From the National Catholic Register:
Pope Benedict’s visit to Germany wasn’t quite the triumph to match his state visit to Britain last year, when his presence silenced many of his critics.
But among Church officials and many of the faithful, the third trip to his homeland as Pope — and his first state visit — greatly exceeded expectations. The Pope flew back to Rome Sept. 25, bringing to an end a very intense four days.
From the rousing welcomes he received from a total of 300,000 faithful who traveled to see him to the spontaneous standing ovation given him in the German parliament, his reception was significantly better than many had predicted.
But the Pope made it clear from the outset that his visit wasn’t to be a “sensational event,” nor did he want it politicized. Rather, he had come to his native land simply “to meet people and to speak about God.”
With his usual clarity and erudition, the Pope quickly set about this task, delving into the deep problems facing German (and Western) society, such as its “growing indifference to religion,” its “exaggerated individualism” and misplaced conception of freedom and responsibility.
Time and again, he stressed that faith needs to be shared. He encouraged the faithful to abide with Christ and his Church despite the sins and scandals of its members. He reminded them that humility is a prerequisite for unity and called on Catholics to “resolutely set aside worldliness” so her missionary witness “shines more brightly.” He highlighted that although the German Church is “superbly organized,” it still needs something more, namely an openness to the love of Christ.
In short, this was vintage Joseph Ratzinger: discourses clearly originating from his own hand and filled with appeals to return to the fundamentals of the faith, “to the heart of the Good News of Christ.”
“This visit has demonstrated that the Christian belief is something which relates to today’s society, and this was evident in some of the speeches of the Holy Father, in the people he met, and overall in the emotional presence of the flock,” Jesuit Father Hans Langendorfer, chief coordinator of the visit, told the Register Sept. 25. “This was wonderful, and it made the Pope feel good. He’s very content.”
Benedict XVI’s historic address to the German parliament in Berlin Sept. 22 stunned even some of his ideological opponents. Clearly written by himself, he emphasized the importance of the “natural law” tradition (the belief that innate laws found in nature and man come from God). This teaching has given the West its laws, human rights and belief in social justice, Benedict reaffirmed, and yet he said it has been all but eclipsed by an overemphasis on scientific enquiry, or “positivist reason.”
Politics, the Holy Father reminded the legislators, must, above all, be a “striving for justice” or, as happened in Nazi Germany, the state risks becoming “a highly organized band of robbers, capable of threatening the whole world and driving it to the edge of the abyss.” The inviolability of human dignity and the idea of personal responsibility, he reaffirmed, derive from the idea of a Creator.
