Geburtstagsglückwünsche...

...für den emeritierten Papst Benedikt XVI, der heute sein neunundachtzigtes Lebensjahr feiert.

Yes, today is the great Pope Emeritus Benedict's eighty-ninth birthday.  I say 'great' and mean it because, as I explained in one of my first posts on this blog, I think he is one of the most important public figures to have appeared on the world stage since the millennium (and he had been doing mighty work long before then).  Not only did he hold the Church's tiller steady against wave after wave in this age of tumult, but he went out to do battle with the forces of secularism and relativism: not with sound and fury, as they expected, but with lucidness of intellect and steadfastness of goodness.  He dedicated his intellectual gifts to the cause of goodness and truth.  He reminded a world unwilling  (especially in the West) to acknowledge its burden of disillusionment, cynicism and selfishness that it is, in fact, possible to speak of such things as absolute truth, intellectual faith and authentic love: "I have come", he once said, visiting Berlin, "to speak about God".  He was undaunted when the apostles of secularism scoffed, 'Truth?  What is that?'. He continued to use old words like 'beauty', 'love' and 'faith' with a straight face, and yet without raising his voice.  Having witnessed evil for himself, especially in the 1930s and 1940s, he taught my generation that goodness and gentleness are not the same as blandness, or even as kindness, but often have to be proved with moral courage and honesty before God.  Above all, he gave us a tremendous example, itself founded on the example of Christ.  He (along with St. Peter) has a magnificent successor in Pope Francis, but his writing and example remain a rich treasure-trove for the Church and for the New Evangelisation.  It is as much a gift as a challenge to number among the 'Benedict generation', and so I here express my gratitude for his long life, pray for his good health, and propose a Bavarian 'Prost!'.

Pope Benedict toasting last year's 88th birthday (It is right and just)

(Photo: The Ratzinger Forum, possibly ultimately L'Osservatore Romano)