Pope Benedict: a theologian with a profound belief in reason

Pope Benedict is dead; now only Pope Francis remains in the Vatican. And the Catholic Church is diminished by his passing, at least in a here-and-now sense. He was controversial for those who wanted the church to identify with the values of the age, and was cordially detested by liberal Catholics – I know of one progressive journalist who burst into tears at the news of his election – but in any serious audit of his life’s work, he emerges as a figure with a claim to the attention of secularists as well as Catholics. 

‘The thing you have to know’, said my friend who was on Pope Benedict’s staff during his time in charge of the Congregation of the Faith, ‘is that everyone, but everyone, who worked for him, loved him. Even those who joined feeling instinctively hostile were won over.’ It was a combination of his kindness and simplicity, certainly, but there was also the feeling that here was complete intellectual integrity.