BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

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A video of Benedict XVI's first appearance to the world as Pope may be seen on youtu.be/RIFn5u_3pyE
And herewith, my favorite personal recollection about Benedict XVI:


Perhaps of all the words that the Holy Father said during his never-to-be-forgotten visit to the United States and to the United Nations - and every word was precious and significant - what will remain etched in my brain are the spontaneous words he spoke to thank the congregation at St. Patrick's for remembering the third anniversary of his Pontificate. All the more since I heard the words 'directly' as he spoke them, through the front-door speakers of the cathedral's audio system, as I stood on the steps to the front door. These were his extemporaneous words delivered in English:

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At this moment I can only thank you for your love of the Church and Our Lord, and for the love which you show to this poor Successor of Saint Peter.

I will try to do all that is possible to be a worthy successor of the great Apostle, who also was a man with faults and sins, but remained in the end the rock for the Church.

And so I too, with all my spiritual poverty, can be for this time, by virtue of the Lord’s grace, the Successor of Peter.

It is also your prayers and your love which give me the certainty that the Lord will help me in this my ministry. I am therefore deeply grateful for your love and for your prayers.

And my answer to all that you have given to me in this moment and this visit is my blessing at the end of the Holy Mass.

- BENEDICT XVI
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
April 19, 2008.

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Eight years ago, Benedict XVI undertook an apostolic visit to the United States on April 15-22, 2008, during which he also addressed the United Nations.


For an extensive coverage of that visit, please visit the special thread dedicated to it in PAPA RATZINGER FORUM, starting on Page 15
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=7092407&p=15
The earlier pages were devoted to all the material leading up to the visit.







The above is a commemorative video prepared by Gemma for Lella's blog.

And the tributes continue as we move from Benedict XVI's 90th birthday to the anniversary today of his election as pope. I have three interviews to translate so far, and I will start with this one, with Vittorio Messori. The others are by Fr. Lombardi and by Spanish theologian Fr. Pablo Cervera Barranco who has translated many of Joseph Ratzinger's books in Spanish and is undertaking the translation of some volumes of the COMPLETE WRITINGS for its Spanish edition...

Joseph the giant
Interview with Vittorio Messori
By Riccardo Caniato
Translated from
GENTE, April 16, 2017

On this Easter Sunday, Benedict XVI turns 90.

Gente conveyed birthday greetings to the Emeritus Pope through Vittorio Messori, the journalist and writer perhaps best qualified to speak about the man Joseph Ratzinger, not just about Benedict XVI who led the Catholic Church from April 2005 to February 2013. (Messori himself was born on April 16, 1941).

He first made a name for himself in 1976 with the publication of his book Ipotesi su Gesu, of which 2 million were sold in Italy alone. He also became the first Vaticanista to ‘co-author’ a book with a pope (with Varcare la soglia della speranza (Crossing the threshold of hope), written with John Paul II in 1993.

But that had been preceded in 1985 by an interview book with the man who was then Prefect of the till-then ‘impenetrable’ Holy Office, known by its post-Vatican II name of Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. That book was Rapporto sulla fede (Report on the faith) [published in English as THE RATZINGER RRPORT], of which Messori says, “It was the outcome of three days of close contact with Joseph Ratzinger, which established a relationship between us that has never been interrupted”.

What do you remember of those days?
The Prefect of the CDF agreed to meet with me in Bressanone on the eve of Assumption in 1984. He was spending his summer vacation in that city, staying at the local seminary, where he dedicated time to study and meditation. When I arrived at the seminary just before dinnertime, I was told that His Eminence was still out presiding at some Confirmations.

He arrived in an old Volkswagen with Munich plates. He was all dressed in his cardinal robes, and I was struck by the contrast between his austere intelligent figure and the modesty of the car which was driven by an older priest in black clergyman suit – whom he introduced as his older brother.

When I think back on it, the image says a lot to illustrate the misunderstanding of which Ratzinger has been a victim all his life.

Can you explain that more?
The first time I met him, all it took was a few exchanges to perceive what kind of a human being he is. His wisdom and the vastness of his culture – not just doctrinally – of the person himself, before whom one felt like a dwarf. So many enemies of the Church, well aware that in him they were facing a genuine thoroughbred who can support the faith with the keenness of reason and who can therefore not compete with him in terms of argumentation, have distorted their view of him on the basis of aspects like his nationality, or his extreme reserve, in order to create a media stereotype. From this black legend came the images and epithets of Joseph Ratzinger as the ‘German shepherd’, the ‘Grand Inquisitor’, the ‘Panzerkardinal’, or the ‘Iron Prefect’.

And instead?
Instead, Joseph Ratzinger is one of the most amiable, discreet and truly good persons that I have ever known. Like all true wise men, he does not boast, and he listens to others. He is also gifted with a sense of humor, even about himself. Do you know that when we would meet each other in a trattoria near the Vatican [and near where the cardinal used to live], he would ask me to tell him all the jokes and anecdotes circulating about him? He would laugh with gusto when I told him. What would his detractors say if they knew this?

But Papa Ratzinger is also remembered for upholding ‘non-negotiable principles’ and the firmness of his positions on the faith…
Certainly he is someone who never disregards the truth. When I sent him the drafts of the book, I insisted that he review everything himself because he had made some explosive statements and a very firm condemnation of some post-Vatican II contestations and about new currents of thought at the time like Liberation Theology. But he made practically no corrections, nor did he soften his most hardline positions.

Indeed, he was surprised by my concerns. “Controversial?”, he asked in German, looking at me with his innocent blue eyes. “Warum? Why ever?” Here, in expressing surprise that saying the truth could stir up controversy at all, one appreciated his evangelical transparency which characterized him even as Pope.

But he has not lacked for controversy, such as that which followed the Regensburg lecture on faith and reason with what he said about Islam and violence…
When it comes to that, even as a cardinal, he stirred up much discussion. Because of the condemnations I referred to that he made in the book, he received death threats [And so did Messori, branded as an accomplice of Ratzinger, who had to hire bodyguards and go into hiding for months because of the threats from elements associated with those men of the Church who felt alluded to in Ratzinger’s post-Vatican II critique].For his safety [something I am reading about for the first time], he was asked to find ‘asylum’ at the American Embassy to the Holy See, and when he invited me to see him there, I had to undergo a close body search by the US Marine guards. But all that security was a contrast to the man I found who seemed to be serenely ‘at home’.

Can you tell us more about Joseph Ratzinger’s human sensitivity?
To get back to the matter of dress, I did not see him again in official robes in Bressanone. He was wearing his cardinal robes that first day because he had to perform liturgy, and of course, for the children who received Confirmation from him, expecting to be confirmed by a Prince of the Church. But he changed quickly and put me quite at ease with his informal well-worn clergyman suit.

During those three days, we worked all day, and in the evening, we would go over the notes of the day before we retired. He woke up much earlier than me in order to say his daily Mass, and in the evening, he would pray in the chapel while I retired to my room to prepare my questions for the next day. He never asked me to fall in with his daily rhythm.

Months later, in Rome, having become more confident with him, I told him that in Bressanone, I had made a great sacrifice by not smoking at all for three days because I did not want to annoy him. He replied with apparent sincerity, “But why didn’t you tell me? It si true I do not some, but I like the smell of burning tobacco “. I am sure that was not true but he did not want to offend me.

Did you eat together?
Yes. At the time I had just turned 40, and at lunch he would urge me to eat more, even as he was restrained. Every afternoon, he arranged so that we would have a break for a snack of the strudel prepared by the Tyrolese sisters in the seminary. I soon realized that the snack was prepared especially for me, since he was content with sipping from a glass of water, allowing me to eat at leisure. I asked him why he would not partake of that excellent dessert, but he answered courteously with another white lie: “Caro dottore, it is better that I refrain from eating sweets”. This is a man who is demanding and austere with himself, but full of attention for others. Indeed, few are aware of his constant capacity for self-mortification – but that is Jospeh Ratzinger.

When did you meet him first after he had become Pope?
After a General Audience in St. Peter’s Square. He asked me to come after the publication of the book Perche credo?(Why I believe) which I had written with Andrea Tornielli. He embraced me, and I found the courage to ask him whether the time had come to update Rapporto sulla fede. “But how shall we do it?”, he asked. “Like we did the other time,” I answered. “Holiness, if you would give me three days…”

“Vittorio”, he stopped me, smiling, “how can I give you three days when no one allows me even three hours of respite?”

Your last meeting?
Months ago, already Emeritus. Once again, the occasion was the publication of another one of my books [‘Bernadette non ci ha ingannati’ (Bernadette did not deceive us) about the apparitions in Lourdes], and it was his initiative, because since he became pope, I was unable to work up enough courage to take the first step. He received me at Mater Ecclesia, the little monastery in the Vatican Gardens which had been equipped for the cloistered nuns that John Paul II wished to live in the Vatican to pray specially for the Church.

What can you say of how he lives these days?
Among his books, his piano, music – Mozart, Beethoven, Bruckner… He receives selected guests and has enough to do keeping with correspondence coming from all over the world. I saw two newspapers on his desk – Corriere della Sera and Sueddeutsche Zeitung from Munich. In the evenings, he watches TG-1 on RAI. His residence is a place of light, full of flowers – it communicates peace. Benedict is surrounded bu affection and respect. He continues to live with the Memores Domini of Comunione e Liberazione, and with Mons. Georg Gaenswein, who remains his private secretary when he is not occupied with his duties as Prefect of the Pontifical Household.

But it was Mon. Gaenswein who last year alarmed many people when he likened Benedict to a candle that is slowly guttering out…
At our last meeting, we chatted until way past one p.m. I had hoped we could lunch together, but (I had to leave in order not to tire him out. I do not if he did eat lunch nor what he ate. He is rather thin these days. In the house he goes around using a walker, and for his daily spin in the Vatican Gardens, he rides a golf cart.

But in our conversation, he was every bit the man with an uncommon mind and lucid talk that is engaged and engaging. Obviously, last year, he also followed closely the publication of his last interview book, as well as a new biography [the one by Elio Guerriero].

The metaphor with the candle fits, but even if the candle may be waning, the light he emanates is still dazzling.

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 20/04/2017 00:02]