Pope Benedict XVI

In 2005, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope and took the name Benedict XVI. Members of his fan club (http://popebenedictxvifanclub.com) and others shorten his name to “B16.” In only two-plus years, much has been written by B16 and about him. Books I can recommend to both Catholics and non-Catholics are discussed below.

Milestones: Memoirs: 1927 – 1977
Ignatius Press (1998).

If you intend to read only one book by or about the man who became B16, Milestones is that one (or first of several). In it, Ratzinger candidly answers the most important questions about himself. Prior to becoming Benedict, Ratzinger was a theologian and college professor—a deeply religious, scholarly, and ethical man. He opposed both the Nazis and the Communists, as did his predecessor, Pope John Paul II.

Ratzinger cannot really be called “political,” much less politically conservative, in the ways secular Leftists mean these terms. Benedict’s view is that change should flow not FROM society TO the church but rather FROM the church TO society. His concerns are theological and religious, not political. His view and that of many of his papal predecessors is that the Catholic Church should not be flung this way and that by the constantly changing views, whims, and fads of society regardless of how popular these views might temporarily seem. Milestones is a superb introduction to the scholar now pope, whether or not you’re religious, Catholic, atheist, conservative, or liberal.

Here’s what Cardinal John O’Connor, archbishop of New York, wrote about Milestones: “Here is Cardinal Ratzinger at his most surprising. Who imagines him a teenager risking his life escaping a Nazi forced-labor camp? Or a doctoral candidate shattered by rejection of his dissertation? Or a priest telling of ‘the sufferings necessary for the priestly ministry . . . those dark nights that alone can give full shape to the radical assent a priest must give? Milestones, rich with theological insights as are all his works, gives us finally Ratzinger the person. He is a joy to meet.”

“The Ratzinger Report”
Ignatius Press (1985).

Before Joseph Ratzinger became Pope Benedict, he gave three in-depth interviews. All three interviews became best-selling books: The Ratzinger Report (1985), Salt of the Earth (1997), and God and the World: Believing and Living in Our Time (2002). All three books are profound, but the first is perhaps the best one for general readers. In The Ratzinger Report, the future pope speaks candidly and forcefully about the state of the Church in the post-Vatican II era. The roots of the crisis troubling Catholics in the 42 years since the Council ended are analyzed with forthright clarity. The result is an uncompromising picture of the dangers threatening the faith. Ratzinger’s observations about Vatican II are as hopeful and balanced as they are clear-sighted.

The secular author of "Salt of the Earth" converted to Catholicism after interviewing Ratzinger.

Benedict XVI: The Man Who Was Ratzinger, by Michael S. Rose.
Spense Publishing (October, 2005).

Of all the biographies of Benedict I’ve read, this one rises to the top with a single important caveat: Although Rose agrees that B16 is not conventionally political, he nonetheless succumbs to describing Benedict as a political conservative. But because Rose is a conservative himself, I chose his biography rather than one of the many others written by secular Leftists because they don’t have a clue what B16 represents to the world and to the world’s 1.1 billion baptized Catholics.

Rose says Ratzinger is the most imposing intellectual ever to assume the papacy. In two decades as the chief guardian of Catholic doctrine, Ratzinger addressed every controversy facing the Church: clerical sex abuse, feminism, religious pluralism, sexual revolution and the culture of death, secularism, relativism, and militant Islam. This uncommonly rich record, Rose avers, promises a new Counter-Reformation, purifying and reorienting the Catholic Church.

While Benedict will undoubtedly follow John Paul’s fundamental path, Rose predicts critical departures could enable B16 to become a powerful unifying force, reviving the Church and reawakening the West’s Christian identity in its moment of crisis.