Sunday 8 January 2023

The Pope Who Won't Be Buried


It has been a long time since I have put finger to keyboard to write about our holy Catholic Faith, something I regret, but which I put largely down to full-time gardening work and domestic duties. With that said, I certainly know how to waste the time God gives me each day on self-indulgent, wordly pursuits. The sorrowful death of Pope Benedict XVI, however, I feel I cannot allow to go unblogged and I expect I will keep writing about him for some time when time and self-discipline allows.

Perhaps like me, you are suffering under this pontificate, the credibility of which and even the validity of which remains widely disputed, with what some might call 'Francis fatigue'. Let's face it, this pontificate, or anti-pontificate, or whatever it is, has been a war of vitriolic attrition against faithful, devout souls as well as the lukewarm and the lost. Perhaps like me, the last few years, so often a wake-up call to holiness of life has been a Vatican and civil government-driven excuse for self-indulgence, sadness, at times despair and simply clinging to the Faith of our Fathers by your finger tips. Benedict XVI himself posited that the future of the Church would be little else but this, until at last all things are restored in Christ, in a victory that can only be claimed by Himself and particularly the Immaculate Heart of His Blessed Mother.

The death of Benedict XVI should be, as it has been, a much needed wake-up call to unity around his central petrine teachings, steeped not only in the Church post-Vatican II but also the Christ of the Gospels and the Fathers of the Church. It should lead us as well to reflect on his Christian virtues and ultimately to his entire outlook on life and man's place in relation to God, man's need for and buried desire for God, buried as it is, under so many earthly pursuits, ambitions and desires, both sordid and worthy. We all know them, we all experience them, we all fall prey to them and we hopefully all know that before the Triune God, they are as nothing. God alone suffices, God alone matters, it is before God, alone, that we will be standing in need of mercy at our Judgement. Benedict XVI knew this. Francis, I fear, does not know it at all.

The men who Benedict praised and esteemed were and remain good men, though he respected most if not all men, such was his gentlemanly approach to all. These were men such as Cardinal Burke, Cardinal Zen, Cardinal Muller, Cardinal Brandmuller, Cardinal Muller, Cardinal Sarah and other men of integrity of life. All such men, of course, have been driven away by Francis from the circles of Vatican influence and power and don't we know it. What unites these men, as well as others, priests, bishops, cardinals and lay faithful with Benedict XVI, is a communion of fidelity to the Truth. Such men are the servants of the Truth. The servants of the Truth have been driven away from the centre of ecclesiastical power and yet their voice still appeals and at times resounds, as does Benedict's, to modern man and woman, even those entangled in worldly matters.

I know that Benedict XVI's legacy will be one that will continue to mystify even his most ardent supporters and friends. His resignation remains shrouded in mystery even while he maintained publicly that there was nothing mysterious about it. I myself took comfort while he was alive in knowing that a Catholic Pope resided somewhere in the Vatican, somehow holding back somewhat the rising tide of evil by his love for the Faithful, by his prayers and sacrifice, by his isolation and crucifixion, as if by his mere presence in Rome, he offered some kind of silent rebuke to what Pope Francis is doing to the Church by way of deception and slight of hand. I never stopped feeling linked to Benedict, in communion with Benedict. The transition from praying for Pope Benedict XVI the man (as I and many of you have done daily for a long time) to Pope Benedict XVI the soul has not been and will not be an easy one. We are allowed to mourn and we are allowed to feel bereaved by the death of a Pope, and especially by the death of a Pope who we know was close to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whether we understand or even excuse his decision to resign the ministry of the papacy or the governance of the Church of God.

We cannot, however, lose hope, and the transitus of Benedict XVI from Earth to, please God, Eternal Life, should not dismay us so as to be a cause for the diminishment of our hope. Please God, the Church has or will have another powerful intercessor for the Church Militant on Earth. For a day, for a week, perhaps for a month, the scandalous pontificate of Pope Francis is eclipsed by Pope Benedict's death and, we pray, birth to life eternal. The death of Benedict XVI is unlikely to stop Francis from doing what Francis has been employed to do to the detriment of souls and the Church on Earth, but Saints can speak in death and speak from the grave, since the grave is not their true resting place. Their true place of rest is Heaven and from there they can thunder. Let us entrust to the tender and most Sacred Heart of Our Lord Jesus Christ the soul of our dear Holy Father, Benedict XVI and I pray that his life, his exemplary way of life, his noble soul, his virtuous manner and humility of spirit continue to inspire us to put aside the passing glories of this world and to put on Christ, the only way, the only truth and the only life worthy of the name.

Benedict XVI's achievements were many as reigning and active Pope. Let us implore God that we may have him as an intercessor in Heaven, before the Throne of grace, where greater and more marvellous deeds are accomplished than we can fathom. His papacy was, though successful in many ways, nothing short of a Crucifixion. His retirement, also, can have been nothing short of a Crucifixion. To witness your Successor trample upon your work must have been a spiritual and psychological agony for Benedict. Many priests, though fewer Bishops, have seen and will see their own work destroyed in the months and the years to come because of who is governing the Church on Earth and will see it all destroyed in the Name of the One Who accomplished the good works in them. The Church of God is being and will be further crucified. 

Many priests, cardinals, bishops and even lay faithful will cut a public figure like that of a lonely corpse, like Benedict XVI in death, surrounded by both friends and enemies on all sides. Let us be in life, what Benedict XVI was in both life and in death, a living rebuke to those who wish to dismantle the work of God in the Church and in our souls. Let us treat people in the gentle and kindly way he treated people, in imitation of our Lord, for even his fiercest enemies he treated lovingly. Let us entrust ourselves always to Jesus and to Mary and those we love and find hard to love also. The followers of Jesus in His own time on Earth were promised rejection and worldly disappointment, not great prestige and plaudits. Let us entrust his dear soul to God and ours also, that even if we cannot or do not follow his kindly, prayerful way of life, that we will at least strive to do so. Even though we will never experience the burden of Office that he had, let us at least bear in meekness and in charity and in humility the burden of life under Francis, as he did. Let us suffer for the love of God, just as he did. His enemies are secretly glad that they have buried Benedict XVI, and they will try to bury his teachings too, his legacy also, but they cannot bury his spirit, or ours, if our spirit is the spirit of Christ, the Risen One.


17 comments:

Celia said...

Beautifully put. And a pleasure to see you back blogging!

Anonymous said...

What a beautifully written testimony to Pope Benedict. Powerful insights to follow his lead in life and death.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for putting in words, beautiful words, what so many of us feel! God bless

gemoftheocean said...

Well said, Laurence.

gemoftheocean said...

Well said. His death leaves a big hole, and I was very sorry he died before Francis.

Anonymous said...

let us pray for Francis's conversion.

Anonymous said...

letus pray for Francis conversion.

Joseph Brothers said...

I pray for his soul and am sure he got proper last rites. But he held nearly every modernist error that francis does...albeit he was less open and more likely to put traditional frameworks around them. ...so sorry its too early to canonise him

Joseph said...

Wonderful blog post, Laurence. Thank you very much. I'm sure what you've said is in the hearts of many of us who were so happy when he was elected pope and equally mystified when he abdicated. Personally, I've been struggling with feelings of lingering anger at his abandonment of us and yet still have a deep love of him and his gentle and humble leadership as well as his theological genius. At the end of the day, this present pontificate will go into the dustbin of history someday and we will come out stronger as the excellent young priests take over the positions of these hippie, boomer hierarchy as they drop off to their "reward" (or punishment). God Bless you and hope you will post more often.

Mary Kay said...

It is so good to see your post! I am not as positive about Benedict's papacy as you; however, he presented a much more Catholic picture of the Church that is such a contrast to Francis'. I hope that some will remember. And I hope Francis will show himself for what he is, in the time left to him, so that even the modernist cardinals will decide on someone more in keeping with the dignity that should be visible in the papacy.

Anonymous said...

Agreed

umblepie said...

Thank you for this post Laurence, it truly is good to read another wonderful letter from you, it seems a long time since your last one. Everything you write in your post I share in spirit. We must always have hope, these are difficult times with much evil in the world, but we know that good will eventually and always triumph over evil. Our Blessed Lord rose from the dead, and this will be the pattern of the earthly resurrection of our Church from the level to which it seems to have sunk. But there are still many devout and conscientious leaders in the Church, and many young families who are providing increasing vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and these represent the future, a future full of hope. The present ruling regime in the Church, will not last forever. It is for us to persevere and grow in faith and trust in God. Best wishes to you and yours, keep up the good work, and thanks.

gemoftheocean said...

@Joseph -- pope Frankie is NOT a "boomer."

Jonathan Marshall said...

A beautiful piece, Laurence - nice to see you back!
I have a particular regard for Pope Benedict as he saved my (spiritual) life! After much searching, I finally converted to Catholicism thirty years ago; the Real Presence and the apostolic succession were the final realities which convinced me. Mind you, once over the Tiber the banality of the Novus Ordo Mass was a severe disappointment and I trundled along in second gear for years until Pope Benedict's Summorum Pontificum liberated the Traditional Latin Mass. Until then I just thought the Latin Mass was simply the Novus Ordo Mass in Latin - which of course it can be - but I decided to see for myself what all the fuss was about. Mind-blowing. I found a truly God-centred liturgy (even though at first I hadn't a clue what was going on!) It was not hard to learn, though, and it transformed my faith and my life. And now Francis and my appalling Bishop have banned the TLM in the Diocese in which I live. I am thankful for the SSPX.

Anonymous said...

Welcome back, Laurence and thanks for this beautiful piece, Pope Benedict will never die, he still lives in our hearts. Hope to hear from you other posts.

Anonymous said...

Have you read his posthumous book?

Louise said...

Lawrence have you read this yet? ‘Benedetto XVI, Che Cos’e Il Cristianesimo’ Thanks Louise

The Pope Who Won't Be Buried

It has been a long time since I have put finger to keyboard to write about our holy Catholic Faith, something I regret, but which I put larg...