This Thursday, February 28th marks the final day of the reign of Pope Benedict XVI, who announced his decision to step down February 11th, the first pope to do so in six centuries. The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected to be the Roman Catholic Church’s 265th pope in April 2005. He announced earlier this month that he would step down due to illness, citing that his advanced age of 85 made it difficult to perform his duties. Unfortunately, Benedict’s reign has been plagued by scandal and disagreements within the church and between religions. Although Benedict is considered a more conservative doctrine, refusing to reform the Roman Catholic Church in order to fit into the daily lives of most Catholics and denying the rightfulness of abortion, divorce and multiculturalism, the Pope has had some moments of liberal thought. Benedict opposed the war in Iraq, the death penalty and broadening capitalism. Most interestingly, in November 2010 Benedict promoted the use of condoms by people infected with H.I.V, a complete reverse from earlier claims by the Vatican concerning this issue. It is impressive that even at a time when it seems most important to argue our particular views, no matter what side we are on, that Benedict was able to see across party lines to do what he felt was best even though he has urged “radicalism of obedience” to members of the church.
Unfortunately, the benefits of this anti-partisan move have been ignored due to the range of scandal, much of it to do with sexual abuse, that has occurred within the church. Most recently, in May 2012, a scandal called VatiLeaks rocked the church. The pope’s butler Paolo Gabriele was arrested for leaking confidential documents to a journalist. Now, Vatican officials question the process for both choosing a new pope after Benedict’s resignation and how to form Benedict’s role as an ex-pope, since this has not occurred in over 600 years. In her article “Shadows Accompany Gathering to Pick Pope” for “The New York Times,” Rachel Donadio discusses the sex abuse charges’ roles in choosing the new pope. Often, for those who have been charged it is impossible to verify their innocence or guilt, thus making the selection process ambiguous. It is possible that some Vatican insiders even accuse others in order to alter the selection process. This world seems to the outside as one of high moral grounding, making this political game-playing in order to alter the result of pope selection surprising and upsetting. One would hope that the papacy would be immune to such poor behavior, but I guess we will see what’s in store when the white smoke rises at the Vatican this coming week.