Happy 86th Birthday, Benedict XVI!
And this Friday marks the 8th anniversary
of the Pope emeritus's election in 2005
By Carl E. Olson
April 16, 2013
Today is the 86th birthday of Benedict XVI, Pope emeritus, and this Friday, April 19th, marks the eight anniversary of his election to the Chair of Peter. We extend our best wishes and prayers to the Pope emeritus on this happy occasion.
In
Milestones: Memoirs 1927-1977 (Ignatius) he wrote the following of his birth:
I was born on Holy Saturday, April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn. The fact that my day of birth was the last day of Holy Week and the eve of Easter has always been noted in our family history. This was connected with the fact that I was baptized immediately on the morning of the day I was born with the water that had just been blessed. (At that time the solemn Easter Vigil was celebrated on the morning of Holy Saturday.)
To be the first person baptized with the new water was seen as a significant act of Providence. I have always been filled with thanksgiving for having had my life immersed in this way in the Easter mystery, since this could only be a sign of blessing. To be sure, it was not Easter Sunday but Holy Saturday, but, the more I reflect on it, the more this seems to be fitting for the nature of our human life: we are still awaiting Easter; we are not yet standing in the full light but walking toward it full of trust.
Today's CWR feature, "Pope Benedict's 'First Convert'", is a testimony by Roger Dubin of his conversion to faith in Jesus Christ and the Church that was sparked in somewhat dramatic fashion by viewing, on television, the announcement of Benedict XVI on April 19, 2005. Dubin writes of that transforming moment:
Because as Pope Benedict walked onto the balcony and raised his arms, and the camera appeared to zoom in, an unstoppable power and presence came through his eyes and sliced me open. I burst into tears, and everything I ever thought I was, or wasn’t, poured out.
It was the Sword of Christ, and there would be no peace in me until I offered him mine.
CWR will be marking the anniversary of Benedict XVI's election with a couple of other essays, including a new piece by Tracey Rowland that focuses on Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and the Second Vatican Council.
The following tribute from Avvenire, newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference, was written by a theologian who was the co-editor with Ingrid Stampa of the Italian edition of the JESUS OF NAZARETH volumes.
Benedict XVI's birthday:
The faith and love of
a witness to Christ
Editorial
by Elio Guerriero
Translated from
April 16, 2013
Benedict XVI was born in the first hours of April 16, 1927m which was Holy Saturday. That is why he has said, "I have always been filled with thanksgiving for having had my life immersed in this way in the Easter mystery, since this could only be a sign of blessing..." close to the two privileged witnesses of the Resurrection, John and Mary.
In the Paschal event, we find the disciple Jesus loved under the Cross with the Mother of God. The Lord entrusted Mary to him, who from that moment on, became the model and mother of e very disciple.
Under the Cross, John also became the witness of a singular event of Jesus's passion - his death and the lance thrust that pierced his side, from which blood and water flowed - representing the two fundamental sacraments of the Church = the Eucharist and Baptism.
After the Resurrection, John became the companion of Peter, beside him almost as though to strengthen him with his presence and his love. And he was around when the Lord addressed Peter with his thrice-repeated question, "Do you love me?", which was necessary to cancel out Peter's earlier triple denial of him, but also so that he could face his ministry that Jesus predicted would be a way that would lead to the Cross.
And thus Peter also came to be close to Mary. the humble virgin from Nazareth, daughter of Zion, the woman through whom God's promise to Abraham and Moses was fulfilled. The Ark of the New Covenant open to all the generations who would proclaim her blessed, but also the mother to whom Simeon predicted that a sword would pierce her heart.
It was always in the spirit of Easter that Pope Benedict XVI carried out his Petrine ministry. First of all, he sought to clean up the vineyard of the Lord.
Many still remember the image of John Paul II gripping his pastoral staff with the Crucifix, as he begged forgiveness for all the wrongs that had been committed in the past by men of the Church.
With no less energy, Benedict XVI sought to extirpate from the Church the horrible and humiliating scourge of priestly pedophilia, and to impose transparency on the central and diocesan administration of the Church.
And he developed the dialog with the Jews. Not just with a plea for forgiveness for the dissemination of anti-Semitism by some Christians in the past, but with his acknowledgement of what Christianity owes to the People of God, who had received the promise made by God to Abraham and renewed to Moses, to be fulfilled by Jesus.
To the children of Israel, we owe the Law, perennial light through man's journey. We owe the Psalms, words with which even today the Church continues to celebrate her liturgy.
Then Pope Benedict taught us - especially in the three volumes on JESUS OF NAZARETH, written while he was Pope - to look at the Lord with the eyes of faith made wise by love.
He has since renounced the Petrine ministry, and in a way has come closer to the Apostle John by immersing himself in the life of God, accompanying with prayer the ministry of his successor Francis.
He has entrusted himself to Mary, Star of hope, who shows everyone the way that leads to the eternal meeting with the Father.
On the occasion of the birthday of the Emeritus Pope, we at
Avvenire say that we wish to stay close to him with the gratitude of children, who have accepted his invitation to look and to know with the eyes of faith made more penetrating by love Jesus, Son of God, who sits at the right hand of the Father.
Conspicuously missing however is any message at all from the Italian bishops' conference. I might have hoped that at least CEI president Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco would have offered a personal greeting to Benedict XVI. There is no protocol - because the situation is unprecedented - that says cardinals may no longer publicly express some acknowledgment of the Emeritus Pope. One counts on the individual cardinal's elementary decency to do that.
Apropos, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn finally spoke about Benedict on his birthday, in an interview with the French service of Vatican Radio, so this helps to counteract the apparent perfidy (really, an unforgivable amnesia about Benedict XVI) in his post-Conclave raves about Pope Francis. But I must say that both he and Cardinal Comastri, who spoke to the Italian service of Vatican Radio, might never have volunteered what they said about Benedict if they had not been specifically interviewed about him, not about Pope Francis. One somehow thinks they would be capable of the same 'perfidy' to Francis in the event, God forbid, they elected his successor. And yet, none of the cardinals felt compelled to distance themselves from John Paul II after his death they way they all seemed to slam the door shut on Benedict XVI after he resigned.
My greatest disappointment among the cardinals is Cardinal Ruini, whom I certainly did not expect to come out with the hagiographic words about Pope Francis attributed to him, which were as objectionable as the rest of the cardinals who had spoken out about the new Pope, not because they praised him, which they should, but in making it appear that Francis was the very thing the Church needed to get out of its pitiful condition, implying of course, that the previous Pope had done nothing about it.
I will always be bitter about this attitude because it is so un-Christian, and unthinkable for so-called Princes of the Church. But not unthinkable, obviously, because it appears to be a unanimous attitude, best expressed in that boilerplate telegram sent to Benedict XVI at the start of the pre-Conclave congregations. An attitude that is all the more perplexing after the Conclave, when Pope Francis himself has taken the lead in his thoughtful consideration if not near-deference to his predecessor. A lead no cardinal has so far followed spontaneously. What does it cost a cardinal to at least say publicly, "Happy Birthday, Your Holiness"?
Just by way of a reminder, here is what Cardinal Bagnasco and the Italian bishops wrote Benedict XVI last year on his 85th birthda. Can all their noble sentiments have vanished into thin air just because the man is no longer Pope? What a shame!
Italian bishops' conference (CEI):
Telegram of greeting and support
MOST HOLY FATHER,
In the Paschal light of the Resurrected Lord, the Church in Italy embrace you on the occasion of the happy observance of your 85th birthday and the seventh anniversary of your Pontifical election.
Our best wishes come with our prayers, with which we ask the Lord, who called you to life and who chose you to the episcopal order, to conserve you for the entire Church as the leader and pastor of the people of God.
Sustained by your enlightened Magisterium and your irreproachable witness, we wish to face with renewed conviction our pilgrimage in the footsteps of Christ, welcoming with special disposition and unanimous commitment the year of Faith.
Your decision to honor in this way the 50th anniversary of the opening the Second Vatican Council and the 20th anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church finds us vigilant to intensify our reflection on the faith, on adherence to the Gospel, and on the social responsibility of announcing it with courage and directness.
Holiness, may everyone know the esteem and gratitude with which we are one with you, as we involve your paternal blessing on our ecclesial communities and on the entire Italian people.
For the Italian bishops' conference:
CARDINAL ANGELO BAGNASCO
President
MONS. MARIANO CROCIATA
Secretary
Cardinal Bagnasco wrote a separate tribute for Avvenire, teh newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference.
The Pope's 85 years:
A family celebration
by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco
President, Italian bishops' conference
Translated from
The splendid colonnade in St. Peter's Square expresses the grand embrace that the Catholic Church has for Benedict XVI on his 85th birthday.
That ideal and strong embrace also includes the world that recognizes in him a light for all of mankind: a gentle and clear light which shows us, with the words of Jesus and of universal reason, the true and the good.
It is therefore a family celebration, with gratitude to the Lord who chose him as his Vicar on earth; to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who accepted the will of Christ, knowing that one is close to Jesus only in the obedience of love; to the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, who, with prayer and thought, by word and by governance, leads the People of God.
From the beginning of his supreme ministry, Benedict XVI began his humble and joyous 'reform' of the Church, knowing full well that the urgent problem for the Church today is that of faith.
The joy of faith is the golden thread that inspires and unifies each of his discourses. And this is the most imporatnt response that the world needs in general: not organizational changes, as much as a reform of hearts, because it is hearts that animate and make fruitful all programs and structures.
Holiness - center of Pope Benedict's joyful reform - is not an abstraction nor a retreat from modernity, but on the contrary, it aims at the core of contemporary man's problems.
It means to live the faith with that joyous awareness that changes the life of individuals and generates a new humanity, new relationships, vital organisms. If faith irradiates the way we think and act, then the Lord is rendered present, and societies, cultures and States will benefit. Then, wherever there is a lump of humanity, hope will sprout.
It is along this road of renewal that the Pope is leading the Church, knowing that the world expects somehow to see the Invisible through the joy of redeemed souls. He does this very gently, almost on tiptoes, even knowing that he must serve, as he does, with the tenacity of the helmsman beset by winds that are often contrary.
By virtue of his original 'Yes' to Christ, he does not promote himself nor seek 'success'. A shy man, he hesitates from demonstrating anything personal to the Church or to the world. His only desire is to proclaim Jesus, light of the world. Herein lies his disarming freedom, and therefore, his personal peace.
His Magisterium reminds us of the beauty of faith, a beauty to be rediscovered as fresh and functional, embracing the lively and generous world of young people as well as the witness of Christians marked with misery and persecution, sometimes to a bloody end.
He reminds us that freedom rests on truth. He does not fear to tackle the most sensitive issues, not entering them with violence, and always recognizing the least bit of light. But without failing to make the truth shine forth - the truth about Christ and about man who finds in Christ his own true face.
I think that it is here where Benedict XVI's gift of 'prophecy' lies - in consistently showing the way of truth and of life. In his apostolic travels, he often reminds the faithful that mankind is in danger of losing the 'human' way, by going against himself. The Gospel is God's revelation, the offering of his life, freedom from illusions, true happiness.
His coat of arms reveals something of this man, whom Christ chose unexpectedly as his obedient instrument, and who, with the pilgrim's scallop, shows the way of the universal Church towards God's high pastures.
Thank you, Holy Father. The Church in Italy, along with all her bishops, surrounds you in her embrace, wishing to be the first and the nearest to say to you:
Ad multos annos, Santita!
OK, maybe some cardinals and bishops sent their personal greetings to Benedict XVI, but the Italian bishops have their own multimedia empire, and it seems rather parsimonious to let an editorial from Avvenire say everything for everyone!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 17/04/2013 18:52]