"[A] peculiar feature of a German cultural history is thoughtfulness...I think that God, if he was going to make a professor Pope in the first place, wanted this element of thoughtfulness and precisely the struggle for the unity of faith and reason to come to the fore."
That was Pope Benedict's answer in Light of the World (p. 78) to Mr. Seewald's question regarding a special charism a German Pope might bring to the Papacy.
This Holy Father's particular charism is his primary concern that the modern mind (including that of the theologian) should seek and find God and that men of faith should also embrace, promote and employ the greatest intellectual rigor in their service of God and man. Faith in God is and must be both relevant and reasonable especially today. Human reason rejecting God is not truly human nor is it reasonable! Our beloved German Scholar Pope highlights these truths. By his life and teaching he shows the true dignity of scholarship and, above all, of true religion.
