Catholic Groups Respond to the Death of Pope Benedict XVI
Our partner organizations respond to the passing of Pope Benedict XVI, his tenure as cardinal and pontiff, and his troubled legacy.
Image of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI died Saturday, Dec. 31, at age 95, ending a quasi-unprecedented, turbulent period for the Catholic Church. In 2013, Benedict resigned from the papacy, becoming the first pope to do so in 600 years. For the first time in modern history, the Catholic Church had “two popes.” Both held disparate opinions on the authority of the magisterium; the liberating reforms of the Second Vatican Council; the importance of centering the preferential option for the poor; the treatment of LGBTQIA Catholics and others whose lives and viewpoints are in conflict with the church’s moral theology; and the role–and image–of the papacy itself.
Following Benedict’s death, Call To Action issued a statement that acknowledged Benedict’s “complicated legacy” as a pope, cardinal, and theologian. The statement noted that Benedict was “a powerful, authoritative presence at the Vatican for decades” who oversaw the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before being elected pope in 2005. “He devoted his life to serving the Church and defending the faith,” the statement continued. “Many of his actions also spiritually, emotionally, and physically harmed faithful Catholics.”
Members of the church-reform coalition Catholic Organizations for Renewal (COR), the global coalition We Are Church International, and partner organization Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) released statements highlighting the ways in which Benedict failed to minister pastorally to the faithful; prevented theology from flourishing through silencing and admonishing countless theologians, clergy, and women religious; and, most egregiously, allegedly failed to curtail clerical sexual abuse and provide justice for survivors for decades.
Below are excerpts from their statements.
We Want to Hear From Your Organization
Does your organization have a statement in response to Pope Benedict’s death, legacy, and impact on the Catholic Church? Please submit your organization’s statement to our communications coordinator: lauren@cta-usa.org.
Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests
“In our view, Pope Benedict XVI is taking decades of the church’s darkest secrets to his grave with him. ”
In a powerful statement, SNAP centered survivors of clerical sexual abuse and emphasized that Benedict’s legacy is tarnished by decades of scandals:
Any celebration that marks the life of abuse enablers like Benedict must end. It is past time for the Vatican to refocus on change: tell the truth about known abusive clergy, protect children and adults, and allow justice to those who have been hurt. Honoring Pope Benedict XVI now is not only wrong. It is shameful.
… Benedict's legacy as pope was already tainted by the global deluge of the sex abuse scandal in 2010, even though as a cardinal, he was responsible for changing the Vatican's stance on the issue. To us, Benedict XVI, the church’s successor to St. Peter, fell off the rock and was implicated in the most notorious scandal in the history of the church. Maybe a lesson learned from this is obvious – if someone is alleged to have abused children or adults, turn them over to secular authorities instead of protecting the church’s image.
New Ways Ministry
Image courtesy of New Ways Ministry via Facebook.
New Ways Executive Director Francis DeBernardo outlined how Benedict’s theology of sexuality and the body—a theology that was decidedly sex-negative—harmed LGBTQIA Catholics. Benedict was the principal author of a 1986 letter to bishops that introduced the term “objective disorder” in reference to queer sexuality. He is also credited with developing the language of the 1994 Catholic Catechism, which labels queer sexuality as “grave depravity.”
DeBernardo also detailed a personal story from New Ways co-founder Sister Jeanine Grammick, who encountered Benedict on a flight from Rome to Munich one year before Benedict barred her from working in queer Catholic ministry:
Sister Jeannine described her airplane conversation as experiencing the Cardinal’s humanity: warm and friendly, gentle, humorous, and personable. While disagreeing with his views on homosexuality, she sensed he was a man of deep faith and deeply committed to the Church in the service of God’s people.
At one point in the conversation, she asked him if he ever met lesbian and gay people. He answered, “When Pope John Paul II and I were in Berlin, there was a demonstration of homosexuals.” She was saddened because his response indicated that he had not had a personal relationship with lesbian and gay people; his image of them was as protestors, not as the full, loving, and faith-filled human beings whom she had come to know.
“His commendable resignation in 2013 demystified the papal office. It would have been logical, however, if he had also taken off the white cassock.”
We Are Church International
In a strongly worded statement, We Are Church International wrote of Benedict’s “difficult legacy” and criticized his regressive theology:
Joseph Ratzinger did not develop an understanding of the future dimension of faith. Rather, he tried to limit or even withdraw the reform impulses of the Council. He thus proved to be a relentless reactionary who ultimately failed. During Benedict’s reign, it became more and more obvious that maintaining the Church hierarchical system is totally inconsistent with, if not opposite to, the Gospel’s message. Even as "Papa emeritus" he repeatedly spoke out in a highly problematic manner, despite his promise to the contrary. With his implausible statements on the second Munich abuse report, he himself severely damaged his reputation as a theologian and church leader and as a "co-worker of the truth" (his bishop's motto). He was not prepared to make a personal admission of guilt. In doing so, he did great damage to the episcopal and papal office.
Dignity USA
In a poignant statement, Dignity USA touched on the “tremendous damage” Benedict caused the LGBTQIA community.
Dignity USA Executive Director Marianne Duddy-Burke elaborated:
The death of any human being is an occasion of sorrow. We pray for Pope Benedict’s soul and express our condolences to his family, friends, and loved ones. However, his death also calls us to reflect honestly on his legacy. Benedict’s leadership in the church, as Pope and before that as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), caused tremendous damage to LGBTQIA+ people and our loved ones. His words and writings forced our community out of Catholic churches, tore families apart, silenced our supporters, and even cost lives. He refused to recognize even the most basic human rights for LGBTQIA+ people. Many of us experienced the most harsh and blatant religiously justified discrimination of our lives as a result of his policies.
“It is impossible to overstate the damage Pope Benedict’s repeated dehumanizing of LGBTQIA+ people has caused.”
Image via Instagram @womensordination
Women’s Ordination Conference
Women’s Ordination Conference reflected on Benedict’s opposition to feminist theology, women’s rights, and gender justice within the church. WOC Executive Director Kate McElwee emphasized that Benedict was a longtime foe of women’s ordination and ordination justice, and reaffirmed his harsh opposition to ordination justice throughout his tenure as a cardinal and as the pontiff.Women’s Ordination Conference reflected on Benedict’s opposition to feminist theology, women’s rights, and gender justice within the church. WOC Executive Director Kate McElwee emphasized that Benedict was a longtime foe of women’s ordination and ordination justice, and reaffirmed his harsh opposition to ordination justice throughout his tenure as a cardinal and as the pontiff.
Image courtesy of Women’s Ordination Worldwide.
Women’s Ordination Worldwide acknowledged that Benedict began as a liberal theologian who understood the equality of women in the church. However, the statement emphasizes that Benedict was fixated on punishing theologians and others who fight for gender justice within the church:
We lament the fact that Pope Benedict died without apologizing for silencing his fellow theologians and women's ordination campaigners who dared to question his increasingly extreme positions on women’s ordained ministry. In particular, we call to mind Pope Benedict’s 2010 decision to classify the “attempted ordination of a woman” as a grave crime, on a par with the sexual abuse of a child, but with the punishment of automatic excommunication for women.
We extend our sympathy and solidarity to the survivors of abuse by clergy and note that Pope Benedict’s tolerance for the crimes of male priests was in sharp contrast to his determination to punish those who challenged his absolute intolerance for the equality of women.
Future Church
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Future Church responded to Benedict’s death with a poignant statement that highlighted the abuses women religious and laywomen faced during Benedict’s papacy. Benedict led a Vatican investigation against the majority of women religious in the United States, and also reaffirmed his strong opposition to women’s ordination and full spiritual agency within the church.
The organization elaborated:
While affirming women’s equal dignity in the church and recognizing that the roles that women held in the early Church were in no way secondary,* his actions belied his distrust of women and their Spirit-led faith and authority. As prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and later, as pope, he became a chief curator and enforcer of church laws, teachings, and policies that sought to keep women subordinate and silenced.
During his tenure, he investigated the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) twice. During the 2012 offensive, the Vatican accused the LCWR of promoting “radical feminist themes” and “corporate dissent” and fully intended to seize significant control over the most prominent and most trusted Catholic organization of women in the country.
The Vatican also harshly criticized Professor Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, casting aspersions on her feminist scholarship with fallacious arguments.
These attacks on the nuns led to one of the most notable uprisings of Catholics in the United States. Ordinary Catholics and reform organizations (including FutureChurch) organized hundreds of protests in support of the nuns and their courageous, compassionate, and Gospel-led ministries. Under the banner of “NunJustice,” representatives delivered over 17,500 signatures to the Vatican urging them to quell the attacks and honor the work of the most respected Catholic authority in the country – women religious.
