Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is considered one of the most eminent theologians of the last century and one of the most influential priests of the past 50 years. Yet this unusual combination of erudition and great authority did not serve him well and may have fueled a personal arrogance that clouded his legacy.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 to the highest office of the Roman Catholic Church because, for many Catholic cardinals and their followers, he represented a conservative in a time of rapid liberalization and change values and stability. But he came to oversee a church plagued by ongoing revelations and cover-ups of sexual abuse, as well as financial and other corrosive scandals.
Joseph Ratzinger was born in a small Bavarian town in 1927, grew up during the Nazi regime in Germany, and was ordained a priest after World War II. He became a theologian and specialist at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), became Archbishop of Munich in 1977, and then head of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Holy See in 1981.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is considered one of the most eminent theologians of the last century and one of the most influential priests of the past 50 years. Yet this unusual combination of erudition and great authority did not serve him well and may have fueled a personal arrogance that clouded his legacy.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 to the highest office of the Roman Catholic Church because, for many Catholic cardinals and their followers, he represented a conservative in a time of rapid liberalization and change values and stability. But he came to oversee a church plagued by ongoing revelations and cover-ups of sexual abuse, as well as financial and other corrosive scandals.
Joseph Ratzinger was born in a small Bavarian town in 1927, grew up during the Nazi regime in Germany, and was ordained a priest after World War II. He became a theologian and specialist at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), became Archbishop of Munich in 1977, and then head of the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Holy See in 1981.
In the latter role, Ratzinger became Pope John Paul II’s doctrinal czar, helping to steer conservatives against the reform impulses of a Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, and against what he saw as a Marxist-tinged social justice movement , such as liberation theology. In public life, he led campaigns against moral relativism and secularism, and within the church he conducted undercover investigations of theologians who were deemed to have strayed from conservative teaching or practice—efforts that earned him ” Nicknames like “Panzerkardinal” and “God’s Rottweiler”
In fact, Ratzinger was more of an inside player and academic intellectual than a Grand Inquisitor. For the better part of his 23 years, he has served John Paul, writing books, giving lengthy interviews and speaking engagements, and cultivating a global platform for his personal theology and church vision. He can wield power softly and slowly because he wields so much power for so long.
Ratzinger was at the apex of church power for a long time, in fact he was the only one to be in the conclave in two conclave in 1978 and in April 2005 following the death of the first Polish pope, John Paul The cardinals who voted; that was the conclave that elected Ratzinger as history’s first German pope, Benedict XVI.
This is a surprise election, and Ratzinger has made it clear that he is not seeking it. At 78—twenty years older than John Paul was when he was elected Pope—Ratzinger wanted to retire to Bavaria to write a book, not run a global church of 1.2 billion Catholics. He told the other cardinals in conclave that he was not an administrator, which is a core function of the pope.
But Ratzinger is the cardinal that the other 114 electors know best; they’ve all dealt with him for years, if not decades. After 26 years of John Paul’s reign, they don’t want another marathon pope.
Ratzinger was a reliable defender of orthodoxy: he condemned the “dictatorship of relativism,” which he said characterized the modern world. It is thought that Ratzinger may have been a bridge – a transitional figure who could guide the bark of St Peter after pouring out his great grief and affection to the late popular Polish pope.
In his election, Ratzinger’s childhood membership in the Hitler Youth sparked brief protests, but neither mainstream Jewish groups nor his usual critics ultimately turned against him. As a teenager, Ratzinger had to join the Hitler Youth, but he was emaciated, studious and never attended meetings.
Towards the end of the war, 16-year-old Ratzinger was drafted into the German Air Defense Forces. He escaped and was captured by Allied forces and briefly held in an American POW camp.
He entered seminary almost immediately and was ordained in 1951. Originally a Reformation theologian, he was instrumental in promoting major renewal of the Church’s teaching and practice regarding religious liberty, liturgy, and engagement with the world. But towards the end of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, he began to express reservations about the direction of the church, especially in terms of seeming to “follow” the prevailing culture rather than transforming it in the image of Catholicism.
These reservations grew as changes in Catholic life and liturgy took sometimes radical and unexpected paths in newfound freedom. Thousands of priests and nuns have left religious life, and many expect the rule of celibacy to be abolished soon. Not only was the liturgy switched from Latin to the vernacular, but guitars and other modern elements were introduced, insulting Ratzinger’s old-fashioned sensibilities. Traditional customs such as fasting and eating fish on Fridays were eliminated or made optional. Everything seems to be up for grabs and likely to disappear.
The same social upheavals that roiled Western society disturbed the conventional-minded Ratzinger. His conservative leanings became increasingly pronounced after 1968—and increasingly popular with those who wanted stability and continuity after John Paul’s reign.
Despite hopes that he would become pope, Benedict’s papacy did not unfold as planned. Never likable, his quiet, formal public demeanor combined with his embrace of ornate, vintage papal regalia — including bright red custom shoes and ermine-trimmed hats — quickly put him off. Branded as an extremely fastidious figure, not a clergyman.
Several more important issues quickly arise. Back at his old university in Regensburg in 2006, he delivered a speech that contrasted Islam unfavorably with Christianity and stoked Muslim sentiment around the world. He shocked the Jewish community by rehabilitating the leaders of a splinter right-wing Catholic traditionalist group, one of whom was an outright Holocaust denier. Benedict later said he knew nothing about the record, a claim that many found implausible.
Benedict tirelessly courted traditionalists of all types and issued a document allowing them to celebrate the old Latin mass before Vatican II. The Second Vatican has opened the door to overhauling the Mass, allowing not only the celebration of the central Catholic rite in the local language, but also moving the altar closer to the congregation and turning the priest so that he faces the sheep rather than his back to them.
Instead of placating the traditionalist faction, as Benedict intended, the old Latin ritual became a rallying point for the enemies of Benedict’s eventual successor, Pope Francis, who eventually had to limit the practice. Benedict innovated when he saw it necessary—but usually in the service of a more conservative church: for example, he created a new ritual to appeal to conservative Anglicans disaffected by their traditional progressive leanings .
The Pope’s profile on the world stage has also declined during this period. Benedict appointed as secretary of state his top aide in the doctrinal office, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a theologian with no diplomatic experience who said he preferred to see himself as secretary of “the Church” Not the Secretary of State. Benedict is in favor of “less diplomacy and more evangelism,” as Vatican watcher Sandro Magister put it.
But the church itself is no better run than its foreign policy. The “Vatileaks” scandal erupted in 2012 when a series of internal documents were released detailing various allegations of financial corruption, bribery and scandalous practices by the Holy See. Benedict’s valet, Paolo Gabriele, was eventually arrested and convicted for passing numerous documents. Gabriel was apparently part of a circle of courtiers who competed with others for influence and used leaks to do so, which continued even after Gabriel’s arrest. Pope couldn’t stop the leak, and doesn’t appear to be trying.
Benedict looked overwhelmed and exhausted. On February 11, 2013, during a routine ceremony in the Apostolic Palace, Benedict XVI announced that he would resign at the end of the month, leaving Vatican officials — at least those who understood the Latin he spoke — — Shocked that he was the first pope to renounce his resignation for 600 years as St. Peter’s presidency and one of the few popes in history to resign.
Nearly 86 years old, Benedict left the main stage after eight years as pontiff. His departure paved the way for the election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as Pope Francis, a pope who began to dismantle most of the conservative projects that Benedict had devoted his life to advancing.
Even in retirement, however, Benedict remains a powerful influence. He coined the title “Emeritus Pope” for himself, retained his distinctive white robes and the Pope’s name, and retired to a monastery within the walls of the Vatican.
All of this continues to fuel speculation among his ardent fans that he is still the real Pope. Benedict tried to dispel that speculation. “It was a difficult decision [to resign]”, he told an Italian newspaper in 2021. Some of my somewhat “fanatic” friends are still angry. They didn’t accept my choice. … They don’t want to believe in a conscious decision.
But Benedict also continued to make statements and give interviews on various issues, keeping him in the news well into his retirement, which outlasted his papacy.
The longest shadow is the clergy sex abuse scandal. It was a crisis that Ratzinger, already at the height of his influence in Rome in the 1990s and early 2000s, had repeatedly played down, even as he realized behind the scenes the depth and breadth of the abuses.
When Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI, he took important steps to chastise and liberalize sexual abusers, and for the first time he met victims of sexual abuse in person. But he always blamed the secular world for the scandal, rather than pointing to the church’s clerical culture or the idling bishops.
The matter haunts Benedict again in early 2022. A report on historical abuse in Munich, where he served as Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982, revealed that he himself failed to take action against abusive priests on four occasions. Benedict and his team of personal assistants and lawyers did not take any personal responsibility when they spoke for the frail ex-pope, who delivered a forceful defense and generalized criticism of the mistakes made under public pressure apology.
The debate became more and more heated. Archbishop George Ganswain, Benedict’s main spokesman and longtime private secretary, has accused the former pope’s critics of fomenting a campaign that “really wants to destroy Benedict himself and his work.” “It never loved him as a person, his theology, his papacy,” Gänswein told an Italian newspaper in February 2022.
In fact, Benedict’s legacy may have been cast long before this point. Joseph Ratzinger was a polarizing figure almost from the beginning of his career, and as he gained prominence and power he became an increasingly polarizing focus. Those who loved Benedict XVI in life will respect him even more in death. Those who object to his theology or his record in running the church — or both — will see his life as a cautionary tale for the next conclave of cardinals who gather to elect a new pope.
