In choosing the name "Benedict XVI", Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger linked his pontificate to two great evangelizers: Saint Benedict of Nursia (480-547), patron of Europe, author of the monastic Rule and the founder of the Benedictine Order who evangelized the first Medieval Age, and Pope Benedict XV, who chose this name in honor of St. Benedict and who evangelized the modern age during his pontificate of 1914-1922 when World War I was beginning.
Pope Benedict XV is known for his encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum in which he appealed for peace and analyzed the causes of war. One of the main objectives of his pontificate was the formation and sanctification of the clergy. Oh how we need these agendas continued and further developed now! Can you see God's plan at work?
Working for ecumenism before Vatican Council II became a reality and made ecumenism an ordinary work of the Church, Benedict XV established the octave of prayer for Christian unity (in 1916).
Pope Benedict XVI, immediately after his election to the responsibilities of the pontificate, made it clear in his first, formal message to the Cardinals (April 20, 2005) that he is calling for unity among the bishops and unity among Christians for the sake of effective evangelization efforts throughout the world. He said that as the Successor of the Apostle Peter , he "aims, as a primary commitment, to work without sparing energies for the reconstitution of the full and visible unity of all the followers of Christ." He sees this as his imperative duty.
While prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger played a key role in producing the "Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification," signed in October 1999 by the Holy See and the World Lutheran Federation in Augsburg, Germany. It was one of the most important ecumenical steps since Martin Luther's split from the Catholic Church in the 16th century. Cardinal Ratzinger had dialoged with Lutheran Bishop Johannes Hanselman to reach this agreement about an important doctrine of of the faith.
"Theological dialogue is necessary, in-depth knowledge of the historical reasons of choices made in the past is perhaps indispensable. But what is urgent in the main is that 'purification of the memory,' so many times recalled by John Paul II, which alone can dispose spirits to receive the full truth of Christ," Benedict XVI told the Cardinals.
He is also named after Saint Benedict of Nursia (480-547), founder of monastic communities. For rest and spiritual reflection, Cardinal Ratzinger used to visit the Benedictine Abbey in the central Italian region of Tuscany, St. Mary of Rosano.
"At the beginning of my service as Successor of Peter, I pray to St. Benedict to help us to hold firm the centrality of Christ in our life. May he always be first in our thoughts and in all our activity." (April 27, 2005, in his first general audience.) He quoted from St. Benedict's monastic Rule, Chapter 4: "Prefer absolutely nothing to Christ."
