The Cardinal of Nicaragua, Leopoldo Brenes, said Thursday that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, who died last Saturday at the age of 95, left a testimony of humility for the Catholic Church.
“It is very difficult to be able to maintain humility and simplicity, I think that (Benedict XVI) is leaving a great testimony for all of us, for the Church, of how we can behave permanently,” said Cardinal Brenes, at a mass celebrated in the Cathedral of Managua on the occasion of the burial of the emeritus pope and which was broadcast on social networks.
The also Archbishop of Managua praised the man born as Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, whom he affirmed was “one of the great theologians that the Church had, advisor to the Second Vatican Council project, but he was always a truly humble and simple person.”
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Brenes, who as a cardinal had the opportunity to work with Ratzinger, resorted to a phrase typical of his country to point out that Benedict XVI did not become a boastful person when he was elected pontiff.
“Pride, or sometimes being important, having power, blocks us from this atmosphere of humility, I think that in this sense Pope Benedict, as we well say in good Nicaraguan: ‘he didn’t get high,'” commented the hierarch.
Benedict XVI was buried this Thursday in Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican, in a ceremony presided over by Pope Francis.
Some 5,000 people attended the ceremony, which was followed by the burial of Benedict XVI, in the tomb that belonged to his admired John Paul II.
