In 1294 a Benedictine monk, Pietro di Morrone, sent the Catholic cardinals in Rome an angry letter warning them of divine vengeance if they failed to soon elect a pope (they had been meeting without decision for two years following the death of Pope Nicholas IV). On receipt of the letter one of the Cardinals lamented “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Sprit, I elect brother Pietro!” The desperate cardinals quickly ratified this motion.
When sent for Pietro refused the papacy but was finally persuaded to accept by the King of Naples. Within months Pietro knew he was out of his depth and issued a decree that a Pope could resign. He promptly took advantage of his new rule and resigned as Pope after just five months in the role.
It is perhaps unfair that Pope Benedict XVI, who died this week, will be best remembered as being the first Pope in 600 years to avail himself of Pietro’s rule. Ironically, Pope Benedict came to office in a similar way to Pietro following an address to his fellow cardinals.
In that speech then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger warned that “We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognise anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.” Cardinal Ratzinger was elected Pope the next day.
Pope Benedict’s diagnosis was essentially correct. In becoming increasingly secular, the modern world has lost almost all sense of the absolute. There are no longer clear moral teachings or values. And, therefore, young people in particular are lost in a sea of confusion, or worse drugs and alcohol.
One of the historic Christian values that has been discarded, or at least now misunderstood, is to love others as you would love yourself. The modern world still promotes love but it seems to have forgotten the latter part of the principle that you must love yourself too.
As Benedict pointed out about the error of a “black armband” view of history “In a rather praiseworthy manner, the West does strive to be open in full to the comprehension of external values, but it no longer loves itself … It sees in its own history what is disgraceful and destructive, while it no longer seems able to perceive what is great and pure.”
A society that cannot take pride in its history will destroy itself. Each year that is evident as the professional whiners among us use Australia Day as an opportunity to bash everything about this country, while still hypocritically enjoying the unprecedented freedom and prosperity of modern Australia.
Even if one is not Catholic or Christian, basic Judeo-Christian principles are part of our heritage and rejecting them risks what a great nation Australia has become. Over the past few years we have seen Christians lose their jobs just for their faith.
Cardinal Ratzinger took the name Benedict after the founder of Christian monasticism. In the sixth century, St Benedict retreated to a cave outside Rome to avoid the vices of the big city. American writer Rod Dreher recently wrote a book titled *The Benedict Option* suggesting Christians should follow St Benedict’s lead and retreat from the modern world.
Pope Benedict’s arguments demonstrate that this would be the wrong approach. Unlike Rome, the West today is an unprecedented land of freedom and opportunity. It is worth fighting to keep it that way including by reminding people of the unique Judeo-Christian values that have helped build our great society.
