Father Benedict by James Day, Sophia Institute Press, £14.50
It is difficult, and sometimes seemingly impossible, to assess someone’s legacy within only a few years of their death. Pope St John Paul II died more than 10 years ago, and there is still endless debate about the efficacy of his policies, the role he played in countless ecclesial and global issues, and the impact that his writings and teachings have had on the Church and world as a whole.
It certainly is even harder to examine one’s legacy while they are still alive. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is a controversial figure, and has been so ever since his days as Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Benedict is still alive, thanks be to God, but his Church-shaking decision to renounce the Petrine ministry in February 2013 effectively ended his public life, and immediately inspired efforts to assess and examine the legacy of this great man of the Church.
In this book, subtitled “The Spiritual and Intellectual Legacy of Pope Benedict XVI”, James Day attempts, deftly, to make his own assessment. Pope Benedict has been out of the public eye for almost four years, and his charismatic successor has greatly altered the public perception of the Church, as well as, in many ways, the public understanding of Benedict’s legacy.
Day does a wonderful job of describing the way in which Pope Benedict (formerly Joseph Ratzinger) had a profound effect on the intellectual and spiritual culture of the Western Church in the second half of the 20th century. It seems safe to say that one of Ratzinger’s greatest contributions to theological thought has been his trilogy of personal reflections titled Jesus of Nazareth. Although these were written while he was pope, they are explicitly not an exercise of the papal magisterium, but rather the personal reflections of Joseph Ratzinger, as he seeks the face of Jesus Christ.
“Joseph Ratzinger was so concerned with [Jesus’s question “Who do you say that I am?”] that he saw it as his final literary mission to present to the public a comprehensive study of Jesus that is intellectually rigorous and does not talk down to its audience,” Day writes. Certainly to be considered one of his life’s crowning achievements, this trilogy is explored in great detail in a chapter of his book called “Seeking the Holy Face”.
Benedict’s acumen as an administrator is questioned on occasion, and this for good reason. There are claims that he trusted his advisers too readily, or that he delegated too much, and thus lost control of the bureaucracy. His encyclicals, apostolic exhortations and other official papal teaching documents are to be revered as some of the greatest the Church has produced.
However, it is in his capacity as a believer in Jesus Christ, a seeker of the Holy Face and a teacher of the faith, that the greatest legacy of Joseph Ratzinger is to be found. He lived a life of simple piety, a life of devotion to Jesus Christ, prayerful admiration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and found his place as a teacher of the faith in line with St Ambrose, St Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, St Charles Borromeo, St Pius X, Blessed John Henry Newman and countless others.
The title of the book speaks volumes about Day’s familiarity with Ratzinger, as well as the scope of his examination. For years, Ratzinger wished to retire from his high-stress and high-responsibility post in the Vatican, and spend his life studying and writing in the Vatican Library, or living as a simple country priest in Bavaria with his brother, Fr Georg, studying and writing. He did not want to spend his life as the panzerkardinal or God’s Rottweiler; he wanted simply to be Father Joseph, or Father Benedict.
This also speaks to the fact that this man has been a force of nature throughout his life and ministry, and not just after ascending to the throne of Peter. Fr Ratzinger was a prominent and influential theologian, who served as a peritus at the Second Vatican Council, and started the theological journal Communio with such other influential theologians as Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac, Louis Bouyer, Marc Ouellet and others.
Ratzinger’s influence continued to grow as he was named an archbishop, then consecrated as a cardinal, named prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and finally elected Supreme Pontiff. Throughout all this, he wanted to be a pastor, a shepherd for the people of God in whatever small way, and always considered himself “a simple and humble worker in the vineyard of the Lord”, as he said in the moments following his election to the papacy.
I don’t doubt that it will be years, perhaps even decades, before we can begin to assess the legacy of this great man with any sense of completeness. However, James Day’s book is a wonderful and comprehensive look at this man’s life and influence, and should help any reader gain a greater appreciation of this humble and holy pastor.
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