(Editor’s Note: Below is Pope Francis’ address to Benedict XVI at a commemoration of the 65th anniversary of Pope Emeritus’ priestly Ordination. The event was held at noon on June 28 in the Sala Clementina of the Apostolic Palace.
(Benedict XVI is 89 years old. He was ordained on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, June 29, in 1951.
(Following Francis’ address are remarks from Angelo Cardinal Sodano and Gerhard Cardinal Mueller, and an expression of appreciation from Benedict XVI.
(ZENIT News Agency provided the texts and the translations. All rights reserved.)
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Holiness,
Today we celebrate the history of a call that began sixty-five years ago with Your Priestly Ordination, which took place in the Cathedral of Freising on June 29, 1951. But what is the underlying note that runs through this long history and that from that first beginning up to today dominates it ever more?
In one of the many beautiful pages that you dedicate to the priesthood, you underscore how, at the hour of Simon’s definitive call, Jesus, looking at him, basically asks him only one thing: “Do you love me?”
How beautiful and true this is! Because it is here, you tell us, it is in that “do you love me,” that the Lord founded the feeding, because only if there is love for the Lord can He feed through us: “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you” (John 21:15-19).
This is the note that dominates a whole life spent in priestly service and true theology that you have not accidentally described as “the search for the Beloved”; it is this that you have always witnessed and still witness today: that the decisive thing in our day — of sun or rain — that alone with which all the rest comes, is that the Lord be truly present, that we desire Him, that we be close to Him interiorly, that we love Him, that we truly believe profoundly in Him and believing that we truly love Him.
It is this loving that truly fills our heart, this believing is what makes us walk safely and calmly on the waters, even in the midst of a storm, in fact as happened to Peter; this loving and this believing is what enables us to look to the future, not with fear and nostalgia, but with gladness, also in the now advanced years of our life.
And so, precisely by living and witnessing today, in such an intense and luminous way, this only truly decisive thing — to have our gaze and heart turned to God — you, Holiness, continue to serve the Church, do not cease to truly contribute with vigor and wisdom to her growth; and you do so from that small Mater Ecclesiae Convent in the Vatican, which reveals itself to be altogether something other than one of those forgotten corners in which the disposable culture of today tends to relegate individuals when, with age, their strength fails.
It is altogether the opposite; and allow your Successor to say this forcefully, who chose to call himself Francis! Because St. Francis’ spiritual journey began at San Damiano, but the true place he loved, the beating heart of the Order, there where he founded it and where finally he rendered his life to God was the Porziuncola, the “small portion,” the little corner near the Mother of the Church; near Mary that, because of her very firm faith and her living so entirely of love and in love with the Lord, all generations call Blessed.
Thus, Providence willed that you, dear Brother, arrive in a place so to speak precisely “Franciscan” from which emanates a tranquility, a peace, a strength, a trust, a maturity, a faith, a dedication and a fidelity that do me so much good and give strength to me and to the whole Church.
The wish with which I desire to conclude is therefore a wish that I address to you and together with all of us and with the entire Church: that you, Holiness, be able to continue feeling the hand of the merciful God that supports you, that you be able to experience and witness to us the love of God; that, with Peter and Paul, you be able to continue to exult with great joy while you journey toward the goal of the faith (cf. 1 Peter 8-9; 2 Tim. 4)!
Cardinal Sodano’s Address
Venerable and Dear Pope Francis,
Today, on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of priesthood of your beloved Predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, you wished to render this right and proper homage in the name of all the Holy Church, which has enjoyed his pastoral ministry for 65 years, first as Presbyter and subsequently as Bishop in the Munich and Freising See and then as Bishop of Rome, “mater et caput omnium ecclesiarum.”
Holy Father, allow me also now to present to the dear celebrated one the homage of Brother Cardinals and Bishops, while the words gush from the heart of Psalm 133: “Ecce quam bonum et quam jucundum habitare fratres in unum” (Psalm 133)! Yes, at this moment we experience an atmosphere of spiritual gladness and intense fraternity, in the common bond of service to the Holy Church of Christ.
Dear and Venerable Pope Emeritus, on June 29 of that distant 1951, on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, you received Presbyteral Ordination from the hands of the late Cardinal Faulhaber, together with your dear brother Georg, to whom at this moment goes our dear greeting, and a good 42 other companions.
It was a great celebration for the whole of your beloved Bavarian Archdiocese. You wished to tell us the sentiments you felt on that day, when you returned as Successor of Peter to your dear Archdiocese, in September of 2006. Celebrating Holy Mass in the Cathedral of Freising, where your Ordination took place, you recalled, in front of numerous priests present, the sentiments that pervaded your heart. I was also present under the vaults of that stupendous Cathedral and I remember well the emotion with which you spoke to the priests present.
In recent days I went to reread your homily and it seemed to me that I was hearing again the words that at that moment were born from your heart. Some of your words sound like this in the Italian translation:
“When I was here prostrated on the ground and as though enveloped by the Litanies of All the Saints, I realized that we are not alone on this way, but that the great array of Saints walks with us and that the Saints still alive, namely the faithful of today and of tomorrow, support and accompany us. Then there was the imposition of hands and when Cardinal Faulhaber said to us: ‘Jam non dico vos servos, sed amicos’ (I no longer call you servants but friends), then I felt that priestly Ordination is like an initiation in the community of Jesus’ friends, who are called to be with Him and to proclaim His message” (cf. L’Osser-
vatore Romano, September 16, 2006).
You then described the nature of this Christian message that priests are called to spread in the world, synthesizing it in two phrases: the priesthood must lead the men of today to “the Light of God and the Love of God,” or exactly, to use your words in German, the priest must lead men: “Gottes Kucht und Gottes Liebe.” Moreover, in your homily, you added an urgent invitation to the priests present, namely, the invitation to take to the world the Light and Love of Christ with the same “feeling” of Jesus, or to use your own words, with the same “Gesinnung Jesu Christi.”
It was the concept expressed by the Apostle Paul in the Letter to the Philippians (Phil. 2:5-8). This “feeling” of Christ should imply, therefore, a great love for those that are far, for the poor, the sick, the elderly and children.
Reading your words today, they seem to be an anticipation of the luminous Magisterium of Pope Francis, who always invites us to encounter those who suffer most, taking to them our brotherly love. This is, moreover, the message of the Great Jubilee of Mercy, which we are celebrating.
Holiness, in the happy anniversary of that distant day of 65 years ago, the College of Cardinals, together with Pope Francis, presses around you, thanking you for your long and generous ecclesial service.
At the same time, we want to ask you to continue, even if in another way, your long priestly ministry, just as you promised us on February 24, 2013, after having announced your decision to leave in new hands the guidance of Peter’s bark. Then in fact you said to us:
“The Lord calls me to go up on the mountain, and to dedicate myself yet more to prayer and meditation. But this does not mean to abandon the Church, rather, if God asks me this, it is precisely so that I can continue to serve her with the same dedication and the same love with which I have tried to do up to now, but in a way more adapted to my age and my strength” (cf. Insegnamenti of Benedict XVI, vol. IX, p. 263).
We are happy because of that promise, certain that you will always be close to us with your prayer and your affection. Finally we say to you with a typical greeting of your Bavarian land: “Behut’s Sie Gott”! May God protect you! Meanwhile the Church of Rome, under the guidance of Pope Francis, the Venerable Successor that Divine Providence has given us, will continue her journey in history with renewed vigor, in the service of the Christian community and of the whole of humanity! Best wishes.
Cardinal Mueller’s Address
Holy Father, it is a great honor to be able to take part in this moment of celebration that you desired, for the happy occasion of the sixty-five years of the priestly Ordination of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.
Some weeks ago, for the Jubilee of Priests and Seminarians, you yourself put at the center of our reflection, the essence of the priestly mission: to allow one’s heart to be recreated by the mercy of God, so that we ourselves can help men to allow their hearts to be molded by Him.
And you quoted the great French writer Georges Bernanos, who in his novel Diary of a Country Priest, indicated “joy” as the immense gift that the Church is called to offer the world: first of all the joy of the proclamation that our sins can now expect God’s forgiveness! “Proclamation” and “joy” are words that are at the heart of the Gospel, and they are also two notes that are so proper of your Magisterium, as well as of your Predecessor.
Dear Pope Emeritus, for long years you have recalled, with words and with your life — that this “joy” comes first of all from confident abandonment to that mysterious and good design that the Risen Jesus wishes to bring to fulfillment in each one of us. The joy of the Gospel is first of all Yours; it is a gift of the Lord, and it comes from His Heart, who had pity on our nothingness and loves us, that is, He recreates us, with an eternal Love.
In fact the title of the book makes direct reference to this Love, in multiple-language editions, (today five translations are available) that we have the honor to offer you on this happy occasion: Die Liebe Gottes Lehren und Lernen. To teach and to learn the love of God. Fundamentally, everything is said here: We are called to teach what we in turn have learned from the Love of God.
You were given to this Love sixty-five years ago through the priestly seal, together with your brother Georg, on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. As St. Irenaeus said, whom we commemorate today, the two princes of the Apostles are the apostolic foundation of the Roman Church. This Feast of the two Apostles already prefigured, so to speak, the essential traits of your mission: to proclaim the Word of God (Paul) and to confirm brothers in the Faith (Peter). Time has then revealed in an admirable way what in that beginning was mysteriously pre-contained.
Dear Pope Emeritus, we are grateful for having been able to follow for long years, together with you, what the Lord was realizing through your priestly action. Now we ask, with all our heart, that you be able to bring to fulfillment what He wrought in you and that has already brought abundant fruit among us. Thank you again for everything, Holiness, and thank you from the heart.
Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI Gives Thanks
Holy Father, Dear Brothers,
Sixty-five years ago, a brother ordained with me decided to write on the holy card of remembrance of the first Mass, except for the name and date, only one word in Greek: “Efharistomen,” convinced that with this word, in its many dimensions, all was said that could be said in that moment. “Efharistomen” says a human thank you, thank you to all.
Thank you above all to you, Holy Father: From the first moment of your election, your kindness in every moment of my life here strikes me, your kindness really brings me interiorly more than in the Vatican Gardens, with its beauty, to the place where I dwell; I feel protected. Thank you also for the word of gratitude for everything. And let us hope that you can go forward with all of us on this way of Divine Mercy, showing Jesus’ way to Jesus and to God.
Thank you also to you, Eminence, for your words that have truly touched my heart: “Cor ad cor loquitur.” You have made present both the hour of my priestly Ordination, and my visit in 2006 to Freising, where I relived this. I can only thus say that with these words you have interpreted the essential of my vision of the priesthood, of my way of acting. I am grateful to you for the bond of friendship, which for a long time has continued up to now…: It is almost present and tangible.
Thank you, Cardinal Mueller, for the work you do for the presentation of my texts on the priesthood, in which I also seek to help brothers to enter always again in the mystery that the Lord gives us in our hands. “Efharistomen”: In that moment my friend Berger wished to refer not only to the dimension of human gratitude, but naturally to the more profound word that is hidden, which appears in the Liturgy, in Scripture, in the words: “Gratias agens benedixit fregit deditque.”
“Efharistomen” sends us to that reality of gratitude, to that new dimension that Christ has given. He has transformed the Cross, suffering, all the evil of the world into “thanksgiving.” And thus, He has transformed life and the world fundamentally and has given us and gives us every day the bread of true life, which surpasses the world thanks to the strength of His love.
At the end, we want to insert ourselves in this “thanksgiving” of the Lord and thus really receive the novelty of life and help in the transubstantiation of the world: that it be not a world of death but of life; a world in which love has conquered death.
Thank you to you all. May the Lord bless all of us. Thank you, Holy Father.
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