Benedict remembered locally
ALBANY — Edward Scharfenberger, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, said of Pope Benedict XVI “you could feel his love some might call grandfatherly, intimate yet disciplined. More contemplative as he aged, even mystical, he was not distant or otherworldly, and with an almost impish sense of humor, never cranky.”
“May the immense good Papa Benedetto did on earth also go with him, leaving an abundance behind, even as he journeys before us. We pray for him and with him as brothers and sisters in the Communion of Saints. Requiescat in pace,” Scharfenberger added in a statement Saturday.
Among the impacts Pope Benedict had on the Capital Region area was his canonization of new saints in 2012 that included Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, the “Lily of the Mohawks,” who lived in the 1600s and whose shrine is located in Montgomery County. The Vatican ceremony drew 200 people from the region including Albany diocese Bishop Howard Hubbard, now emeritus. Sainthood was also bestowed upon Mother Marianne Cope, who grew up in Utica in the mid-1800s and entered religious life with the Sisters of Saint Francis in Syracuse.
In a 2005 Times Union story, Hubbard said he met Benedict, then known as Joseph
Ratzinger, several times during a gathering of bishops every five years in Rome. He was surprised at the election of the cardinal from Germany.
“Because of his age, I thought he’d be more of a pope maker than the pope,” Hubbard said at a news conference that year on the steps of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany. He said his interactions with Ratzinger gave him the impression of “a holy and prayerful man, very humble, warm and hospitable.”