The retired pontiff's health started to decline during the Christmas season and Pope Francis called faithful to pray for his "very sick" predecessor on Wednesday. He was 95.

The emeritus pope's body will be brought to St. Peter's Basilica on January 2, the Vatican announced on Saturday.

Before his fellow cardinals elected him in 2005 to become the first German pope, Benedict had already left an indelible mark in Catholic theology and thinking as the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. His rigorous, usually conservative interpretations of church teaching and discipline earned him the nickname "God's Rottweiler," in stark contrast with the shy, introspective and art-loving man depicted by his friends.

His death put an end to the complexities of having two popes reside in the Vatican. This is the first time in the modern era that a pope has died while another is in power, leaving aside the need for a conclave of cardinals to elect his successor.

Benedict XVI spent the last years of his life in relative isolation at the Vatican, living in a monastery within the city-state's walls, surrounded by a handful of aides and supporters. He made only made a few public appearances with Pope Francis.

When Cardinal Josef Ratzinger emerged as Pope Benedict XVI in the conclave of 2005, he was faced with the challenge of following the charismatic John Paul II, whose influence went beyond the Catholic Church in a nearly three-decade-long pontificate.

John Paul was credited with a role in the defeat of communism and the fall of the Iron Curtain. Through his massive popularity and his experience in the persecuted church in Poland, he fueled a deep conservatism in the Catholic Church, ready to fight against the perceived dangers of communism and the looming larger threat of secularism.

Benedict was seen as a continuation of this conservative push against secularisation, but with a scholarly bent. His choice of the name Benedict signalled, in particular, his desire to awaken the faith in the church's ancient home in Europe, according to the Rev. Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai, a theologian and author of "Light of Reason, Light of Faith, Joseph Ratzinger and the German Enlightenment."

"For someone with a symbolic sense and temperament, Ratzinger's choice of the name ‘Benedict' was programmatic: the desire to re-engage Europe and the West with a proposal of the Gospel message of Jesus Christ," said Ashley Agbaw-Ebai in an email to Religion News Service.

"Benedict believed that reason and love can serve as a better foundation for the freedom that the West seeks and desires," he added.

Early on in his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI began the beatification process for John Paul, waiving the traditional five-year waiting period. Half of Benedict's first encyclical, an official papal document called "Deus Caritas Est," was written using the incomplete writings of John Paul.

Benedict also paid tribute to his predecessor after being elected pope in 2005.

"Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope John Paul II, the Cardinals have elected me, a simple, humble laborer in the vineyard of the Lord," he said. "The fact that the Lord knows how to work and to act even with insufficient instruments comforts me, and above all, I entrust myself to your prayers."

Born on April 16, 1927, Benedict was ordained a priest in 1951 in his native Bavaria, Germany, and soon entered a circle of influential Catholic theologians of the 20th century, such as Hans Urs von Balthasar and Henri de Lubac.

Initially, he was drawn to the progressive theological currents of the Nouvelle Théologie that ushered in new ideas for the reform of the church.

He participated in the Second Vatican Council, which Pope John XXIII called to reform the church, working as a theological adviser to German Cardinal Josef Richard Frings, who advocated on behalf of the Jewish people during the Nazi regime, which Ratzinger had also experienced as a youth.

The suit-wearing young Ratzinger was considered a reformer at the time, working closely with some of the most progressive theologians present at the council.

The sexual and cultural revolution of 1968 put an end to Ratzinger's progressive leanings, and his views became more conservative.

After being appointed bishop of Munich and Freising in 1977 — and made cardinal the same year — he went to the Vatican in 1981 to take over the role of prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (now the Discastery for the Doctrine of the Faith), charged with addressing important theological and doctrinal matters of the Catholic Church.

The bookish Ratzinger was reluctant to take on the high-profile position, and John Paul had to ask several times before Ratzinger accepted. Even after going to Rome, he asked to be dismissed by the pope in order to work in the Vatican Library, but was denied.

His brief time as bishop in Munich came to haunt him years later, when a report in January 2022 accused him of covering up abuse by priests. Benedict denied any wrongdoing while condemning sexual abuse and coverup in open letters.

As prefect, Ratzinger upheld traditional Catholic views on life issues, sexuality and homosexuality. He approved rules prohibiting men with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies" from entering the priesthood. He was also responsible for overseeing charges of sexual abuse by clergy, which fell under his jurisdiction.

After the Boston Globe reported that scores of priests had abused children, prompting headlines worldwide in 2002, he issued a letter titled De Delicti Gravioribus (On More Serious Crimes), which certain Vatican documents confidential, including those concerning sexual abuse.

The letter was later criticized for "obstructing justice" in clergy abuse cases in the United States. In 2005, Benedict was named in a Texas lawsuit involving a seminarian accused of abuse. Government officials in the United States argued that he should be given immunity.

But while at the CDF, Ratzinger launched the Vatican's first efforts to combat clergy abuse and extended canon law to address child pornography, raising the possibility of waiving the statute of limitations and speeding up the procedure to laicize guilty priests.

Once elected pope, Benedict launched an investigation into the Legion of Christ and its founder, ex-priest and paedophile Marcial Maciel, whom he later laicized and retired to a "life of penitence and prayer."

Benedict visited fewer countries than his globe-trotting predecessor, but his trips to the U.S., Australia, Africa and the Middle East attracted huge crowds. He would often use art as a bridge to foster dialogue with the countries and communities he visited.

"In his two visits to Africa and in his post-synodal exhortation Africae Munus, Benedict shows a clear admiration of the cultural values of Africa," said Ashley Agbaw-Ebai. "From an African perspective, Benedict's papacy could be read as a papacy of culture and spirituality, a Christo-centric and Eucharistic spirituality that demands breaking down barriers of tribe and fostering love and reconciliation in Africa."

Benedict would sometimes refer to Africa as the "lung of the church" due to its strong spirituality, high number of vocations and young population. He appointed several Africans to hold Vatican positions and strengthened ties between African countries and Rome.

"Benedict was a teacher, and for the wider church I think his pontificate represented a back-to-the-basics course in Christianity," said John Thavis, an American journalist and author of "The Vatican Diaries."

"After more than a quarter-century of outreach under John Paul II, the church under Benedict looked inward — at what it believes and what it teaches," said Thavis. "I think Benedict thought that before engaging the world, Christians needed a clearer understanding of their own faith."

Where Benedict succeeded in fostering ecumenical dialogue with Protestant and Orthodox denominations, he failed to promote interreligious dialogue with Muslims and Jews.

In September 2006, Benedict angered Muslims when he gave a controversial speech at his former university in Regensburg, Germany, quoting a 14th-century emperor who said Islam's Prophet Muhammad had brought only "evil and inhuman" things.

Benedict's decision in 2007 to allow the celebration of the Tridentine Mass drew backlash from Jewish groups who objected to the anti-Semitic language used in the rite.

In 2009, Benedict apologized for lifting the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson, a Holocaust-denying traditionalist from England who was ordained illegitimately by the controversial French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1988.

As pontiff, Benedict was also unsuccessful in cleaning up the disorganized and scandal-ridden offices at the Vatican. According to the Rev. Thomas Reese, author of "Inside the Vatican" and an RNS columnist, Benedict's "public failures were caused by his not consulting a wider range of advisors."

The Vatileaks scandal, which broke in 2012, brought to light letters and other documents outlining corruption and a lack of financial transparency in church's administration, and revealed a pope increasingly overwhelmed by factionalism and political gamesmanship within the Vatican.

On Feb. 11, 2013, Benedict announced his resignation in a speech to the cardinals in Latin citing a "lack of strength of mind and body." He took on the title of pope emeritus and continued to live in a secluded alcove at the Monastery of Mater Ecclesiae at the Vatican. He spent his last days writing and playing the piano in the company of his beloved multicolored tabby cat.

A pope straddling past and present, he paved the way forward for the church in the new millennium, laying the groundwork for addressing sexual abuse and even, more prosaically, creating the first papal Twitter account.

But he struggled to reconcile his traditional Catholic views, founded on the matrimony between faith and reason, with a world that he considered to be "under the dictatorship of relativism."

While clinging to deeply cemented beliefs, he sent new shock waves into the future with his resignation.

"Benedict XVI may be our least understood pope," said the Rev. John Wauck, a professor at the Opus Dei University of Santa Croce in Rome and media commentator on Catholic affairs.

"He was a revolutionary, but in a way that's hard to pull off and easy to miss: He was boldly, daringly self-effacing. Nowhere is this clearer than in his unprecedented resignation: the single most revolutionary act of any pope in the last few centuries. His defiance of tradition— his version of doing it "his way" — took the form of saying, "It's not about me. The church can get along without Joseph Ratzinger."

• Claire Giangravé is an author at RNS. First published in RNS. Republished with permission.

The German news agency, Katholisch.de, reported April 20 that Gänswein has been in isolation since April 11, a time period that included all of the Easter Triduum and Benedict XVI's 95th birthday.

Benedict XVI has tested negative for COVID-19, according to Gänswein, as have all other residents of the Mater Ecclesiae monastery, the retired pope's residence inside of Vatican City.

While the 65-year-old personal secretary was unable to join the pope emeritus in celebrating his 95th birthday on Holy Saturday, Pope Francis paid a visit to Benedict XVI's residence ahead of his birthday on April 13.

Gänswein has said that both he and Benedict XVI have received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Source: CNA

Despite growing feebleness, the retired pope is in good health, and has marked his April 16 birthday each year, sometimes in the presence of family and friends.

This is Benedict's first birthday since the death of his older brother Georg Ratzinger on July 1, 2020 in Bavaria. The pope emeritus was able to say a last goodbye to his brother during a four-day trip to Germany at the end of June.

Read More

In an interview with the German newspaper Südkurier, Archbishop Gänswein is reported to have said that Benedict XVI's "illness is subsiding" and that his medication has been reduced.

Benedict XVI has been suffering from facial shingles, a bacterial infection of the skin which causes a painful, red rash. "The pain started after the death of his brother," Gänswein told Südkurier.

"Whilst very unpleasant and painful, the illness was not life-threatening," the archbishop said in the article published Aug. 9.

"This is pain that I do not wish for my worst enemy," Gänswein said. Read more

Francis made the comments in his homily at the consistory Mass at St Peter's Basilica last Saturday.

All 13 of the new cardinals share Francis's pastoral concerns at a time when conservatives within the College of Cardinals are putting pressure on his ministry.

Warning the new cardinals to be aware of and avoid disloyalty in the Church, Francis explained his views on its causes.

It is rooted in a lack of compassion and indifference, he said.

Without a "lively awareness" of God's compassion, disloyalty to "our own ministry" seeps in.

Francis's challenges to the new cardinals are said to be unusual given the oath of loyalty and obedience cardinals make to the pope.

Unusual or not, pope emeritus Benedict echoed his words when the new cardinals went to him for his blessing after the Mass.

According to a Vatican statement, Benedict reminded them of the "value of fidelity to the Pope".

The new cardinals and the future of the church

As 10 of the 13 new cardinals are under 80, they will be eligible to vote in a conclave.

Their promotion brings the proportion of voting-age cardinals Francis has named to 52 per cent.

His choice of cardinals reflects his desire to mirror the universal face of the Church in its leadership ranks and to elevate the work of missionaries and of religious life.

Of the new cardinals, many are from churches in the developing world that have never had a "prince" representing them. Eight belong to religious orders.

They are described as are churchmen who care for migrants, promote dialogue with Muslims and minister to the faithful in poor, far-flung missionary posts.

The new cardinals are:

• Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot MCCJ (b.1952)
• José Tolentino Calaça de Mendonça (b.1965)
• Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo (b.1950)
• Juan de la Caridad García Rodríguez (b1.1948)
• Fridolin Ambongo Besungu OFM Cap (b.1960)
• Jean-Claude Hollerich SJ (b.1958)
• Álvaro Leonel Ramazzini Imeri (b.1947)
• Matteo Maria Zuppi (b.1955)
• Cristóbal López Romero SDB (b.1952)
• Michael Czerny SJ (b.1946)
• Michael Louis Fitzgerald M Afr (b.1937)
• Sigitas Tamkevicius SJ (b.1938)
• Eugenio Dal Corso PSDP (b.1939).

Source

• The Tablet
• CTV News
• Crux Now
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Crux Now

His dismissal came amid ongoing controversy regarding recent changes to the Institute.

Benedict XVI, who has had a long-standing relationship with the Institute that well pre-dates his papacy, invited Monsignor Livio Melina to meet with him "at a private audience," a source close to Melina says.

Benedict has also long-admired Melina's work.

"After a long discussion of the recent events at the Pontifical Institute of John Paul II, he granted his blessing, expressing his personal solidarity and assuring him of his closeness in prayer."

Melina, who was president of the Institute from 2006 until 2016, was dismissed from the institute after the recent promulgation of new statutes for the graduate school.

These included a decision to eliminate the chair of moral theology, which Melina held.

The new statutes were first called for in 2017, when Pope Francis announced he would legally re-found the Institute, and broaden its academic curriculum.

This would see a change from a focus on the theology of marriage and the family to include the study of the family from the perspective of the social sciences.

When the new statutes were approved last month, students, alumni and faculty raised a number of concerns.

More than 250 students and alumni of the Institute have signed a letter expressing their concern about the school's new statutes, the role of faculty members in the Institute's new governing structure, the reduction of theology courses and the elimination of some theology disciplines.

They also expressed their distress about the dismissal of some faculty members, including Melina and his colleague Fr Jose Noriega. The faculty dismissals have taken place without due process, they said.

In addition, the letter notes current students will not be able to complete the academic programmes in which they are involved.

While faculty members say they have no objection to Francis's desire to expand the school's mission or approach, they say the administrators responsible for implementing that mission have acted unfairly.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Crux Now
• Image: Catholic News Agency

"The Pope is one, it is Francis," Benedict said in an interview with an Italian magazine last week.

"The unity of the Church has always been in danger, for centuries," he continued.

"It has been for all its history. Wars, internal conflicts, centrifugal forces, threats of schisms.

"In the end the awareness that the Church is and must remain united has always prevailed. Its unity has always been stronger than internal struggles and wars."

Italian journalist Massimo Franco says when the history of what the Pope Emeritus has been doing during what he (Franco) describes as "these secret years" is written:

"... it will not be possible to disregard the highly reserved cardinals and bishops who have come to his door looking for reassurances, and expressing their criticisms and their perplexity towards the current pontificate."

Franco suggests Benedict has answered these clergy by emphasising the importance of Church unity, noting "Benedict's obsession with the unity of the Church … is more acute than ever."

Since retiring from the pontificate, Benedict (92) has led a life of prayer, occasionally consulting with and meeting with his successor, Pope Francis.

Last Saturday marked the 68th anniversary of Benedict's ordination to the priesthood.

He plans to spend the summer peacefully with the usual visit of his brother Georg and few private meetings with guests for breakfast or lunch, according to ACI Stampa newspaper.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Eurasia Review
• Image: France24

On Monday, rumors circulated on Twitter and other social media platforms that the Pope Emeritus had suffered a "mild ischemia" - a kind of stroke.

"The rumours are false," Alessandro Gisotti, director ad interim of the Press Office of the Holy See, confirmed to the Catholic Herald on Tuesday. Read more

Cultural and historical change have led to a "dissolution" of morality in Catholicism, he claims.

As an example, he says despite allegations of clerical sex abuse of children dating back to decades before the 1960s, it was not until the sexual revolution in the 1960s that homosexuality and paedophilia occurred in Catholic establishments.

In particular, he cites the appearance of sex in films in his native Bavaria and the formation of "homosexual cliques" in seminaries "which acted more or less openly and significantly changed the climate."

"Why did pedophilia reach such proportions? Ultimately, the reason is the absence of God," Benedict explains.

This can be resolved only through "obedience and love for our Lord Jesus Christ," he says.

In addition, he claims at a seminary in southern Germany, laymen were accompanied by their wives and children and "on occasion by their girlfriends.

"The climate in this seminary could not provide support for preparation to the priestly vocation.

"The Holy See knew of such problems, without being informed precisely," he says.

At the same time, he says it might be worth mentioning that "in not a few seminaries, students caught reading my books were considered unsuitable for the priesthood.

"My books were hidden away, like bad literature, and only read under the desk."

Benedict's essay also finds fault with church laws that gave undue protection to accused priests.

He notes during the 1980s and 1990s, "the right to a defence (for priests) was so broad as to make a conviction nearly impossible."

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict spearheaded reforms of those laws in 2001 to make it easier to remove priests who abused children.

He also took a hard line against clerical sex abuse as the Vatican's doctrine chief and later as pope, defrocking hundreds of priests accused of raping and molesting children.

Right now, in his opinion, the primary task is "to reassert the joyful truth of God's existence and of the church as holding the true deposit of faith.

"When thinking about what action is required first and foremost, it is rather obvious that we do not need another church of our own design.

"Rather, what is required first and foremost is the renewal of the faith in the reality of Jesus Christ given to us in the Blessed Sacrament," he says.

Benedict's essay has been criticised as "catastrophically irresponsible" as it conflicts with efforts Pope Francis is making to lead the church out of the crisis.

However, following the February Vatican gathering of presidents of the world's bishops' conferences "to discuss the current crisis of faith and of the church," Benedict says he thinks it is appropriate that he should help contribute "to a new beginning".

He also says his involvement is reasonable given his role as pope during "the public outbreak of the crisis".

Source

• Christian Today
• BoingBoing.net
• America Magazine
• Religion News Service
• Image: Catholic News Agency

Pius's role - helping or ignoring the plight of Jews during the holocaust - has been much debated.

On the one hand, he has often been criticised by Jews for his apparent silence during the holocaust. On the other, some Catholic leaders say Pius and other Catholic clergy helped European Jews.

They also argue that during the Nazi regime, broad action by the Church could have resulted in severe reprisals against Catholics.

Although the Vatican usually waits until a pontiff has been dead for 70 years before opening the archives, an exception has been made in this case, so the documentation can be seen while holocaust survivors are still alive. Pius died nearly 61 years ago in 1958.

Vatican archivists began preparing the documentation for consultation in 2006, at the orders of German-born Pope emeritus Benedict XVI.

Francis says he hopes opening the archives will allow "serious and objective historical research" to "evaluate, in the proper light and with appropriate criticism, the praiseworthy moments of the Pontiff..."

The archives will also produce information about "moments of serious difficulties, of tormented decisions," he says.

These moments may have seemed to some as "reticence" but were attempts to keep humanitarian initiatives alive.

The documents are expected to include various letters and messages between Pius and other Vatican officials and Catholic clergy throughout Europe.

Noting that opening the archives is "the right thing to do", International Director of Inter-religious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Rabbi David Rosen, says he hopes the documents will provide a clearer picture of Pius's actions.

The AJC has been raising the issue of opening the archives with the Vatican for the past 30 years, Rosen says.

Prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives Bishop Sergio Pagano also reportedly requested time to catalogue the large amount of documents before their release.

Holocaust historian and head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel, Dr Efraim Zuroff, say Pius never specifically denounced the Nazi persecution and the mass murder of European Jews. Nor did he ask Catholics to help save Jews from persecution.

Zuroff says "two cardinal questions" needed to be answered about Pius's papacy.

"The first is what information reached the Vatican regarding Holocaust crimes, and the second is when did that information reach Pius XII?"

He says the Vatican's papal nuncios who served as ambassadors were active in many countries where Jews were persecuted and murdered, and that he would have received "accurate information regarding the fate of the Jews… at a relatively early date, most probably before such news reached the Allies."

Source

• Times of Israel
• The Jerusalem Post
• CruxNow
• Image: The Times of Israel

The Manifesto is the work of 71-year old German Gerhard Mueller who is a leading member of the Church's conservative wing.

It repeats basic Catholic teaching that Catholics must be free from sin before receiving Communion.

It also mentions divorced and remarried faithful, in a clear reference to Francis's offer to let these Catholics receive Communion on a case-by-case basis after a process of accompaniment and discernment with their pastors.

In addition, it repeats that women cannot be ordained priests and that priests must be celibate.

Mueller issued the four-page manifesto on Friday via conservative Catholic media outlets.

He says he wrote the Manifesto "in the face of growing confusion about the doctrine of the faith".

He claims some Church leaders "have abandoned the people entrusted to them, unsettling them and severely damaging their faith", and warns against "the fraud of (the) anti-Christ".

While Mueller did not mention the pope in the context of the anti-Christ, he has in the past joined with other conservative Catholics in openly accusing Francis of sowing confusion among the faithful.

Mueller says "many bishops, priests, religious and lay people" requested the Manifesto, although he has not provided data to back this claim.

The Manifesto's release coincided with the first-ever papal trip to the Arabian peninsula, where Francis and an Islamic leader signed a "Document on Human Fraternity".

It's release also marked the sixth anniversary of the end of emeritus Pope Benedict XVI's Pontificate.

Source

• Reuters
• Catholic News Agency
• AP
• ABS
• Image: Catholic News Agency

He was responding to a newspaper article alleging he favoured missionising the Jews and called Jewish-Christian dialogue into question.

Benedict's correction affirms Christians are called to a "dialogue" with the Jews rather than a "mission," as theologian Michael Böhnke claimed in German theological journal "Herder Korrespondenz."

He also explains Judaism and Christianity are "two ways of interpreting the Scriptures."

He says for Christians, the promises made to Israel are the hope of the Church, and "those who abide by it are in no way questioning the foundations of the Jewish-Christian dialogue."

Böhnke had argued that Benedict XVI, in an article for the theological journal Communio, had demonstrated a problematic understanding of Judaism and had ignored the suffering Christians had inflicted upon Jews."

Benedict says Böhnke's accusation is "grotesque nonsense and has nothing to do with what I said about it. I therefore reject his article as a completely false insinuation."

Regarding the Church's "mission" to the Jews, Benedict says "A mission to the Jews is not foreseen and not necessary."

Benedict explains that while it is true Christ gave His disciples a mission to all peoples and all cultures, "the missionary mandate is universal - with one exception:

"A mission to the Jews was not foreseen and not necessary because they alone, among all peoples, knew the ‘unknown God'."

Benedict's explanation continues, saying for Israel, the disciples' responsibility was not a mission, but a dialogue about whether Jesus of Nazareth was "the Son of God, the Logos," for whom, according to the promises made to His people, Israel, and the whole world without knowing it, was waiting.

This is "the duty given us at this time," Benedict says.

Source

• The Tablet
• Vatican News
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The symposium is being held by the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation.

Both Francis and Benedict's letters were addressed to Vatican Foundation president Fr Federico Lombardi SJ and were read at the symposium's opening.

Both refer to a breakdown in society's definition of what "a right is," which they said is putting the development of humanity at risk.

Benedict's letter says this year's symposium's theme is "extraordinarily useful."

He said he thinks the most important topic symposium members will discuss is "the problem of the ‘multiplication of rights' and the risk ‘of the destruction of the idea of a right.'"

In his view he said, this "is a current and fundamental question for the protection of the basis of the coexistence of the human family, which merits to be placed again as a topic of deep and systematic reflection," - which he noted is exactly what the symposium hopes to achieve.

In his letter, Francis pointed to a connection between the symposium and the upcoming 70th anniversary of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

Noting the symposium offers an opportunity to celebrate the memory of the Declaration, Francis said it also provides an opportunity to "impose deep reflection on its application and on its development in the vision of Human Rights in today's day and age."

He said that "over time, the interpretation of some rights has progressively been modified to the point of including a multiplicity of ‘new rights,' not infrequently in contradiction with one another."

This development has led to numerous problems with the idea of a right, including fundamental rights, Francis said.

Francis pointed out it was Benedict XVI who has been concerned about these changes for many years and has intervened as both "a thinker and a pastor."

Francis closed his letter saying he hoped "the thought and the magisterium" of Benedict XVI's papacy would contribute "with courage and depth to shed light on an essential problem for the protection of the dignity of the human person and their integral development."

Source

• Crux Now
• Vatican News
• Image: Mashable

This theory coloured relations between Jews and Christians over many centuries, and was used to justify persecution of Jews by Christians. Read more

In them, Benedict says the "anger" some of his staunchest allies express risks tarnishing his own pontificate.

The New York Times says the letters were addressed to Cardinal Walter Brandmüller, one of the four ‘dubia' cardinals, who recently criticised Benedict's resignation in an interview with a German newspaper.

In one letter to Brandmüller in November last year, Benedict wrote: "I can well understand the deep-seated pain that the end of my pontificate caused you and many others.

"But for some — and it seems to me for you as well — the pain has turned to anger, which no longer just affects the abdication but my person and the entirety of my pontificate.

"In this way, the pontificate itself is being devalued and conflated with the sadness about the situation of the church today."

With regard to Brandmuller's statements that "the figure of ‘pope emeritus' does not exist in the entire history of the Church," and "the fact that a pope comes along and topples a 2,000-year-old tradition bowled over not just us cardinals," Benedict wrote:

"... You know very well, of course, that popes have abdicated, albeit very rarely. What were they afterward? Pope emeritus? Or what else?"

He referred to the case of Pope Pius XII, who had prepared a resignation in case he was captured by the Nazis, and went on to say:

"In my case it would certainly not have been sensible to simply claim a return to being cardinal. I would then have been constantly as exposed to the media as a cardinal is — even more so because people would have seen in me the former pope.

"Whether on purpose or not, this could have had difficult consequences, especially in the context of the current situation."

Benedict said he chose the title ‘pope emeritus' to make it clear that he no longer holds the Petrine office.

"With ‘pope emeritus,' I tried to create a situation in which I am absolutely not accessible to the media and in which it is completely clear that there is only one pope," he wrote.

"If you know of a better way, and believe that you can judge the one I chose, please tell me."

In another letter, Benedict said a "new agitation is gradually being generated" which could inspire more books like Fabrizio Grasso's ‘The Abdication,' which envisions a situation where multiple popes emeritus could dilute papal authority.

Source

• New York Times
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Catholic News Agency

Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who is the prefect of the papal household for Pope Francis, says Pope-emeritus Benedict "has not commented" on an 11-page letter from Viganò, which was released by the press on 25 August.

The letter alleges Benedict placed sanctions on McCarrick in 2008 or 2009 that barred McCarrick from celebrating Mass publicly or traveling, and ordered him to live a life of prayer and penance.

The National Catholic Register (NCR), one of two outlets that originally published Viganò's letter, said in its 25 August article that it had "independently confirmed that the allegations against McCarrick were certainly known to Benedict."

Three days later, the New York Times reported that one of the people Viganò consulted with while writing his statement was US lawyer Timothy Busch.

Busch is on the board of governors of EWTN, which owns NCR.

Busch told the Times that NCR editors "had personally assured him that the former pope, Benedict XVI, had confirmed Archbishop Viganò's account."

Gänswein says any reports that Benedict had confirmed parts of Viganò's statement "lack any foundation."

Claims about Benedict's "sanctions' against McCarrick are also contradicted by historical records.

These include, for example, McCarrick being seen celebrating numerous public Masses throughout Benedict's papacy and continuing to travel around the world until June this year.

That was when the Vatican announced it had ordered his removal from ministry over an accusation of abuse that had been deemed credible.

Since the release of Viganò's statement, numerous photos have emerged of McCarrick at the Vatican after 2009, including one of him greeting Benedict on 28 February 2013, the day he renounced the papacy.

Source

• Die Tagespost
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Zimbio

Francis says an 11-page document of claims released by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò "speaks for itself".

Asked about the letter from in a press conference aboard the Aug. 26 flight back to Rome after his visit to Ireland, Francis advised journalists to "read the statement attentively and make your own judgment."

"I will not say a single word on this," the pope said of the letter.

"I think this statement speaks for itself, and you have the sufficient journalistic capacity to draw conclusions."

"When some time passes and you have your conclusions, maybe I will speak," said Francis. "But I would like that your professional maturity carries out this task."

Three Popes knew about McCarrick

In the letter Viganò released to the National Catholic Register and LifeSiteNews, he claimed that since 2000, three popes, as well as former and current senior Church officials have been covering-up allegations about former cardinal Theodore McCarrick sexually abusing seminarians.

On Sunday Viganò told The Washington Post he wouldn't comment further, beyond confirming that he was the letter's author.

The accusations in the letter are unsubstantiated, but a number of people are named who are said to have known about the situation.

This is not the first time Viganò has been the immersed in controversy.

Implicated in Vatileaks

Before becoming Ambassador to the United States Viganò, was the Secretary-General of the Vatican City Governatorate.

In 2010 he was implicated in the so-called Vatileaks scandal.

Some of Viganò's letters were leaked. In them, he warned of corruption, abuse of power, a lack of transparency in awarding contracts and opposition to financial reforms.

He was subsequently removed from office and appointed to Washington in 2011.

In February 2012 the current and immediate past presidents of the Governorate of Vatican City State released a statement about the leaked letters.

They said the letters contained assertions based on "erroneous evaluations" or "fears unsupported by proof".

Arranged a controversial meeting in the USA

When the Pope was visiting the United States Viganò arranged a meeting between the pope and a Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis.

She had gained notoriety by turning away gay couples seeking marriage.

Davis' attorney said that she received a phone call from Viganò insisting on a meeting with the pope.

"We were led to believe that the invitation did come directly from Pope Francis," the attorney said at the time.

The Vatican later accused Viganò of keeping the pope in the dark about the surprise encounter.

Cover-ups

According to Crux Now, Viganò was accused of his own mishandling of sex abuse allegations; encouraging Auxiliary Bishop Lee Piche to destroy documents relating to the investigation of Archbishop John Nienstedt.

Source

• Crux Now
• National Catholic Register
• Get Religion
• Reuters
• salon.com
• The Washington Post
• National Catholic Reporter
• ncronline.org
• ncronline.org
• Image: LifeSite News

In an essay for Communion on Jewish-Catholic relations, Benedict denied the Catholic Church ever adopted "supersessionism."

Supersessionism is the theological belief that God's covenant through Christ replaced the covenant God made with the Jewish people.

Benedict also wrote in his essay that the Christian reason behind reading the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is the only valid one.

Both Jewish and Catholic leaders say this essay confirms Benedict holds anti-Semitic views.

One rabbi said the essay encourages "a new anti-Semitism."

Another said it was "most problematic" that the former pope insists that Christians instruct Jews on how the Old Testament is to be interpreted from a Christological point of view.

Whoever describes the role of Judaism like this is building the foundation for a new anti-Semitism on a Christian basis," said Rabbi Walter Homolka, executive director of the School of Jewish Theology at Potsdam University in Germany.

"Benedict's suggestion that Christians should teach Jews how to read selected parts of the Hebrew Bible in a Christological way is very problematic," said the Rev. Christian Rutishauser, head of the Jesuit order in Switzerland and an expert on Jewish-Christian relations.

The association of Christian-Jewish dialogue groups spoke of the essay in relation to the second Vatican Council and said it "undermines Vatican teaching since the 1960s and even contradicts declarations he had made as pope."

"The future of Christian-Jewish dialogue could falter in the face of this thoroughly critical questioning of its theological foundations," the German Coordinating Council of Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation said.

However, while the essay has many detractors, other critics support Benedict's views.

Some Catholic theologians have come to Benedict's defence.

Bochum University theologian Thomas Söding said the essay was "not an irritation, but an inspiration for Jewish-Christian dialogue."

Vienna University theologian Jan-Heiner Tück said the essay aimed not to roll back some Catholic positions but to further the dialogue between the two religious traditions.

Benedict's essay left open the difficult question of what role in salvation Catholicism saw for Judaism, since it viewed the Jewish covenant with God as unbroken but the Christian covenant as the true bond, Tück said.

A Vatican document in 2015 said both covenants were paths to salvation, but how this worked was "an unfathomable divine mystery."

"That should have been made clearer," Tück said.

Benedict was not trying to roll back progress in Christian-Jewish dialogue, he said, "but maybe there's a certain gap in the description of the positive meaning of Judaism for salvation."

Source

• USA Today
• Fast Forward
• La Croix
• Image: Crux Now

The volume is on the theme "faith and politics".

Francis says "Liberating freedom. Faith and politics in the third millennium", acts as a compass to "understand our present and find a solid orientation for the future." Read more

Joined by his 94-year-old brother, Monsignor Georg Ratzinger, Benedict began the day by celebrating a Latin Mass.

"Then he had breakfast and immediately after sang a beautiful song, which is always important for him," Archbishop Georg Ganswein said.

Pope Francis offered his early morning Mass for Benedict and sent his best wishes to him.

Ganswein said after Benedict had eaten lunch the Memores Domini sisters made him, Benedict went for a short walk and, in the afternoon, he prayed the Rosary.

"His mind is fine but his physical strength is somewhat diminished," Ganswein said.

The Vatican press office said in the evening the Swiss Guard band would be visiting Benedict and performing for him.

Benedict was pope from 2005 to 2013.

He shocked the world when he announced his resignation in February 2013, citing advanced age and declining strength.

He stepped down from the papacy a fortnight later.

A conclave was called to name his successor, and on March 13, 2013, Pope Francis was elected.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Crux Now
• Image: Aleteia