Stand firm in your faith - Benedict XVI says in spiritual testament, read out in German birth town

Record ID: 1704771

  • Title: Stand firm in your faith - Benedict XVI says in spiritual testament, read out in German birth town
  • Date: 1st January 2023
  • Summary: BELIEVERS CROSS THEMSELVES PRIEST IS GIVING BLESSING CHURCH AT END OF MASS HOUSE IN WHICH BENEDICT WAS BORN VARIOUS OF CANDLES IN FRONT OF HOUSE IN WHICH BENEDICT WAS BORN (SOUNDBITE) (German) LOCAL BRIGITTE STRAUBINGER, SAYING: "But it must be said that we can be proud that we have a Bavarian pope. And when he came home to the house where he was born, as pope, that was really a sensation, we were definitely here for that." (SOUNDBITE) (German) PRIEST FRANZ HARINGER, SAYING: "I think back to the first years in office, when a kind of Benedetto fever had broken out. His travels, the World Youth Days, the speeches, the encyclicals. I also think of the great speeches he gave before parliaments. In Berlin, Paris, London, where he was able to show that faith and reason belong together. Faith and thinking. That we as Christians can really be on a par with contemporary thinkers. That will certainly remain his memory." (SOUNDBITE) (German) LOCAL MARTIN VON THOLD, SAYING: "He was a very good pope. Very dignified. And he also advanced the faith. And also, I think, he inspired young people."
  • Embargoed: 15th January 2023 17:50
  • Keywords: Benedict Benedikt Prayer Rosenkranz Spiritual Testimony Testament
  • Location: MARKTL, GERMANY
  • City: MARKTL, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: Europe,Religion/Belief,Society/Social Issues
  • Reuters ID: LVA009983801012023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Prayers in the honour of former Pope Benedict XVI took place in his birthplace Marktl on Sunday (January 1). Priest Franz Haringer, chairman of the former Pope’s birthplace, read from Benedict’s “spiritual testimony” to a few dozens of local faithful attending the mass. The two page testimony was released on Saturday night by the Vatican, and said to be written in 2006, a year after Benedict's election as pope. There was no explanation why Benedict did not update it as he became older and more frail.
    Apart from acknowledgments of many kinds the testimony included the urge to believers to stand firm in their faith: “Often it looks as if science on the one hand, the natural sciences on the other hand, historical research, especially the exegesis of the holy scriptures, have irrefutable insights to offer that are contrary to the Catholic faith”, Haringer quoted. But, according to the writing, Benedict had seen over the years how different scientific hypotheses had developed or become obsolete, while faith has not. "I have seen and see how, out of the tangle of hypotheses, the reason of faith has emerged and is emerging anew”, Haringer quoted from the writing.
    Benedict produced more than 60 books between 1963, when he was a priest, and 2013, when he resigned. "In reality I am more of a professor, a person who reflects and meditates on spiritual questions," Benedict said after his resignation.
    On Sunday the Vatican released the first images of the late Benedict, laying in state in the chapel of the monastery where he died on Saturday morning (December 31). The funeral is set for January 5th. In accordance with Benedict's wishes, it will be simple and solemn. It will be the first time in many centuries that a sitting pope will preside at the funeral of his predecessor. Benedict, who stepped down in 2013, had been the first pontiff in 600 years to resign.
    (Production: Louisa Off, Ayhan Uyanik, Lena Toepler)
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