Shy, reserved, but truly erudite. Joseph Ratzinger – the first German pope in almost 500 years – goes down in history as a highly regarded theologian and one of the most influential pontiffs of the last few centuries, say priests and faithful whom O Clarim spoke to. Long before he was elected to the Chair of Peter, Cardinal Ratzinger paid a brief visit to Macau in March 1993. The then head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith urged the bishops of Asia to regard the mission of the Asian Church more in terms of “inter-culturality” instead of “inculturation”.
