I received a letter from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI recently. Yes, that pope emeritus.

In it, he expressed his joy and gratitude for the Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation Conference, held at Franciscan University of Steubenville, October 20-21. In what I’ve been assured is typical of him (I only have this one letter to go on), Benedict didn’t waste words on niceties but plunged into a three-page theological reflection.

The letter delighted our 350 conference attendees. We were assembled, after all, to discuss Benedict’s ecclesiology—the theological study of the Church—and here came new thoughts from the eminent theologian himself. As conference speaker Peter Casarella, PhD, professor at Duke Divinity School, said, “Later scholars will come and look at this Steubenville document to see how he is always reflecting, even at the age of 95, on continuity and change in the whole of Catholic Tradition.”

I’ve been amazed, however, by the interest this letter has evoked with about 50 news sites, both Catholic and secular, reporting on it. Most media outlets highlighted Benedict’s insistence that the Second Vatican Council was both “meaningful” and “necessary.” Why did so many choose to make that the headline?

These news outlets seemed to realize His Holiness’ words would come as something of a shock for those who blame just about everything wrong in the Church today on Vatican II and yet identify Benedict as a champion of traditional Catholicism. They tend to forget that as a young priest, Benedict participated in Vatican II himself as a theological advisor to the archbishop of Cologne.

In the letter, Benedict admits that at the outset of the council, there were “many doubts” about whether it would be meaningful or if it could even be “possible at all to organize the insights and questions into the whole of a conciliar statement and thus to give the Church a direction for its further journey.” But he quickly affirms, “In reality, a new council proved to be not only meaningful, but necessary.”

I teared up when I read those words. My whole life has been post-Vatican II, and I am eternally blessed to be alive and ministering in this important time in our Church’s life. But I’ve talked to many people who are critical of Vatican II, often unfairly and inaccurately so. Most of them, when pressed, confess they have only partly read or even never read the documents for themselves.

My study of the conciliar documents has led me to see them as a great gift to the Church. To be sure, Vatican II can be debated, as we did at Franciscan University’s Vatican II at 60 Conference, which preceded the Ratzinger Conference and dealt with both the legacy and controversies around the council. Yet, I see both conferences, and indeed, Franciscan University itself, as a fruit of that “further journey” of the Church and evidence of the claim that Vatican II was “necessary.”

Without a Second Vatican Council, the composition of our speakers’ panels and the attendees would have been vastly different—almost exclusively priests and bishops and theologians. Instead, we benefited from the insights of the many lay men and lay women, religious sisters, and students who participated as well.

Without a Second Vatican Council, some of the topics we discussed would have been unlikely to make the agenda. We enjoyed lively, charitable, intellectually honest dialogue on the role of women in the Church, the role of the Church in the world, the value of other religions and Christian mission, and Scripture and evangelization, and everyone’s favorite, the liturgy.

Even more than these theologically rich and significant discussions, I found the people involved most inspiring. They formed a beautiful image of the Church engaged in serious theological reflection and then steeped in worship as we celebrated liturgy together.

One participant, a young German priest, later shared with me, “What a wonderful conference, but most moving for me was our time of prayer, our liturgical celebrations. … Everyone was so alive.”

Another said one of our students approached him, started a conversation, invited him to breakfast, and then gave him a campus tour. He was deeply impressed by this display of spontaneous charity and friendliness.

A third asked why students were lined up out the chapel door one evening. He was amazed and touched when he learned they were there for confession.

Taken all together, these signs of faith and love in the young Church, the blessings of vigorous yet charitable dialogue on important issues, and the hope expressed by our aged Pope Benedict fill me with excitement. And I can’t help but believe and hope that the Ratzinger Conference—and gatherings like it—will, as His Holiness concluded his letter, “be helpful in the struggle for a right understanding of the Church and the world in our time,” and bear much fruit, fruit that will last.

Well-known author and speaker Father Dave Pivonka, TOR, has served as president of Franciscan University of Steubenville since 2019.

Full text: Benedict XVI Letter to Fr Dave Pivonka TOR