Pope Benedict XVI dies: Resignation of ‘God’s Rottweiler’ shocked the world – and he continued to be controversial
The death of Pope Emeritus Benedict marks an unfamiliar junction for modern Catholics.
He is the first pope since the Middle Ages to die after retiring from office.
His death will trigger public mourning but not the election of a successor which many are used to.
Former pontiff dies after Pope Francis revealed he was ‘very sick’ – follow latest updates
Pope Benedict on a balcony of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican
Pope Francis, elected in 2013 after Benedict stepped down, will continue in his role as the head of the Catholic Church.
As the world remembers the 265th Pope, it will also reflect on his time as one of the most powerful religious leaders on earth.
Members of the clergy familiar with Benedict say he was known as the intellectual pope.
“Benedict was a shy person. He loved books. He loved his desk, writing, reflecting. Bringing in beautiful German, and then also in other languages, his thought. But a lonely person. He was even telling people: ‘My true friends are the books’,” said Professor Felix Koerner SJ, theologian at Humboldt University in Berlin.
In 2005, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger became Benedict XVI, the first German to be elected Pope in a thousand years.
Read more:
Pope Benedict’s rise to the top and the controversies surrounding his reign
Queen Elizabeth II and Pope Benedict at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in 2010
An uncompromising theological conservative, cardinals chose him as a “safe pair of hands” and while a hero to many traditionalists, his time in office was marked by several scandals.
The son of a policeman, born in 1927, as a child he lived through Nazi rule.
As a teenager he served in the Hitler Youth during the Second World War when membership was compulsory.
While his family opposed Adolf Hitler’s regime and he didn’t join the Nazi party, many in the Jewish community were concerned when he was first elected.
On a trip to Auschwitz death camp, he confronted Germany’s dark past.
“This is an historic trip as important as that of his predecessor Pope John Paul II,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center at the time. “The fact that a German pope raised in Nazi Germany and who once wore the uniform of the Hitler Youth kneels in prayer at the site of the world’s greatest atrocity and condemns hatred is a repudiation of antisemitism.”
Pope Benedict with fellow priests, his brother Georg Ratzinger and friend Rupert Berger, on the day they were ordained in June 1951
This wasn’t the only flash point.
In 2006, Benedict sparked outrage in the Muslim world when during a speech in Germany he quoted a 14th Century emperor saying that Islam brought evil to the world spread by the sword.
Protest followed as fury spread.
A nun was shot in Somalia.
He later had to issue an apology, saying he was “deeply sorry” for the reactions his address had prompted.
In 2009, the rehabilitation of a Holocaust denier outraged Jews, as well as many Catholics.
Later that year, he sparked further anger when he told reporters on his first trip to Africa that condoms exacerbated the AIDS and HIV problem.
Despite these missteps, among many conservative Catholics, Benedict was popular.
Pope John Paul II (L) , with Pope Benedict – who was then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – in 1979
As a cardinal charged with enforcing doctrinal purity, Benedict was given the nickname “God’s Rottweiler” for his uncompromising conservative views.
As Pope, he was respected for his deep faith and his work as a theologian, producing 60 books between 1963 and 2013.
“His strength was clearly how to express the Christian faith in a way understandable to modern human beings. That’s his message. That’s what he leaves us,” said Professor Koerner.
Child abuse scandals marred his time as Pope and continued to haunt him into retirement.
While his supporters pointed out that he removed hundreds of priests from the priesthood for abuse, others felt he could have done more.
“The number one challenge for Pope Benedict was the abuse crisis, which was just gaining in speed and spreading all over the world during his pontificate. And he did take several steps to begin to respond to that. But his critics say that he didn’t do enough in the time that he was the Pope,” said Luke Coppen, senior correspondent at the Catholic website The Pillar.
The Sunday Easter mass benediction in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican in 2012
In 2022, Benedict admitted errors had been made and asked for forgiveness after an independent report in Germany alleged he had failed to act in four cases of sexual abuse when he was Archbishop of Munich between 1977 and 1982.
His lawyers argued he was not directly to blame.
In 2012, scandal darkened Pope Benedict’s door again, when his butler was found to be the source leaking documents alleging corruption and feuding in the Vatican.
“Pope Benedict’s pontificate was undoubtedly marked by great corruption and dysfunction within the Vatican itself. And he struggled throughout his pontificate to deal with that.
“And many people think that, in fact, his pontificate went off course, because of all the issues in the Vatican that prevented him from focussing on his key strengths of preaching and teaching,” said Mr Coppen.
No doubt exhausted by the “Vatileaks” scandal and ongoing ill health, the following year, Pope Benedict sparked controversy again, this time becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign.
Pope Francis and Pope Benedict in August 2022
In his final address to the faithful he acknowledged the weight of the office and the Church’s problems.
Then, in an extraordinary chapter for the Catholic church he said goodbye to cardinals before retiring to a monastery in Vatican City.
“That was a remarkable step he made. And there hasn’t been a pope since the Middle Ages who stepped down. So he, as a fairly conservative person, was also opening a door to a world of today where people need not stay in office until they die, but where they can realise themselves ‘I’m too weak now to lead, so I need to step down,’ even as a Pope,” explained Professor Koerner.
Pope Benedict will be remembered ‘as a Pope of reflection and thinking’
After retirement, Benedict chose to keep wearing white, give interviews and not to revert to his old name; decisions critics claimed threatened unity in the church.
But the two Popes’ personal relationship was strong, with Francis referring to his predecessor as a grandfather figure and asking people to pray for his friend as his health deteriorated.
“He is very sick,” Pope Francis told worshippers in December 2022, asking the Lord to comfort him to the very end.
Today, Benedict XVI is remembered “as a Pope of reflection and thinking” as millions of Catholics around the world pray for the man who led their church for almost a decade.
There is much that is still not known about the US strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Reports are coming in about which sites were hit and what military elements were involved, as President Donald Trump hails the attack on social media.
Here’s what we know so far.
Follow latest: US bombers strike three Iranian nuclear sites
Which sites were hit?
America appears to have hit the three key locations in Iran’s nuclear programme.
They include Isfahan, the location of a significant research base, as well as uranium enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow.
Natanz was believed to have been previously damaged in Israeli strikes after bombs disrupted power to the centrifuge hall, possibly destroying the machines indirectly.
However the facility at Fordow, which is buried around 80 metres below a mountain, had previously escaped major damage.
Details about the damage in the US strikes is not yet known, although Mr Trump said the three sites had been “obliterated”.
Read more:
Fordow: What we know about Iran’s secretive ‘nuclear mountain’
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Sky’s Mark Stone explains how Iran might respond to the US strike on Tehran’s nuclear sites.
What weapons were used in the attacks?
The White House and Pentagon did not immediately elaborate on the operation, but a US official said B-2 heavy bombers were involved.
Fox News host Sean Hannity said he had spoken with the president and that six bunker buster bombs were used on the Fordow facility.
Bunker buster bombs are designed to explode twice. Once to breach the ground surface and again once the bomb has burrowed down to a certain depth.
A file picture of a GBU-57 bunker buster bomb, which was possibly used in the attack on Fordow. Pic: AP
Israel has some in its arsenal but does not have the much more powerful GBU-57, which can only be launched from the B-2 bomber and was believed to be the only bomb capable of breaching Fordow.
Hannity said 30 Tomahawk missiles fired by US submarines 400 miles away struck the Iranian nuclear sites of Natanz and Isfahan.
The US has carried out a “very successful attack” on three nuclear sites on Iran, President Donald Trump has said.
The strikes, which the US leader announced on social media, reportedly include a hit on the heavily-protected Fordow enrichment plant which is buried deep under a mountain.
The other sites hit were at Natanz and Isfahan. It brings the US into direct involvement in the war between Israel and Iran.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the “bold decision” by Mr Trump, saying it would “change history”.
Iran has repeatedly denied that it is seeking a nuclear weapon and the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog said in June that it has no proof of a “systematic effort to move into a nuclear weapon”.
Follow latest: US bombers strike three Iranian nuclear sites
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Trump: Iran strikes ‘spectacular success’
Addressing the nation in the hours after the strikes, Mr Trump said that Iran must now make peace or “we will
go after” other targets in Iran.
Commenting on the operation, he said that the three Iranian sites had been “obliterated”.
“There will be either peace or there will be tragedy for Iran far greater than we have witnessed over the last eight
days,” he said.
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Benjamin Netanyahu said Donald Trump and the US have acted with strength following strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
In a posting on Truth Social earlier, Mr Trump said, “All planes are safely on their way home” and he congratulated “our great American Warriors”. He added: “Fordow is gone.”
He also threatened further strikes on Iran unless it doesn’t “stop immediately”, adding: “Now is the time for peace.”
It is not yet clear if the UK was directly involved in the attack.
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‘Iranians have to repond’
Read more:
Analysis: If Israel breaks Iran it will end up owning the chaos
Fordow: What we know about Iran’s secretive ‘nuclear mountain’
Among the sites hit was Fordow, a secretive nuclear facility buried around 80 metres below a mountain and one of two key uranium enrichment plants in Iran.
“A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow,” Mr Trump said. “Fordow is gone.”
There had been a lot of discussion in recent days about possible American involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict, and much centred around the US possibly being best placed to destroy Fordow.
Meanwhile, Natanz and Isfahan were the other two sites hit in the US attack.
Natanz is the other major uranium enrichment plant in Iran and was believed to have possibly already suffered extensive damage in Israel’s strikes earlier this week.
Isfahan features a large nuclear technology centre and enriched uranium is also stored there, diplomats say.
Map showing the Fordow enrichment plant
US media reported that six ‘bunker buster’ bombs were used to strike Fordow.
Mr Trump said no further strikes were planned and that he hoped diplomacy would now take over.
It’s not yet known what Iran’s response will be – particularly as the government was already struggling to repel Israel.
However a commentator on Iranian state TV said every US citizen or military in the region was now a legitimate target.
World
Like George W Bush did in Iraq, if Israel breaks Iran it will end up owning the chaos that could ensue
Israelis are good at tactics, poor at strategic vision, it has been observed.
Their campaign against Iran may be a case in point.
Short termism is understandable in a region that is so unpredictable. Why make elaborate plans if they are generally undone by unexpected events? It is a mindset that is familiar to anyone who has lived or worked there.
And it informs policy-making. The Israeli offensive in Gaza is no exception. The Israeli government has never been clear how it will end or what happens the day after that in what remains of the coastal strip. Pressed privately, even senior advisers will admit they simply do not know.
It may seem unfair to call a military operation against Iran that literally took decades of planning short-termist or purely tactical. There was clearly a strategy of astonishing sophistication behind a devastating campaign that has dismantled so much of the enemy’s capability.
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How close is Iran to producing a nuclear weapon?
But is there a strategic vision beyond that? That is what worries Israel’s allies.
It’s not as if we’ve not been here before, time and time again. From Libya to Afghanistan and all points in between we have seen the chaos and carnage that follows governments being changed.
Hundreds of thousands have died. Vast swathes of territory remain mired in turmoil or instability.
Which is where a famous warning sign to American shoppers in the 80s and 90s comes in.
Ahead of the disastrous invasion that would tear Iraq apart, America’s defence secretary, Colin Powell, is said to have warned US president George W Bush of the “Pottery Barn rule”.
The Pottery Barn was an American furnishings store. Signs among its wares told clumsy customers: “You break it, you own it.”
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Iran and Israel exchange attacks
Bush did not listen to Powell hard enough. His administration would end up breaking Iraq and owning the aftermath in a bloody debacle lasting years.
Israel is not invading Iran, but it is bombing it back to the 80s, or even the 70s, because it is calling for the fall of the government that came to power at the end of that decade.
Iran’s leadership is proving resilient so far but we are just a week in. It is a country of 90 million, already riven with social and political discontent. Its system of government is based on factional competition, in which paranoia, suspicion and intense rivalries are the order of the day.
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Putin says ‘Ukraine is ours’ and threatens nuclear strike
Air India warned by watchdog over pilot scheduling breaches
After half a century of authoritarian theocratic rule there are no opposition groups ready to replace the ayatollahs. There may be a powerful sense of social cohesion and a patriotic resentment of outside interference, for plenty of good historic reasons.
But if that is not enough to keep the country together then chaos could ensue. One of the biggest and most consequential nations in the region could descend into violent instability.
That will have been on Israel’s watch. If it breaks Iran it will own it even more than America owned the disaster in Iraq.
Iran and Israel are, after all, in the same neighbourhood.
Has Israel thought through the consequences? What is the strategic vision beyond victory?
And if America joins in, as Donald Trump is threatening, is it prepared to share that legacy?
At the very least, is his administration asking its allies whether they have a plan for what could come next?
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