Dead Benedict XVI: history of a pontificate in tension with changes and modernity

Europe and the Church were, in their spheres, the institutions that most worried Benedict XVI, who passed away today at the age of 95, during his pontificate characterized by the strenuous defense of the Catholic identity and its traditions. The critics, who have been many, affirm it with one hand stationary guided Peter’s boat in the direction of the pastconvinced that the deposit of faith is a gift that God has left to the Church and that the “bride of Christ” undertakes to keep, not to change.

His vision of Christianity hardened the convictions of the German pope that was little expert in communication with the world that surrounded him, as was his predecessor John Paul II.

The academic world, theology at the highest levels, books, the classical music that he played on the piano every day, were the intimate world of Benedict XVI, who in the morning – as the Italians say – “I was the Pope” in the Apostolic Palace and in the afternoon he isolated himself in his studio as many times as possible, thanks to the filters that his collaborators administered to him.

That style, that personality, explain the repeated gaffes, the mistakes that forced him to swallow his intellectual pride to fix them. The smack that Joseph Ratzinger gave to Muslims with the famous academic intervention at the University of Regensburg. Trying to remedy that offense cost him a series of clarifications and setbacks that ended with a common prayer with an unorthodox scent with a Muslim religious leader in Istanbul.

In Brazil, during his important and only trip to Latin America, Benedict XVI gave traditionalist speeches as if “the continent of hope” were really the old and developed Europe. And he concluded his focus at a distance by emphasizing in a message that the Indians had -actually- welcomed the Portuguese conquerors with gratitude who brought them the liberating Gospel.

A few days later, at the first general audience, Ratzinger should have once again made a humiliating clarificationbut without admitting their mistakes, putting in their place the horrors of the conquest of America and what the original populations suffered.

The Italian Vatican correspondent Giancarlo Zízola called these stumbling blocks “proofs of reparation”, which come “after every misstep”. However, he said, “the fundamental issue at the origin of the misunderstandings is the void of a collegial form of decisions”. Although ascending to the chair of St. Peter, he promised greater collegiality in the governance of the Church, the truth is that Benedict XVI -already in his first Synod- placed the list of prohibitions on bishops participating in the assembly like a world champion Episcopal.

In matters of sexual morality, zero tolerance. Abortion, divorce, contraceptives, the “morning after” pill, assisted fertilization. Chastity as a great value. “Non-negotiable” Christian fundamental values. There was some hope that an opening would emerge with spouses who were victims of abandonment and who could become the vanguard of the divorced and remarried, admitted to the communion that the Church denies them. No way.

Even then, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi asked for magnanimity on his own case, knowing that the majority of Italian Catholics agreed with him. The response, in mid-2008, was another resounding negative. “The Church cannot change the deposit of faith. Christ said that marriage is forever,” explained one of his collaborators.

The return to pre-conciliar traditions has had some milestones that have caused much debate and disagreement. The Second Vatican Council had sponsored the reform of the Tridentine mass and Paul VI in 1970 made the revolution. The Reformed Mass is applied today in more than 90% of the Catholic world. The priest is placed in front of the assembly of the faithful, the national languages ​​are used in the sermons. Guitars became common and cherished sounds. But Joseph Ratzinger loved Gregorian chants and sacred music in general since he was a child and already at the Second Vatican Council, despite participating in it as an expert placing himself in the ambit of the progressives, he expressed his objections to the reforms in the celebration of the Mass.

Since he was elected in 2005, Benedict XVI has prudently demolished the novelties. And in the papales themselves neither guitars nor songs were heard. “There are no media shows”as he said with contempt (of those who liked his predecessor, John Paul II).

The Pope also gave the example of the changes in the reformed mass. In San Pedro he officiated with his back to the assembly of the faithful and had the crucifix placed in the center of the altar. He made it clear that he detested the conciliar custom that the officiating priest was at the center instead of Christ.

But the hardest blow was the reintroduction of the Latin mass, an old requirement of the more conservative sectors of the Church. Pope Ratzinger clarified that its use was “voluntary” and in accordance with the will of the bishops of each diocese, but he clarified very clearly that the episcopal who has not accepted the old rite of the Council of Trent, which dates back to the sixteenth century, should give the corresponding explanations.