Our readers offered a variety of perspectives on Pope Benedict XVI and his ministry after the publication of America’s articles on his life and passing.
Pope Benedict XVI
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Pope Francis: Critics who used Benedict’s death ‘have no ethics’
Pope Francis hit out strongly against the way people have sought to manipulate Benedict’s death. “People who instrumentalize such a good person, [a man] of God, almost I would say a holy father of the church, have no ethics,” he said. “They are of a party, not of the church.”
Posted inFaith, News
Will Benedict XVI be made a saint? The complicated history of canonizing popes
Calls for the canonization of Pope Benedict XVI follow the trend of 20th and 21st century popes, but this “santo subito” process is not as common as it may seem today.
Posted inFaith, Vatican Dispatch
Biographer reveals the reason for Pope Benedict’s resignation: insomnia
Pope Benedict’s German biographer, Peter Seewald, confirmed that nine weeks before he died, Benedict revealed that insomnia was the “central motive” for his resignation.
Posted inFaith, News
Pope Francis on his health, critics and future papacy
Pope Francis says he hasn’t even considered issuing norms to regulate future papal resignations and plans to continue for as long as he can as bishop of Rome, despite a wave of attacks by some top-ranking cardinals and bishops.
Posted inFaith, News
Pope Benedict had book published after his death because his writings provoked ‘a murderous clamor’ from critics
An Italian publisher has published the late Pope Benedict’s book of essays, which he requested be published only after his death, including one on priesthood.
Posted inFaith, News
Cardinal: Benedict XVI’s secretary publishing new book is an ‘unseemly indiscretion’
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn said that the publication of Archbishop Gänswein’s tell-all book on Pope Benedict’s private communications was “unseemly.”
Posted inFaith, Podcasts
Pope Benedict XVI: Social justice warrior?
This week on “Jesuitical,” Zac and Ashley talk with John Carr, founder of the Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University, about Pope Benedict’s under-appreciated contributions to Catholic social teaching.
Posted inFaith, Of Many Things
Pope Benedict and Pope Francis wanted to change the same thing: all of us.
What unites Benedict and Francis is their common fidelity to God calling us to conversion.
Posted inFaith, Interviews
Interview: Dr. Rowan Williams on Pope Benedict’s role in ecumenical dialogue
Dr. Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury, reminisces about the personal encounters and official meetings he had with Pope Benedict XVI while they were leading their respective faith communities.