One year ago today, countless Catholics lost their spiritual father. The present pontificate has been, in the words of the late Cardinal George Pell, “a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe,” leaving faithful Catholics feeling as if they’ve been orphaned and stuck with an abusive stepdad. Pope Benedict XVI’s announcement in 2013 that he would be resigning as Pontiff will be remembered as a critical moment in the life of the Church, not only because it was the first time that a Pope had resigned in nearly 600 years, but because his place was taken by revolution-minded progressives intent on diluting the teachings of the Catholic Church, the very teachings which Benedict XVI had devoted his life to defending.
The one-year anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s death certainly serves to emphasize the disastrous effects of the Francis papacy, but it should also inspire faithful Catholics.
Joseph Ratzinger never wanted to be Pope. He was an academic at heart, finding joy and solace in studying and explaining theology. This academic bent served him well in his role as the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as he defended Catholic moral teaching with all the passion and precision of a professor who is master of his chosen field. However, the German cardinal spoke frequently of wanting to retire to Bavaria and write. Ratzinger even asked (at the age of 70) if he might be allowed to leave his position as prefect to serve as a librarian in the Vatican archives, a quiet and studious job. Pope St. John Paul II ordered him to stay on as head of the CDF. (READ MORE from S.A. McCarthy: Which Way, Western Man? Satanic Idols or Christian Morality?)
Less than ten years later, God made a similar demand of Ratzinger and asked him to become the Pope. Cardinals who participated in the 2005 papal enclave recalled Ratzinger nervously “sitting on the edge of his chair” as his episcopal brethren cast their ballots. Pope Benedict XVI himself even stated, “At a certain point, I prayed to God, ‘Please don’t do this to me’ … Evidently, this time he didn’t listen to me.”
Even Pope Benedict XVI’s coat of arms quietly acknowledged that he would have preferred a Bavarian library to a Vatican palace. Among images referencing his home diocese and St. Augustine, the late Pope’s coat of arms featured a brown bear wearing a pack on his back. According to legend, St. Corbinian was traveling from Chartres to Rome when a bear killed his pack horse. The Frankish Saint ordered the bear to carry his pack in the horse’s stead and, amazingly, the beast obeyed, following him all the way to Rome.
Since St. Corbinian was sent from Rome to evangelize Bavaria, the bear in the story is typically seen as representing pagan culture being “tamed” by Christianity. However, Pope Benedict XVI also saw himself as Corbinian’s bear, being “tamed by God” to bear the burden of the papacy. Just as the bear was saddled to serve the Church, so also was Pope Benedict XVI, whose duties pulled him further and further away from the classrooms and libraries he so longed to return to.
Pope Benedict XVI carried the burden with which he had been saddled, guiding the Catholic Church through a tumultuous period, attempting to restore reverence and majesty to the liturgy, and striving always to uphold and defend Catholic truth. His life served as an example of Catholic counter-culturalism, an example that inspired a generation of young Catholics to follow the lead of their spiritual father and both learn and defend the Faith. The theological depth and loving devotion to Truth evinced by Pope Benedict XVI fostered the beliefs of many, although those same qualities often earned him the vicious animosity of the Church’s enemies.
In some sense, the Church lost Pope Benedict XVI twice — first when he retired from the Chair of St. Peter. The gentle pontiff’s successor has undone much of what Pope Benedict XVI achieved, severely restricting the celebration of the Tridentine Mass, appointing leftist ideologues to nearly every office of consequence, undermining his own papal authority through the creation of democratic surrogates like the Synod on Synodality, diluting Catholic moral teaching with intentionally vague and ambiguous declarations, and penalizing faithful bishops like Joseph Strickland and Raymond Burke for daring to emulate Pope Benedict XVI and uphold Catholic doctrine. (READ MORE: The Vatican OK With Normalizing the Exception)
As Pope Emeritus, Benedict XVI led the life that his duties and responsibilities had denied him before, studying and writing, including collaborating on a book with Cardinal Robert Sarah concerning priestly celibacy, although he later asked not to be credited as a co-author. On December 31, 2022, Pope Benedict XVI passed away after his worsening health finally failed. At his funeral, pilgrims called for him to be made a Saint, and several prominent Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Joseph Zen and Cardinal Gerhard Müller even called for the late pontiff to be declared a doctor of the Church.
The one-year anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s death certainly serves to emphasize the disastrous effects of the Francis papacy, but it should also inspire faithful Catholics — both laity and clergy — to live up to the example of their spiritual father Pope Benedict XVI and serve the Catholic Church, no matter how heavy the burden.