ABOUT THE PAPACY AND POPE BENEDICT XVI

april 12, 2008

Pope Benedict XVI is coming to the U.S.! I wrote about his upcoming April 15-20 visit in last week’s column. Now I want to recall a few things about the papacy, and say something about our present pope, Benedict XVI.

What is the pope’s office and mission?

Two thousand years ago Peter declared to Jesus, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” and Jesus said in response, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:16-19).

In this Scripture passage we find the essential key to understanding the authority of the office of the papacy. The pope (a word from ancient Greek, meaning “father”) is Christ’s vicar on earth, that is, he is Christ’s direct representative. Just as Peter and the other Apostles were chosen personally by Christ, the same has held true throughout time. One must receive the call and be chosen. The office of the papacy, like that of bishops and priests, is not an office one takes upon himself. The pope is a bishop, the Bishop of Rome. His elevation to the papacy makes him the “first among equals”, and the center of the church’s unity in the truth and charity of Christ throughout the world. Notice that Jesus says he will build his church on Peter as its “rock”, or, we could say, its “unshakable foundation”. The authority of the pope does not derive from the church, rather it derives from Christ himself and the authority of the church rests on and proceeds from the authority of the pope! This is why the church cannot be the church without the pope. The church could never undertake a reform which would make the office of the pope obsolete or unnecessary. Not to be in communion with the pope is in some way not to be in full communion with Christ’s church.

After Jesus’ resurrection, he commissioned Peter, “Feed my lambs... Feed my sheep” (John 21:15-16). In this passage we find the essential key to understanding the purpose of the papacy. It is an office of service. As the church has traditionally explained it, there is a threefold dimension to the church’s ordained ministry. The pope, in communion with all the bishops and the priests who share in their ministry, participates fully in the threefold office of Jesus Christ: priest, prophet, and king, or shepherd. To be priest is to offer sacrifice; to be prophet is to proclaim the good news of salvation through Christ; to be king, or shepherd, is to to give pastoral care to Christ’s flock and exercise authority over it, in a spirit of service. Each shepherd must act in such a way as to make himself the servant of all of God’s people.

St. Peter was the first pope, and our present pope, Benedict XVI, is his 264th successor. He was born Joseph Alois Ratzinger on Holy Saturday, April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn in Bavaria, the third and youngest child of Joseph Sr., a police officer. His mother was from Rimsting, Austria, near Italy. His brother Georg is also a priest and both he and his brother are musically accomplished. His sister Maria never married, and died in 1991.

Joseph showed interest in the priesthood from a very young age. At age 14, he was forced to enlist in Hitler’s Youth Corps, but he never went to any of the meetings. Then, although he had entered the seminary, he was conscripted into the army at age 16 as an anti-aircraft gunner. He escaped the army and eventually was able to reenter the seminary. He was ordained on June 29, 1951. He soon earned a doctoral degree in theology and undertook to teach and write. He was a peritus (expert) at the Second Vatican Council, where many first became aware of his theological brilliance. He was a principal author of several of the Council’s documents.

In 1977 he was named Archbishop of Munich and Freising, and four years later Pope John Paul II appointed him Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and elevated him to the rank of cardinal. He was elected pope on April 19, 2005, the ninth pope of German ancestry and the first since Adrian VI (1522-1523). He will celebrate his birthday and the third anniversary of his election while he is here in the U.S.!

He said he had chosen the name Benedict “in order to create a spiritual bond with Benedict XV, who steered the Church through the period of turmoil caused by the First World War. He was a courageous and authentic prophet of peace... Treading in his footsteps, I would like to place my ministry at the service of reconciliation and harmony between persons and peoples...”

Joseph Ratzinger is fluent in German, Italian, French, English, Spanish, and Latin. He can read ancient Greek and biblical Hebrew. He wrote over 36 books before becoming pope, and continues to write. He helped found the internationally acclaimed theological journal, Communio.

Recurring themes of his preaching and teaching have included the following: concern over the erosion of Christian faith and culture, especially in Europe, leading to a loss of respect for and protection of human life and dignity; rank materialism, consumerism, and secularism, which wound the soul; a “dictatorship of relativism”, especially in morals, according to which no truth claims are tolerated; the need for charity in all human affairs, and the positive basis we have in Christ for living lives filled with hope; the constant call of God to be reconciled to him, and Christ’s gracious invitation to all to develop friendship with him.

Using quiet diplomacy, he has made tremendous ecumenical strides in defusing tensions between the Catholic Church and separated Christians in the East, and in paving the way toward future reunification. He has also established a solid framework for the difficult but necessary task of engaging the practitioners of other world religions in dialog, and of Muslims in particular, by emphasizing the central importance of human reason when taking up disputations over matters of the truth of God’s revelation.

Pope Benedict XVI is a great gift to the church from Christ. Let us together pray for a fruitful visit of Benedict to our shores, and ask God’s blessing upon him.

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 05-Jun-2008 9:48 sitemap