OK Fellow CAFers Name of BXVI

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Hoosier_Daddy

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So it was mentioned to me by a Deacon friend of mine after Mass that Pope Emeritus Benedict has come out and said that he wants to be called Father Benedict. Then I found this article from 2014
cruxnow.com/church/2014/12/07/report-retired-pope-wanted-father-benedict-name/

Ok now I have a couple questions I need your help with.

It does not seem to jive with other things. Do Retired Bishops go by Father? It does not seem in keeping with his academic background either Where Emeritus would be well understood and common. I was also troubled by the comment in the article where he is said to have said that it is clear who the real Pope is. That just did not seem like something he would say or even address. He was indeed the “real” Pope during his pontificate. The report is also out of Germany and I wonder if there are other politcs at play I don’t know about.

Bottom line. What are we currently calling the good Pope and if it is indeed “Father” then will that change post Mortem?
 
I thought he created the title Pope Emeritus for himself. 🤷

By the way, “Crux” is an absolute garbage publication which is an arm of the Boston Globe created to seemingly lead Catholics in the wrong direction. There is little Catholic about it; I trust it no more than I’d trust “Huffington Post.”
 
ServusHumilis said:
I thought he created the title Pope Emeritus for himself. 🤷

By the way, “Crux” is an absolute garbage publication which is an arm of the Boston Globe created to seemingly lead Catholics in the wrong direction. There is little Catholic about it; I trust it no more than I’d trust “Huffington Post.”
Click to expand...
Would you prefer it if the Register reported exactly the same thing?
 
Elizium23 said:
Would you prefer it if the Register reported exactly the same thing?
Click to expand...
I wasn’t referring specifically to what was being reported but rather the website it’s on; the “Crux” version at any rate is simply an article regurgitated from the Associated Press. “Crux” is no more Catholic than “Nuns on the Bus” or “Call to Action.”
 
ServusHumilis said:
I wasn’t referring specifically to what was being reported but rather the website it’s on; the “Crux” version at any rate is simply an article regurgitated from the Associated Press. “Crux” is no more Catholic than “Nuns on the Bus” or “Call to Action.”
Click to expand...
You do realize that “Nuns on the Bus” are religious in good standing with the Church and as Catholic as you are?
 
It seems to me that, in the beginning, Pope Benedict seemed to indicate just calling him pope emeritus. But then there are these more recent articles which imply he goes by Father Benedict.

Personally, I still refer to him as Pope Benedict XVI just as I still refer to any other previous pope by their papal name (Pope John Paul II, Pope Paul VI, Pope John XXIII, etc.). If I ever met him in person, I might give it more thought. This is all relatively new ground for the Church, so I don’t know that an official etiquette has been hammered out. I think that’s why we don’t really see anything official or consistent.

With retired bishops, if addressing a letter to them, I would probably add the “emeritus” to the title on the outer envelope. But for addressing them in person, it would still just be “Bishop” (or “Your Excellency” for those who prefer to go that route). The situation isn’t an exact parallel, though. A retired bishop is still a bishop and successor to the apostles even if no longer the ordinary of a particular place. A retired pope is no longer the pope.

EDIT: I wonder if there are any translation issues here. Isn’t the word for “pope” and “father” the same in some languages?
 
A retired bishop worked in a parish where my parents lived. He preferred to be called ‘Father’ as that was when he was the most pleasant time of his vocation: Parish Priest.

So that is what we called him.
 
I think that his request is simply an example of his very deep humility, something upon which I have seen very little comment.

Some of the press had regarded him as JP2’s pt bull, an image that was so out of character for him that it beggars description. Or rather, it said volumes about the writer and the editor of the piece, and nothing of him.

While any bishop does not lose his fullness of ordination when he retires or steps down, ultimately he is a priest, and an intermediary between us and God. If he wishes to be called “Father”, it is both very seemly and appropriate.

And as to how they are referred to after death - well, they are no longer around to have an opinion on the matter, nor to be impacted by titles. Father Benedict is speaking of the here and now, not the hereafter and then.

And I strongly suspect that his comment was not about how he would be referred to in an article r book, but rather how he would like to be addressed face to face.
 
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