In 1999 I first met Cardinal Ratzinger at the presentation of a journal on the history of the Jubilees that I coordinated. I was not surprised by the friendliness and simplicity with which he agreed to introduce her, for these qualities of him were well known.
Many in the Vatican were accustomed to seeing him, dressed like an ordinary priest and in his black beret, as he hurried across St. Peter’s Square on his way to work, greeting those who recognized him with a faint smile. On other occasions, the cardinal, who had become very Roman, stopped in amusement to look at the cats he found during his walks around the Vatican.
At that first meeting, however, I noticed that the cardinal had remained a professor, accustomed to speaking his mind without a filter, of course, animated by curiosity, like all real intellectuals. His language was by no means clerical, let alone curial, although he had been in the Curia for almost 20 years since he was appointed by John Paul II, after surviving the attack, who appointed him Prefect of the ancient Holy Office at the end of 1981, that is, custodians of the Catholic faith.
The Bavarian theologian thus became the Slavic pope’s most important theological adviser and much later his successor, when in less than a day in 2005 the cardinals gathered for the conclave elected a German to succeed the Polish pope. This ended the aftermath of World War II, triggered by Nazi Germany’s (and two weeks later the Soviet Union’s) attack on Poland.
At 16, Ratzinger, who was born into a humble Catholic family unconnected with Nazism, also took part in the final two years of the war. As a seminarian, he had to serve as an anti-aircraft helper from 1943 and was later sent to a labor camp; Drafted into the infantry, he deserted and was arrested by the Americans. He responded to his imprisonment as a model student by penciling Greek verses in a notebook. And then he wrote a lot with pencil throughout his life, in tiny handwriting full of abbreviations that only his sister Maria and later his secretary Birgit Wansing could decipher and copy. He left important works, including the trilogy on Jesus of Nazareth (2007-2012), which he wrote when he was already Pope, but which he considered to be the result of personal research and therefore subject to criticism.
The man I met was friendly but direct, used to getting down to business and always speaking and writing clearly, as confirmed by his will, published the same afternoon that he died at the end of the year died. A text that evokes the meditations of Marcus Aurelius when the philosopher-emperor thanks his parents at the beginning of the famous book, but also another extraordinary papal testament written by Paul VI. And it was Council Pope Montini himself who, a year before his death in 1977, changed the life of the 50-year-old theologian by appointing him archbishop of Munich and making him a cardinal.
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General view of the burial chapel of Benedict XVI. in the nave of St. Peter’s Basilica. VATICAN MEDIA (EFE)
Hundreds of people have been queuing since half past five this morning to enter the temple and pay tribute to Ratzinger.Alessandra Tarantino (AP)
The body of the Pope Emeritus lies in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Monday. GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE (Portal)
Authorities expect around 35,000 people will pass through the burning chapel on each of the three days it remains open. VATICAN MEDIA (EFE)
Queue of the faithful in the Basilica of San Pedro.GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE (Portal)
Detail of the hands of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, this Monday DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)
In St. Peter’s Basilica, the faithful bid farewell to Joseph Ratzinger. VATICAN MEDIA (EFE)
Several nuns are waiting in St. Peter’s Square to pay homage to the Pope Emeritus. GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE (Portal)
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (third from left) visited the funeral chapel of the Pope Emeritus on Monday. VATICAN MEDIA (via Portal)
Interior of St. Peter’s Basilica, on the first day of the funeral chapel of Pope Benedict XVI. VATICAN MEDIA (EFE)
Several believers pay homage to the Pope Emeritus in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.KAI PFAFFENBACH (Portal)
Queuing to access the Basilica of San Pedro. Andrew Medichini (AP)
The body of the late Benedict XVI. is in the central nave of St. Peter’s Basilica for public viewing. Alessandra Tarantino (AP)
Interior of St. Peter’s Basilica during the funeral chapel this Monday HANDOUT (AFP)
Dozens of believers are waiting to see the remains of the Pope Emeritus.TIZIANA FABI (AFP)
General view of the burning chapel in the central nave of the basilica.Andrew Medichini (AP)
Benedict XVI was dressed in papal red but without the pallium: the jewel worn around the neck that signifies the power exercised at the time of his death. The absence of this piece indicates that the German was precisely retired.TIZIANA FABI (AFP)
A nun feeds a pigeon while waiting to say goodbye to the Pope Emeritus. CIRO DE LUCA (Portal)
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Benedict XVI’s personal secretary, kisses his hand in the mourning chapel set up in St. Peter’s Basilica. VATICAN MEDIA (EFE)
The remains of Joseph Ratzinger will be transferred to St. Peter’s Basilica at dawn this Monday from the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, where the Pope Emeritus has resided since his resignation in February 2013. VATICAN MEDIA HANDBOOK (EFE)
Dozens of people are waiting to enter St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican this Monday. Michael Kappeler (European Press)
The pope emeritus is veiled in the chapel of the Mater Ecclessiae prior to his transfer to the basilica in a picture distributed by the Vatican this Monday.
Ratzinger had been famous since the time of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), in which he had taken part as theological adviser to the elderly Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Frings, an important representative of the Reformation and anti-curial formation. Ratzinger always remained very outspoken, despite being branded a traitor to Vatican II and later Grand Inquisitor. He had a radical understanding of the Church, burdened, according to him, by too many machines and by the “dirt” of abuses, which he denounced on Good Friday 2005, shortly before his election as Pope. Critical of the institution to which he belonged, this amiable and determined theologian clearly foresaw a minority future for Catholicism in a Western world where the faith was dying.
As an intelligent connoisseur of the Christian tradition, Ratzinger always saw this as a moving reality open to the future, not as something immovable. In 2012 he allowed me to anticipate, in L’Osservatore Romano, the prologue to his conciliar writings, which will be published a few months later in his complete works. In the text, the Pope describes an already tired Christianity, which the Second Vatican Council, which never denied as a further development of the tradition, tried to revive with its “update”.
Government was never Ratzinger’s forte, who over-trusted some collaborators for not helping him as they should. Instead, Benedict XVI went. very resolutely and effectively against the abuse scandal, particularly in the case of the criminal founder of the Legionaries of Christ and in Ireland. He accepted mistakes that were not his and asked forgiveness as head of the church, even after his historic resignation from the papacy.
Giovanni Maria Vian He is an expert on church history and former editor of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.
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