Pope Benedict XVI’s era of queer bashing finally comes to an end with his death

Many Catholics will recall the legacy of his papacy with mixed feelings. Queer people will remember how he persecuted LGBTQ+ people.

Pope emeritus Benedict XVI in 2019
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Pope Benedict XVI, a.k.a. Joseph Ratzinger, died over the Christmas holidays. Many Catholics will recall the legacy of his papacy with mixed feelings.

First and foremost, Benedict’s papacy will be remembered for mishandling the Church’s sex scandal cover-up. As the archbishop in Munich, then-Cardinal Ratzinger sent out a letter in 2001, ordering all his bishops, under the threat of ecclesiastical punishment, to observe “papal secrecy” to keep sex abuse allegations concealed from both the public and the police. Benedict moved pedophilic priests from parish to parish like pieces on a chess board. The Vatican defended Benedict’s actions, stating critics are looking for “easy scapegoats and summary judgments.”

The archbishop of Boston, Sean O’Malley, released a statement depicting Benedict as a man who “was very concerned with relativism and the truth being compromised.” As a church traditionalist, Benedict’s truth ruled with an iron fist and he used his authoritarian and “Rottweiler” persona to maintain the ecclesiastical structures of the ancient church.

Sadly Benedicts’s anti-modernity views on AIDS and women’s role within the Catholic hierarchy were both retro, reckless, and spiritually abusive. For example, he stuck by his no condoms policy even in an age of AIDS.

Benedict publicly bashed a group of…

Read full story, and more, from Source: Pope Benedict XVI’s era of queer bashing finally comes to an end with his death