The true inheritance of the ‘Benedict XVI Generation’
I was walking across the grotto in front of my college chapel when bells began to toll, one after another. It was April 2005, the end of my junior year. I stopped and looked at the assistant chaplain who was outside, speaking to some students. “We have a new pope,” he hollered, a big grin spreading across his face.
A few minutes later, those of us gathered together learned that the conclave had elected Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to succeed Pope John Paul II. I didn’t know what to make of something so novel. In the 21 years I’d been alive, there had only been one pope. What would Catholicism look like with someone else at the helm?