He Lives his Life Without Fear
Jul 15, 2005
My first meeting with the current Pontiff goes back to the ’eighties, when he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and I was ecclesiastical delegate of the United States Episcopal Conference for the pastoral provision for members of the married Anglican clergy who wanted to enter the Catholic Church as priests. By Cardinal Bernard Francis Law. Archpriest of the Patriarchal Liberian Basilica of Saint Mary Major.
(30Days, May 2005) In practice I was the trait d’union between the Congregation that formally granted the Anglicans permission to be consecrated priests and the individual bishops who were disposed to give a pastoral role to these new priests of the Catholic Church.
After the special Synod of 1985, I had the possibility of frequenting the then Cardinal Ratzinger more closely. As a consequence of that Synod in fact the Pope decided that an official Catechism of the Catholic Church should be prepared. John Paul II nominated Ratzinger president of the Commission to draw it up and I was nominated among the members of the Commission.
On that occasion I had the opportunity of working side by side with Ratzinger. And that for me was an extraordinary experience, an enrichment of my life. In this regard I cannot forget a fact that binds me personally to the figure of the new Pope and that of his predecessor. It was 27 May 1994, the last day John Paul II spent in the Gemelli hospital, where he was recovering from a hip operation. That same morning the Pope – still in his room on the tenth floor of the hospital – received from the then Cardinal Ratzinger and myself the first copy, with the classic cover in white leather, of the English version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
With Cardinal Ratzinger I also participated in numerous meetings of the various Congregations of the Roman Curia, during which I was impressed by his always valuable opinions. His capacity to listen, his ability to make a summary of the contributions that he heard during the course of the meetings, to eliminate confusion, was something wonderful.
Something that also always impressed me about Cardinal Ratzinger is that, listening to or reading all of his contributions, one always learns something and that he has a particular, extraordinary charism for teaching. Not only. The new Pope is also a man who lives his life without fear, because he puts all his trust in God, in Jesus and in the Blessed Virgin Mary. And this was also seen in the simple manner in which he accepted the humanly unheard of task of Bishop of Rome and successor of Peter.
He Lives his Life Without Fear