In the light of Christ risen from the dead, on December 31 of the year of the Lord 2022, at 9:34 a.m., as the year drew to a close and we were about to sing the Te Deum for the many blessings bestowed by the Lord , the beloved Pastor Emeritus of the Church, Benedict XVI, passed from this world to the Father. The whole Church, in prayer with the Holy Father, our Pope Francis, accompanied his passage.
Benedict XVI was the 265th pope. His memory remains in the heart of the Church and of all humanity.
Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, elected pope on April 19, 2005, was born in Marktl am Inn, in the diocese of Passau (Germany), on April 16, 1927. His father, commissioner of the gendarmerie, came from a family of farmers in Lower Bavaria, of rather modest condition. His mother was the daughter of craftsmen from Rimsting on Lake Chiemsee, and had been a cook in various hotels before her marriage.
He spent his childhood and adolescence in Traunstein, a small town near the Austrian border, about thirty kilometers from Salzburg, where he received a Christian, human and cultural education.
The time of his youth was not easy. The faith and education of his family prepared him to face the problems associated with the Nazi regime, marked by a climate of strong hostility towards the Catholic Church in Germany. It was in this complex situation that he discovered the beauty and truth of faith in Christ.
From 1946 to 1951 he studied at the College of Philosophy and Theology in Freising and at the University of Munich. On June 29, 1951, he was ordained a priest and the following year began his teaching activity at the same school in Freising. Subsequently, he was a lecturer in Bonn, Münster, Tübingen and Regensburg.
In 1962, he became an official expert of the Second Vatican Council, as an assistant to Cardinal Joseph Frings. On March 25, 1977, Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of Munich and Freising and he was ordained bishop on May 28 of the same year. He chooses as episcopal motto CooperatoresVeritatis.
During the Consistory of June 27, 1977, Pope Paul VI created him a cardinal, giving him the title of Santa Maria Consolatrice al Tiburtino.
On November 25, 1981, John Paul II appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and on February 15 of the following year he resigned his pastoral office as Archbishop of Munich and Freising.
On November 6, 1998, he was appointed vice-dean of the College of Cardinals and on November 30, 2002, he became dean, with the title of the suburbicarian Church of Ostia.
On Friday, April 8, 2005, he presided at the funeral mass of John Paul II in Saint Peter’s Square.
On April 19, 2005, he was elected pope by the cardinals gathered in conclave and took the name of Benedict XVI. From the Loggia of Blessings, he presented himself as a “humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord”. On Sunday April 24, 2005, he solemnly began his Petrine ministry.
Benedict XVI placed the theme of God and faith at the center of his pontificate, in a continuous search for the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and in helping everyone to know him, in particular through the publication of the three-volume work Jesus of Nazareth. Endowed with vast and profound biblical and theological knowledge, he had the extraordinary capacity to elaborate illuminating syntheses on the main doctrinal and spiritual themes, as well as on the crucial questions of the life of the Church and of contemporary culture.
He successfully promoted dialogue with Anglicans, Jews and representatives of other religions; he also resumed exchanges with the priests of the Saint Pius X community.
Le matin du 11 février 2013, au cours d’un Consistoire convoqué pour les décisions ordinaires concernant trois canonisations, après le vote des cardinalaux, le Pape a lu en latin la déclaration suivante: I am well aware of this office according to its spiritual essence not only by acting and should be exercised by speaking, but no less by suffering and praying. However, in the world of our time, subject to rapid changes and disturbed by questions of great importance for the life of faith, in order to steer the ship of Saint Peter and to announce the Gospel, a certain strength of body and soul is also necessary, which in the last months has diminished in me in such a way that my incapacity for the service entrusted to me I must admit that it was well managed. Therefore, well aware of the weight of this act, I declare with full freedom that I, in the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, the Successor of Saint Peter, entrusted to me by the hands of the Cardinals on April 19, 2005, resign so that from February 28, 2013, at 8 p.m., the See of Rome, the See of Saint Peter, and the Conclave to be elected the new Supreme Pontiff must be convened by those to whom it is appropriate (1).
During the last general audience of his pontificate, on February 27, 2013, while thanking everyone for the respect and understanding with which his decision had been received, he assured: “I will continue to accompany the journey of the Church by prayer and reflection, in devotion to the Lord and to his Spouse, as I have constantly sought to do until now and as I always wish” (2).
After a short stay in the residence of Castel Gandolfo, he lived the last years of his life in the Vatican, in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, devoting himself to prayer and meditation.
The doctrinal magisterium of Benedict XVI is summarized in the three encyclicals Deus caritas est (December 25, 2005), Spe salvi (November 30, 2007) and Caritas in veritate (June 29, 2009). He offered the Church four apostolic exhortations, numerous apostolic constitutions, apostolic letters, as well as the catecheses dispensed during his general audiences, without forgetting his speeches, notably those delivered during his twenty-four apostolic journeys through the world.
Faced with growing relativism and atheism, in 2010 he created, through the motu proprioUbicumque and semper, the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, to which he transferred competence in matters of catechesis in January 2013.
He firmly fought crimes committed by clergy against minors or vulnerable people, constantly calling the Church to conversion, prayer, penance and purification.
A theologian of recognized authority, he left a rich heritage of studies and research on the fundamental truths of the faith.
CORPUS
BENEDICT 16 PM
He lived A. XCV M. 8 D. XV
PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH A. VII M. X D. IX
A D. XIX M. APR. A. MMV AD D. XXVIII M. FEB. A. MMXIII
He died on December 31, 2012
Live always in Christ, Holy Fathere !
[Ici repose]
The body of Benedict XVI, pope emeritus
He lived 95 years, 8 months and 15 days.
He was the head of the universal Church
For 7 years, 10 months and 9 days,
From April 19, 2005 to February 28, 2013.
He died on December 31 of the year 2022
Live forever in Christ, Holy Father.
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