It seems that Joseph Ratzinger, alias Benedict XVI, will soon find out if God really resembles the Lord on whom he meditated and wrote so much during his life.
Over the next few years, many analyzes of his pontificate and his unusual ministry as pope emeritus will emerge from the pen of eminent specialists. It would be rash, not to say mean-spirited, to claim to pose right now, in a few lines and from the top of my perspective alone, a solid judgment on the whole life of a man of such stature.
But since Ratzinger has been at the forefront of Church public affairs for so long, tentative balance sheets have been drawn up regularly. So that it is already possible to confidently sketch some facial features that he will leave in memory.
I would like to evoke in this text one of these traits: that of the intellectual giant of an eroding world.
I am well aware that this expression alone cannot give a complete portrait of the man.
A professional theologian
Ratzinger will have embodied the perfect professional theologian as he was conceived in the first part of the 20th century.e century. Mastering the thought of the great ancient and medieval authors, the mind shaped by the doctrine of the Church down to its most subtle – or Byzantine – folds, it depends – he benefited from sufficiently considerable knowledge to tackle theoretical problems with a sharp and nuanced intelligence, able to hold several considerations in balance.
Moreover, to read some of his youthful texts, one wonders why Ratzinger was widely considered a conservative. However, several reasons ultimately justify this label.
One of them is certainly that despite Ratzinger’s knowledge and asserting that theology should be nourished by the knowledge provided by the other disciplines of knowledge, he remained suspicious of any novelty which shook even slightly the cathedral of thought built by the Church over the centuries.
His overly defensive attitude towards modernity showed itself more clearly when he was appointed prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith in 1982, a position he held for many years.
On this subject, it is often argued that this thankless position forced him somewhat into the role of “watchdog” of the Church. In other words, the function would have created the character, which should be distinguished from the man as such.
But his quasi-inquisitorial style rather gave the impression that the posture of rectifier in chief, of Panzerkardinal, suited him perfectly.
But Ratzinger could very well have renewed the way of exercising magisterial leadership.
How ? By accompanying the development of new pastoral and theological avenues instead of stifling them on the slightest pretext of imprecision or audacity.
Break with modernity
In short, his openness to contributions from outside classical Catholic thought was more verbal than concrete. He remained theology in a vacuum, impervious to the breakthroughs of other currents certainly less mature, but more concerned with reality, more faithful to the experiences of faith of believers today. One thinks, for example, of contextual theology, and more particularly of liberation theology, which Ratzinger severely condemned.
But it was when he was elected pope that the gap between his own universe and the contemporary world became most evident.
First of all by his encyclical letters, dealing with themes as ethereal as the theological virtues. Certainly, these documents express the Christian faith with great elegance. But this elegance immediately seems outdated when compared to the simpler, warmer style of Pope Francis, more appropriate for getting down to the roots of the real issues of our time.
However, never has the abyss been revealed so clearly as in the very act of his renunciation as pope. Much has been conjectured about the real reasons that led Benedict XVI to this extremity, but in any case, one constant remains: he knew he was not the man capable of governing the Church today. .
In short, the work of Joseph Ratzinger can be considered a summit, and even that of a venerable mountain. But its ascent attracts fewer and fewer mountaineers each year. Because you quickly find yourself there with your head in the clouds, with a blurred view of the surroundings… and far from your family.
In recent decades, other peaks have been discovered for looking at the world as men and women of faith. Lower, of course. But which lead to better prospects.