Ideas@TheCentre

Pope Benedict’s legacy

‘What do they call a former pope?’ I was asked when the news broke that Pope Benedict XVI was resigning. I replied, truthfully, that I didn’t know.

Popes normally hold office until they die. Although Canon Law does provide for it, a pope hasn’t resigned since Gregory XII stepped down in 1415.

Now it seems Benedict might be given the title Bishop Emeritus of Rome.

Like a monarch, the fact of reigning has been what mattered. But in the 21st century, the leadership of a worldwide church appears to demand more than simply occupying St Peter’s Chair.

A pope requires intellectual, spiritual and physical vigour if he is to lead the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics effectively.

Benedict believes that two out of those three powers are waning in him, and he may have worried that these deficiencies would, in time, diminish his papacy.

Critics will rake the coals of his eight-year pontificate to identify what he should have done, what he shouldn’t have done, and what he actually did do.

Benedict would have known how hard it would be to fill the shoes of his charismatic predecessor when he was elected by the Conclave in 2005. As it is, his legacy will be marked by intellectual acuity and moral courage, for he held that the human person is distinguished by the capacity for reason.

When religion promotes faith but ignores reason, it transmutes into an uninformed fundamentalism and this, in turn, fosters ignorance and intolerance.

With his persistent emphasis on reason, Benedict has articulated a cogent philosophical basis for faith. But he has also insisted that human beings are distinguished by morality, and he fought hard to confront the scandals of abuse within the Church.

Reason and morality are the twin foundations of the human freedom to which Benedict has been committed. It’s a freedom that always places the state in a role subservient to the individual.

As the Institute of Economic Affairs’ Philip Booth observed recently, ‘though the Church often makes strong statements criticizing people’s actions within a market economy, the foundational principles of its social teachings are strongly welcoming of free and virtuous economy, and very suspicious of the centralization of power.’

Pope Benedict XVI’s legacy will be characterised by his focus on the intellectual underpinnings of faith and for his consistent and determined commitment to freedom as the essence of human being.

Peter Kurti is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.