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Local Catholics tell of pope's humility

By Robert Delaney
Of The Michigan Catholic
Published April 29, 2005

STERLING HEIGHTS – Local Catholics who met Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, tell of a man they found to be humble, considerate, intelligent and possessed of a sense of humor.

"The first time I met him was just briefly in 1999. I saw him on a street corner in the Vatican talking to another cardinal, and I went up to him and introduced myself," recalls Phyllis Bausano, secretary of the Call to Holiness organization and a member of Assumption Grotto Parish in northeast Detroit.

Fr. Francis Budovi, SJ (left), who helps out at SS. Cyril & Methodius Parish in Sterling Heights, meets Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 1992.

A year later, Bausano was able to spend more than a half-hour with him when she returned to Rome to present a report on the work of Call to Holiness, which brings in nationally known Catholic speakers for its annual conferences.

"He is a man of extreme humility, very charitable, and you can see the love of God in him. He doesn't present himself as anything special – he makes you feel special," Bausano says of her meeting with the man who is now the pope.

Fr. Tim Whelan, chancellor of the Orchard Lake Schools, has fond memories of meeting Cardinal Ratzinger in 1999 when his brother – now Fr. Daniel Whelan, a priest of the Archdiocese of Pittsburgh – was ordained a transitional deacon in Rome.

"My brother and the other guys being ordained by Cardinal Ratzinger really liked him. He struck me as being very pastoral, very humble and kind," Fr. Whelan recalls.

Barbara Middleton

Barbara Middleton, president of Holy Trinity Apostolate, founded eight years ago by the late Fr. John Hardon, SJ, met with Cardinal Ratzinger on March 29, 2001, a day that also included a private audience with Pope John Paul II.

"I told him how much I missed Fr. Hardon, whom he knew, and he pointed a finger upwards, and said, 'He's praying for you up there,'" recalls Middleton, a member of SS. Cyril & Methodius Parish in Sterling Heights.

The future pope struck her as very gentle and kind, with "just a sense of holiness about the man."

Jesuit Fr. Francis Budovi has a rather lighthearted recollection of his encounter with Cardinal Ratzinger back in 1992 in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. "I introduced myself, and as soon as I said I was a Jesuit, he began telling a Jesuit-Franciscan joke," recalls Fr. Budovi, who helps out at SS. Cyril & Methodius Parish.

Adding translations, Fr. Budovi recounts the joke: "A Jesuit and a Franciscan priest were walking together in the forest, and the Jesuit wanted to see whether there was an echo. So, he called out in a loud voice, 'Quod est Franciscanorum regula?' ('What is the rule of the Franciscans?') And the echo came back, '-gula, -gula' – gula in Latin means gluttony. Then the Franciscan calls out in a loud voice, 'Fuitne Judas Jesuita?' ('Was Judas a Jesuit?') And the echo came back, '-ita, -ita' – Latin for yes, yes."

Fr. Todd Lajiness, academic dean at Sacred Heart Major Seminary, met Cardinal Ratzinger while working in Vatican City. Although critics have often presented him as stern and harsh, "the man I know is very soft-spoken, humble and gentle," Fr. Lajiness says.

Fr. Charles Kosanke, pastor of Guardian Angels Parish, Clawson, met Cardinal Ratzinger once three years ago: "Here he was, obviously a cardinal in the Vatican, but when I encountered him he was very kind and humble – gracious."

Michigan Catholic reporter Michelle Samartino contributed to this story.