{"id":290841,"date":"2018-09-20T07:01:05","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T11:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=290841"},"modified":"2018-09-20T10:38:46","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T14:38:46","slug":"in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/","title":{"rendered":"In private letters, Benedict XVI rebukes critics of Francis, says ‘anger’ devalues pontificate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Via The New York Times:<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

The remarkable letter last month calling on Pope Francis to resign for allegedly shielding an abusive American cardinal also served as a public call to arms for some conservative Catholics who pine for the pontificate of the previous pope, Benedict XVI. For years now, they have carried his name like a battle standard into the ideological trenches.<\/p>\n

Benedict apparently would like them to knock it off.<\/p>\n

In private letters\u00a0published on Thursday by the German newspaper Bild<\/a>, Benedict, who in retirement has remained studiously quiet through the controversies over Francis\u2019 fitness to lead the church, says that the \u201canger\u201d expressed by some of his staunchest defenders risks tarnishing his own pontificate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can well understand the deep-seated pain that the end of my pontificate caused you and many others. But for some \u2014 and it seems to me for you as well \u2014 the pain has turned to anger, which no longer just affects the abdication but my person and the entirety of my pontificate,\u201d Benedict wrote in a Nov. 23, 2017, letter to Cardinal Walter Brandm\u00fcller of Germany. \u201cIn this way the pontificate itself is being devalued and conflated with the sadness about the situation of the church today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Requests to representatives of Benedict and Cardinal Brandm\u00fcller for comment and authentication were not returned early Thursday. Bild provided the letters in their entirety to The Times.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Brandm\u00fcller is one of the few cardinals who signed\u00a0a 2016 letter of \u201cdubia\u201d<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 from the Latin for \u201cdoubts\u201d \u2014 demanding clarification from Francis about his apparent willingness to open the door for divorced and remarried Catholics to receive communion, which the signatories argue is against church law.<\/p>\n

The dubia letter received worldwide attention and served as a de facto declaration of independence from Francis, and its signatories, first among them the American cardinal Raymond Burke, have enthusiastically embraced\u00a0the letter by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan\u00f2<\/a>, which called on Francis to step down.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

Archbishop Vigan\u00f2<\/a>\u00a0claimed that Benedict had imposed sanctions on Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, for\u00a0sexual misconduct<\/a>, but that Francis had lifted those penalties. Francis\u2019 defenders say there is no evidence that sanctions were placed on Cardinal McCarrick, who\u00a0resigned in July<\/a>, and point to ample evidence that he did not behave as if he were under such limitations. Neither the current pope nor his predecessor has commented.<\/p>\n

Part of Archbishop Vigan\u00f2\u2019s motivation in publishing his letter was to come to the rescue of Benedict, who he felt was unfairly maligned by Italian journalists friendly to Pope Francis, according to Marco Tosatti, the Italian journalist who helped the archbishop draft the letter.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read more.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Via The New York Times:\u00a0 The remarkable letter last month calling on Pope Francis to resign for allegedly shielding an abusive American cardinal also served as a public call to arms for some conservative Catholics who pine for the pontificate of the previous pope, Benedict XVI. For years now, they have carried his name like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":29795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[701],"class_list":["post-290841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pope-benedict"],"yoast_head":"\nIn private letters, Benedict XVI rebukes critics of Francis, says 'anger' devalues pontificate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Via The New York Times:\u00a0 The remarkable letter last month calling on Pope Francis to resign for allegedly shielding an abusive American cardinal also\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In private letters, Benedict XVI rebukes critics of Francis, says 'anger' devalues pontificate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Via The New York Times:\u00a0 The remarkable letter last month calling on Pope Francis to resign for allegedly shielding an abusive American cardinal also\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-09-20T11:01:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-20T14:38:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2014\/02\/20131223cnsbr3262.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/\",\"name\":\"In private letters, Benedict XVI rebukes critics of Francis, says 'anger' devalues pontificate\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-20T11:01:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-20T14:38:46+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\"},\"description\":\"Via The New York Times:\u00a0 The remarkable letter last month calling on Pope Francis to resign for allegedly shielding an abusive American cardinal also\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"In private letters, Benedict XVI rebukes critics of Francis, says ‘anger’ devalues pontificate\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\",\"name\":\"The Deacon's Bench\",\"description\":\"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\",\"name\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In private letters, Benedict XVI rebukes critics of Francis, says 'anger' devalues pontificate","description":"Via The New York Times:\u00a0 The remarkable letter last month calling on Pope Francis to resign for allegedly shielding an abusive American cardinal also","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"In private letters, Benedict XVI rebukes critics of Francis, says 'anger' devalues pontificate","og_description":"Via The New York Times:\u00a0 The remarkable letter last month calling on Pope Francis to resign for allegedly shielding an abusive American cardinal also","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2018-09-20T11:01:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-09-20T14:38:46+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"2300","height":"1533","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/56\/2014\/02\/20131223cnsbr3262.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deacon Greg Kandra","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/","name":"In private letters, Benedict XVI rebukes critics of Francis, says 'anger' devalues pontificate","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-09-20T11:01:05+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-20T14:38:46+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970"},"description":"Via The New York Times:\u00a0 The remarkable letter last month calling on Pope Francis to resign for allegedly shielding an abusive American cardinal also","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2018\/09\/in-private-letters-benedict-xvi-rebukes-critics-of-francis-says-anger-devalues-pontificate\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"In private letters, Benedict XVI rebukes critics of Francis, says ‘anger’ devalues pontificate"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}