To the editor:
In the wake of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s death, the clergy, religious and lay faithful of the Diocese of Des Moines are filled with both sadness and gratitude to God for the faithful ministry and witness offered by His Holiness to the Universal Church.
He was a humble and selfless shepherd who showed us the heart and mind of Jesus long before he became the Roman pontiff, as well as in the nearly eight years of his active papacy and in the remaining years as pope emeritus where he lived a “hidden life” of prayer and intercession for his successor, Pope Francis, for the Church and the world.
Pope Benedict XVI is a man whose life spanned so much of the drama of the 20th and early 21st centuries: he endured the oppression of Nazi Germany, the ominous climate of the Cold War and the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall and the spiritual springtime of the Second Vatican Council, in which he served as a wise counsel to the Council fathers.
As university professor, pastor of souls and bishop who eventually became dean of the College of Cardinals, he preferred to serve the Church behind the scenes rather than shine the spotlight on himself. Even so, he became a pivotal voice, ensuring that the continuity of theological tradition and its fresh engagement with society and culture would remain prophetic, evangelically potent and accessible to a broader audience.
In an era when any claims to convey truth are met by relativist suspicions and a marketplace of opinions, Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclicals unfolded the theological virtues of love, hope and faith — the latter issued by Pope Francis, who attributed most of its authorship to his predecessor — and are lucid testimonies to the harmonious synthesis of natural reason with divine faith.
As Benedict XVI so famously stated in his general audience of Oct. 24, 2012, less than four months before he stepped away from the papacy: “Faith is not a mere intellectual assent of the human person to specific truths about God. It is an act with which I entrust myself freely to a God who is Father and who loves me. It is adherence to a ‘You’ who gives me hope and trust.”
Faith draws us into loving relationship with the person of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior of humanity.
From the time he first appeared as pope on the Clementine balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica to his pilgrimages to World Youth Days, his numerous pastoral visits around the world, including the U.S., his many audiences with people from all walks of life and public appearances with global political and religious leaders, the luminous smile and shy, self-effacing leadership style of the now late pontiff provided warm reassurance that God is true to his promise to guide his Church through the ministry of the apostle Peter and his successors.
His overall body of magisterial teaching, including his audience reflections on the early Church fathers — several of whom were named doctors of the church — prompted some of us to regard him as eventually worthy of inclusion among this august cohort.
Benedict XVI’s “tinkling fingers” when he waved revealed a man who remained an accomplished pianist who loved music and himself grieved when in his infirmity he could no longer sit at a keyboard and play.
Together, we at the Diocese of Des Moines pray fervently and with great confidence that this tireless servant of the servants of God will join his predecessor, Saint Pope John Paul II, in the house of the heavenly Father, where he can bask in the music of the holy company who ceaselessly play and sing God’s praises.
Bishop William M. Joensen
Des Moines
