Pope Francis has described Benedict XVI as “the contemplative of the Vatican” as he paid tribute to his predecessor who today marks 70 years since his priestly ordination.
Francis, speaking following the midday Angelus prayer, led the crowd in a round of applause on Benedict's anniversary, which coincides with today’s Feast of St Peter and Paul.
“He lives in the monastery, a place intended to house the contemplative communities here in the Vatican so that they could pray for the Church,” the Pope explained. “He is now the contemplative of the Vatican, who spends his life praying for the Church and for the diocese of Rome, of which he is bishop emeritus.”
Describing him as “a dear father and brother” Francis told the Pope Emeritus: “Thank you for your credible witness.”
Pope Benedict, now 94, resigned from the office of the papacy in 2013 after eight years in the post and now lives in a converted monastery in the Vatican gardens. To mark the anniversary of his ordination an exhibition of items from his life and pontificate has gone on display in Rome.
Although he is physically frail and has difficulty speaking, Benedict’s mind remains sharp, according to his closest aide, Archbishop Georg Ganswein. Last June, Benedict travelled to Germany to see his brother, Georg, who died days later at the age of 96. Georg was ordained alongside the future Pope in Freising Cathedral, 1951.
Benedict’s resignation created an unprecedented situation of “two Popes” in the Church, something which was dramatised in a Netflix film. Never before have there been two men in the Vatican dressed in the white papal cassock and calling themselves Pope. Despite their very different styles, Francis has generously welcomed Benedict’s presence describing the situation as like having a “wise grandfather” living at home.
Nevertheless, the confusing optics of two Popes have created tensions. The difficulties have been fuelled by mischief makers seeking to pit Benedict against Francis, and who see the retired Pope as a rallying point for their opposition to this pontificate. Benedict, however, has always been loyal to Francis while rejecting the criticism made by a conservative cardinal who complained about his decision to step down.
Tensions reached a fever pitch last year when the Pope Emeritus requested that his name be removed as the joint author of a book defending mandatory clerical celibacy. He had been presented as the co-author of the book alongside Cardinal Robert Sarah, a prelate whose vision of the Church has been at odds with this Pope's. The book was widely seen as an effort to put pressure on Francis, who was considering a request to ordain married men as priests in the Amazon, where there is a serious clergy shortage.
Meanwhile, as he marked the Feast of St Peter and Paul, the 265th successor of St Peter urged Christians to draw inspiration from these two “pillars” of the Church.
“They believed not in words, but in deeds. Peter did not speak about mission, he lived the mission, he was a fisher of men; Paul did not write learned books, but letters of what he lived as he travelled and bore witness,” Francis said during his Angelus address.
“How often, for example, we say that we would like a Church that is more faithful to the Gospel, closer to the people, more prophetic and missionary, but then, in practice, we do nothing! It is sad to see that many speak, comment and debate, but few bear witness. Witnesses do not lose themselves in words, but rather they bear fruit.”
Beforehand, during a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, the Pope explained how Peter and Paul lived with a sense of freedom that the Church needs to recapture.
“Only a free Church is a credible Church,” the Pope said. “Like Peter, we are called to be set free from a sense of failure before our occasionally disastrous fishing. To be set free from the fear that paralyses us.”
St Paul, he explained, pointed to the need to be liberated from a “religiosity that makes us rigid and inflexible” pointing out that the Apostle’s conversion had set him free from a “formal religious observance and the intransigent defence of tradition” that had hardened him.
“Peter and Paul bequeath to us the image of a Church entrusted to our hands, yet guided by the Lord with fidelity and tender love,” Francis said during his homily in the basilica. “A Church that is weak, yet finds strength in the presence of God. A Church set free and capable of offering the world the freedom that the world by itself cannot give: freedom from sin and death, from resignation, and from the sense of injustice and the loss of hope that dehumanises the lives of the women and men of our time.”
During the liturgy, the Pope blessed the pallium, a liturgical vestment made of Lamb’s wool which is given to archbishops. It symbolises their authority and unity with the papacy. Francis today said the pallium represents the “mission of the shepherd who gives his life for the flock.”
Also present during the Mass was a delegation representing the Ecumenical Patriarch, Bartholomew, the “first among equals” leader of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Francis concluded his homily by saying their presence is a “sign of unity on our journey of freedom from the distances that scandalously separate believers in Christ”.