The Lord's lowly servant

"Much has been said today about Pope Benedict's personal humility. I have a little story about it. In 1991, I had the honour of addressing the workshop for Catholic bishops put on annually in Dallas by the National Catholic Bioethics Centre. The topic of my presentation was "conscience and political obligations." I was a very young professor in those days--not yet even tenured--so this was quite an exciting opportunity for me. One of the other speakers that day was Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Prefect for the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. During my presentation, he sat in the front row in the middle and kindly listened attentively. When my lecture and the Q&A were over, he immediately stepped forward to shake my hand and offer warm words of encouragement and congratulation. I felt stupendously honoured. Soon several other bishops gathered round, and a general conversation ensued. Now, remember, he was the third ranking official of the entire Catholic Church and the rock star of this meeting; but, far from asserting his authority or dominating the conversation, he stepped slightly back to let the other bishops in, and for fifteen minutes or so simply listened to the conversation. I remember being struck by his evident and entirely unaffected humility." --Professor Robert P. George