Seewald on Ratzinger: "A Revolutionary of the Christian Type"

"A Revolutionary of the Christian Type" | Peter Seewald | The Preface to Benedict XVI: An Intimate Portrait

What is it like to sit opposite a man like Joseph Ratzinger for many hours, alone in a monastery, and discuss things with him, asking a thousand questions?

  We were high up in our monastery, often in reality above the clouds, and there was always something that gave you the feeling there was a good spirit there. At any rate, I came to know Joseph Ratzinger as a great man for patience, as a spiritual master who can give answers. Here was someone who simply understood people, who had retained the liveliness of youth. Someone who did not burn out quickly but in some way remained whole--and most impressive in his attitude of humility, with which he makes small things seem great.

Joseph Ratzinger is a born teacher, but he did not want to become pope. Even after the conclave, on the loggia of Saint Peter's, his face showed the traces of an inner struggle. And he probably felt like crying, so disturbingly moved was he by the condescension of the great God who entrusted him, at the end of his path, with the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

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Comments

[Allen]

Hi I was pointed this way by a relative of someone who worked on this blog.

I must say any Christian should be insulted to be called a revolutionary.

Throughout the past 500 years, revolution- whether it be the Protestant Revolution, the English Revolution, the American or French Revolution- has always resulted in destruction of Christian order.

Catholicism is counter-revolutionary, and rightly so. Societies that reject the Social Reign of Christ the King don't last long, whereas societies that did were more stable and lasted much longer. Italy, since leaving the Papal States, has changed its form of government dozens of times in the past century.

In every facet of society do we see Christian Order tossed aside and severe consequences follow. The Industrial revolution led to the greater evils of Karl Marx. We see the revolution in our educational system over the past centuries. From Thomistic Scholasticism to Marx, Freud and Darwin, a once knowledgeable society of Christians has become a system of socialized education, where they dumb down academic standards, encourage the aptly named "Culture of Death", and brainwash our young Catholics (I myself didn't realize this until my senior year of high school)to reject and forget the glorious past and legacy of the once great civilization of Christendom.

No, we are told to love our new god, the state, and its holy prophecies, the Enlightenment, with its saints, celebrities and antiCatholic philosophers.

A Revolutionary of the Christian type? It seems to be a contradiction in terms.