The title of this work is clearly a ‘coded’ allusion to a book with solemn New Age pretensions, very popular in recent years, that includes a Renaissance artist in its own title. However, Joanna Bogle takes pains to point out that “there isn’t really a code to crack. Catholicism is an open book which anyone can read.”

Her purpose in this compilation of short extracts from the Holy Father’s recent speeches and some earlier writings is to introduce Pope Benedict XVI to ordinary people who have neither the time nor the intellectual inclination to read his works in entirety. It is not so much an introduction to his theological concerns as an invitation to prayerful meditation on certain themes, such as the Church, the Eucharist, the priesthood and the Christian heritage of Europe.

She begins with a brief survey of Pope Benedict’s life, with its intensely Catholic roots in Bavaria, and his academic distinction when teaching in several German universities. Fr Joseph Fessio SJ, whose doctoral director in the 1970s was the then Professor Ratzinger, recalls, “Even then one felt a presence because of his goodness, his openness and his wisdom.”

In 1988, when he was a cardinal, he met a group of French Protestants, one of whom later remembered: “This very powerful ecclesiastical figure…warmly received us, an unimpressive group of Reformed theologians, for two hours…I was impressed by his intellect, theological wisdom and by his openness to biblical theology.” Far from the negative media labels that Pope Benedict received in his time as Director of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Joanna Bogle shows his courtesy, holiness and humility as well as his intellectual rigour.

Like his predecessor, the Holy Father’s vision is entirely Christ-centred. At his inaugural Mass on 24 April 2005, he declared: “With great strength and great conviction, on the basis of long experience of life, I say…do not be afraid of Christ!” In another homily that month he reminded his listeners that “Christ did not promise an easy life. Those who desire comforts have dialled the wrong number. Rather, he shows us the way to great things…”

The choice of the name ‘Benedict’ is a deliberate link both with the peace-loving Pope Benedict XV and the founding-father of European civilisation after the fall of the Roman Empire, St Benedict of Nursia. Though a man of hope, Benedict XVI is not afraid to issue prophetic warnings when they are needful; speaking about the depopulation of Europe he stated gravely: “We are forced to make comparisons with the Roman Empire at the time of its decline: it still worked as a great historical framework, but in practice it was already living off those who would dissolve it, since it had no more vital energy.”

For Pope Benedict, this ‘vital energy’ can only truly be found in a “personal response to the call of holiness”, a renewed love of and commitment to the Church and the saving, sacramental life she offers. His task, as Joanna Bogle points out, is not to invent a new political programme, as secular commentators would like to think, but to re-present the ancient teachings of the Church for our times. Her book is packed with reflective passages which reveal the deeply prayerful interior life of their author and invite a response from the reader. After his election, speaking to German pilgrims in Rome, the Holy Father observed: “We were not created for an easy life but for great things, for goodness. Thus, in the end I had to say ‘yes’”. We, too, working within our own time and place, are compelled to a similar response.

© 2006 Francis Phillips

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