Dominicans: Benedict XVI a ‘humble figure who resigned in dignity’

THE LEGACY of the late Pope Benedict XVI will be defined by the humility and dignity he showed amid the highs and lows of his eight-year papacy, several Dominicans from the Priory of St. Thomas Aquinas said.

Central Seminary Rector Fr. Quirico Pedregosa Jr., O.P. remembered Benedict as a “humble figure who recognized his weaknesses” following his shocking resignation in 2013.

“I would cherish his virtue of humility. Recognizing his increasing physical weakness, he voluntarily resigned from the papacy, paving the way for an early election of a successor,” Pedregosa told the Varsitarian

Vice Rector for Religious Affairs Fr. Pablo Tiong, O.P. described Benedict’s resignation as a “bold and realistic” move, which was something the world had not seen in six centuries since Pope Gregory XII’s resignation in 1415.

“The papacy entails responsibility and tasks that should be performed by somebody who is still physically able. [H]e was realistic and bold enough to relinquish his papacy,” he told the Varsitarian

Despite the unprecedented move overshadowing his legacy, Dominicans regarded Benedict as a moral theologian who charted a conservative course for the Church during his term from 2005 to 2013.

“He wanted to keep things right. Sabi nga niya ‘I don’t care if there are only a few people to remain Catholics, as long as they are quality and faithful Catholics,’” Fr. Edgardo Alaurin, O.P., regent of the College of Fine Arts and Design, told the Varsitarian Tiong also regarded Benedict’s dignified stance in the face of the sex abuse scandal involving clerics.

“[Benedict] tried his best to really cope with all the allegations about sexual abuse and all that,” he said.

Benedict passed away on Saturday, Dec. 31, at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican. He was 95.

In a statement, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president Bishop Pablo David said the Pope Emeritus would be remembered as a “Pope of Charity,” a great theologian, a catechist, and a musician.

“He spent the last years of his life as an emeritus pope in solitude and contemplation, supporting the universal Church and Pope Francis spiritually with his prayers. Let us commend him to the Lord and pray for his eternal response,” the Caloocan bishop said.

Joseph Alois Ratzinger was elected the 265th pope on April 19, 2005 to succeed Pope John Paul II, who died after a 26-year reign, and was the first German to hold the title in a half millennium. The former archbishop of Munich and Freising was the oldest pope to lead the Church since 1730, at the age of 78.

Benedict was lauded for defending Catholic doctrine and values amid the wave of secularism and moral relativism sweeping the West.

He issued three encyclicals during his nearly eight-year tenure, tackling Christian love, hope and the state of the global economy amid the financial crisis: Deus Caritas Est (2006), Spe Salvi (2007) and Caritas in Veritate (2009).

Benedict was the first Pontiff to meet with the families of clergy sex abuse victims in 2008 in the United States. In March 2010, he offered an eight-page apology to Irish Catholics, saying Church leaders there had committed “grave errors of judgment and failures of leadership.”

Despite Benedict’s condemnation of what he had called the “filth” in the Church, critics assailed his response, noting that he didn’t take stronger action against clerics who were involved as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1982 to 2005.

Benedict declared a Jubilee

Benedict’s spiritual testament

EDITOR’S NOTE: Below is the spiritual testament of Benedict XVI, written on Aug. 29, 2006, and released by the Vatican on Dec. 31, 2022. Spiritual testaments of popes are only released after their passing.

When, at this late hour of my life, I look back on the decades I have wandered through, I see first of all how much reason I have to give thanks. Above all, I thank God Himself, the giver of all good gifts, who has given me life and guided me through all kinds of confusion; who has always picked me up when I began to slip, who has always given me anew the light of his countenance. In retrospect, I see and understand that even the dark and arduous stretches of this path were for my salvation and that He guided me well in those very stretches.

Year from January 2011 to January 2012 to mark UST’s Quadricentennial, describing it as “a significant event in the life of the Church.”

“I am confident that keeping in mind the faith and the reason, which are always part of a truly integrated approach to education, the University will continue to contribute to the intellectual, spiritual, and cultural enrichment of the Philippines and beyond,” the Supreme Pontiff said in a recorded message on April 28, 2011.

More than a year later, on October 21, 2012, he canonized the Visayan catechist Pedro Calungsod at the Vatican, giving the Philippines its second saint.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, an Argentine Jesuit, was selected by the papal conclave to succeed Benedict, and took the name Francis.

The Pope Emeritus spent his retirement years at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery inside the Vatican. JUSTIN BENEDICT T. LIM WITH REPORTS FROM ALLYSSA MAE C. CRUZ AND AMMIEL B. MAESTRADO