By Dr. Scott Hahn

Habemus papam! We have a pope! Twenty years a Catholic - and I've never heard these words.

At the end of this month, on June 29, I will join many of you in Rome to celebrate the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul.

There, I will rededicate the efforts of the St. Paul Center - efforts you have supported with your prayers and contributions - to the apostolic Church and its new pontiff, Benedict XVI.

I find it hard to describe how much I depend on the spiritual fatherhood of the pope. We are one family as Catholics. And for a couple of weeks, I know you, too, felt like orphans. Then suddenly, a new Holy Father was raised up for us. We have a pope!

And what a pope we have. Benedict XVI is one of the world’s most profound biblical theologians. I don’t think any pope since Peter has equaled Benedict in his knowledge of the Old Testament. He writes like a man who works out his theology on his knees in prayer.

I feel privileged to have met him and to have written forwards to two of his books - "The Meaning of Christian Brotherhood" and "Many Religions - One Covenant." I've used nearly a dozen of his books as texts in my classes over the years. And he's by far the writer I quote most often in my own writings.

If you aren’t as familiar as you’d like to be with our new pope’s work, please see the “What’s New” area of our website. We’ve created a new page that gathers his quotations on biblical theology along with links to complete documents available in our library.

The Holy Spirit has again given us a true father - a man who, like John Paul II - is fluent in the Bible, God’s fatherly plan.

How I will miss John Paul - the only Pope I've known until now. As a Protestant, I was first drawn to him by the beautiful and brilliant way he wove the Bible into everything he did. As a Catholic, I loved him even more for the way he not only taught the faith, but lived it.

It will take us years to appreciate how deeply "biblical" his teaching was. His famous first words, "Be not afraid," were the words of the biblical prophets and angels. His encyclicals and other writings are filled with interpretations of Scripture - employing all the best tools of ancient and modern Scripture scholarship. His Catechism is a seamlessly interweaves Scripture, liturgy, the Church Fathers, and magisterial teaching.

Like John Paul before him, our new Holy Father is truly a man of His Word.

And as we return to Rome as pilgrims, let all of us at the St. Paul Center - staff, fellows and supporters - renew our dedication to be servants of that Word and the new evangelization.

June 2005