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Papal biography is a tricky genre, especially in the age of the "santo subito" and the recent tendency to quickly canonize popes just a few years after their death.
This genre has become even trickier, now that there is a "pope emeritus".
And Peter Seewald, a German journalist, has taken up that challenge with his newly published biography of Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI: Benedict XVI. A Life.
An ecclesial and political biography
This massive volume (it's 1,184 pages long) is actually Seewald's second book on Benedict since the Bavarian pope resigned in 2013.
The author published a book-length interview with the retired Benedict in 2016 called, Last Conversations.
His latest work, however, is not the first comprehensive biography of Ratzinger. Italian theologian Elio Guerriero already released Benedict XVI: his life and thought in 2018.
Distinct from Guerriero's efforts, Seewald's latest look at Ratzinger-Benedict XVI is not an intellectual or spiritual biography. Rather, it is an ecclesial and "political" one.
Based largely on many years of interviews and conversations with Benedict, it attempts to definitively settle the narrative on the still-living predecessor of Pope Francis.
It tries to justify Ratzinger's positions in the intellectual and "church-political debate". And it aims to settle scores with a number of major figures in the Vatican, the media and the German church, as well.
Some of these figures are still alive.
Published only in German for now, the English and Italian translations of this book will be available in the fall of 2020.
This biography is not an historiographical work based on archives. However, it is full of interesting details, particularly because of the author's extensive access to Joseph Ratzinger, especially through a series of interviews in the autumn of 2018.
This massive volume will require more extensive reviews. But for now, it is worth analyzing Seewald's narrative of Joseph Ratzinger's life, beginning in the early 1980s – when the then-Archbishop of Munich was appointed prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) – up to the present.
The author's clear aim is to defend the long and well-known record of the retired pope. His effort to do so sometimes become a little incongruous, as when he depicts Cardinal Ratzinger as being in favor of "strengthening of the role of women in society" (chapter 52), without mentioning how the CDF prefect's view of women was received in the Church.
The section on Ratzinger's battle against liberation theology in Latin America in the 1980s is defensive, as well. It makes no acknowledgment of misunderstandings or that this was an ecclesial tragedy.
The biography states that the effort of liberation theologians to help the Church free itself and its people from dictators was read by Ratzinger through the lens of his experience of Nazi Germany's political manipulation of religion.
Indeed, Germany plays a big role in this biography: Ratzinger nemo prophetain his German patria.
Seewald links the "Cologne declaration" of German theologians (1989) – which challenged the Vatican's general policy on doctrine – to the debate on the regulation of abortion in the Federal Republic.
But, in fact, there were other major theological issues at stake, and not just "a settlement with the Zeitgeist" by one wing of the German Church under the influence of Karl Lehmann (chapter 54).
That this is a political biography more than an intellectual one is confirmed by the absence of names like Peter Hünermann, one of the major figures in the "Cologne declaration" saga.
John Paul II's loyal aide
But this biography is interesting because Ratzinger's pontificate is in some ways squeezed between that of his predecessor, the already-declared Saint John Paul II, and Francis.
Seewald confirms how Ratzinger saw himself and his role during John Paul's long pontificate: a loyal collaborator of the Polish pope, but not without moments of major dissent.
Some of these were public, such as the CDF prefect's critique of the first inter-religious meeting of Assisi in October 1986. Lesser known is Ratzinger's dissent from John Paul's hard line against the priests asking to leave the clerical status in order to marry (chapter 53).
Seewald casts Ratzinger as a solitary reformer standing against the Roman Curia. He is "a solitary cardinal who does not play games" (chapter 54), compared to some other key aides of John Paul II. Most notable among them is Cardinal Angelo Sodano.
A bull's eye on Angelo Sodano
The former Secretary of State seems to be a special target of this biography. Sodano is mentioned at least thirty-eight times, and always depicted as the leader of the old curial and clerical system (especially in the very sensitive issue of the sex abuse crisis and the Legionaries of Christ).
Seewald contrasts him with the true faithful servant of Ratzinger-Benedict XVI, Tarcisio Bertone, the man who succeeded Sodano.
This leads to some interesting details, like the close circle of aides that Benedict informed early on of his decision to resign, which he would not announce publicly until February 2013.
The still-reigning pope first told his personal secretary, then-Monsignor Georg Gänswein, in September 2012. Then he informed Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, the Sostituto (deputy Secretary of State for internal affairs), in November.
Benedict then told Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Pontifical Council for Cultures, and Mgr. Guido Marini, master of papal liturgical ceremonies.
Only at the end of this list, did Benedict's entourage inform Angelo Sodano, despite the fact that he was the dean of the College of Cardinals and had the responsibility to summon the other cardinals for the conclave.
A "solitary reformer" taking on clergy sex abuse
This "solitary reformer" narrative, especially on the issue of the handling of the sex abuse crisis, falls apart when the biography links clergy sex abuse to liturgical abuse.
But it explains the theological blindness of a certain type of clerical culture where sexual abuse is a crime against the faith and the sacraments, and not against the human person.
Now it is true that Benedict's pontificate was a turning point in the Vatican's actions and policies on clergy sex abuse. It was certainly a positive change from his predecessor's. But it also had some very evident limits.
For instance, one of the first decisive measures Benedict took on this issue after being elected pope in 2005 was to punish Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ (May 2006).
But it was a purely spiritual and penitential sentence, internal to the Church and with no effort to meet the requirements of a minimum of transparency. It is a section of the book (chapter 68) that casts a dark shadow on the inner circle of John Paul II.
Cardinal Ratzinger's solitude emerges also at the time of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. The CDF prefect clearly saw the highly choreographed and spectacle-like events that were featured in the Holy Year as distasteful.
Fighting curial status quo, facing a hostile media
Ratzinger's solitude changes at the conclave of 2005 where Seewald gives his own version of how the votes stacked up on each ballot (chapter 59) will have to be compared with other un-authorized accounts of the voting.
The biography depicts Benedict's pontificate as embattled from the start, engaged in a fight against the Curial status quo and defending itself from a hostile media.
This account of the eight years of an extraordinary pontificate does not hide major incidents or blunders. But the pope in charge never seems to take responsibility for any of them.
This is especially the case with the Regensburg speech in September 2006 and the SSPX-Williamson fiasco in early 2009 (chapter 66).
The book points a finger at certain Curia officials and local ordinaries – many of them still alive, some not yet retired. It accuses them, sometimes only implicitly, of failing in their duty to advise the pope and his entourage.
The "pope emeritus" and post-papacy
One of the most interesting parts of this biography is, of course, the one dealing with Benedict's decision to resign, followed by his years as "pope emeritus" in the Vatican.
The retired pope confirms what he has said before about his reasons for stepping down: his health and strength were diminishing, making it impossible for him to travel long distances on apostolic trips.
Once again, any connection with the "VatiLeaks" scandal or difficulties in governing the Roman Curia is disavowed.
On the issue of the title of "emeritus", the biography says the retired pope opted for "Papa Benedetto" instead of "Your Holiness" or "Holy Father". In the epilogue Seewald notes that, in the end, Benedict's wish about his post-resignation title was not respected.
Benedict has interpreted the title of "emeritus" in a peculiar way.
He makes it very clear that, for him, it is impossible for a former pope to become a hermit and retreat into complete privacy.
"I did not go back to a private life. I do not abandon the cross; I remain by the crucified Christ in a different way," he is quoted as saying (chapter 74).
This is one of the most important insights (repeated also in the epilogue to the book) on how Ratzinger has interpreted his decision to live as a former pope – with huge consequences for the Church and his successor.
Relationship with Pope Francis
The initial period following the resignation was not easy for him. In the epilogue of the book, Seewald talks about a "deep state of depression" the former pope was in.
The biographer paints the picture of Benedict as peacefully cohabiting with Francis, marked by total loyalty as well as "unshakable discretion" in regard to the affairs of his successor's pontificate.
But this is only partly true.
Benedict XVI has, in fact, put his name to a number of statements, writings and even a book, though it's not clear how aware he was of how these were to be utilized by others. The biography remains somewhat silent on this.
However, it makes much noise about the media, which it accuses of interpreting the former pope's public statements in a malevolent way.
Among the examples Seewald offers is the message Benedict wrote for the funeral of Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne in 2017. Another is the former pope's article on the theology of the relations between the Church and the Jews in 2018.
The book does not offer much clarity on the genesis on Benedict's controversial article on the sex abuse crisis, which was published in April 2019.
It is a bit clearer on the fact that Cardinal Robert Sarah was not totally forthcoming on the issue of the joint signature in the book on priestly celibacy, published in January 2019.
The biography states that Benedict's original wish was that his thoughts on the priesthood would be published only after his death.
Seewald concludes his tome with an interview/conversation he had with Benedict in the autumn of 2018.
Here the retired pope confirms that he has written a spiritual testament, and that early in his pontificate he – like Paul VI and John Paul II – signed a statement relieving him from papal ministry in case of an incapacitating ailment like dementia.
Benedict defends his decision to resign and the use the title "emeritus" after the resignation, simply as something Vatican II has made possible for all bishops.
As we have seen in the past several years, it is obviously more complicated than this.
"Should Francis have answered Cardinal Burke?"
There are then a few pages on Ratzinger's views of the spiritual ministry of a former pope, which are likely to become part of the still-to-be-constructed theological and canonical tradition on the "Bishop of Rome emeritus".
When Seewald asks him if Pope Francis should have replied to Cardinal Burke's "dubia" on the theology of marriage after the Synod of Bishops' assemblies of 2014 and 2015, the former pope declines to be drawn into the fray by declining to answer.
Benedict then tells his biographer that opposition to him and his own pontificate always came from the outside, not from the Roman Curia.
This is part of an apocalyptic reading of the contemporary ecclesial situation: the real problem is not corruption or scandals in the Church, but the loss of faith vis-à-vis a radically secularist, atheistic, and anti-Christian culture. Benedict says this is culture that is to blame, among other things, for the legalization of same-sex marriage and abortion.
And he speaks interestingly of a form of "social excommunication for those who oppose this anti-Christian credo of modern society".
Seewald has become something like the official, authorized biographer of Benedict XVI.
The German journalist, a former atheist who converted to Catholicism after beginning to write a series of book-interviews with Joseph Ratzinger (the first one in 1996), explores the entire life of the Bavarian theologian, cleric and, finally, pope with a clearly apologetic and defensive intent.
Biography as apologetics, in a not so subtle way
As Jesuit historian John O'Malley instructs us, praise and blame in the Roman court has always been a very complex literary genre.
Apologetics in a biography is the subtle art of praise trying to be convincing. But Seewald's arguments are not very subtle, which is especially unfortunate in this case.
And the "pope emeritus's" own narrative about his pontificate – and about interpretations of Vatican II – has repeatedly tried to represent reality as completely opposed to the one conveyed by the media.
The biggest problem in the public and ecclesial perception of Joseph Ratzinger is the temptation, from all quarters, to paint a very long, rich and complex life at the service of the Church as a simple, black-and-white caricature.
Seewald's biographical work is an inevitable point of passage in the effort to know and understand him. It also does not substantially change the established narrative, at least for what concerns Ratzinger's tenure in Rome as cardinal, pope and now "emeritus".
Follow me on Twitter @MassimoFaggioli
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