Fondly remembering Pope Benedict XVI: Long before he became pope, Cardinal Ratzinger was an intellectual lodestar to lots of kids

American Thinker ^ | 12/31/2022 | Monica Showalter

[SeekAndFind]

Pope Emeritus Benedict XIV, who died today at the age of 95, is remembered in the press for ... well, resigning, being the first German pope in centuries, and overseeing the rectification of some of the worst Church sexual abuse scandals, which doesn't say much about him.

For those who look a little closer, he is known for for opening up for Catholics the traditional style of the Latin Catholic mass, known as the Tridentine mass, which has brought in many converts. And of course, he was known for opposing the radical leftist ideas such as liberation theology running rampant through the Church. When Catholics have had a bellyful of Pope Francis and his nonsensical leftwingery on economics, global warming, capitalism, and other topics he knows nothing about, veering way out of his lane, we could often hear from parishioners who murmured that Pope Benedict was "our real pope."

For me, though, Pope Benedict's passing is sad, because he was a lovely man, and an intellectual giant.

I went to school at the Jesuit University of San Francisco during my undergraduate years in the 1980s. Following a guy I liked and always wanting to be around him as such things go, I enrolled in the St. Ignatius Institute, where he was enrolled, a traditional Jesuit Catholic education program, which at the time, was run by the brilliant Father Joseph Fessio, S.J.

Father Fessio had been a Ph.D. student under then-Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, and Ratzinger's picture was prominently placed on the walls of all the offices. We loved that name 'Ratzinger,' it was so sharp and vivid.

[SeekAndFind]

The Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci once said that she did, too. Ratzinger was our spiritual leader, a prominent German bishop who (as I followed such things in an unsophisticated way) was best-friends with Pope John Paul II, before he eventually became Pope Benedict XIV.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Hopefully Frank will join the real Pope very soon.

[nickcarraway]

Wonder if you can call someone in intellectual who couldn’t understand St Thomas Aquinas.

[dominic flandry]

Showalter misses the mark by a mile on Pope Bergolio.

[nickcarraway]

Too bad he couldn't have read King Lear. He could learned something that would have saved him from making the biggest mistake of his life.

[nickcarraway]

You are likely right, they are going to the same place.

[irishjuggler]

Indeed.

“[Bergoglio] is up against the rat’s nest, too, and the far-left German bishops are a particularly repellent problem, he is doing the best he can with what he is up against.”

Ms. Showalter’s handle on the Pope Francis situation is about as good as Buck Showalter’s handle on the 2018 Baltimore Orioles.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Hopefully Frank will join the real Pope very soon.

BE careful what you wish for. The same people who chose him might choose someone worse.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Showalter misses the mark by a mile on Pope Bergolio.

Can you please elaborate?

[Salvation]

If anyoned could Pope Benedict XVI could.

[Salvation]

If anyone could Pope Benedict XVI could.