Many condolences for Benedict XVI. also from Hamburg
Stefan Hess, archbishop of Hamburg, described his relationship with the former pope
Those: picture alliance/dpa
The archbishop of Hamburg calls the late former pope Benedict XVI. a “training teacher”. Mayor Peter Tschentscher expresses his condolences as President of the Federal Council. And the Northern Protestant Church is also sending a message.
dhe archbishop of Hamburg, Stefan Hess, welcomed the late Pope Benedict XVI. honored as a “training teacher and theologian”. As a professor, bishop, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as pope and even after his resignation as pope, he helped shape and shape theology and the church for six decades. “A thought of Pope Benedict has a special effect on me: being Christ is not a theory, it is not a construct of thought, but first of all an encounter with a person, with Jesus Christ,” Hess said on Saturday.
He had special respect for Benedikt’s resignation. “He knew how to realistically gauge the strength of him waning and had the greatness to let go.” In addition to his theology and his “extraordinary capacity for free speech,” he will likely go down in history with this freely chosen resignation, according to Hesse.
Benedict XVI died on Saturday morning, according to the Vatican. Benedikt, whose real name was Joseph Ratzinger, was 95 years old. He was the head of the Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013. After eight years as pontiff, Benedict XVI resigned. In 2013 he surprisingly accepted the pontifical office and has since lived a secluded life in the Vatican.
The regional bishop of the Protestant Church of the North, Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt, has the Catholics of the North after the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. she offered her condolences. “My thoughts go out to all those who died around the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. mourn, especially among our Catholic brothers and sisters in the archbishoprics of Hamburg and Berlin,” said Kühnbaum-Schmidt on Saturday in Schwerin. Everyone has their solidarity and their prayers.
Condolences from City Hall
Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) found the late pope emeritus out of his current role as President of the Federal Council as one of the future theologians of his time. The mayor of Hamburg explained on Saturday that he represented the traditions of the Catholic Church with great conviction and at the same time conducted a dialogue with representatives of the Protestant Church, Judaism and Islam. “Like his election as the first German pope of modern times and his retirement from official office in 2013, his death also moved the faithful in Germany and his Bavarian homeland in a special way.”
