“Emeritus” was the adjective that Pope Benedict XVI. attached for nine years. The man who became the second man in history to resign early from the highest office in the Catholic Church died on New Year’s Eve at the age of 95. The Starnberg pastor Tamás Czopf knew him personally and still thinks highly of him to this day. The Starnberg priest therefore cannot understand that there was and is massive criticism of the ex-Pontifex.
Liturgical discussions, encounters at private celebrations and finally the personal priestly ordination by Joseph Ratzinger, as the pope emeritus was called in civil terms – and that too in his Office in Rome. Tamás Czopf and Joseph Ratzinger knew each other from the integrated community. This is to be understood as a totalitarian-Catholic parallel society recognized by the Catholic Church, which was particularly popular in the 1980s and 1990s and hit its members hard, as reported by dropouts. The Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, therefore dissolved the controversial association in his archdiocese in 2020.
Czopf and Ratzinger know each other from a controversial church group
You should know that when you talk to Tamás Czopf, who raves about the Bavarian Pope and can report on many encounters with him. Czopf originally comes from Hungary, where he also studied theology. The 56-year-old only moved to Munich for his doctorate in the early 1990s, where he met Ratzinger on a wide variety of occasions, mostly in the context of the integrated community. Since 2015 he has been working in pastoral care for the Starnberg parish community.
Archbishop Reinhard Cardinal Marx speaks next to a photo of the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI in Munich’s Liebfrauendom during New Year’s Eve mass on Saturday. The Pope Emeritus died in the Vatican on December 31, 2022 at the age of 95.
(Photo: Lennart Preiss/dpa)
In 1993 Czopf was ordained a priest in Rome by Joseph Ratzinger – at that time cardinal and prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – together with four other parishioners. “We had a conversation that lasted about half an hour, in which he asked us about our motivations. It was an incredibly peaceful and consensual conversation. He made it a point to speak to us all privately before ordaining us to the priesthood.”
The Starnberg pastor firmly rejects the accusation that he primarily represented conservative values. Benedikt was neither conservative nor liberal, but understood how to win over both sides, says Czopf. “He was not an armored cardinal, but a very differentiated theologian.” Ratzinger did not set up his own concise theses as much as sorted and processed the work of older German theologians. We didn’t understand that here. “But he was never conservative,” says Czopf.
He didn’t exist as a private person, says Czopf
Despite many personal contacts, Tamas Czopf never really got to know Joseph Ratzinger. “I think what you would like to have as a private person Ratzinger did not exist. He was a priest, bishop, theologian and later pope from A to Z.” According to Czopf, Ratzinger lived for his theological work and was quick and efficient. “He was very disciplined and also ate very, very quickly.” However, he never found Ratzinger to be overly ambitious. “He was never ambitious. His passion was faith and theology.”
The Starnberg priest rules out the fact that Ratzinger, as archbishop of the Munich-Freising diocese, knew about sexual abuse and consequently remained inactive. “There wasn’t a single piece of evidence, it was all conjecture.” In addition, that was in the 1970s, when the regulations in both constitutional and church law were different, argues Czopf. In fact, Ratzinger could never be proven to have acted specifically wrong. Even then, he was hated in Germany for his role as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, says the Starnberger. “I honestly don’t know 100 percent why.” Until recently, there were “liberal or left-wing circles” who wanted to saw him off.
Benedict XVI remains for the Starnberg priest Tamas Czopf. a remarkable Pope and a role model. And even if he was saddened by Bayern’s early retirement in 2013, he gives him credit for it. With this step, Ratzinger brought down the papal office from a mystical height. “He took the liberty of stepping down. And that’s greatness, I think.”