The death of Benedict XVI seems to signify the end of a certain Catholicism, eager to combine religious conservatism and modernity. Although he was criticized for his rigid moral positions and his refusal to undertake in-depth reforms in the ecclesial culture, Benedict XVI was above all a great theologian, desirous of seeing two universes of meaning, apparently incompatible, meet: that of a Catholic faith rooted in tradition and that of Western modernity with its values of autonomy, pluralism and democracy.
His relationship to modernity was obviously complex. Involved in the great project that was the Second Vatican Council, Ratzinger was convinced that the old model of Christianity, confusing religion and politics, represented a betrayal of the Gospel. However, in his thought, the distinction between God and Caesar did not imply the privatization of religion, but its capacity to enter the public sphere by way of reason.
The believer is thus invited to address the conscience of his fellow citizens in a common language based on a shared humanity. “The temptations of Jesus are ultimately motivated by this distinction, the rejection of political theocracy, the relativity of the State and the proper right of reason, together with the freedom of choice, which is guaranteed to every man. In this sense, the secular state is a result of the fundamental Christian decision, even if it took a long struggle to understand all the consequences,” he wrote in particular shortly before becoming pope.
This desire to promote ethical dialogue while respecting the autonomy of the political sphere was however counterbalanced by a deep distrust of the trajectory that the evolution of Western societies was taking. The refusal to recognize Christian roots in the European Constitution as well as the bills legalizing abortion and transforming the definition of marriage were for him synonymous with a culture cut off from its roots and from the sense of transcendence.
However, behind this conservative criticism was less a puritanical morality than a certain reading of European history and of the tragic experience of the totalitarianisms of the 20th century.e century. Ratzinger indeed feared the ideological outbursts seeking to use the power of the state to reshape societies and human nature in the name of a certain idea of progress.
If this constant anticipation of a new totalitarianism in germ in contemporary culture could only harm a serene dialogue, it must obviously be recognized that, for the last decades, the progressive currents within Western culture have shown themselves unfavorable to entering into a peaceful dialogue with the world of faith.
Reconciliation
Be that as it may, during Ratzinger’s time in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and during his pontificate, we witnessed more and more the formation of a Catholicism locked in a counter-cultural posture, seeking in futile to block legislative and societal developments. In the name of “non-negotiable principles”, the Church thus rejected in advance any political compromise on subjects such as abortion or homosexual marriage. Today we can see to what extent this reduction of Catholicism to a few moral issues defended with inflexibility has become a dead end, favoring radicalism more than the influence of Christian spirituality.
The death of Benedict XVI therefore leaves Catholicism at a crossroads. His great idea, that of a reconciliation on the ground of reason, between modern culture and a Catholicism firmly encamped on its moral injunctions, seems to disappear with him. While his successor turns his back on inflexible conservatism and launches the Church on a path of reform, a traditionalist resistance movement has also formed within the living forces of Catholicism, questioning not only the advances of Pope Francis , but also those of the Second Vatican Council.
In this polarized context, the theological and philosophical heritage of Benedict XVI is undoubtedly more relevant than his sometimes excessively rigid positions in the face of contemporary social trends. As the religious right gains in influence and flirts with authoritarian and anti-liberal tendencies, it is worth remembering that Benedict XVI remains one of the most eminent representatives of the Catholic tradition and that he had clearly defended the necessity, for believers, never to confine faith to a space sealed off from reason and dialogue.