Pope Benedict XVI
A Personal Portrait
By H. J. Fischer
Size: 5 ¾" x 8 ¼ ",
with 24 pictures inside (16 colored & 8 black and white)
208 pp, Paperback, PhP 250.00

For the first time in a quarter century, the world has a new pope. While people around the world struggle to understand the brilliant and enigmatic Joseph Ratzinger, Heinz-Joachim Fischer offers us this first-hand account of the Pope's astonishing life and ministry: from his early days in Germany to his meteoric rise as Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, confidant of Pope John Paul II, and the first new pope of the 21st Century.

C.G. Arévalo, S.J.
Loyola School of Theology

         The death of Pope John Paul II last April, with the wake and funeral which followed it, was without doubt the great religious media event of our time. It will be long remembered. The election and installation of his successor, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, received remarkable attention and interest likewise, "interest spillover" from the John Paul events. Suddenly even the non-religious press found itself involved in the guessing-game of who the next Pope would be. Old and obscure churchmen, generally unknown before, became objects of curiosity as the Roman Catholic College of Cardinals met in conclave in the Vatican. Much of this curiosity focussed - both before and after the white smoke and the bells announced that a new Roman Pontiff had been chosen, on the former prefect of the Congregation on Doctrine, for 23 years the theologian "enforcer of the Faith" from Bavaria.

         Since his takeover of the Petrine See, Joseph Ratzinger (JR) has been the subject of innumerable articles in newspapers and magazines, occupying - for instance - some eight or more pages in the Time and Newsweek issues of May 2, and taking up millions of words in publications, on radio and tv broadcasts throughout the world. No doubt partly as a result of the massive media attention on the person and pontificate of John Paul II, people all over the world - not Catholics only - at once wanted to know much about the man who has succeeded him: what he is as a person, what personal history he brings to the papacy, what his mind is like, and what may be expected from his leadership of the billion-plus Catholics all over the world today. And now the time has come for the books, - again in all the major languages of the world. Claretian Publications has just made available a moderately-priced Philippine edition of the English version of Heinz-Joachim Fischer's Pope Benedict XVI, a Personal Portrait.

         Fischer is the Vatican correspondent for the German newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He has spent much of his life in Rome, first as a seminarian-student of philosophy and theology at the Jesuit Gregoriana University, then later as a journalist and media person. For years - since 1976 - he has known Cardinal Ratzinger. This personal background of some thirty years serves as a strong base from which to write a book like the present biography/portrait. Fischer does know JR's thinking on many issues, "churchy", secular and personal. Much of the information he gives us we can receive with confidence because generally "he knows whereof he speaks". His reporting on the election which ended in Pope Benedict XVI's choice, for instance, seems to be better informed than most of what the press has hitherto been giving us. Let me cite these final lines of Fischer's foreword, because they tell us much of the character of his book. "Above all I am grateful to Joseph Ratzinger, now our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, for his openness, for what he has taught me, for the confidence he has shown in me, and for his friendship over almost thirty years. I recall the many delightful and informal hours we have spent together - sometimes serious, sometimes serene and joyful . . . ."

         Fischer's Pope Benedict XVI, undoubtedly a very well informed report, briefly runs through JR's life before the call to Rome to head the Congregation of Doctrine (1981), then gives a well-developed and in all a very good account of JR's 23 years in the Congregation. This second section may well be this book's most valuable and more original part. There follow the reports on the interregnum between the death of John Paul II and the April 20 "Habemus Papam" proclamation. The final 70-page section is almost an independent essay on the new pope and prospects of his papacy. There are several pages of good photographs, and some useful appendices.

         A few of the points of interest which Fischer's book can bring out because of his years of friendly relationship with JR:

         - JR's own account of why - as is widely held - he "turned conservative" in the early 1970s: the ten years after Vatican II saw so much change "in the Church's dialogue partner, the world," that Christian identity had turned "fuzzy" and "nebulous" in the minds of so many, and now "this identity had to be presented anew in its clear and distinct outlines." JR went back to Regensburg in his native Bavaria, that "deeply Catholic land" which still held a "more vigorous Catholic faith and life" than other places in Germany. Here he could pursue in a more congenial climate the theological labor he set out to do. JR has often been cited as saying that it was not he and his basic positions which changed, - for he believes he has been consistent, - but that there have been major shifts in the theological stands around him, in response to changes in the Church and the world. A "new equilibrium" was needed in the mind and life of Catholics of our time - this was the theological challenge to be urgently met.

         - The honest evaluation of JR's years as archbishop of Munich seems to owe much to the prelate's own self-assessment of his success and failures there. From Fischer: JR was definitely not 'one of the boys' readily at ease when a group of men would get together informally. Too, had no great enthusiasm for the "organizational side" of his duties. He was not inclined to be a clerical disciplinarian with a heavy hand. He kept a primacy of interest in the religious and intellectual issues the rapidly-changing times were posing to theology and to the faith of Catholics.

         - During his service under Pope Wojtyla, JR was sometimes not in total agreement with the pontiff, e.g. on the realization of the interreligious Assisi encounter, and the much-publicized ecclesial public act of contrition on the "Day of Pardon" at St. Peter's basilica on 12 March 2000. But he loyally deferred to the Holy Father. Quoting Fischer: "The cardinal [JR] revered the Holy Father and regarded him as a friend, although he sometimes found himself forced to shrug his shoulders and accept the pope's activism, John Paul's tremendous urge to express himself - a quality foreign to Ratzinger." (page 108)

         - The Fischer version of the unfolding of the conclave of 2005 indicates that JR was front-runner from the start, and ended up with more than one hundred votes received. There was, one gathers, no genuine "opposition movement" operative at the conclave itself, although Cardinal Carlo Martini had his early backers, including Cardinal Lehmann (and one or other German elector?). this goes against conjectural accounts previously published.

         - On the choice of the name Benedict: early in the sede vacante period, it seems JR already felt (through not applying this to himself) that Benedict would be a good name for John Paul's successor. 'Benedict' would refer first of all to the great founder of the Benedictines, the patron saint of Christian Europe and its Christian culture. It would also recall Benedict XV, who, despite his smallness of stature, was in his time a strong champion of unity and peace, specially in Europe.

         One theme runs throughout the book. To use Fischer's own words: the new Pope's "pride in being Catholic" and "grateful devotion to the Church". Fischer cites these as qualities in JR which were among the strong points that helped win the confidence of fellow Cardinals. But more: this strength and security and joy in "being Catholic", this "being at ease" in the staunch Catholicism which has nurtured his person and his life from his earliest years at home and in Bavarian Catholic culture, faith and piety, - all this very deeply and very strongly is part of Pope Benedict XVI.

         Even with his undoubted high intelligence, his broad theological culture, the keen and deep mind (which can often be quite critical and sceptical also), - the mind which has impressed people who have known him, everywhere he has studied, worked, taught, preached, etc., JR has always been firmly rooted in a marked powerful love for the Church, its Tradition, its doctrine and worship, its celebrations, its communion of saints. He has met the knee-jerk aggressive combativeness and restlessness of much of the activism within the Church in the last few decades, the polemic and anti-hierarchical spirit of some contemporary theologians and dissidents, from this rock-bottom Catholic mindset. He has sought to encounter dissent with intelligence and energy, and yet with a certain basic serenity and equanimity of mind. This, at least, emerges from Fischer's portrait, and accounts perhaps for the fact that one often hears from other sources of JR's "gentleness and even sweetness" of manner in his contact with others, even in controversy. This strong and secure love for the Church would seem to be one of the great pillars of Benedict XVI's personal character, and deserves to be highlighted. (As it is, in Fischer's book)

         What has just been said should not give the impression that Fischer's book is more essay than narrative; it is not. It is a journalist's book, and one reads it as one might read a newsmagazine or a monthly periodical. But Fischer is not a superficial biographer. Many substantial matters are touched on: liberation theology, Church and world issues (one of JR's most recent books is entitled God and the World), the import of JR's impressive homilies and addresses in the sede vacante days, and the like. He has learned much from his discussions with JR, and he takes us - if briefly - into them.

         The book's final pages are Fischer's development of the banner theme of Newsweek's May 2 2005 cover, "Benedict XVI: what he means for the world's Catholics." "The Expectations for Reform (Will Benedict XVI be a reforming Pope?), Conservative in Principle, Upholding the Tradition, Faith as the Reason for Joy," and - very interestingly - "The New Pope and the New Catholics" - these subtitles already hint at the shape Benedict XVI's rule will assume, what "the new Catholics" of Benedict XVI are or will be like. These new Catholics whom Fischer describes are "refreshingly post-modern" (sic). Their Catholicism is, as the new Pope's is, a lived faith that has weathered the fierce storms of recent decades and has found a new equilibrium and a new security, a faith "ever ancient and ever new". Their priorities are "the core dimensions of the Church." The Catholic liturgy takes them beyond "the inane chatter and sophisticated discussions" of our present fads and feverish anxieties. "These Christians have voted with their feet against the universal inflation of words and the trivialization of language. They have much more confidence in the traditional symbols, in signs handed down from ancient times - signs that theology calls 'sacraments' . . ."

         What these new Catholics are like we see already in the "spiritual movements that have kindled the Christian fire in so many countries of the world" - the new lay communities which have arisen or developed remarkably in the last few decades. "The new Catholics are not afraid to be different from other people," Fischer sums up, "precisely because they are untroubled by the fact that they are the same as other people - all that matters is that they are allowed to be Catholic! Their great concern is that the Christian salt should not lose its flavor by an enforced assimilation to modern society."

         Fischer's description of "Benedict XVI Catholics" not only makes for interesting reading; it will provoke considerable debate, no doubt, among those who will reflect on it. The final question will be, of course, "Is this truly what Benedict XVI's own vision is?" Does Fischer see the future rightly from his long friendship with the new Pope? And of course, what surprises does the Holy Spirit still have for us?

         It has been repeatedly said, by those who know JR, that the new pontificate will surely not be a merely transitional one. That rather it will be one marked by the new Pope's keen mind and theological wisdom, his firmness in decision his passion for the Church and its commitment to "the splendor of truth" (Veritatis splendor) and its mission to be "light in the Lord" and hope for the world - in and through the paschal mystery of Christ. We are told that this will be an exciting pontificate, one of ideas and vision; that we have much to look forward to, even after "John Paul the Great."

         With all the pluses and minuses of a quasi-official biography, Fischer's book, while trying to be even-handed, is evidently a "good friend's enthusiastic book." The information is quite rich and usually reliable, even if the style of the translation is sometimes too faithfully "germanic", and rarely carries the flair and excitement that, e.g., John Allen's The Rise of Benedict XVI does. But it is surely worth getting and at the local price, a bargain "must" as a first introduction to the new successor of Peter.

         Thanks to Claretian Publications for making Pope Benedict XVI: A Personal Portrait so readily available in our country for Catholics and others who want to get to know the new Pope better, and to understand better the way along which he will lead the Church in the few - or many - years ahead.

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[Claretian Publications also distributes locally the only comprehensive biography of Pope Benedict XVI by John L. Allen Jr. from Continuum (2005, 352 pages). Get your copy of these new books at the Claretian Publications bookstore, No. 8 Mayumi St., U.P. Village, Diliman, Quezon City, Tel: 921-3984, Fax: 921-6205, Email: cci@claret.org, Website: www.bible.claret.org.]

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