PORTRAIT - Benedict XVI, the first pope to resign in six centuries

Europe 1 with AFP 12:41 p.m., December 31, 2022, modified at 12:42 p.m., December 31, 2022

Benedict XVI, a German conservative theologian who died on Saturday at the age of 95, will go down in history as the first pope to have resigned since the Middle Ages, after eight years of a pontificate undermined by a deep crisis.

On February 28, 2013, approaching his 86th birthday, Joseph Ratzinger gave up his place after announcing his renunciation in Latin during a speech, invoking the weakening of his strength, surprising the whole world.

Since then, this brilliant Bavarian professor of theology has lived discreetly, retired to a monastery in the Vatican.

In a wheelchair, speaking with difficulty but still lucid according to those around him, the pope emeritus continued to receive visits, fueling the saga of the "two popes" in spite of himself.

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Confronted with the most serious crisis of the contemporary Church

Elected on April 19, 2005, this close collaborator of John Paul II was quickly confronted with the most serious crisis of the contemporary Church: the cascading revelations of sexual assaults committed on children by members of the clergy, aggravated by the " omerta" of the Catholic hierarchy.

This scandal catches up with him in his retirement when, in early 2022, a German report implicates him for his inaction when he was Archbishop of Munich.

Defended by the Vatican, Benoit XVI then comes out of his silence to ask "forgiveness", while ensuring that he has never covered up a paedocriminal.

Faced with the drama of child crime, he becomes the first pope to apologize

But the strong gesture of his pontificate will remain his renunciation, the first by a pope since 1415, a personal decision which he will later describe as "obvious" by acknowledging "the difficulties" he had to face on the throne of Saint Pierre.

It was "a courageous gesture, a gesture of government", considers the Italian biographer Giovanbattista Brunori, noting however that Ratzinger "was never a pope of government, but a pope of thought" and "of doctrine".

In a Church losing influence, his pontificate is fraught with controversy, like the lifting in 2009 of the excommunication of four fundamentalist bishops.

Faced with the drama of pedocrime, he advocates "zero tolerance" and becomes the first pope to apologize, express his "deep remorse" and meet victims.

"On the issue of sexual assault, he did not solve the problems but indicated correct ways to confront them", assures Father Federico Lombardi, former spokesperson for the Holy See and president of the Joseph Ratzinger-Benoît Foundation. XVI managing his work.

In 2012, the German pontiff finds himself immersed in "Vatileaks"

In 2012, the German pontiff finds himself immersed in "Vatileaks", a scandal of leaks of confidential documents in which his butler is involved, bringing to light the financial mismanagement in the Vatican.

A case that affects him deeply.

Prior to his election, Cardinal Ratzinger had fought for 24 years against any deviation from Church dogma, earning him the nickname "Panzerkardinal".

“A stereotype!”, considers the French cardinal Paul Poupard, who retains “the depth and the beauty of his work as a theologian” by praising his “most delicate humanity”.

Benedict XVI defends a conservative line in the face of societal developments

Benedict XVI does not give up on the celibacy of priests or the ordination of women, and defends a conservative line in the face of societal developments, such as on abortion or euthanasia.

He also tries to eliminate the escapades in a Church that he wishes less "worldly", an objective taken up by his successor François.

Criticizing the excesses of capitalism, in line with the financial crisis of 2008, he stands up against the growing secularization of the West and is involved in ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, over the course of his 25 trips abroad.

A shy music lover with clumsy communication

But this shy music lover, praised for his kindness in small groups, does not impose himself in public like his charismatic predecessor John Paul II.

Lacking in firmness, overconfident in those around him, he failed to reform the Curia, bogged down in paralysis. 

Served by clumsy communication, his statements can even create misunderstanding, as when he suggested in 2006 that Islam is intrinsically linked to violence, provoking a wave of indignation in the Muslim world.

In 2009, before his first trip to Africa, he created controversy by declaring that the distribution of condoms aggravated the problem of AIDS, but in 2010 admitted the use of condoms "in certain cases" to avoid contamination.

New criticism after his green light in 2009 to the cause of beatification of Pius XII, challenged for his passivity during the Second World War.

"A down to earth person"

Born on April 16, 1927 in Bavaria into an anti-Nazi Catholic family, this son of a policeman entered the minor seminary at the age of 12.

He was registered with the Hitler Youth, which was compulsory at the time.

When he became pope, he denounced the "inhumanity" of the Nazi regime.

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Ordained a priest in 1951, Joseph Ratzinger taught theology for 25 years in German universities.

During the reforming Vatican II Council, he was one of the theologians in favor of openness but, faced with the libertarian shock of 1968, took a conservative turn.

He was ordained Archbishop of Munich in 1977 and created Cardinal by Pope Paul VI the same year.

In 1981, John Paul II appointed him to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Holy Office heir to the Inquisition.

In 1997, he had to have a pacemaker fitted while a cerebral hemorrhage in 1991 had left him blind in his left eye. 

The intellectual author of a hundred books, who dreamed of retiring in his native Bavaria, always considered his election "a burden", even though he spent the last four decades of his life in the Vatican.

Ratzinger was "a down to earth person ... found in the highest circles while remaining a very humble and warm person," Peter Seewald, his German biographer, told AFP in 2020.