“When you were a cardinal you wrote one day that in no case could the pope obey his mission if he claimed to precede Christ and determine himself what the mission should be according to his own logic”, write the Swiss bishops in their message of good wishes to Benedict XVI on his 80th birthday. “What you, as a cardinal, had hoped for – added the Swiss bishops – you are now practising as the Successor of Peter. And in the way you do so we recognise in you a true representative of Christ”. In the message, signed by the Right Rev. Kurt Koch, President of the Swiss Bishops’ Conference, the bishops thank the Pontiff for the work he has performed “as theologian, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and as Successor of Peter” and also “for the particular attention you have devoted to the Swiss Church”. Good wishes to Benedict XVI have also been expressed by the bishops of Belgium, in a message signed by their President, Cardinal Godfried Danneels.
