Stifling Pope Benedict's voice, who is perhaps the moral theologian par excellence, endangers not only the clarity of the moral message of the Church, but the formation of all Christian consciences.

The personal decision of the Holy Father was a final public instruction on the practical, sometimes uncomfortable character of deep faith expected for each and every Christian.

I remember him — back when he was just Father Ladaria — as an extremely gentle but intellectually powerful man.

We should recall and speak first of “God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory."