Habla El Ratzingerito....

ZENIT runs an interview with Cardinal-designate Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Toledo, who has apparently been nicknamed the "Little Ratzinger".... At 60, the Primate of Spain is the youngest of the 15 prelates who will receive the red hat from the Big Ratzinger three weeks from today in public consistory.

As for his alias, we await a response from the Schonbornites, who would probably claim said distinction for the object of their affection.

Q: A cardinal is he who sheds his blood for the Pope. What does this mean in the present-day context?

Archbishop Cañizares: To be a cardinal is reflected in the [red] color that implies giving witness with the Pope of the faith unto death, if necessary. It is to give witness of the living God and, with Peter, to confess that Jesus Christ is the only Savior, the only hope for the whole of humanity.

It implies living with the Pope, servant of servants, in a life of service and full commitment without any reservations, to spend oneself and exhaust oneself for the hard works of the Gospel, to lose one's life so that the world will believe.

It is to serve in communion, in unbreakable unity with the Successor of Peter; it is to defend the dignity of the injured and poor man, to give him to Jesus Christ.

It is a very beautiful mission, a grace to be able to be associated with the Holy Father in his ministry of confirming the faith, in his ministry of concern for all the Church and of love for all, with that love of which Benedict XVI has spoken to us so beautifully in his encyclical.

Q: Benedict XVI knows that you are called the "little Ratzinger." Is it because of your total attunement with his faith and thought?

Archbishop Cañizares: The Holy Father is very amused by this expression.

I think it is because of the resemblance of the white hair and because of having been before bishop secretary of the doctrinal commission in Spain and to that attunement that God has granted me with the thought of the then-Cardinal Ratzinger, attunement and communion in the faith itself and in the great concerns for man, who if he lacks God lacks everything.

It is also attunement and communion in the great love and passion for the Church, in the search for truth that makes us free, a truth that comes to us by Tradition and for the same reason is attunement in faithfulness to Tradition, which is the only way to open oneself to the future and to make possible the emergence of a renewal of the Church and society.

I learned a lot in the years I worked by his side as member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It is a gift of God to have worked for him and a gift of God to feel so profoundly linked to Peter in the figure of Benedict XVI.

I know that only in this way will I walk in the Church and not take steps in vain.

Very nice turn in the spotlight.... And, by the by, the Card.-des. looks more like Tom Snyder than The Fluffiness.

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