Benedict's departure shows world that church is capable of change
28 February 2013
THE Pontificate of Benedict XVI was controversial from the moment he stepped out onto that balcony in St Peter's Square to acknowledge the crowd on that fateful day in 2005. His reputation, fused from a combination of cliche and misinformation, as John Paul II's enforcer had done him little service as he faced into the challenge of leading the world's one billion Roman Catholics.
But those who know him spoke of a different sort of man; a humble spiritual one, rather than an enforcer of orthodoxy.
His early years, when a postgraduate student in his native Germany, were marked by a considered liberalism and among his intellectual friends he counted the radical Hans Kung.
However, shocked at the blossoming in the 1960s of what he later termed "the dictatorship of relativism'', Joseph Ratzinger became a committed conservative.
It was that ethos that marked his reign as Pope and led him into almost continuous conflict with the secular West.
But as we mark his departure it is only right that we acknowledge his devotion to his church and flock, to the truth as he saw it and to a traditional vision of a world that continually strives to redefine itself in the face of rapid social evolution.
His resignation itself, and its dramatic break from tradition, might turn out to be his most lasting legacy, as it shows a sceptical world that the Church of Rome is indeed capable of radical change.
We wish him well in his retirement and contentment in his autumn years. Anyone who has laboured as Christ's humble fisherman deserves no less.
talk on radio now a gentlemen suggested .. 'now that the mold has been broken .. it's a bit premature to think what continent the next pope will come from .. the Italians are making a strong bid' (paraphrased) ..
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