The Wild Reed: Progressive Catholic Perspectives on the Legacy of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

To be honest, I wasn’t planning on acknowledging here at The Wild Reed the recent death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, the main reason being that I no longer identify as Roman Catholic or, accordingly, feel connected to the topics and issues that once were the focus of this blog. And, yes, the misguided and dangerous pronuncements of Benedict, both before and after he was pope, definitely comprised an “issue” for myself and this blog’s readership a decade or so ago.

As I note over in the sidebar, I established The Wild Reed in 2006 (a little over a year into Benedict’s papacy) as a sign of solidarity with all who are dedicated to living lives of integrity – though, in particular, “with gay people seeking to be true to both the gift of their sexuality and their Catholic faith.” Accordingly, The Wild Reed’s original by-line read: “Thoughts and reflections from a progressive, gay, Catholic perspective.” It now reads: “Thoughts and interests of a queer seeker of the Divine Presence; a ‘soul dancer,’ seeking to embody with grace and verve the mystico-prophetic spiritual tradition.”

This change reflects how my journey has, in many ways, taken me beyond, or perhaps better still, deeper into the realities that the words “progressive,” “gay,” and “Catholic” seek to describe. In many ways I have the dysfunctional theology of the Roman Catholicism, as formulated and articulated by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict), to thank for providing the impetus for my journey of ever-deepening spirituality. This is because the theology of the Roman Catholic church around issues of gender and sexuality never rang true for me. Even as an adolescent I intuitively knew that the way the official church talked about sexuality was profoundly lacking in awareness and compassion, and thus truth. It took many years to fully claim and articulate this intuitive knowledge, and in my achievement of this life-saving endeavor I have, in part, the writings of people like John Sanford, Matthew Fox, Joan Timmerman, and Mary Hunt to thank, along with the music of Dusty Springfield!

The Wild Reed, in many ways, in a record of my journey as both a gay and spiritual man. It’s a journey out from the desolate and life-denying theological landscape concocted by the Roman Catholic clerical caste and into a life-giving and -affirming realm of self-acceptance, authenticity, integrity, and love; a realm I continue to live and flourish within to this day, and one I seek to embody in my daily actions of body, speech, and mind.

A major hallmark of my journey to date is my ever-deepening embodiment of the mystic’s response to God as “the Beloved,” a response found within a range of mystical traditions – Christian, Sufi, Jewish – and one that often has erotic, including homo-erotic, overtones. I’m drawn to this type of universality, though to be sure, it’s a catholicity of religion rather than of church, something that serves as another hallmark of my journey. I’ve also become less theological and more metaphysical in my thinking. My interest in and embodiment of this shift has also been chronicled here at The Wild Reed (see, for example, here, here, here, here, and here).

This all being said, it feels important to acknowledge the death of Benedict as it will bring closure to a major area of focus at The Wild Reed, namely the aforementioned dysfunctional, so-called “sexual” theology of the Roman Catholic clerical caste. And closure, when possible, is always good.

And so this evening I share the thoughts and perspectives on the legacy of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI by a number of progressive Catholic thinkers, writers, and theologians whose dedication to love and truth I greatly respect.

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The death of any human being is an occasion of sorrow. We pray for Pope Benedict’s soul and express our condolences to his family, friends, and loved ones. However, his death also calls us to reflect honestly on his legacy. Benedict’s leadership in the church, as Pope and before that as head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) [renamed in 2022 the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith], caused tremendous damage to LGBTQIA+ people and our loved ones. His words and writings forced our community out of Catholic churches, tore families apart, silenced our supporters, and even cost lives. He refused to recognize even the most basic human rights for LGBTQIA+ people. Many of us experienced the most harsh and blatant religiously justified discrimination of our lives as a result of his policies.

As leader of the CDF, Pope Benedict, then known as Cardinal Ratzinger, was responsible for a 1986 letter to all the church’s bishops, On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons. This letter labelled having a gay or lesbian orientation as “objectively disordered” and said that all same-sex intimate relationships were “intrinsically evil” and “essentially self-indulgent.” Released during the height of the AIDS pandemic, it also blamed gay men for the disease, and stated that it was understandable that efforts to secure civil rights for LGBTQIA+ people would be met with violence.

The letter also prohibited groups that dissented from official church teaching on homosexuality from using Catholic spaces such as churches, schools, colleges, retreat houses, and the facilities of religious orders A former CDF official confirmed in 2017 that this directive was aimed at DignityUSA and its chapters. As a result of the 1986 letter, the great majority of Dignity communities, then overwhelmingly housed in Catholic facilities across the U.S., were expelled from those spaces within a year.

Furthermore, Benedict banned the distribution of condoms by Catholic health and social services agencies throughout the world to anyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, or marital status, even as a proven life-saving measure, thereby failing to slow the spread of HIV across the globe. Tragically, this policy contributed to untold numbers of deaths and vast needless suffering.

As Pope, Benedict XVI was among the most vocal and powerful global leaders who objected to marriage equality and gay and lesbian people raising children, causing immense damage worldwide. In his Christmas message of 2012, Benedict said gay marriage “destroyed the essence of the human creature,” and said gay marriage, along with abortion and euthanasia, was “a threat to world peace.” He said allowing same-sex couples to adopt children was an “attack” on the “traditional family.”

– Marianne Duddy-Burke
Excerpted from “LGBTQ+ Catholics Recall
Pope Benedict XVI’s Reign as a Painful Time That Caused
‘Tremendous Damage’ to the LGBTQ+ Community”
DignityUSA.org
December 31, 2022

Pope Benedict XVI will be remembered for his failure to achieve what should have been his job one: to rectify the incalculable harm done to the hundreds of thousands of children sexually abused by Catholic priests. When he resigned as Pope, he left hundreds of culpable bishops in power and a culture of secrecy intact.

The tragedy is that in refusing to enact needed reforms, he ended up hurting the faith he cherished. Had he punished cover-up and abuse as sternly as he did doctrinal violations, the Church’s abuse crisis might have ended under his watch. . . . [M]ore than anyone in the Vatican, he knew about the damage done to innocent children. In 1982, when he became head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he moved to the center of the Vatican’s abuse bureaucracy. As Prefect of the CDF, he implemented Pope John Paul II’s policy of not laicizing abusive priests, even when bishops pleaded with him to do so.

In Spring 2001, the Pope gave Cardinal Ratzinger and the CDF sole responsibility for abuse cases, and in that role, Cardinal Ratzinger read hundreds of files and became the Vatican’s most knowledgeable and powerful person on this issue.

In the last year of Benedict’s life, a church-commissioned investigation in Germany published a report stating that Benedict himself had been complicit with abusers. As archbishop of Munich and Freising from 1977 to 1982, he allegedly allowed four abusive priests to remain in ministry. These recent revelations put his 2010 rebuke of Irish bishops in a troubling light. Benedict too had been lenient toward offending priests; he himself appears to have enabled crimes against children.

Benedict’s public response to the Munich revelations was hailed by some as an apology. Yet he acknowledged no personal responsibility and distanced himself from the cover-up, vaguely acknowledging a collective “we” who had committed some unspecified fault: “All the greater is my pain for the abuses and the errors that occurred in those different places during the time of my mandate.”

In fairness, Benedict responded effectively on several occasions. The consolidation of all child sexual abuse cases under the CDF is seen as as his achievement. It appears to have streamlined the process of disciplining errant priests and led to a significant increase in laicizations of abusers, especially when Benedict became Pope.

He also gets credit for disciplining the powerful founder of the Legion of Christ, Marcial Maciel, a choice John Paul II repeatedly refused to make. At the same time, context is relevant here. By the time Benedict finally punished Maciel, many of his victims had come forward, and the evidence against him was not only overwhelming but public, thanks to investigative journalists Jason Berry and Gerald Renner.

As Pope, Benedict could have done much more. He could have made “zero tolerance” the universal rule of the Catholic Church. He could have forced the resignation of bishops who had enabled sexual predators. He could have decreed that every bishop post on his website the names, assignment histories, and alleged crimes of accused priests. He could have made the CDF transparent in its handling of cases, instead of the black box that it remains to this day. He could have acted on the Vatican’s vast knowledge of these cases, instead of leaving the work to the survivors, investigative reporters, grand juries in the US, government commissions in Ireland and Australia, and church-hired investigators in France and Germany.

It’s clear to even his critics that Benedict was motivated by a zeal to protect the faith he loved. The sad irony is that he ended up wounding it further. His misplaced priorities caused countless Catholics to abandon the Church. His failure to enact real change in the Church’s handling of sexually abusive priests will be his significant and tragic legacy.

– Anne Barrett Doyle and Terence McKiernan
Excerpted from “Statement on the Death of Pope Benedict XVI”
BishopAccountability.org
December 31, 2022

Before becoming pope in 2005, Benedict, known then as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had an outsized influence on the Church’s approach to gay and lesbian people and issues.

As the principal author of the 1986 “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,” Ratzinger introduced the term “objective disorder” into the Church’s vocabulary to describe a homosexual orientation. He also oversaw the production of the 1994 Catechism of the Catholic Church, which described sexual activity between two people of the same gender as “acts of grave depravity.”

These documents caused – and still cause – grave pastoral harm to many LGBTQ+ people and to Catholics who see the goodness, holiness, and God-given love in the relationships of queer couples. While Cardinal Ratzinger’s statements were intended to settle the debate on homosexuality in the church, they merely widened the debate. Many Catholic theologians, leaders, and people in the pews question this teaching and seek doctrinal renewal on LGBTQ+ issues. Sadly, Cardinal Ratzinger’s words caused many Catholics to leave the church, some going to other Christian denominations or other faiths, and some rejecting any kind of institutional religion.

. . . [As pope] Benedict’s approach to gay and lesbian issues was clearly hindered by the fact that he did not understand the human dimension of love and relationship that characterizes same-gender couples and individuals. He relied on centuries-old, abstract philosophical and theological ideas instead of learning about more recent understandings of sexuality. Most importantly, he failed to listen to the lived experiences of real people.

– Francis DeBernardo
Excerpted from “New Ways Ministry
Marks the Passing of Benedict XVI”
NewWaysMinistry.org
December 31, 2022

Before he became Pope Benedict XVI, Ratzinger spent nearly a quarter of a century (1981-2005) as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where he quickly became known as a strict enforcer of official church teaching. . . . Over the course of nearly 50 years, Benedict produced more than 65 books in theology, Christology and liturgy, as well as three papal encyclicals and three papal exhortations.

Yet, whatever contributions he made in his prolific and distinguished career may ultimately be overshadowed by the years he spent monitoring, and sometimes suppressing and silencing, the work of other Catholic theologians and ethicists.

. . . In progressive circles, Ratzinger’s story is often recounted as a cautionary tale about a man who started out progressive and idealist, only to shift into a rigid conservative.

“Ratzinger was part of the majority [of theologians] that wanted the Second Vatican Council,” said Dennis Doyle, professor emeritus of Catholic Theology at the University of Dayton, Ohio. “He wasn’t anti-council and he wasn’t a traditionalist.”

Ratzinger’s understanding of the task of church renewal did distinguish him from many of his fellow reformists, however. Rather than see the purpose of the council as aggiornamento, or an updating or modernizing of the church, Ratzinger stressed the work of reform as a ressourcement, or a return to the sources of the tradition, particularly the theology of the early church fathers.

A year after the council concluded, Ratzinger joined the faculty of Tübingen University, where he took his place among emerging theological stars Hans Küng and Jürgen Moltmann. In 1968, two years into his tenure, a revolt broke out among German University students. Inspired by Marxist beliefs, the students rebelled against the elitism and exclusivity of the German university system.

The upheaval found its way into one of Ratzinger’s lecture halls one day when a student ripped the microphone from his hands and began to protest. Horrified, Ratzinger left Tübingen shortly thereafter, and joined the faculty of the University of Regensburg.

“Most of us think of that moment as Ratzinger’s symbolic shift to the right,” said Doyle. “But in his mind, he was being consistent.”

Rather than having a sudden conversion to conservatism, it may be more accurate to say that Ratzinger’s concerns about the effects of change and modernity on the church were confirmed by the events of 1968. His fears had hardened him and led him to revert even more strongly to the theology of St. Augustine that had thoroughly shaped his religious imagination.

Before and during his pontificate, Benedict often spoke of St. Augustine as one of his greatest companions in his life and his ministry. Augustine placed a strong emphasis on the corruption of human nature by sin and the necessity of grace for salvation. For Benedict, this grace came through the church.

“Benedict had this vision of the church as eternal because he believed that the idea of the church existed in the mind of God,” Doyle said.

As an Augustinian, he was especially wary of the utopian ideas of Marxism that he saw played out by the revolt in Tübingen. He was alarmed by the notion that human beings could create a perfect world.

“For a lot of Augustinians, there is a lot of focus on sin in the world,” said [Fr. Charles] Curran [who was investigated and subsequently deemed ineligible to teach Catholic theology for criticizing the church’s teaching on sexuality, particularly contraception.] “There is a tendency to identify the city of God as the church, and the city of man as the world.” This dualism made Benedict suspicious of worldly ideas.

Many theologians in the U.S. are, like Curran, theological Thomists. They believe that human beings are basically good and that human reason and experience gives us the capacity to learn moral wisdom and knowledge.

“We learn from the world,” as opposed to being suspicious of it, Curran said. “I think that is the primary theological difference between Benedict and many theologians.”

. . . For all his efforts to control or suppress theological inquiry, Benedict’s success remains questionable. One could argue that, during his 24 years as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and his eight years as pope, theology actually thrived.

“During his time, look what has emerged: liberation theologies of all kinds, feminist theologies, interreligious dialogue, different ways to deal with moral issues in the contemporary world,” said [Sr. Elizabeth] Johnson [who like other theologians faced an inquest by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith or the U.S. bishops’ doctrinal committee]. “I think this richness shows that theology as a vocation is empowered by the Spirit,” she added. “And she will not be quenched!”

– Jamie Manson
Excerpted from “Despite Benedict’s Many Investigations
Into Theologians, Theology Flourished”
National Catholic Reporter
December 31, 2022

When I heard the news of Benedict’s death, I feared that many of those who were hurt by his policies and teaching would find this occasion to be an opportunity to repeat their strong criticism’s of him which they proclaimed while he was pope. Instead, it seems that most of those who disagreed with Benedict have acknowledged his death simply with sorrow, even as they recounted the harm he caused them.

I think the main reason is that since Benedict had already resigned almost ten years ago, his death does not significantly alter church governance. As noted, he had an outsized influence on the most negative policies and teachings concerning LGBTQ+ people. But his passing also seems to be a minor event even for Catholics concerned with LGBTQ+ equality.

When Pope Francis came on the scene, there were fears that he might continue Benedict’s negative approach to LGBTQ+ issues. But his statements and actions over the past decade have proven otherwise. While Francis may not have made the changes that many Catholic LGBTQ+ advocates pray for, the difference between his approach to LGBTQ+to issues and that of Benedict is like night and day.

Benedict’s death highlighted that difference. While he approached these issues like a scholar, Francis’ approach is that of a pastor. Benedict emphasized tradition and continuity, while Francis has encouraged new ideas. The German pope was known for having silenced theologians and censured church leaders, the Argentinian pope has stretched out a hand to many of these same people. Francis has called for wide discussion in the church, including on LGBTQ+ issues, where Benedict had tried to close such conversations. Benedict stressed authority, Francis stresses conscience.

The most significant thing that his death has highlighted for me is how far Catholicism’s approach to LGBTQ+ issues has changed in the ten years since his resignation. We have a pope who has met with and corresponded with LGBTQ+ people and their advocates. LGBTQ+ issues were discussed openly at the synods on the family and the synod on youth, and promise to be a major discussion point during the synod on synodality, based on how often people have raised these issues in local synod conversations. Bishops, archbishops, and cardinals have made statements in support of same-gender couples and love, and they have called for re-evaluating the church’s teaching about such relationships. At least here in the U.S. and in other spots around the globe, the development of LGBTQ+ parish ministry has exploded.

If a little over ten years ago, back in January of 2013, someone had told me within ten years we would see even a fraction of those changes mentioned in the previous paragraph, I would have laughed out loud. Even though I am often accused of being overly optimistic about the church, while living in the church while Benedict was pope, I could never have imagined that such changes would have happened so widely and quickly.

In the late 19th century, the church underwent a similar sudden transformation when Pope Leo XII issued Rerum Novarum, the first encyclical in what would become a series of documents over the next century developing Catholic social teaching. Leo’s emphasis on the rights of workers, his support of labor unions, his critique of capitalism and private property, and his introduction of the principle of subsidiarity which called for decisions to be made at the most appropriate local level – all of these were diametrically opposed to his predecessor Pope Pius IX. The church experienced a momentous “about face” in its approach to society – and over the next 100+ years, it would further develop and refine these teachings.

I think a similar dynamic has taken place between the papacies of Benedict and Francis when it comes to LGBTQ+ issues. We are witnessing an “about face” that is only just beginning, and I believe will continue to develop in the coming decades.

– Francis DeBernardo
Excerpted from “Benedict XVI’s Death Highlights
the Church’s Changes on LGBTQ+ Issues”
NewWaysMinistry.org
January 2, 2023

Benedict XVI is dead. He was a priest, theologian, professor, peritus, cardinal, Prefect of the CDF, Bishop of Rome, and pope emeritus. But he was not a friend to the LGBTQ+ community.

For a while now, I’ve reflected on how I’d feel upon hearing news of his death. Would I feel relief that his teachings can’t hurt us anymore? His teachings contributed to anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment inside and outside the church which often resulted in both spiritual and physical violence against LGBTQ+ people. Would I pity him because he was shaped by the culture of internalized homophobia that dominated the church during his lifetime? Would I be angry thinking that he could have chosen to learn more about LGBTQ+ people, but didn’t?

His decisions caused great harm to the LGBTQ+ Catholic community. As head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), then-Cardinal Ratzinger expelled LGBTQ+ Catholic groups from parishes at the height the AIDS epidemic. In a 1986 letter, he said that queer folks brought violence upon themselves when they advocated for their rights. Through many decades he tried, and often succeed at, silencing our heroes and allies – theologians and pastoral ministers who worked for LGBTQ+ inclusion.

In the early 1990s, he railed against secular legislation that would guarantee access to housing, employment, adoption, and military service. According to him, “there is no right to homosexuality.” A decade later, as governments around the world moved to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples, he warned politicians that voting for such measures would be “gravely immoral.” As pope, one of Benedict XVI’s first official acts was to approve a policy barring “those who practise homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called ‘gay culture’” from seminary because they supposedly lack affective maturity and their situation “gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women.” Indeed, throughout his long Vatican career, Ratzinger/Benedict XVI invented new ways to ostracize queer folks and their allies.

These actions all caused great pastoral, personal, and, at times, even physical harm to LGBTQ+ people.

Now that he’s gone, I reflect on my belief in universal salvation. Some LGBTQ+ people may like to imagine the former pope in hell. Since I’m a universalist, I don’t. I trust that God’s love is strong enough to convince and transform even God’s greatest enemies. I don’t think Benedict XVI is in hell, or even that he was one of God’s greatest enemies.

Benedict XVI was gravely mistaken about LGBTQ+ people. He had a lot to learn in this life, but who could teach him? Since hearing of his death, I’ve imagined Benedict XVI sitting in a heavenly classroom where his teachers are queer martyrs and saints. In death, he’ll have to listen to them, a great change from his life when he claimed to have all the answers.

Benedict XVI will hear about queer love that transcends death from Saints Perpetua and Felicity, martyrs who died in each other’s embrace. St. Sebastian, the patron of AIDS victims whose youthful body was pierced by arrows, will tell him about the beauty and agony of desire. Sts. Sergius and Bacchus, Roman Christian soldiers whose inseparable friendship was consummated in martyrdom, will share how their lovers’ union changed the world. St. John of the Cross, the 16th century Spanish mystic, will recount his erotic same-sex relationship with Jesus. St. Wilgefortis, who prayed for a miracle and grew a beard to escape compulsory heterosexual marriage, can fill him in on how God made her trans. St. Joan of Arc, who dressed as a man for battle against the English, shall reveal the spiritual power of her genderbending spirit.

More recent, uncanonized martyrs and saints can also teach him. Fr. John McNeill, a minister to LGBTQ+ Catholics who was expelled from the Jesuits and lived in a decades-long same-sex relationship, will talk about ways that God’s love breaks through barriers erected by the institutional Church. Marsha “Pay it no Mind” Johnson, the famed black drag queen who participated in the Stonewall Riots yet died a pauper, will disclose the many ways God cares for the poor and non-conforming ones. Alana Chen, the young woman from Denver who died by suicide after receiving dangerous counsel from a priest, will detail the devastation wrought by Catholic teaching and so-called conversion therapy. Matthew Shepard, a college-age gay man who was attacked and left to die in a remote Wyoming field, will articulate the need for LGBTQ+ civil rights and protections. Fr. Robert Nugent, whose commitment to the priesthood resulted in years of suffering after he was silenced by the Vatican, will demonstrate the good fruits of affirming, compassionate ministry.

How much Benedict XVI will have to learn and grow! Soon enough, I hope, communion with queer martyrs and saints will help bring him to perfection. It’s a pity he didn’t get an earlier start, but now he has an eternity to discover God’s beautiful work in queer lives.

– Jason Steidl Jack,
“Benedict XVI in the Company of LGBTQ+ Saints”
NewWaysMinistry.org
January 1, 2023

The Wild Reed

Thursday, January 05, 2023

Progressive Catholic Perspectives on the Legacy of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI

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