I was privileged to have known him well before his election. His loss is a personal loss.
Apart from his contributions as a priest, prefect and theologian, two of his accomplishments as Pope stand out for me.
Summorum Pontificum – This monumental document sparked the beginning of a liturgical renewal in the Church, as one can tell from how some still fear and still fight it.
Anglicanorum coetibus – earned for Benedict justly to be known as the “Pope of Christian Unity”. In one gesture he did more for Christian unity than pretty much everyone else with all their talk and dialogue.
Shall we see his like again?
Clearly not. For example, it is likely that, soon, the Pontiffs elected will have no life experience from the time before the Second Vatican Council. They will certainly not have personal experience of WWII. It is highly unlikely that they will have close to the intellectual and cultural formation of a Joseph Ratzinger.
Benedict’s passing is the end of an era in many respects.
Pray for him. While I am confident that through his final sufferings and unquestionable reception of the last sacraments and Apostolic Blessing, Joseph Ratzinger now enjoys the Beatific Vision, it is nevertheless good to pray for him and to commit him to God’s mercy, particularly during the traditional days of mourning.
Finally, Benedict XVI’s passing might be a stimulus to consider your own death and judgment, which is inevitable.
May we all have the grace of a death which is “provided” for, that is, with access to the last sacraments and Apostolic Blessing. In the meantime we should be making good examinations of conscience and regular confessions of all mortal sins in both kind and number. Kind and number.
Please, go to confession.
UPDATE
SPIRITUAL TESTAMENT OF BENEDICT XVI
Testo in lingua tedesca
29. August 2006
Mein geistliches Testament
Wenn ich in dieser späten Stunde meines Lebens auf die Jahrzehnte zurückschaue, die ich durchwandert habe, so sehe ich zuallererst, wieviel Grund ich zu danken habe. Ich danke vor allen anderen Gott selber, dem Geber aller guten Gaben, der mir das Leben geschenkt und mich durch vielerlei Wirrnisse hindurchgeführt hat; immer wieder mich aufgehoben hat, wenn ich zu gleiten begann, mir immer wieder neu das Licht seines Angesichts geschenkt hat. In der Rückschau sehe und verstehe ich, daß auch die dunklen und mühsamen Strecken dieses Weges mir zum Heile waren und daß Er mich gerade da gut geführt hat.
Ich danke meinen Eltern, die mir in schwerer Zeit das Leben geschenkt und unter großen Verzichten mir mit ihrer Liebe ein wundervolles Zuhause bereitet haben, das als helles Licht alle meine Tage bis heute durchstrahlt. Der hellsichtige Glaube meines Vaters hat uns Geschwister glauben gelehrt und hat als Wegweisung mitten in all meinen wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen standgehalten; die herzliche Frömmigkeit und die große Güte der Mutter bleiben ein Erbe, für das ich nicht genug danken kann. Meine Schwester hat mir selbstlos und voll gütiger Sorge über Jahrzehnte gedient; mein Bruder hat mir mit der Hellsicht seiner Urteile, mit seiner kraftvollen Entschiedenheit und mit der Heiterkeit des Herzens immer wieder den Weg gebahnt; ohne dieses immer neue Vorausgehen und Mitgehen hätte ich den rechten Weg nicht finden können.
Von Herzen danke ich Gott für die vielen Freunde, Männer und Frauen, die er mir immer wieder zur Seite gestellt hat; für die Mitarbeiter auf allen Stationen meines Weges; für die Lehrer und Schüler, die er mir gegeben hat. Sie alle vertraue ich dankbar seiner Güte an. Und danken möchte ich dem Herrn für die schöne Heimat im bayerischen Voralpenland, in der ich immer wieder den Glanz des Schöpfers selbst durchscheinen sehen durfte. Den Menschen meiner Heimat danke ich dafür, daß ich bei ihnen immer wieder die Schönheit des Glaubens erleben durfte. Ich bete darum, daß unser Land ein Land des Glaubens bleibt und bitte Euch, liebe Landsleute: Laßt euch nicht vom Glauben abbringen. Endlich danke ich Gott für all das Schöne, das ich auf den verschiedenen Stationen meines Weges, besonders aber in Rom und in Italien erfahren durfte, das mir zur zweiten Heimat geworden ist.
Alle, denen ich irgendwie Unrecht getan habe, bitte ich von Herzen um Verzeihung.
Was ich vorhin von meinen Landsleuten gesagt habe, sage ich nun zu allen, die meinem Dienst in der Kirche anvertraut waren: Steht fest im Glauben! Laßt euch nicht verwirren! Oft sieht es aus, als ob die Wissenschaft – auf der einen Seite die Naturwissenschaften, auf der anderen Seite die Geschichtsforschung (besonders die Exegese der Heiligen Schriften) – unwiderlegliche Einsichten vorzuweisen hätten, die dem katholischen Glauben entgegenstünden. Ich habe von weitem die Wandlungen der Naturwissenschaft miterlebt und sehen können, wie scheinbare Gewißheiten gegen den Glauben dahinschmolzen, sich nicht als Wissenschaft, sondern als nur scheinbar der Wissenschaft zugehörige philosophische Interpretationen erwiesen – wie freilich auch der Glaube im Dialog mit den Naturwissenschaften die Grenze der Reichweite seiner Aussagen und so sein Eigentliches besser verstehen lernte. Seit 60 Jahren begleite ich nun den Weg der Theologie, besonders auch der Bibelwissenschaften, und habe mit den wechselnden Generationen unerschütterlich scheinende Thesen zusammenbrechen sehen, die sich als bloße Hypothesen erwiesen: die liberale Generation (Harnack, Jülicher usw.), die existenzialistische Generation (Bultmann usw.), die marxistische Generation. Ich habe gesehen und sehe, wie aus dem Gewirr der Hypothesen wieder neu die Vernunft des Glaubens hervorgetreten ist und hervortritt. Jesus Christus ist wirklich der Weg, die Wahrheit und das Leben – und die Kirche ist in all ihren Mängeln wirklich Sein Leib.
Endlich bitte ich demütig: Betet für mich, damit der Herr mich trotz all meiner Sünden und Unzulänglichkeiten in die ewigen Wohnungen einläßt. Allen, die mir anvertraut sind, gilt Tag um Tag mein von Herzen kommendes Gebet.
Benedictus PP XVI.
[02044-DE.01] [Originalsprache: Deutsch]
Traduzione in lingua italiana
29 agosto 2006
Il mio testamento spirituale
Se in quest’ora tarda della mia vita guardo indietro ai decenni che ho percorso, per prima cosa vedo quante ragioni abbia per ringraziare. Ringrazio prima di ogni altro Dio stesso, il dispensatore di ogni buon dono, che mi ha donato la vita e mi ha guidato attraverso vari momenti di confusione; rialzandomi sempre ogni volta che incominciavo a scivolare e donandomi sempre di nuovo la luce del suo volto. Retrospettivamente vedo e capisco che anche i tratti bui e faticosi di questo cammino sono stati per la mia salvezza e che proprio in essi Egli mi ha guidato bene.
Ringrazio i miei genitori, che mi hanno donato la vita in un tempo difficile e che, a costo di grandi sacrifici, con il loro amore mi hanno preparato una magnifica dimora che, come chiara luce, illumina tutti i miei giorni fino a oggi. La lucida fede di mio padre ha insegnato a noi figli a credere, e come segnavia è stata sempre salda in mezzo a tutte le mie acquisizioni scientifiche; la profonda devozione e la grande bontà di mia madre rappresentano un’eredità per la quale non potrò mai ringraziare abbastanza. Mia sorella mi ha assistito per decenni disinteressatamente e con affettuosa premura; mio fratello, con la lucidità dei suoi giudizi, la sua vigorosa risolutezza e la serenità del cuore, mi ha sempre spianato il cammino; senza questo suo continuo precedermi e accompagnarmi non avrei potuto trovare la via giusta.
Di cuore ringrazio Dio per i tanti amici, uomini e donne, che Egli mi ha sempre posto a fianco; per i collaboratori in tutte le tappe del mio cammino; per i maestri e gli allievi che Egli mi ha dato. Tutti li affido grato alla Sua bontà. E voglio ringraziare il Signore per la mia bella patria nelle Prealpi bavaresi, nella quale sempre ho visto trasparire lo splendore del Creatore stesso. Ringrazio la gente della mia patria perché in loro ho potuto sempre di nuovo sperimentare la bellezza della fede. Prego affinché la nostra terra resti una terra di fede e vi prego, cari compatrioti: non lasciatevi distogliere dalla fede. E finalmente ringrazio Dio per tutto il bello che ho potuto sperimentare in tutte le tappe del mio cammino, specialmente però a Roma e in Italia che è diventata la mia seconda patria.
A tutti quelli a cui abbia in qualche modo fatto torto, chiedo di cuore perdono.
Quello che prima ho detto ai miei compatrioti, lo dico ora a tutti quelli che nella Chiesa sono stati affidati al mio servizio: rimanete saldi nella fede! Non lasciatevi confondere! Spesso sembra che la scienza — le scienze naturali da un lato e la ricerca storica (in particolare l’esegesi della Sacra Scrittura) dall’altro — siano in grado di offrire risultati inconfutabili in contrasto con la fede cattolica. Ho vissuto le trasformazioni delle scienze naturali sin da tempi lontani e ho potuto constatare come, al contrario, siano svanite apparenti certezze contro la fede, dimostrandosi essere non scienza, ma interpretazioni filosofiche solo apparentemente spettanti alla scienza; così come, d’altronde, è nel dialogo con le scienze naturali che anche la fede ha imparato a comprendere meglio il limite della portata delle sue affermazioni, e dunque la sua specificità. Sono ormai sessant’anni che accompagno il cammino della Teologia, in particolare delle Scienze bibliche, e con il susseguirsi delle diverse generazioni ho visto crollare tesi che sembravano incrollabili, dimostrandosi essere semplici ipotesi: la generazione liberale (Harnack, Jülicher ecc.), la generazione esistenzialista (Bultmann ecc.), la generazione marxista. Ho visto e vedo come dal groviglio delle ipotesi sia emersa ed emerga nuovamente la ragionevolezza della fede. Gesù Cristo è veramente la via, la verità e la vita — e la Chiesa, con tutte le sue insufficienze, è veramente il Suo corpo.
Infine, chiedo umilmente: pregate per me, così che il Signore, nonostante tutti i miei peccati e insufficienze, mi accolga nelle dimore eterne. A tutti quelli che mi sono affidati, giorno per giorno va di cuore la mia preghiera.
Benedictus PP XVI
[02044-IT.01] [Testo originale: Tedesco]
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I have prayed for him, and asked for his intercession for my family! Rest in peace Papa Benedict, we love you.
I rushed to Mass this morning and the first Reading, well:
Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now there are become many Antichrists: whereby we know that it is the last hour.
They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us; but that they may be manifest, that they are not all of us.
But you have the unction from the Holy One, and know all things.
I have not written to you as to them that know not the truth, but as to them that know it: and that no lie is of the truth.
Had I been able to hear Mass, the Lesson is:
Dearly beloved: I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming, and his kingdom: Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine.
For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: And will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables.
But be thou vigilant, labour in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry. Be sober.
For I am even now ready to be sacrificed: and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord the just judge will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that love his coming.
Fairly sobering, both.
Réquiem ætérnam dona ei, Dómine: et lux perpétua lúceat ei. Requiescat in pace.
Praying for his soul. God please have mercy on Pope Benedict’s soul and thank you for gracing us with him in our lives. I have to wonder if there is significance to him dying at the very end of the year. Maybe not.
Thank for your posts as always Fr Z!
As I did when St John Paul the Great died, I shall pray for the repose of his soul for the traditional “novendiales”, and then pray to him for his intercession in these dark days for Mother Church. Sad day.
In Germany, St. Sylvester’s Day is a day of celebration as well as of sober reflection on the past year, and the year to come. So it’s okay to see both sides, and it’s always a good day to pray for the dead of the year.
St. Sylvester was the second pope under Constantine’s legalization, but he also had to deal with Donatism and the beginnings of Arianism. He built churches and funded a singing schola.
The Church is always living in crazy times. All we have to do is follow Christ.
God Rest His Soul.
He did something I should do. He went back into his writings and corrected his errors. That takes a Great Man.
The priest this morning at Mass (I am intentionally being vague) said not a word about Benedict XVI, though he is clearly formed in Benedict’s manner towards liturgy. I’m wondering: are the battle lines drawn this strictly?
Dominus Iesus, which he wrote long before being elected Pope, was significant in my entry into the Church in 2001. RIP.
I am interested in learning about the traditional days of mourning. Can someone suggest resources for learning more?
Ugh… Wasn’t what I wanted to wake up to this morning. My fear is that it will be an even greater open-season on trads once Benedict’s body is cold =-(
I suggest that you resort to prayer, fasting and alms giving.
I am saddened beyond belief, and I pray for his soul…and for us. Knowing he is now in the presence of Our Lord brings me comfort. God Bless Benedict XVI.
If the title can truly be applied to anyone, then His Holiness Pope Benedict was truly The Defender of the Faith. I have missed him dearly, and shall always do so.
His spiritual testament is now posted in English – https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2022-12/the-spiritual-testament-of-pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi.html
A great Pope! Hopefully someday a canonized Saint!
I am so heartbroken.
A sad day.
Requiescat in pace.
Thank you, Father. I will do just that. Safe travels!
Challenge accepted.
29. August 2006
My Spiritual Testament
When in this late hour of my life I look back to the decades I have wandered through, the first thing I see is how many reasons I have to be thankful. I give thanks before all else to God Himself, the giver of all good gifts, who has given life to me and has led me through all sorts of confusion, has ever raised me up again when began sliding, and has ever anew presented me the light of His Face. Looking backwards I see and understand that the dark and laborious sections of this way also served my salvation, and that there especially I was led by Him.
I give thanks to my parents who presented me with life in hard times, and with great abnegations made a wonderful home for me with their love, a home that is a light that has never ceased to shine through all my days. The shrewd faith of my father has taught to believe to us siblings and has lasted out as a signpost in the midst of all my scientific* findings; the cordial piety and great kindness of my mother remain a heritage I cannot thank enough for. My sister has selflessly and with kind care served me for decades; my brother has ever again paved the way for me with the shrewdness of his judgments, with his forceful determination and with the mirth of his hearth; without this ever new going-before and coming-along I could not have found the right way.
With all my heart I thank God for the many friends, men and women, whom He has ever again placed at my side; for my coworkers at all the stations of my way; for the teachers and students He has given me. All of them I entrust, with thanks, to His goodness. And I want to give thanks to the Lord for my beautiful homeland, the pre-alpine lands in Bavaria, in which I have ever again been granted to see the splendor of the Creator Himself shine through. I give thanks to the people** of my homeland for the fact that, ever again, I was able to experience the beauty of faith. I pray for our country to remain a country of faith, and I beg you, dear fellow countrymen: Don’t let yourselves be talked out of the faith. Finally, I give thanks to God for all the beautiful things I have been granted to experience at all the different stations of my way, but especially in Rome and Italy, which have become my second homeland.
From all those I have wronged in any way, I beg forgiveness with all my heart.
What I have just said to my fellow countrymen, I now say to all that were entrusted to my service in the Church: Stand fast in the faith! Do not let yourselves be irritated! It often looks as if science* – natural sciences on the one hand, historical research (especially in the exegesis of Sacred Scripture) on the other – could boast of irrefutable insights opposed to the Catholic faith. I have lived, from afar, through the transitions of natural science and have seen supposed certainties melt down against the faith, prove to be not actually science, but philosophical interpretations that only had the appearance of belonging to science – as admittedly, Faith in the dialogue with natural sciences has learned to better understand the border of the outreach of its statements and thus what is properly its own. For 60 years now, I have been accompanying the way of Theology, including biblical studies especially, and as the generations followed after one another I have seen seemingly imperturbable theses collapse, proving to be mere hypotheses: the liberal*** generation (Harnack, Jülicher et al.), the existentialist generation (Bultmann et al.), the marxist generation. From the maze of hypotheses, I have seen and am seeing the rationability of faith emerge. Jesus Christ really is the Way, the Truth and the Life – and the Church, with all her deficiencies, really is His body.
At the end, what I humbly beg is this: Pray for me that the Lord, in spite of all my sins and shortcomings, may let me into the eternal lodgings. Day after day, my prayer is for all those entrusted to me and comes from my heart.
Benedictus PP XVI.
—
* The German sense of the word “science” includes the things grouped as “letters”, history, philosophy and so forth, and the idea that the biology, chemistry and physics (and mathematics which by the way is not actually a natural science at all) are subjects of Science in no deeper (or less deep) manner that e. g. history is, I think, necessary to understand properly what the late Pope means in this spiritual testament.
** “human beings” (or “men” in older English), but that does not sound flowing
*** does not necessarily mean “politically leftist”, nor “economically libertarian” either
(The last sentence was unexpectedly tricky.)
What will the Bishop of Rome rain down on us now?
I heard over the last few days he had been taken ill and I was one of millions who said prayers for him too.
Respectfully speaking, I think he was on to something during his papacy (circa 2007) when he said something about a smaller Church being a stronger Church.
In addition to Summorum Pontificum, the Ordinariate for the Chair of St. Peter came to fruition during the pontificate of Benedict XVI. As a man who nearly became Episcopalian in his 20s I am grateful for the creation of the Ordinariate.
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