They reveal the testament of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: “Pray to God to welcome me”

This Saturday, December 31, 2022, the Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, after presenting serious health problems. His delicate state was warned by Pope Francis during the general audience last Wednesday.

“I ask for a special prayer for the Pope Benedict XVI that in silence the Church is supporting and remembering that he is very sick and asking the Lord to comfort him and support him in that this testimony of love for the Church until the end, “said Pope Francis.

SIGHT: Benedict XVI, with pontifical chasuble and without pallium in the first photographs after his death

Three days later, the director of the Holy See’s press service, Matteo Bruni, announced the death of the pope emeritus.

“It is with regret that I announce that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away today at 9:34 a.m., in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery of the Vatican. As soon as possible, more information will be provided,” Bruni said.

SIGHT: The last photos of Benedict XVI before his death: he looked thin and emaciated

Following the news, the Vatican has made public the spiritual testament of Benedict XVIwhich he wrote on August 29, 2006. Below is the full text:

Pope Benedict XVI arrives to pray in front of the manger in Saint Peter’s Square on December 31, 2012. (AFP PHOTO / ANDREAS SOLARO).

“When I look back on this last hour of my life over the decades that I have walked, I first see how many reasons I have to be grateful. First of all I thank God himself, giver of all good, who has given me life and has guided me in various moments of confusion; always picking me up whenever he started to slip and always giving me back the light of his face. Looking back, I see and understand that even the dark and tiring sections of this road were for my salvation and that precisely in them he guided me well.

I thank my parents, who gave me life at a difficult time and who, at the cost of great sacrifices, with their love prepared for me a magnificent home that, like a clear light, illuminates all my days to this day. My father’s lucid faith taught us to believe, and as an indicator he has always stood firm in the midst of all my scientific acquisitions; my mother’s deep devotion and great kindness is a legacy I can never thank enough. My sister has selflessly and lovingly helped me for decades; my brother, with the lucidity of his judgments, his vigorous resolution and serenity of heart, has always opened the way for me; without his continuous guidance and company, I would not have been able to find the right path.

I sincerely thank God for so many friends, men and women, that he has always placed by my side; for the collaborators in all the stages of my path; for the teachers and students he has given me. I commend them all gratefully to his kindness. And I want to thank the Lord for my beautiful homeland in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, in which I have always seen the splendor of the Creator himself shine. I thank the people of my homeland because in them I have always been able to experience the beauty of faith again. I pray that our land remains a land of faith and please, dear compatriots: do not be distracted by your faith. And finally I thank God for all the beauty that I have been able to experience at all stages of my journey, especially in Rome and in Italy, which has become my second homeland.

Pope Benedict XVI delivers his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” Christmas blessing from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on December 25, 2012. (AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO).

To all those whom I have wronged in any way, I sincerely apologize.

What I said to my compatriots before, I now say to all those in the Church who have entrusted themselves to my service: remain firm in the faith! Do not get confused! It often seems that science – the natural sciences on the one hand and historical research (particularly the exegesis of Holy Scripture) on the other – is capable of offering irrefutable results in contrast to the Catholic faith. I have lived through the transformations of the natural sciences since antiquity and I have been able to see how, on the contrary, the apparent certainties against faith have vanished, turning out to be not science, but only philosophical interpretations apparently due to science; just as, in addition, it is in the dialogue with the natural sciences that faith has also learned to better understand the limit of the scope of its affirmations, and therefore its specificity. I have been following the path of theology for sixty years, especially the biblical sciences, and with the succession of different generations I have seen theses that seemed unshakable collapse, turning out to be mere hypotheses: the liberal generation (Harnack, Jülicher, etc.), the generation existentialist (Bultmann etc.), the Marxist generation. I have seen and continue to see how the reasonableness of faith has emerged and is emerging again from the tangle of hypotheses. Jesus Christ is truly the way, the truth, and the life, and the Church, with all her insufficiencies, is truly her body.

Finally, I humbly ask: pray for me so that the Lord, despite all my sins and defects, welcomes me into eternal dwellings. To all those entrusted to me, my heartfelt prayer goes day after day.”

Source: Elcomercio