April 16, 2022 –Pope Benedict XVI’s Birthday and Baptism anniversary (1927)
– Month of the Holy Eucharist
– Birth name – Joseph Aloysius Ratzinger
– Named after St. Aloysius, as was Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta
June 29, 1951 – Ordination day
– Ordained in the Month of Sacred Heart on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul
“At the moment the elderly Archbishop laid his hands on me, a little bird – perhaps a lark – flew up from the Altar in the high Cathedral and trilled a little joyful song.”
Joseph Ratzinger about his Ordination on June 29, 1951
Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul
Our Lord Jesus to Luisa – DAY OF BIRTH OF POPE BENEDICT XVI – V21 – 4.16.27 – “…whenever I want to do a Great Work worthy of Me, it is Necessary that I First Choose one creature – First, in order to have a place in which to put My Gift; Second, to be repaid for It… So I have done for you: I Chose you, Luisa, I Prepared you, and then I Entrusted to you the Great Gift of the Manifestations of My Will; and just as I Entrusted the Destiny of My Sacramental Life to My Beloved Mother, in the Same Way I Wanted to Trust you, Entrusting to you the Destiny of the Kingdom of My Will.”
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“The ‘always’ is also a ‘for ever‘ – there can no longer be a return to the private sphere. My decision to resign the active exercise of the ministry does not revoke this. I do not return to private life, to a life of travel, meetings, receptions, conferences, and so on. I am not abandoning the cross, but remaining in a new way at the side of the crucified Lord. I no longer bear the power of office for the governance of the Church, but in the service of prayer I remain, so to speak, in the enclosure of Saint Peter. Saint Benedict, whose name I bear as Pope, will be a great example for me in this. He showed us the way for a life which, whether active or passive, is completely given over to the work of God.”
-Pope Benedict XVI, February 27, 2013, Papal Audience
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“The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for comfort.
You were made for greatness.” – Pope Benedict XVI
On April 16, 1904 – On the day, 23 years prior, to the birth and Baptism of Pope Benedict XVI – Luisa presented herself to God Our Father asking for Mercy… and He Says, “For Love of you Luisa instead of doing ten, I Will Do five.”
Vol. 6 – 4.16.04 – Jesus and God the Father speak about Mercy – Continuing in my usual state, I found myself outside of myself, and I saw a multitude of people, and in their midst one could hear noises of bombs and gun shots. People were dropping dead or wounded, and those who were left would flee up to a palace nearby; but the enemies would go up there and kill them, more surely than those who remained outside. So I said to myself: ‘How I wish I could see whether the Lord is there in the midst of these people, so as to say to Him: ‘Have Mercy – Pity on these poor people!’ So I went round and round and I saw Him as a little Child; but little by little He kept growing, until He reached the perfect age. I drew near Him and I said: ‘Amiable Lord, don’t You see the tragedy that is happening? You don’t want to make use of Mercy any more? Do You perhaps want to keep this Attribute as useless, which has Always Glorified your Incarnate Divinity with So Much Honor, forming a Special Crown on Your August Head, and Bejeweling You with a Second Crown, So Wanted and Loved by You – which is souls?’
Now, while I was saying this, He told me: ‘Enough, enough, do not go any further; you want to speak of Mercy, and what about Justice – what are we going to do with It? I have told you and I repeat to you: ‘It is necessary that Justice follow Its course’.” So I replied: ‘There is no remedy – why then leave me on this earth when I can no longer placate You and suffer in the place of my neighbor? Since it is so, it is better if You let me die.’ At that moment I saw another Person behind the Shoulders of Blessed Jesus, and He told me, almost making a Sign with His Eyes: “Present yourself to My Father and see what He Tells you.’ I presented myself, all trembling, and as soon as He saw me, He Told me: “Why have you come to Me?” And I: ‘Adorable Goodness, Infinite Mercy, knowing that You are Mercy Itself, I have come to ask for Your Mercy – Mercy on Your very images, Mercy on the Works Created by You; Mercy on nothing else but your creatures themselves.’ And He Said to me: “So, it is Mercy that you want. But if you want True Mercy, after Justice has Poured Itself out It will Produce Abundant Fruits of Mercy.” Not knowing what else to say, I said: ‘Father, Infinitely Holy, when servants or people in need present themselves before their masters or rich people, if these are good, even if they do not give everything that is necessary for them, they always give something. And to me, who have had the good of presenting myself before You, Absolute Master, Rich without limit, Infinite Goodness, don’t You want to Give anything of what this poor little one has asked of You? Does a master perhaps not remain more honored and content when he gives, than when he denies what is necessary to his servants?’ After a moment of Silence, He added: “For Love of you, instead of doing ten, I will do five.” Having said this, They Disappeared, and in several places of the earth, especially of Europe, I saw wars, civil wars and revolutions multiply.
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St. Annibale di Francia was the Ecclesiastical Censor of Luisa’s writings until his death on June 1, 1927 (46 days after the birth and Baptism of Joseph Aloysius Ratzinger). Volumes 1 to 19 bear his Nihil Obstat. Additionally, he was responsible for publishing Luisa’s work, “The Hours of the Passion” in 1915. Pope John Paul II canonized St. Annibale on May 16, 2004 and declared him to be the Saint to pray to for Vocations.
June 29, 1951 – Ordained in the Month of Sacred Heart on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul
“At the moment the elderly Archbishop laid his hands on me, a little bird – perhaps a lark – flew up from the Altar in the high Cathedral and trilled a little joyful song.”
Joseph Ratzinger about his Ordination on June 29, 1951
March 25, 1977 – (Historically: Creation of Adam and Eve; Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ; Annunciation; Immaculate Conception as identified to St. Bernadette; passing of Israel through Red Sea; Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac) Pope Paul VI named Ratzinger Archbishop of Munich and Freising. On May 28 of the same year he received episcopal ordination. He was the first Diocesan priest for 80 years to take on the pastoral governance of the great Bavarian Archdiocese. He chose as his episcopal motto: “Cooperators of the Truth”. He himself explained why:
“On the one hand I saw it as the relation between my previous task as professor and my new mission. In spite of different approaches, what was involved, and continued to be so, was following the Truth and being at its service. On the other hand I chose that motto because in today’s world the theme of Truth is omitted almost entirely, as something too great for man, and yet everything collapses if Truth is missing.”
November 25, 1981 – Pope John Paul II names Cardinal Ratzinger prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and of the International Theological Commission.
May 1990 – Jose Luis Acuna, in a private audience with Cardinal Ratzinger, said some of the books published by the Father Annibale di Francia, whom His Holiness was going to Beatify, had been “condemned.” Therefore, the Cardinal had to investigate this matter personally, whether there was an error or not, and the result was that Fr. Annibale was Beatified with no hindrance. Not only this, but His Eminence said in private to Monsignor Ricardo Guizar, who was then our Bishop of Atlacomulco, Mexico, that:
“All of the Writings of Luisa must be approved” – Cardinal Ratzinger
“When the Cause for Beatification and Canonization of Luisa Piccarreta was officially proposed, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, at that time the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, nullified the previous condemnations of the Index, thereby removing the impediment to her Cause. Thus on the Feast of Christ the King, Sunday November 20, 1994, the process for the Cause of the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, was finally opened. And most recently, the second theologian assigned to evaluate the writings of Luisa Piccarreta by the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of the Saints has given a positive, that is, a favorable judgement. This means that both of the official censors librorum for the Cause of Luisa have found nothing contrary to the faith in her writings, and her Cause can now go forward.” – Padre Bernardino Bucci, OFM
November 13, 1995 – Archbishop Cassati asked the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, to copy the volumes of Luisa kept in the Dicastery’s Archives. As a result:
On February 2, 1996 – Feast of the Presentation – Pope John Paul II permitted copying of original volumes of Luisa which were contained in the Vatican Archives; process done in the office of Cardinal Ratzinger.
November 6, 1998 – Pope John Paul II approved the election of Cardinal Ratzinger as the Vice Dean of the College of Cardinals.
November 30, 2002 – Pope John Paul II approved the election of Cardinal Ratzinger as the Dean of the College of Cardinals and gave him the title of Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia.
April 18, 2005 – Cardinal Ratzinger’s homily before his election as Pontiff in St. Peter’s Basilica:
“You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14). Friendship with Christ coincides with the third request of the Our Father: “Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven”. At his hour in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus Transformed our rebellious human will into a will conformed and united with the Divine Will. He Suffered the whole drama of our autonomy – and precisely by placing our will in God’s Hands, He Gives us True Freedom: “Not as I will, but as You Will” (Mt 26:39).
April 19, 2005 – Elected as the 265th Pope, he adopts the name of Benedict XVI, in honor of St. Benedict, founder of Western monasticism, and of Benedict XV, pope during World War I and promoter of peace.
Our Lord Jesus to Luisa – V12 – 10.16.18 – “Once I have Purged everything, I will place My Finger in a Surprising Way, and will give the True Peace.”
“…In the joy of the Risen Lord, confident of His Permanent Help, let us go forward.
The Lord will Help us. Mary, His Most Holy Mother is on our side.”
April 24, 2005 – Papal Inauguration Mass in St. Peter’s Square, during which Pope Benedict XVI was invested with the Pallium and the Ring of the Fisherman, in the month of the Holy Eucharist.
July 7, 2007 – Pope Benedict XVI issued Motu Proprio, an Apostolic Letter Summorum Pontificum on the celebration of the Roman Rite according to the Missal of 1962.
On July 7, 2010 – Pope Benedict XVI blessed a 17.5′ statue of Saint Annibale Maria di Francia at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican.
February 11, 2013 – Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of All Nations – Pope Benedict XVI stunned the world and the Catholic Church when he said that he would resign – the first pope to do so since the middle ages. Hours later, lightning struck the cupola of St. Peter’s Basilica.
In a letter dated October 2014 – Pope Benedict XVI responded by letter to an invitation that he received, to participate in a Pontifical High Mass as part of a Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage in Rome:
“My state as a ‘cloistered monk’ does not allow me a presence that is also exterior. I leave my cloister only in particular cases, [when] personally invited by the Pope [Pope Francis].”
In Peter Seewald’s recent book, interviewing Pope Benedict, he asked:
“Do you see yourself as the last Pope of an old era or the first Pope of a New Era?” – Seewald
“I would say both. I don’t belong to the old world anymore, but the new world isn’t really here yet…Seismic upheavals are now underway. But we do not yet know at which precise point we can say that there begins one, and there another.” – Pope Benedict XVI
Additionally, Pope Benedict’s name-sake, St. Joseph, was also a liminal figure, [liminal means Intermediate between two states, conditions, or regions; transitional or indeterminate] standing astride the two Covenants, old and new. St. Joseph, too, was a “humble laborer”, and, in the pages of Scripture at least, pretty quiet, but decisive when he was directed from Above. He tried to keep his family safe.
Thus, Joseph Aloysius – Pope Benedict XVI:
– bridge between Redemption and Sanctification
– bridge between the old and the New Era – Era of the Third Fiat
– bridge between the Saints of the New Testament and the little children of the Testament of Love
Our Lord Jesus to Luisa – V12 – 10.16.18:
“Once I have Purged everything, I will place My Finger in a Surprising Way, and will give the True Peace. And then, all those who are humiliated will return to Me; and Germany will be Catholic – I have great designs upon her; England, Russia, and every place where blood was shed, will Rise Again to Faith and will be incorporated into My Church. There will be the Great Triumph and the union of peoples. Therefore, pray – and it takes patience, because this will not be so soon, but it will take time.”
Our Lord Jesus to Luisa – V15 – 7.11.23:
“What Great Attention is Required of you, Luisa, and of them (priests): of you, in receiving from Me, like a second mother to Me, the Great Gift of My Will, and in Knowing All Its Qualities; of them, by receiving them from you, so that the ‘Fiat Voluntas Tua on earth as It is in Heaven’ may be Fulfilled in My Church.”
“She (The Catholic Church) shall become small and shall have to start afresh more or less from the beginning.
She shall no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices She built in prosperity.”
– Fr. Joseph Aloysius Ratzinger 1969
Fiat!
