Pope Benedict XVI died Joseph Ratzinger: when he visited Genoa
On the morning of Saturday 31 December, at the age of 95, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger passed away. He became pope on April 19, 2005, holding the post of pontiff until February 2013, before giving way to Bergoglio. He was the 265th pope of the Catholic Church and bishop of Rome, seventh sovereign of the Vatican City State, primate of Italy, in addition to the other titles of the Roman pontiff, after his farewell his title became that of pope emeritus of the Catholic church.
Ratzinger died after a long battle with the illness that forced him to give up his role 10 years ago, a pathology whose nature has not been communicated, but which has become more acute in recent days, as Pope Francis had also underlined .
The visit to Genoa
In 2008 Ratzinger visited Liguria: first Savona, at the Sanctuary of Mercy, then moving by popemobile to the city center where he celebrated mass and in the apartments of the bishop’s palace where Pius VII was imprisoned by Napoleon. Then the pope went to Genoa, with a visit to the sanctuary of Nostra Signora della Guardia and the Gaslini children’s hospital. Finally, he celebrated Mass in Piazza della Vittoria.
“Goodbye to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the one who restored the foundation of reason in the journey of faith – recalls the president of the Region Giovanni Toti -. Liguria recalls his trip in May 2008 between Savona and Genoa and for the whole world will remain an example of wisdom and devotion to the Church. A great theologian, a pope we will never forget”.
Joseph Ratzinger: his life before becoming pontiff
Born on April 16, 1927, in his parents’ home in Marktl am Inn, Germany, as told by Today.it Ratzinger was the seventh German pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church. Son of a policeman father and a cook mother, he immediately began to approach religious life. In 1939, at the age of 12, he enrolled in the minor seminary in Traunstein, where he remained until 1942, when the seminary was closed for military use and the students were sent home. After the age of 14, in 1941, Ratzinger was enrolled in the Hitler Youth, as required by the law Gesetz über die Hitlerjugend (Law on the Hitler Youth), amended on March 6, 1939 and in force from March 25, 1939 until 1945, which obliged all young people between the ages of 14 and 18 to enlist. After the seminar was closed, his compulsory attendance at the Hitler Youth continued against his wishes, in order not to receive financial penalties on the tuition fees of the Gymnasium. Financial penalties were avoided thanks to an understanding math teacher who allowed him not to attend meetings.
In 1946, after the end of his military service, he enrolled at the Higher Institute of Philosophy and Theology in Freising, where he studied Catholic philosophy and theology, before moving the following year to the Herzogliches Georgianum seminary in Munich, an interdiocesan seminary where all the candidates for the priesthood from Bavaria converged, and they continued their studies in philosophy and theology at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich until 1950. He described the Freising years as a culturally very rich and stimulating period. The training he received was affected above all by Augustinian neo-Platonism and the thought of Pascal, philosophical currents very present in the German cultural environment. On 29 June 1951 he became a priest, starting his career as a teacher in Freising, Bonn, Muenster, Tübingen and Regensburg. In 1977 he was appointed archbishop of Monaco by Paul VI and on 27 June he became cardinal. He took part in the conclaves which in ’78 elected Pope Luciani and Pope Wojtyla. In 1981 John Paul II appointed him prefect of the Congregation for the doctrine of the faith. He was president of the commission for the preparation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, vice dean and then dean of the cardinals.
Pope Benedict XVI
On April 19, 2005, after the fourth ballot, white smoke arrives and Ratzinger is elected Pope. He wrote Jesus of Nazareth in several volumes, to show that faith is not a list of prohibitions but a relationship of friendship with God made man. At the center of his “mission” he has always placed the themes of poverty, young people and ecumenism, fighting against pedophilia in the clergy: he was the first pontiff to publicly apologize to the victims of abuse by clergymen and to meet them more times, presenting the Church in a penitential attitude. Author of numerous publications, both before and after his election, he was an innovator of papal communication, especially on the occasion of the letter written to the Irish after the pedophilia scandal or with the letter to the bishops on the case of the denial Lefebvrian bishop Williamson.
The first pope to land on social media with a Twitter profile, he has always asked to respect every type of religion. Among his documents are also two Motu proprio dated 2007: one to restore the two-thirds majority for the election of a pontiff and the other, the Summorum Pontificum, which liberalized the Latin mass. On 11 February 2013 he announced in the ordinary consistory that he had to renounce his role, becoming the eighth pontiff to renounce the Petrine ministry, if one only characterizes the cases of popes for which there are certain or very reliable historical sources. On 13 March 2013, after the fifth ballot, his successor, Pope Francis, was elected. A decision came as a surprise and was motivated by his health conditions, which did not allow him to better carry out the many activities of the Pope and not, as insinuated by many, due to the Vatileaks case.
After Bergoglio’s election Ratzinger returned to the Vatican, taking possession of his home, the Mater ecclesiae monastery on the top of Mount Vatican, near the reproduction of the Lourdes grotto. From that moment on, nothing official has been communicated about his health, except for a few statements by his historic secretary, Mons. Gaenswein who has always spoken of a “clear head” but of continuous physical aggravations, especially as regards walking problems. which at one point also forced him to use a walker. It is not clear whether he ever contracted Covid, but he certainly underwent the vaccination. In recent days his condition has plummeted, as evidenced by the appeals of Pope Francis, who had asked to “pray for him”, until the confirmation arrived today: Pope Benedict XVI is dead.