*Pope Benedict XVI
By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja
CATHOLIC Bishops Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, has expressed regrets over the demise Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.
Born Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI, passed away on Saturday at 9:34am in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery located within the walls of the Vatican Gardens.
However, the CBCN President, Archbishop Lucius Ugorji, in a terse statement made available to Sunday Vanguard through the National Directorate (Social Communications), Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, on Saturday night, described the late former Pontiff as “a gracious, gentle, deferential, humble and approachable Church leader.”
The statement read in part, “Benedict XVI was a Pope-Theologian who was deeply spiritual and highly cerebral; thus his main subject was consistently on the Son of God.
“With these combined strengths, Pope Benedict was able to bring a balance between faith and reason and battle the post-modern hydra-headed disease of materialism, secularism and ethical relativism eating up the very soul of the Church and society like a moral cancer.”
While paying tribute to Benedict XVI for his courageous and exemplary retirement on 28 February 2013, the CBCN leader said the Pope’s various Encyclicals, and teachings during his Wednesday audience, belong to his greatest scholarly and pastoral legacies.
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