The controversies that surrounded Pope Benedict XVI

“After repeatedly examining my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that, due to advanced age, I no longer have the strength to adequately exercise the Petrine ministry.” Thus announced the Pope Benedict XVI In a statement dated February 11, 2013, his resignation.

It has been almost eight years of pontificate since, on April 19, 2005, the German Joseph Ratzinger was elected as successor to Pope John Paul II. Before, he had been Bishop of Rome and seventh head of the Vatican State, having participated in World War II and in the German anti-aircraft services. He arrived defining himself as the “humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard” and left with a historic gesture, alluding to his lack of “strength” and his “advanced age”. Almost 10 years have passed since that moment in which he stepped back, but there were many decisions and controversies in which he was involved during his eight-year term.

Eliminate limbo

It was in 2007 when Benedict XVI eliminated limbo – the place where children who died without receiving baptism “went” – following the conclusions of an International Theological Commission. He had already said in 1984 that limbo was only “a theological hypothesis.” For this reason, from that moment on, the child who died without being baptized was left in the hands of “the mercy of God”as explained at the time by the Vatican.

Also in that same year suppressed the election of the pope by simple majority, and led to the celebration in the mass in Latin.

He revoked the excommunication of the bishops ordained by Lefebvre

One of the great controversies in which he was involved took place in January 2009. Benedict XVI revoked the excommunication of four bishops consecrated in 1988 by Marcel Lefebvre, already deceased at that time. Among them was the British Richard Williamson, who assured in an interview that “gas chambers did not exist” in Nazi Germany and that the number of deaths in the concentration camps was not six million, but 300,000 and “none gassed”. . Benedict XVI took months to recognize his “failures”. He went on to say that the Vatican “did not realize” that Williamson’s words could be found on the Internet.

Also in 2009 he opened the doors of the Church of Rome to Anglican traditionalists, that is, he laid the foundations for Anglicans who disowned gay and female bishops they could be admitted into the Catholic Church without having to renounce their liturgy.

Pederasty

2010 marked a before and after for Benedict XVI. An exclusive published by ‘The New York Times’ revealing that Lawrence Murphy Priest abused nearly 200 deaf children in Wisconsin for years hit him squarely. Murphy was never denounced or expelled from the Church and many eyes fell on Benedict XVI and his number two, Tarcisio Bertone. Both were in charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith during that time. From that moment on, Benedict made an effort to denounce the abuses publicly, and even announced the tightening of his laws on priests involved in sexual abuse.

However, it continued to be peppered with various allegations of pedophilia, such as the case of Father Hullermann. Again ‘The New York Times’ assured that Benedict XVI was sent a report stating that Hullermann was going to return to parish pastoral work a few days after beginning treatment to overcome his pedophilia. According to this medium, this therapy was authorized by Ratzinger himself.

Twelve years later, in January 2022, information along the same lines was again jumping. They pointed out that there would be covered up child abuse cases when he was Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Munich, between 1977 and 1981. As a result of this news, Benedict XIV reacted and expressed his shame towards the victims through a letter. “I have had a great responsibility in the Catholic Church. All the greater is my pain for the abuses and mistakes that have occurred during the time of my mandate in the respective places. Each case of sexual abuse is terrible and irreparable. To the victims of sexual abuse goes my deepest sympathy and I regret each of the cases”.

Along with this letter, the Vatican also made public an analysis where it concluded that Benedict XVI did not know about the abuses, despite having been at the meeting where Father Hullermann was discussed.

Laundering in the Vatican and Vatileaks

Pope Benedict XVI promulgated in 2010 a document to fight against money laundering in the Vatican financial institutions. This took place three months after the Vatican Bank was investigated. The then Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, assured that the new regulations obeyed “the moral need for transparency, honesty and responsibility that must always be observed in the social and economic sphere.”

Two years later, came another of the great scandals of his tenure: Vatileaks. His butler, Paolo Gabriele, a man who worked behind the scenes, stole several documents from him and leaked them to the press. The ‘VatiLeaks case’ revealed information implicating the Vatican in corruption cases.

Book ‘Jesus of Nazareth’

He exonerated the Jews of being responsible for the death of Jesus in his book ‘Jesus of Nazareth’, published in 2011. During his pontificate, he proclaimed 34 saints and nearly 600 blessed. In addition, he created the Vatican’s website and Twitter account.

Other controversies of Benedict XVI

In 2006, during a visit to his native Bavaria, Benedict XVI spoke at the University of Regensburg on the “irrationality” of “the spread of faith through violence“, alluding to the ‘jihad’ of Islam. “The spread of faith through violence is irrational. Violence is in contrast to the nature of god and the nature of the soul,” he said then.

Furthermore, during a visit to Africa in 2009, he stated that condom distribution not only does it not prevent new cases of HIV, “but rather aggravates the situation.” For him, the church’s proposals to deal with AIDS included “fidelity within heterosexual marriage, chastity and abstinence.”