Rediscovering the centre” “

The College of Cardinals, which represents the one universal Church, has elected as pope Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and very close travelling companion of John Paul II. We give thanks to God for this choice and rejoice in the new Pope together with all Catholics and also with ecumenism throughout the world. Who is Benedict XVI for me? – Certainly he is not a person who can be reduced to a stereotype: conservative, reactionary, misogynist or any of the other labels we have heard being applied to him. Especially in Germany people have armed themselves with these prejudices with alarming rapidity. What is striking, on the other hand, is that such prejudices are in clear contrast with the perception of the universal Church. The scale and the profundity of his theology, far more a theology of submission and prayer than one of argumentation, defies any hasty definition. Conservative? Undoubtedly: a conservative who comes from afar: Augustine, theology of the Fathers, the imposing mountain peaks of scholasticism, the new theological insights of our time: this is the long journey of theology, these are the arduous attempts to repeat the secret of God, this is the heavy baggage, sometimes also the emergency rations, that Benedict XVI has chosen to carry with him. Someone who comes from so far away is not a huge friend of the spirit of the time, or of the iron laws of economics, or of moral relativism. The good news of Jesus Christ does not make deals with anyone: sometimes it must be irreconcilable with the being rooted in too humdrum a daily life, There exists a ‘Catholic stubbornness’ to a modernity that is too cock-sure of itself. But this stubbornness exists out of the love of man, and the love of his theological dignity rooted in veneration of God. This is what the professor of theology Benedict XVI has always recommended to us. And undoubtedly – this is my experience of decades of familiarity with him – there was always something to be learned from him, even when one felt obliged to oppose his theses. Above all he has always ‘translated’ the Council. He himself was a theologian of the Council, adviser of Cardinal Frings, and the youngest German professor of theology of world fame. But once it had ended, the Council had still to find its form; it still had to acquire its profile in response to the disparate needs and challenges of the local Churches. It had a need for fathers and mothers in the various communities. This variety was and is challenging, and especially cannot exist without conflicts. And it is just in such cases that Pope Benedict has always tried to spell out the substance of the Council, the decisive diversity that opens up to us new scope for our pastoral ministry. “Wiederauffinden der Mitte” (“Rediscovering the Centre”) is the title of one of his books that marks in an ever-new way this incredible concentration on the substance. It is not by chance that, in planning its reorganization on the basis of the “Eckpunkte 2020”, the diocese of Hildesheim has always sought guidance from his theology and his “fundamental search” for the essential. I am absolutely sure that the Pope – like his predecessor! – will reinforce anew the joy of the faith in a Church that often seems tired and lacklustre, especially in Europe. The Council recommended us not to deprive the poor and the oppressed of this joy. This is my wish to Pope Benedict: that today, with him, we may safeguard our faith in the great social challenges of our time, and that we may express our Credo as the one universal Church in the face of the poor.