This episode is brought to you by the Master of Arts and Catholic Education program at the Augustine Institute

Graduate School of Theology. Dedicated to the renewal of Catholic education, this degree

equipped school teachers and administrators to bring Christ to the center of every classroom

through a focus on sacred scripture, theology, Christian anthropology, and the traditional

liberal arts.

Learn more at augustin.edu backslash M-A-C-E. Father Joseph Fessio is the founder and editor of Ignatius Press, whose books we've often covered here on the podcast.

He has a long and distinguished record of supporting Catholic education, including leadership at Abe Maria University. He joins us to discuss a new book from Ignatius Press, authored by one of

our favorites here at first things, Robert, Cardinal, Sarah.

And the topic is another favorite, Pope Benedict the 16th.

It is called, He Gave Us So Much a Tribute to Benedict 16th.

Welcome, Father Fesio.

Thank you, Mark.

Good to be here.

Let me open with a short sentence in a long quotation from Benedict early in the book.

Quote, talking to God, that is praying, implies talking about God. I understood that when we pray, we automatically assume certain notions of God of who he is.

You pray, you're automatically in a posture towards something that you have conceived and

envisioned.

Did Benedict thus maintain that the priest's role is to guide or contain

people's assumptions about God? I mean, real at a fundamental level. Absolutely. And,

of course, he was a teacher, first of all, and he himself was immersed in prayer, I would say. I knew him well. He was

my doctorate. He was born, as you know, on the vigil of Easter, Holy Saturday. In those days,

they celebrated that feast in the morning in some places. He was born at 4. 4.30 in the morning on Holy Saturday. His mother takes him four hours later

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