Benedict XVI, the former pope who died at the age of 95, was destined from the day of his election in April 2005 to work under the long shadow of John Paul II, his famous predecessor.
But the German-born theologian, who inherited the throne three days after his 78th birthday, made his own piece of history by making the extraordinary decision to step down in February 2013, as the task became too heavy for him. old age No pope since Celestine V in 1294 has resigned for personal reasons, although Gregory XII left office in 1415 under a deal between rival factions to end a 40-year schism in the Roman Catholic Church.
In his reign, Benedict put his distinctive stamp on the papacy, showing compassionate pastoral qualities that contrasted with the strict didacticism he had been known for earlier in his career. However, this bookish and somewhat shy man never really addressed the problems of poor governance and internal power struggles within the Curia, the Vatican bureaucracy. “The government is not a strong point,” Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s most senior Catholic, said when Benedict abdicated.
Some of the most serious challenges of the pope, such as facing the scandal of child abuse in Catholic institutions in the US, Europe and elsewhere in the world, became more acute due to the failure of the Church to deal with these problems effectively during the 26-year reign of John Paul. . At that time, the future pope was known as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a talented scholar who for almost a quarter of a century served as the intellectual architect of Pope John Paul.
The future Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, together with Pope John Paul II at the time © Pier Pablo/AP
As head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican’s agency for enforcing theological orthodoxy among bishops, priests, and the faithful around the world, he oversaw a crackdown on Catholic heresies that had the full support of John Paul. This campaign attracted the attention of Church conservatives who were critical of the reforms initiated after the Second Vatican Council of 1962-1965. But he alienates progressives, who complain about authoritarianism at the top of the Vatican that is exacerbating Church divisions around the world.
Controversy dogged Benedict throughout his papacy, partly because of his own actions and statements. When he was elected as the 265th Bishop of Rome, he described himself as “a simple and humble worker in God’s vineyard” – giving the lie to those who had been dubbed “God’s Rottweiler”. The cardinals who elected him praised him as intelligent, calm, tactful and open to consultation, although no one can remember him producing theological discussions.
An early example of his self-imposed problems came in 2006, when he gave a lecture in the German city of Regensburg that angered Muslims because he showed that Islam relies on violence and hatred to advance its cause. He quickly apologized and reaffirmed his belief in interfaith dialogue. However, like John Paul, he tends to focus less on improving relations with Islam and other religions than on winning the Church’s battle to reverse the decline of organized Christianity, especially in Europe.
Another uproar erupted in 2009 when Benedict welcomed four rebel ultraconservative bishops into the Church after decades of schism, only to discover that one – British-born Richard Williamson – had denied the Holocaust. An embarrassed Benedict explained that no Curia official had done an internet search to check Williamson’s opinion.
For some Vatican observers, the misstep stems from Benedict’s appointment in 2006 of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone as secretary of state, the Holy See’s second-in-command. When a flood of confidential Vatican documents was leaked to the media in early 2012 in the so-called “Vatileaks” scandal, Bertone was revealed as a key figure in a cluster of policy disputes and personality conflicts centered on rivals’ efforts to increase transparency. Vatican financial operations and compliance with international standards on money laundering.
Paolo Gabriele, the Pope’s butler who had stolen documents in a self-proclaimed campaign to fight “evil and corruption” in the Holy See, was tried by a Vatican judge, found guilty and sentenced to 18 months in prison. Benedict visited Gabriele in prison just before Christmas 2012 and forgave him, a move reminiscent of John Paul’s pardoning of Mehmet Ali Ağca, the Turk who tried to kill him in 1981.
“Vatileaks” underscores how far Benedict has fallen short of his goal of ridding the Curia of its centuries-old inefficiencies. It seems that he wants to modernize the system of governance and the image of the Vatican – he opened a Twitter account, @pontifexjust two months before his abdication – Benedict had no genuine enthusiasm for bureaucratic reform.
However, one of his last acts as pope was an attempt to restore order in the Vatican bank by appointing Ernst von Freyberg, a German lawyer and financier, as its new head. Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, the head of the previous bank that was investigated by the Italian police in the investigation of money laundering, was fired after the board of the bank denounced in May 2012 for dereliction of duty.
After his abdication, Benedict lived quietly in the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican gardens, but he broke his promise to remain “hidden from the world” while the government of Pope Francis, his Argentine-born successor, was formed. . Benedict took the title of Pope emeritus and became a symbol of resistance for conservative Catholics to certain initiatives of Francis, such as the decision to reimpose restrictions on celebrating the old Latin mass that Benedict himself had appointed.
In 2019, Benedict published an essay in which he blamed the scandal of sexual abuse in the Church around the world on what he called the total collapse of sexual norms between 1960 and 1980. interview with Bavarian television: “I used to have a big mouth, now it doesn’t work anymore. “
Under Benedict, the most serious threat to the Vatican’s reputation arose from the scandal over pedophile priests and the Church’s alleged role in hiding crimes in various countries. The Irish government was so outraged by what it saw as obstruction of justice by the Vatican that in 2011 it closed its embassy to the Holy See, only to reopen it in 2014.
Most child abuse cases date back to before Benedict’s reign, but that hasn’t stopped German critics from asking why, when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1981, he failed to crack down on local priests known to be child abusers. . Supporters of Benedict insist that he has gone further than John Paul in the face of the global dimension of the scandal and admits that pedophile priests commit crimes, not sins that require no more than the application of internal Church disciplinary procedures. But there was public outrage in many Catholic countries, and the scandal cast a shadow over the Church that continues to hang to this day.
Young Joseph Ratzinger celebrates Mass in 1952 © KNA / Getty Images
The son of a rural policeman, Joseph Alois Ratzinger was born on April 16, 1927, in Marktl am Inn, a small settlement in the southern German state of Bavaria. His teenage experience of the Nazi climate of intimidation led him to conclude that, for Catholics, a strong belief in an absolute moral system was the best response to totalitarian terror.
Like all German teenagers, Benedict was required to join the Hitler Youth, and he served in an anti-aircraft unit guarding a factory outside Munich. When the war ended in 1945, US forces held him as a prisoner of war. Some historians consider it too important to record the war: he had no pro-Nazi or anti-Semitic sympathies. In 2004, he confirmed the Church’s official view that the “inadequate resistance” by Christians to the Nazi persecution of Jews was caused by “the anti-Semitism that exists in the souls of more than a few Christians”.
Ratzinger was a student of philosophy and theology, teaching at various German universities since 1959. John Paul called him to Rome in 1981, where he made a deep impression with his statements attacking homosexuality and “radical feminism” and with his treatise, ” Dominus Iesus”, which argues that other world religions can offer salvation independently of Catholicism.
The author of numerous works on theology, liturgy and culture, Benedict enjoys his pet cat and relaxes by playing Mozart’s piano sonatas. He chose the papal name in honor of St. Benedict, the 5th century founder of the Benedictine order of monks who helped spread the Christian message throughout Europe.
He devoted much of the papacy to his intellectual interests, writing a three-volume history entitled “Jesus of Nazareth”. He wrote three encyclicals on spiritual and social themes, including one, “Deus Caritas Est”, which categorically condemned the reduction of erotic love in modern times to “a commodity, a mere ‘thing’ to be bought and sold”. Another encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate”, calls for the establishment of a “world political authority” to regulate the global economy and attack “serious deviations and failures” in unregulated capitalism.
Whether, as pope, Benedict achieved his goal of generating a fresh evangelical spirit in the Church will be the judge of future historians. It is clear that the controversies that existed during the reign of John Paul and became more intense under Benedict continue to disturb the Church under Francis and show every sign of raging in the future.
tony.barber@ft.com