In Sydney: Tracey Rowland

Tracey Rowland has just published a book entitled, 'Ratzinger's Faith, The Theology of Pope Benedict XVI' which is now readily available.

The Dean and Assoc. Professor of Political Philosophy and Continental Theology of the John Paul II Institute, Melbourne, Australia, and Member of the Centre of Theology and Philosophy at the University of Nottingham, Tracey Rowland is also a patron of ACSA (Australian Catholic Students Association) and is in Sydney for WYD08.   

Pope Benedict (Joseph Ratzinger) was born in Bavaria on Holy Saturday in 1927.  He was his parents’ third and last child.  His eldest brother is called Georg, and he had a sister called Maria who is now deceased.  They were a very close family. 

During his teenage years, his father opposed Adolf Hitler’s Nazi ideology and as a police commissioner he took extended sick leave so as not to be placed in a position of having to implement Nazi legislation. 

In 1943 at the age of 16, the young Joseph Ratzinger was called up for military service in World War II.  He spent the last two years of the war in various military appointments, first at an anti-aircraft battery near Munich, then as an infantryman on the Hungarian border.  He never fired a single shot during this period of service and he was eventually taken prisoner of war by the Americans which got him completely out of all the action.

After the war he entered the seminary of Freising and in 1947 he began his studies in theology at the University of Munich.  On the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul in 1951 he was ordained a priest, on the same day as his brother Georg.

In his thirties he attended the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) as a peritus (theological advisor) to Josef Cardinal Frings of Cologne.  At the Council he played an important role in the drafting of various documents, particularly the one called Dei Verbum on the relationship between scripture and tradition.

As one of the most prolific theologians of his generation he held positions at the University of Bonn (1959-1963), the University of Münster (1963-1966), the University of Tübingen (1966-1969) and the University of Regensburg (1969-1977).  His life as a full time theology professor came to an end in 1977 when he was made a bishop and cardinal by Paul VI.

As Archbishop of Munich-Freising (1977-1981) he was a prominent defender of the sacrality of human life.  He delivered many homilies against abortion and he also took part in street demonstrations against the treatment of workers and intellectuals associated with the Polish anti-Communist trade union, Solidarity. He was active on ecumenical fronts and organized conferences with non-believers.  Every year on the Feast of St Korbinian he presided at a meeting with young people who were invited to question him about the Church’s teachings.

In 1981 he was called to Rome by John Paul II to become the Prefect for the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, the President of the International Theological Commission and the President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.  These are key positions in the intellectual life of the Church and as Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith his job was that of the Church’s number 1 doctrinal watch dog, or some might say, ‘heresy sniffer’.  He had to discipline theologians who were teaching ideas under the banner of the Catholic faith which were inconsistent with fundamental Christian beliefs.  Those who were relieved that this post was held by someone so learned started to think of him as a German shepherd, that is, a brave and intelligent guard dog.  Others who wanted the Church to change her teachings on various points were highly critical of him, precisely because he was so effective at defending the Church’s declared teachings.

During the quarter-century pontificate of John Paul II, he was one of the Pope’s most trusted intellectual advisors.

On April 19, 2005 he was elected pope.  His first apostolic visit was to Cologne for the August 2006 world youth day celebrations attended by an estimated 1 million pilgrims.  A collection of his homilies delivered on the occasion was published in God’s Revolution: World Youth and Other Cologne Talks (Ignatius, 2006).

Sydney will be his second world youth day experience.

He likes cats and classical music, coffee and cake, and of course, Catholics!