HABEMVS PAPAM

BENEDICTVM XVI

Message from Most Rev. Raymond J. Lahey, Bishop of Antigonish:

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE DIOCESE OF ANTIGONISH

 

 

April 19, 2005

 

My dear Parishioners,

 

We have just heard from the Vatican the age-old words: “I announce to you news of great joy: we have a pope!”  The cardinals of the Church in Conclave have elected as our new pope Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, who has chosen the name Benedict XVI. 

 

In his first words the Holy Father has described himself as a simple and humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard, and has entrusted himself our prayers.  These above all, we should offer him, for the task of shepherding Christ’s Church with care and with fidelity is a truly awesome one.

 

I have had the privilege of knowing the new Holy Father personally now for some seventeen years, and while his intelligence and ability to articulate the faith are no doubt widely recognized within the Church, I know him also to be a man of genuine simplicity, of real humility, a man gentle and kind, a caring priest, and above all a man of deep faith and spirituality.  He will, I know, be a faithful teacher and a good pastor to the Catholics throughout the world, to whom he is now “the servant of the servants of God.”

 

I have written to our new Pope on your behalf to assure him of the warmth of affection with which this Diocese has received the news of his election, and of your prayers in his regard.

 

Sincerely in the Lord,

 

 

Raymond J. Lahey,

Bishop of Antigonish
Benedict XVI - Benedict the 16th
Brief Biography:

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, 77
former Dean of the College of Cardinals

Joseph Ratzinger was born April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, Germany. He was ordained a priest June 29, 1951.

He spent his adolescent years in Traunstein, and was called into the auxiliary anti-aircraft service in the last months of World War II. From 1946 to 1951, the year in which he was ordained a priest and began to teach, he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Munich and at the higher school in Freising.

In 1953 he obtained a doctorate in theology. Four years later, he qualified as a university teacher. He then taught dogma and fundamental theology at the higher school of philosophy and theology of Freising, then in Bonn from 1959 to 1969, Muenster from 1963 to 1966, Tuebinga from 1966 to 1969.

From 1969, he was a professor of dogmatic theology and of the history of dogma at the University of Regensburg and vice president of the same university.

In 1962 he became a consultor at the Second Vatican Council. In March 1977, Pope Paul VI elected him archbishop of Munich and Freising and on May 28, 1977, he was ordained a bishop -- the first diocesan priest after 80 years to take over the pastoral ministry of this large Bavarian diocese.

He was elevated to cardinal in June 1977. In November 1981 he was named prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and president of the Biblical Commission and of the Pontifical International Theological Commission.

He was elected vice dean of the College of Cardinals in November 1998. In November 2002, the Pope approved his election, by the order of cardinal bishops, as dean of the College of Cardinals.

Cardinal Ratzinger was president of the Commission for the Preparation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and after six years of work he presented the new catechism to the Holy Father in 1992.

Curial Membership
* Secretariat of State (second section)
* Eastern Churches, Divine Worship and the Sacraments, Bishops, Evangelization of Peoples, Catholic Education (congregations)
* Christian Unity, Culture (councils)
* Latin America, Ecclesia Dei (commissions)