Questions and Answers with Pope Benedict XVI

I became a fan of then-Cardinal Ratzinger soon after my conversion to Catholicism, when as a new music director I read his lovely little book The Spirit of the Liturgy.  Along with the Vatican II document on the liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium, it was very formational for me in doing music for the mass.  I’ve since read several other things of his, both books and documents.  I love his style, because he manages to be both very deep, and yet very understandable, conveying very profound truths about the Faith without watering anything down, but in terms a layman can understand without too much effort.

Now I have another little book to recommend, recently published by Our Sunday Visitor, Questions and Answers.  If you think Pope Benedict is good at writing books and documents, which he has time to plan out and develop and edit and refine, you’ll really be impressed with this little gem.  It is comprised of questions from audiences with children, clergy, and youth, and his spontaneous, unplanned answers.  To read it is to be impressed with how deeply he has not only studied, but truly taken in and absorbed and synthesized at a very deep level everything he has studied – truly the fruit of a lifetime of study and reflection. 

It reminds me of a story I read when he was elected Pope.  He had to wait several months to move into the Papal apartments, because they had to be remodeled to accommodate his library of 20,000 books!  And reading his works, I feel certain that he has read every one.

Perhaps most moving to me about this little book was to read the questions themselves, what they represent about the hopes and struggles of the faithful, especially of priests.  It is a tiny window into the hearts of priests, to see the concerns they express to the Pope.  Take these, for example:

Some priests also feel “inwardly dislocated.”  How can we be experts in “agape,” in the fullness of love, in order to be able to make the total gift of ourselves to help them? (p. 38)

Priests find it very difficult to pass on the faith to the younger generations. . . . is there something lacking in our formation? (p. 44-45)

. . . Young and old, we all feel inadequate.  This is firstly because we are so few in comparison with the many needs, and we come from different backgrounds; we also suffer from a shortage of priestly vocations.  That is why we sometimes feel discouraged.  We try to patch things up here and there and are often forced to attend to emergencies, without any precise projects.  Seeing how much there is to do, we are tempted to give priority to “doing” and to neglect “being”; this is inevitably reflected in our spiritual life, our conversation with God, our prayer and our charity (love) for our brethren, especially those who are far away.  Holy Father, what can you tell us about this?  I am a certain age . . . but is it possible for these young confreres of mine to hope? (p. 69)

. . . The contemporary mind-set demands that young people be happy and perfect all of the time.  The result is that every tiny failure and the least difficulty are no longer seen as causes for growth but as a defeat.  All this often leads to irreversible acts such as suicide, which wound the hearts of those who love them and of society as a whole.  What can you tell us educators who feel all too often that our hands are tied and that we have no answers?  (p. 145)

To know how our Pope answered these questions, you’ll have to read the book, of course!