Rome Newsroom, Sep 23, 2022 / 05:29 am (CNA).
In a new letter, Benedict XVI praised the story of a woman who lived “the inner drama of being a Christian” and dedicated her life to the spiritual encounter with Christ in eucharistic adoration and other practices.
The pope emeritus wrote that his own personal experience was similar to what Mother Julia Verhaeghe went through in a letter to the author of a new biography.
The writer, Father Hermann Geissler, is a former official at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and a member of the Spiritual Family “The Work” that Mother Julia founded and Pope John Paul II designated as a family of consecrated life in 2001.
In his letter to Geissler, made available to CNA, Benedict did not hide the fact that he had “the fear that her life could be of little interest as a whole because it lacks any external drama.”
Benedict praised the author for making “the inner drama of being a Christian visible, writing a genuinely fascinating biography. The external path of this life, which leads from Belgium through Austria and Hungary to Rome, with a focal point in Austria, becomes a reflection of the interior path through which this woman was led.”
“In this way, the true drama of life becomes visible, which is found above all in the encounter with Paul and, through him, with Christ himself, allowing others to retrace it,” Benedict added.
“All the external and internal drama of faith is present in her life. The tension described here is particularly captivating because it is similar to what I have experienced since the 1940s.”
The biography, titled “She Served the Church: Mother Julia Verhaeghe and the Development of The Spiritual Family The Work,” explores the period from 1950 to 2001, from the second postwar period to the recognition of the Family, four years after the founder’s death in 1997.
The book is divided into four parts and includes testimonies, excerpts from Mother Julia’s letters, and other archival documents. Furthermore, the book contextualizes the life and choices of Mother Julia, connecting them to the situations of the time, of which Mother Julia was a careful observer.
In the introduction, Father Thomas Felder and Sister Margarete Binder wrote that “the following pages tell of a woman who had neither a particular culture, nor good health, nor any economic means.” Yet, they added, “a fire burned in her heart.”
This fire is the basis of the encounters that formed her life: first of all, the one with St. Paul; then the one with Pope Pius XII, who appeared to her in a dream and who predicted the Second Vatican Council; finally, the encounter with Cardinal John Henry Newman, to whom “The Work” has a particular relationship.
These meetings and relationships are part of a spiritual path to encountering Christ. Geissler’s book tells of these encounters with delicacy, without sensationalism, demonstrating that prophecy comes only when one is open to listening.
From the meeting with Pius XII, a great intuition was born: the human and humanizing element of the Second Vatican Council will try to take over, going beyond what must be the center of the Church, namely the sacred.
In the face of growing secularization, the Spiritual Family “The Work,” guided by Mother Julia, emphasized eucharistic adoration. It is a daily habit in every house of “The Work.”
The book also describes how Mother Julia felt the same enthusiasm and concern for a unified Europe, just as Brussels was preparing to host the 1958 Expo. Her view was always one of spiritual renewal, of a return to Christ.
Perhaps there was no external drama, but the restlessness of Mother Julia’s soul that Benedict refers to is good, open to reflecting on the issues of the time.
In Geissler’s book, one perceives the constant amazement before the mystery of Christ, which leads her, already elderly, to visit the Holy Land and experience the desert.
The life of Mother Julia told in this book is of a woman who could look at her times with the concreteness that comes only from contact with God.
Benedict XVI, who turned 95 in April, often spoke about the need for contact with God and said that the encounter with Jesus was the answer to the world’s challenges.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
“Father Hermann Geissler, former official at the [late] Congregation for CDF, is writer of the ‘story’ of Mother Julia Verhaeghe”.
I say [late] perhaps sardonically since the events that unfolded, “Cardinal Gerhard Müller, during a rare visit to the United States this week, emphasized the continuity between Pope Francis and his predecessor Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, especially with regard to the Church’s teaching on mercy and its relation to justice and truth” (CWR managing editor Catherine Harmon 02.2014). Harmon added Benedict believed that a pontiff [Francis] had the right to impress his own characteristics on the papacy.
Francis has come a long way since. Cardinal Gerhard Müller, Benedict’s good soldier, almost Wehrmacht in dutiful obedience, devotedness to both pontiffs was as summarily sacked by His Holiness [his continued tenure at 75 immediately refused] as was Francis’ abrupt dismissal of the Cardinal’s best priest assistants in prosecuting sexually abusive priests. His famous response to a shocked Müller’s Why?, ‘I’m the pope, I don’t need to answer why!’.
Likewise, as many decent Wehrmacht officers realized when having experienced the atrocities, barbarity of Adolf and his mob of ‘intellectual gangsters’ [journalist author William Shirer’s descript] reacted with courage similar to colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.
Cardinal Müller hasn’t directly accused Francis, nor has Benedict. The Cardinal instead excoriates policies everyone [except the blind] knows the author is Francis. Benedict has done so in publication of a series of documents faithful to Apostolic tradition as if it were necessary to indeed publish them. Mother Verhaeghe’s dedication to a Spiritual Family the Work of which binds us in love through adoration of the Holy Eucharist, at this historical moment when that reverence and adoration is met with attempts to desacralize the Eucharist in the name of inclusion.
My fantasy is that when the Belgian bishops enter the Vatican reception hall for their upcoming ad limina visit, they find it empty. If silence is good enough for the dubia, then why not for the saboteurs? Social distancing!
Dear Pope Benedict XVI. We love you! But we could use a little ‘external drama’ coming out of your mouth right now.
Both gaudete and latere refer to inner or interior joy, the true joy of Christianity. I am grateful for the bright reminder from Fr. Benedict, especially coming during as it is these late days amidst the rising dangers of so many compelling counterfeits.
Wishing Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI good health. God bless.