PASSING AWAY OF AN ERUDITE THEOLOGIAN AND A DEFENDER OF CHRISTIAN TRADITIONS

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose health had declined for some time, passed away on 31st December 2022, aged 95, at Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in Vatican City. Benedict, who played the role of a bulwark against the increased secularisation in many Western countries, attempted to revive the fundamental Christian values and promote the traditional liturgy, reintroducing papal vestments and the Traditional Latin Mass. 

During his papacy the erudite pontiff was known for his prolific writings on theology. Though originally a liberal theologian, he adopted conservative views after 1968 in the wake of the Second Vatican Council which upended a number of Catholic teachings. He made efforts to crack down on the Liberation Theology movement (that emphasises the liberation of the oppressed, best known in the Latin American context) and countered religious pluralism and issues such as birth control, abortion, use of condoms, homosexuality and calls to ordain women to priesthood. In this sense, he was known to be more conservative than his successor, Pope Francis, who has made moves to soften the Vatican’s stand on such issues. 

Benedict, though initially reluctant to accept the mantle of St. Peter, was elected pope in April 2005 as the sixth German to be picked for this highest position, following St. John Paul II’s death. He shocked the world when he resigned unexpectedly on 11th February 2013, aged 85. He said that his advanced age did not permit him to attend to the demands of the Catholic Church. The last pope to step down in this manner was Gregory XII in 1415 to end a civil war within the church. 

Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, was born on 16th April 1927 to Joseph Ratzinger Sr., a police officer, and Maria Ratzinger (née Peintner) in the picturesque village of Marktl, Bavaria in predominantly Catholic south-east Germany. At the age of five, he was among a group of children who welcomed the visiting Cardinal, Archbishop of Munich, with flowers. Impressed by the cardinal’s sumptuous attire, Ratzinger announced later that day that he wanted to be a cardinal. He attended the elementary school in Aschau am Inn, which was renamed in his honour in 2009.

Ratzinger entered a minor seminary in Traunstein in 1939. Ratzinger’s father bitterly resented the Nazis which resulted in harassment of his family. At the age of 14,  Ratzinger was conscripted into the Hitler-Jugend (Hitler Youth), youth organisation of the Nazi party, as was required by law for all German boys of that age. But he was an unenthusiastic member who refused to attend meetings. In 1943, while still in the seminary, Ratzinger was drafted into the German anti-aircraft corps and was trained in the German infantry. As the Allied Forces drew closer to his post in 1945, he deserted his unit and went to his family’s home in Traunstein. As a German soldier, he was interned in a prisoner of war camp, but released a few months later when the war ended in 1945.

Ratzinger and his brother were ordained in Freising on 29th June 1951 by Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber of Munich, the same person whom he had met as a child. In 1977, Ratzinger was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising. Later that year, former Paul VI made him a cardinal, a testimony to his growing reputation within the church as a scholarly dignitary. From 1981 to 2005, Ratzinger headed the Vatican’s influential Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the office that watchdogs the church’s doctrine, thus being nicknamed the “God’s Rottweiler”. During this time, he was Catholicism’s chief theologian and his 24 years at the CDF were far more influential than his tenure as pontiff, said David Gibson, author of a biography of the former pope. In 1984, Ratzinger told the Order of the Dominicans to inquire into the case of heresy of Matthew Fox, one of its monks. The Vatican expelled the American monk from the order in 1993. In 1999, Ratzinger silenced another American nun and priest involved in LGBT ministry, saying that it was against the “Church’s teaching regarding the intrinsic evil of homosexual acts”. He removed Marcial Maciel, an influential Mexican priest who founded the conservative Legion of Christ, after years of allegations of sexual abuse of children by him. From 2004-2014, the Vatican defrocked 848 priests who raped or molested children and sanctioned another 2572 with lesser penalties. During that time, the CDF had received 3400 accusations. But, a report published in January 2022, criticised Ratzinger for knowing about priests who abused children but failing to act when he was archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982. In 2012, his butler was convicted of theft for leaking confidential papal documents to fight what he saw as  deep corruption within the Holy See. A year later, Benedict announced his resignation.

But, according to Bill Donohue of the conservative US Catholic League, no one did more to successfully address the issue of priestly sexual abuse than Ratzinger. In 2008, Benedict acknowledged the shame which the church had felt and said in 2010 that abusive priests disfigured their ministry and they should face justice. That same year, he issued new rules to allow church prosecution of suspected abusers for 20 years after the incident occurred, up from 10 years previously. The rules also made it a church crime to download child pornography, permitting the pontiff to excommunicate a priest without a formal Vatican trial. In a letter published by the Vatican in February 2022, Benedict issued a general apology to survivors of abuse, expressing his profound shame, deep sorrow and his heartfelt request for forgiveness.

Donohue lauded Benedict for working to reduce friction among adherents of various faiths, but critics say that he did not always choose his words wisely, referring to a speech by the pope in 2006 in Regensburg, Germany in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor who criticised Islam, calling it violent, evil and inhuman. Muslim groups throughout the world reacted vehemently to Benedict’s remarks, burning effigies of the pope who later apologised to the Muslims for offending them.

Biographers and friends describe him as quiet and scholarly, more at home among theological matters than adoring crowds, thus being different from the globetrotting charismatic popes-St. John Paul II, his predecessor and Pope Francis, his successor. 

World leaders and religious dignitaries have offered condolences following the death of the former pope. US President Joe Biden, a devout Catholic, and the second Catholic to serve as US President, said that the pontiff “will be remembered as a renowned theologian, with a lifetime of devotion to the Catholic Church, guided by his principles of faith”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the former pope “a staunch defender of traditional Christian values”.

Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Buddhist leader Dalai Lama also paid tribute to the late pontiff. 

The funeral of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was held on 05th January 2023 in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican City, led by Pope Francis. His funeral was “simple” as per his wish. ***