What’s in a name?

What’s in a name?

Pope Benedict VXI, looking a little tired after an emotional few weeks, was inaugurated as Pope last Sunday. After the 350,000 strong crowds left the square, Rome packed away the last of the big screens, tent cities, plastic bottles and barriers and probably sighed its relief at a job

bookmark
Thu 28 Apr 2005 12:00 AM

Pope Benedict VXI, looking a little tired after an emotional few weeks, was inaugurated as Pope last Sunday. After the 350,000 strong crowds left the square, Rome packed away the last of the big screens, tent cities, plastic bottles and barriers and probably sighed its relief at a job remarkably well done.

 

There had been a lot of speculation about which name the new pope would take, the choice being both a homage to an admired predecessor as well as an indication of the flavour of the new papacy.

 

The name Joseph Ratzinger chose on April 19th gives clues about his aspirations: to reconcile a conflicted world. After the conclave in the Sistine Chapel, the new Pope Benedict XVI told cardinals he admired Benedict XV, who led the church during WW I, when Catholic countries were pitted against each other, each claiming a just fight. He refused to take sides, and tried to make peace and help the victims of the war.

 

Benedict XV, pontiff from 1914-22, angered both sides during the war by declaring neutrality and protesting against weapons like poison gas. In 1917, he proposed a seven-point peace plan. It failed, but some of his ideas were echoed in President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, a wartime call for peace in 1918.

 

Vatican expert John-Peter Pham, a professor at James Madison University, said Benedict XV was “in many respects the first modern pope.” In addition Pham said, “Benedict XV’s efforts to mediate the Great War as well as his humanitarian outreach, while also embracing the Orthodox and Muslims, is what was for his time an unprecedented choice.”

 

Cardinals also say the new pope is fascinated by St. Benedict of Nursia, a monk who lived during the fifth and sixth centuries, just after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Benedictine order that followed his teachings became the main guardians of learning and literature in Western Europe during the dark centuries that followed. In the 1960’s, Pope Paul VI named Benedict patron saint of Europe.

 

There were a few Benedicts in the past that it is quite certain Cardinal Ratzinger was not referring to.

 

Benedict I (575 – 579) died during a siege of Rome by the Lombard army. Benedict V (964-965) was abducted by the then Holy Roman Emperor, Otto and taken to Germany where he died in exile. The next Benedict (973–974) was imprisoned and strangled by an opposing papal faction, which makes him one in around 30 popes to meet a grisly or martyred end. Then came Benedict IX, the one that causes problems when counting how many popes there have been (262 different men, but 265 papacies). It is rumoured that he was the youngest pope, perhaps only 11 but more likely around 18, when he first came to the throne. He led such a dissolute life that the Romans drove him from the city, deposed him and fought him, but like a bad penny, he kept coming back. But, in the end, he was finally driven out and excommunicated.

 

Benedict X was only marginally better as his election was marred by accusations of vote-rigging and declared illegal. In 1059, a year after taking office, he was deposed and also excommunicated. Number 11 (1303 – 1304) was most unfortunate as he reigned for only eight months before being poisoned. His successor moved the papal court from Rome to Avignon for the next 72 years.

 

No wonder most experts plump for either number two: Benedict II (684-685), or Pope Benedict XV the great pope during World War I. As for the name itself, the Italian version of Benedict, “Benedetto,” means one who is blessed, and the name’s Latin origin refers to a blessing. As the Vatican’s longtime orthodoxy watchdog, Cardinal Ratzinger emphasized Europe’s Christian heritage: He opposed Turkey’s bid to join the European Union and dismissed demands for European multiculturalism as a “fleeing from what is one’s own.”

 

By choosing the name Benedict, Professor Pham says, “I think he wants to draw upon the Christian roots of Europe yet still reach out to the world.”

Related articles

NEWS

Public transport in Florence and Tuscany becomes contactless

Visa cardholders can ride for free from April 10 to May 5, 2024.

NEWS

Sephora opens flagship store in via dei Calzaiuoli

Highlights include make-up services and just-released beauty ranges.

NEWS

Changes at the Uffizi

Paperless ticketing, evening and the occasional Monday openings

LIGHT MODE
DARK MODE