In the first person: remembering the grace of Benedict XVI, but also the storms of his pontificate

On a flight back to Rome from Beirut in September 2012, I was escorted down the aisle to the first class section of the papal plane and I sat next to dad Benedict XVI.

The pope, then 85 years old, he looked tired. He had just finished a sensitive two-day visit to Lebanon as civil war raged in neighboring Syria.

It was Min e 92nd such trip: the first was with John Paul II, the master of the papal globetrottersand then, in the last eight years, with Benedict XVI.

Since I was planning to retire, Benedict’s trip to Beirut would be the last of my careerand Vatican officials thought she should share the moment with him.

What he didn’t know at the time was that it would also be his last trip. Months later, he would become the first pope to resign in 600 years.

Benedict was on that flight clearly tiredbut he was still as kind as ever.

“Congratulations on your retirement,” he said softly, in German-accented Italian that often made Italians laugh.

When I told him I covered the Vatican for more than 30 yearsHe made a surprised face. She struck a wistful tone when she said my retirement “is well deserved.”

I’ve always wondered if our meeting had led him to think about some plan of his that he hadn’t yet revealed to the world. The retirement date he later announced was February 28, the exact date I had chosen to retire.

On the plane, Benedicto seemed satisfied with our chat and seemed in no hurry to finish it; It was his collaborators who told me it was time to go back to my seat.

friendly and revolutionary​

I always associate the word “nice” with Benedicto, always ready to shake hands and say something suitable for the occasion.

In the Netflix drama ‘The Two Popes’, Benedict, played by Anthony Hopkins, appears adamant in his belief that the survival of the Catholic Church can only be ensured by a return to its basic principles.

However, in its own way, Benedict was a revolutionary.

He was one of those who stood firm and did not flinch under any outside pressure. But also it almost looked alien to the storms it would create.

When the inevitable questions arose his past in Nazi Germany, he was able to say that he had traveled through that territory in various interviews conducted years before becoming pope: his belonging obligatory to the Hitler Youth as a teenager; his enlistment in the army near the end of the war; his defection and surrender to the Americans.

He thus avoided the controversies faced by others who were less sincere on their stories. No doubt this paved the way for his papal visits to the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz, Israel and to synagogues in Rome and New York.

It was fascinating to hear him chat in German with Viennese rabbi Arthur Schneirer during a visit to the Park East Synagogue in New York. They looked like two old friends.

In one of the greatest crises of his pontificate, a speech intended to promote tolerance between religions ended up provoking the anger – and even some violence – of the Islamic community.

In a 2006 speech at the University of Regensburg, Germany, where he was a professor of theology, Benedict quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who called Islam “evil and inhumane, as his (the Prophet Muhammad’s) mandate to propagate with the sword the faith that preached”.

Comments raised swift condemnation in the Muslim worldbut Benedetto seemed surprised that what he considered scholarly speech could create so much hard feelings.

He said he was “deeply sorry” that some were offended, but had to persist religion can never be a reason for violence.

Years later, his former spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Benedict knew exactly what he meant by his comment.

When Benedict made his first trip to Africa, a French journalist asked him at a press conference on board the flight to Cameroon in 2009 if condoms could help in the fight against HIV.

“On the contrary, (condom use) increases the problem,” she said.

Journalists and other people traveling on the plane they were baffled for his response, which contradicted the views of health workers and many of his own priests battling the disease on the continent.

A year later he backtracked, saying condom use could be a first step towards more moral behavior to prevent the spread of HIV.

It was the kind of clarification that revealed the persistent confusion and infighting of the Vatican which marked the pontificate of Benedict.

In the years following his resignation, Benedict it has become more and more fragile and stayed out of public view in a monastery within the walls of Vatican City. He devoted himself mainly to prayer.

But his Argentine successor has not forgotten his contributions to the church, which included pave the way for pope francis. In 2021, when Benedict was 94, Francis publicly thanked the German on the 70th anniversary of his priestly ordination.

To you Benedict, dear father and brother, goes our affection, our gratitude and our closeness.

___ Victor L. Simpson covered the Vatican for The Associated Press from his arrival as Rome correspondent in 1972 until his retirement as Italy bureau chief in 2013. During that time, he covered Pope Paul VI’s final months, all 33 days of Pope John Paul I and the pontificates of Saint John Paul II and Benedict XVI, including 92 of his trips abroad.

Translation: Elisa Carnelli