A Beacon Of Light… Remembering Pope Benedict XVI
By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Jr.
(Editor’s Note: Fr. Richard D. Breton Jr. is a priest of the Diocese of Norwich, Conn.)
- + + The recent passing of His Holiness, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, has prompted me to offer a tribute regarding this great man of the Church.
Born April 16, 1927, as Joseph Alois Ratzinger in Marktl am Inn, Germany, Ratzinger’s father was a policeman and his mother a hotel cook. The youngest of three children, Ratzinger was six years old when the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933; his parents, who were staunch Catholics, were hostile to the regime. Ratzinger entered the seminary in 1939. In 1941 he was compelled to join the Hitler Youth and in 1943 he was drafted into the German military, serving in an antiaircraft unit in Bavaria before being sent to Hungary to set tank traps in 1945. He deserted in April of that year and was captured by American forces and held prisoner for a brief period.
After the war, Ratzinger continued his education in the seminary; he was ordained a priest in June 1951. In 1953 he was awarded a doctorate in theology at the University of Munich. After earning his teaching license in 1957, he taught dogma and theology at the higher school of philosophy and theology in Freising until 1959, later moving to the University of Bonn (1959-1969) and also teaching at universities in Munster (1963-1966) and — at the invitation of the theologian Hans Kung — Tubingen (1966–1969). In 1969 he moved to the University of Regensburg, where he later became vice president.
The history of the Church would be forever changed. As a devoted theologian and as a faithful priest, Joseph Ratzinger would begin to show the great mind he had and his love of and devotion to the faith.
Soon, his intellectual mind and scholarly works would propel him into the papacy of St. John Paul II as the Church’s “rottweiler,” a defender of the faith in his role as prefect of the Congregation for the Faith. It was here where Ratzinger would help defend the Church from all of the assaults of the world. He was instrumental in making sure the Church was protected from modernism and the effects associated with it.
Soon the time came for the ministry of Cardinal Ratzinger to morph itself into the ministry of Peter as Pope Benedict XVI. This papacy, however, relatively short at only eight years, included great accomplishments in his papal ministry. Among these were the publication of three great encyclicals, that focused on the importance of the theological virtues. We learned in our catechism classes that these virtues are received in Baptism and are essential in our understanding of the faith.
Benedict wrote three encyclicals: Deus Caritas Est (Latin for “God is Love”), Spe Salvi (“Saved by Hope”), and Caritas in Veritatis (“Love in Truth”). In his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, he said that a human being, created in the image of God who is love, is able to practice love: to give himself to God and others (agape) by receiving and experiencing God’s love in contemplation. This life of love, according to him, is the life of the saints such as Teresa of Calcutta and the Blessed Virgin Mary, and is the direction Christians take when they believe that God loves them in Jesus Christ.
The encyclical contains almost 16,000 words in 42 paragraphs. The first half is said to have been written by Benedict in German (his first language) in the summer of 2005; the second half is derived from uncompleted writings left by his Predecessor, Pope John Paul II. The document was signed by Benedict on Christmas Day, December 25, 2005. The encyclical was promulgated a month later in Latin and was translated into English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish. It was the first encyclical to be published since the Vatican decided to assert copyright in the official writings of the Pope.
Benedict’s second encyclical titled Spe Salvi (“Saved by Hope”), about the virtue of hope, was released on November 30, 2007.
His third encyclical, titled Caritas in Veritatis (“Love in Truth” or “Charity in Truth”), was signed on June 29, 2009 (the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul) and released on July 7, 2009. In it, the Pope continued the Church’s teachings on social justice. He condemned the prevalent economic system “where the pernicious effects of sin are evident,” and called on people to rediscover ethics in business and economic relations.
At the time of his resignation, Benedict had completed a draft of a fourth encyclical entitled Lumen Fidei (“The Light of Faith”), intended to accompany his first two encyclicals to complete a trilogy on the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Benedict’s Successor, Pope Francis, completed and published Lumen Fidei in June 2013, four months after Benedict’s retirement and Francis’ succession. Although the encyclical is officially the work of Francis, paragraph 7 of the encyclical explicitly expresses Francis’ debt to Benedict:
“These considerations on faith — in continuity with all that the Church’s Magisterium has pronounced on this theological virtue — are meant to supplement what Benedict XVI had written in his encyclical letters on charity and hope. He himself had almost completed a first draft of an encyclical on faith. For this I am deeply grateful to him, and as his brother in Christ I have taken up his fine work and added a few contributions of my own.”
Another accomplishment of Pope Benedict was his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. On July 7, 2007, Benedict XVI issued the motu proprio, declaring that upon “the request of the faithful,” celebration of Mass according to the Missal of 1962 (commonly known as the Tridentine Mass), was to be more easily permitted. Stable groups who previously had to petition their bishop to have a Tridentine Mass could thereby merely request permission from their local priest. While Summorum Pontificum directed that pastors should provide the Tridentine Mass upon the requests of the faithful, it also allowed for any qualified priest to offer private celebrations of the Tridentine Mass, to which the faithful could be admitted if they wished. For regularly scheduled public celebrations of the Tridentine Mass, the permission of the priest in charge of the church was required.
Deformations Of The Liturgy
In an accompanying letter, the Pope outlined his position concerning questions about the new guidelines. As there were fears that the move would entail a reversal of the Second Vatican Council, Benedict emphasized that the Tridentine Mass would not detract from the council, and that the Mass of Paul VI would still be the norm and priests were not permitted to refuse to say the Mass in that form.
He pointed out that use of Tridentine Mass “was never juridically abrogated and consequently, in principle, was always permitted.” The letter also decried “deformations of the liturgy” because in many places celebrations were not faithful to the prescriptions of the new Missal as the Second Vatican Council was wrongly seen “as authorizing or even requiring creativity,” mentioning his own experience.
The Pope considered that allowing the Tridentine Mass to those who request it was a means to prevent or heal schism, stating that, on occasions in history, “not enough was done by the Church’s leaders to maintain or regain reconciliation and unity” and that this “imposes an obligation on us today: to make every effort to enable for all those who truly desire unity to remain in that unity or to attain it anew” (Summorum Pontificum). Many then felt that the decree aimed at ending the schism between the Holy See and traditionalist groups such as the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). The superior general of the SSPX at the time expressed deep gratitude to the Sovereign Pontiff for this great spiritual benefit.
And so, as the entire Church joins in prayer for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on his journey to and arrival at the Heavenly Kingdom, we will forever be indebted to Pope Benedict for the great scholarly mind and love of the faith that enabled him to lead the Church. Centuries from now, Catholics and others will look back and still learn and gain great insights from this holy Pope. May the legacy of the Papacy of Pope Benedict XVI continue to enrich us in the way we understand our faith.