As dean of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith he ruled forcefully and silenced dissenting theologians
He reasserted papal authority over the more collegial spirit promoted by the Second Vatican Council and this approach has dominated the three papacies since; of John Paul II; of his own eight years as Benedict XVI; and that of Pope Francis, to date.
On the death of Pope John Paul II in 2005, he was elected as successor but soon began to lose control of senior cardinals at the Vatican with allegations of corruption beginning to circulate. In 2012 it emerged his butler had leaked Benedict’s private papers to media. In February 2013 Pope Benedict announced his resignation, the first pope to do so in over 600 years. This was completely out of character and due, he said, to health reasons. In almost 10 years as Pope Emeritus, he avoided interference with the more liberal style of his successor, despite pleas from traditional Catholics.
His resignation means too that for the first time in over 600 years a Pope will lead the funeral Mass for his predecessor, as Pope Francis will do in St Peter’s Basilica. As a former head of state, it is expected Benedict will lie in state at St Peter’s beforehand to allow foreign dignitaries pay respects. It is unlikely the nine days of funeral rites before burial of a reigning pope will take place in this instance.
He will be buried in the crypt beneath St Peter’s and, as he requested, in the spot previously occupied by the remains of Pope John Paul II, whose funeral Mass in 2005 was led by then Cardinal Ratzinger as Dean of the College of Cardinals. Pope John Paul II’s remains were reinterred in St Peter’s on his beatification by Benedict in 2011. He was canonized by Francis in 2014.
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