“In his address, Cardinal Kurt Koch made an ample and profound synthesis, as he really knows Ratzinger’s thought and spirituality. Although the Pope Emeritus’ production is enormous, on so many different occasions and for various reasons, it has an extremely profound unity,” said Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, former Vatican spokesman and at present President of the Ratzinger Foundation. He was speaking to ZENIT, no sooner the presentation concluded of the book Cooperatores Veritatis, written in honor of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on the occasion of his 90th birthday, which he will celebrate on the 16th of this month, and presented last Thursday at the Augustinianum Patristic Institute.
Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and member of the Foundation’s Scientific Committee, spoke on the theme “A Symphony of Love and Truth in Freedom. Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI Grateful Witness of Paschal Faith.” The Cardinal pointed out that Benedict XVI “brought a spiritual renewal of the faith, reflected further on the beautiful message of Christianity, which is translated into a true renewal of the Church.”
Father Lombardi added that what Benedict XVI said and wrote “is a single discourse, with a single intention which is ‘the truth and love of God,’ so profoundly united.”
The former Vatican spokesman revealed that the different thinkers who have addressed Joseph Ratzinger’s thought and whose texts are part of the book, “esteem and take inspiration from him and, although there are different points of view, there is a common spirit that leads to a common objective: the subject of truth and love.”
“A truth that is love, a love that is God who is Logos and which is articulated, therefore, in a creation that is intelligible and object of reflection.” And all this “is fascinating, because Ratzinger takes us to a world open to reflection and further study, in which we find harmony and profound unity,” he said.
“And this comforts us and makes us glad, because of the fact that one can reason <and> study knowing also that one will find harmony, that one moves in a universe that is Logos and Love, and this is very important,” added Father Lombardi.
“This is the fascination that he continues to awaken in young scholars and in generations of persons who reflect on the faith, in a highly positive direction, able to pose radical and critical questions,” he said, specifying that “it is not something naive, extravagant, but something serious to study, but with the confidence that one can walk towards the truth that is lived and that fills and gives meaning to life.”
For his part, Monsignor Georg Ganswein, Prefect of the Papal Household, who was present and talked with ZENIT, praised Cardinal Koch’s key of reading and asserted that “it is a compass that helps one to understand and reflect further, but also to implement.”
