As of last night, we passed our first year without the late Pope Emeritus Benedict.
He had a short reign by modern standards, but he was among the most accomplished theologians ever elected to the papal throne – which is saying a lot.
And like the best teachers of the faith, he summed up his pontificate in his three last words.
The last words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI as he lay on his deathbed were “Lord, I love you!” according to the late pope’s longtime personal secretary Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Vatican News reported.
At about 3 a.m. on Dec. 31, a few hours before he died, Benedict was alone with a nurse who did not speak German, Vatican News reported. At that time Gänswein and others who were taking turns staying with the pope emeritus had left the room for a moment.
Gänswein recounted that Benedict XVI “in a soft but clearly distinguishable voice said in Italian, ‘Lord, I love you!’”
A simple sentence, but rich with meaning.
Considering the departed’s office, especially.
Not long before his death, B16 gave this statement:
Not long before Our Lord’s ascension, he and Peter, whose heir Benedict was, had this dialogue:
He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep.
Pope Benedict’s thoughts had turned to Christ’s office as judge of his life recently. And with good reason.
It’s easy to see how a fitting particular judgment for Peter’s successor would involve Our Lord asking the same question of him that He asked of Peter.
And it’s fitting that Benedict’s last word on this Earth is the defining act and Being of the Word who made the Earth.
“Signore, ti amo.”
To say that Pope Benedict lived in interesting times would be a monumental understatement.
He saw the last remnants of the old Western social order crumble and the Church hierarchy, once likened to US Steel for temporal power and esteem, enter a Davosian captivity. As Persia’s Medes were once forced to tell fortunes for the King of Babylon, the Western episcopate has at least in part been reduced to a retro ornament kept around by the postwar elite to decorate their NGOs.
Lest anyone accuse me of dooming, relax. The Holy See falling under the machinations of powerful worldly forces is nothing new. Schemers and tyrants who made our decadent rulers look like boy scouts have seized control of the Church’s temporal affairs many times down through the centuries. Yet she’s never bound the faithful to grave error. And if she were going to, she would have by now.
Still, it’s understandable how some voice resentment toward Pope Benedict for alleged dereliction of duty. They feel like their Holy Father abandoned them when the world needed him most.
I don’t know. By all accounts, Pope Benedict never wanted the job in the first place. He’d hoped to retire as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to live out his remaining years as a kind of scholar-hermit.
Trying to argue that the situation would be better had he not retired rests on claiming knowledge of an alternate timeline where that happened. And none of us can see all ends, but we can and should trust in God’s Providence.
We’re going through a rough patch, no doubt about it. But the first glints of light are appearing at the end of the tunnel.
Sure, Generation Z looks to be split between natively depraved witches and a minority of staunch traditionalists. But it’s the latter who are going into the priesthood and scaring the hell out of Boomer LibCaths.
It’s sad to say, but as with continental drift theory in geology and Einsteinian physics, new ideas gain traction one retirement or burial at a time. That’s the way of the world.
I just don’t see evidence that a member of the Greatest Generation, however great a theologian, would’ve had the frame of mind necessary to contend with the forces now ravaging Christendom.
As a friend told me the other day, World War II ushered in a new secular moral framework that’s bound every generation from the Greats to Millennials.
It’s why the Woke Cult keeps trying to find a new Devil but always reverts back to Mustache Man. Their negative self-concept is founded on identifying themselves as Not Him.
So real change must await the day when the supposed End of History is no longer in the living memory of anyone in authority.
And that day is coming. Gen X will live to see it.
The future of the Church is looking bright.
I love Pope Benedict XVI. Even in his autumn years, he denied himself, took up his cross, and went the extra mile. Demanding two would have been unjust. His job is done. May God hasten his canonization.
And may God bless the new generation of priests now taking their place in the hierarchy to confront the spiritual crises of today.
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“I love Pope Benedict XVI. Even in his autumn years, he denied himself, took up his cross, and went the extra mile. Demanding two would have been unjust. His job is done. May God hasten his canonization.
And may God bless the new generation of priests now taking their place in the hierarchy to confront the spiritual crises of today.”
Amen.