c. 2008 Religion News Service

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,”’ recalled the Rev. D. Vincent Twomey, an Irish theologian who studied under Ratzinger at the University of Regensburg in the 1970s.

The Schulerkreis, or “student circle,” is a seminar-cum-retreat that Benedict holds with his ex-graduate students every summer. This year’s session will be held Aug. 30, 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 will hold its 30th annual session this month.

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. Not surprisingly, turnout has been especially strong since Benedict became pope.

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 Saturday seminars and lunch in the Castel Gandolfo gardens, as well as Mass for the group the following 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 17th-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 group holds a diversity of views, often in contrast with Benedict’s own, yet members say they express disagreement freely.

Twomey remembers one “heated debate” some years back on the Catholic Church’s relationship with non-Christian religions, and another on the theologian’s role within the church _ both questions on which then-Cardinal Ratzinger took firm positions during his tenure as head of the Vatican’s highest doctrinal body, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

“Since I began studying with him I had the impression that you were encouraged to be frank even though your opinion differed from his,” Twomey said. The transformation of professor to pope has made his former students “perhaps a little more careful” in their comments, “but not much,” he said.

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.”

Depending on what Benedict makes of this year’s Schulerkreis, however, some of what is said there could find its way into his current work-in-progress, a sequel to his 2007 book “Jesus of Nazareth.” Both of this year’s lecture topics _ the “historical Jesus,” and Jesus’ passion and death _ were evidently chosen for their relevance to that subject.

That both of this year’s guest lecturers at the pope’s private seminar will in fact be Protestants (Lutheran New Testament scholars from the University of Tubingen, Germany) strikes Benedict’s former students as nothing but typical of their teacher.

“He listens to whatever voice is speaking or trying to articulate the truth,” Twomey said. “Behind that of course is the genuine humility of a genuine scholar.”

DSB/PH END ROCCA

File photos of Pope Benedict XVI are available via https://religionnews.com.