Vatican News published the document written by Jose Ratzinger on August 29, 2006.
When, at this late stage in my life, I look back on the decade-long journey I’ve been on, the first thing I see is how much I have reasons to be grateful. First of all I thank God, the giver of all graces: he gave me life, he guided me through all kinds of confusing moments, in the light of his face. Looking back now, I see and understand that while there have been dark and difficult parts of this journey, it was for my salvation, and it was in these moments that he guided me completely.
I am grateful to my parents who gave me life in a difficult time, made great sacrifices and prepared me with their love for a wonderful home, and are like a beacon that lights up my every day. My father’s clear faith taught us children to believe that he was an unstoppable beacon on my road to all knowledge; exhausted legacy. My sister has cared for me selflessly for decades and given me some TLC; my brother has always paved the way for me with his clear judgment, his strong perseverance and his quiet heart; without him, he always walked in front of me and accompanied me. I, I can’t find the right way.
I thank God from the bottom of my heart for the many friends, men and women, who have always been by my side; for collaborators at all stages of my journey; for the teachers and students that God has given me. I entrust them all to his mercy with gratitude. I thank the Lord for my beautiful home in Bavaria in the Alps, where I always see the light of the Creator shine. I am grateful to the people of my hometown, because in them I have experienced the beauty of faith over and over again. I pray that our land will continue to be a fertile ground of faith, and I beg you, dear fellow citizens: do not stray from your faith. Finally, I thank God for allowing me to experience all the good in all the stages of my journey, especially in Rome and Italy, which have become my second home.
To everyone I have hurt in any way, I sincerely apologize.
What I said before to my fellow men, I now say to all those who have entrusted my service in the Church: stand firm in the faith! Don’t get into chaos! It often seems that science, on the one hand natural science, and on the other historical study (especially the exegesis of the Bible), is capable of providing irrefutable results contrary to the Catholic faith. I experienced the transformation of the natural sciences very early on and I was able to testify that, in contrast with it, the apparent certainty which opposed faith has disappeared, showing that it is not science but a philosophical interpretation which deals only superficially of science; on the other hand, as in dialogue with the natural sciences, faith too learns to better understand the limits of its affirmative scope, which is its uniqueness. In the sixty years that I have accompanied the development of theology, especially in biblical studies, I have seen apparently unshakable arguments crumble and reveal themselves as hypotheses as generations have followed: the liberal generation (Hana K, Ulrich, etc.), the existentialist generation (Bultmann, etc.) and the Marxist generation. I have seen and am seeing how the plausibility of belief emerges and continues to emerge from the tangle of assumptions. Jesus Christ is truly the way, the truth and the life, and the Church, with all her defects, is truly his body.
Finally, I humbly ask: will you pray for me, so that, despite all my sins and imperfections, the Lord will accept me into his eternal abode. I sincerely pray every day for all those entrusted to me.
Pope Benedict XVI
Link URL:www.vaticannews.cn
