In an announcement that apparently came as a surprise even to his closest aides, Pope Benedict XVI stunned the world and the Catholic Church last week when he said that he would step down at 8 p.m. european time on Feb. 28. Citing age and deteriorating health, the 85-year-old pontiff announced his abdication as leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics in a speech delivered in Latin at the cardinals’ meeting.
When Joseph Ratzinger was elected as the Pope in April 2005 at the age of 78, following the death of Pope John Paul II, he was one of the oldest men to take on the position in the history of the Catholic Church. His resignation marks the first time since 1415 that the leader of the Catholic Church has stepped down from power.
Conflicts and machinations that have beset the Vatican during his reign may also have played a role in his desire to retire and distance himself from power. Pope Benedict XVI had to oversee some of the most turbulent times for the Roman Catholic Church in recent years. One of the most difficult issues he had to deal with was probably the extensive criticism over the clerical sexual-abuse scandal; and the church’s failure to root out child abuse by priests.
Has this scandal now caught up on him? In response to news that Pope Benedict XVI planned to resign, the Center for Constitutional Rights, a non-profit legal and educational organization based in New York, announced that in September 2011, it had filed a case with the International Criminal Court in the Hague on behalf of the organization Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) against the pope and other high-level Vatican officials for crimes against humanity for what they described as “abetting and covering up the rape and sexual assault of children by priests.”
“This pope is responsible for rape and other sexual violence around the world, both through his exercise of superior responsibility and through his direct involvement in the cover up of specific crimes,” the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a statement issued last week. The case was introduced in September 2011 and the Center provided additional documentation in April 2012. The prosecutor is currently reviewing the evidence.
Additionally, there are now unverified reports that the Vatican has received a note from an undisclosed European government stating that there are plans to issue a warrant for the pope’s arrest. Did Benedict XVI want to avoid prosecution by resigning? Is he going to ask the Italian president Giorgio Napolitano for immunity when he meets him on Feb. 23?
Another issue is the series of private papers leaked by the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, to Italian journalists, alleging corruption and heated disputes beyond the Vatican walls. The butler was apparently part of a broader network of Vatican employees and officials bent on exposing corruption and cronyism in the church’s hierarchy. The Vatican has also faced criticism for its internal bank’s failures to comply with international rules governing money-laundering.
Pope Benedict XVI recognized that in “today’s world, subject to so many rapid changes and shaken by questions of deep relevance for the life of faith, both strength of mind and body is necessary.” In reality, his papacy is likely to be remembered as overly passive. Critics said he did too little to stop a rapid decline in church attendance in the West, especially in Europe.
Others have been quick to see a failure to modernize a church marked by conservatism since the prolonged mandate of John Paul II. Pope Benedict XVI was an uncompromising conservative on social and theological issues. He largely concentrated on ecumenical questions; he repeatedly reached out to the eastern orthodox; set up a structure for Anglicans to return to Rome; and endorsed the use of the old-rite Latin mass.
But he let the gap grow deeper and wider with civil society by pushing back hard against any suggestion that the church make accommodation with issues like contraception, sexuality or gay marriage. He has also opposed embryonic stem cell research and staunchly resisted allowing women to be ordained as priests. He retreated slightly though from the position that condoms could never be used to fight AIDS.
On the international front, he lacked the political intuition of his predecessor John Paul II. Benedict has a mixed record in dealing with cultures outside his own. He triggered outrage among Muslims in 2006 when he delivered an academic speech in the German University of Regensburg quoting a Byzantine emperor who made deprecating remarks about the Prophet Muhammad. And Jews were upset over his rehabilitation of a Holocaust denier, the British Bishop Richard Williamson.
In other words, the situation of the church is critical today and there is a need for a papal leader who has a truly global perspective and the capacity, the strength and the serenity to respond to a series of existential problems that have been lingering on: the increasing distance between the Catholic Church and secular society; the lack of priests; the role of women in Church; increasing demands for a voluntary celibacy; bioethical issues; anthropological questions, including sexuality and gay marriage.
It is probably time to close a stage started at the end of the 70s with Pope John Paul II. Early March, the cardinals will meet for the conclave to elect a new pope. Benedict XVI’s successor should be chosen by the end of March; Easter falling on March 31, there is obviously great pressure to have a pope in place by then.
Just as in 2005, when Pope Benedict was elected, there is likely to be pressure from faithful in developing countries to elect someone from Africa, Asia or Latin America. That call was ignored last time around when Benedict XVI replaced John Paul II. Yet the appointment of a spiritual leader from the “South” would perfectly make sense: Whereas Roman Catholic congregations are shrinking in Europe, they are thriving in these other regions of the world.
Additionally, it would show that the Catholic Church is truly international, global, putting an end to “white supremacy” in an important world institution. “It could be time for a pope from the developing worlds in Africa,South East Asia, or Latin American. Or it could be time for an Asian pope, or one from another continent,” Guatemala’s Archbishop Oscar Julio Vian Morales said after Benedict’s resignation announcement. Among the potential contenders from the “South” are the Archbishop of Sao Paolo, the Brazilian Cardenal Odilo Scherer, Argentina’s Leonardo Sandri and the Ghanaian Peter Turkson.
A Latin American pope would be good politics by the church. Ever since Rome broke with a longstanding tradition in 1978 by appointing a non-Italian pope Polish John Paul II, the faithful of Latin America have harbored hopes that one of their own would soon take charge of the Catholic Church. Home to 42 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, Latin America far outweighs Europe’s 25 percent.
But it is probably too soon to break that tradition — the conservative church does not seem ready for such a major shift. Some analysts say the African and Latin-American cardinals are not so well-known and maybe they don’t have the experience yet. Others feel the Italians are eager to get the papacy back and will do everything they can to get it. The majority of the electing cardinals are still European: 61 out of 117. The others are: 19 from Latin-America; 14 from North-America; 11 from Asia; 11 from Africa and one from Oceania.
Will the new Pontiff represent a change of perspective within the church or only a change of person? A radical change in orientation is unlikely since most of the electing cardinals have been designated by the last two popes; but there may be an evolution. In the end, it will all depend on who will occupy the papal ministry since the Catholic Church is still an absolute monarchy, with all the power centered in the pope’s hands. It is to be hoped that the good of the church will prevail and not the interests of clerical politics.