I do think it odd that Pope Francis declares that Pope Benedict XVI was like a grandfather figure to him. That is questionable to say the least. They are of the same generation and Benedict was no more than nine years older, more a sibling than a grandfather nor old enough to be a father-figure except in the theological sense. But the truth is always sacrificed in self-promotion.
Where I feel for Pope Francis is that he is the first pope in quite a long time to have a beloved predecessor still living and breathing down his neck in Pope Francis’ backyard. That was sure to create resentment in the new pope and I can understand that.
Benedict XVI biographer pushes back on Pope Francis’ claim they had a ‘cordial relationship’
Peter Seewald slammed Pope Francis’ characterization of Benedict XVI as a ‘transitional pope’ and said that Francis has sought throughout his papacy ‘to break away from the continuity of the popes’ and create ‘chaos.’
2 comments:
Benedict himself, given his age and already declining physical condition stated that he saw himself as a placeholder/interregnum for the next pope....he was merely trying to make sure of two succeeding good solid papacies in order to prevent sliding back into the prior chaos from which the Church had so recently emerged, and provide extra underpinnings for his successor's papacy....
And then we got Bergoglio who has done level best to undo it all and breath new life into the dying Church model, and done right well at it, too....
Bergoglio mistakes someone being a polite gentleman with someone being a pal...all Bergoglio now is doing is trying ineffectually to wrap himself in the mantle of someone thrice the man and intellect, while folk of all persuations freely admit he has been a dud.
Bob said..."Benedict...was merely trying to make sure of two succeeding good solid papacies in order to prevent sliding back into the prior chaos from which the Church had so recently emerged..."
That is revisionist history as when Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope, he had made it clear that the Church was mired in chaos. Based upon his bleak, horrific, 2005 A.D. assessment of the Church's condition, Cardinal Ratzinger had inherited Church mired in appalling confusion and sin.
He declared: "How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him! How much pride, how much self-complacency!"
"What little respect we pay to the Sacrament of Reconciliation...Lord, your Church often seems like a boat about to sink, a boat taking in water on every side. In your field we see more weeds than wheat."
"The soiled garments and face of your Church throw us into confusion."
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In 2009 A.D., Pope Benedict XVI reiterated his bleak assessment of the Church's condition (as well as that of the world) when he declared that "in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel...The real problem at this moment of our history is that God is disappearing from the human horizon, and, with the dimming of the light which comes from God, humanity is losing its bearings, with increasingly evident destructive effects."
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That is the horrific state of that Church that Pope Francis inherited.
In addition, beginning in the early 1960s, Joseph Ratzinger had claimed that from the Council of Trent to his time, the Latin Church had been entangled in a state of liturgical, as well as spiritual, collapse.
Therefore, should we accept Joseph Ratzinger's bleak assessments of the Church that he had offered in unrelenting fashion from the early 1960s to the conclusion of his Pontificate, then we must accept that for centuries, the (Latin) Church had been mired in chaos, as well as liturgical, and spiritual, collapse.
Pax.
Mark Thomas
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