The Supreme Pontiff, who as Saint Peter’s successor in the universal governance of the Church is at the same time its Shepherd and Father. From Saint Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, to the reigning Pontiff, 266 Popes have been rotating in the Roman chair. The magnificent Papal Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, one of Rome’s four ancient, major basilicas, is befittingly adorned with mosaic medallion portraits of all the Popes.
The 265th Pope, His Holiness Benedict XVI, Supreme Pontiff Emeritus marked his 93rd birthday on April 16, 2020. On February 11, 2013, he stunned the world, by declaring that he would renounce his ministry as the Successor of Saint Peter from February 28, 2013, at the age of 85 years and 318 days becoming the first Pope to resign in known history. He served as the Head of the Church and the Sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2005 to 2013. Thus, currently we have two living Popes - His Holiness Francis, the Pope and His Holiness Benedict XVI, the Pope Emeritus.
Retirement
On February 11, 2013, his decision to renounce his ministry came in a short, precise but carefully worded statement. He stressed that after having repeatedly examined his conscience before God, he came to the certainty that his strengths, due to advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry. He said that he was well aware that his ministry, due to its essential spiritual nature, must be carried out not only with words and deeds, but no less with prayer and suffering.
In his retirement, Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI has made occasional public appearances alongside Pope Francis. His first public appearance after resignation was at St. Peter’s Basilica on February 22, 2014 to attend the first Papal Consistory of Pope Francis. As Pope Emeritus, he retained his papal name rather than reverting to his birth name. In history, Benedict XVI becomes the second Pope to live to 93 years, only Pope Leo XIII had lived longer - 93 years and 140 days.
Pope Benedict XVI ceased wearing red papal shoes. He returned his official Fisherman’s Ring, which is usually destroyed byVatican officials to prevent documents being counterfeited. Yet, he does not live a cloistered life, but studies and writes. The Pope Emeritus has personally preferred him to be known as‘Father Benedict’ and continues to wear the white cassock but without the pellegrina or the fascia.
Pontificate
As Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Ratzinger presided over the College’s deliberations in the General Congregation during the Vacancy of the Holy See, after the death of Pope John Paul II on April 2, 2005. In the same capacity, he presided at the Solemn Funeral Mass for Pope John Paul II on April 8, 2005 in St. Peter’s Square, and the Mass for the Election of the Supreme Pontiff con- celebrated by the College of Cardinals on April 18, 2005.
The Conclave was inaugurated under the presidency of Cardinal Ratzinger at the Sistine Chapelon April 18, 2005. The single vote that afternoon produced no election. In the morning of April 19, two ballots of the Conclave produced no election. However, the first ballot of the afternoon, the fourth of the Conclave, elected Cardinal Ratzinger as the next Pope. On April 24, he celebrated the Mass for the Inauguration of his pontificate in St. Peter’s Square, receiving the Palliumand the Ring.
As a Cardinal, Ratzinger was not only the key adviser of St. Pope John Paul II of revered memory for over 23 years as his Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith but also the most respected prelate, scholar, theologian, teacher and Catholic author of our time, having spoken on everything from sexual consumerism, private revelation and the ‘crisis of faith’, to human rights, marriage, the priesthood and the future of the world.
Just before his election to the Chair of Peter, he was identified as one of the most influential people in the world by the renowned Time magazine. Throughout his pontificate of 7 years and 315 days, Pope Benedict XVI attracted enormous masses of people from all over the world to Saint Peter’s Square for his numerous public encounters. The number of pilgrims who have participated in the liturgical celebrations, Wednesday General Audiences and Sunday Angelus with the Holy Father in the Eternal City is greater than that recorded for these types of gatherings in the pontificates of his predecessors.
First audience with the Pope
From a personal perspective, meeting the Holy Father for the first time was something very much looked forward toin our lives. On November 17, 2010, my wife Carmel and I had our face-to-faceprivate audience with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican. As we met, we bowed,warmly addressed him as, “Your Holiness,” and kissed the ‘Papal Ring ‘. As we were introduced to the Holy Father, I said, “It’s a great honour to meet Your Holiness, thank you so much.” The Pope continued to hold our hands affectionately and responded, “Sri Lanka is a beautiful country and I love your people so much”.
We were deeply touched and stimulated by the Supreme Pontiff’s words and gestures. It was just threedays before the Papal Consistory that elevated the Archbishop of Colombo as a Cardinal. As wethanked the Pope for the blessing bestowed on our country, the Holy Father responded with a big smile, “Cardinal Ranjith has worked tirelessly for the Universal Church.”The Holy Father conveyed his Apostolic blessings on His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and all Sri Lankans.As the minutes ticked away, we warmly shook hands and bade farewell.
It was indeed an unforgettable moment in our lives. We treasure very much the gifts offered to us by the Holy Father during the private audience. Pope Benedict XVI will be remembered as an unabashed follower of Jesus Christ and as the moral compass for our age. Pope Benedict XVI is one who gives you his complete attention when you meet him. He will be remembered for the sense of humanity and openness he shared with everyone.
Birth and early life
Joseph Ratzinger was born to Joseph and Maria at Marktlam Inn in Germany on Holy Saturday, April 16, 1927. He was baptised on the same day and on his early baptism he has said, “To be the first person baptised with the newly blessed Easter Water was seen as a significant act of Providence. I have always been filled with thanksgiving for having had my life immersed in this way in the Easter Mystery...”
In his memoirs, Milestones: Memoirs 1927 – 1977, Ratzinger depicts his family life as quite happy. The family was profoundly Catholic and his father attended three Holy Masses every Sunday. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Traunstein, a village near the Austrian border. In this environment, which he has defined as ‘Mozartian’, he received his religious, cultural and human formation.
In 1932, his father’s outspoken criticism of the Nazis required the family to relocate to Aschau am Inn at the foot of the Alps. His father retired in 1937 and his family moved to Hufschlag, where young Joseph began studying classical languages at the local high school. In 1939, he entered the Minor Seminary in Traunstein, his first step towards priesthood.
His faith and the education received at home prepared him for the harsh experience of those years during which the Nazi regime pursued a hostile attitude towards the Church. It was precisely during that complex situation that he discovered the beauty and truth of faith in Christ; fundamental for this was his family’s attitude, who always gave a clear witness of goodness and hope, rooted in a convinced attachment to the Church.
Ratzinger wrote that he was enrolled in the Nazi Youth Movement against his will when he was just 14 in 1941. World War II forced a postponement of his studies, until 1945, when he re-entered the seminary with his elder brother, Georg Ratzinger (96), a Monsignor. From 1946 to 1951, he studied philosophy and theology in the Higher School of Philosophy and Theology of Freising and at the University of Munich.
Priesthood
On June 29, 1951, both Joseph and his brother were ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Faulhaber in the Cathedral at Freising on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. Joseph Ratzinger quickly displayed extraordinary theological gifts at the University of Munich and received his Doctorate in Theology in July 1953, with a thesis titled,People and House of God in St. Augustine’s Doctrine of the Church.
In 1957, under the renowned Professor Gottlieb Sohngen, he qualified for University teaching with a dissertation on: The Theology of History in St Bonaventure. He went on to teach at Bonn from 1959 to1963; at Munster from 1963 to 1966 and at Tubingen from 1966 to 1969. During his last year, he held the Chair of Dogmatics and History of Dogma at the University of Regensburg, where he was also the Dean and Vice-President.
Rev. Fr. Joseph Ratzinger became widely known during the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965 when at the age of 35, he was appointed as the Chief Theological Advisor ofthe Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Joseph Frings. His intense scientific activity led him to important positions at the German Bishops’ Conference and the International Theological Commission.
Archbishop and Cardinal
On March 25, 1977, Pope St. Paul VI of revered memory named him Archbishop of Munich and Freising andhe received his Episcopal ordination on May 28. He was the first diocesan priest in 80 years to take on the pastoral governance of the great Bavarian Archdiocese. He chose as his Episcopal motto a phrase from 3 John 8: “Fellow Worker in the Truth”.
On June 27, 1977, he was elevated as a Cardinal by Pope Paul VI, with the titular church of St. Mary of Consolation in Tiburtina. In 1978, he took part in the Conclave of August which elected John Paul I, who named him his Special Envoy to the III International Mariological Congress celebrated in Ecuador from September 16 to 24. In October of the same year, he took part in the Conclave that elected Pope John Paul II.
In 1980, he was named by Pope John Paul II to chair the Special Synod on the Laity on the theme: .Mission of the Christian Family in the world of today’, and was Delegate President of the VI Ordinary General Assembly of 1983 on ‘Reconciliation and Penance in the mission of the Church’.
Doctrine of Faith
On November 25, 1981, Pope John Paul II summoned Cardinal Ratzinger to Rome and named him the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and President of the International Theological Commission. On April 5, 1993, the Holy Father elevated him to the Order of Bishops assigning to him the Suburbicarian See of Velletri-Segni.
On November 6, 1998, Pope John Paul II approved his election as Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals. In 1999, he was the Special Papal Envoy for the Celebration of the XII Centenary of the foundation of the Diocese of Paderborn in Germany which took place on January 3. Since November 13, 2000, he had been an Honorary Academic of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. On November 30, 2002, the Holy Father approved his election as Dean of the College of Cardinals, together with the Suburbicarian See of Ostia.
In the Roman Curia he had been a member of the Council of the Secretariat of State for Relations with States; of the Congregations for the Oriental Churches, for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, for Bishops, for the Evangelisation of Peoples, for Catholic Education, for Clergy and for the Causes of the Saints; of the Pontifical Councils for Promoting Christian Unity, and for Culture; of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and of the Pontifical Commissions for Latin America, Ecclesia Dei, for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law, and for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law of the Oriental Churches.
Doctorates and Publications
Pope Benedict has been honoured with nine Honorary Doctorates: College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota (1984), Catholic University of Lima (1986), Catholic University of Eichstatt (1987), Catholic University of Lublin (1988), University of Navarra (1998), Free University Maria Santissima Assunta in Rome (1999), University of Breslau (2000), Pontifical University of John Paul II (2015) and Krakow Academy of Music (2015).
His many publications are spread over a number of years and constitute a point of reference for many people, especially, for those interested in entering deeper into the study of theology. On January 13, 2020, Benedict XVI published his latest book expressing his view that the Church must maintain its discipline of clerical celibacy, in the light of the ongoing debate on the issue.
Pope Benedict’s best-selling books include: The Ratzinger Report (1985); Salt of the Earth (1996); The Spirit of the Liturgy (2000); God and the World (2002); God Is near Us: The Eucharist, the Heart of Life (2003). Special mention should be made of his Introduction to Christianity (1968) - a collection of University lectures on the Apostolic Creed and Dogma and Preaching (1973) - an anthology of essays, sermons and reflections.
His address to the Catholic Academy of Bavaria on Why I am still in the Church had a wide resonance; in it he stated with his usual clarity: “One can only be a Christian in the Church, not beside the Church”. On the occasion of his 70th birthday, At the School of Truth was published, containing articles by several authors on different aspects of his personality and production.As a Cardinal, he wrote Truth and Tolerance, a book in which he denounces the use of tolerance as an excuse to distort the truth.
He also continued to defend the Second Vatican Council and the document Nostra Aetate on the respect of other religions and the declaration of the right to religious freedom.As the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he clearly spelt out the Catholic Church’s position on other religions in Dominus Jesus, affirming that there is salvationonly in Christ. He continued to meet his former doctoral students even after retirement, an annual tradition he has kept since the 1970s.
Pastimes
An accomplished pianist who loves Mozart and Beethoven, Ratzinger used to visit the peaceful halls of St. Michael’s Seminary in Regensburg to stay in the bishop’s apartment and enjoy playing the grand piano in the seminary’s main hall. He also loves walking through downtown Traunstein, meeting and greeting people. Traunstein is where Ratzinger went through the harrowing years of Nazi rule and World War II.
Ratzinger as a priest had repeatedly stated that he would like to retire to a Bavarian village and dedicate himself to writing books, but as a Cardinal, he told friends that he was ready to “Accept any charge God placed on him.” On election as the Pope he said, “... the Cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord. I am comforted by the fact that the Lord knows how to work and act even with insufficient instruments...”At the Mass of Papal Installation, he asked, “Now, at this moment, weak servant of God that I am, I must assume this enormous task, which truly exceeds all human capacity. How will I be able to do it?”
Conclusion
Pope Benedict XVI gave the Church stability. He was very much an authority figure and was immensely trusted by the Church. It was with a complete understanding that the Catholics all over the world learned of the Pope’s declaration of his decision to lay down the ministry as the Head of the Roman Catholic Church, an office which he held with great dignity, insight and courage. He indeed left a very personal signature as a thinker and also as a shepherd.
The faith, depth, candour and servitude of Pope Benedict XVI will likely be his enduring hallmark. In his book titled, Jesus of Nazareth, the first published as the Pope in 2007, he describes his personal search for the face of Jesus. He says: “I wanted to portray the Jesus of the Gospels as the real, ‘historical’ Jesus in the strict sense of the word...I believe that this Jesus - the Jesus of the Gospels - is a historically plausible and convincing figure.”
(The writer possesses a PhD, MPhil and double MSc; his research interests encompasses a variety of subjects; recipient of National and Presidential Accolades for Academic and Sports pursuits; his byline appears in journals and publications regularly; his first article was carried in Sunday Observer in 1988)