Catholics on the right mourn loss of a hero
The death of Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday sent a broad wave of mourning through the American church. At the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, a single bell tolled for 15 minutes at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.
But his death held special meaning for the conservative wing of American Catholicism: It represented the loss of their unofficial figurehead, a shadow presence whose influence they followed even after he resigned in 2013 and Pope Francis became the church’s global leader.
While he largely faded from public life since his unexpected retirement, the former pope remained a hero to many theological conservatives, who viewed him as a standard-bearer for a kind of doctrinal commitment and rigor they saw lacking in the church under Francis.
In recent years, the conservative wing of American church leadership has gained power and clashed openly and often with the country’s second Catholic president, Joe Biden, and the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, over abortion.
Benedict’s promotion of Catholic leaders, including Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York, helped shape the character of church hierarchy in the United States at its highest levels. Parts of the American church, including the younger generation of priests, have long held Benedict “in an awe bordering on reverence,” said George Weigel, a conservative Catholic commentator and author of “To Sanctify the World: The Vital Legacy of Vatican II.”
Catholics make up about 20 percent of all US adults. The church has grown increasingly polarized in the past few years, and the faction opposing Francis’s agenda has strengthened.
Benedict’s theological writings and influence as Joseph Ratzinger, when he was Pope John Paul II’s righthand man, made him one of the most dominant forces to shape the culture of the current American priesthood.
When Benedict visited the United States in 2008, he warned against the “subtle influence of secularism” that could lead Catholics to accept abortion, divorce, and cohabitation outside of marriage.
He also acknowledged the “deep shame” caused by the sexual abuse scandal and said it was “sometimes very badly handled” by the church.
Benedict’s resignation, heralded by some as a move of humility, was also seen by his critics as fallout from the church’s mishandling of that crisis.
For many survivors of sexual abuse, his theological intellect could not compensate for his limited response to the global crisis, either as the church’s top doctrinal watchdog or as pope.
“Had he disciplined complicit bishops like he disciplined dissident theologians, a lot of cover-ups and crimes would have been stopped,” said David Clohessy, the former national director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.
“He was brilliant but timid, causing thousands of children to be assaulted by refusing to act decisively to end decades of irresponsible church secrecy around child sex crimes,” he said.