Benedict leaves ambiguous legacy

Who was Benedict XVI? The question sounds odd because the answer must be so obvious.

For nearly eight years, until his stunning decision to resign on the last day of February 2013, Joseph Ratzinger was pope, the most visible exponent of Catholicism in the world—a universal pastor and renowned theologian, who presented his ideas and exhortations in homilies and speeches around the globe and in beautifully crafted encyclicals and deeply researched books about Jesus.

Long before he was pope, Benedict was also Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and so-called guardian of orthodoxy, who as a career theologian, relished the intellectual jousting inherent to that role.

Over the course of his 23 years as head of the C.D.F., which was known within the Roman Curia as “la Suprema” for its historic influence, Cardinal Ratzinger made headlines—and enemies—with public campaigns against theologians and theologies he saw as crossing the line into dangerously progressive territory.

While much of his work was undertaken at the behest of Pope John Paul II, the German-born cardinal also had an unprecedented sideline in public debates, speeches, writings and books outlining his own vision of the modern world and the perils it posed to Catholicism.

Therefore, many assumed that when Cardinal Ratzinger walked out onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica on a chilly April evening in 2005 and was introduced as Pope Benedict XVI, they knew what was coming: more of the same, and then some.

Persona and Principle

Every pope is a paradox to some degree.

He is the lead character at centre stage of an ongoing historical drama, but one so cloaked in tradition and so hedged round by courtiers and customs that, even after he has been years in office, there can remain a remarkable degree of uncertainty about what he is really trying to do, what he really thinks and how he views the church and the world.

The air of mystery was deeper than usual when it came to Joseph Ratzinger.

The Cardinals in the Conclave just assumed Ratzinger would have the skill set to be Pope. Ratzinger had different ideas, “I am not an administrator,” he repeated.

An introvert and an academic, Ratzinger always engaged with the world most deeply when it came to theological debates; his personality and personal life were revealed only in rare glimpses.

For example, on April 24, 2005, during his homily at his installation Mass in the piazza, Benedict elicited laughter when he said that he was not going to present “a program of governance,” a “programma di governo,” which is the Italian phrase for a campaign platform.

That would come later, he added.

Instead, he said, “My real program of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole church, to the word and the will of the Lord, to be guided by him, so that he himself will lead the church at this hour of our history.”

As a teacher and pastor, Benedict XVI the theologian could be brilliant. But as the chief governor of the church, Benedict could border on hapless.

“It was easy to know the doctrine. It’s much harder to help a billion people live it.”

Pope Benedict

The basic tasks of administration were apparently beyond his interest and his talent.

That gap came at a critical time for the church, when religious choices abounded and “no religion” was a viable and respectable option—when a distrustful public, even a leery flock, was looking for deeds as much as words to convince them that the Roman Catholic Church was indeed still the bearer of the truth Jesus preached.

Benedict’s reputation was further diminished after revelations of the abuse of altar servers and seminarians committed by former cardinal Theodore McCarrick rocked the church in the United States in the summer of 2018. Questions emerged about how Benedict chose to respond to multiple reports delivered to Rome over many years about the former Washington archbishop’s behaviour.

Benedict’s legacy is ambiguous even in the most sympathetic reading.

Whether history’s verdict will be charitable or damning may depend on whether the influence of his powerful words can compensate for some of the more listless aspects of his administration. Continue reading

Additional reading

News category: Palmerston, World.

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