Benedict XVI: Counting our losses!

• Published date: 08 January 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

By Abiodun KOMOLAFE

On January 26, 1998, I authored an article, entitled 'Lessons from the Dead', in one of Nigeria's foremost newspapers. In the piece, I attempted to eulogize the late Mother Theresa of Calcutta for her avowed commitment to the advancement of global development as well as her giving an everlasting face of honour to humanity. As a member of staff of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) later that year, I came to a striking realization that 'Catholics are made, not born!'

As a writer and public affairs commentator and, much later, as a leading member of the production crew of 'CSN News', the official newsmagazine of the administrative headquarters of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, yours sincerely was able to read widely in a bid to know more about the Church and its leaders. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, then, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was one of them. In 2002, I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of visiting the Cathedral Church of Our Dear Lady (Frauenkirche), Munich, Germany, which served as Ratzinger's seat as Archbishop of Munich and Freising, between 1977 and 1982.

Indeed, one of the attributes of the Catholic Church is its ability to train its people. Well, the Church believes that one should always be at the top of one's game. That's why the institutional prowess of the Catholic Church is unparalleled all over the world. It is also the reason an institution like that can raise a pope like Benedict XVI. The Church is supportive of its members and adherents of the faith. It is also pro-intellectual like no other Church; and it is wealthy enough to see its projects through anywhere on Planet Earth. That's why we seldom have a wishy-washy man becoming pope.

The Catholic Church must actually be commended for the selection process of popes because enormous responsibility is placed on it to ensure that the right candidate is chosen. Ideally, the Church can afford no error! Ceteris paribus, it has fared better! So, raising a brilliant, charismatic and resourceful priest like Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is also a sign of the shrewdness of the process of the selection of popes.

To be sure, one of the shining attributes of leadership is an individual's ability to thrive in untested waters - navigating roads that were hitherto never travelled and how specific leaders fared at the end of the day. Indeed, Pope Benedict has demonstrated to the world what the ideal profile should look like. He was a pragmatist; and...