Pope’s ‘student circle’ meets to debate views

BY FRANCIS X. ROCCA RELIGION NEWS SERVICE

Posted on Saturday, August 30, 2008

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VATICAN CITY — When a group of Joseph Ratzinger’s former students congratulated him on the day after his 2005 inauguration as Pope Benedict XVI, the new pontiff greeted them with a piece of happy news.

“The first thing he said to us was, ‘We will continue the Schulerkreis, ”’ said the Rev. D. Vincent Twomey, an Irish theologian who studied under Ratzinger at the University of Regensburg in the 1970 s.

The Schulerkreis, or “ student circle,” is a seminar-cum-retreat that Benedict holds with his exgraduate students every summer. This year’s session will be held today, at Castel Gandolfo, the papal summer residence southeast of Rome.

This unique event allows Benedict to reprise a cherished earlier role. “It’s an opportunity for the pope to enjoy what he would have loved to have done full time, namely, be a theologian and writer and discuss with his colleagues issues of importance,” Twomey said.

Ratzinger’s celebrated academic career ended in 1977, when Pope John Paul II named him archbishop of Munich and Freising. The following year, at the request of former students from several German universities, he began the Schulerkreis, which celebrates its 30 th annual session this week.

Most participants are Catholic priests, but attendees also include lay men and women, who come from as far afield as India and California, and number as many as 40 at a time, according to the group’s secretary, the Rev. Stephan O. Horn.

While the event comprises several days of academic discussion and religious observances, Benedict’s papal responsibilities have forced him to reduce his participation, which this year will amount to presiding over two seminars today and lunch in the Castel Gandolfo gardens, as well as Mass for the group Sunday morning.

Each year, Benedict solicits suggestions before choosing the seminar topics and guest speakers, whose lectures serve as the basis for discussion. Past subjects have included the relationship between Islam and modernity, and the compatibility of evolution with the theology of creation.

“He has an enormously broad spectrum of interests, and that also marks the basic tone of these meetings,” Twomey said. “There’s a wonderful openness and a tremendous dialogue that he engenders by his very openness.” Despite the regal setting of a 17 th-century palace and the presence of a white-robed pontiff at the head table, discussions — held almost exclusively in German — follow the format of a graduate school seminar. Each lecture is followed by questions and comments from around the room, which Benedict encourages in what students describe as his characteristically tactful style.

The matters under discussion are of course often relevant to the business of Benedict’s day job, yet participants deny that they serve in any sense as a sounding board for papal policy.

“We’re not talking about the next encyclical or what kind of bishops he’s going to put in Belgium,” said the Rev. Joseph D. Fessio, who studied under Ratzinger at Regensburg and now runs Ignatius Press, the English-language publisher of Benedict’s books. “We’re not discussing Vatican policies. It’s academic.”

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