Elected to the papacy in to succeed St. He was succeeded by Pope Francis. We'll notify you here with news about. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about our origin and destiny: faith, hope, and love. It is only because of our hardness of heart that we think this is too little. I know how often I allow my hardness of heart to cause me to think that it is too little.
And during such times, I crack open the book and turn to that passage. We human beings, and especially we Americans, have become accustomed to self-reliance, and we do not find it easy to believe that faith the size of a mustard seed can change the whole world.
Any person who can write such beautiful words, whatever difficulties he has endured in his life of faith, is a person whose life is rooted deeply, very deeply, in the mystery of the Incarnation and the proclamation of the empty tomb.
That deep faith is a sine qua non for leadership in the church but it also is not enough. Yes, his encyclicals were profound and beautiful. Yes, his sermons were exquisite. But any leader of an organization is only as good as his judgment of others' gifts and his ability to appoint the right people to the right tasks. In this, Benedict XVI's pontificate was a disaster plagued by scandals.
There was Benedict's Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's apartment, the funding of which led to an investigation and indictment of two officials for redirecting funds from a children's hospital. One was found guilty and the other exonerated. The former is a clericalist of the highest order and the latter an ideologue of the highest order.
What could go wrong? If you want to find the source of the mediocrity of the U. Yet, worse was to come. A man of Benedict's learning should have been able to discern the damage the ancient Roman method of promoveatur ut amoveatur — promote to remove, or, as we would say, kicking someone upstairs — had inflicted on the church through the centuries.
We know now precisely how nasty and reactionary this man is, but surely those traits were in evidence before that disastrous appointment was made. In , in a speech to the participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family , Benedict XVI reflected on the place of grandparents in society and warned that an individualistic mindset is injuring the elderly.
They were witnesses of a personal and community history that continued to live on in their memories and in their wisdom. At Catholic News Agency, our team is committed to reporting the truth with courage, integrity, and fidelity to our faith. We provide news about the Church and the world, as seen through the teachings of the Catholic Church. We won't rent or sell your information, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Your monthly donation will help our team continue reporting the truth, with fairness, integrity, and fidelity to Jesus Christ and his Church.
But he could not avoid the realities of the day. Ratzinger was briefly a member of the Hitler Youth in his early teens after membership became mandatory in In , Ratzinger and fellow seminarians were drafted into the anti-aircraft corps. He has said his unit was attacked by Allied forces that year, but he did not take part in that battle because a finger infection had kept him from learning to shoot. After about a year in the anti-aircraft unit, Ratzinger was drafted into the regular military.
Ratzinger was sent home and then called up again before deserting in late April He was captured by American soldiers and held as a prisoner of war for several months. Ratzinger returned to the seminary at the University of Munich in the fall of and was ordained a priest in Two years later, he earned his doctorate at the University of Munich.
He earned his teaching licentiate in and became a professor of Freising College in , teaching dogma and fundamental theology. Ratzinger became a professor at the University of Bonn in He was viewed as a reformer during this time. In , Ratzinger helped found the theological journal Communio , which became one of the most important journals of Catholic thought. In , he became vice dean of the College of Cardinals and was elected dean in Ratzinger defended and reaffirmed Catholic doctrine, including teaching on topics such as birth control, homosexuality and inter-religious dialogue.
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