Please pardon the German (Polish is sooooooo "last pontificate), but I thought you might like a suggestion for another book for summertime reading.
Fr. Vincent Twomey is a Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology at the Pontifical University of St. Patrick's College in Maynooth, Ireland, and was a doctoral student of Pope Benedict's. He has written a book on his former professor, called Pope Benedict XVI: The Conscience of Our Age (A Theological Portrait) published by Ignatius Press.
Lots of authors have written, and will continue to write, biographies of B16 in which they claim to show you the "real" Papa Ratzinger. I'm looking forward to reading this book, because it's obviously by someone who knew him decades ago. Here's a glimpse of what you'll get:
While at Tubingen, one student asked another to identify the difference between Professor Ratzinger and another equally famous theologian. The reply was: Ratzinger also finds time to play the piano. He is as open to beauty as he is to truth. He lives outside himself. He is not preoccupied with his own self. Put simply, he does not take himself too seriously.
The other anecdote is personal. Once he asked me gently about the progress of my thesis. It was about time, as I had been working on it for some seven years. I told him that I thought there was still some work to be done. He turned to me with those piercing but kindly eyes, saying with a smile: "Nur Mut zur Lücke" (Have the courage to leave some gaps). In other words, be courageous enough to be imperfect.
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