LIKE many other young Aussie Catholics, I’ve changed my profile pic on Facebook to the time when I met with Pope Benedict XVI while working for Vatican Radio.
But, in a way, I’m wishing I could be placing up a pic with him when I knew him as Cardinal Ratzinger.
Yet I would never have wanted to trouble him with something as menial as a photo, as his very humble demeanour really gave you the sense that he was happy in a state of contemplation and observation and that he wanted nothing to be about himself.
This is probably when I had the chance to see him a little more often around the streets of Rome – when he would be spotted with his groceries coming out of the Vatican store, or never passing by a beggar or gypsy without handing over a significant portion of money.
I recall we would attend Masses in German with him at the Vatican then and some of the German youth who knew him more intimately would speculate on whether he would be the next pope.
He would laugh and say it was unlikely and that he wouldn’t accept anyway.
When recalling these times over the course of these days, the words he spoke after being elected also came to mind:
“When, little by little, the trend of the voting led me to understand that, to say it simply, the axe was going to fall on me, my head began to spin.
“I was convinced that I had already carried out my life’s work and could look forward to ending my days peacefully.
“With profound conviction I said to the Lord: Do not do this to me! You have younger and better people at your disposal, who can face this great responsibility with greater dynamism and greater strength.
“I was then very touched by a brief note written to me by a brother cardinal … This brother cardinal wrote to me: Were the Lord to say to you now, ‘Follow me,’ then remember what you preached. Do not refuse! Be obedient in the same way that you described the great pope, who has returned to the house of the Father.
“This deeply moved me. The ways of the Lord are not easy, but we were not created for an easy life, but for great things, for goodness. …
“When [Christ] speaks of the cross that we ourselves have to carry, it has nothing to do with a taste for torture or of pedantic moralism.
“It is the impulse of love, which has its own momentum and does not seek itself but opens the person to the service of truth, justice and the good.”
This warm, gentle Father truly deserved the title us youth at the time gave him of “The German Shepherd”.
Equally does the title fit to reflect his strength and pragmatic decision-making which saw him flawlessly restructure the governance of the Vatican dicasteries, speak boldy about Islam, and action zero tolerance policies against abusive clergy.
Many grumblings are going up around the world from fellow Catholic journalists and theologians as to how such a decision impacts on the office of Supreme Pontiff.
However, it’s having been privileged to have witnessed his extraordinary intellect and faith in action with such close proximity that I trust in his remarkable decision now and expect his pastoral nature to make itself as available as a teacher and mentor as often as necessary to his successor, as he always did for the littlest among us.
Catherine Smibert Toomey is director of Virtual Shout media organisation.
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