By Federico Lombardi After his doctorate on St. Augustine, defended in 1953, came the goal of obtaining the license to teach. Here he experienced a difficult and almost dramatic passage in his life, due to the open clash between two influential professors of the Munich Faculty – Gottlieb Söhngen, his teacher, and Michael Schmaus – over [...]
By Federico Lombardi Pope Benedict XVI at an audience in St. Peter's Square in September 2006 (Photo Grzegorz Galazka) Thus we come to the penultimate, but in ecclesial terms, most important, stage of Ratzinger’s long career, also unexpected like the previous two. Even so, upon the death of John Paul II, there were several [...]
The Second Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops that was convened by Pope John Paul II on January 25, 1985, to evaluate the progress of implementing the Vatican II Council’s goals on the 20th anniversary of its closure, expressed the desire that “a catechism or compendium of all Catholic doctrine regarding both faith and [...]
The Ratzinger Report, published in English in 1985, is a book-length interview with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger conducted by Italian journalist Vittorio Messori. Cardinal Ratzinger says that bishops are “authentic teachers” of the Christian doctrine who enjoy “ordinary, autonomous and immediate authority in the dioceses entrusted to them” of which they are the “principle and foundation of [...]
Music was a source of deep theological reflection for the Pope By Maestro Aurelio Porfiri The death of Benedict XVI has led many to reflect on the legacy of Joseph Ratzinger, a legacy which in my opinion is much more complex than what we are led to believe. Certainly in the decades to come many studies [...]
By Federico Lombardi The sudden death of Cardinal Julius Döpfner, Archbishop of Munich and undisputed leader of German Catholicism, would disrupt Ratzinger’s life just at the time of his having reached full academic and cultural maturity, at the age of 50. Paul VI asked him to take on the difficult task of succeeding Döpfner. It is [...]
We Will Not See Benedict's Like Anytime Soon By John Byron Kuhner Dec. 18, 2010 - Vatican. Pope Benedict XVI reads a book during his visit to the Vatican Library. The library was reopened the previous September after being closed three years for major renovations (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters) An unusual thing happened [...]
Quiet and humble, yet fearless, Benedict bore with steadfast faith the slings and arrows hurled at him By Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap. May 25, 2005 - Rome. Holy Mass for Corpus Christi, celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI, with the beginning of the Procession in San Giovanni in Laterano and Benediction in Santa Maria Maggiore [...]
By Robert Moynihan Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away on December 31, 2022, at the age of 95, at the Mater Ecclesiae convent in the Vatican, where he spent the last years of his long life in retreat and prayer. I was privileged to be a friend of this holy and humble man, whose intellectual patrimony [...]
By Matthew Trojacek “Dialogue and Reconciliation are Not Optional for Us”: An Interview With Ecumencial Patriarch Bartholomew The Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, spiritual leader of an estimated 250 million Orthodox Christians worldwide Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I is the spiritual leader of an estimated 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide. He was chosen in 1991 to lead [...]
