Benedict XVI: Memories and Reflections

Abu Dhabi.

The news of the conclusion of Benedict XVI's earthly journey arouses deep emotion and respect. The personal encounters I had with him and the immense spiritual legacy that this man of God leaves to the Church, theological research, and the world immediately come to mind.

The first personal contact I had was epistolary. As soon as my doctoral thesis on von Balthasar's thought was published, at the suggestion of my moderator, Msgr. Rino Fisichella, I sent a copy to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. I didn't expect an answer. It was enough for me to have had the honour of sending him a copy. Soon I received a letter from him, all handwritten in his unmistakable handwriting, in which he thanked me for the gift and went into detail about the research carried out. That letter gave me the strong impression that he had taken me seriously, despite being unknown to him. Subsequently, having been a consultant to the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops from 2005 to 2014, I had the opportunity to meet him several times during the various synodal assemblies he presided over and during the meetings that the Council of the Synod periodically had with him. Every time I've had a personal encounter, I have always brought back the same strong impression of a person who was attentive, kind, and interested in knowing who he was dealing with. In fact, it was enough to meet him once to understand how alien to him those caricatures were constructed over the years by the media on his person in a (vain) attempt to discredit him.

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                                       Bishop Paolo Martinelli with Late Pope Benedict XVI

The question of his legacy is sure to grow over time. Indeed, the gesture of resignation will remain in the history of the Church and humanity as an act of profound humility and awareness of the change of era in which we are immersed. But it is certainly not the only legacy. There are many levels to approach the work of Ratzinger – Benedict XVI. Above all, reading his homilies delivered by the supreme pontiff, one gets the impression of being faced with a father of the Church. One feels the preciousness of a mature thought of faith capable of grasping the mystery celebrated in its profound implications for the present time. I don't think it is rash to imagine that some of his homilies in the future could be among the breviary readings, as we find today in the pages of Saint Augustine or Saint Thomas. Many of his texts, simple and profound, are certainly destined to remain over the centuries.

His study itinerary is immense and articulated. His systematic works constitute milestones of theological thought. In addition to the research on Saint Augustine (House and people of God in Augustine), his habilitation thesis is worth mentioning, dedicated to the thought of Saint Bonaventure of Bagnoregio, now fully accessible in the Opera Omnia: The idea of ​​revelation and theology of the story of Bonaventure. It is a volume that, studying the Franciscan doctor, addresses one of the critical themes of modernity: the relationship of Christian revelation with history. This study will bring him closer to the Franciscan theological tradition that will accompany him throughout his life. Many occasions will lead Ratzinger - Benedict XVI to go several times to Assisi in the footsteps of Francis and Clare, even privately. Some of his writings on the two Saints of Assisi are a true jewel of spirituality.

Another unforgettable volume is Introduction to Christianity, which reports the lessons given at the end of the turbulent 1960s. Beyond the individual themes, the text maintains its relevance for the method used, which shows Christianity's ability to interact with the changes in history without betraying its own nature. The theme of the essence of Christianity will find further expressions in the following years, such as, for example, in the encyclical Deus Caritas est, where it is recalled that "at the beginning of being a Christian, there is not an ethical decision or a great idea, but the encounter with an event, with a Person, which gives life a new horizon and with it a decisive direction” (n. 1). Along the same lines we find the text Jesus of Nazareth, a passionate and rigorous attempt to give us back the face of the "real Christ", from which the faith of the Christian people lives. Even the texts on the liturgy, the documents on the Eucharist (Sacramentum caritatis), and the Word of God (Verbum Domini) are ultimately urgent invitations to look at Jesus Christ, not as a figure of the past but as our contemporary who never stops speaking even today to his Church and the world. The principle of the continuous reform of the Church lies in the active presence of Christ through the action of the Spirit. Hence his attention to the charisms present in the Church in their intrinsic relationship to the apostolic mission.

Furthermore, the set of his texts concerning the interpretation of the Second Vatican Council, in which he participated as a young expert, remains an open chapter: both those written in the aftermath of the closing of the Council and the interventions as supreme pontiff regarding the interpretation of the Council itself. The difference highlighted between the hermeneutic of rupture/contraposition or reform in continuity remains a key question for anyone who wants to come to terms with the "real" Council.

Following the teaching of Vatican II, Benedict XVI supported interreligious dialogue, focusing above all on the promotion of peace and the search for truth. In the footsteps of his predecessor, the different religions are invited to confront each other first, to unmask any attempt to justify violence in the name of God, unequivocally recognizing, starting with the Christians, the mistakes made in the past. Furthermore, denouncing the inhumanity of a world without God, as tragically manifested in the conflicts of the 20th century, he invites religions to show the humanizing nature of the search for God, the source of true peace. In this research, Benedict XVI also includes in an original way those who, while not believing in God, are authentic "pilgrims of truth and peace". This approach emerged above all in Assisi in October 2011, on the 25th anniversary of the first interreligious meeting promoted by Saint John Paul II, where some representatives of the secular world were invited, in addition to the religious leaders.

Finally, I would like to mention the theme of witness as a critical question for the future of Christianity. A theme that unites him in many aspects with his successor, Pope Francis. His speech on Europe, delivered shortly before being elected as supreme pontiff, is very famous: “What we need above all at this moment in history are men who, through an enlightened and lived faith, make God credible in this world. The negative testimony of Christians who spoke of God and lived against Him has darkened the image of God and opened the doors of unbelief. …Only through men touched by God can God return to men”. Christianity does not spread by "proselytism" but by "attraction," says Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium, quoting Benedict XVI. It is the attraction of testimony!

Benedict XVI was undoubtedly a credible witness of faith. In what he did, said, and lived, as a theologian, as a pastor, as supreme pontiff, up to his last years as pope emeritus, dedicated to prayer and study, they show the stature of a man of the Church to the world and to history totally dedicated to his mission, for which we will always be grateful: a simple and humble worker in the Lord's vineyard.

+ Bishop Paolo Martinelli ofm cap.
Apostolic Vicar of Southern Arabia