On the Death of Pope Benedict XVI
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We join the Church in mourning the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
Eternal rest
grant unto him,
O Lord, and let perpetual light
shine upon him.
May he rest
in peace.
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Dr. David Glasow shares this reflection on Pope Benedict XVI
The death of Pope Benedict XVI might come as a surprise to many. After 8 years as Pope (2005-2013), Benedict retired and has lived a quiet life behind-the-scenes in a secluded area at the Vatican. A pope has only retired once before, and then only for a few months due to political necessity.
While the American press has tried to portray Benedict as a sort of a nasty, heavy-hitting member of the Inquisition, the truth about him, his personality, and his actual role in the life of the Church over the last 60 years is the exact opposite.
Joseph Ratzinger was from Bavaria in southern Germany, the son of a police officer. He lived through the Nazi regime, the social upheaval of the Cold War, and cultural war of the 60s. He was first and foremost a scholar, but a teacher who was involved in real-life events and people’s lives. He was an influential contributor at the Second Vatican Council in the 60s, considered then by many to be a left-leaning liberal. He played classical piano and loved Mozart, Bach and Beethoven. He did not seek ecclesial appointments, but was asked to be a bishop, and then a member of the Vatican’s government at John Paul II’s request and, eventually, a Cardinal. He would have preferred to remain in the scholarly world teaching and writing, but he accepted these duties out of obedience to God’s will.
Pope Benedict’s personality was gentle. Think, perhaps, of a thoughtful, inquisitive and brilliant college professor. He was soft spoken and an extremely good listener. He could speak and write in many languages, and had a “deep” education. He not only understood the ideas of current thought and history, but also understood where an idea had come from, how it had changed, and how it could be traced back over many centuries to its original thinkers. He possessed the ability to take a controversy on just about any topic, consider it, and then give his listeners a bird’s eye view of the issue and how it can be thought of in a very different way. Several of his books engage in arguments that span hundreds of pages and involve dozens of steps, arriving at a coherent conclusion. He had a deep love and knowledge of Scripture and the Church fathers, the great thinkers from the first seven centuries like Augustine and Athanasius.
In a short space, it would be difficult to explain how his ideas and leadership helped shape the church and guide theologians all over the world. Let’s just say that as the winds of popular thinking have blown back and forth regarding a number of Church teachings, Pope Benedict remained true to the deep truth taught through God’s revelation to mankind and shared by the Catholic Church.
His first-class mind and penetrating insights served a heart that yearned to serve God’s family the Church. This did not always make him popular. But in his quiet, gutsy way, Pope Benedict labored on, quietly and confidently making his points. As an example, he called out the then-prevailing biblical interpretive school of thought, known as Historical Criticism, pointing out its strengths and weaknesses, and calling for a critical evaluation of its techniques and assumptions. It was an unpopular thing to say at that time, but it was very needed.
If you are interested in reading something Pope Benedict wrote, you will find much of it to be academic theology. He wrote on the Church, Jesus, ecumenism, morality, scripture and many other topics—most of it translated into over 40 languages. He also wrote quite a bit that non-theologians can benefit from. Both Credo for Today and Great Christian Thinkers are wonderful collections of his teachings as Pope. Peter Seewald’s interview book, Light of the World, is a good starting look at Pope Benedict’s thoughts on a wide arrange of topics. (Seewald, by the way, has written an excellent two-volume biography of the deceased pope for those of you who want to really role up your sleeves and learn something about him.) One of Pope Benedict’s most interesting theological books is Introduction to Christianity. The Spirit of the Liturgy is another of his famous books, along with an early interview of his called “The Ratzinger Report”. His trilogy on Jesus is pretty tough reading. Sticking with Pope Benedict’s writings is well worth it though, just be warned.
Much will be said about Pope Benedict in the next few weeks. Almost everyone who has taken the time to actually read what he wrote, or listen to him speak, has been surprised at how different he is from the view of the talking heads on the news. I invite you to make up your own mind. Personally, I expect that he will be declared a Doctor of the Church and considered one of the great minds of the 20th Century. He wasn’t perfect, and he certainly struggled when it came to the governance of the Church. Who wouldn’t struggle, considering what hit the Church in the early 2000s? But he was a true servant of God and lover of the truth who always put Christ’s Church before himself.
