Memorial • POPE BENEDICT XVI

A HUMBLE SPIRIT AND A FIRM THEOLOGIAN

The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI shocked the world in 2013. His honesty, faced with what he saw as an insurmountable task, granted him worldwide admiration. Considered as one of the greatest theologians of recent times he has also revealed himself as a mystic through his numerous writings and his search for the God of love and truth

BY DR JOSÉ MARIO BAUTISTA MAXIMIANO* | MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES

ON THE morning of 31 December 2022 at the Mater Ecclesia Monastery, the residence of the Pope emeritus in the Vatican since 2013, Benedict XVI in a soft but distinguishable voice and comprehensible words, said in Italian: Signore ti amo! (Lord, I love you!) and subsequently died.

Church bells rang out across Germany, his country of birth, and other places in mourning for Benedict XVI on the day of his funeral. Tributes from every corner of the globe poured in, while bishops everywhere
offered Requiem Masses for his soul.

His successor Pope Francis, led the funeral service on 6 January 2023 in front of 50 000 people. The German pontiff was then laid to rest in the Vatican crypt, in the same spot where St John Paul II and St John XXIII were previously buried before their canonizations, 100 feet away from the tomb of St Peter the Apostle, the first pope.

Defender of doctrine

Retired Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong believed that the late Benedict XVI will be a “powerful intercessor in heaven” for the suffering Catholics in China. He also remembered him as the Church’s intellectual force and a “great defender of the faith.”

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who in 2005 assumed the Petrine Ministry as Benedict XVI, had lived in Rome since 1981, away from his motherland. As a cardinal, charged with enforcing doctrinal purity, Benedict was appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, the oldest among the sacred congregations of the Roman Curia. This congregation, now the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, was created in 1542 by Pope Paul III.

A January 2022 report on sexual abuse in the diocese of Munich, Germany, blasted Ratzinger’s ‘inaction’ regarding abuse cases during his period as archbishop from 1977 to 1982. In reaction to the report,
the pope emeritus formally apologised in writing but did not admit to any administrative failures.

Benedict punished Marcial Maciel, the powerful founder of the Legionaries of Christ. He publicly criticized Irish bishops for their mishandling of the sexual abuse crisis, but he did not move to open Vatican records to a public investigation.

For many survivors of clerical sexual abuse, the German pontiff’s actions were not enough. The sin imputed upon Benedict XVI appeared to be more of omission than commission and for this, the late pope was often misunderstood, seemingly a brilliant man at odds with the modern world.

However, does being misunderstood and controversial mean that he did not live a heroic life of virtues? Pius XII, although misunderstood, was declared venerable. John Paul I and John Paul II were controversial in death, but they are now considered holy pontiffs. Sanctity does not shield anyone from being misunderstood and controversial, from
betrayal, personal attacks, and gossip.

A man of humble heart

At his 2006 lecture at the Regensburg University, on religion and violence, Pope Benedict XVI quoted a hotly contested 14th-century statement made by Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos in the presence of a Persian scholar. According to the Emperor, prophet Muhammad would have brought a negative contribution to humanity. The Holy Father
remarked that the imperial address was “in an astoundingly harsh way, to us surprisingly brusque way.” The Pope quoted the Emperor’s words to make a point in his speach, but he didn’t approve of his statement.

Suddenly, the whole Islamic world exploded in anger, with high-profile politicians and religious leaders joining the bandwagon of protests against what they saw as an insulting misrepresentation of Islam.

Mass street protests were mounted in several Islamic countries, with the Majlis- e-Shoora or the Pakistani parliament unanimously calling on the Holy Father to retract “this objectionable statement.”

Benedict XVI himself wrote a personal and simple note explaining his position:
“I hope that the reader of my text can see immediately that this sentence does not express my personal view of the Qur’an, for which I have the respect due to the holy book of a great religion.”

The Pope emeritus, genuinely a servant leader, just knew that the Throne of Peter was meant not for supremacy but for service

The gentle Pope, in his humility and love for reconciliation, offered a sincere apology addressed to all Muslim brothers and sisters worldwide. Furthermore, against the better judgment of his advisers, the Holy Father bravely decided to visit Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, to pray in its Blue Mosque in December 2006. Two years later, he organized the First Meeting of the Catholic-Muslim Forum with Muslim scholars and religious leaders in Rome.

Resignations

His death did not come as a surprise, unlike his resignation in 2013, announced as an electric shock for the whole world. On that occasion, Benedict XVI told the assembled cardinals:

“In today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, in order to govern the Barque of St Peter and proclaim the Gospel, both strength of mind
and body are necessary, strength which in the last few months, has deteriorated in me to the extent that I have had to recognise my incapacity to adequately fulfil the ministry entrusted to me. For this reason, and well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of the Bishop of Rome, Successor
of Saint Peter.” With his own words, ‘I renounce,’ His Holiness descended from the Chair of Peter for good!

The last time a pope resigned voluntarily had been in 1294. Only after five months of being the Vicar of Christ, St Celestine V, a former Benedictine monk, resigned from his office with the intention of fleeing
Rome and going back to his hermitage in the hills of Aquila, in central Italy.

Pope Celestine had a mortal man’s desire to be alone with the Immortal God. Unlike dictators, tyrants, and other politicians, a servant leader is forever appalled by earthly power as if it were leprosy. An old manuscript from the Martyrologium Romanum explains, for our edification, Celestine’s desire to resign:

‘The desire for humility, for a purer life, for a stainless conscience, the deficiencies of his physical strength, his ignorance, the perverseness of the people, his longing for the tranquillity of his former life.’

Courageous decision

Popes are supposed to run out the clock and just wait for Father Time to come knocking and die in office. For health reasons, our German pontiff decided in 2013 to abdicate the papacy. The Pope emeritus, genuinely a servant leader, just knew that the Throne of Peter was meant not for supremacy but for service.

Pope Francis called it “an example of greatness,” that is, Benedict’s decision to abdicate the supposedly life-long papacy, a personal example of renouncing power when it’s time to renounce it.

In the morning of 28 February 2013, Pope Benedict met the College of Cardinals; by the afternoon, he had left the Vatican. He flew by helicopter to the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo and stayed there until he transferred to his permanent retirement home, the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican, on 2 May 2013.

His resignation was indeed a forceful message of detachment and simplicity to the world so thirsty for power, money, and prestige. As a retired pope, Benedict XVI ceased to wear the red papal shoes and continued to wear the white cassock but without the tufted fascia or pellegrina—a sash worn above the waist, white in colour in the case of the Pope.

Most of all, Benedict discontinued using his official Fisherman’s Ring. So, there was never a parallel papacy since 2013. In his official farewell address to the College of Cardinals, even before the election of the
next pontiff, Benedict XVI proclaimed: “In your midst is the next pope. I promise him obedience.”

By so declaring, Benedict XVI trusted that the papacy is a divine institution, rooted in apostolic succession and that the Holy Spirit is at work until the end of the world.

A total of 266 popes have governed the Catholic Church, from St Peter the Apostle to Francis, one after another, without breaking the Apostolic Succession. The nightmare scenario of a ‘parallel magisterium’ as predicted by canon lawyers and Vatican observers in 2013 never happened.

A long life

Of the 266 popes in succession, only 12 have reached the age of 85, including Pope Francis. Benedict XVI at 95 is the oldest person in history to have been pope, surpassing Pope Leo XIII, who died at 93.

He was a peaceful and introspective man deeply interested in classical music. His Holiness was an accomplished pianist who played Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart whose “music is by no means just entertainment,”
according to him, for “it contains the whole tragedy of human existence.”

In 2018, Benedict XVI wrote a letter which was published in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, capitalizing the word “Casa” to refer to his heavenly home. “I am on a pilgrimage toward Home,” he penned.

*Dr José Mario Bautista Maximiano is the author of MCMLXXII: 500-Taong Kristiyano (Claretian, 2021), that recently won the Best Book in Ministry at the 16th Cardinal Sin Catholic Book Awards 2022.

MEMORIAL • FR ALBERT NOLAN

A prophet of hope for today’s world

Well-known South African Catholic priest, anti-apartheid activist and internationally renowned theologian and author, Fr Albert Nolan died at the age of 88, at Marian House in Boksburg, Johannesburg on 17 October 2022. Awarded the Order of Luthuli in Silver by the then President Thabo Mbeki in 2003 for his “life-long dedication to the struggle for democracy, human rights and justice and for challenging the religious dogma, especially the theological justification for apartheid”, Nolan inspired a generation of Christian activists and theologians

BY the Worldwide team

ALBERT NOLAN was born to South African parents of Irish descent, on 2 September 1934 in Cape Town. He went to school at St Joseph’s Marist Brothers, in Rondebosch. After school, he worked for some years in a bank. He felt the call for religious life and joined the Dominican Order, motivated by their dedication to study, prayer and proclaiming the Word of God, as well as by their commitment to search for truth. He did his novitiate in 1954, and was ordained in 1961.

Shortly after his ordination, he went to study his licentiate and his Ph.D. in biblical theology in Rome. He lived there during the celebration of the Second Vatican Council. He said it was one of the most formative events of his life. He got acquainted with the new ideas coming forth. When he finished his studies in 1964, he came back to Stellenbosch, South Africa, where he worked in a parish while teaching.

Attending a conference about the New Testament in Stellenbosch, and listening to the speakers, he started feeling more and more uncomfortable; “something was amiss there”. The scholars had a philological approach, analysing each word of the Bible passages, trying to understand its meaning and relationship with other accounts in the Old Testament. Though interesting, Fr Albert had in mind a different way of approaching Scripture, rather than the scholarly way.

Like Thomas Merton, Fr Albert realised that following Christ was not just leaving the world behind, but immersing oneself fully in it, as Jesus did through His incarnation. Scriptures were powerful because they were the Word of God, alive and active. The Word of God was there to touch people’s hearts, to change them and to bring them to conversion so that they could transform the reality in which they lived. Scripture was not only for academics, but ordinary people should also be able to read the Bible and understand its significance in their lives. That made his preaching, his theology, so vibrant—it freed people to follow Christ and to be truly themselves.

As chaplain to the Catholic students at Stellenbosch University, Fr Albert passed on this great enthusiasm for Scripture. He touched students’ lives, making them aware that faith was not something for Sunday, but to be carried out in one’s daily life. Scripture wasn’t something one reads and says, ‘Oh, what lovely words; how inspiring,’ but it was there to recognise one’s dignity and authenticity as a human being, and to go out to recognise this in others.

Contrary to the ‘official ideology’ of apartheid, that whites were the special loved ones of God, and black people were second class at best, Fr Albert believed that every person, created in God’s image and likeness, was a child of God, whose dignity needed to be respected, to be upheld, and whose rights needed to be fought for. In humility, he would say: “It is not me saying this”. He never pointed to himself, but always to Jesus.

“Now is the time, the Kairos; our opportunity to change and live in a new way. Let us not delay or we might lose the chance”

In 1981, Fr Albert was reminding the Catholic students of WITS University, white South Africans, that we could not buy into the ideology of apartheid; we had to stand against it, even to the point of giving up our lives. He used to be very uncompromising in his preaching.

For him, the Gospel was not just about consolation and comfort, but also about challenge. His theological approach motivated us all—white, black, rich and poor. His first book, That man Jesus, a rewriting of the lectures to the student’s conference in 1973, was reformulated into Jesus before Christianity. The book starts with a warning: if we carry on in the direction we are travelling, we are heading for catastrophe.

Fr Albert, who participated actively in writing the Kairos document, often preached: “Now is the time, the Kairos; our opportunity to change and live in a new way. Let us not delay or we might lose the chance.”

Throughout his life, he sought to bring theology down from academic heights, closer to students, to workers, to all, especially black people, nourishing their lives. For him, theology was not just to be read, or prayed about, but to be lived. He met South American theologians, particularly Gustavo Gutiérrez, then a diocesan priest, and author of A theology of liberation who inspired him to follow his methodology of See-Judge-Act; to look at the reality (see), evaluate it and understand it in the context of the Bible (judge) and, most importantly, not to leave it at an academic level, but to act, and make a difference in the world.

See-Judge-Act became the means to follow Christ’s prophetic way. It’s not enough to write statements against injustices or to say what is wrong or right. Something needs to be done by getting involved in the reality in which we live, becoming like That man Jesus, who was concerned for the suffering of others. It implies bringing change into people’s lives which enables them to have their humanity recognised. Ideologies such as apartheid dehumanised not only the oppressed but the oppressor. Fr Albert tried to free all people from it, and to help them to live as Christ did, in a more compassionate, loving, forgiving way, and to work for social justice. He believed that Jesus didn’t die on the Cross for opposing doctrines of Judaism, but because He stood up for those who were in greatest need.

Fr Albert’s theology showed concern for the suffering of humanity. As Christians, we cannot stand aloof, but we have to do something to alleviate that suffering. His second book, God in South Africa, was an exercise of contextual theology. As a member of the Institute for Contextual Theology (ICT) in Johannesburg, he tried to develop a theology—based on See-Judge-Act—which speaks to the concrete reality of suffering and seeks to become a prophetic witness to a life-giving and transforming word. In a context where things look catastrophic, it shows that God speaks a Word of transformation to His people.

He always pointed to hope in any situation, because of his deep trust and faith in That man Jesus, and in God’s work

Fr Albert wanted to make all aware that God was active and at work in the South African context, bringing transformation. In harsh situations, we can easily lose direction, give up hope, or be in despair. His speech, after receiving the honorary title of Master of Sacred Theology in 2008, entitled Hope in an age of despair, characterised his person; he never despaired. He always pointed to hope in any situation, because of his deep trust and faith in That man Jesus, and in God’s work. He believed that God was in every situation, so there was no need to fear. Faced with catastrophe or danger, when we do something, God blesses our efforts and increases the results. God enables reality to be transformed into His handiwork, into His life-giving project for humanity, for the salvation of the world. Fr Albert had this unshakable hope in life.

Fr Albert showed what needed to be done so that one wouldn’t lose hope, giving people another opportunity and understanding the situation from another perspective. In our world today, Fr Albert’s way of living for Christ, pointing to That man Jesus, is as necessary as it was when he wrote his book. After 1994 with the decline of the rainbow nation idea, and many people on the bandwagon to get rich quickly, and to hollow out the institutions of our society, he wrote another book, Jesus today. In it, he says, “yes, we needed to change the structures of society—and that was the emphasis in the past—though perhaps not exclusively; but now, we need also a personal conversion to look at the values of the Kingdom, rather than the corrupt and selfish values of the world”.

He called us to move from the false self to a more life-giving self, the true self, as Thomas Merton called it, which can help us bring about the change that is needed, so that we can avert selfishness, corruption, and ecological devastation. When Fr Albert was asked to write his memoirs, he said: “if people want to know who I was, what I believed and what I stood for, they can read my books”. Hopefully, his words will encourage us to do so, read his books, and follow That man Jesus.