7th Heaven

I will contradict myself again.

Although I mentioned in a previous post that I do not believe that numbers or number combinations govern, influence, dictate or play a role in how one's life will turn out...  

this post will slightly be about numbers.

In fact, this post will be brought to you by the number 7.

For one, this is my 7th post. <*clap, clap, clap*>

For another, the Catholic Church today, 19 April 2012, celebrates a historical milestone.

In a very special way,  we remember the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, who, 7 years ago on 19  April 2005, was elected as the 264th Successor of St. Peter.

We pray that God will continue to bless him with good health, strength and wisdom to lead the Universal Church especially amid the pervading culture of death and relativism in today's society.  

(Let us say 1 Our Father, 1 Hail Mary, 1 Glory be for the Pope and his intentions.) 

--o0o--

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI: Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman province, Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God.

But lest we forget, before he became all these...he was JOSEPH CARDINAL RATZINGER, Archbishop of Munich und Freising, Germany (1977–1982),  President of the International Theological Commission (1981–2005),  Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (1981–2005), President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission (1981–2005) and Dean of the College of Cardinals (2002–2005).

Yes, he was a cardinal, a Prince of the Church, and therefore...a part of this collection.

And yes, I wrote to him as well.

Ten years and 19 days ago today, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote back to me.

Actually, he didn't write anything.

Instead, he sent me two cards: 

Ratzinger card number 1

For the longest time, I did not know what to make of these. 

First of all, the text was written in German which... ich verstehe nicht (I do not understand!) 

Secondly, I do not know what these cards are for: Invitations, perhaps? Stationery?  In any case, they are memorabilia!

Thirdly, why didn't he write anything on them or sign his name at the very least?

Raztinger card number 2

I was inclined to believe (and quick to blame) the pope's secretary, Msgr. Georg Gänswein, for presumably taking it upon himself to sort and read through Cardinal Ratzinger's mail without even showing His Eminence what the correspondence is all about.

I also assumed his secretary was also the one answering the letters for him.

But I was wrong. 

Msgr. Gänswein, Bel Giorgio or Beautiful George, only became Cardinal Ratzinger's secretary, replacing Bishop Josef Clemens, in 2003...a year after I wrote the cardinal. 

Whoops! Sorry naman.

So I'm blaming Bishop Clemens.

I'm kidding.

Eventually, I saw the wisdom in his decision not to write anything.

As the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog for 24 years, his duty was "to promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world: for this reason everything which in any way touches such matter falls within its competence."

Therefore, any document, communication, letter or constitution written by his congregation and signed by him is crucial and may change the doctrinal landscape as we know it.

Affixing his signature and giving it freely even to an unsuspecting fan like me, may be VERY DANGEROUS.

In this day and age when signatures can easily be scanned or forged and security features of documents can be faked or reproduced, lending one's signature to anyone can have disastrous consequences...especially in matters of faith, doctrine and morals.

Imagine if a letter coming from the Congregation makes it to your doorstep saying...you have been excommunicated...or that your parish organization is schismatic. Horror of horrors!

That is why I respect Cardinal Ratzinger's decision not to have sent me anything with his signature on it.

Very well played, Your Eminence, very well played.

Nevertheless, I thank you for your "gifts."

Incidentally,  it is interesting to note that the pope's signature is posted in the Wikipedia entry about him:

In my opinion, this is such a dangerous thing to do.

But then again... it would be very difficult to come up with encyclicals, apostolic letters, exhortations and other documents and simply affix this signature to make them appear they were written by the Pope himself.


First of all, you'd have to learn to write in Latin to be able to do that...


But more importantly, you'd have to have Joseph Ratzinger's gifts of intellect, profundity depth and of course, the backing of the Holy Spirit to convince me that a document actually came from the pope.

Enough said.