Papacy in review

Legacy of Benedict mixed

By Associated Press  • 



A look at some aspects of his legacy:

Christian heritage: Benedict dedicated his pontificate to stemming the spread of secularism. He condemned same-sex marriage, argued that gender had become something chosen instead of given from God, and said lack of belief was dangerous, pointing to violence that resulted when past atheist governments “tried to stamp out the light of God to instead turn on illusory and misleading glows.” Yet acceptance of same-sex relationships grew throughout Europe and the United States.

Restoring tradition: Benedict wanted to restore Catholic traditions largely abandoned during the modernizing changes of the Second Vatican Council. The pope relaxed restrictions on celebrating Latin Mass. He streamlined the process for traditional Anglicans who, objecting to ordaining women and gays in their own church, wanted to become Catholic. He even donned clothing that hadn’t been worn in decades. Many younger Catholics responded to his emphasis on orthodoxy. But many others were alienated. In the United States alone, studies have found Catholics dropping out of the church in large numbers.


Papal gaffes: Benedict was a star on Twitter, and his books were popular far beyond the Catholic Church. But his pontificate was marred by communication blunders. Benedict riled the Muslim world with a speech in Regensburg, Germany, in September 2006 in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad as “evil and inhuman,” particularly “his command to spread by the sword the faith.” In 2009, the pope enraged the United Nations and several European governments when, en route to Africa, he told reporters that using condoms “increases the problem” of AIDS. Last year, a Vatican-ordered reform of American nuns prompted widespread condemnation of church leaders and a dramatic outpouring of support for religious sisters. Last June, the pope hired Fox News Channel’s former Rome correspondent to help advise Vatican officials on how they should shape their message.

Sex-abuse scandal: Benedict became the first pope to meet with victims of clergy sex abuse. In 2010, he issued an unprecedented apology to Ireland for chronic abuse, appealing to any remaining guilty clergy members to “submit yourselves to the demands of justice.” He ordered a full-scale reform of the Legionaries of Christ, a conservative religious order that Pope John Paul II had championed whose founder for years sexually abused seminarians and fathered at least three children. However, Benedict didn’t discipline church leaders who kept guilty priests in ministry or hid claims from parents and police. “His method was to translate crimes into sins, and sins can be forgiven,” said author Jason Berry, who has written extensively on the crisis.

Bishops Accountability, a U.S. pressure group, said the pope had apologized frequently for the harm done by priests but had never taken effective action to rectify the “incalculable harm” done to hundreds of thousands of children by predatory clergy members.

“Benedict’s words rang hollow. He spoke as a shocked bystander, as if he had just stumbled upon the abuse crisis,” said Anne Barrett Doyle, the group’s co-director.

Catholic-Jewish relations: Benedict’s first official act as pope was a letter to Rome’s Jewish community. In his 2011 book, Jesus of Nazareth, he made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Christ, explaining biblically and theologically why there was no basis in Scripture for the argument that the Jewish people as a whole were responsible for Jesus’ death. However, he also angered Jews on a number of fronts. Jewish leaders criticized Benedict when he removed the excommunication of a traditionalist British bishop who had denied the Holocaust. Jews also were incensed at Benedict’s constant promotion toward sainthood of Pope Pius XII, the World War II-era pope accused by some of having failed to sufficiently denounce the Holocaust.