Greeting of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI Before the Mariensäule Saturday,
9 September 2006, Munich, Marienplatz
Madam Chancellor and Mr Prime Minister, My
Brother Cardinals, Bishops and Priests, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear
Brothers and Sisters!
It is very moving for me to stand once more in this
beautiful square at the foot of the Mariensäule – in a place which already witnessed
two other decisive turning-points in my life. Here, almost thirty years ago, the
faithful welcomed me with joy as their new Archbishop: I then began my ministry with
a prayer to the Mother of God. Here too, five years later, after being called to
Rome by the Pope, I bade farewell to my Diocese and once more addressed a prayer to
the Patrona Bavariae, entrusting “my” city and homeland to her protection. Today
I am here again – this time as the Successor of Saint Peter.
I thank the Prime
Minister, Dr Edmund Stoiber, for his cordial words of welcome in the name of the Bavarian
regional government. I also thank my successor as Pastor of the Archdiocese of Munich
and Freising, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, for his warm welcome on behalf of the faithful
of the Archdiocese. I greet the Chancellor, Dr Angela Merkel, and all the political,
civil and military authorities taking part in this brief ceremony of welcome and prayer.
I would like to offer a special greeting to the priests, especially those whom I worked
with in my home Diocese of Munich and Freising. Finally I greet all of you with
great love, my dear compatriots and friends, who have gathered in this square to demonstrate
your affection! I thank you for your warm welcome, and I think in particular of all
those who have worked to prepare for this meeting and the whole of my journey.
I
hope you will allow me to recall on this occasion a few thoughts which I set down
in brief memoirs with regard to my appointment as Archbishop of Munich and Freising.
I became the successor of Saint Corbinian. From my childhood I was very much taken
with the story that a bear had attacked and killed the horse which the saint was riding
on a journey to Rome. According to the legend, the saint punished the bear by putting
on his back the load that the horse had been carrying. So the bear had to carry this
load across the Alps all the way to Rome, and only there did the saint set him free.
In 1977, when I had to face the difficult choice whether or not to accept my appointment
as Archbishop of Munich and Freising, knowing that it would take me away from my beloved
work at the university, this bear with its heavy burden reminded me of Saint Augustine’s
interpretation of verses 22 and 23 of Psalm 73. The Psalmist, asking why God’s friends
suffer, says: “I was foolish and did not understand, standing before you like a dumb
animal. Nevertheless I am continually with you.” Augustine, seeing in the word “animal”
a reference to the beasts of burden used by farmers to work the land, saw here an
image of himself, burdened by his episcopal ministry, the sarcina episcopalis. He
had chosen the life of scholarship, and God had called him to become a “beast of burden”,
a pack animal, a good ox drawing the plough in God’s field, this world ... But at
this point the Psalm gave him enlightenment and consolation: for just as the beast
of burden is closest to the farmer and, under his direction, carries out the burdensome
work entrusted to him, so the Bishop is very close to God, because he carries out
an important service for his Kingdom.
With these words of the Bishop of Hippo
in mind, I have found in Saint Corbinian’s bear a constant encouragement to carry
out my ministry with confidence and joy – thirty years ago, and again now in my new
task – and to say my daily “yes” to God: I have become for you a beast of burden,
but as such “I am always with you” (Ps 73:23). Saint Corbinian’s bear was set free
in Rome. In my case, the Lord decided otherwise. And so I find myself once more
at the foot of the Mariensäule, imploring the intercession and blessing of the Mother
of God, this time not only for the city of Munich and for Bavaria, but for the universal
Church and for all people of good will.