Who today knows the legacy of John Henry Newman on conscience better than Benedict XVI? He lived through the horrors of Nazi Germany and saw the devastating effects of National Socialism on the consciences of his fellow Germans. On entering the seminary in January 1946 the German catastrophe was the burning issue of the time: how could it have happened, teachers and students asked themselves and each other. Fortunately, they had Newman’s writings on conscience to draw on, as his most important works had been translated into German between the two wars. The young Joseph Ratzinger was more privileged; he was assigned a mentor who was writing his doctorate on Newman’s theology of conscience. Reflecting on this period in 1990, Cardinal Ratzinger commented: