Silenzio incarnato though they may remain on these matters, one sees them straining to break free of their vows. Benedict’s resignation—to my mind—is a loud (and arguably noble) admission of guilt and complicity and incapacity; and in the case of Francis, the Argentinian came closest to a full reckoning when the then-Cardinal Bergoglio presided over the reburial ceremony of Father Carlos Mugica. Not yet pope, more at liberty to speak freely, he gave a searing and heartfelt address from the pulpit at the late priest’s slum church. His words are the closest he has come to explicitly acknowledging his guilt over the part he played during the Dirty War: “For the death of Fr. Carlos; for his physical assassins; for those who planned his death; for the silence kept by most of the society, acting as accomplices and for all the opportunities we, as members of the Church, had to denounce his assassination but we did not, for lack of courage, Lord have mercy.”
In Benedict’s case we have his act of resignation, which would normally speak louder than words, if he had not provided the recondite words himself, located deep in his 2009 book, Caritas in Veritate:
“Truth may be vital, but without love it is also unbearable.”
Lord have mercy.
* * *
The writers of all the sacred texts were poets. Whether these texts—the Bible, the Qu’ran, the Vedas, the Torah, the Upanishads, the Sutras—contain only divinely inspired and therefore purely literal truth ought never to have warranted a debate, let alone a single war. (Holy wars, seen this way, are nothing but violent disagreements over who has the superior poem.) But what inspired poems they do remain: odes to the unknowable; the most durable and beloved texts in human history. Were we able to look far into the future of the Catholic Church and learn that its fate was to become nothing more than a sacred book club, where fans gathered once a week to discuss their favorite characters and chapters, debate passionately the themes, and draw real life-lessons from shared readings, it could do a lot worse. The lesson taught by all these texts will never dim or lose its relevance; for that lesson is simply: be good, be kind, be sensitive, be just, be respectful, and take care of each other … for God’s sake.
The British poet Philip Larkin, himself an atheist, once interrupted a perfectly lovely bicycle ride through a small English village to pop into an empty church, an “accoutred frowsty barn,” and rendered his impressions in his poem “Church Going.” Finding the church musty and “unignorably” silent, he inspects briefly the altar, the lectern, the baptismal font, and later the graveyard, where so many dead lie round, and concludes the old place was not worth stopping for, only to then admit that he often does so. Why keep coming back? Looking for what? What persists here that is still pleasing? A nostalgia for what once was? A vacancy in himself that old instinct says might still be filled here? Larkin has little use for religion as such: “… superstition, like belief, must die / And what remains when disbelief has gone?” And yet he concedes that these places can never be obsolete, “Since someone will forever be surprising / A hunger in himself to be more serious / And gravitating with it to this ground / Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in / If only that so many dead lie round.”
What indeed remains in this skeptical age when disbelief itself fails? For disbelief, in the face of wonder, also requires effort to maintain. Wonder and magic can surprise us still, catch at us, tug at the threads of our cynicism. More often than we might care to admit, we still find ourselves struck in the contemplation of an enchanted, inexplicable moment, when the only word in the language still best suited to describe it is God.
* * *
Only the current pope emeritus knows whether the benefits to the church from his departure outweigh, in his mind and in his soul, the damage he must surely feel he has done to the immemorial status of the papacy. Whatever the reasons behind it, it seems only natural to conclude that Pope Benedict was aware of its likely consequences, at least in the matter of his successor. After all, Cardinal Bergoglio had been the runner-up to Benedict at his own papal election, and there was every chance the Argentinian would prevail in the new contest. What’s more, Bergoglio’s resignation letters, twice submitted to Benedict and held on file, unsigned, unanswered, suggest that Benedict could easily have eliminated the Argentinian from papal consideration if he’d wanted to, and thus significantly reduced the possibility of radical change within the church—change to which, Ratzinger’s record tells us, he was strongly resistant. Why were these resignation letters sent to Ratzinger left unsigned by him? It seems quite possible that Benedict, after deciding he would step down, chose to make Bergoglio’s candidacy at least possible, leaving the actual choice of the next pope to the cardinals and, of course, to God.
So what thoughts occupy Benedict, now that he is (for the most part) silenzio incarnato? With what does he reproach himself as he moves about his monastery garden, takes grandfatherly naps, and writes at his desk late into the night? Does he watch and marvel at the cult of Francis, who waves so confidently to the millions? Is he in awe of the man’s charisma, the transformative campaigns and stunning pronouncements? Or does he, instead, blame himself for creating the opportunity for unnecessary and damaging change, for uninsured freethinking, when, with a stroke of his pen a few years earlier, he might have seen Cardinal Bergoglio now tucked up harmlessly in Room 13 at the retirement home for priests on calle Condarco 581 in Flores, Buenos Aires?
It is my conjecture that Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger debated long and hard the implications of the kind of change his resignation might invite and stepped down only when he had made his peace with the idea of Bergoglio, the reality of Bergoglio, the need for Bergoglio, the dangers of Bergoglio. This debate may still occupy the frail pope emeritus; he may be playing, in secret, both parts in the theological debates he has always enjoyed, making the case for and against an unchanging church that preaches simple, timeless truths; for and against a dynamic church that adapts its rules to meet the complex, changing needs of its people. The insignia for the papacy is two crossed keys: one to bind, one to set free; to define what is sin and what is permitted. While Ratzinger has long held and used the first key, it must seem to him that Pope Francis has run off with the second and is now in a frenzy of unlocking. (Only today, as I write, Francis has just changed Catholic teaching on the death penalty, calling it “inadmissible.”) Who is right? Will the church that is married to the spirit of the age indeed be a widow into the next? Will Francis’s flexibility be its downfall; or will it be its saving, and will it become, in its outreach and modernizing appeal, the mother of new millions, inspiring the disaffected back into her arms? The conservative line of argument may be reduced to a simplification: that, finally, people crave a monolithic master and will bend at the knee for nothing less. People revere that which is bigger than themselves. Liberal thought takes the opposing view: people tire of masters who appear unmoved by all entreaties.
In my mind’s eye I see Benedict giving both sides of the argument full weight, before setting down his pen empty of its last ink. I imagine, on his desk, Bergoglio’s resignation letters still lying there, so very shrewdly never signed by Benedict, and it is only then that I realize this clever old man actually reached his decision long ago, when no one in the world was watching.
Francesco, rebuild my church.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My continued thanks to Rebecca Cronshey, whose skills at research verge on the miraculous, and Jane Parkin for her early editorial input. A debt also to Alexander Lucie-Smith for casting a knowledgeable eye over these pages.
NOTES
Please note that some of the links referenced throughout this work may no longer be active.
PROLOGUE
“I saw and … great refusal”: Dante Alighieri, translated by Allen Mandelbaum, The Divine Comedy: Inferno (University of California Press, 1980), Canto III, pp. 22–23.
“My pope is Benedict”: Edward Pentin, “Ex-Nuncio Accuses Pope Francis of Failing to Act on McCarrick’s Abuse,” National Catholic Re
gister, August 25, 2018.
“foolish prejudice”: “Benedict affirms continuity with Pope Francis,” The Tablet, March 13, 2018, https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/8716/benedict-affirms-continuity-with-pope-francis.
“having a wise … home”: Edward Pentin, “Pope Francis on Pope Emeritus: ‘The Wise Grandfather at Home,’” National Catholic Register, June 27, 2016, http://www.ncregister.com/blog/edward-pentin/pope-francis-on-pope-emeritus-the-wise-grandfather-at-home/.
1. CONCLAVE
“acute inflammation … laryngo-spasm”: Official statement by Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls, quoted in “Pope John Paul rushed to hospital,” BBC, February 2, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4228059.stm.
“[looking] to be … head”: John Hooper, “Pope Blesses Easter Faithful but Is Unable to Speak,” Guardian, March 28, 2005.
On the morning of … Last Rites: Official statement by Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls, Holy See Press Office, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, April 1, 2005.
“the most telling … reporters”: John Allen Jr., The Rise of Benedict XVI: The Inside Story of How the Pope Was Elected and What It Means for the World (London: Penguin Books, 2005), p. 38.
“serene and lucid”: Stanislaw Dziwisz, Czeslaw Drazek, Renato Buzzonetti, Angelo Comastri, Let Me Go to the Father’s House: John Paul II’s Strength in Weakness (Pauline Books and Media, 2006), p. 86.
“a small … expiring”: Ibid.
“I have looked … you”: Official Account of John Paul II’s Last Days, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2005.
the novemdiales … period of festivity: Francesca Prescendi (Geneva), “Novendiale sacrum,” in Brill’s New Pauly, antiquity volumes edited by Hubert Cancik and Helmuth Schneider, English edition by Christine F. Salazar; classical tradition volumes edited by Manfred Landfester, English edition by Francis G. Gentry, http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e825640 (published online 2006).
“As a gift … and gives peace”: John Paul II, Eucharist Celebration for the Repose of the Soul of Pope John Paul II: Regina Caeli, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, April 3, 2005.
“is considered … among equals”: The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church [From the Latin Code of Canon Law 1983]—Can. 352 §1., in the College of Cardinals General Documentation, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, February 17, 2014.
“three bags … Pope John Paul II’s reign”: Allen, The Rise of Benedict XVI, p. 59.
“human, not … terms”: Sister Mary Ann Walsh, RSM, ed., with reporting by Catholic News Service, From Pope John Paul II to Benedict XVI: An Inside Look at the End of an Era (Oxford: Sheed and Ward, 2005), p. 23.
the pope … his wishes: John Paul, Universi Cominici gregis Apostolic Constitution, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1996.
“a man’s chances … in the press”: George Weigel, “The Pignedoli Principle,” The Catholic Difference, May 3, 2001, https://web.archive.org/web/20151031122412/http://eppc.org/publications/the-pignedoli-principle/.
“an underlying … local ordinaries”: Michael J. Lacey and Francis Oakley, The Crisis of Authority in Catholic Modernity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 15–16.
The Vatican … “unbelievable” to him: Joaquín Navarro-Valls, Vatican Press Conference, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, April 25, 2014.
“the anger … John Paul II”: David Gibson, The Rule of Benedict: Pope Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World (Harper San Francisco, 2006), p. 32.
“secularism … center and the periphery”: Allen, The Rise of Benedict XVI, p. 80.
“a weakened … the pope”: Paul Collins, God’s New Man: The Election of Benedict XVI and the Legacy of John Paul II (London: Continuum, 2005), p. 13.
“forced to mark time … of the Pope”: Ibid.
“there [was] a real danger … relativism”: Ibid., p. 36.
“As soon as he … course in the faith”: Pope Benedict XVI, Light of the
World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times: A Conversation with Peter Seewald (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010), pp. 4–5.
“to promote … in all of the Catholic world”: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_pro_14071997_en.html.
“[drag] the Catholic Church … dialogue with it”: Collins, God’s New Man, p. ix.
“developed a culture … irrelevant”: Joseph Ratzinger, Speech at Subiaco, Italy, April 1, 2005, in ibid., p. 122.
“How much filth … every side”: Joseph Ratzinger, Meditations of the Cross, Good Friday, March 25, 2005, in John Thavis, The Vatican Diaries, p. 292 (New York: Penguin Books, 2013).
“high marks … charisma”: Walsh, ed., From Pope John Paul II to Benedict XVI, p. 82.
“the most powerful … divided: John L. Allen Jr., Conclave: The Politics, Personalities, and Process of the Next Papal Election (New York: Doubleday, 2002), p. 201.
“had real … stances”: Collins, God’s New Man, p. 48.
“the great … decades”: Allen, Conclave, p. 169.
“assumed … Brazilian dictatorship”: U.S. Embassy to the Vatican, “Toward the Conclave Part III: The Candidates,” WikiLeaks, April 15, 2005, 05VATICAN466_a, https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/05VATICAN466_a.html.
“roly-poly, affable” … John Paul: Allen, Conclave, p. 176; Walsh, ed., From Pope John Paul II to Benedict XVI, p. 81.
“now that these … anymore”: Sandro Magister, “Progressives, Moderates, Neocons: Notes Before the Conclave,” L’Espresso, April 14, 2005, http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/28458%26eng%3dy.html.
“A single African child … universe”: Allen, Conclave, p. 176.
“If we elect a pope … support”: Allen, The Rise of Benedict XVI, pp. 82–83.
“unwavering commitment … doctrinal views”: Ibid., p. 104.
“a climate of … John Paul II”: Gibson, The Rule of Benedict, p. 99.
“intervened … not always manage”: Allen, The Rise of Benedict XVI, pp. 94–95.
“complicity in the … subversive”: Paul Vallely, Pope Francis: Untying the Knots (London: Bloomsbury, 2014), p. 1.
“Ever since the … dinner table”: Ibid., p. 3.
In his book … Holy Spirit guide them”: Gibson, The Rule of Benedict, p. 103.
Results of the first ballot of the papal conclave, 2005: Anonymous to Lucio Brunelli, Limes, http://www.limesonline.com/cosi-eleggemmo-papa-ratzinger/5959 (originally published September 2005).
“a true … ‘left’”: Ibid.
“He had … do this to me’”: Ibid.
Results of the second ballot of the papal conclave, 2005: Ibid.
Results of the third ballot of the papal conclave, 2005: Ibid.
“the picture of calm”: Gibson, The Rule of Benedict, p. 105.
According to the diarist … start afresh: Anonymous to Lucio Brunelli.
“there was sort … everyone clapped”: Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, interview with BBC, March 1, 2013, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21624894.
“want to be … else”: Magena Valentié, “El hogar que ya no espera al padre Jorge,” La Gaceta (Argentina), March 16, 2013, https://www.lagaceta.com.ar/nota/536881/mundo/hogar-ya-no-espera-al-padre-jorge.html.
2. FRANCIS
“My strongest … grandmother”: Austen Ivereigh, The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2014), p. 13.
“the single greatest … five years”: Ibid.
“family legend … back in Piedmont”: Paul Vallely, Pope Francis: Untying the Knots, pp. 21–22.
“priest-eater”: Ivereigh, The Great Reformer, p. 14.
“loved all … memories”: Vallely, Pope Francis: Untying the Knots, p. 22.
“always a joyful … presents”: Omero Ciai, “Pope Francis as a Child,” La Repubblica (Italy), March 17, 2013.
“when we got … to cook”: Andrea Tornielli, Francis: A Pope of a New World (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2013), p. 74.
“a
lways with … text”: Ivereigh, The Great Reformer, p. 17.
“be a friend … to Christ”: The Salesians of Don Bosco in Great Britain, http://www.salesians.org.uk/.
“I learned to study … everything easier”: “Father Bergoglio’s 1990 Recollection of His Salesian Education,” Zenit, February 4, 2014, https://zenit.org/articles/father-bergoglio-s-1990-recollection-of-his-salesian-education/.
“mostly played … afternoons together”: Tornielli, Francis: A Pope of the New World, p. 77.
“always liked to … gentleman”: Ibid.
“if you don’t … a priest”: Ibid., p. 78.
“had dared … a boy”: Philip Sherwell and Aislinn Laing, “Pope Francis: Amalia, the Childhood Sweetheart Whose Snub Created a Pope,” Telegraph (UK), March 14, 2013.
“were still … love”: Ibid.
“never saw him … separate us”: Ibid.
“I’m so grateful … endeavor”: Sergio Rubin and Francesca Ambrogetti, Pope Francis: Conversations with Jorge Bergoglio, translated by Laura Dail Literary Agency Inc. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2013), p. 14. Originally published as El Jesuita: Conversaciones con Jorge Bergoglio (Ediciones B: Argentina, 2010).
“an extraordinary boss”: Ibid.
“the seriousness … work”: Ibid.
“I realized … of the Church”: Javier Cámara and Sebastián Pfaffen, Understanding Pope Francis: Key Moments in the Formation of Jorge Bergoglio as Jesuit, Luis Fernando Escalante, CreateSpace, an Amazon.com Company, 2015, p. 31.
“I would wait … La Vanguardia”: Ibid., p. 32.
“it was the … free people”: John L. Allen Jr., The Francis Miracle: Inside the Transformation of the Pope and the Church (New York: Time, 2015), pp. 121–22.
In an interview … dying relative: Uki Goni, “Pope Francis and the Missing Marxist,” Guardian (UK), December 11, 2013, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/pope-francis-argentina-esther-careaga.
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