Bishop Deeley Presides at Memorial Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in Portland
PORTLAND---“We gather in sadness. A great man, a brilliant theologian, a holy priest has passed away.”
The words of Bishop Robert Deeley filled a solemn Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on the afternoon of Wednesday, January 4, as parishioners and community members gathered at a memorial Mass for Pope Benedict XVI, who passed away at the age of 95 on New Year’s Eve (additional pictures below).
Honoring the life of a man of faith and charity was a personal experience for Bishop Deeley, who worked with Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Vatican City nearly 20 years ago.
“He was a shy man, not given to want to be in the public eye. For years, he walked across St. Peter’s Square each morning to the office from his apartment. He was barely recognized. But shy as he was, he was inquisitive and interested in the world. His theology reflected on the world in which he lived, and he always saw God and his creation at the center of reality,” said the bishop.
Bishop Deeley told a story about when he first went to work in the Congregation in September of 2004.
“We were fast approaching the presidential election. In the schedule of the office, Friday morning was the meeting time,” said the bishop. “In the middle of the morning, we would have a coffee break in which the entire staff participated. It was there that we would celebrate important events in the lives of members of staff or things happening in the Church. It was there as well that Cardinal Ratzinger would want to shed his shyness for a moment and move around among the staff. For us, the few Americans, his questions at the time were about the upcoming election. He was keenly interested in what was happening in the world. The joy he took in life was evident to all the staff.”
The bishop shared that Pope Benedict loved the Church and its people and was dedicated to ensuring the teaching the faithful received around the world was genuine.
“One of the places where I witnessed his deep concern for the people of the Church was in his leadership in dealing with the sexual abuse crisis,” Bishop Deeley told the assembly on Wednesday. “I have come to know that myself in working with him at the Vatican in his arduous and painful task of handling these horrible cases of sexual abuse on the part of clerics. This was the man who listened and learned of the enormity of the harm that had been done by sexual abuse and he acted. He set out to establish a new way to deal with those horrendous cases. His first document was published in 2001 by St. John Paul II, his second in 2010 when he himself was Pope. It is in these documents that he designated one office in Rome to handle the cases so that the jurisprudence would be consistent, and it is in these documents that he established ‘zero tolerance,’ one offense and the cleric is no longer able to function in ministry. It was also Benedict who was the first Pope to meet with the victim/survivors of abuse and listened to their stories.”
Pope Benedict XVI was also the first pope to voluntarily give up the pontifical reins in nearly 600 years and spent his twilight years living in the Vatican gardens in a refurbished monastery, rarely appearing in public with the man who succeeded him, Pope Francis.
Throughout his life and service, Benedict was known for being a dominant intellectual figure who promoted and enforced Church doctrine. Scholarly reflection on the life of Jesus articulated in the Gospel, said Bishop Deeley, was the place where Benedict showed his true wish for the people.
“He showed the richness and beauty of Christ in the marvelous trilogy: “Jesus of Nazareth,” a text that will remain in the life of the Church as a spiritual masterpiece of deep theological profundity,” said the bishop during his homily. “That work of three volumes on Jesus of Nazareth reflects his scholarship and his spirituality. In the introduction to the third volume, the shortest of the volumes, which deals with the Birth of Christ, the Infancy narratives, in my opinion, he summarized in his own humble way what I think was his life work: ‘My hope is that this short book, despite its limitations, will be able to help many people on their path toward and alongside Jesus.’ He knew that faith is entrusting oneself to Jesus and being conformed to his very life of love. He taught that holiness was charity lived to the full and that being a Christian ‘is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.’ Benedict’s spiritual testament attests to this core belief, his profession of faith and the star which guided his life and his ministry: ‘Jesus Christ is truly the Way, the Truth, and the Life - and the Church, in all her shortcomings, is truly His Body.’”
Bishop Deeley added that Pope Benedict was humble enough to admit that every decision he made was open to interpretation and criticism, but his faith was unwavering.
“He truly believed that the Lord Jesus was with him on the journey of life. That faith is reflected in his final words as reported by his personal secretary of many years, Archbishop Georg Answering. Those final words, ‘Lord, I love you!’ It was precisely his seeking Jesus, "the beloved", that was the distinguishing hallmark of Joseph Ratzinger's priestly service.”
The bishop shared that Jesus’ words in the Gospel reading on Wednesday (“You have faith in God. Have faith also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?”) were appropriate and fitting for the occasion.
“In the homily Pope Benedict preached at St. John Paul II’s funeral, he made reference to this reading as he ended his remarks,” said the bishop. “He stated that ‘we can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing today at the window of the father’s house, that he sees us and blesses us.’ We can pray today that standing next to St. John Paul II is Pope Benedict, whom we commend today to the mercy of God and prayerfully beg our Lord to give this loyal servant of the Church eternal rest. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace.”
The funeral Mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was held on Thursday morning at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. After the funeral, the retired pontiff’s remains were carried back into the basilica, where the coffin will be placed inside a zinc one, and then finally into another made from oak. In keeping with Benedict’s wishes, his remains will be placed in the crypt once occupied by the tomb of St. John Paul II in the grotto of the basilica.
Additional Masses celebrating the life of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI were held in Lewiston and Machias on Wednesday, with others set for Caribou, Rumford, Sanford, and Scarborough (Thursday); Gray and Greenville (Friday); Bangor, East Millinocket, and Portland (Monday); and Ellsworth (next Wednesday, January 11). To view the schedule details or to learn more about the life of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, visit www.portlanddiocese.org/remembering-pope-benedict-xvi.
