“Benedict XVI will be remembered for his fruitful teaching and the important gesture of his resignation”

The latest rumors about the health of Benedict XVI They led Pope Francis to admit that he was “very sick”. Breaking with its habit of not speaking about the subject, the Vatican acknowledged on Wednesday that the health of the 95-year-old pope emeritus had worsened with advancing age.

With this, in addition to the prayers of the faithful and bishops of Europe, the United States and other countries, analyzes of what the figure of Benedict XVI meant for the Catholic Church, who in 2013 became the first pontiff to resign, has been revived. in charge in almost 600 years. The last one had been Gregory XII, at the beginning of the fifteenth century.

SIGHT: Benedict XVI: Why did you resign as Pope in 2013?

Pablo Blanco Sarto, a Spanish priest and theologian who has written a biography and several texts on Ratzinger, spoke with El Comercio about the work of the pope emeritus and the events that followed his resignation.

—What does the figure of Benedict XVI mean, after what his resignation implied?

He is a great German theologian who became Pope and I think that this is significant because Germany is a hotbed of ideas, where currents of thought of all kinds have been created and it turns out that all this thought has reached Rome. In a way, that has been contrasted with the reality of the worldwide Church. The theory was confronted with reality. If someone who comes from a German university is suddenly in a place like Rome, where ideas, data, information come from all over the world, let’s say that theory can be rushed. It seems to me that this union between theory or theology and practice is interesting.

—How will Benedict XVI be remembered?

First, by a fruitful magisterium, which draws on scripture and the first Christians, but which also looks to the future, that future that Pope Francis also speaks to us about, a future of reform, of purification, of a lighter Church for exercise the evangelization of the whole world. He will also be remembered for the gesture of resignation, which is important. For a Pope to say at a given moment that he is not indispensable and that he passes the baton to another is a gesture that makes one think. He has served the Church as a theologian in Germany, as an archbishop, as a prefect and as a pope for eight years.

—What is criticized? What are the shadows of his papacy?

Obviously there have been problems. The decision to face the abuses, something that falls within this program of purification and reform of the church, has a price and has been seen with all that the Vatileaks leaks meant. In any case, I think that this is not the most important thing. This is usually presented as the reason for the resignation, but I believe that it has a deeper theological foundation and that undoubtedly those circumstances can have an influence. Behind his resignation there is something more than just retiring in adverse circumstances. Also, this is not the style of Ratzinger, who has always been facing difficulties, so it would be a bit strange if he suddenly just got out of the way. I insist that there is a theology of renunciation, of saying “I have served here for a while and now let another come and continue.”

Benedict receiving a visit from Francisco, in a file photo (Photo: abaca / picture alliance)

—How has your relationship with Pope Francis been after your resignation? We have had two Popes for the first time in almost 600 years.

According to Pope Francis himself, it has been excellent. He made frequent visits to him and both Pope Francis and the Pope Emeritus have always been very close and available to each other. First, because Benedict XVI has never opposed Francis, but rather he has remained silent and in prayer, and I believe that he has made an important contribution through that prayer for the Church at times when they were not easy. And I believe that Pope Francis values ​​it, within the differences in style and mentality that logically exist. If you have a wise man in the Vatican gardens, it seems logical to me that from time to time one goes to ask for advice or simply to pay him a visit and pay him honours. That seems to have been the usual relationship.

—Much will be said about the resignation of Benedict XVI when his legacy is analyzed. What was the impact that this had on the Church?

In the first place, I think that the resignation took us all by surprise, no one could have foreseen a measure of this type, especially from someone who was conservative and traditionalist and who suddenly made a revolutionary gesture. I think that this gesture has made us reflect and think a lot. Obviously, when faced with a novelty in the church, there are those who react with insecurity and those who react with confidence. There are those who trust their own ideas more and think that nothing needs to be changed in the Church and there are those who think that a renewal is needed.

—What kind of renewal?

Not a renewal in a progressive or ideological plan, but a renewal in depth, going to the roots of the gospel, going to that necessary purification in the Church. So those who think that this reform through purification is necessary can consider the revolutionary gesture of Benedict XVI, perhaps traumatic in some case, as something trustworthy and see that the Church at that moment needed that change, that relief, leaving intact the entire message, the magisterium and the entire pontificate of Benedict XVI, which I believe we still have to digest.

—One of the consequences of Benedict XVI’s resignation was that some of the most conservative sectors of the Church were more in favor of Benedict XVI than of Francis. How important was that problem to the Church?

I have been studying Ratzinger for many years and for me it has not been a problem because I understood that what Pope Francis was saying was in the same tune as what Benedict XVI was saying. It is true that the language is different, I usually say that what Francis says is what Benedict XVI would say, but in tweets. Francisco has a more immediate, more direct language. What happens is that sometimes due to insecurity or temperament or culture or biography one clings to what they know best, then maybe someone becomes nostalgic, but appreciating the difference and the best of each one, I believe that the The best Pope is the one who plays at all times.

Source: Elcomercio