"John Paul II Was a Hero for Serving to the End. Benedict Is a Hero for Quitting. Catholics who eulogized Pope John Paul II for serving to the bitter end now praise Pope Benedict for quitting. Make up your minds."
Saletan did his homework. Eight years ago the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued this statement on the death of John Paul II. "The elderly and infirm have been inspired by his indefatigable perseverance as his own physical limitations mounted." On Tuesday Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the USCCB, said of Benedict's announcement, "His resignation is but another sign of his great care for the Church."
From Saletan's reporting, Peggy Noonan said this in 2005, upon John Paul II's passing. "He held on to life as if to show us what he had for so long told us--life is precious, love it, use it, pour yourself out. Spend yourself." Noonan continued, John Paul "reminds us it is crucial to see beauty in the old, the infirm, the imperfect.... He showed us this truth by presenting himself to the world each day as he was.... Repeatedly pressed to retire, to give himself some rest after his might labors, he refused. He said, 'Christ didn't come down from the cross.'"
But now with Benedict Noonan takes a different view:
"Benedict is old, 86 [sic; he only turns 86 on April 16, 2013], and for 24 years, as John Paul's Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he was one of the few to see, up close and day by day, the price the Vatican as an institution paid for the otherworldly courage of John Paul, whose last few years were one long goodbye, and whose ability to administrate was diminished as he became physically disabled....And he is older than John Paul was when he died at 84. Perhaps in Benedict's decision we are seeing not a witness to suffering but an act of self-sacrifice and humility that in its own way too is other-worldly."
Saletan quotes other bloggers and commentators who try to reconcile the two popes's very different decisions. I found most interesting the critique of Benedict's resignation by Ross Douthat of The New York Times. Almost unique among the commentators on Benedict's decision, Douthat disagrees with the resignation. He argues that popes should die in office for three reasons. First, the pope is "a spiritual father more than a chief executive." Second, he serves God, and "if God wants a new pope, He'll get one." Third, "the church is still supposed to be the church even when its human leadership isn't at fighting trim."
Hmmmmm.
Douthat actually goes on to say Catholicism must even endure "leaders who are wrongheaded, incompetent, senile or corrupt."
As if we haven't already been enduring them over the centuries.
What we witness in most secular commentary on the Catholic Church in the U.S. is the reflex to judge its leaders according to the political axis of "liberal/conservative", with a dollop few who are moderates. This is really wrong. Doctrines are not up for grabs in the choice of a pope (or in the choice of a bishop for a particular diocese). There are so many other, less theological, more attitudinal and practical, considerations at work.
And the one here which divides the honorable decisions of both John Paul II and Benedict is how you conceive of the papacy.
John Paul II was quoted as saying, "Paternity cannot be resigned." By that he primarily saw the papacy as a spiritual fatherhood (just like Douthat). You cannot resign from paternity, from fatherhood, from spiritual leadership. In this way, his vision of the church was equally (and almost completely) spiritual, otherworldly.
Benedict's vision of church is more complex. Certainly Benedict sees and knows that the Catholic Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, embodied in its institutions and structures. In this "both-and" perspective, the church is both spiritual and material, both of grace and within a world-wide institutional organization, both evangelical and on-the-ground. If this is his vision of the church, so must his vision of the papacy be similarly understood. Yes, the pope (Bishop of Rome; Supreme Pontiff; Servant of the Servants of God) must be a spiritual teacher and leader. But at the very same time the pope must attend to the needs of that institutional structure--appointing bishops, deciding on the allocation of resources, leading the major liturgies of the liturgical year, directing the dicasteries of the Holy See, being the head of the Vatican City State.
To carry out these all-too-human responsibilities, one must not only be breathing, but also full of energy, ability, and communication skills.
Interestingly, Benedict's vision has already been validated in past Vatican and local church decisions. Most dioceses (at least in the U.S. and Canada) have clergy personnel policies that specify what skills and competencies are needed to be a pastor, dean, vicar, and chaplain. They also deal with those delicate situations when a priest (by reason of disease, lack of mental health, moral turpitude, or shear incompetence) fails to carry out the primary spiritual and administrative duties of a particular office.
The Vatican decreed a generation ago that diocesan bishops were to submit their resignation by the age of 75, and earlier if ill health prevented them from carrying out their many duties.
Even the reform of the College of Cardinals issued by Pope Paul VI back in the 1960s said that Cardinals lose their power to vote in conclave as soon as they reach their 80th birthday.
With these sensible precedents, why should we surprised by Benedict's decision to retire at age 85? Why should we be anything but thankful that he has the great good sense to recognize when he can't do the job God (and the 2005 conclave of Cardinals) has given him.
I still remember my reaction the first time I heard that quote by John Paul II, "paternity cannot be resigned." (Which, I learned this week, was first expressed by Pope Paul VI.) My dad was in the nursing home at the time, unable to walk or to go to the bathroom because of a massive stroke he suffered in 1990 at the age of 69. Yet he was alert and a joy to converse with. I thought, Geez, Dad is and always will be my father. I know that because of his stroke, he can't cut the grass around our home in Baldwin, or pay the bills, or change the oil in his Honda, or shovel the driveway of snow in winter. But that doesn't take away his paternity. What he can do and who he is are two different realities. Didn't the pope with all his intelligence and wisdom understand that?
I think we have to consider that Benedict's decision is a quiet, subtle, yet real rejection of John Paul's vision of the papacy. Not a rejection of John Paul's decision not to resign--that is a decision of conscience which I believe we have to honor and respect, and even in a certain sense admire. But a rejection of the "spiritual only" vision of church office. (I don't believe for a second this was the primary, or even secondary, reason why Benedict resigned, or that he would publicly articulate this rejection.)
In an eight year papacy with its share of controversy, inept politics, successes in bringing some accountability to the world's bishops, and wonderfully mature sermons and encyclicals, the final act of Benedict's term in office may be its most important one: resignation from the office of leadership, when that leadership cannot be carried out adequately and humanly, for the good of the church.
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