Letter #13, 2025, Wednesday, January 29: Top Ten 2024 #2    

    We chose theologian Tracey Rowland to be one of our “Top Ten” people of 2024 because in her words we continue to hear the voice of Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger, whose thought she has studied in depth. —RM

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With the aid, and in the hope, of Christ, believers can
overcome any difficulties… 

Here are the testimonies of 10 of His people 

Top Ten 2024

    It was a difficult year. Around the world there were wars and rumors of wars; brutally contentious elections; assassinations and assassination attempts; deadly storms, earthquakes and mudslides. Conflicts within the Church — excommunications, criminal trials, continuing abuse allegations and the tug-of-war between modernism and tradition — were sometimes just as painful.

    Yet the Church is — in a way the world is not — consecrated and filled with grace by her divine Spouse, the Lord Jesus, who ever and always “makes all things new.”

    The grace and peace of Christ is available to all Christians of good will, and in 2024, as in every year, it was the antidote to the sickness of our modern age, and the leavening of our lives otherwise weighed down by the consequences of sin.

    Jesus did indeed, in 2024, somehow renew us and bring us joy and strength, and one way He accomplished this was through the lives and testimonies of His people. We have chosen 10 of them for your reflection here.

    Tracey Rowland

    “We already know how the battle will end”

    Australian theologian Tracey Rowland delivered the commencement address to the 2024 graduating class at Christendom College, the orthodox Catholic liberal arts college in Virginia founded in 1977.

    Mrs. Rowland’s address was neither the irrationally optimistic “You can do anything if you believe in yourself” type commonly heard at secular institutions, nor the doom-and-gloom “You are going out into a foul world of evil and treachery” kind that sometimes greets graduating seniors at conservative Catholic schools.

    It was, instead, a talk full of realism. She began by admitting that “you have been born into a cosmic battle from which there is no escape,” but went on to assure the graduates that “As Christians we already know how the battle will end. St. Augustine described the Cross as a mousetrap set for the devil…The devil thought he had defeated Christ with the crucifixion, but paradoxically the crucifixion was Christ’s defeat of the devil.”

    It’s something for us all to dwell on: despite the truly awful things happening all around us, the seeming collapse of Christendom itself and the “civilization of love” that is its aim, ours is the victory.

    Tracey Rowland’s invitation to speak at Christendom College was just one of a long line of honors accorded the highly accomplished professor and author since she first earned her Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, where she studied on an academic scholarship, in 2001. That same year she became the inaugural Dean of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family in Melbourne, Australia, a position she held until 2017.

    During this period she also continued her theological studies at the Pontifical Lateran University, where she obtained her Licentiate in Sacred Theology and a Doctorate in Sacred Theology. In 2010 she also graduated from the University of London with a degree in Education.

    In 2014 she was appointed as a member of Pope Francis’ International Theological Commission. In 2016 she delivered the prestigious Cardinal Winning Memorial Lecture at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. In 2017 Rowland was appointed as the St. John Paul II Research Professor of the University of Notre Dame Australia.

    But Dr. Rowland’s principal area of renown is her scholarship in the thought of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI.

    In 2020 Pope Francis announced that Rowland had won the prestigious Ratzinger Prize for Theology, making her the first Australian and only the third woman to ever receive this award.

    As Dr. Rowland described her own reaction to the award, “I was surprised but not totally shocked because I have published quite a lot about the theology of Joseph Ratzinger…” including Ratzinger’s Faith: The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI (2008) and Benedict XVI: A Guide for the Perplexed (2010).

    Explaining the importance of Joseph Ratzinger, she says “Ratzinger really understands Western culture,” and as well, “He actually believes the Catholic faith.”

    “Both the Church and western culture are in a state of crisis. To get out of any crisis someone needs to do a pathology report on the cause(s) of the problems and to recommend solutions.

    “The crises are primarily of an intellectual nature and they have secondary effects in the world of culture, spirituality and human relationships.

    “He is also important because he was a Peritus at the Second Vatican Council… he has first-hand knowledge of what happened and why.”

    Though Dr. Rowland was born Anglican, she chose to become Catholic during her primary school years, under the tutelage of Mercy Sisters in Ipswich, Australia.

    During secondary schooling at the Range Convent, Rockhampton, Dr. Rowland was hand-picked by the sisters to excel academically.

    “Their desire to get the best out of us took root in theology, stemming from the passage, ‘From one to whom much has been given, much is expected’,” Dr. Rowland said.

    One sister in particular expected great things from the then-teenager, both academically and spiritually.

    “She told my grandmother that if I ever lost my faith, she would come back from the dead and haunt me,” Dr. Rowland said.

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