They say you should never speak ill of the dead, but we may need to make an exception for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. I don't presume to judge the state of his soul when he met his maker. But in the mostly positive coverage of this complicated man and his troubled papacy, I fear we will forget all the damage he did to so many Catholics over the course of his long career.
This is not about vengeance. It's an attempt to stop a Benedict cult before it begins. During his more than four decades at the Vatican, Benedict had a profound impact on the American Catholic church, long dominated by conservative prelates appointed by him and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II. These American bishops placed their allegiance in Benedict even after he stunned the world by retiring in 2013, a step one Vatican critic called the "only great reform" of his papacy. At his death, these anti-abortion warriors and hardliners remain, in thought, word and deed, Benedict's Mini-Mes.
