DETROIT — Before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had a reputation as an academic scholar and teacher, and his scholarship and writing ability have drawn the praise of fellow academics.

“The thing I always admired about Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict was his ability to express in writing exactly what he was thinking. He was always a very clear writer,” said Mark Latkovic, S.T.D., professor of moral theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

The seminary’s rector, Msgr. Todd Lajiness, sounded a similar note when he said, “There’s a clarity about him when he writes and when he speaks that’s really remarkable.”

Msgr. Lajiness also praised the retired pontiff for laying stress on both intellectual and spiritual formation, urging an appreciation for the connection between theology and spirituality.

He said it has been Pope Benedict’s intention “as a scholar and academic and theologian and pastor that we see the importance of the encounter with the person of Jesus.”

“His scholarly work is all about getting people in contact with the person of Jesus,” Msgr. Lajiness said.

He said one of Pope Benedict’s great gifts has been that he has “opened up for us the patristic tradition — the teachings of the Fathers of the Church.”

Given the perception people had of him from his time as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Professor Latkovic said Pope Benedict surprised many by the theme of his first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est.”

“A lot of people didn’t expect him to open his pontificate with an encyclical on “God is Love,” he said.

But the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity “have always been fundamental to his writing,” Latkovic continued.

He said he believes Pope Benedict’s writings offer a great deal that will be of help to the Church in the years to come. He cited, as an example, what the retired pope has had to say about married love — that eros and agape are not opposed, that we need to keep them together.

The pope’s writing on the subject, which drew largely on the Old Testament, was recently acclaimed in an article written by the chief rabbi of Paris as a great contribution to our understanding of love, Latkovic continued.

Another aspect of Pope Benedict’s teaching hailed by Latkovic is his insistence on the connection of Christian faith with the social service work done by the Church and individual Christians — “that faith needs to inform our work in society and in marriage.”

Pope Benedict’s writings have also laid new emphasis on the often-neglected virtue of Hope, Latkovic continued: “As he has said, we need to be a people of hope — to hope in the One who can free us from ourselves, and that’s the Lord.”

He added that Pope Benedict has also insisted on the link between faith and reason. “Our faith is not a leap in the dark — it is not fideistic — but is a faith informed by reason. It is not subjective, not just emotions and feelings, but is rooted in reason,” Latkovic said.