws understanding man. The discussion showed one in the service of the church "old" become humans, who never lost one by all transformations in its life: the confidence into it (also in their institutional side). Already in its book "salt of the earth" he said this unmistakably: He always believed in God and Christ in the church and thereupon to live tries. The language for the confession changed however. "the ages change humans, it are not, if he is seventy, try a seventeen-year old to be and in reverse." Study, teachings, bishop time in Munich and the time in Rome: Ratzinger believes to have remained oneself always faithful. Only one became new with increasing age: "one becomes more modest, becomes acquainted with the borders of the own fortune. And that there must be the Charismatiker beside those, which think and beside those, which are office-holders above all, those, the lives ignite." Like a red thread (not always more expressed) a thought structures its analyses that it gives coined/shaped catholicism to Western European and North American too little such, "life firing" personalities. That there are there too many bureaucracy and structure discussions, which pass necessary an alternative to the cultural trend, become. Straight one as office-holders of a world-wide institution white the cardinal the structures to estimate, its confidence into the strength of the institution remains unbroken despite everything; he knows also that much would be impossible without the institutional framework, which the technical mediale society offers. On the other hand he sees hand in hand the Depotenzierung of the religious culture going thereby. "the central range of the life from today is that of the economic and technical innovations. There - and completely particularly also in the maintenance world of the media - language is formed, formed behavior. Religion did not disappear thereby, but it moved away into the range of the subjective one. Faith is then tolerated as one of the subjective religion forms; or it keeps in the long run as culture factor a certain area. But on the other side the Christianity will offer in new way life models and itself in the desert of the technical existence again than a place to a real humanity darstellen.”
A friend, who dressed a high office in the Vatikan, told me, Ratzinger long would withdraw, if the Pope let him go. Particularly after the death of its sister, who led him the household, it feels lonely and not too probably in Rome. But the consciousness of the obligation and the love for this concrete church do not permit it that. Modern humans, who can change its jobs such as shirts, will understand this attitude only with difficulty. Too gladly he will see therein the temptation to power. He will be able to hardly understand that power does not fascinate "old" the become man any longer. Also the prejudice of the uninformedness does not apply. It seems to be in the best way informed about all the problems. From the Roman perspective however the forest at questions becomes crushing. Therefore also the letters remain lying often for a long time. Not the man represents the problem, on the contrary there is structural conditions of a world-wide institution. With the size and with the tearing up conflicts it is however nearly a miracle, up to whatever extent the church is the unit retained and therefore decision and authorized to act. The ability of decision has however its price, and the often dissatisfied catholics do not only pay these. Also the cardinal pays it: with its isolation. I sometime felt compassion with this "old" become man. And also admiration for its faith.

Palma, that was an interesting piece. I revised it once again to make it a better read. I hope you do not mind.

Regarding the election of Pope Benedict XVI

Memories of a meeting with the cardinal who had grown older
By Józef Niewiadomski
(22.4.2005)

In 1997 the theological faculty [of Innsbruck University] held a conclave in Rome. During this conclave we had also a meeting with the then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Both this meeting and the meetings, which I had had in the next few years as secretary of the European society for Catholic theology with him, left other impressions than the media pictures of that time. On the occasion of the Papal election I remembered a small article, which I had written at that time.

Article published in: Kurier [Austrian Newspaper] on 1 October 1997

Already his outward appearance surprised me: An almost astonishingly small looking man. Dressed in black cassock, he looks quite haggard. A certain noblesse is not to be overlooked. Before he sits down and begins the discussion, he speaks quietly a prayer in Latin. Then he listens and answers the questions with a low voice, nearly without emotion. The outside picture does not quite fit the person who is second most important man of the Catholic Church, the Prefect of the CDF in Rome: Card. Joseph Ratzinger. At a symposium of the Innsbruck Theological faculty in Rome I could listen to him for one hour, look at him, and draw my own conclusions as to the man [Joseph] Ratzinger. Precisely against the background of the picture delivered by the media, which only portrays him as an unyielding, intolerant man, who does not seem to understand anything of the actual problems of the time. The discussion showed a man who had grown old in the service of the Church, but who never lost one thing during all the transformations in his life: the confidence in it (also in its institutional side). Already in his book "Salt of the Earth" he said this unmistakably: He always believed in God and Christ in the church and had tried to lead his life in this spirit. The language for the confession changed however. "The ages change humans, he should not, if he is seventy, try to act as a seventeen year-old and vice versa." His studies, his teachings, his time as a bishop in Munich and the time in Rome: Ratzinger believes to have remained always true to himself. Only one thing became new with increasing age: "One becomes more modest, becomes acquainted with the limits of one’s own capacity. He is aware that there would have to be Charismatic persons - those who ignite lives - beside those who think and beside those who are holding an office." Like a thread (which is not always expressed) a thought structures his analyses: that in Western European and North American Catholicism there are too little of those "life firing" personalities. He knows that there is too much bureaucracy and that there are too many structural discussions, which pass by the necessary alternatives to the cultural trends. Precisely as office-holders of a world-wide institution, the cardinal knows to hold the structures in high esteem, his confidence in the strength of the institution remains unbroken despite everything; he knows also that much would be impossible without the institutional framework, which the technical and media society offers. On the other hand, he sees the depotenzialisation (?) [in German: Depotenzierung] of religious culture that is going hand in hand with it. "The central area of today’s life is that of economic and technical innovations. There - and particularly also in the media-world – the language is formed, and also behaviour. Religion did not disappear from there, but it moved away into the area of being subjective. Faith is then tolerated as one of the subjective forms of religion; or it keeps a certain room as a cultural factor in the long run. But on the other hand, Christianity will offer new ways of life and present itself in the desert of the technical existence again as a place to a real humanity.”

A friend, who holds a high office in the Vatican, told me, Ratzinger long would like to retire, if the Pope let him go. Particularly after the death of his sister, who kept house for him, he feels lonely and not too comfortable in Rome. But the consciousness of his obligation and the love for this concrete Church do not permit it that. Modern men, who can change their jobs like their shirts, will understand this attitude only with some difficulty. Too gladly they will see in there the temptation to have power. He will hardly be able to understand that power does not fascinate the man who has grown "old" any longer. Also the prejudice of not being informed does not apply. He himself seems to be informed in the best way about all the problems. From the Roman perspective, however, the “forest” (amount) of questions becomes crushing. Therefore, also the letters remain unanswered for a long time. The problem does not consist in men - on the contrary - it is the structural conditions of this world-wide institution. With the size and with its tearing up conflicts it is, however, almost a miracle, up to what extent the church retained its unity and therefore is capable of taking decisions and capable of acting authorized to act. The ability of taking decisions, however, has its price and often dissatisfied Catholics do have to pay it, but not only those. Also the cardinal pays it: with his solitude. At one stage I felt compassion for this man having grown "old". And also [I felt] admiration for his Faith.

For the German original text see: theol.uibk.ac.at/leseraum/kommentar/567.html

[Modificato da @Andrea M.@ 14/01/2007 18.58]

[Modificato da @Andrea M.@ 14/01/2007 18.59]

My free time is very limited, so I translated the German text with yahoo online translator. I posted the translated text without looked at it.
Thanks Andrea!