At St. Peter’s, Cardinal Müller celebrates Benedict XVI’s legacy as theologian, pope, and seeker of truth, marking three years since his passing.
Newsroom (31/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) On the eve of the third anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s death, Cardinal Gerhard Müller presided over a solemn Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, celebrating the late pontiff’s enduring theological legacy and his lifelong devotion to truth. Describing Benedict as a man “who always considered himself a collaborator of the truth,” Müller reflected on a life that combined intellectual brilliance, pastoral humility, and steadfast faith.
Born Joseph Ratzinger on April 16, 1927, in Bavaria, the future Benedict XVI stood at the crossroads of modern Church history. From his early years as a theological adviser at the Second Vatican Council to his long service under John Paul II as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger shaped—and often defended—the intellectual core of modern Catholicism. Elected pope in 2005, he shepherded the Church until his resignation in 2013, later devoting his final years to prayer and study within the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican, where he died on December 31, 2022, at age 95.
At Wednesday’s liturgy, cardinals, bishops, priests, and lay faithful filled the basilica to pray for the repose of the German pope who, as Müller said, “completed his earthly pilgrimage and preceded us in the heavenly homeland.” In his homily, the cardinal evoked the ultimate Christian hope: “Upon arriving at the Father’s House, we will see God face to face and we will praise and love Him in the communion of all His chosen saints.”
Müller lauded Benedict’s fidelity to the Gospel and his intellectual rigor. As prefect, the cardinal noted, Benedict “established standards of the highest diligence, intellectual precision and incorruptibility for the Roman Magisterium”—a commitment he carried into his pontificate. Even in secular circles, his influence reached unlikely partners: Müller recalled the philosopher Jürgen Habermas, a leading figure of the Frankfurt School, who engaged Benedict in dialogue on the moral foundations of modern society.
In a moment of personal recollection, Müller shared an anecdote that revealed the pope’s humility. When presented with the first volume of his Opera Omnia—a monumental collection spanning as many as 30,000 pages—Benedict quipped, “Who is going to read all that?” Müller replied softly, “Holy Father, I don’t know, but I do know the person who wrote it all.”
The cardinal called Benedict’s theology “a gift for the entire Church, including future generations,” encouraging renewed study of his writings. For believers seeking a place to begin, Müller recommended Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth trilogy, noting that by publishing the work under his personal name, the pope made a profound theological statement: that papal authority must always serve the truth revealed in Christ, not overshadow it.
Throughout his homily, Müller touched on Benedict’s lifelong concern for the harmony between faith and reason. Against the perceived divide emerging from the Enlightenment, he reaffirmed that “there is no contradiction with the revealed truth about the world and humanity,” for faith rests not on experiment or theory but “on the Word of God, through whom all that exists has come into being.” The task of theology, he urged, is “to demonstrate the profound unity between revealed faith and the most recent secular knowledge.”
For Benedict, Müller concluded, Christianity was never an abstract system but a living encounter with the person of Christ. “The Church of Christ,” he said, “is not an organization created by man with an ethical or social program, but a community of disciples who profess before the world: We have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
As the Mass concluded, the tone was one of reverent gratitude. “Joseph Ratzinger, the theologian, bishop, cardinal, and pope, is not far from us,” Müller reminded the faithful. “For our earthly liturgy corresponds to the heavenly liturgy, in which he joins us to adore and glorify God, loving and praising Him for all eternity.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from ACI Prensa
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