It's an interview with someone who knew him when, beginning in seminary:
Did the Ratzinger brothers distinguish themselves in any way?
During lessons, they were always in the first row. The other students called them Orgel-Ratz and Buecher-Ratz, the Ratzinger of the organ and the Ratzinger of the books. Georg was already a musician even then.
What struck you the most about Joseph?
He was like blotting paper which absorbed everything almost with avidity. Whenever he found something during his studies that he could correct or that opened new avenues for him in relation to what he already knew, he was full of enthusiasm and could not wait to share it with others. He and I spent hours and hours discussing things while going on a walk. First one subject then another… I remember as though it were yesterday the time we discussed the sentence in which Nietszche said that Christians should have the faces of redeemed persons so that one can believe in their Redeemer.
He came to the Mass at which Cardinal Faulhaber ordained me as a priest on June 29, 1947 in Freising. And even that day, he had questions for me.
What did he want to know?
He asked: What happens at the moment of Consecration, during the Mass? Who is at work during this mystery? Is it I, the priest, who is doing it? Is there some sort of magic force at work? These were his questions that day, and then again after my First Mass in Partenkirchen, on July 6, 1947. We talked for hours that day, taking a walk near the ski slopes built for the Winter Olympics of 1936. I repeated a passage from St. John Chrysostom (I had read it during the spiritual exercises to prepare for my ordination) where he says that the priest lends Christ his being, his hands, his words, but it is Christ himself who works the miracle of changing bread and wine into his flesh and blood.
In 1997, when I celebrated 50 years of priesthood in Munich-Pasing, Ratzinger sent me a letter in which he recalled how important that day was for him.
Can we read it?
“On that festive day,” he wrote, remembering that walk, “I experienced much more than ever before what it means to be a priest in the Church of Jesus Christ. You yourself told me then how moved you were that you could say the same words that Jesus did for the transformation of bread and wine, giving him your voice, your words, your very being.” For that first Mass which I celebrated in my hometown of Partenkirchen, I asked Ratzinger to accompany me and be my ‘cerimoniere.’
At that time you were already a Newman scholar. Was it you who transmitted to Ratzinger his interest in this English cardinal theologian?
Newman was not just a topic like any other, He was our passion. The theme of my thesis was :”Conscience in Newman”. I did my doctoral exams in July 1951, one week after Ratzinger was ordained priest. He helped me. It was he who translated my thesis into classical Latin, a thesis that at the time had to be defended during a public session at the University of Munich in order to earn the doctorate.
Between us we shared this great liberty in looking at and judging things, the freedom of the sons of God that St. Paul writes about. So that was why Newman fascinated us – one who had lived as a free-thinking man in the context of anglicanism, how would such a man accept the Catholic doctrine of the primacy of the Church? Was it thinkable that he could accept this doctrine as a limit to his own liberty? It was I who read Ratzinger the sentence of Newman that he has often cited since…
Which is?
The famous sentence in his letter to the Duke of Norfolk: “Certainly if I had to offer a toast to religion after a meal – something which one is rarely called on to do – then I would toast the Pope. But first for conscience and then for the Pope.”
Quite fascinating. Read it all. And then check out the entire Forum. You thought we were fans????
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