In a letter of condolence following the death of one of his closest friends, 94-year-old emeritus Pope Benedict XVI says he looks forward to joining his friends in heaven soon.
“He has now reached the Hereafter where many friends will surely be awaiting him and I very much hope to join them soon,” Benedict writes in a letter dated 2 October and addressed to the Abbot of the Cistercian Monastery of Wilhering in Upper Austria. He is referring to the death of Fr Berhard Winkler OCist.
The monastery has published the entire letter, in which the Pope Emeritus, signing himself Benedikt, writes: “I am deeply saddened by the news you sent me that Prof Dr Gerhard Winkler OCist has gone home. Of all my friends and colleagues, he was the closest. His joyousness and profound faith always attracted me. He has now reached the Hereafter, where many friends are assuredly waiting for him. I hope to join them soon. In the meanwhile, I remain united in prayer with him and with the community of Wilhering.”
Fr Gerhard Winkler OCist (24 April 1931 – 22 September 2021) was an Austrian Roman Catholic Cistercian and church historian. He and Joseph Ratzinger – later to become Pope Benedict XVI – both taught at Regensburg University in 1970s, Ratzinger from 1969-1977 and Winkler from 1974-1983.
One of Winkler`s best-known publications is the ten-volume edition of the collected works of Bernhard von Clairvaux in the Latin-German translation. Benedict XVI quotes from it several times in his 2007 encyclica Spe salvi.
Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who is looking after the emeritus Pope, has meanwhile assured the German Bild Zeitung that Benedict remains “absolutely cheerful”.
The longing to join his friends in heaven which he had expressed in his condolence letter should not be interpreted to mean that the former Pope “no longer wishes to live”, he said.
Gänswein emphasised that the contrary was the case.
The letter was “well meant and comes from the heart”, Gänswein explained. Of course the Pope was quite consciously preparing for death. “The art of dying a good death, Ars morendi, is part of Christian life. Pope Benedict has been practising it for years. But he is absolutely cheerful. Stable in his physical weakness, crystal clear in his head and blessed with his typically Bavarian sense of humour.”
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