Question 3.55

3.55 How do you interpret all the difficulties that Benedict XVI had to face?

During the long years when he remained at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joseph Ratzinger always intended to defend the truth revealed by God, as it was preserved and transmitted by tradition and the Magisterium. Hence, some in the media sought relentlessly to categorize him as an inflexible, oldfashioned, intolerant conservative.

I remember that on the very day of his election, some voices spoke up expressing their disapproval of the election of Cardinal Ratzinger. They forgot how swiftly the college of cardinal electors had lined up in support of John Paul II’s right-hand man. . . The election of a pope is always an act of faith.

Often, in thinking about Benedict XVI, I hear these words from Saint Paul to Timothy: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7). I think that this successor of Peter had reached the end of many battles, of all that he could give to the Church and to the faithful in the spiritual, human, theological, or intellectual order. Basically, this pontificate was like a magnificent book open toward heaven, a marvelous intellect turned toward God alone. Joseph Ratzinger has always had the humility of the sons of Saint Benedict, which is summed up in their motto, Ora et labora. Quarere deum, to search for God, is the true synthesis of the pontificate of Benedict XVI.

Maybe some people-inside and outside the Church-never accepted the fundamental insights of Benedict XVI, the battle against the spirit of relativism, the denunciation of the possible dictatorial currents of secularism, the fight against anthropological reversals, a deeper appreciation of the liturgy. Benedict XVI suffered when the wolves were unleashed, in Regensburg, during the Williamson affair, all through the so-called “Vatileaks” crisis. Nevertheless, as early as 2005, he was lucidly aware of the situation. During the Mass of his inauguration, did he not ask: “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves”? In particular, he was wounded when his thought was twisted and distorted by the newspapers, to the point where it became the exact opposite of his own argument. Maybe that gentle, humble man never wanted to defend himself. But did Christ defend himself even once against his detractors and against the wolves that surrounded him in the Garden of Olives?

How could anyone imagine that the text that he read aloud during the Way of the Cross in the Coliseum, in March 2005, would leave people indifferent? Benedict XVI never feared the truth. And in return, there was no end to the violence of the worldly attacks.

If we are seeking the truth, Benedict XVI is an exceptional guide. If we prefer lies, silence, and omissions, Benedict XVI becomes an unacceptable problem. …