Noi Siamo Chiesa offer this reflection on Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI's death from a church reform perspective. Offered here is a translation into English. Original Italian may be found here.
Ratzinger's death has aroused media and popular reactions, in part unforeseen and such as to affect the current structures of the Church. Evidently he was still a point of reference, of consensus and dissent, beyond the easy and simple affirmation that there is only one Pope. Probably also in the future he will remain as a point of reference for various memberships. It is therefore worthwhile, after this outburst of attention, to express oneself clearly and to say explicit words about a pontificate that "Noi Siamo Chiesa" has always followed critically.
Christianity and secularization
Ratzinger's pontificate was in continuity with the ecclesial winter of the pontificate of Pope Wojtyla (of which Ratzinger was number two). The parameter of judgment is for us, even if not shared by all, the Second Vatican Council. On December 2005, the new pope, speaking to the Curia, criticized those who interpreted the Council as a real rupture in the history of the Church compared to those who saw it only as continuity. The inspiration behind this position is the same of Cardinal Ratzinger in his long years as prefect of the former S.Uffizio (now Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith). The return to Christianity was the objective to be pursued, thinking of tradition in its most static terms in line with the Council of Trento and not with the free creativity of the Church of the first centuries. Faced with the changes in society and politics, "fear more than joy, more control than freedom" (Leonardo Boff ) prevailed. Universal principles were to be the basis for countering secularization, attention to the “signs of the times” (“segni dei tempi”) became secondary (as transpires from his will). One could speak of deafness to history. Benedict tried to "propose to his contemporaries a modernized neo-Christianity pivoting on the universal natural law guaranteed by the Church such as to establish fundamental rights for public regulations as the foundation of human civilization" (Daniele Menozzi ). The most evident reaction to this way of living the Message was a very strong criticism of secularization which sought other parameters for approaching reality "starting from the faculty for each individual to self-determine the forms of his own existence both in his social life and in the more profound anthropological structures (body, birth, death, sexual identity, etc. (D. Menozzi )". From his testament there appears a lively criticism of many new and different biblical exegeses (his commentary on the four Gospels is lacking it concerns the comparison with the most recent and best exegeses, observed Cardinal Martini!). Ratzinger seems to snub them but the biblical sciences have contributed considerably to deepening and purifying the faith by allowing the biblical texts to be interpreted in an adult way (Vito Mancuso). Ratzinger's rigid scheme of understanding reality has had many consequences, for example the one on the opportunity to heal the fracture with the Lefebvrians against whom opportunities for return were offered, which failed. 1968 was not understood by Ratzinger who simplistically blamed the pedophilia of the clergy on the sexual revolution of that period.
Eurocentrism
But the narrow limit of his analyzes can be easily seen in one of the central axes of his pastoral approach. It is that of Eurocentrism. His analyzes on secularization are the consequence of Ratzinger being wholly internal to this continent (for better or for worse), the most involved in secularization after centuries of a hegemonic role of ecclesial structures, right up to the Enlightenment. His studies, his professorships, his disciples are realities that have conditioned his pastoral journey. He pledged to Pope Wojtyla that a reference to the "Christian roots" of Europe be included in the European Constitution and in Auschwitz in 2006 he said that a "criminal group forced our people "to be used and abused" as an instrument of their of destruction and domination”; but this is an interpretation of history that does not take into account the almost generalized support that Nazism had from the population.
Liberation theology
Ratzinger, without the charisma of Pope Wojtyla, made choices that the more "conciliar" positions present in the Church openly criticized. With the Dominus Jesus of 2000, inspired by him, the centrality of the "Catholic" faith was affirmed and the placement of other Christians on the level of "ecclesial communities separated from the true one Church", second-class Christians; he helped to promote the review Communio in direct controversy with Concilium (expression of the main theologians of the conciliar area). In Regensburg in 2006 he expressed an unacceptable judgment on violent Islam; especially towards the Theology of Liberation he manifested a severe obstinacy without evangelical foundation. Gustavo Gutierrez , Leonardo Boff , Jon Sobrino , Jacques Dupuis , Edward Schillebeeck and many others - the main theologians of the post- conciliar period - were removed from teaching and marginalized. A climate of repression and self-censorship was established where theological research was carried out. In April 2008, on his birthday, he was received by Bush with a big party on the lawn of the White House with American-style songs and fanfares. In his speech to the UN general assembly he did not mention the problem of the North/South relationship or the questions of rearmament and peace. From then on, he was judged by many to be the pope of the West and was considered extraneous to and contrary to the new experiences and researches elaborated by the theology of the South.
Non-negotiable values
On some ethical issues related to the life of the individual and the family (gender, euthanasia, homosexuals, civil unions…) the position was more than firm, the same on abortion. It is an ethic of rigidity and of "non-negotiable values" which does not accept to reckon with the experience of the person, his sufferings, the specific situations of complex human realities, which cannot be judged by canon law but with great discernment and with much mercy. He was fully co-responsible for protecting the clergy from pedophilia during the many years of prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, finally freeing himself in recent times from the most scandalous cover-ups (such as that of Marcial Maciel Degollado of the Legionaries of Christ) and receiving victims, thus trying to contradict a system that is widespread almost everywhere. He was then personally accused of having protected four priests when he was Archbishop of Monaco (issue still open).
The scandals
The scandals in the management of resources, the infidelity of some collaborators and a very badly organized system have compromised the pontificate. Many in the Christian population have understood that Benedict has been deceived but have also resented the atrocities that may be bearable in civil society and in politics but surprising in a structure with evangelical inspiration. Furthermore, the awareness spread that the pope, despite having the powers in such authoritarian and strong structure as the Vatican, was not personally capable of controlling and governing. In the end, a general fragility of the system was aggravated.
In Italy
The Card. Bertone , an arrogant and incapable clergyman, was named Secretary of State, on the basis of a completely questionable personal and friendship evaluation , despite his extraneousness to the great questions the Church deals with throughout the world. Benedict above all with this choice, which he defended against all logic and even after some obvious missteps, demonstrated his inability to govern. The management of the Italian Conference of Bishops (CEI) of Card.Ruini and then of Card. Bagnasco was supported, in substantial continuity between them, as managers of the ordinary administration and of the moderate status quo in Italian politics. The Welby and Englaro cases were the public manifestation of an ethical intransigentism which aroused bitterness and rejection in vast areas of the Catholic world as well. Finally, another non-ecclesial step was to highlight Scola's candidacy for his succession by transferring him from bishop of Venice to bishop of Milan. Scola's ecclesial history (as a student dismissed from the Venegono, seminary of diocesis of Milan ) was forgotten. After the “white smoke” at the Conclave, the online information of the CEI congratulated Scola as the new pope with great emphasis. These are serious facts, far from any ecclesial and evangelical logic.
The encyclicals
The analysis of his other pastoral choices can be done calmly, starting from his three encyclicals (“ Deus caritas est”, “ Spe salvi” and “Caritas in veritate ” ). Interesting contents will be found there, always coherent with Ratzinger's basic theological and pastoral point of view. On the “Noi Siamo Chiesa” website there are analyzes and critical observations. Positive interventions can be found in his action, such as the Letter to Chinese Catholics of 2007 which opened up a possible dialogue with the regime.
The renunciation
His renunciation was the most just decision of his pontificate. According to both ecclesial and human logic, it was founded on common sense, due to Ratzinger's physical conditions and his manifest incapacity to manage the situation. Not surprisingly, it aroused great disappointment in the whole fundamentalist area of the Church. It has contributed to desacralizing the figure of the papacy. A historical fact for the history of the Church. Even Bergoglio will probably follow the same line. And, thinking in retrospect, if Ratzinger hadn't reasoned correctly to keep faith with principles (as did Pope Wojtyla, who had others govern in recent times) we would have had an incapable pope for years, a serious power vacuum. And now no one talks about how to ascertain the possible very delicate case of permanent physical or psychic impediment of a pope. Who ascertains this, offering the whole Christian and secular world the guarantee that there will be no incorrect pressures? Why is silence on this issue?.
Ten years of pope emeritus
Ratzinger did not complete his historic decision, he did not accept what many hoped for, he did not really leave the scene: retreat to some monastery in Bavaria, letting go of forms, the title of pope emeritus, an ad hoc monastery, the habit , residence in the Vatican (some have said to protect themselves with extraterritoriality from possible lawsuits brought by the USA and then by Bavaria). Remaining in the Vatican, receiving visitors and, sometimes, writing, he has exercised a role of interdiction on the one hand against the fundamentalist wing who wanted (and wants now) to use him against change (he was a bulwark towards the extreme right, we could say), on the other hand he was ready to intervene in the case of positions completely outside of orthodoxy. For example, there are many who blame his indirect intervention for stopping the go-ahead for the consecration to presbiteral responsibility of married men after the conciliar Catholics of Latin America for three years had prepared everything so that a positive decision could be reached. In the Querida Amazonia Bergoglio was "forced" to say no. The situation is now for the worse: Ratzinger's secretary Mons Gänswein , with funerals still to be celebrated, has already given out, without any discretion or style, information on the disagreements of the pope emeritus with regards to some decisions of Pope Francis. An open confrontation is now expected.
The funeral
The funeral was celebrated in more sober forms than those foreseen by the canon law for the death of a pope. Attendance was much lower than that at the death of Pope Wojtyla. The intervention of the media was of great resonance. We hope that now this pope will be left in peace, that Pope Francis will not also have the problem of responding to those who, using their predecessor, refer to the past, want to forget the Council and are unable or unwilling to read the signs of the times (“segni dei tempi”). You don't start a campaign on “santo subito”. The canonization of popes is an error, as Cardinal Martini said.
NOI SIAMO CHIESA
Rome, 10 January 2023
We Are Church International offers prayers for the repose of the soul of the retired Pope Benedict XVI who died on 31 December 2022.