Having known the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, for some years, I am not surprised that this thoughtful, gentle, and energetically holy man has already elaborated several themes that will, I believe, animate his papacy. After so much excitement recently, it’s worth taking time to catch our breath and recall these themes.
In his homily at the funeral Mass of John Paul II, then–Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger emphasized the call to discipleship that led his predecessor through a stunning range of circumstances. He recalled Christ’s words to Peter: “Follow me”—words that resounded across the decades of John Paul Il’s life and pulled him “to the very ends of the Earth.” He repeated this simple refrain throughout the homily, making clear that this most basic and powerful call to discipleship is his and ours as well.
Cardinal Ratzinger also reflected on John Paul Il’s role as the Church’s shepherd, recalling our Lord’s command to Peter: “Feed my sheep.” As the shepherd of the universal Church, Pope Benedict XVI now takes up this charge.
At the Mass to open the cardinals’ conclave, Cardinal Ratzinger delineated the fundamental crisis of our time: “We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists of one’s own ego and desires.” And he made clear the only means to resolve this crisis is “the Son of God, the true Man. He is the measure of true humanism.” With an eye on his home continent, where this fundamental crisis is perhaps most advanced, he chose the name Benedict: evangelizer, civilizer, and patron saint of Europe. His choice also recalls the work of Pope Benedict XV to call what was once known as Christendom back to friendship with Christ during and after the civilizational catastrophe of World War I. Returning to his theme of discipleship, Benedict XVI charged us, “We must be enlivened by a holy restlessness: a restlessness to bring everyone the gift of faith, of friendship with Christ.”
Reaching out to everyone is closely tied to Benedict XVI’s central theme: the role of the pope as universal shepherd. Just after his election, he pointed out that “God… wishes to establish a great family of all peoples.” But he went much further, stating his “primary commitment [as] that of working tirelessly towards the reconstitution of the full and visible unity of all Christ’s followers.” This is his “compelling duty,” demanding not merely rhetorical flourishes but “concrete gestures… to penetrate souls and move consciences.” The pope “feels himself to be personally implicated in this question and is disposed to do all in his power to promote the fundamental cause of ecumenism.” His call extends “even to those who follow other religions or who are simply seeking an answer to the fundamental questions of life and have not yet found it.” Those looking for at least one area where Benedict XVI will throw the full weight of his new office need look no further.
How do we respond to these themes? By looking to the original St. Benedict and taking up a monastic life? For some, that calling is the right one. But for most of us, the calls to discipleship, to a friendship with Christ, and to extending ecumenism guide us toward our families, our jobs, and our world around us. St. Josemaria Escriva asked us to “come to the aid of the Church in the field where the battles are being fought today: in the street, in the factory, in the workshop, in the university, in the office, in your own surroundings, amongst your family and friends.” Elsewhere, Escriva writes: “With a sense of profound humility—strong in the name of God, and, as the psalmist says, not ‘in numbers of our chariots and of our horses’—we have to make sure… that there are no corners of society where Christ is not known.”