Pope Benedict Asks Faithful to Pray for Predecessor

[PeterRS]

Firstly, I do not mean for this post to start a discussion of organised religion per se. Inevitably perhaps some will regard it as so and I can do nothing about that.

Secondly I am basically not a religious person. I became very anti-organised religion when as a child I was sometimes dragged to church and for years had to play the hymns at a weekly meeting for young people called Bible Service. I do know quite a number who do believe in religion and I fully respect their views, as I trust they respect mine.

It appears from the news media that the previous Pope, the former Cardinal Ratzinger, is on the point of death. His successor, Pope Benedict has asked for prayers. I happen to like Pope Benedict. As a world leader he has my respect for his humility, his dignity and his constant callng out world leaders for some of their failings. On the other hand, I never liked Ratzinger. He was a fundamentalist conservative who, in my view, only became Pope because of his influence over many years of the other cardinals. As a child he had been a member of the Hitler Youth, later in the German army and then interned in a Prisoner of War Camp.

Having entered the Catholic Church, he was eventually made Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In that position, he constantly reaffirmed the Church's negative views on birth control, use of condoms, homosexuality, gay marriage and dialogues with other religions. As sexual abuse of young children by priests was beginning to become known, he declared in a 2001 letter titled De delictis glavioribus that internal church investigations must remain confidential, including sexual abuse. For 20 years he had strictly enforced another Church document penned in 1962 which effectively banned discussion of sexual crimes by priests. He was the man in charge. He knew about the many tens of thousands of cases of sexual abuse that were being revealed around the world and did nothing. He even declared that as Archbishop of Munich, he knew nothing regarding abuses allegedly brought to his attention between 1977 and 1982. He later admitted his memory had been wrong but blamed the original accusation as an "editorial error".  He asked for forgiveness and expressed nis "great pain." As Pope he was named in a lawsuit regarding the abuse of four boys in Texas but given diplomatic immunity. He was instrumental in not permitting senior clerics to resign. When he himself asked to leave his post aged 70, that other ultra conservative Pope John Paul II refused. On becoming Pope Ratzinger could have made substantial changes to get rid of at least some of the major corruption in the Curia. He failed to do so.

A couple of years after he became Pope, Ratzinger became much more acquainted with what he called the "filth" in the Church. But he did little about it. He still refused to accept that secular law had presedence over Church law.

I always thought that the Catholic Church hierarchy rather liked to have a conservative pope followed by a much more liberal one. I never knew the severe Pius XII (sometimes still called "Hitler's Pope" and the subject of an excellent book of the same name - although some of the allegations in that book are now the subject of debate) but really liked his successor, Cardinal Roncali the Archbishop of Venice, who became John XXIII. He called the Second Vatican Council with tha aim of making major changes in the Catholic Church.  Almost as soon as the Council started its deliberations, John XXIII died of cancer and was succeeded by the much more strict Paul VI who is perhaps best known for his encyclical Humanae Vitae which confirmed the ban on contraception, a position exactly opposite that passed by the Seond Vatican Council. Paul VI went into a serious mental decline after his very good friend, Aldo Moro the Mayor of Rome, was capured by the Red Brigades Terrorist Group in March 1978. It so happened I was in Rome on May 9th that year and recall police sirens everywhere as Moro's body had been discovered in the trunk of a car close to the Vatican. After Paul's death later that year, the feeling of joy and light at the pastoral, beaming face of Pope John Paul I was palpable. The severity of the Church seemed to be consigned to the background for many years. It had at last a warm, gentle human face. Everyone, including the Cardinals seemed eleated.

He reigned for just 33 days before being found dead in his bed. Conspiracy theorists had a field day, largely a result of discrepancies in the Vatican's various pronouncements about how he died and who found him. At least six major figures in the Church hierarchy were known to have had very good reason to fear if John Paul I remained as Pope. Another book was eventually written after the Vatican threw open its archives. "A Thief in the Night" by David Cornwell in 1989 goes into detail about the very different personalities around the Pope, the disasters and massive corruption in the Vatican Bank and the possibiilty that the Pope had been murdered.  Another book written in 2017 revealed that John Paul ! had suffered from chest pains in the day prior to his death and died from a heart attack.

At first John Paul II seemed almost in the mould of his predecessor. He quickly revealed he was not. The Catholic Church was back to the more severe interpretation of Catholic doctrine. Ratzinger was his ally. With Pope Benedict now also in less than the best of health, will the Cardinals revert to precedence and again return the Church away from its more pastoral ways and back to the severity of dogma? I hope not. And I will also not pray - although to whom or what I would pray is uncertain - for Ratzinger.

[Lucky]

It's Pope Francis asking for prayers for his predecessor, Pope Benedict.

[vinapu]

3 hours ago, Lucky said:

It's Pope Francis asking for prayers for his predecessor, Pope Benedict.

since Peter disclaimed he is not religious person  he can be forgiven for mixing popes up and thanked up for bringing that news to our attention. Whatever ones stance on religion is both popes are public figures of worldwide importance.

[Lucky]

It always seemed to me that Rat zinger was the epitome of all that was wrong with the church.

[PeterRS]

12 hours ago, Lucky said:

It's Pope Francis asking for prayers for his predecessor, Pope Benedict.

My apologies to all.

[Lucky]

@PeterRS No apology needed!

[unicorn]

The current Bishop of Rome seems to be the first Christian leader the Catholics have had, at least in my lifetime (Paul VI is the first I can recall).