Pope Benedict is popularly known in Catholic journalistic circles as the “teaching pope.” Despite the redundancy (every pope must teach, on account of his prophetic office), this is indeed an apt moniker for Benedict, for it is primarily in the context of the word – spoken or written – that he has impacted most intensely the lives of people throughout the world. He is a pope who, both in his scholarly writing and his pastoral teaching, has much to say about God and man. What is more, he speaks the truth with a clarity and simplicity unmatched in contemporary discourse. Simply put, when Benedict speaks, people listen, because they know that his teaching is born of a profound intellectual and spiritual life. Joseph Ratzinger is a man who is at home in silence, where he can be obedient to the teaching of Reality, as it is known through faith and reason. From this fundamental docility, he teaches with great authority, both moral (as a theologian) and ecclesial (as a pope).
Ad extra: God is Logos
Perhaps the most famous “teaching moment” of the five years of Pope Benedict’s pontificate was his Regensburg Lecture, given on September 12, 2006 in the aula magna of the University of Regensburg, where he was professor from 1968 to 1977. Much ado was made in the international press about the speech’s seemingly approving (he later clarified that he did not intend to approve the polemic) reference to the brusque criticism of Islam made by the “erudite” Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologos in his 14th-century dialogue with a Persian scholar. However, the media firestorm (and ensuing violence in the Islamic world) over this historical reference of Benedict distracted from the main purpose of the lecture, which stands, along with his un-delivered (because disinvited) lecture at
La Sapienza University in Rome, as the Pope’s signature “
ad extra” reason-based appeal to the world. The Regensburg Lecture was addressed to “representatives of science” and was given in a classroom of a university. Here the Pope could speak honestly and with freedom to the rationality of his hearers.
