benedict xvi" "
“I wished to call myself Benedict XVI to link myself ideally with the venerated Pope Benedict XV, who led the Church in a traumatic period due to the First World War. He was a courageous and genuine prophet of peace… The name Benedict also calls to mind the “Patriarch of Western monasticism”, St. Benedict of Norcia, co-patron of Europe together with Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saints Catherine and Edith Stein. The progressive expansion of the Benedictine Order he founded exerted an enormous influence on the spread of Christianity throughout the Continent. St. Benedict, much venerated in Germany and in particular in Bavaria, my homeland, represents a fundamental point of reference for the unity of Europe and a strong reminder of the inalienable Christian roots of its culture and civilization”. That is how ‘papa Ratzinger’, explained the reasons for his choice of the name Benedict during the general audience of 27 April. In this regard we present a reflection by Father Notker Wolf , abbot primate of the Benedictine Order. On hearing the name of the new Pope Benedict XVI, I was immediately reminded of his sermon opening the Conclave. The former Cardinal Ratzinger had forcefully placed his finger on a series of modern ideologies of the Western world, on the many ‘isms’ and especially on the dictatorship of relativism. The European world is losing its Christian values just when it would most have a need for them for its political and economic unification: it is a continent that is wavering, but that ought instead, in the process of globalization, to transmit the Christian values to the whole world, not out of a kind of proselytism, but for the salvation of humanity. When the West was in a similar situation in the period of the collapse of the Roman Empire and the chaos of the migrations of the European peoples, it was St. Benedict of Norcia who, with his Rule and his monks, initiated the development of a new culture and stability based on the Greco-Roman tradition transformed by the Christian faith. So the figure of St. Benedict, chosen by Paul VI as “principal patron of the whole of Europe”, now embodies the will of the Church to act as a ferment in European societies to give them a soul. The name of the new Pope is a response to his initial sermon. A native of Bavaria, “Benedictine land” par excellence due to its many monasteries which with their schools have contributed to forming the Bavarian mentality, the Pope knows very well the value of this saint. In his youth he had even thought of becoming Benedictine himself. In past years he has regularly made a personal retreat in the Benedictine abbey of Scheyern, founded by the ducal house of Wittelsbach in 1077. It is the hope of Benedict XVI that under the patronage of this saint, “Benedictus blessed by grace and by name”, as Gregory the Great said, Europe will grow to a human, Christian and peaceful unity. It should also be recalled that St. Benedict founded his monasteries before the great schisms of the Churches in Europe. St. Benedict is thus celebrated also in the Orthodox Churches. There are Anglican and Lutheran communities that follow the Rule of St. Benedict. The Saint of Norcia can thus be an essential point of reference for ecumenism and dialogue between the Churches. The Holy Father’s visit on 25 April to the basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mura, where our Benedictine Abbey ‘serves’ and welcomes the pilgrims to the tomb of St. Paul, “the apostle of the gentiles” for 1300 years, was another aspect of Pope Benedict XVI’s Benedictine roots and the first occasion to meet those who follow in the footsteps of his new patron saint.
