On Saturday 31 December 2022, at the age of ninety-five and following a short illness, the Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passed away in the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery, his Vatican residence. Benedict’s death marked the end of an era for the Church and it was the catalyst for much media commentary on his eventful life and, especially, his time as pope.
Scottish Catholics remembered with affection the heady days in September 2010 when the German pope visited the UK and spent a day in Scotland, where he met Queen Elizabeth II at the Palace of Holyrood House and celebrated Mass with around 70,000 Catholics in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, before flying to London. While there was essentially universal acknowledgement of Benedict’s personal holiness and commitment to Christ, his brilliant theological mind, and deep love of the Church, some pointed to perceived missteps as pontiff which surely contributed to his courageous and radical decision to resign from the papacy in February 2013, rather than attempt to bear its burdens as his physical and mental strength declined due to old age.
The terms ‘conservative’ and ‘progressive’, taken from secular politics, can be an awkward fit when applied to the positions held by people within the Catholic Church; they may be useful up to a point, yet only as a crude shorthand that overlooks shared Christian commitment and often fails to give an accurate picture of the believer’s approach. Nevertheless, thanks in part to his reaction against certain experimental excesses that affected the Church in the wake of Vatican II and, of course, his long service under Pope John Paul II as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (1981 to 2005), Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was seen as a conservative choice to succeed the Polish pontiff. Indeed, given the closeness of their relationship, he was very much the continuity candidate, even if he lacked the powerful charisma of his predecessor.
Yet after becoming pope in April 2005 and taking the name Benedict, a tribute to Pope Benedict XV and St Benedict of Nursia, the inadequacy of describing the new pontiff as simply a conservative Catholic became clear. Yes, Benedict adhered completely to the truths of the faith, and he knew that Christ himself was the answer to the often confused and corrupted yearnings of modern humanity – to the whole human question. However, his manner was kind and humble. Benedict’s certainty and the confidence it instilled did not prevent him from engaging with the world as it is or from fostering fruitful dialogue with other Christian communities, other religions, and even unbelievers.
The first encyclical of Benedict’s pontificate, Deus Caritas Est: on Christian Love (2005), came as a surprise to those expecting a moralising letter denouncing the faults and failings of the present age. Instead, Benedict, the faithful and gentle teacher, offered the world a deep and profound treatment of the essence of Christian love and he reflected on what is distinctive in the Church’s practice of charity.
On a personal note, I remain immensely grateful for Benedict’s second encyclical, Spe Salvi: on Christian Hope (2007), with its penetrating reflections on faith, freedom, progress, and the nature of authentic Christian hope. It is also clear to me that that author of Spe Salvi and its compassionate, realistic, and wise passages on death, judgement and eternal life was as well-prepared as any human being could be for the inevitable end of his mortal life.
Those of us who identify as social justice-orientated Catholics can recognise the contribution to Catholic Social Teaching made by Benedict in his third encyclical, Caritas in Veritate: on Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth (2009). We can also recognise the use Pope Francis makes of Benedict’s writings in the environmental encyclical Laudato Si’: on Care for our Common Home (2015). Laudato Si’ is a cornerstone of the Argentinian pope’s pontificate and represents a major development of Church teaching, but it is a development that Benedict, the first ‘green pope’, helped pave the way for.
Benedict faced tremendous challenges and difficulties during his life and, in the glare of the world’s media spotlight, as successor to the beloved Pope John Paul the Great. If some commentators speak of errors or misjudgements made by Benedict after he became the Bishop of Rome, we remember the insight of Pope Francis in Gaudete et Exsultate: on the Call to Holiness in Today’s World (2018):
Not everything a saint says is completely faithful to the Gospel; not everything he or she does is authentic or perfect. What we need to contemplate is the totality of their life, their entire journey of growth in holiness, the reflection of Jesus Christ that emerges when we grasp their overall meaning as a person. (GE 22)
Whether Benedict is ever formally canonised or not, when we look on ‘the totality of [his] life’, we surely discern the reflection of his beloved Lord, Jesus Christ, in whose vineyard Joseph Ratzinger laboured so diligently as a ‘humble worker’.
May Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI rest in peace.
Kenneth Sadler
Coordinator, St Mary’s Cathedral Justice and Peace Group
Feast of St John Ogilvie
10 March 2023