The papacy of Benedict XVI was tinged by controversy

Pope Benedict XVI

In 2005, the German Joseph Ratzinger, known as “God’s Rottweiler” for his extreme views, occupied the throne of St. Peter and was renamed as Benedict XVI at age 78 and his tenure has been marred by a series of scandals.

In 2009, hundreds of cases of sexual abuse of minors committed by priests in Europe, North America and Latin America were revealed.

The Catholic hierarchy was accused of protecting those responsible until they started a cleanup operation that ended in the resignation of dozens of bishops. Benedict XVI was the first pope to express his “shame” and meet with victims of abuse.

During the next three years, Benedict would put to shame after filtration of confidential documents from the Vatican, by his personal butler, Paolo Gabriele, who was arrested and convicted of leaking files denouncing corruption in Vatican and making Public tensions on many subjects, between conservatives and progressives, traditionalists and modernists, and supporters of transparency and secrecy.

The Pope was also noted as a Nazi, after learning of his involvement in the Hitler Youth during World War II. But never joined the Nazi party and his family opposed Hitler’s regime. During his visit to Auschwitz, he wondered why God was silent during World War II.

He was accused of inciting hatred during a speech at a university in Regensburg, in which he quoted a Byzantine emperor from the XIV century and said that Islam had only brought evil to the world and had been spread by the sword. Such irresponsibility led to protests around the world, which included attacks on churches in the Middle East and the death of a nun in Somalia.

Finally, the last of the controversy arose in late 2012 when corrected, in a book about Jesus, the popular belief that he was born with a mule and an ox.