A German newspaper is reporting that retired Pope Benedict XVI says he would have liked to be known after his resignation as “Father Benedict” — a title that would have distinguished him more clearly from the current pontiff. The German-born Benedict has been known as Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI since retiring last year. The Frankfurter Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’
Emeritus popes should return to college of cardinals
Tuesday, November 25th, 2014
Hubert Wolf, Professor of Church History at the University of Münster, is calling for a clearer distinction between “pope” and “pope emeritus”. According to Wolf, there are fears that “around Francis and Benedict XVI two competing power centres could come into being in the curia, with pope and antipope at the top of each.” The Read more
Pope Emeritus Benedict’s vow of silence broken
Friday, November 21st, 2014
In modifying a 1972 essay on divorced and remarried Catholics, Pope Emeritus Benedict may be breaking his retirement vow to not the play an active role in Church affairs. In 1972, Fr Joseph Ratzinger originally wrote that marriage was indissoluble in the eyes of the Church, but if a “second marriage has proven to have Read more
Ten books that changed my world
Tuesday, November 11th, 2014
This is my long delayed contribution to an occasional series in which MercatorNet contributors discuss some of the books which have changed the way they see the world. It is a mixed and somewhat arbitrary selection of reading that has formed my ideas about life and literature. Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I Read more
Benedict XVI looks refreshed during Mass with students
Friday, August 29th, 2014
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI looked refreshed and stood for an hour and a half during a Mass with his former students this week. Members of the Ratzinger “schuelerkreis” or “student circle” had been meeting at Castel Gandolfo in Italy, and then travelled to the Vatican for a Mass on August 24, with Benedict as principal Read more
Francis usually visits Benedict before he travels
Friday, August 22nd, 2014Before he goes on any international trip, Pope Francis usually pays a visit to his predecessor, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. This is according to prefect of the pontifical household Archbishop Georg Gaenswein, who made the remark in an interview with the Austrian Catholic press agency. Asked about the “two Popes”, Archbishop Gaenswein underscored that “there Read more
Male and female professors get Ratzinger Prize for theology
Tuesday, June 24th, 2014A biblical scholar and an expert on Catholic-Jewish dialogue have been awarded the equivalent of a Nobel Prize in theology. French biblical scholar Professor Anne-Marie Pelletier and Polish Professor Waldemar Chrostowski have been awarded the Ratzinger Prize for theology. Professor Pelletier is a scholar of hermeneutics and biblical exegesis, who has written two books on Read more
Fall of the Vice-Pope
Friday, June 20th, 2014
A photograph taken in Argentina in 2007 shows two cardinals, Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Tarcisio Bertone, sitting side by side, although their chairs are on two different levels. At the time, Bertone was the Vatican’s Secretary of State, having traveled to a village in northern Patagonia “in the name of His Holiness Benedict XVI” to Read more
Robert Mickens will no longer be The Tablet’s Rome correspondent
Friday, May 2nd, 2014British Catholic weekly The Tablet has announced it will no longer be using Robert Mickens as its Rome correspondent. The Tablet suspended Mickens in March after he called Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI “The Rat” and anticipated his death in a Facebook comment. The publication stated an inquiry would be carried out. About a month later, Read more
Pope Francis canonises Sts John XXIII and John Paul II
Tuesday, April 29th, 2014
Pope Francis has praised Sts John XXIII and John Paul II as men who modernised the Catholic Church in fidelity to its ancient traditions. The Pope said this during his homily at a canonisation Mass at St Peter’s Square on April 27 before an estimated 500,000 people. A few minutes earlier, he had formally declared Read more