The Essential Pope Benedict XVI: His Central Writings and Speeches

by Pope Benedict XVI, John F. Thornton (Editor), Susan B. Varenne (Editor), D. Vincent Twomey (Introduction)

Overview

On April 24, 2005, Cardinal Joseph Alois Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, the twenty-first-century successor of the Apostle Peter and the spiritual leader of more than one billion Roman Catholics. Who is this complex man whose office grants him sole charge of the world's largest religion? How will his tenure influence the future? The Essential Pope Benedict XVI answers these questions through carefully chosen selections from his homilies, interviews, theological essays, and articles on the crises facing the church today. This collection lays out Benedict's thinking and relates it to a variety of contemporary issues, including modern culture's abandonment of traditional religious values, social mores regarding conception and the sanctity of life, current challenges to the priesthood, and the Catholic Church's tenuous relations with other world religions.

First a brilliant peritus, or "expert advisor," to the Second Vatican Council and then archbishop of Munich, Joseph Ratzinger was appointed head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope John Paul II in 1981. As Cardinal Ratzinger, the ex officio defender of church doctrine, he gained a reputation as a heroic guardian of the faith for conservatives and was held in suspicion by church liberals.

We cannot yet know what issues and events will define the reign of Pope Benedict XVI, but by any measure he will be seen as one of the most important theological voices of our time. This one volume is the best source for understanding the heart, soul, and agenda of this twenty-first-century successor to St. Peter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780061128844
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/29/2008
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	512
Sales rank:	714,973
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

A former publishing executive, John F. Thornton is a literary agent and co-editor of Tongues of Angels, Tongues of Men: A Book of Sermons. He lives in New York City.

Susan B. Varenne holds an M.A. from the University of Chicago Divinity School and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. She is a New York City teacher and a freelance writer specializing in religion.

Read an Excerpt

The Essential Pope Benedict XVI
His Central Writings and Speeches

Chapter Two

Homily at John Paul II's Funeral Mass

April 8, 2005

"Follow me." The Risen Lord says these words to Peter. They are his last words to this disciple, chosen to shepherd his flock. "Follow me"—this lapidary saying of Christ can be taken as the key to understanding the message that comes to us from the life of our late beloved Pope John Paul II. Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality; our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude.

These are the sentiments that inspire us, brothers and sisters in Christ, present here in St. Peter's Square, in neighboring streets and in various other locations within the city of Rome, where an immense crowd, silently praying, has gathered over the last few days. I greet all of you from my heart. In the name of the College of Cardinals, I also wish to express my respects to the heads of state, the heads of government, and the delegations from various countries.

I greet the authorities and official representatives of other churches and Christian communities, and likewise those of different religions. Next I greet the archbishops, bishops, priests, religious men and women, and the faithful who have come here from every continent, especially the young, whom John Paul II liked to call the future and the hope of the church. My greeting is extended, moreover, to all those throughout the world who are united with us through radio and television in this solemn celebration of our beloved Holy Father's funeral.

Follow me. As ayoung student Karol Wojtyla was thrilled by literature, the theater, and poetry. Working in a chemical plant, surrounded and threatened by the Nazi terror, he heard the voice of the Lord: "Follow me!" In this extraordinary setting he began to read books of philosophy and theology, and then entered the clandestine seminary established by Cardinal Sapieha. After the war he was able to complete his studies in the faculty of theology of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow.

How often, in his letters to priests and in his autobiographical books, has he spoken to us about his priesthood, to which he was ordained on November 1, 1946. In these texts he interprets his priesthood with particular reference to three sayings of the Lord.

First: "It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain" (Jn 15:16). The second saying is: "A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (Jn 10:11). And then: "As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love" (Jn 15:9). In these three sayings we see the heart and soul of our Holy Father. He really went everywhere, untiringly, in order to bear fruit, fruit that lasts.

Rise, Let Us Be on Our Way! is the title of his next-to-last book. "Rise, let us be on our way!"—with these words he roused us from a lethargic faith, from the sleep of the disciples of both yesterday and today. "Rise, let us be on our way!" he continues to say to us even today. The Holy Father was a priest to the last, for he offered his life to God for his flock and for the entire human family, in a daily self-oblation for the service of the church, especially amid the sufferings of his final months. And in this way he became one with Christ, the Good Shepherd who loves his sheep.

Finally, "abide in my love": the pope who tried to meet everyone, who had an ability to forgive and to open his heart to all, tells us once again today, with these words of the Lord, that by abiding in the love of Christ we learn, at the school of Christ, the art of true love. Follow me! In July 1958, the young priest Karol Wojtyla began a new stage in his journey with the Lord and in the footsteps of the Lord. Karol had gone to the Masuri lakes for his usual vacation, along with a group of young people who loved canoeing. But he brought with him a letter inviting him to call on the primate of Poland, Cardinal Wyszynski. He could guess the purpose of the meeting: he was to be appointed the auxiliary bishop of Krakow.

Leaving the academic world, leaving this challenging engagement with young people, leaving the great intellectual endeavor of striving to understand and interpret the mystery of that creature which is man and of communicating to today's world the Christian interpretation of our being—all this must have seemed to him like losing his very self, losing what had become the very human identity of this young priest. Follow me—Karol Wojtyla accepted the appointment, for he heard in the church's call the voice of Christ. And then he realized how true are the Lord's words: "Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it" (Lk 17:33).

Our pope—and we all know this—never wanted to make his own life secure, to keep it for himself; he wanted to give of himself unreservedly, to the very last moment, for Christ and thus also for us. And thus he came to experience how everything that he had given over into the Lord's hands came back to him in a new way. His love of words, of poetry, of literature became an essential part of his pastoral mission and gave new vitality, new urgency, new attractiveness to the preaching of the gospel, even when it is a sign of contradiction.

Follow me! In October 1978, Cardinal Wojtyla once again heard the voice of the Lord. Once more there took place that dialogue with Peter reported in the Gospel of this Mass: "Simon, son of John, do you love me? Feed my sheep!" To the Lord's question, "Karol, do you love me?" the archbishop of Krakow answered from the depths of his heart: "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." The love of Christ was the dominant force in the life of our beloved Holy Father. Anyone who ever saw him pray, who ever heard him preach, knows that. Because he was profoundly rooted in Christ, he was able to bear a burden that transcends merely human abilities: that of being the shepherd of Christ's flock, his universal church.

The Essential Pope Benedict XVI
His Central Writings and Speeches. Copyright © by John Thornton. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Table of Contents

Preface     xiii
Introduction   D. Vincent Twomey, SVD     xvii
Chronology of the Life of Pope Benedict XVI     xxxix
Introduction to Christianity     1
Sermons and Addresses
Homily at John Paul II's Funeral Mass     17
Homily at the Mass for the Election of the Roman Pontiff     21
First Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI at the End of the Eucharistic Concelebration with the Cardinal Electors in the Sistine Chapel     25
Homily of His Holiness Benedict XVI at the Mass of Inauguration of His Pontificate     31
Message on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Pontificate of Pope John Paul II from the College of Cardinals     37
Address of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to Pope John Paul II at a Concert Offered by the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk Orchestra on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of His Pontificate     41
The Assisi Day of Prayer     43
The Feeling of Things, the Contemplation of Beauty     47
Guardini on Christ in Our Century     53
Christ the Liberator     57
The Church
At the Root of the Crisis     63
Eucharist, Communion, and Solidarity     69
The Ecclesiology of the Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium     85
The Local Church and the Universal Church     103
TheCanon of Criticism     111
The Basis of Christian Brotherhood: Faith     133
The Liturgy
Theology of the Liturgy     141
On the Theological Basis of Prayer and Liturgy     155
The Regensburg Tradition and the Reform of the Liturgy     167
Music and Liturgy     185
Sacred Places     193
The Beginning of the Council and the Transfer to Munster     201
Theology
On the Meaning of Faith     211
Liberation Theology     217
Relativism: The Central Problem for Faith Today     227
Scripture
Biblical Interpretation in Crisis     243
Sin and Salvation     259
Meditation on the Priesthood     269
The Place of Mariology in the Bible     283
The Priesthood
The Nature of the Priesthood     293
The Ministry and Life of Priests     305
The Sacrament of Reconciliation     319
Christian Morality
Europe's Crisis of Culture     325
Truth and Freedom     337
The Church's Teaching     355
Culture and Truth: Some Reflections on the Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio     367
Crises of Law     377
The Problem of Threats to Human Life      381
God Is Love
Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love)     395
Notes     427
Bibliography     447
Index     451
Acknowledgments     461