The year 2022 and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI
left this world together on December 31; this day
was the final day for each. The former was born
on April 16, 1927 in Marktl, Bavaria, Germany
and was christened Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger.
He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1951,
promptly embarking on an academic career
which saw him become a highly regarded
theologian and a professor at several German
universities. After many years in the academic
world Ratzinger was appointed Archbishop of
Munich and Freising, then created a cardinal by
Pope Paul VI in 1977 despite his having had
little or no pastoral experience. From 2002 until
being elected elected pope he was Dean of the
College of Cardinals, being a major figure on the
Vatican stage all the while.
The first non-Italian pope in several centuries,
Ratzinger, a former liberal cleric who became
increasingly conservative over time, defended
and reaffirmed Catholic doctrine, including
teaching on topics such as birth control and
inter-religious dialogue, much to the conster-
nation of liberals within the church as well
as liberal politicians that happened to be
Catholics. The German-born pope was,
before and after rising to the papacy,
an unabashed, unapologetic advocate for the
Catholic Church's traditional doctrine and
teachings. Ratzinger went head-to-head against
modernism, relativism, secularism, and other
vehicles of departure from traditional teachings
of the Catholic faith. He found that relativism's
denial of objective truth, and of moral truths
in particular, to be the central problem of the
21st century. Whereas Pope John Paul II was
the defender of freedom of and for the people
of the countries of Eastern Europe, including
native Poland, and his relentless opposition to
Communism, Benedict XVI was the defender
of the foundational teachings and traditions of
the Catholic church and faith, relentless in his
opposition to the fashionable secular ideas of
the moment.
As pope, Benedict XVI was castigated for what
some thought was lenient treatment of clergy
guilty of sexual abuse as well as for his opposition
to condoms, especially in countries with high rates
of HIV transmission. However, his papal record was
one of transmitting God's redemptive love, including
toward sexually active people who had caught the
dread disease. This did not, however, deter Benedict
in the least from zealously finding out the perpetrators
among the clergy and punishing them in accordance
with the rules of conduct governing the clergy.
On February 10, 2013 Benedict announced his
resignation, stating as his reasons "a lack of strength of
mind and body", making him the first pope to resign
since Gregory XII in 1415, and the first pope to resign
of his own accord since Celestine V in 1294.
On December 31, that evening, Pope Benedict XVI
quietly went to his heavenly reward a good, faithful
servant of God, to partake of His heavenly hospitality,
leaving a legacy of a fine representative, advocate, and
defender of the Catholic Church and faith.
Requiescat in pace.
MEM
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