Guest Opinion: Ken Blackwell on the Renunciation of Pope Benedict XVI

By Ken Blackwell
2/13/2013
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI built on an imperishable foundation. Their legacy can inspire all mankind.

Pope Benedict XVI has never marched to the media's drumbeat. He did not seek to satisfy the agenda of the hour. Instead, the Pope reminded the City and the World what it was in danger of forgetting: God is Love.

Ken Blackwell is a senior at the Family Research Council, He serves on the board of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and was the U.S. ambassador to the U. N. for Human Rights, 1991-93

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WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) - The media, of course, is calling it a resignation. But it not so much a resignation of a political office as it is a renunciation. The 85-year old pontiff's decision to renounce the power and prestige of the papal office is so unexpected, almost unprecedented, as to take the world by surprise.

Of course, we Americans of all people can understand what thoughts must have coursed through Pope Benedict XVI's mind as he prayed about this weighty decision. We saw this kind of renunciation with our first president, George Washington. He did not leave the presidency before his second term expired, true, but he renounced all further exercise of power on March 4, 1797. It was then that he strode out of the Senate chamber in Philadelphia.

He purposely prodded President John Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, the new nation's elected leaders and Washington's own successors, to go before him. He knew the importance of symbolism. King George III had once been George Washington's bitterest enemy. He said if Washington renounces his power, he truly will be the greatest man in the world. He did. He was.

Pope Benedict XVI knows that however insistent the world is, however menacing its foes are, the Church of Jesus Christ will stand forever. This Pope has not tried to keep up with the times. Or the Times. Too many church bodies today are desperate to be thought modern. Some are indifferent to the lives of the unborn. It's as if they missed that story about Herod and the Innocents.

Or, those synods and conventions that breathlessly ponder whether or not to take the plunge and declare that marriage between persons of the same sex is the new revelation. It's an insight that the most serious Bible scholars for two thousand years somehow managed to overlook. And we can view with sorrow those religious bodies that solemnly declare that affordable health care for all is so important that it's worth trammeling freedom of religion in order to mandate it.

In renouncing the power and the glory of the papacy, Pope Benedict XVI is clearly putting the life and mission of the Catholic Church and her 1.2 billion believers above his own earthly being. He knows that the challenges the Church faces-the dictatorship of relativism in the developed countries and the murderous threats of militant Islam in the Bloody Crescent-will demand the vitality of a younger man. Still, no one can doubt the steadfastness of this Pope's witness.

When he issued his first papal encyclical, the media raced to report it. What would be the Pope's subject? Ordination of women? Priestly celibacy? The threat to religious belief from a culture increasingly drenched in sensuality? Inquiring minds wanted to know.

Pope Benedict XVI has never marched to the media's drumbeat. He did not seek to satisfy the agenda of the hour. Instead, the Pope reminded the City and the World what it was in danger of forgetting: God is Love.

As he renounces the papal throne, it's funny to remember the media caricatures of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger before he was elevated. In the days of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Ratzinger was often called the Pope's "enforcer." In those days, he headed the Vatican's sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

While critics in the media dubbed Cardinal Ratzinger "God's Rottweiler," a none too subtle reference to his German birth, and a hint of ferocity, the real Joseph Ratzinger belied all the press hype. Soft-spoken, mild-mannered, even sweet-tempered, he defied all the stereotypes.

It was his unyielding support for his brother in Christ, Karol Wojtyla, soon to become Pope John Paul II, that brought Cardinal Ratzinger to the attention of the world. Their fraternal collaboration was one of the great partnerships of the modern era.

That brotherhood was itself a testimony to the eternal truth that God is Love.

The Bavarian teenager Joseph Ratzinger had been forced into the Hitler Youth. Young Karol Wojtyla, the Polish seminarian, had come within a hair's breadth of being murdered by that same Nazi regime that slaughtered millions of Poles and Jews.

The fact that Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict the XVI could have overcome national differences to work together for the New Evangelism is a source of hope for all mankind. By unapologetically defending Christian Truth, we work for peace, we advance reconciliation. Now, the scene opens upon a dramatic new vista. Whomever the College of Cardinals chooses in Rome, he and we will live in interesting times.

Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI built on an imperishable foundation. Their legacy can inspire all mankind.

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Ken Blackwell is a senior at the Family Research Council, He serves on the board of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and was the U.S. ambassador to the U. N. for Human Rights, 1991-93.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: Pope Benedict XVI, ken Blackwell, God is Love, John Paul II, Papal resignation, papal renunciation, Vatican, humility

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1 - 6 of 6 Comments

jo
4 months ago
God has given wisdom to the Pope to take decisions that suit the believers and the world at large.
Joseph
4 months ago
I have been very impressed by Pope Benedict XVI in his period in office and prior to that as Cardinal. However, I think his resignation is a serious mistake which will have, potentially, both medium and long term negative effects for the Church. As one Vatican official put it: 'You don't get down from the cross'.
Z.Martin
4 months ago
This is a well-worded article, concise and to the point. Pope Benedict is humble and not afraid to preach the Truth in the face of so much opposition. Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have been outstanding in steering the Church in these most difficult times.
vance
4 months ago
Great article. "Renunciation of Power". I never thought about it in those terms.
Steve Yates
4 months ago
A great summation of the two popes legacy Ken. I admired your wisdom and candor when you were Secretary of State in Ohio. Your keen insight on the media's take on how each Pope would undertake their roles as Evangelist of the world underscores the true motives of their true allegiance. That allegiance is one to secularism and only secularism. If they could only get the Rome to bend a few rules and deviate from historical norms then the victory would be close at hand. Unfortunately, they'll never truly understand that God resides in all of us and all we have to do is accept Him. Keep up the good work Ken.
Bill Sr.
4 months ago
Thank you Ken.

The truth of which you speak had been accepted for over two hundred years in our land until our current president from nowhere soon after his first election declared to the world that we were no longer a Christian nation.

That boastful announcement was not a statement of fact it was a wishful personal belief. It also was an indication of the design of his personal agenda to transform America into a nation without a valid constitution constructed by men of faith whose coin and currency bore the inscription "In God We Trust", and into a secular nation unrestrained by Biblical integrity or a devout Christian conscience. Why would the leader of this beloved land of ours be so bold as to declare the demise of our heritage and its conscience and integrity? Was he remorsefully announcing our loss or proudly proclaiming the beginning of a new era he was about to impose upon us?
There is little doubt after decades of progressive liberal indoctrination throughout our universities, public schools and the mainstream media our society had gradually eroded its moral standards by capitulating to the onslaunt of anti-Christian rhetoric deceitfully presented as benevolent social justice. Evil is as Evil does and where better to start a last ditch effort by its Legions to corrupt the worlds most powerful Christian nation than within its own government. We can not deny its presence in the agenda of politicians, many who profess to be Christians, in the hollowed halls in Washington along with socially corrupt governorships and big city mayors all over the country driving us to bankruptcy with endless entitlement programs and dividing the people into secular camps of perverse but (now) legal behavior railing against the founding values of our nation mocking the Church and her moral teaching under the guise of social justice or benevolent equal benefits and rights.
Our country has lost a cherished pride in our deep religious faith based on Judeo-Christian values as woven into the fabric of our society. In a single lifetime we have abandoned things like Blue Laws to protect the sanctity of the Sabbath and two parent church on Sunday families with stay at home mothers and turned to embracing 24/7 shopping to satisfy a mounting hunger for every imaginable comfort and personal gratification and become complacent with not only single moms and gay marriage but government subsidized abortion clinics for mothers wishing to kill their unborn paid for by a government run federal healthcare system which forces under specific penalties private companies and religious institutions to cooperate financially against their deeply held religious principles to actually become social partners contributing to the butchery as an act of public necessity in this Holocaust of our Silent Citizens.
Our most urgent need today is not to avoid an economic collapse or the financial cliff but rather we need to ignite and initiate a spiritual revival and search our souls admitting to ourselves we have turned from and left behind the only salvation we really have, the Lord Jesus Christ and his Divine Mercy. John Paul II and Benedict XVI gave the best years of their lives to prove that Truth.

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