‘Being a Christan means learning to be human again’

By Silvia Kritzenberger

Speaking to Vatican News after the solemn Mass he had celebrated for the anniversary of Pope Benedict’s death, Cardinal Kurt Koch said that the late Pope was “a very humble person who approached others and listened to what they had to say”.

“He was a very kind person”, said the Swiss Cardinal, who is the head of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. “If you looked into his eyes, you could see that there was a lot of inner light there. It was always very important to him that being a Christian was based on being human. The two went together for him. Being a Christian means learning to be human again. And he was an excellent example of this.”

Cardinal Koch speaks at the memorial Mass

The quest for God

Pope Benedict himself once said that he was aware that he would not have a long pontificate, that he would not be able to initiate any major projects; that his concern, his mission, was to bring faith back to the centre of the Church. That’s according to the Swiss cardinal, who was appointed President of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

“For him, the question of God was central. The centrality of the question of God was the inner core of his entire work - not just any God, a supreme being in heaven, but the God who is not mute but speaks, who spoke to his people Israel and above all showed his face in Jesus of Nazareth, in Jesus Christ. The centrality of the question of God and Christocentricity: that is the inner core [of Pope Benedict’s work] that will certainly remain.”

Christian hope

In view of the 2025 Jubilee of Hope, which got underway on Christmas Eve, Cardinal Koch mentioned Spe salvi, the encyclical that Benedict dedicated to the topic of Christian hope.

“It is a wonderful text”, he said, “which shows us that only a person who does not take himself too seriously can have hope. [Benedict] himself once put it like this: ‘If we took ourselves more lightly, we could fly like angels and birds’. But sometimes we take ourselves so seriously that we are often stuck on earth. We can only have hope if we orientate our lives towards God. And that is why [Benedict] shows us what the inner meaning of the Holy Year is. This becomes visible with the door, the Porta, the symbol of Jesus Christ. Only through him can we reach holiness, and I hope that this Holy Year will enable people to find the holiness they promised in their baptism.”

Pope Benedict's tomb under St Peter's Basilica

A Christian and a Father

Prof Ralph Weimann, a member of the Ratzinger Schülerkreis, also told Vatican News how much Benedict influenced him as a person and as a priest:

“For me, Pope Benedict was first and foremost a Christian. That's so easy to say, but it's not always true. A Christian is someone who has put on Jesus Christ. And that's what Pope Benedict, Joseph Ratzinger, stood for. He followed Christ with his truth and bore witness to it. And that has left a deep impression on my heart and I am very grateful to him for that. He was like a father to me, but above all a Christian. A Christian with us, a father to us.”

Georg Gänswein: In Rome in spirit

Benedict's long-time private secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, was unfortunately unable to attend this year's memorial service in Rome. Since this summer, he has been Apostolic Nuncio for the Baltic States, based in Vilnius. However, his thoughts were in Rome on this New Year's Eve.

“This is the second year that I've spent Christmas without Pope Benedict,” Gänswein told Vatican News. “The further away I am geographically from home, from Rome, the greater my inner closeness grows. Of course I feel sadness. But I also feel an inner hope and gratitude for all the time I was able to spend with him and by his side. In this respect, Christmas this year has been very different to other years. But it is still Christmas, and I know that Benedict's help has been given to me.”

He also recalled Benedict's encyclical on Christian hope, which has a very special significance in this Holy Year:

‘Spe salvi is an encyclical that directs human hope primarily towards God. And it is ultimately God himself who establishes this hope. In him is the foundation and the goal of this hope. For me, the encyclical, and therefore hope, has often become an anchor in my own life, an anchor, but also the goal of my life. Hope helps me to get through difficulties and hardship, to look ahead to the goal of my life, to the hope that is founded in God.”