I greet with great joy and thanksgiving to God the announcement that Cardinal Josef Ratzinger has been elected pope and has taken the name Benedict XVI.
He is a world class theologian and was a peritus or expert at the Second Vatican Council so he will continue the reform and renewal of that historic event.
I know well this humble and good priest. At every "ad limina" visit that every bishop makes every five years, I have had a personal visit with him. Only last May, a few days after my visit with Pope John Paul II, he was kind enough to spend 45 minutes with me. I had a very joyful and positive meeting with him.
During this visit, we spoke about this diocese and he said to me, "A great work has been done there for the church." I told him, "That is the intercession of Our Lady." He said, "You have been the instrument." I thanked him.
He is a humble, very personal man, easy to meet and very gracious. He should rightly be considered as one of the great theologians of this century.
He tried twice in recent years to retire from his work as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. John Paul II said, "I need you to stay on."
During my visit with John Paul II, I had said that his prediction about a "new springtime for Christianity" was beginning to come through and was coming through. How true. How true. It was for the young people. As I believe Cardinal Ratzinger said to me once again as if to be sure I had said it. "Bishop, did you tell the Holy Father that the 'new springtime' was coming?" This made me think that he felt it important to encourage John Paul II in his long illness.
I told the cardinal during this visit how I had used his material on the priesthood in various retreats which I had given. I referred especially to his book, "Introduction to Christianity," and to two articles that he had written on the priesthood that I had used over the years.
Of all the cardinals who were talked about as possibilities of being elected, this is the man who knows this diocese best of all from my frequent conversations with him. He is also the one of all those cardinals whom I knew best of all.
At the conclusion of our visit, I shared with him some material given to me by Sister Jane Carew on catechesis. Sister Jane had been to Rome during the Year of the Great Jubilee of 2000. Cardinal Ratzinger gave her talk to catechists. Sister Jane is a catechist and director of our office of catechesis. The cardinal had given a talk asking that there be a school of prayer for catechists. Sister Jane, after listening to his talk, has initiated it in our diocese, and I shared with him all the material she had given me. He laid it out on the table and looked at it joyfully and with thanks. He was very touched.
A great theologian then, a pastor, a humble priest, a man of keen intellect, a man who strongly opposes relativism and will strengthen the good work done by his predecessor. I am especially pleased that I know him and that he has such a strong knowledge of this diocese.
