Summary: The author makes use of his experience as a co-worker, during more than twenty years, with the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation of Faith, to draw up a brief presentation of the new Pope, Benedict XVI, and of his intellectual stature. Particular attention is paid to his thought, as it emerges from many of his studies and documents published by that Congregation, concerning the dialog with culture and other religions, the Christian confessions and secular society. From his refusal of any form of relativism, arises the certainty that, even deepening the dialogs, Pope Benedict will offer a safeguard for the Catholic Christian identity.