When St. John Paul II assigned Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (the future Benedict XVI) to lead the creation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he knew he needed a team he could trust.
A large majority of the Catechism was created with the help of various bishops, cardinals, and theologians, piecing together the Church's rich teaching into a single volume. This meant each section was a "group effort," including propositions by a number of people, with a great deal of collaboration.
Yet, when it came to the section on prayer, Cardinal Ratzinger assigned a single priest to be the primary author.
That priest was Fr. Jean Corbon.
French Byzantine priest
Fr. Corbon was born in Paris in 1924, eventually joined the Dominican Order, but being ordained a priest for the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Beirut in Lebanon.
Cardinal Ratzinger deliberately wanted a priest who could be a bridge between East and West, communicating the fundamental beliefs of Christian prayer in a truly "universal" style.
What is even more remarkable is how Fr. Corbon wrote this section on prayer while Beirut was being bombed.
He was living in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, which lasted from 1975-1990. Beirut was bombed a number of times during that period, yet Fr. Corbon remained and continued work on the Catechism's section on prayer.
The result was one of the Catechism's most beautiful and poetic sections. Many have praised this section and have commented on how beautiful it is, synthesizing the Church's two-thousand year teaching on prayer.
Fr. Corbon also wrote a popular book, The Wellspring of Worship, which "explores the meaning of the Liturgy as the wellspring or source of the Church's life and worship of God."
It echoes much of what he wrote in the Catechism, and dives even deeper into the liturgy.
While in Beirut, Fr. Corbon also taught Liturgy and Ecumenism at the University of the Holy Spirit in Kalik, and the University of St. Joseph, and was a secretary of the commission for ecumenical relations of the Assembly of the Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops of Lebanon. He died in 2001 at the age of 76 in Beirut.
The next time you read this section of the Catechism, you might be able to feel the Byzantine flavor that Fr. Corbon gave to the Church's teaching on prayer. It remains a shining example of how the Church can breathe with "both lungs" -- East and West -- and how great beauty can come out of the darkest moments.
