The Archbishop of Freetown in Sierra Leone has paid tribute to Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, describing him as a loving grandfather of the Church who left a treasure for upcoming theologians.
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In his homily at the Requiem Mass of the former Pope, Archbishop Edward Tamba Charles described the late Pope emeritus as a distinguished Catholic Church leader, a Pastor, and Theologian who had led a quiet life following his resignation in 2013.
“Sierra Leoneans would say he was a good grandpa. In his respect, we are gathered here not so much to mourn his death as to celebrate his life; a life of a grandpa of the Church as a distinguished Church leader, pastor, and Theologian,” Archbishop Tamba Charles said during the Wednesday, January 4 Requiem Mass.
He added, about the Church leader who passed on on New Year eve, and was laid to rest on Thursday, January 6, “We mourn his passing because we have lost a great spiritual leader and pastor.”
The Archbishop of Freetown described Pope emeritus Benedict XVI as a humble Church leader, saying, “Whenever he met you dressed in your Clergy cassock, he would always be the first one to greet you and he would say, in Italian, ‘good day father.’”
“I remember being in Rome for a few months and the first time he greeted me I mistook him for one of the Bishops working in the Roman Curiae because he was wearing a very simple cassock. It was after he had walked away that someone who knew him told us that the one who had greeted us was Cardinal Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) … That was in 1991,” the Sierra Leonean Archbishop said.
He recalled that at a time when the late Pope was dealing with the cases of many theologians, especially those of liberation theology, he did not carry any superiority about him.
In Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Tamba Charles said, he saw a servant of the Church who was determined to carry out the duties entrusted to him by his authorities.
He recounted having met the 265th Pope several other times, and the Pope displaying a great sense of humility each time.
One such time was when the late former Pontiff was invited to the launch of a college that the Archbishop was attending.
