Representative Chris Smith (R-NJ) said Thursday that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was “an extraordinary religious leader” who “led us to be more faithful followers of Jesus Christ and His Church on earth.”
Smith, who co-chairs the House’s Pro-Life Caucus, and serves as the ranking member of both the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights & International Organizations, and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said Benedict was “a powerful defender of the weakest and most vulnerable, including unborn children and their mothers, and ever faithful in both living and promoting the good news of the Gospel.”
The congressman’s comments came on the day tens of thousands of the faithful stood in St. Peter’s Square to celebrate the retired pope’s funeral Mass, presided over by Pope Francis.
Benedict’s retirement of 10 years, during which he lived at the Mater Ecclesial Monastery in the Vatican Gardens, ended up outlasting his eight years of service as pope.
“Pope Benedict XVI inspired countless believers to love God above all things and to love our neighbor as ourselves and was tenacious in defending the tenants of the Catholic Church and admonished us to recognize and resist the ‘dictatorship of relativism,’” Smith said.
“He was a great defender of religious freedom—and spoke of this in 2008 during his address at the White House and later at the UN,” he added. “Like millions, both my wife Marie and I were deeply touched by his words.”
The congressman noted especially about Benedict:
As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for a quarter of a century—and a tremendous friend and ally of St. John Paul II—and then as Pope, he summed up his mission in a book in 2016: “I was conscious that my task was of another kind: that I must try above all else to show what faith means in the contemporary world, and further, to highlight the centrality of faith in God, and give people the courage to have faith, courage to live concretely in the world with faith.”
Benedict, born Joseph Ratzinger, died on December 31 at the age of 95.
Despite his request for a simple funeral, marked by a plain cypress coffin, many heads of state, royalty, and clergy from around the globe joined thousands of others to honor the pope emeritus, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
According to the Vatican’s report, about 50,000 people attended Benedict’s funeral Mass, with some 200,000 paying tribute to him during three days of the public viewing.
Among attendees at Benedict’s funeral, as AP noted, was Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, who was granted special permission by a court to attend the requiem Mass. Zen was detained last May, under China’s national security law, and his passport revoked, for his participation in the democracy movement that has since been suppressed by the Communist Chinese Party.
“Pope Benedict XVI was brilliant, yet humble and courageous, and spoke much of forgiveness and reconciliation,” Smith said. “What a blessing he was. Indeed what a blessing.”
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
