- Feb 5, 2002
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Happy Friday friends,
And a special Happy Birthday to the pope emeritus Benedict XVI, who turns 94 today. History will remember the theologian formerly known as Joseph Ratzinger for many reasons, but for me he will always be the pope who came to my office one day and changed my life.
In 2010, I was working in the House of Commons and Pope Benedict was making a state visit to the UK. By chance or by grace, I was given two tickets in the seventh row for his address to the joint houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall.
“The fundamental questions at stake in Thomas More’s trial continue to present themselves in ever-changing terms as new social conditions emerge,” the pope said.
“If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident - herein lies the real challenge for democracy.”
Sound prophetic to you?
We will have a Benedict reading list up at The Pillar later today as a birthday primer on the pope emeritus, but it was that speech, in the building where I worked everyday, that never left me and set me on the road to canon law school.
—
Continued below.
The Vatican financial draft rankings, a bishop 'resigns', and drinks with The Pillar
And a special Happy Birthday to the pope emeritus Benedict XVI, who turns 94 today. History will remember the theologian formerly known as Joseph Ratzinger for many reasons, but for me he will always be the pope who came to my office one day and changed my life.
In 2010, I was working in the House of Commons and Pope Benedict was making a state visit to the UK. By chance or by grace, I was given two tickets in the seventh row for his address to the joint houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall.
“The fundamental questions at stake in Thomas More’s trial continue to present themselves in ever-changing terms as new social conditions emerge,” the pope said.
“If the moral principles underpinning the democratic process are themselves determined by nothing more solid than social consensus, then the fragility of the process becomes all too evident - herein lies the real challenge for democracy.”
Sound prophetic to you?
We will have a Benedict reading list up at The Pillar later today as a birthday primer on the pope emeritus, but it was that speech, in the building where I worked everyday, that never left me and set me on the road to canon law school.
—
Continued below.
The Vatican financial draft rankings, a bishop 'resigns', and drinks with The Pillar
