Pope Benedict XVI dies: look at his achievements and his controversies 4:22
(CNN) --
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, whose death at age 95 was announced Saturday, was a powerful intellectual force that shaped the theology of the Catholic Church for more than a quarter century before shocking the world by resign in 2013.
While unprecedented, Benedict's resignation was highly unusual.
Popes usually hold office until death, and the last pope to resign was Gregory XII, who resigned in 1415 to end a civil war within the church.
Supported by charismatic and world-popular popes—St.
John Paul II and Pope Francis—Benedict presented himself in a different way.
Friends and biographers described him as quiet and erudite, more comfortable among theological tomes than adoring crowds.
In typical fashion, Benedict announced his unexpected resignation in Latin.
He was 85 at the time and cited his advancing age as inadequate for the demands of running the Catholic Church.
Why did Pope Benedict XVI resign in 2013?
The German-born Benedict saw himself and the church as a bulwark against the secular tendencies of Western society, particularly what he called the "dictatorship of relativism."
He often insisted that Catholics maintain a fortress mentality, saying that perhaps a smaller and “purer” church would better uphold the traditions and teachings of Catholicism.
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As pope, Benedict was a polarizing figure.
He was acclaimed by conservatives who admired his scholarly writing and careful theology.
But critics, particularly in the postmodern West, called him “God's Rottweiler” for his steadfast insistence on fidelity to church doctrine and his willingness to silence dissent.
"He watched the limits of faith," said David Gibson, author of "The Rule of Benedict," a biography of the emeritus pope.
"He was brilliant and brutally effective."
Ratzinger stands in for Pope John Paul II during the Easter Vigil service in St. Peter's Basilica in March 2005. (Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
Benedict also came under fire for his handling of the sexual abuse crisis that gripped the Catholic church during his years as a senior cleric.
A damning report published in January 2022 found that he knew about priests who abused children but failed to act when he was Archbishop of Munich from 1977 to 1982.
The son of a policeman
Joseph Ratzinger was born and raised in Bavaria, where he served briefly in the Hitler Youth, over his objections, and in the German army during World War II.
His father, a police officer, hated the Nazis, according to his biographers.
Ratzinger, like his older brother Georg, saw his future in the Catholic Church, so he entered a German seminary in 1945. Once ordained, Ratzinger rose rapidly in the church, establishing himself as a leading theologian.
Originally a liberal thinker, he turned conservative in 1968 in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, which turned a number of Catholic teachings upside down.
In 1977 Ratzinger was appointed Archbishop of Munich and Freising.
Later that year, Pope Paul VI made the German scholar a cardinal, a sign of his growing reputation within the church.
From 1981 to 2005, Ratzinger headed the Vatican's influential Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the office responsible for establishing and policing church doctrine.
He was, in effect, Catholicism's leading theologian during this time, said Gibson, Benedict's biographer.
“His twenty-four years in the CDF were far more influential than his tenure as pope,” Gibson said.
His influence was certainly felt in the United States.
In 1984, Ratzinger told the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans, to investigate one of his monks, Matthew Fox, for heresy.
The Vatican expelled Fox from the order in 1993.
In 1999, Ratzinger effectively silenced an American nun and priest associated with LGBTQ ministry because they failed to affirm the "Church's teaching on the intrinsic evil of acts."
The nun and priest were "permanently banned from any pastoral work involving gay people."
But Ratzinger eventually got tired of the job and reportedly asked Pope John Paul II to appoint him as a librarian at the Vatican library.
Juan Pablo refused.
"Please do not do this to me"
Ratzinger was dean of the College of Cardinals in 2005 when he became the sixth German to be elected pope, the first since the 11th century.
At the time, the church was facing several pressing problems, including declining popularity in some parts of the world and a growing crisis over its role in handling sexual abuse allegations against priests.
As the conclave to name a successor to Pope John Paul II progressed, Ratzinger said he quickly realized he would be chosen as the new pope, though he was reluctant to take on the mantle of St. Peter.
“At a certain point, I prayed to God: 'Please don't do this to me,'” he told a German audience in 2005. “Obviously, this time he didn't listen to me.”
Upon his election, Ratzinger took the name Benedict XVI as a nod to church history, he said.
He chose the name to honor Benedict XV, who sought peace during World War I, and St. Benedict, a monk "whose life evokes Europe's Christian roots," Ratzinger said.
At 78, he was the oldest person to have been elected pope since Pope Clement XII in 1730. Given his age, Benedict XVI was widely seen as an interim pope, a bridge to the next generation after John's long tenure. Paul II, a globe-trotting pontiff whose early youth and vigor gave way to such frailty in later years that he required assistance to walk and was often hard to hear during public speeches.
Who was Benedict XVI and what did he do?
The transitional pope who tried to guide the Church through difficult times
In his tone, demeanor, and actions, Benedict was markedly different from his predecessor.
Where John Paul captivated crowds around the world with his mastery of numerous languages, Benedict's influence was felt through his scholarly writing and theological rigor.
"In a world that he viewed as relativistic and secular, his primary goal was to re-establish a sense of Catholic identity for Catholics themselves," said Delia Gallagher, CNN's Vatican correspondent.
As pope, Benedict often advocated a back-to-basics approach.
Three of his encyclicals, letters from the pope to Catholics around the world, were based on the theological virtues of faith, hope and love.
Bill Donohue of the conservative US Catholic League credited Benedict for working to reduce friction between adherents of various religions, something that was also a key part of John Paul's mission.
But critics say Benedict did not always choose his words wisely.
During a speech in Regensburg, Germany, in 2006, he quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor who criticized Islam, calling it violent, "evil and inhumane."
His remarks were heavily criticized by Middle Eastern heads of state and Muslim groups around the world.
Effigies of Benedict XVI were burned in Basra, Iraq and elsewhere in predominantly Muslim countries.
Benedict later apologized, saying he was "deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to some passages in my speech."
Criticism for sexual abuse crisis
Benedict became pope at the height of the sexual abuse scandal involving Catholic priests, as allegations of sexual abuse and related lawsuits tore the church apart and threatened its moral standing around the world.
In 2002, he asked Pope John Paul II to refer all allegations of sexual abuse to his office, where he instituted changes aimed at dealing quickly with accused priests.
Between 2004 and 2014, the Vatican expelled 848 priests who raped or abused children and gave 2,572 lesser sentences, according to the church.
During that time, his office had received 3,400 indictments, according to the church.
The flood of accusations around the world has slowed at times, but it has never stopped.
In 2008, Benedict acknowledged "the shame we all feel" over reports of abuse and said those responsible for "evils" should face justice.
Two years later, he said the abusive priests "disfigured his ministry" and brought "deep shame and regret" to the church.
That same year, 2010, it issued new regulations aimed at stopping abuses.
These included allowing the church to prosecute alleged abusers for 20 years after the incidents occurred, up from 10 years before.
The rules also made it an ecclesiastical offense to download child pornography and allowed the pope to remove a priest without a formal Vatican trial.
Naasón Joaquín García, leader of the La Luz del Mundo church, is sentenced to almost 17 years in prison for sexual abuse of minors
In some cases, Benedict moved quickly, such as when he ousted Marcial Maciel, a powerful Mexican priest who founded the conservative Legion of Christ, after years of accusations that he had sexually abused children.
“No one did more to successfully address the problem of priestly sexual abuse than Joseph Ratzinger,” Donohue said.
But others, like the late Barbara Blaine, former president of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the opposite was true.
“I would hate to be remembered as someone who did the right thing because, from our perspective, Pope Benedict's record has been abysmal,” said Blaine, who died in 2017.
Investigation of child abuse puts Benedict XVI in trouble 1:35
In 2010, The New York Times reported that church officials, including Ratzinger, had failed to act on the case of a Wisconsin priest accused of sexually abusing up to 200 children.
The Times reported that church officials halted proceedings against the priest after he wrote to Ratzinger.
Also in 2010, the Times reported that the future pope — while serving as archbishop in Munich — had been copied into a memo informing him that a priest accused of abusing children was to be reinstated in pastoral work.
At the time, an archdiocese spokesman said Ratzinger received hundreds of memos a year and it was highly unlikely that he had read them.
Twelve years later, a Church-commissioned report on abuse by Catholic clergy in the diocese found that Ratzinger, as archbishop, had been informed of four cases of sexual abuse involving minors — including two that had taken place while he was in prison. the charge—but did not act.
In a letter released by the Vatican in February 2022, Benedict XVI issued a general apology to survivors of abuse, writing: "Once again, I can only express to all victims of sexual abuse my deep shame, my deep sorrow and my sincere request for forgiveness."
Over the years, victims' groups lobbied the International Criminal Court to prosecute Benedict in the sexual abuse scandal.
David Gibson, Benedict's biographer, said that, like many in the Vatican, Pope Emeritus Benedict was initially slow to recognize the scale of the church abuse crisis.
“Like so many in the church, he was part of the learning curve,” Gibson said.
The anti-Francis
Ultimately, however, Benedict showed little ability or interest in governing the vast and complex world of the Catholic Church, Gibson said.
In 2012, his butler was convicted of theft for leaking confidential papal documents to fight what he considered deep corruption within the Holy See.
A year later, Benedict announced his resignation.
Since then, Benedict, who chose the name pope emeritus and continued to wear traditional papal white, rarely left his hilltop monastery in Vatican City, where he vowed to live a "hidden life."
Still, conservative Catholics tried to oust Benedict, or at least use him as a counterbalance to the more liberal papacy of Francis.
Some Catholics considered him an antipope, or at least an anti-Francis.
The contrast between the two men was dramatized in a 2019 Netflix movie, "The Two Popes," which earned Anthony Hopkins an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Benedict.
The Rev. Joseph Fessio, an American Jesuit who studied under Benedict and has published his works with Ignatius Press, said Benedict likely knew conservatives were trying to pit him against Francis.
“In a way, he has become the face of 'the Resistance,'” Fessio said, “even though he hasn't done anything to be a resister.”
Benedict preferred to be called something more modest.
Before he left Rome in 2013, a crowd of 10,000 gathered to bid him an emotional farewell.
“I am no longer the pope, but I am still in the church,” Benedict said.
"I am only a pilgrim beginning the last part of his pilgrimage on this earth."
Former CNN staffer Michael Pearson contributed to this story.
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