Benedict XVI


The pope has retired, in a move that is unusual but not unprecedented. It is certainly right to pass on the mantle to another when you know you have given all you can, your efforts are flagging and your own exhaustion limits your effectiveness. I've felt that way too, and as one of fewer years and much narrower responsibilities. I wish him a blessed and peaceful retirement.

I hope he will be able to do some writing. I would like to read more from him, particularly on Christian unity. He surprised me by taking a profound interest in the matter. I was expecting that Joseph Ratzinger, the hard line theologian, would be rigidly doctrinaire as pope. But as Benedict he opened his arms outward and acknowledged, to a degree that surprised me, that there is one Lord, of faith, one baptism.

My Latin is so appallingly bad that at first I misread the title of the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, thinking it concerned English rocketry. Fortunately there is an English translation.  This constitution  does as much as it possibly can, while retaining the old idea that the way to unity with Rome is to become a Catholic, to provide an easy road for Anglicans to come into the Roman communion. Much that is distinctive about Anglicanism will be retained, rather as Byzantine Catholics keep elements of worship and custom that are their own.

I do not think that accommodations like Anglicanorum Coetibus can provide a complete answer to the unity question, but it is an outstanding effort within the Catholic framework of thinking that, to date, still insists that all roads lead to Rome. Not every separated church can follow such a road; their differences with Rome are larger than Anglicanism's. But sometimes in deed more than word, and in word more than in official pronouncement, Benedict indicated that he knew full well that there is a whole world of other Christians out there, separated by centuries of divergent tradition, yet brothers underneath it all.

I hope all Christians everywhere will pray for Brother Benedict as he enters upon the next phase of a remarkable life. I'm hoping for a book on Christian unity from him, but whether that is forthcoming or not, I think he has accomplished more toward unity than anyone, inside or outside Catholicism, ever expected to happen, within the Roman church, in our times.

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