Remembering Pope Benedict
"Stand Firm in the Faith" // "Jesus, I love you."
As we mark the third anniversary of the death of Pope Benedict XVI, I’m reposting below my reflections from New Year’s Day 2023. I had been in Rome with friends when he died, and being there allowed us to mark this moment in really prayerful ways.
Last night a Mass was celebrated inside St. Peter’s for the repose of Benedict’s soul, celebrated by Cardinal Gerhard Mueller. If you have time today, I highly recommend watching his beautiful and rich homily (starts at 27:43).
And now the repost from 2023:
Joseph Ratzinger - Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022)
So much will be spoken about Pope Benedict in the coming days and months, way more than I can say here. I will simply say that for me the death of Joseph Ratzinger feels in many ways like the death of a friend and companion. His writings were central to my education in the seminary, and his witness to the Christian faith as a professor, bishop, and Pope...but more than anything his witness as a Christian man is something that has always edified me.
I have been blessed throughout my years in the seminary to be taught by priests who were friends of Pope Benedict, and so for many years Ratzinger has not felt like a faraway figurehead, but someone whose influence and personal presence was somehow very near.
He was unwavering in his conviction of what he himself believed, and in upholding the Apostolic faith. He was given nicknames such as "German Shepherd" or "God's Rottweiler." Those who know him have expressed over and over how ill-fitting these characterizations were; those close to him describe him as a man of deep faith, whose demeanor was quiet and humble...gentle and fatherly.
Fr. Joseph Carola, SJ - who was my formator during my time in Rome in 2013 and who remains a great friend - gathered any of his former students who are still in Rome to pray for Pope Benedict this afternoon in St. Peter's Square.
Together we prayed Vespers and spent time reading allowed various excerpts of the work of Joseph Ratzinger and his later writings as Pope. We concluded by reading together the Spiritual Testament which Pope Benedict had written in 2006 and which was released yesterday after his death.
If you haven't seen the Spiritual Testament yet, click here to find it. It's short, but packed with meaning.
In the Square, I was given an excerpt of his Easter Vigil homily from 2010 about death and eternal life.
In a famous quotation, Pope Benedict speaks about a paradoxical Christian reality: that of facing a Just Judge after death, and the mystery of Christianity which allows us to befriend - and even become something like - the Just Judge. This friendship, this companionship, Benedict said, allowed him to move toward death without fear.
Indeed, his death was peaceful. According to his private secretary, Archbishop Ganswein, the pope's last words were Jesus, ich liebe dich! - Jesus, I love you!
