Bishop Stika leads local memorial Mass for Pope Benedict XVI Cardinal Rigali, who knew Benedict for years, concelebrated cathedral service

By Dan McWilliams

Bishop Richard F. Stika celebrated a memorial Mass for Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 4, the day before the Holy Father was laid to rest at the Vatican after he passed away on Dec. 31.

Cardinal Justin Rigali concelebrated the Mass at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and shared a reflection on his friend Pope Benedict. Also concelebrating were cathedral associate pastor Father Martin Gladysz, Father Peter Iorio, and Father Michael Hendershott. Deacon Sean Smith was deacon of the Word, and Deacon Fredy Vargas was deacon of the altar. In all, more than 12 priests and 12 deacons took part in the Mass, and many women religious attended.

“We join tonight and this week with people throughout the world, in big parishes and little parishes, in monasteries and convents, in any place where Mass will be celebrated, remembering Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, a man who only wanted to teach at the university level,” Bishop Stika said in his opening remarks. “So, we pray for the repose of his soul [and remembering] all his moments of kindness as he shepherded the Church for nearly eight years and as a priest for over 70 years, that he might be received into the presence of God.”

Bishop Stika was the homilist at the Mass for the pope who appointed him bishop of Knoxville in January 2009.

“Actually, I probably shouldn’t be preaching today, for I knew of Benedict. He named me bishop of Knoxville, but the one who really should be preaching is Cardinal Rigali, who called him friend for many years,” Bishop Stika said.

The bishop recalled how the future Pope Benedict had humble plans for his life but that God had other ideas.

“His name was Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, born in April of 1927. His father was a police officer, and his mother was a housewife. He had a sister, who never married but actually took care of the cardinal all through his life until she died of cancer. He had a brother who was a priest, Georg, who was a concertmaster in Germany, and the two of them were ordained priests together in 1951,” Bishop Stika said. “All he wanted to do was to be a teacher, a professor, in Germany. But as I’ve often said, if you want to make God laugh, tell Him what your plans are for the rest of your life. At one point, he was named the archbishop of Munich.

“He was one of the last cardinals to be made a cardinal by St. Paul VI. Paul VI interrupted his life, because he wanted to be a professor, and he became an archbishop, and John Paul interrupted his life—he called him to Rome to be the chief theologian of the Church for many, many, many years. At one point, when he turned 70, he had enough of being the chief theologian of the Church, so he wanted to retire, but not really retire—he wanted to be the Vatican librarian. Just imagine all those books and archives. And John Paul said, ‘No, I need you, my brother Joseph.’”

Pope Benedict’s journey through the life of the Church before he became Holy Father continued, and he earned “nicknames that were not really complimentary” such as “The German Shepherd” and “The Rottweiler,” Bishop Stika said.

“He had a very difficult job in trying to guide the Church into the next days,” the bishop said. “In his role, he was one of the foremost advocates of how to deal with the sexual abuse of minors by priests, instituted all kinds of new rules and regulations. And then the great saintly John Paul died, and Benedict gave a wonderful homily at John Paul’s funeral in St. Peter’s Square on that windy day when the Gospel book, even the pages, flipped over until it closed at the end of Mass, not

“Some called him a conservative, which he scoffed at many times because he was a theologian at the Second Vatican Council. He was considered a liberal and even joked about it in one of his books. He said, ‘I’m the same person. Then, I was a liberal. Now, I’m a conservative.’ But ultimately, he said, ‘I am faithful. I am faithful.’”

— Bishop Richard F. Stika, in his homily about Pope Benedict XVI by man’s hand but by the wind, the Spirit. And Benedict, Cardinal Ratzinger, talked about his friend, who returned to the home of his Father, as John Paul said in his last words: ‘Let me go to the house of my Father.’”

After John Paul II’s funeral, the cardinals—including Cardinal Rigali—entered into the conclave that would elect Pope Benedict.

“[Cardinal Rigali] still won’t tell me who he voted for, because he can’t,” Bishop Stika said. “I think it was on the second ballot, when someone stood before Cardinal Ratzinger and said, ‘Do you accept election?’—a man at 78 years of age. Then ‘what name do you wish to be called?’ Benedict XVI, as a follow-up of course to Benedict XV, who was pope before World War I and right after that.”

The newly elected Benedict “then took on new names,” the bishop said.

“Since he was a product of Germany before

World War II, he was called a Nazi because he belonged to the Hitler Youth group, as every child in Germany did, and yet people called him a Nazi. He eventually was drafted into the German army at the end of World War II, but his whole unit kind of hid from the rest of the German army because they knew of the atrocities of war. So, he had to live with these tags that were given to him when he was elected pope by the cardinals through the intercession of the Holy Spirit.

“He stood on that balcony, and it almost looked like he wasn’t prepared because he probably, I would say, didn’t want to be pope at 78. He and his brother the year before bought a house in their home village in Germany, where his brother and Benedict were going to retire. But just like John Paul said no to him, and Paul VI said, ‘No, you can’t just be a teacher,’ the Holy Spirit said the Church needs you at this moment, at this place in time. He stood on that balcony, unprepared maybe for what he was to be given and to be challenged by.”

Pope Benedict “took up the mantle that John Paul and Paul VI had by traveling throughout the world to Youth Days and to the United States,” Bishop Stika said. “Even on his birthday at the White House, George Bush orchestrated a ‘Happy Birthday’ and a birthday cake. [Cardinal Rigali] was there for that, too. He loved the world. He loved nature. The first ‘green’ pope: on the roof of the Paul VI Audience Hall, that huge building where the popes gather, there are solar panels.

“And he wrote, and he wrote, and he wrote encyclicals and books, and probably the one great gift he gave to the Church was this trilogy on Jesus Christ. Some called him a conservative, which he scoffed at many times because he was a theologian at the Second Vatican Council. He was considered a liberal and even joked about it in one of his books. He said, ‘I’m the same person. Then, I was a liberal. Now, I’m a conservative.’ But ultimately, he said, ‘I am faithful. I am faithful.’

“He has contributed much to the Church. In the act of absolute humility, when he was told by doctors that he could no longer travel internationally on flights, because even as a cardinal he suffered a stroke and lost sight in his eye. He had a pacemaker. And he realized that the job of the pope was to be the pastor of the Universal Church, and in

Bishop reflects on the Holy Father who appointed him to lead diocese

By Jim Wogan

Bishop Richard F. Stika and Cardinal Justin Rigali had special relationships with Pope Benedict XVI, something one would expect between a bishop of Rome and a priest he named to lead one of the Church’s dioceses and between two members of the College of Cardinals.

Bishop Stika and Cardinal Rigali recently reflected on Pope Benedict and the nearly eight years he led the papacy.

Pope Benedict appointed Bishop Stika as the third bishop of the Diocese of Knoxville in 2009.

And Cardinal Rigali and thenCardinal Joseph Ratzinger served the Vatican together and worked closely with Pope John Paul II, who would become St. John Paul II.

Q: Bishop Stika, how many times did you have the opportunity to meet Pope Benedict XVI?

A: Five times. I met him once as

Cardinal Ratzinger and four times as pope.

Q: Before I ask about those meetings, he was often perceived as a strict theologian by the media and the laity. Is that a correct impression?

A: He was a theologian of Vatican II. He was part of that process. In one of his books, he said he was considered a liberal during Vatican II, and now he is considered a conservative. I wouldn't use the word strict; I would just say he was very faithful to the teachings of the Church. As pope and as pope emeritus, he was very gentle—a firm and a kind shepherd.

Q: Do you have a special memory of any of the times you met him?

A: I saw him at my first ad limina As I was talking to him, I said Holy Father, I just finished the book that your brother wrote about you, the name of the book is My Brother the Pope He asked, ‘How was it; I haven't read it yet?’ I told him, ‘Now I know everything about you, and I smiled. I turned to leave and I walked about five feet, then I heard in a very frail voice, ‘Please pray for me. I turned around and walked back to him. I was the last one in the room. I walked back, kissed his ring, and I said, ‘You are always in my prayers. Please pray for me as well. That was the last time I had contact with him in terms of a conversation.

Q: Benedict followed John Paul. How was that for Benedict?

A: I think it was a natural flow from John Paul as pope to Benedict XVI. It could have been much more difficult for a different man to follow John Paul because John Paul was such an immense figure in the Church.

He had more heads of state attend his funeral, including three presidents (one president and two former), so that would have been significant, and he is now a saint,

Reflections continued on page A18 than 1,000 journalists, photographers, and camera operators from around the world were accredited to cover the funeral, which was held in St. Peter’s Square.

An estimated 50,000 people filled the square for the Mass, and a number of visitors told Catholic News Service that banners and flags were being confiscated by security upon entrance. Of the few flags and banners that did make it past security was a white cloth with “Santo Subito” (“Sainthood Now”) written in red and a “Thank you, Pope Benedict” written in light blue in German.

Just as Pope Benedict dedicated his pontificate to directing the faithful’s focus to the person of Christ, Pope Francis dedicated his homily to Christ’s loving devotion and suffering witness as the “invitation and the program of life that He quietly inspires in us,” rather than on a summary of his predecessor’s life.

Pope Francis spoke of Jesus’ grateful, prayerful, and sustained devotion to God’s will and how Jesus’ final words on the cross, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” summed up His entire life, “a ceaseless selfentrustment into the hands of His Father.”

“His were hands of forgiveness and compassion, healing and mercy, anointing and blessing, which led Him also to entrust himself into the hands of His brothers and sisters,” the Holy Father said.

“Father into your hands I commend my spirit,” the pope said, is the plan for life that Jesus quietly invites and inspires people to follow.

However, he said, the path requires sustained and prayerful devotion that is “silently shaped and refined amid the challenges and resistance that every pastor must face in trusting obedience to the Lord’s command to feed His flock.”

“Like the Master, a shepherd bears the burden of interceding and the strain of anointing his people, especially in situations where goodness must struggle to prevail, and the dignity of our brothers and sisters is threatened,” the pope said.

“The Lord quietly bestows the spirit of meekness that is ready to understand, accept, hope, and risk, notwithstanding any misunderstandings that might result. It is the source of an unseen and elusive fruitfulness, born of His knowing the One in whom He has placed His trust,” he said.

“Feeding means loving, and loving also means being ready to suffer. Loving means giving the sheep what is truly good, the nourishment of God’s truth, of God’s word, the nourishment of His presence,” Pope Francis said, quoting his predecessor’s homily marking the start of his pontificate on April 24, 2005.

“Holding fast to the Lord’s last words and to the witness of his entire life, we too, as an ecclesial community, want to follow in his steps and to commend our brother into the hands of the Father,” he said of Pope Benedict. “May those merciful hands find his lamp alight with the oil of the Gospel that he spread and testified to for his entire life.”

“God’s faithful people, gathered here, now accompany and entrust to him the life of the one who was their pastor,” the pope continued. “Together, we want to say, ‘Father, into your hands we commend his spirit.’”

“Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete as you hear His voice, now and forever!” he concluded, as the crowd prayed in silence.

Among the people in the crowd was Georg Bruckmaier, who traveled nearly 10 hours by car to come to the funeral from his home in Bavaria, not far away from where the late pope was born.

Wearing a Bavarian flag around his back, he told Catholic News Service, “There are a lot of Bavar- ians here today. I’ve seen people I know from university. I wanted to be here for the atmosphere.”

“People felt very close to him, because he is a Bavarian, so this is a really big event to be here,” Mr. Bruckmaier said, adding that being able to pay his last respects before the pope’s remains in St. Peter’s Basilica, “is a different thing than seeing it on television. It’s something I won’t forget in my whole life.”

Fiona-Louise Devlin told CNS she and her companions were wearing scarves from the late pope’s visit to Scotland in 2010. She said they traveled to Rome from Scotland specifically for the funeral, booking their flight the day the pope passed away.

“He’s the pope of our generation. Like, how so many people say that John Paul II was their pope; he was mine. I’ve traveled around the world to go to celebrations that he’s been a part of, so I wanted to be here for this,” she said.

As the day began, the thick morning fog obscuring the cupola slowly began to lift as 12 laymen emerged from the basilica carrying the pope’s casket. The crowd applauded as the cypress casket was brought into the square and placed before the altar.

The pope’s master of liturgi -

Ecclesial rhapsody in white

Pope Francis chats with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI at the retired pope's home in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery at the Vatican on June 30, 2015.

Ecumencial patriarchs cal ceremonies, Monsignor Diego Giovanni Ravelli, and Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the late pope’s longtime personal secretary, together placed an opened Book of the Gospels on the casket. The simple casket was decorated with his coat of arms as archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany, which depicts a shell, a Moor, and a bear loaded with a pack on his back

Pope Benedict XVI and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople greet the faithful from the balcony of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Nov. 30, 2006.

The Bible readings at the Mass were in Spanish, English, and Italian, and the prayers of the faithful at the Mass were recited in German, French, Arabic, Portuguese, and Italian.

The prayers included petitions for “Pope Emeritus Benedict, who has fallen asleep in the Lord: may the eternal Shepherd receive him into His kingdom of light and peace,” followed by a prayer “for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and for all the pastors of the Church: may they proclaim fearlessly, in word and deed, Christ’s victory over evil and death.”

The other prayers were for justice and peace in the world, for those suffering from poverty and other forms of need, and for those gathered at the funeral.

At the pope’s funeral, like any Catholic funeral, Communion was followed by the “final commendation and farewell,” asking that “Pope Emeritus Benedict” be delivered from death and “may sing God’s praises in the heavenly Jerusalem.”

Pope Francis prayed that God have mercy on his predecessor, who was “a fearless preacher of your Word and a faithful minister of the divine mysteries.”

While the funeral was based on the model of a papal funeral, two key elements normally part of a papal funeral following the farewell prayer were missing: there were no prayers offered by representatives of the Diocese of Rome and of the Eastern Catholic churches, since those prayers are specific to the death of a reigning pope, who is bishop of the Diocese of Rome and is in communion with the leaders of the Eastern-rite churches.

A bell tolled solemnly, and the assembly applauded for several minutes with some chanting “Benedetto” as the pallbearers carried the casket toward St. Peter’s Basilica.

Pope Francis blessed the casket and laid his right hand on it in prayer, then bowed slightly in reverence before it was taken inside for a private burial in the grotto of St. Peter’s Basilica, in the same tomb that held the remains of St. Pope John Paul II before his beatification. ■