Pope Benedict XVI forever remembering

BY JENNIFER SCHACK

The last words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI – “Lord, I love you” – are a wonderful culmination of his life of faith. They are fitting words for someone who wrote extensively on love, including the theological meaning of God’s divine love, and God’s love expressed through prayer and worship, and lived out in the Church. His intimacy with Jesus was apparent in both his human interactions and his articulated words in books, encyclical letters, Apostolic Exhortations and homilies.

Upon the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, on Dec. 31, 2022, there was an outpouring of prayers and affection from around the world. In the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr offered personal reflections on the late Pope, saying in part, “During my years as general secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in the early 1990s, I would frequently travel to Rome, and oftentimes I would see then-Cardinal Ratzinger making his daily treks across St. Peter’s Square from his apartment to his office. He would mingle with the people in the square while garbed in a simple black cassock. There was no indication that he was a cardinal. Often, he was asked by groups to serve as its photographer. This he did willingly and with a generous smile. As far as the group members were concerned, they had just been assisted by one of the local priests–and Cardinal Ratzinger seemed content

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1962-1965

April 16 - Born Joseph Ratzinger in Marktl am Inn, Bavaria, Germany, and baptized the same day

Enters minor seminary in Traunstein

Studies philosophy and theology at the Higher School of Philosophy and Theology of Freising and the Herzogliches Georgianum, a theological institute associated with the University of Munich.

By law, is required to enter the “Hitler Youth” at age 14 and then gets drafted into the German army at age 16. Deserts the army in 1945 with his brother Georg to rejoin the seminary.

Ordained a priest for Diocese of Munich

Earns doctorate in theology from University of Munich

Qualifies for university teaching and writes his dissertation on The Theology of History in St. Bonaventure.

Participates in Second Vatican Council as a theological adviser

Named archbishop of Munich and Freising

Named to the College of Cardinals

Named head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Serves as president of the Preparatory Commission for the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Elevated by Pope John Paul II to the Order of Bishops within the College of Cardinals, assigning to him the suburbicarian (titulary) see of Velletri-Segni.

Pope John Paul II approves of the election of Cardinal Ratzinger as the Vice Dean of the College of Cardinals

Pope John Paul II approves of the election of Cardinal Ratzinger as the Dean of the College of Cardinals and gives him the title of Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia

Elected pope, chooses the name Pope Benedict XVI

Apostolic Visit to the United States

Resigns from the papacy, the first such resignation in almost six hundred years

December 31 - date of death. Pope Benedict passed away in his residence at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican Gardens