From the desk of the pastor for July 12, 2026

The Lord be with you! We have come to Pope John Paul II’s friend and successor: Pope Benedict XVI. His pontificate marked my time in the seminary and early priesthood and for that I am very grateful. When Joseph Ratzinger stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in April 2005 as Pope Benedict XVI, I was still an undergraduate student at Notre Dame. I can still remember the bells of the basilica ringing out and realizing, “We have a pope!” Cheers went up among the students when his face came on tv. Many of us were excited that one so close to John Paul II would be our spiritual father.

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger he had spent nearly a quarter century as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that post he earned a reputation as a brilliant but reserved scholar. What emerged was a pontificate defined less by dramatic gestures than by patient teaching, and by a genuine desire to help the Church understand herself rightly.

Benedict is perhaps best remembered for insisting that the Second Vatican Council be read through what he called a "hermeneutic of continuity" rather than a "hermeneutic of rupture." He worried that many had come to see the Council as a break with everything that came before it, as though the Church had started over in 1965. Benedict argued instead that Vatican II should be understood as a development within the Church's living Tradition, not a departure from it. This idea became one of the defining themes of his papacy and continues to shape how Catholics read the Council's documents today.

His three encyclicals, on love, hope, and charity, were written in an accessible style that invited ordinary readers into serious theological reflection. Deus Caritas Est opened with a meditation on the nature of love itself, both human and divine, before turning to the Church's charitable mission. Spe Salvi explored Christian hope in a world often tempted toward despair. Caritas in Veritate applied Catholic social teaching to a global economy still reeling from financial crisis.

Benedict also worked to address the sexual abuse crisis more directly than his predecessor had, meeting with victims and tightening Church procedures, even as many felt more remained to be done. He traveled widely, visited synagogues and mosques, and continued the ecumenical work of building bridges with other Christians.

Perhaps most striking was his final act as pope. In February 2013, citing his diminishing strength of mind and body, Benedict became the first pope in six hundred years to resign the papacy rather than serve until death. It was a humble and historic decision, one that reshaped expectations about the papacy itself. He spent his remaining years in quiet prayer at the Vatican, taking the title Pope Emeritus, until his death in December 2022.

Benedict's legacy is that of a teacher who trusted that clear thinking and patient faith could still speak to a confused age. Pope Benedict, like his predecessor, wanted the Church to embrace her heritage while facing the future with hope and courage. What lasts is of God; what falls away is of man.

In His Sacred Heart,

Fr. John