Six years ago today a quiet, gentlemanly scholar was elected to fill the enormous shoes of his predecessor as the 265th successor of Saint Peter, Vicar of Christ and "servant of the servants of God."
The hate-filled characterizations of this humble and holy man have melted away as the world has come to know this brilliant and gentle teacher. His accomplishments in only six years have been extraordinary: ending forty years of liturgical turmoil with clear teaching about the hermeneutic of continuity and his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum; his clarity about the dictatorship of moral relativism which he has called the "central problem of our faith today;" the extraordinarily close and collaborative relationship he has cultivated with the Orthodox, the ongoing and historic reconciliation with disaffected Anglicans, and through them mainstream Protestantism; his stream of powerful, clear and evangelical teachings through homilies, encyclicals and best-selling books about Jesus Christ and the meaning of our lives; his curial reforms; the quality of his appointments to the Episcopacy; and the personal example and insistence on a Church cleansed of corruption and scandal that is ever more holy and worthy of its founder, make this unassuming man a giant historic figure and a powerful, universal shepherd.
We pray that God will grant His Church many more years under the wise and loving service of Pope Benedict XVI. Habemus Papam!
No comments:
Post a Comment